President's Letter

Dear CFA members:

As I write this letter, August is ending. Not only does this mean that television networks are gearing up for their new fall line-ups, but it also means that classes will begin anew in a righteous attempt to prevent you, as students in high school or college, from watching them. To me, it means that my few weeks since appointment as CFA president are also at a close and I must succeed Debbie Goddard as the Campus Freethought Alliance Student President. I would like to begin by recognizing Debbie for all of her efforts, not only over the last year, but since she began working with CFA years ago. She has worked tirelessly editing various CFA publications, she has made herself available to many students seeking advice and assistance, and she has volunteered countless other hours to the CFA. But don't fret, Debbie will still be around, working with me and CFA's professional staff in order to launch our new "service committees" later this fall. Thank you, Debbie. I'll work hard to fill your shoes.

Now, I suppose that I should introduce myself. My name is Mathew Pauley. I have recently graduated from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) where I studied both philosophy and political science. For two years at MTSU I was President of MTSU's CFA affiliate group, which was also an affiliate of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. Due to my position there, I had the pleasure of annoying CFA staffers D.J. Grothe and Austin Dacey for organizing and promotional support, often at least once a week (something I suggest everyone get in the habit of doing). Working with CFA, we brought numerous speakers to our campus, which helped us grow as a CFA group. After a while I became familiar with all the ways to take advantage of the resources CFA makes available, on my campus as well as nationally.

I will begin my first year of law school this semester and I also will be seeking an MA in Bioethics. Also noteworthy: I am originally from New Jersey; I returned this summer and occasionally volunteered in the Metro-New York office of the Center for Inquiry located in Rockefeller Center in Manhattan.

Now that I've introduced myself, it is time to discuss the upcoming school year and some developments with the CFA. But first: WELCOME TO THE 2003-04 SCHOOL YEAR!

New Supporting Organizations for CFA
The Campus Freethought Alliance has grown to include nearly 150 groups worldwide and remains the world's foremost organization promoting humanism, skepticism, rationalism, and science literacy on campus. Until recently, CFA was solely a project of the Council for Secular Humanism, but has now come to draw support from all of the organizations at the Center for Inquiry, where it is headquartered, such as the Council, CSICOP and the CFI Institute. A brief discussion of the Center for Inquiry: CFI has branches across the United States and other countries, and is committed to "promoting science, reason and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavor." It is this mission that unites all of the organizations at the Center for Inquiry, even though each organization has its own unique mission, too. Headquartered at CFI are the Council for Secular Humanism, the nation's leading organization for ethical, nonreligious people, and the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) a leading organization that deals with science, fringe-science and the paranormal, as well as other worldwide public education and advocacy organizations. Then there is the CFA, now drawing support from all organizations at the Center for Inquiry, not just the Council for Secular Humanism, its first sponsoring organization.

Multi-faceted CFA
I realize that many CFA affiliate groups from campuses such as the new CFA affiliate group at UCLA to Rhodes University in South Africa may have different areas of focus: One campus group may be specifically interested in promoting the humanistic, atheistic or agnostic view points on its campus; another campus group may be solely devoted critical inquiry of paranormal claims and science advocacy. Still another group may focus on the separation of church (or mosque) and state and human rights. CFA supports all these causes, promoting critical inquiry into all the purveyors of nonsense in our society. All CFA affiliate groups are united by a commitment to inquiring into what Paul Kurtz has called the "reigning mythologies of the day." But regardless of what your group focuses on, there is a lot of work being done to suppress free and critical inquiry on college campuses, and CFA stands ready to help you respond.

Getting involved with CFA
This fall, CFA has plans to visit CFA members and groups at campuses in St Louis, MO; Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN; Washington, DC; Albuquerque, NM; Austin, TX, Indianapolis, IN; New York, NY; and Los Angeles, CA. Be sure to be on the lookout for CFA in your area if you live in one of these cities.

Since last semester, seven new groups have been founded or have affiliated with the CFA. Also, in that same period of time, 27 (!) CFA members have begun the process of forming CFA affiliate groups on their campuses. Look at the listing of these campuses below, or on our website (www.campusfreethought.org) and if you attend one of these schools, be sure to contact the group or "prospective group" and get involved!

And even if you don't attend one of these campuses, I invite you to visit our website to see what obstacles have recently come up to challenge free and critical inquiry. You'll find media alerts which suggest action in response to irresponsible claims in the media. There are also action alerts that suggest ways that supporters of CFA can quickly respond to legislators regarding various social and political challenges that face our community and nation. If you peruse the "Action Alerts" section of the site, you'll find calls for action for everything from protecting therapeutic cloning to ways you can urge your legislators to prevent certain "religious extremists" from being appointed to judgeships, all designed so that you can contact your legislators easily, just by putting in your zip code. These are all definitely some issues your group can focus on, in addition to many others.

There is also the matter of the religious right -- I speak not only of extremist Christian groups -- there are also fundamentalist Jewish and Islamic groups that seek to instill their beliefs and morals on those who voluntarily try to turn a deaf ear. CFA is almost alone in resisting this growth of the religious right on campuses. Ultimately, the CFA is here for you. And if you happen to not be at school anymore (if you're an off-campus supporter of CFA), visit the website and join anyway; there are many ways you can get involved, too. And besides, it's free to join!!

I am proud to be a part of CFA and look I forward to working hard along with you to promote our mission, fulfilling my role as CFA Student President during this upcoming year.

Sincerely,
Mathew Pauley
president@campusfreethought.org


 
New CFA Affiliate and Prospect Groups

Seven New Campus Groups Join CFA
The Campus Freethought Alliance is pleased to announce that seven new campus freethought groups have been founded by or have affiliated with CFA. These include groups at University of Alberta, Carnegie-Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh, Chatham University, University of Oregon, University of California at Los Angeles, and Eziama High School in Nigeria. Many other campuses are in the process of forming CFA affiliate groups. This is in addition to the members-at-large who join CFA without a group yet on their campus. If you attend one of the schools listed above and would like to get involved with the new CFA group there, use the group contact form. If not, you can see if there is a group at your school by visiting: www.campusfreethought.org/affiliates.htm.

27 New CFA Groups in the Process of Forming
Since the end of Spring Semester 2003, CFA has been contacted by students or faculty at the following campuses expressing interest in starting or revitalizing a CFA affiliate group: Texas A&M University, University of Alberta, Rancho Bernardo High School (San Diego CA), Kenyon College (Gambier OH), Arcadia High School (CA), University of Nebraska at Omaha, St. Mary's College of Maryland, University of Perpetual Help Rizal (Philippines), Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, St. Cloud State University, Calallen High School (Corpus Christi TX), University of Nebraska at Omaha, Fernadina Beach High School (FL), Northwestern University, North Carolina State University, Pittsburgh University, Middle Georgia College, California State University at Northridge, University of Western Ontario, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, Eufaula High School (OK), University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Arkansas, Los Medanos College (Pittsburg CA), Roger Williams University (Bristol RI), and Mt. Hood Community College (Gresham OR). If you attend one of the schools listed above and would like to get involved with the new CFA group forming there, use the group contact form.


 
CFA's Online Discussion Forum - An Online Hub for Student Inquirers

CFA is pleased to report that our online discussion forum is succeeding in its role as a hub for discussion and debate among high school and college students and faculty. With hundreds of posts and over a 170 participants, there's always a reason to stop by and opine. Its free to get involved with the discussion forums, and its a great way to meet others who share your worldview, and maybe some who don't.

Forum categories include College and High School Freethought Activism, where students share their strategies for promoting critical inquiry on campus, lively debates such as "Are Psychics Real?" and "Can you be Good Without God?" and "Does Prayer Work?" and many other threads of discussion of interest to freethinking students and faculty.

To participate in the forum, go to www.campusfreethought.org and click on the "forum" link in the top navigation bar.



Summer at the Center for Inquiry

by Ben Hyink
Third Culture Society (CFA's affiliate group at Northwestern University)

This Summer I had the good fortune of attending the CFI Summer Session 2003 and the Debater’s Toolbox. This was made possible through a CFI internship, one of a handful awarded each year for CFA and CFI's educational programs. The Summer Session 2003 brought together scholars of all ages and backgrounds for an intensive two week college courses in which we learned about ethical views and development of belief, exchanged perspectives with each other and prestigious professors in the fields of philosophy and psychology, traveled to sites of interest in the region and developed great friendships along the way. I found especially interesting Peter Railton’s consequentialist ethical theory of “objectified well-being” as advocated by Austin Dacey and Robert Solomon's nuanced interpretation of Nietzsche's virtue ethics.

Robert Solomon, distinguished professor of philosophy from the University of Texas, lectures on Nietzsche and Sartre, ethics, spirituality and skepticism during the Summer Session.

Barry Beyerstein’s class was thoroughly informative and Richard Wiseman’s presentations were wildly entertaining.

The Debater’s Toolbox , a three day training seminar which occurred the weekend after the CFI Summer Session 2003 ended, was  packed with strategies and examples that participants could use in their own formal and informal debates. The main presenters of the event each offered solid strategies and methods for winning a debate that varied in emphasis as to which components of a victory where of greatest importance (winning the technical arguments, relating to the audience, remaining civil, etc.) - secular humanists and skeptics have minds of our own, go figure. The afternoon sessions were fascinating; tapes of this event are well worth purchasing. At the request of Paul Kurtz, actress and comedian Julia Sweeney (of Saturday Night Life fame and now one of the country's most acclaimed monologists) indulged a dinner audience in an impromptu performance of her monologue "My Beautiful Loss-Of-Faith Story,” an uplifting and hilarious work that details her journey from Catholic to skeptic. It should not be missed. The Saturday night main event featured a debate on the existence of God between lawyer and CFI-West Chairman Eddie Tabash and Christian apologists and lawyer Michael Vader Meer. In my opinion, Vander Meer was trounced. Tabash later made the point though bruises may be expected from challengers the caliber of William L. Craig one must always use one’s array of arguments to the fullest advantage in any debate, especially on subjects as important as this one.

Students, faculty and staff of CFI"s Summer Session 2003. CFI's college-credit courses included "Reason and Ethics" and "Psychology of Belief."

The Center for Inquiry develops the strongest abilities of each of us interns: some of us have gained valuable hands-on experience writing local press releases, while others have conducted first-hand analysis of paranormal evidence and preformed experiments for Skeptical Inquirer, conducted interviews on behalf of Free Inquiry, and written for other publications from the Center for Inquiry. In addition, we have provided support at the many events held here, and have facilitated mass mailings, and done various other tasks. I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity to work with and learn from CFI’s community of scholars. I highly recommend the CFI summer internship program to ALL students in the secular humanist and skeptic communities.



CFA Staff to Visit Numerous Campuses During Fall 2003

September 26-29
CFA representatives visit Texas, including campuses such as University of Texas at Austin and others with presentations such as Voltaire, Diderot and the Challenge of the New Enlightenment and New Religious Threats to Academic Freedom.

October 2-6
CFA representatives visit Washington DC area campuses, including campuses such as American University, Georgetown, James Madison and George Washington presentations such as Voltaire, Diderot and the Challenge of the New Enlightenment and New Religious Threats to Academic Freedom.

October 21-27
CFA representatives visit New Mexico campuses, including campuses such as University of New Mexico and others, with a presentation entitled New Religious Threats to Academic Freedom. Also during this period, CFA students will be attending CSICOP's conference, "Hoaxes, Myths and Manias."

November 8-11
CFA representatives visit Indianapolis, IN campuses, including campuses such as Purdue University, Wabash College and others, with a presentation entitled Church State Update.

Representatives of the Campus Freethought Alliance are meeting with activists and supporters on and off campus in the above locations. If you would like to arrange or attend a presentation, let us know.

To work with CFA to bring a talk or debate to your school, click here.

For more information about CFA Lectures and Debates, click here.