Is the Secular Student Alliance indoctrinating high-school students?

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Disclaimer: I’m an intern for the Secular Student Alliance. This blog article, posted here on the MU SASHA blog, represents my own opinions and does not necessarily reflect the views of the SSA. I receive a stipend for my internship; however I am not being paid nor receiving anything for writing this article on the SASHA blog.

Hello, Dave here.

This morning, Jesse Galef, the Communications Director for the Secular Student Alliance, appeared on CNN in a segment about “Millennials” and their growing doubt about a god’s existence. The interviewer, Carol Costello, made this comment to Jesse:

Well, some Christians might argue that because such groups are in high schools, you’re indoctrinating students in a time when that’s not proper, because they’re not old enough to really handle questions like that.

Let’s break down what she’s saying here: Some Christians (what about Jews? Hindus? Sikhs? Muslims?…) might argue that high school is an improper time (what is the proper time?) to introduce students to critical thinking, because they’re not old enough to handle questions like the existence of gods. (She was contrasting this with college groups at the time).

I think Christians are perfectly welcome to argue that if they want to, but I want them to understand how ironic and hypocritical such an argument would be. It’s ironic because, as a fellow Redditor points out, religions do this more-or-less from birth. In some cases, the indoctrination begins with genital mutilation; in other cases, with deliberate near-drownings. As the bumper-sticker says, “A religion is just a cult with more members.”

I’m sure this baby feels the power of the Holy Spirit right now. Yeah, that is what’s going through his head.

The SSA advocates critical inquiry, the process of asking digging questions using logic, reason, and evidence; Christians (and other religious groups) are actually the ones indoctrinating students. Indoctrinate comes from the Latin word doctrina, -ae (teaching), which even the most passingly-interested etymology fan will recognize as the root of “doctrine.” We expressly advocate asking questions instead of teaching doctrines. What we do is as far a polar opposite of indoctrination as one could possibly argue.

The “old enough” part is really what bothers me, though. Go to YouTube and search for “child preacher” and see how many videos come up. Many of these young people clearly have no idea of the meaning behind their words; they just enjoy the attention of the congregation. Their parents have simply coached them in what to say.

Four-year-olds ask these questions. Is Carol Costello really saying that high-school students aren’t old enough for the answers—that according to logic, reason, evidence, and science, there is probably no god?

Is Costello arguing that students should wait until college to learn about critical thinking? Really?

Does she really believe that teaching someone how to ask questions—how to think critically (and self-critically)—counts as indoctrination?

Here is the video:

Jesse Galef on CNN about Millennials and doubt, with Carol Costello interviewing.

http://cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2012/06/14/nr-millenials-belief-in-god.cnn.html

What are your thoughts?

- Dave

Dave Muscato is Vice President of MU SASHA. He is a vegetarian, LGBTQ ally, and human- & animal-welfare activist. A junior at Mizzou studying economics & anthropology and minoring in philosophy & Latin, Dave posts updates to the SASHA blog every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday and twice monthly for the Humanist Community at Harvard. His website is http://www.DaveMuscato.com.

Follow Dave on Google+
Follow Dave on Twitter

Helpful resources:

Godisimaginary.com – Iron Chariots Wiki – Skeptics’ Annotated Bible / Skeptics’ Annotated Qur’an – AtheismResource.com – TalkOrigins.org

YouTubers: Evid3nc3, Thunderf00t, TheAmazingAtheist, The Atheist Experience, Edward Current, NonStampCollector, Mr. Deity, Richard Dawkins, QualiaSoup

Blogs: Greta Christina, PZ Myers, The Friendly Atheist, WWJTD?, Debunking Christianity, SkepChick

and don’t forget… other SASHA members! We are here for you, too!

Smart Giving: Why You Should Donate To The Secular Student Alliance

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This post originally appeared on SkepticFreethought.com

Disclosure: I’m an intern at the Secular Student Alliance this summer. The opinions below are my own and do not necessarily represent those of the SSA.

Hello, Dave here.

I’m going to come straight out and say it. You should donate to the Secular Student Alliance. Right now. I’m serious. Get out your wallet and set it on the table beside you. Have a credit card? Get it out. Have a bill in your wallet? Get it out. We’re going to do something here with it in a second.

I want you to take your credit card out of your wallet and look at it (or, if you have cash, take it out and look at it).

I want you to think of all the things you’ve bought in the last week.

Gasoline? Coffee? Gum? Cigarettes? Soda? Beer? Went out to eat?

I just got back from the store. Here’s a list of things I’ve bought in the past two hours:

- Two bottles of wine: $30 (not on receipt because I got them at a different store)
- A bath sheet: $20
- A corkscrew: $10
- A fancy can opener: $18
- A box of trash bags: $8
- A big jar of peanut butter: $7
- Two jars of jam: $5
- A package of hangers: $5
- Some mouthwash: $5
- A little candle with a holder: $4

All of this together is over $100. Now, if I were to ask myself, which is more important to me? Wine? A fancy can opener? or the Secular Student Alliance?

Every time, without fail, I would choose the SSA.

Except that I *didn’t* choose the SSA; I chose the fancy can opener. I guess that’s not “without fail.”

I want you to look at your credit card, or the cash you got out, and ask yourself: “What is the highest and best use of this money?”

The Secular Student Alliance is doing the most important work I have seen in the world. I am not just saying this. I’m studying economics & anthropology at Mizzou, and I’m interested in non-profit efficiency and smart giving. I care about a lot of causes. I care about feminism, and poverty alleviation, and reproductive rights, and LGBTQ rights, and vegetarianism & animal welfare. But I chose to work with the SSA because I think this is the most important cause, and the most urgent cause.

We are empowering students toward a secular future. A better future. A science-fiction future with flying cars and weekend trips to the moon and people living to their 200th birthday. Prosperous countries trading instead of fighting. When we focus our attention on being good critical thinkers, we solve problems. Like the bumper sticker says, “Two hands working accomplish more than 1,000 clasped in prayer.” The SSA works with students because students are our best hope for the future.

I want you to read this post by my boss, Lyz Liddell. It’s called “The Unstoppable Secular Students.” I mentioned “smart giving” above. That means using critical thinking when deciding where to donate. It means asking questions and making sure your money is being put not just to good use, but the best use.

The problem with this, from a non-profit’s perspective, is that when people think critically about donating, they tend to donate less. Emotions can take over people’s donation behavior and when people aren’t asking questions, it’s easy to get them to donate. I want you to do the opposite of what most people do. I want you to think critically, realize that the SSA is the doing the best work you could ask of a non-profit, and donate more. I want you to donate as much as you possibly can. I want you to do this because I have done my homework, and I know how important this is and how good of a job the SSA is doing. I know how understaffed the SSA is and how much its people care. And most importantly, I know that they are getting stuff DONE, I know how much they need every dollar you can spare to keep doing it.

Smart giving doesn’t mean giving less. It means choosing a great, efficient, and productive charity, and giving all that you can. If you care about secular issues, the SSA is what you’re looking for.

What are you going to buy tomorrow that you don’t really need? Don’t do it. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance today instead. We can make this happen with your help.

So, your wallet that is sitting out. Let’s do this. We can do it together. The $100 I spent today on crap I don’t need? I’m officially pledging another $100 to the SSA, right here, right now. And I want you to do the same. If $20 is all you can manage, donate $20. And because of Jeff Hawkins & Janet Strauss’s matching $250,000 donation offer, your $20 magically multiples into $40. Do it. Donate, because the SSA is important, and that’s worth caring about.

- Dave

—

Ellen says:

Remember, here are some ways to pledge:

1. Pledge per word (.01¢ per word is suggested).

2. Pledge per post (24 throughout the day).

3. Pledge per thing you’ve learned. If a post teaches you something new, you donate your pledge amount.

4. Bid to torture. Have a crafty challenge for me? Something new to make into crochet? Some sick geometric origami? Whatever you do, don’t make me go outside and do… things… like… …exercise. I will hate you. But if you bid enough, I might do it.

5. And always bid for crochet Cthulhu’s and FSM’s! They will be available throughout the week, and any that are not auctioned will be for sale near the end.

So if you need any more reasons to donate, stick around. I’m here all day.

This is post 19/24 of Ellen’s Blogathon in support of the Secular Student Alliance. Donate here!

- Dave

Dave Muscato is Vice President of MU SASHA. He is a vegetarian, LGBTQ ally, and human- & animal-welfare activist. A junior at Mizzou studying economics & anthropology and minoring in philosophy & Latin, Dave posts updates to the SASHA blog every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday and twice monthly for the Humanist Community at Harvard. His website is http://www.DaveMuscato.com.

Follow Dave on Google+
Follow Dave on Twitter

Helpful resources:

Godisimaginary.com – Iron Chariots Wiki – Skeptics’ Annotated Bible / Skeptics’ Annotated Qur’an – AtheismResource.com – TalkOrigins.org

YouTubers: Evid3nc3, Thunderf00t, TheAmazingAtheist, The Atheist Experience, Edward Current, NonStampCollector, Mr. Deity, Richard Dawkins, QualiaSoup

Blogs: Greta Christina, PZ Myers, The Friendly Atheist, WWJTD?, Debunking Christianity, SkepChick

and don’t forget… other SASHA members! We are here for you, too!

3 Things You Should Know

Welcome to the official MU SASHA daily blog!
First time here? Read this.

2011 SASHA Fall Conference this weekend! 7 Speakers – 2 Days – Free Admission: Visit SASHAconference.com for details.

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Local to Columbia? Join the Facebook Group, too!

Hello all! Three things for today:

1:

The 2011 SASHA Fall Conference is this weekend! The keynote speaker is Nate Phelps, son of Westboro Baptist Church leader Fred Phelps (the “God Hates Fags” people who picket soldiers’ funerals), who is now an atheist and LGBTQ-rights activist.

Other speakers include Dr. Darrel Ray, Dave Rosman, Annie Callicotte, Brandon Christen (see Brandon’s guest post on our blog here), fellow SASHA blogger and philosophy PhD student Seth Kurtenbach, and fellow SASHA blogger and evolutionary biologist/entomologist James Pflug. See the website at http://www.SASHAconference.com and the Facebook event here.

2:

SASHA weekly meeting tonight! SASHA member Tyler Crossen will lead a presentation and discussion about LGBTQ issues through the lens of various world religions. See the Facebook event here. The meeting is 5:30 to 6:30 in the Agriculture Building, room 2-16.

3:

The Secular Student Alliance, with which SASHA is affiliated, is making huge waves on Reddit right now, and they are springboarding this into a matching donation campaign. The best part is, NEW MEMBERSHIPS count toward the match, and student memberships are only $10! Reblogged with permission below is an article by JT Eberhard about it.

JT writes:

As of right now, the SSA’s facebook page has gone from 6.5k likes up to 14,045 likes.  This is a valuable currency in the 21st century, which I’ll explain momentarily.

Progression so far.

Kenny Flagg, a leader with the Freethinkers of The University of North Dakota put this image on the r/atheism subreddit after 1am this morning.  Overnight we get a gaggle of international traffic.

This morning it hits the front page of reddit and we start getting domestic traffic.  Also, Christians start hammering it with downvotes.

FtB picks it up and now we’re outpacing the down votes, muahahahahahahaha!  Thanks everybody!

Now, why is this influx of new traffic important?  It’s important because we just announced a $20,000 matching offer from Ron Verstappen, and new memberships to the SSA count as donations!  With all these people now having an eye on the SSA, we stand to be in a better position to support student activists in 2012!

So this is what I would like from all you lovely readers.  Spread the word!  Spread the word that we want four things:

1.  Like the SSA Facebook page.  You do not need to be a student to do this, you need only support our cause.
2.  Upvote the reddit article to push back against all the Christian down votes.
3.  Become a member of the SSA ($35/year, $10/year for students) and/or donate to the SSA. You do not need to be a student to become a member!  The upcoming generation of secular activists requires the support of the previous generation!
4.  Spread the word even further!  Tweet about it.  Facebook it.  G+ it.  Shout it from the mountain tops.  Get a pic.  Do a blog!  Tell them the taaaaaaaaaaaaale!

We’ve had 7.5k new likes in the last 11 hours.  If all those people threw in $2.50, we’d have the match.  What happens in the next 24 hours will have a large impact on how successful student activism is for the next year!  Let’s make this happen!

See JT’s original post here.

See you tonight at the meeting & at the conference this weekend!

- Dave

mail@davemuscato.com
(573) 424-0420 cell/text

Dave Muscato is Vice President of MU SASHA. He is a vegetarian, LGBTQ ally, and human- & animal-welfare activist. A junior at Mizzou majoring in economics & anthropology and minoring in philosophy & Latin, Dave posts updates to the SASHA blog every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. His website is http://www.DaveMuscato.com.

Follow Dave on Google+
Follow Dave on Twitter

Helpful resources:

Godisimaginary.com
Iron Chariots Wiki
Skeptics’ Annotated Bible / Skeptics’ Annotated Qur’an
AtheismResource.com
TalkOrigins.org

YouTubers: Evid3nc3, Thunderf00t, TheAmazingAtheist, The Atheist Experience, Edward Current,NonStampCollector, Mr. Deity, Richard Dawkins, QualiaSoup

Blogs: Greta Christina, PZ Myers, The Friendly Atheist, WWJTD?, Debunking Christianity, SkepChick

and don’t forget… other SASHA members! We are here for you, too!