Rise of Atheism – Day 3

Sunday started with the horrible realisation that my new phone’s “snooze” is actually “alarm off” and that I’d slept in. I have never leapt out of bed so quickly. Then, of course, the city was all blocked off for the fun run and my taxi driver was really scary, (drunk and unable to control himself and his car) but I made it. As I was walking up to the convention centre, I got asked by a TV reporter whether I’d answer some questions. I declined (I was up waaaaay too early on a Sunday to be on television) but watched the guy she did interview. She asked him “Why are you here? Surely there can’t be much to talk about at an atheist convention?” and gave a silly, patronising laugh. I am so sick of that question! It just goes to show how narrow people’s view of the non-religious is.

Anyway, after that I headed in, grabbed a good seat and strapped myself in for another day of talks.

The Rise of Atheism – Day 2

Well, half of day two. I had to leave at lunch, as I had a wedding to go to in the afternoon. From what I hear, I missed a pretty amazing afternoon.

But here is the run down of the morning.

We kicked off with an introduction from Kylie Sturgess, who spoke about the power of the internet and its fora, blogs and podcasts as a way of networking and getting our message out there. She made the point that many of us were only there because of the internet – and that is certainly true of myself. In fact, many of the people who, through the internet, inspired me to get involved in the skeptical and atheist movements are attending the convention, (Richard Dawkins (of course), P.Z. Myers, the organisers of the Young Australian Skeptics, the members of the Skeptic Zone podcast to name a few).

The Rise of Atheism – Day 1

Woo… I have been looking forward to this weekend for months. And it is finally here! So I thought I’d take a notebook with me, and jot down a few notes so that those of you not lucky enough to have tickets can know what is going on.

Apologies, it is unpolished, but it was written in the dark while I was doubled up laughing, soberly nodding my head in agreement or trying to applaud and write at the same time.

7:00 – I’ve registered, had a glass of champagne and a weird conversation with the bartender, (“Um, yes, I supposed sparkling rose is just for Christmas…” (what?)) and am waiting for it all to kick off. The program looks phenomenal!

I’m a bit overwhelmed by the thought of being in a room with so many people famous for thinking…

7:30 – David Nicholls started us off with a rousing speech about the organisation of the convention and how hard atheist organisations have to work to get things done. The battle to get ads on buses is ridiculous, the denial of service attack on the websites and total lack of government support for the convention is very disheartening. However, 1,500 of us are here despite the setbacks, and that is something to be proud of. Our MCs, (Kylie Sturgess and Someone Stuart Bechman (Thanks Kylie!)) introduce the first speaker, (after a bit of awkward back-and-forwards)…