8/14/12

Feminine Faces of Freethought

If you'll be in the Dallas area, please consider attending Feminine Faces of Freethought, a conference being held on September 15, under the auspices of the Dallas Fellowship of Freethought.  More info here.  The program (as it stands so far) reads--


Women of Reason--Dallas presents Feminine Faces of Freethought, a conference featuring women speaking about topics that affect the freethought community as a whole.

Join us for a day of talks by

Panels include  
  • Secular Parenting,  
  • Diversity in the Freethought Movement,  
  • and What Atheist Women Really Want.


My talk is going to be on a very Big topic.  In fact, on the meaning of life.  I'll be talking about "preservationist" atheists, who think we can dump God, and retain lots of other nice elements of our world view, like the self, free will, objective morality ... and life's meaningfulness; and "revolutionary" atheists, who think our reasons for dumping God have lots of other ramifications, and force us to give up on all or most of those goodies. Alex Rosenberg, in his new book The Atheist's Guide to Reality, proves to be the ultimate revolutionary atheist. To see just how revolutionary he is, you have to dig into his argument for life's meaninglessness. He thinks life has no meaning because people have no desires or purposes -- indeed, they don't even have contentful thoughts.  Talk about radical! I shall be explaining why he's wrong and casting my lot with the preservationists.

The talk connects with my review of Rosenberg's book in the current issue of Free Inquiry; and also with my book The Weight of Things: Philosophy and the Good Life; and also with a course I've been teaching at SMU for the last 10 years; and with work I've done in the philosophy of mind. My topic has nothing directly to do with women and secularism, but never fear--I do have a more or less feminine face, so I will fit into the program. (Joke.) Furthermore, I'll be showcasing the ideas of some female philosophers and highlighting some issues in women's lives. I share the goals of the conference organizers -- advancing the role of women in the secular movement.

8 comments:

Aeolus said...

Simone de Beauvoir?

joan g said...

Constructive real-world activities are for chumps. Personally I think the cause of feminism would be better advanced if you stayed home and blogged about how rude kids on the Internet are oppressing women everywhere. That these kids giggle at the outrage they elicit only proves how hellbent they are on oppressing us. Let's focus on the real problem. You might even win an appearance on Al-Jezeera.

Jean Kazez said...

My IQ's too low to understand that last comment. Seems like it involved roughly 18 levels of irony. Compeltely inomprehensible.

Gregg said...

Sounds like a fascinating talk and very relevant to our times. I hope to be able to make it. I have another commitment in the morning, and so I unfortunately will be late if I am able to go at all.

Dave Ricks said...

I gave the conference a mention in this WEIT thread because I support the secular movement firing on all cylinders.  Check out my segue from SWA to DAL to FFF.  Must use power of segue for good, never evil.

Dave Ricks said...

I booked a cool hotel -- I'll be there.

Jean Kazez said...

Great, I look forward to meeting you. Sounds much better than your standard issue Marriott!

Dave Ricks said...

Dallas was fun! I didn't visit the Sixth Floor Museum or watch the Zapruder film, but my hotel was the old Haggar factory and I heard LBJ order slacks.