AOF News & Views –
Newsletter for November 2016

Upcoming
Events ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ² ²

Ø  Board of Directors Meeting                                                                   Monday,
November 14, 7 pm – 9pm

An AOF
planning meeting for AOF Directors & officers, but open to all
interested friends and members. We have these every other month, more or less.
And as always, we welcome you to join us and meet the Board.

Bring your ideas
for AOF, your strategies, your suggestions for events and activities -- most of
all, volunteerism! Helping hands are wonderful

Location: Reason
Center, 1824 Tribute Rd, Suite A, Sacramento. Map: https://goo.gl/iVQL8z.

Ø  Adopt-a-Highway Cleanup                                                              Saturday, November 19, 2016, 9-11am

In July 1995,
Sacramento-area freethinkers "adopted" a two-mile stretch of Highway
99 from Elkhorn Boulevard to Elverta Road. Since then we’ve striven
to keep it clean of litter and debris, and we have received recognition
for it. It is, in fact, one our more successful civic efforts. It shows that
freethinkers can also serve the community.

This time, why not join us? Enjoy a
morning commune with nature, and do a good deed for the environment and local
area wildlife. The refuse that we collect would otherwise degrade habitat,
leading to a slow death for many creatures.

As usual, the activity captain will
provide all safety equipment, including comfortable, natty hard-hats and
gloves, stylish safety vests, collection bags, and handy trash pickers. The
clean-up takes a scant two hours. Please dress for the season. It may be a good
idea to bring a backpack or fanny-pack to carry 3 or 4 trash bags.

Location:  CalTrans
Park-&-Ride lot, W. Elkhorn Blvd, see map.

(Travel north from Sacramento on I-5,
past the Sleeptrain Arena. Take the "Highway 99 - Yuba City, Marysville"
exit. Exit at Elkhorn Boulevard less than a mile north. Turn left, cross the
overpass, and the park-&-ride lot will be on your left.)

Contact:  916-447-2169
(Don Knutson), or see the AOF Contact Page (http://www.aofonline.org/contact.html).

Ø  Philosophers’ Table:  Morality and Religion                                   Sunday, November 27, 12 pm – 1 pm

Here's a question. Religious
leaders have argued that without a god, people would lack a moral compass,
would commit heinous crimes -- because of no threat of hell. "If God does
not exist, everything is permitted," old Dostoevsky reportedly wrote. But
what of all the "holy wars" packed with atrocities? What of the
Inquisition, the “Magdalene Sisters,” clergy child abuse, witch executions,
poor Michael Servetus roasting at the stake? Pick any one example of religious
atrocity, then trace though the rationale. How do perpetrators justify their
acts? By appeal to logic, or to faith? Does this suggest something? Or are we
being a bit unfair?

Join AOF friends and members for
another Philosophers' Table discussion. Just be open to questions, and
listen as much as you speak.

Location: Reason

Ø  Football + Crafts                                                         Sunday, November 27, 2016, 01:00pm - 03:30pm

Now for something different. Something Thanksgivingish, but secular. The
"speaker" will be the television, amplified by our pretty-darned-good
sound system. The topic: football. Wait, what?

Yes, America's traditional Thanksgiving
weekend activity. Who's playing? Who cares? The point is the company of
like-minded folk who enjoy the same strategy-rich game. Bring your favorite
snacks to share: salty and crunchy, hot and gooey, or frosty cold. If hot,
please bring an electric crockpot or hotplate to keep it that way. Don't forget
serving utensils.

If you're a non-FB-fanatic, simply
enjoy some social time in the other meeting room where we will sew, knit, and
otherwise craft (or sit and chat if you like), far from the hoot and holler of
the concussion-inducing game.

It is a perfect time to work on
unfinished projects or start one for gift-giving. And we, too, can share
snacks. Bring your fave. Nom.

Location:
Reason Center, 1824 Tribute Rd,
Suite A, Sacramento. Map: https://goo.gl/iVQL8z.

Ø  Davis Community Meal – Feed the Hungry                            Tuesday, November
29, 2016, 4pm – 7pm

Sacramento
atheists are heading west to help the Davis Community Meals Project (DCM) serve a dinner of
donated food prepared by volunteer chefs to anyone who is hungry (including seniors,
low-income and homeless individuals and families). Our volunteers set up tables
and chairs for about 100, serve the meal buffet style, and cleanup.

After everyone is fed, then we can partake. And as always, there is
music and good cheer. Come join us and make a difference.

Location:
St. Martin's Episcopal, 640 Hawthorne Lane, Davis.

Contact:  916-447-2169 (Don Knutson), or see the AOF Contact Page (http://www.aofonline.org/contact.html).

« « Proposed
Revision of AOF Bylaws « «

Have
you ever read the AOF Bylaws? (Hint:
it’s painful. See the website.) The AOF Board has found that they are too long
and complex for our organization, and are working to make them simpler, shorter
and more useful. The bylaws contain two types of provisions: (1) Those that
affect the rights of AOF members, and (2) Those that don't. Any change to provisions of the first sort
require membership approval. Other kinds of changes may be decided by the
Board.

To
update the provisions that affect members’ rights, Mynga Futrell and Fran
Evanisko have worked to eliminate wording that seem irrelevant, and to simplify
language where possible. The updates are currently ready for review. This
month, AOF Voting Membership should receive a special email with a link to the
revisions, and another link for voting. Please watch for this email and
exercise your unique franchise as an AOF voting member. Examine the proposed
changes carefully, and vote.

Of
Lice and Men

Humans and chimps have similar parasites, and genetics tell
us these parasites share a common ancestor.
Unless evolution is true, it is an incredible coincidence that the
genetic tree of these parasitical species should so closely match the genetic
tree of their human/chimp hosts.

"The
genetic difference between humans and chimpanzees is so small that it
corresponds to that between sibling species (closely allied) species and is
less than between two non-sibling species of the same genus. It is also
apparent that the malarial parasites of man and those of every one of the apes
evolved from a common ancestor. This is an important point, as it indicates
that their hosts, man and apes, did likewise."  [Emphasis added.]

-- J. Richard Greenwell (Secretary of the Arid
Lands Natural Resources Committee, University of Arizona), “Tiptoeing Beyond
Darwin,” Skeptical Inquirer, spring 1980, p. 42-54

"Interestingly,
the similarity between the various lice that live on monkeys and those of man
is so close that they can interchangeably feed on one or the other host without
harm… Such interchange of hosts is not usually possible. A louse fed on a
foreign host, in most cases, suffers a probably painful and fatal ingestion…The
lice that infest each species of monkey in South and Central America, so far as
known, fall into distinct species according to the hosts they infest, thus
indicating to a certain degree an evolutionary descent for both host and
parasites that evolved with them and upon them."

-- Hans Zinsser, Rats, Lice and History

“The
human body louse, Pediculus humanus,
has two ways of making a living -- either dwelling on the scalp, feeding on
blood, or snuggling into our clothes and come out once or twice a day to graze
on our bodies. For lice, we humans are the world. They cannot live for more
than a few hours away from our bodies. Only by crawling from one host to the
next does their species escape extinction.
A group of louse specialists recently decided to find out where human
lice came from. Have they been riding on our bodies since before we were human?
A comparison of the lice that live on different primates shows that they
certainly can be very loyal. If you draw an evolutionary tree of primates, and
then draw a tree of their lice, the trees are almost identical. On the other
hand, some lice can live on more than one species. And a side-by-side
comparison of trees reveals that in some cases they don't form a perfect
mirror. In other words, sometimes lice can make an evolutionary leap.

“As the researchers report today in Public
Library of Biology, they compared human lice to the lice of primates, looking
at both their DNA and their anatomy. As earlier research had shown, they found
a major split among lice species that live on apes and on monkeys and other primates.
That reflects an ancient split in the primates themselves: our ape ancestors
diverged from other primates 20-25 million years ago. The variation in louse
DNA turns out to act like a sort of molecular clock, showing when they split
into different lineages. The molecular clock puts the split between lice that
live on humans and chimps at 5.6 million years ago--exquisitely close to the
age that's been estimated for humans from studies on both DNA and fossils.

"The research suggested that we've
carried our lice for millions of years, since before the time of our common
ancestor with chimpanzees. But after we parted company with the chimps, the
lice have a remarkable story to tell. Human lice split into two lineages. One
lineages is found around the world. The second is found only in North America.
The worldwide branch all share a common ancestor that lived 540,000 years ago.
The North American branch shares a common ancestor that lived 150,000 years
ago. And finally, the two branches share a far older common ancestor, which
lived a 1,180,000 years ago."

-- Carl Zimmer, "If These Lice Could
Talk," Oct. 2004 http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2004/10/04/if-these-lice-could-talk/

When you donate blood...

Please consider donating blood at the
BloodSource, and if you do, use AOF BloodSource ID# 4857.

Numerous BloodSource Donation Centers exist --
find them listed at:  http://www.bloodsource.org/Locations.

AOF gets no perks when members donate, but it
saves lives, and is good for public relations. And what can be more

Humanistic than donating blood?

Support Reason Center

The Reason Center
opened in July 2014. Since then it has hosted over 200 freethought events.

Currently the Center has twelve
partner organizations.

The Reason Center mission is to support a social and
intellectual community for freethinkers, contribute to society through
education and community service, advance the civic understanding and acceptance
of freethinkers, and uphold the separation of religion and government.

To continue its good work, “RC”
relies on continued support for its members and donors. Please consider making
a contribution to the Reason Center. To set up a monthly, or one-time donation
visit ReasonCenter.org.

Support AOF

If you shop at Amazon.com, try this: do the shopping at smile.amazon.com/ch/68-0325762. What’s the difference? Nothing, prices
are identical, service the same. But AOF receives a small residual for every
dollar you spend. This will enable AOF to bring in more smoking great speakers
from out of Sacramento. Be smart, try it!

Not (yet) a
member of Atheists and Other Freethinkers? Join us! Please!

AOF is a
501(c)(3) non-profit association, FEIN 68-0325762. General Meetings are free and
open to the public. AOF also hosts civic service projects, dinners, movie
outings, parties! To see what awaits you, visit the website, www.aofonline.org; or contact AOF at
our 24/7 voice-mail: 916-447-3589; or write to PO Box 15182, Sacramento, CA
95851-0182.  Or tag one of us at a
meeting.

AOF Acting President: Kristi Craven. Vice-president: Mynga
Futrell. Editor: Fran Evanisko. And all the rest of us, their minions.

“The purpose of Atheists
and Other Freethinkers (AOF) is to promote the civic understanding of atheism
and the acceptance of atheists in our community.  Through educational programs, projects, and
publications, AOF will extend secular perspectives, including the separation of
religion and government and the right to think and speak freely on these
perspectives.”

Save the Date. At
each year’s end AOF joins hands with our sister groups, the Humanist
Association of the Greater Sacramento Area (HAGSA) and Sacramento Atheists,
Freethinkers and Nonbelievers (Sac-FAN) to host a singular and spectacular
event, the HumanLight/Solstice celebration. Will it happen this year? We hope!
But we need volunteers – for setup,
for cleanup, to manage games & activities, and to deliver charity-drive
items to the appropriate places.

What date?
Sunday, December 18, noonish to about 3 pm. If you can help with the fun,
contact AOF, see phone number above. Our gratitude will be florid. And you will have even more fun that day, we promise.

Upcoming
elections. Not what you think. Something else occurs
about now: AOF voting members elect or re-elect a Board of Directors to lead
the group through the coming new year. If you care for AOF, if you have a good mind,
if you can serve as an officer in 2017, please contact us! Or sit tight and
listen. Because your phone may ring soon. Be kind to the caller.

Your
writings here. Help AOF News & Views avoid white space
such as we are plugging now with mindless blather. Welcome are submissions,
from anyone. You need not be an AOF member, nor even atheist or agnostic. Your
topic should simply be within the broad arenas of freethought, humanism,
skepticism, or secular (worldly) politics. It should be relevant, articulate,
grammatical, spell-checked, terse. We prefer it be in sync with our basic goal
and mission: to foster civil understanding, dignity and free discourse between
churched and unchurched citizens. But really, that’s between you and the
editor. Work something out.

We like poetry, stories, essays, news articles. Hate
literature is right out. Honest critiques, OK.

Oh, and the editor reserves the right to edit – that’s what
he’s for.

Each issue comes out at about the start of the month. The
submission deadline is the middle of the third full week of the month before.
If that seems too complex, think mid-month plus a few days.