About Us
Welcome to the official MU SASHA blog!
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MU SASHA stands for University of Missouri Skeptics, Atheists, Secular Humanists, & Agnostics. SASHA is the only expressly secular/skeptic group at the University of Missouri. We are also open to (& strongly encourage interaction from!) people of all faiths & religious backgrounds.
Meeting room space depends on Mizzou’s Organization Resource Group scheduling and locations vary week-to-week, so make sure to join the Facebook group so you can stay updated on where we’re meeting.
MU SASHA’s officers are:
President: Tony Lakey
Vice President: Aaron Underwood
Treasurer: Max Jersak
Secretary: Sharon Braun
Director of Public Relations: Robbie Curran
Event Coordinator: Katie Huddlestonsmith
Journalists, call:
Email us at mizzousasha@gmail.com
Our mission is threefold:
1) To establish a positive environment for MU students who are rationalists, non-theists, humanists, or skeptics.
2) To enrich the MU campus life by sponsoring educational events and fostering student dialogue on matters of faith, science, and reason.
3) To engage MU students in issues of national and international import surrounding freedom of conscience and secular education.
Additionally, we strive:
- To provide a place of community, camaraderie, learning, and freedom for non-theistic students, faculty, and staff at Mizzou.
- To represent and cater to the secular perspective to Mizzou students, faculty, staff, and residents of Columbia and surrounding areas by organizing local events and activities, such as weekly meetings, an annual regional conference, guest lectures, a weekly podcast, a YouTube channel, a monthly book club, movie nights, and more. (Feel free to suggest additional activities in the comments below!)
If you are looking for a group of like-minded, free-thinking individuals who place high value on rationality, skepticism, the scientific method, and logic, and who seek to express their rationality in a way that educates, informs, and enlightens, then you have come to the right place!
Our blog is updated (almost) daily, and we currently have 6 contributing authors. They are:
Dave Muscato, Currently the Director of Public Relations for American Atheists, formerly Vice President of MU SASHA. He is a vegetarian, LGBTQ ally, and human- & animal-welfare activist. His website is http://www.DaveMuscato.com.
Follow Dave on Google+
Follow Dave on TwitterSeth Kurtenbach, graduate student at Mizzou studying Theoretical Computer Science (formerly philosophy grad student extraordinaire).
Tony Lakey, President of MU Skeptics, Atheists, Secular Humanists, and Agnostics at the University of Missouri – Columbia, where he is a Philosophy and Sociology double major. Tony interned with CFI On Campus in Amherst, NY in the summer of 2012.
Steve Sparkman, graduate student at Mizzou studying journalism.
On occasion, we also feature guest contributors. Past contributors have included New Testament historian David Fitzgerald (author of “Nailed“), activist Damon Fowler, Christian preacher and musician Rocket Kirchner, computer scientist Benjamin Schulz, and others.
Best regards,
MU SASHA
MizzouSASHA@gmail.com
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Official Affiliates:
American Atheists
http://www.atheists.org/Center for Inquiry on Campus
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/oncampus/Secular Student Alliance
http://www.secularstudents.org/
I am a member of the Bakersfield Area Skeptic Society and I was impressed by Dave Muscati’s review of David Fitzgerald’s “Nailed: The Ten Christian Myths that Show Jesus Never Existed at All”. I am a 89 year-old retired lawyer with an LL.B. Brown University, 1944 and a J.D. Boston University School of Law, 1947, with honors, Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review.
Would Dave be interested in my just completed 165,000 word transcript titled Led to the Light: Has a born-again Christian been taught the truth about the origin of the Christ and Christianity?
Regards
John Turnbull
335 Cypress Street
Bakersfield, CA 93304
661-323-2226
weejock@bak.rr.com
Hey gang, long time no rap . i would like to write a short one for this blog on sam harris flirtation with consciuosness continuing after death . i think that he is on to something that may tweek the new athiesm . how would i go about it ?
John turnbull — the problem with postulating that Jesus of Nazareth never existed at all does not come into the category of the writings of Josephus , Pliny , or even Suetonus . What makes the postulation problematic is Tacitus . The others can be dismissed . But Tacitus cannot .
Those who seek to debunk Tacitus writing about ”Christus , curcified under Pontus pilate ”, have a few hurdles that they cannot quite get over.
The first hurdle is that even though he wrote it in the early 2nd century , and many think that that is beyond the curve of being a first century historian , it must be remembered that Tacitus was schooled in Rome as a teenager right about the time of Nero and his persecution of the early Christians . He had an eye witness account of the phenomeneon . Though he hated Nero and the Christians equally , and wrote about them much later , he was there when it all happened .
The second thing is the uncanny accuracy of Tacitus as both Senator and Historian . Under the early send century Emporors he was able to get away with alot in regards to being critical , as he did in his work on Germania without getting his head lopped off. Josephus interpolation is obviuos . But we find none of that in Tacitus .
So , even though he wrote in the very early second century , most of his observations were in the first. this puts him well within the curve of credibility in regards to the accuracy of that century .
I am a new person to this area and was wondering around aimlessly as usual through the harshness of a very religious society, when I came upon this group. I talk with a few good freethinker and want to get the full perspective of this group. I am have been dealing with the religious society for years when I have not had faith. I need to experience the other side with people who believe and think as openly as I do. I do hope someone from this group can help.
Hello Anthony,
Thank you for your comment, and let me welcome you to Columbia. SASHA (this group) meets every Wednesday at the University of Missouri campus in the Agriculture building, room 2-16, at 5:30. There is also another group called Columbia Atheists that meets every Wednesday at 7 PM, and this week (the 25th) they are meeting at Heidelberg, 410 South 9th Street. We would LOVE to have you at either or both meetings (many of us go to both). You don’t have to be an atheist/agnostic/etc to attend – we love having people from all sorts of backgrounds to chat with, and we’re always happy to answer any kinds of questions or just get together to chat about any of this sort of stuff. If there’s something going on specifically and you really need to talk to someone, as an atheist activist & group officer, I make my contact information publicly available for exactly this purpose. My email address is dave@davemuscato.com and my cell/text number is 573-424-0420. We’d love to have you at our next meeting. We’ll also be on the Mizzou campus doing an “Ask an Atheist” table all afternoon tomorrow (Monday) at Speakers’ Circle if you’re interested in stopping by and saying hello!
Take care,
Dave