FARGO -- Myrna Donald of Winnipeg believes community is important for humans, but she can't find community in religion. She has found it with the Red River Freethinkers.
That's why she came with a group to Fargo this weekend for Project 42, the 2010 Freethought Convention, sponsored by the Red River Freethinkers.
"I find many of their attitudes and opinions informative and in line with my own thoughts," Donald said. "It's good to get points of view from different perspectives."
About 120 people attended the inaugural convention, overfilling a banquet room on the 16th floor of the Radisson. Jon Lindgren, president of the local freethinkers group, joked that as Fargo's former mayor, he knew the fire marshal probably wouldn't bust them on a Saturday.
"There is just not a place for people to go in this part of the United States to conferences with this sort of world-class speakers and fraternize with like-minded people," Lindgren said before the Project 42 convention. Its name comes from the novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. A supercomputer named Deep Thought deduces the answer to the ultimate question is "42," but it's unknown what the ultimate question is.
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The Red River Freethinkers' motto is "guided by reason." Member Lilie Schoenack said the group promotes the protection of science education and separation of church and state.
She said the movement is more about humanism, a philosophy based on rational thought and science that rejects religion, than atheism.
The day's first speaker was an atheist, though. August Berkshire was the first president of what is now the Minnesota Atheists.
"If going from belief in many gods to one god was an improvement, what's the next logical step?" Berkshire concluded his presentation.
Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, presented a long list of 18th through 20th century women suffragists, abolitionists, authors and lecturers who were freethinkers, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an agnostic. Gaylor presented their writings in the book "Women Without Superstition: No Gods -- No Masters," which she wrote in 1997.
"We are in the middle of a freethinking renaissance. There are many people to add," she said.
Gaylor is also the author of "Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So," which details biblical subjugation of women. Gaylor said every freedom women have earned, whether wearing bloomers, riding a bicycle or voting, has been opposed by the church.
Other speakers were blogger PZ Myers, Brian Keith Dalton, also known as "Mr. Deity," and Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation and Gaylor's husband.
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Schoenack said she hoped the convention "will clear up any misconceptions about the humanist movement," and give participants new ways of thinking about issues.
Online:
- www.redriverfreethinkers.org
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