Dallas Brights

Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists at UT Dallas

2010-05-09T16:12:00.001-05:00

I was just in contact with one of the organizers of the Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists at UT Dallas so I have added them our list of local organizations. Their website is down right now but you can follow them by joining their Facebook group.

This replaces the now defunct Atheists and Freethinkers Society at the University of Texas at Dallas which I have removed from our list.

Dallas Optihumanist Fellowship

2010-01-22T14:23:00.002-06:00

When you pay for a Meetup.com account, you get three groups. As my third Meetup.com group, I created the Dallas Optihumanist Fellowship to serve as a reading group to cover books of interest to Brights, Objectivists, Religious Humanists, and Transhumanists. At our first meeting on February 6th Saturday, we are discussing Part I of the book "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon" by my favorite philosopher Daniel Dennett.

Fellowship of Freethought

2010-01-22T14:08:00.000-06:00

Fellowship of Freethought (FoF), a spinoff from the North Texas Church of Freethought (NTCoF), has launched their website: www.FellowshipOfFreethought.org. They also have a Meetup.com group: www.meetup.com/FoFDallas/.

Dallas Transhumanists Meetup

2009-07-31T19:17:00.002-05:00

UT Dallas student Matthew Fuller and I have launched a Meetup.com group for discussing books and videos on topics related to Transhumanism, Extropianism, H+, Cryonics, Life Extension, and the Singularity.

For our first meeting on August 21st, we will discuss the first half of the book Youniverse: Toward a Self-Centered Philosophy of Immortalism and Cryonics by R.C.W. Ettinger.

Please join us: Dallas Transhumanists

Camp Quest Texas

2009-07-14T19:50:00.005-05:00

Forwarded announcement:

The North Texas Church of Freethought is proud to be sponsoring Camp Quest Texas! For those of you that haven't yet heard of it, Camp Quest is a secular summer camp for the children of atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers. Founded 15 years ago in Ohio, Camp Quest provides a much-needed rational alternative to the many camps that seek to promote a faith-based and superstitious agenda.

Camp Quest Texas will kick-off with a Day Camp event to be held Sunday, August 30th at Kevin and Cathy Smith's farm in Princeton, Texas. The Camp will take place from 9AM until 5PM, and children from ages 5 to 13 are welcome to participate. We'll be learning about different animals, making pottery, and having lots of great fun!

Please contact Camp Director Amie Parsons today to reserve a spot for your child in this inaugural Day Camp event! You don't want them to miss out on this chance to become a part of Texas history!

Email: camp@churchoffreethought.org
Phone: (Amie Parsons) 214-503-7384
Deadline: August 15th

Brights Family Meetup

2009-03-28T21:06:00.008-05:00

A new meetup group has been started for Bright families. The group will emphasize get-togethers and outings with children.
http://www.meetup.com/DallasBrights/

The meetup list has also been updated to include a few new ones:

Coalition of Reason

2009-03-28T17:34:00.008-05:00

The Dallas - Fort Worth Coalition of Reason is a new group. They are planning to sponsor billboards in the area that read "Don't Believe in God? You are not alone." I have added them to our list of organizations in the sidebar.

Another new group is the Dallas Atheists Book Club. They are discussing The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins at their April meeting.

The North Texas Atheists mailing list is now moderated again. No more spam.

Local organization list updated.

2007-05-17T19:38:00.000-05:00

I have updated the list of local organization links as a few of the groups have shut down. I have removed the following closed meetups:

Dallas Atheists
Fort Worth Faithless
North Texas Humanists
Rowlett Brights

The Humanist Fellowship of North Texas has also shut down.

North Texas Skeptics

2007-02-06T19:24:00.000-06:00

I added the North Texas Skeptics to the list. They have been around for awhile.

We are up to 19 organizations listed now but some of the newer Meetup groups have already disappeared. I will purge them from the list when I get some time.

Dallas Atheists

2006-11-28T00:26:00.000-06:00

Yet another Meetup Group, this one meeting in the heart of Dallas, the Dallas Atheists.

Rowlett Brights

2006-11-13T17:32:00.000-06:00

Another Meetup Group has popped up on the northeast side of Dallas, the Rowlett Brights. This one looks like it is family friendly.

University Freethought

2006-10-22T18:04:00.000-05:00

Atheists and Freethinkers Society at the University of Texas at Dallas
http://www.afsutd.org/

Freethinkers of the University of Texas at Arlington
http://www.freethinkersofuta.org/

North Texas Freethought Alliance at the University of North Texas
http://unt.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2200610966

Fort Worth Faithless Atheists

2006-10-16T22:29:00.000-05:00

The Fort Worth Faithless Atheists is a new Meetup group that meets for the first time tomorrow.

The North Texas Atheists also launched a Meetup group recently. This is in addition to the pre-existing Upcoming.org, MySpace, and Yahoo Groups sites.

North Texas Atheists

2006-09-12T04:44:00.000-05:00

On August 30th, the North Texas Atheists group was launched on MySpace.com. They also have a Yahoo Groups mailing list.

North Texas Humanists

2006-07-23T02:24:00.000-05:00

Shannon Croft started a new Meetup.com group called the North Texas Humanists.

Changes

2006-06-27T05:21:00.000-05:00

We initially launched the Dallas Brights back in 2004 as a new student organization at U.T. Dallas. We then expanded it into a Meetup.com group open to all in the Dallas area. When Meetup.com changed their system in 2005, we stopped using their service and eventually our monthly meetings stopped as well.

For 2006, I am reviving and refocusing the Dallas Brights to serve as an area wide announcements list. We presently have more than ten related organizations in the Dallas area with a significant overlap in membership. The Dallas Brights announcements list can serve as a mechanism for reaching this community by posting to a single e-mail address.

As examples from within the last couple of years, our local community has hosted speakers from the American Atheists and the Ayn Rand Institute. Likewise, we recently announced a Moment of Silence case regarding church-state separation in a Dallas area public school. We also gathered together to celebrate Darwin Day. These are examples of local activism opportunities and special events of interest to our community which we can announce via the list.

The Dallas Brights might not need to meet as a separate group distinct from the many local organizations listed on our webpage anytime soon. We do, however, provide a general discussion list for socialization, sharing news, and seeking advice. Unlike the announcements list which is moderated for content, the discussion list is a free speech zone with only limited moderation to prevent spam.

While the volume on the discussion list might become excessive for some, the traffic on the announcements list should remain light with just a few notices each month. If you join just one of the lists, it should be the announcements list as notices will normally not be duplicated on the discussion list. If you have not done so already, I invite you to subscribe now.