Diner before Darwin / Movie Night

This is the second of three events in the busy month of May for the Missoula Area Secular Society (M.A.S.S.).

Join us for Diner at the Pita Pit on May 15th, before we wander over to The Wilma for the International Wildlife Film Festival's double feature evening presentation of multi-award winning films, the second of which is "Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life" by the BBC and featuring David Attenborough.

We'll start out meeting at the Pita Pit at 6:30pm for diner, then migrate over to the Wilma at about 7:00 for the 7:30 start time. If you can't make it to diner, be sure to catch up with us before we go into the theater.

If you're not sure who to look for, Jon will be wearing his "DARWIN08" Campaign Shirt. We'll also be twittering details of where we're sitting and when we're moving down the street, so have our tweets sent to your phone for up to the second alerts about how to find us.

Also, don't forget to RSVP on the Facebook Event Page (not required!), and join the Facebook Group if you haven't already.

Happy National Day of Reason Everyone!

Many who value the separation of religion and government have sought an appropriate response to the federally-supported National Day of Prayer, an annual abuse of the constitution. Nontheistic Americans (including freethinkers, humanists, atheists, agnostics, and deists), along with many traditionally religious allies, view such government-sanctioned sectarianism as unduly exclusionary.

A consortium of leaders from within the community of reason endorsed the idea of a National Day of Reason. This observance is held in parallel with the National Day of Prayer, on the first Thursday in May each year (May 7th in 2009). The goal of this effort is to celebrate reason—a concept all Americans can support—and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship.

The Day of Reason also exists to inspire the secular community to be visible and active on this day to set the right example for how to effect positive change. Local organizations might use "Day of Reason" to label their events, or they might choose labels such as Day of Action, Day of Service, or Rational Day of Care. The important message is to provide a positive, useful, constitutional alternative to the exclusionary National Day of Prayer.

Continued on the National Day of Reason website

Brunch and Multiple Upcoming Events

We had a great brunch today at Finnegan's, and it looks as if that may be the de facto location for our monthly Sunday M.A.S.S. events for the foreseeable future.

We were extremely happy and honored to have Brother Sam Singleton make a not so surprise visit to join us for brunch today. (I admit it, I knew ahead of time.) Our M.A.S.S. gatherings are always fun, but they're even more so whenever Brother Sam makes the long trip in from Dodge City, or wherever it is that the stagecoach picks him up, to join us. Thanks Brother Sam!

There's lots of events coming up, so let me give you a brief description so you can start making plans.

First, mark your calendar for the evening of Friday, May 15th. The International Wildlife Film Festival will be screening "Darwin and the Tree of Life" along with "Green" at 7:30. Both films won multiple awards for this year's festival so this should be a great evening. We'll probably try to gather somewhere downtown before hand for a quick dinner before walking over to the Wilma at 7:00 to get into the show.

Second, have you heard of Sam Singleton, Atheist Evangelist? (I may have mentioned him before). He'll be doing a special Missoula performance of "Patriarchs and Penises, A Comedy in Two Acts" on Saturday, May 30th at 7pm sharp at the Montana Club on North Reserve (not the one on Brooks). M.A.S.S. will almost certainly be meeting at the Montana Club before the show for dinner, so feel free to join us, or just come to the show. Tickets for the show are $10 in advance from brownpapertickets.com or $12 cash at the door.

But wait. it doesn't end there. Rumors are still floating around about a camping trip and movie nights. Camping trip dates and locations are apparently being discussed by the camping committee, and investigations into the use of an actual mini-theater for movie nights are being conducted by the movie night committee. And of course, we are now meeting for "Sunday M.A.S.S." at Finnegan's on the first Sunday of every month (next one being June 7th).

We'll post further details on all of these events as they become available. Keep in the know by subscribing to the RSS feed for the blog, and/or joining the Facebook group, and/or following us on Twitter. Note that minor updates and alerts that aren't worthy of the blog or Facebook get posted to the Twitter account, including the occasional last minute (literally) changes to event locations. So, to stay in the know, make sure our twitter updates are being sent right to your phone.

Sunday M.A.S.S. for May

At our Zombie Jesus Birthday Brunch a motion was raised, voted on, and unanimously passed. As a result, you can now count on having something worth getting out of bed for on the first Sunday of every month.

Our first official Sunday M.A.S.S. will be held at Finnegan's Restaurant, at 10am, Sunday May 3rd at 700 E. Broadway. That's the place built over the river, next door to McDonald's.

At our last Science Outing, Jon's Buddy Christ Bobblehead was taken up by the rapture (or by whomever found him sitting alone on the table after we left), so you'll have to look for Jon wearing his Zombie Jesus T-shirt. We'll also try to have a sign that says "M.A.S.S." on the table for the new people who don't know who to look for.

We hope to see you there!

The Missoula Area Secular Society is a loose knit group of Missoula, Montana area atheists, secular humanists, agnostics, skeptics, free-thinkers, rationalists, pastafarians, non-theists, teapot agnostics, post-theists, empiricists and other citizens unencumbered by superstition who enjoy socializing with other like minded Missoulians.

Preparation Fail

Let me start of with my profuse apologies to anyone who wasn't able to catch up with us in our last minute brunch revision this morning. It was entirely my fault for assuming that a restaurant known for it's brunch would be open on a holiday known for people wanting... brunch. Totally my bad for not calling and checking first.

Big huge thanks to Dan for quickly hunting down an alternate location on his bicycle and getting us on the long waiting list at The Shack. Despite the sudden change of plans we still had a great time and a great turn out for Zombie Jesus' Birthday.

More rumors circulated regarding a potential upcoming movie night, but nothing set in stone yet. There were also rumors of a possible camping trip being organized. We'll let you know when that's more official.

The big news, however, is that the brunch attendees voted and have officially decided to start meeing on a regular basis that's easier for people to schedule around. So, you can now mark down the first Sunday of every month for your Sunday M.A.S.S. Brunch. The location is still up for discussion. There was a general preference for someplace relatively inexpensive, and Finnegan's was one suggestion. If you have any other suggestions or preferences, leave a comment below.

While standing outside Food For Thought making emergency phone calls and tweats, I was mildly amused at the number of people driving by who would slow down to park, realize Food For Thought was closed, and then speed off shaking their head in disgust and frusteration. There was certainly no shortage of people wanting to spend their money there this morning.

I would find it hard to believe that Food For Thought couldn't find enough employees willing to work on Easter morning, with it being a recession and all. So my only assumption (there I go again) can be that they closed simply because "It's Easter! Doesn't everyone close on Easter?". No, actually, they don't. The Shack was open and doing an awesome business. In fact, they had a 30-45 minute waiting list. I suspect the same was true for just about any other restaurant open this morning. So, Thanks Food For Thought! Thanks for doing your part to stimulate the economy. Thanks for giving your employees a chance to earn a little extra cash to pay their rent. Thanks for, well, nothing.

But a genuine thanks to those M.A.S.S.ers who came out to help celebrate. It was a great time, as usual.

M.A.S.S. Science Outing

Renowned Paleontologist Paul Sereno will be giving a lecture on Tuesday Evening about dinosaurs, giant crocodiles and ancient humans that inhabited the Sahara Desert.

From his bio on his website...

Discoverer of dinosaurs on five continents and leader of dozens of expeditions, Sereno's field work began in 1988 in the foothills of the Andes in Argentina, where his team discovered the first dinosaurs to roam the Earth - the predators Herrerasaurus and the primitive Eoraptor, the "dawn stealer." These expeditions revealed the most complete picture yet of the dawn of the dinosaur era, some 225 million years ago.

In the early 1990's Sereno's research shifted to the Sahara, and the search for Africa's lost world of dinosaurs. Expeditions to Niger and Morocco resulted in Sereno's team discovering and naming: Afrovenator, a new 27-foot-long meat-eater; skeletons of a 70-foot-long plant-eater he named Jobaria; a bizarre fish-eating dinosaur named Suchomimus, with huge claws and a sail on its back; and the 45-foot-long plant-eater Nigersaurus. Sereno and his team also discovered the most fleet-footed meat-eater, 30-foot-long Deltadromeus, and the skull of a huge, T. rex-sized meat-eater Carcharodontosaurus. Besides new and unusual dinosaurs, Sereno's team stumbled on the world's largest crocodile, the 40-foot-long Sarcosuchus, dubbed SuperCroc.

The lecture starts at 7:30 at the University of Montana North Underground Lecture Hall and is free and open to the public.

If you'd like to attend with other M.A.S.S.ers ... en masse, we'll be meeting at 6:00pm at Food for Thought for a quick dinner, and then heading over to the lecture hall at 7:00. If you don't want to do dinner but want to join us for the lecture, show up right before 7:00. Don't be late.

If you're not sure who to look for, Jon will dust off his "DARWIN 08" campaign t-shirt, and we'll have our Buddy Christ Bobblehead prominently visible on the table as well.

Happy Birthday Zombie Jesus!

The Missoula Area Secular Society cordially invites you to help us celebrate the birth of one of our favorite biblical characters, Zombie Jesus. Drop your basket of eggs, save your chocolate bunny ears for later and join the M.A.S.S. at Food for Thought (across Arthur from the UM Campus) for Sunday brunch.

When: Sunday, April 12th (AKA Easter) @ 10am
Where: Food For Thought, 540 Daly Ave. (Corner of Arthur and Daly by the UM Campus)
Why: Braaaaiiiins

If you're not sure who to look for, Jon will be wearing his "Peekaboo! Zombie Jesus Sees You" T-Shirt. If you have one, this will be a great chance to wear it. We'll also have a Buddy Christ Bobblehead prominently displayed on the table. If you have one, bring it along too. And of course, once we know exactly where we're sitting, we'll tweet the pertinent details, so make sure your twitter account is sending our updates to your phone.

We look forward to seeing you. And until then, here's a little something to tide you over.