AOF News & Views –
Newsletter for December 2016

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

Ø  Rob Boston: What Do You People Want?                                       Sunday, December 11, 2 pm – 4 pm

“Advocates of separation of church and state are often
challenged by followers of the Religious Right to explain what they want or
what aspects of U.S. society they would change in both legal and cultural
contexts. In this talk, Rob Boston of Americans
United
will discuss the ideal secular society that many supporters of church-state
separation are working toward. The speech will cover topics such as government
endorsement of religion, the role of religion in public education, LGBT rights,
tax-payer support for religious projects and how to define religious freedom
claims in a multi-faith, multi-philosophy society.

“The
talk will include a discussion of the challenges we face under the incoming
Trump administration.”

The
Sacramento Chapter of Americans
United for the Separation of Church and State graciously brings you this speaker,
with co-sponsoring by AOF, HAGSA and other local
groups. For more details, see https://www.au.org/get-involved/events/sacramento-chapter-hosts-rob-boston.
(Text above is from the event flyer.)

Americans
United for Separation of Church and State

1310 L Street NW, Suite 200 - Washington, DC 20005

(202) 466-3234 - au.org - protectthyneighbor.org - [email-masked]

Americans
United
is the only national organization that devotes one-hundred percent of its time
and resources to church/state separation. Through public education and
advocacy, Americans United works to preserve religious liberty and freedom of
conscience as guaranteed by our Constitution.

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

Ø
HumanLight/Solstice
Party                                                       Sunday, December 18, 12:30 pm – 3 pm

Each year AOF joins hands with HAGSA to host the
annual HumanLight / Winter Solstice celebration,  and invite all our jolly friends in the
secular community to party with us. No membership required, just come help us express
positive humanist ideals and values, the real reasons for the season:
reason, compassion, hope, humanity. The turn of the year. The tidal return of precious
light. And maybe a bit of gluttony too.

At
minimum, festivities will include a potluck feast, with music and general
reverie, games, camaraderie, a charity drive for pets and people, and a raffle
with delightful prizes, the revenue to benefit our community of reason. Bring
a few spare dollars for the raffle, as tickets are a scant $1 each, the
cause is good, and prizes will be amazing. You'll be amazed at how amazing. We
will have more. In particular, a humanist-of-the-year award. Plans coalesce as
you read this, so this is but a sketch. We are thinking, thinking. If you can
help or have ideas, please contact the event planner (email below)!

For
the charity drive,
if you can, bring a bit of people- or pet-food (or supplies) to donate.
Volunteers will convey it to the appropriate pantry, and your Grinch-heart will
grow three sizes.

For
the Luncheon
(potluck style), please bring something tasty, prepared, well-presented, ready
to serve, with your own favorite beverage. The hall has one small microwave, a
sink and a refrigerator, that is all, no oven and no stove. Have a serving dish
and utensil please, but we will provide plates, bowls, utensils, napkins and
cups. Eating will begin at 1 pm.

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

Contact:  reneinsac (at) gmail (dot) com, rae
(dot) howard (at) gmail (dot) com, or call AOF (916-304-3796).

Ø
Philosophers’
Table: A secular Christmas?                           Sunday,
December 25, 12 pm – 1 pm

No plans today? Don't just sit, don't
just mope, because you're far from alone. Join your fellow Grinches to discuss
Christmas as a secular holiday. Business and the buying public have secularized
it already, we know, but what of the next step: claiming the day explicitly as
our own? The word for it is syncretism,
and we just need to do it.

Yes, it is the War on Christmas, and we
are the Fifth Columnists, ready literally to seize the day. Come help us plot.
Mwa-ha-ha ...

Afterward,
hang fast, because another fun Meetup event will follow this one immediately.

AOF's
monthly Philosophers' Table talks are trending. The singular rule: be open to
questions, and listen as well as speak.

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

Sanctuary!: Rational Refugees from
Religious Relatives                      Sunday, December 25, 1 – 3:30 pm

If
the holiday hectors you, if religious relatives have driven you have half mad,
you might want to climb a water tower with a rifle ... but don't, please
don't! Rather, take your squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping,
clutching, covetous old heart to Reason Center to relax and commiserate with
your fellow refugees. Our sound system will play non-holiday
music as we share snacks, stories and true camaraderie. In the words of
old Scrooge's nephew, this really can be a kind, forgiving, charitable and
pleasant time, "the only time in the long calendar of the year when men
and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think
of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and
not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." You need not be
religious to believe in that. Simply, and beautifully, human.

We encourage you to bring:
friends, goodies, games, your favorite CD of secular music.

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

Ø  Board of Directors Meeting                                                         Tuesday, January 10, 2017, 07pm - 9pm

An AOF
planning meeting for AOF Directors & officers, but open to all
interested friends and members. These happen 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.

Revision of AOF Bylaws

Voting on the revisions to the AOF Bylaws ended November 30, 2016.  Seventeen members voted unanimously to
approve the proposed amendments.  Thanks
to all who participated.

Book Review:

THE MAGICIAN’S BOOK: A SKEPTIC’S
ADVENTURES IN NARNIA by Laura Miller

(320
pgs, hcv, Little , Brown and Company, Dec 2008. Reviewed by Ken Nahigian.)

I am a freethinker, and I am a CS Lewis fan. That seems odd
but it’s true. I don’t always agree with him, but to me, Lewis was a good man
with a poignant life story, a kind of heartfelt seeking, humor, some wisdom,
much sincerity, and a method with words—a music of language so affable, so
persuasive, and often so lucid, even this crusty old nonbeliever falls into it
at times. And I just enjoy falling in.

Also of course, Lewis was fast friends with a writer I like
even more, JRR Tolkien—at least till their friendship soured later.

Lewis is best known for his Christian evangelism, but I
also enjoy his science fiction and fantasy, starting with Narnia. Yet even in
my early fannish days, when I was a religious believer myself, some Narnia
stories seemed heavy-handed, parts irked and disturbed me. Especially at the
end: when Aslan the Lion forces about half of the Narnia creatures—the ones who
didn’t follow him—to march off into a “huge black shadow,” where they vanish
forever. Lewis adds slyly, “I don't know what became of them,” but you can
almost see him winking. Sure he knew. So did I. And it left a bad feeling.

So I just had to read this one: The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia by Laura
Miller. Miller is a fun, dazzling writer—and like me a religious skeptic who
loved Narnia. After lapsing from her childhood Catholicism, she decided to
revisit Narnia with adult eyes, and deconstruct it, and see what still worked
for her, what didn’t, and why. It is just what I always wanted to do.

The result is a mix of reader’s diary, biography and
literary criticism. Her book has three sections. First is “Songs of Innocence.”
Miller explores why Narnia charms children and many adults, even nonbelievers
like her. In part two, "Trouble in Paradise," she digs into Lewis’s
life, turning up some startling scuttlebutt: a miserable childhood, prejudices,
latent sexism, some typical British blind spots and snobbery, a few surprising
kinks, and a possible illicit affair with a domineering older woman (can you
say “White Witch”?).

In part 3, “Songs of Experience,” she puts it together to
explain why Narnia still resonates for her and others. Like Tolkien, Lewis saw
himself as a stranger in our time, seeking the myths he loved as a child. All
those wonderful old tales that once thrilled him, he decided, “were really like
echoes moving backward and sideways and sometimes even forward in time, reverberations
of the occasion when God actually sacrificed himself for mankind." We can
disagree of course. But as Miller points out, a first love shapes us forever.
Lewis’s love of the old magic helped him keep it and return it to us. In the
end, it was the bond between listener, story and teller, which as Miller
observes, is older than the memory of our race.

Donating 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 the Reason Center for the Holidays!

Reason Center opened in July
2014.  Since then this facility has
hosted well over 200 freethought events. Currently the Center has twelve
partner organizations. Its 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.

Lately Reason Center has
begun hosting events of groups outside our secular community. This is progress,
but to continue its good work, it relies on for its members and donors. Please
consider making a contribution to the Reason Center. To set up a monthly, or
one-time donation visit the website, ReasonCenter.org.

Not yet a member
of Atheists and Other Freethinkers? Be nice, not naughty. Join us!

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 read this newsletter!

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.”

Free Will

(from 80 Poems for Atheists
by John Rodwell)

"Excuse me God,”

Said the little man from the earlier poem,

"Have I got free will?"

"Of course," said God,

"It was my gift to all Mankind."

"Then I can do as I choose,

Is that right?" asked the little man.

"Yes," said God.

"Then you can't be omniscient,

Can you?" said the little man,

"I might choose to do something ...

Unexpected."

"But I know what you are going to
choose,"

Said God.

"Then I don't have free will then,

Do I?" said the little man,

"It's just an illusion."

"Look" said God, angrily,

"Stop being such an irritating little man,

Will you?"

"I
don't know," said the little man.

"Will I?"