The Freethought Society will once again cosponsor a Secular Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos Zoom event on Wednesday, November 2, 2022. The bilingual event will start at 3:45 PM (PST)/6:45 PM (EST). Other sponsors are Center For Inquiry, Hispanic American Freethinkers, American Ethical Union, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation.
A Secular Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos Secular event is a celebration of life. Nontheist Hispanics view the Secular Day of the Dead as a perfect way to remember the legacies of dead loved ones in a way that does not require prayer, church, or religious dogma. To nontheists, our legacies are our afterlife. More and more people are abandoning their religious upbringing but still want to celebrate the beauty of their culture. This is why a Secular Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos Secular event was created.
The 2022 event will include many secularly designed Hispanic traditions and rituals that celebrate our one and only life, legacies, and cultural heritage. All are welcome.
We are pleased to host author Fernando Alcantar as the 2022 speaker. Actor Jon Huertas will open the program with a special message.
The Secular Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos Secular program will include performances by Luis Alberto Torres Castro, Kaneko Leyva, Juan Antonio Garcia Hernandez, Daniel Zepeda, and Salvador Leon.
Attendees are encouraged to participate in the honoring ceremony. Prizes will be awarded to the best Zoom box decor, face painting, honoring table, and hair/hat adornment. Below is the event agenda, but details will be updated every week.
Agenda
3:45 PM (PST)/6:45 PM (EST) Pre-Event Social
Comedian Luis Alberto Torres Castro will present a hilarious bilingual skit during this 15-minute time slot.
4:00 PM (PST)/7:00 PM (EST) Welcome
Bilingual welcome messages from Huertas, organizers and cosponsors Guillermo Alejandro Benumea, Bart Worden, Crescencio Sanchez, Robyn Blumner, Dan Barker, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Victoria de la Torre, Margaret Downey, and David Tamayo.
4:30 PM (PST)/7:30 PM (EST) Guest Speaker
Fernando Alcántar, “Free to Love: Life Lessons from Our Dead”
5:00 PM (PST)/8:00 PM (EST) Honoring Ceremony
Reservations are being taken for speakers who want to celebrate the life of a dead loved one. Filmed or live presentations are welcomed. Send films and transcripts prior to October 10th to the following email address: Margaret@FtSociety.org
Reserve your 3-5 minute in-person time slot at the following email address: Victoria@FtSociety.org
Congressman Jamie Raskin’s Greeting to Attendees of the 2022 Thomas Paine Festival
The 2022 Friggatriskaidekaphobia Treatment Center’s Online International Educational Seminar
More Photos from the June 2022 Thomas Paine Festival
Fables by Herb Silverman
Racism, Religion, and Irrationality in Buffalo and Beyond by Norm R. Allen, Jr.
Announcing a New Freethought Society Committee!
Several Freethought Board Members React to the Anti-Choice Supreme Court Decision Submissions by, Margaret Downey, Glen Loev, Alan Gold, Victoria De la Torre, and Sally Flynn
Freethought Society Two-Month Calendar
Donation and Information Page
We hope that you will remain or become an active supporter of the great work FS is doing. Please donate to the general fund or select a project you want to help sponsor. All donations to FS are tax-deductible (EIN: 23-2738574).
If the Ezine inspires you to become more actively involved with FS, please provide us with your contact information, including your phone number and mailing address.
Special events are being planned in your area so don’t miss an opportunity to participate further. All personal information is confidential and will not be shared with other organizations.
Click here to see the May/June/July/August 2022 Freethought Society (FS) Ezine.
In the Ezine you will find the following:
The Thomas Paine Birthdate Celebration Brings Great Progress for the Statue Project!
Photos from the 2022 Thomas Paine Birthdate Celebration
House Bill 6720
Tracking House Bill 6720
Talking to Christian Fundamentalists
by Herb Silverman
Secular Student Alliance/Freethought Society Secular Student Scholarship Announcement
Well, Perhaps Chaplains Are for Atheists, Too
by Art Karloff
Truth or Consequences
by Vic Losick
How I Went from Advertising God to Leaving God
by John Follis
Freethought Society Two-Month Zoom Calendar
Donation and Information Page
We hope that you will remain or become an active supporter of the great work FS is doing. Please donate to the general fund or select a project you want to help sponsor. All donations to FS are tax-deductible!
If the Ezine inspires you to become more actively involved with FS, please provide us with your contact information, including your phone number and mailing address.
Special events are being planned in your area so don’t miss an opportunity to participate further. All personal information is confidential and will not be shared with other organizations.
The Freethought Society (FS) is pleased to present the very first Friggatriskaidekaphobia Treatment Center’s International Educational Seminar via Zoom on Friday, May 13, 2022. The event will be hosted by FS President Margaret Downey.
The event will start at 3:45 PM PDT/6:45 PM EDT with the introduction of comedian Ian Harris. His 15-minute standup routine will take a humorous look at superstitions and irrational beliefs that permeate American culture.
At 4:00 PM PDT/7:00 PM EDT social activist Babu Gogineni will tell us about superstitions that prevail in India. Be ready for shocking disclosures and unthinkable practices that are thought to have magical benefits strong enough to change the course of nature.
At 4:30 PM PDT/7:30 PM EDT FS board member Norm Allen will convey the many African superstitions he witnessed and dealt with throughout his 30-year career as the Founder and President of African Americans for Humanism. He will share with us the horror of witch hunts and the belief that using certain body parts of albinistic people can transmit magical powers.
The keynoted speaker is author Stuart Vyse. His presentation will start at 5:00 PM PDT/8:00 PM EDT. Vyse is an American psychologist, teacher, speaker and author who specializes in critical thinking and belief in superstitions. His book Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition won the William James Book Award of the American Psychological Association and was translated into Japanese, German, and Romanian.
For more details see the Meetup page created for this event at the below link: https://bit.ly/Frigga13th
On Saturday, April 30, 2022, the Freethought Society is pleased to host Seth Andrews at 11:45 AM PDT/2:45 PM EDT.
Andrews is a former evangelical and Christian broadcaster who now hosts The Thinking Atheist…one of the most popular online atheist communities in the world. The Thinking Atheist is not a person. It is an icon encouraging all to reject faith and pursue reason and evidence. Since its launch in 2010, The Thinking Atheist podcast has been downloaded over 50 million times.
Andrews has authored five books, including his latest offering, Christianity Made Me Talk Like an Idiot.”
With a mix of humor and heart, Andrews has spoken for audiences large and small in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia about his former faith, the promotion of science and skepticism, the importance of Humanism in this often crazy world, and why we should all pursue a personal relationship with reality.
The title of Andrews’ presentation is “I Sold My Soul on Twitter.” He will take a candid look at how tribalized, and often cruel, we can become — especially in the era of Covid and social media’s isolating algorithms. When is outrage appropriate, and when are we losing our way in a haze of unnecessary shouting, labeling, calling out, and condemning? Join Andrews for a journey toward re-humanizing ourselves and others in this often crazy world.
