Update: Ayanna's talk can be seen in its entirety on our YouTube channel.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 5, 2012, St. Cloud, MN – Central Minnesota Freethinkers is sponsoring a presentation by Ayanna Watson, the founder of Black Atheists of America, Inc. (BAAm), at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Hall, 3226 Maine Prairie Rd., St. Cloud, on Monday, April 16th at 7:00 pm.

Black Atheists of America is a non-profit organization dedicated to bridging the gap between atheism and the black community. Because religion is so deeply ingrained in the black community, black atheists often find themselves as a dual minority in the overall atheist world. BAAm hopes that its efforts will build a stronger overall atheist community by encouraging black atheists to be open about their stance on religion. You can find BAAm on the web at BlackAtheistsOfAmerica.org.

Her topic will be "Famous Black Freethinkers" with a special emphasis on the Harlem renaissance of the 1920's and 30's. Believe it or not, Neil deGrasse Tyson is not the only black person with doubts about religion. The program is free and open to everyone who wishes to attend.

Central Minnesota Freethinkers (cmfreethinkers.org) is a St. Cloud area organization of humanists, rationalists, free-thinkers, atheists and agnostics who meet regularly to foster a community of reason in Central Minnesota.

This is the opinion of Patrick Henry, who has lived in Central Minnesota since 1984 and is the retired executive director of the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical & Cultural Research.

Age-old philosophical questions — about rights and responsibilities, individual desires and the common good, church and state, conscience and democracy — are the stuff of daily debate these days.

Terms often bandied about as though their meaning is self-evident are actually loaded with assumptions and should be challenged, particularly as they have been employed in arguments about the marriage amendment and insurance coverage for contraceptives. I want to examine "people of faith," "Judeo-Christian ethics," "religious freedom" and "secularism."

'People of faith'

I am not aware that anyone has done what a March 11 Your Turn complains about: "questioned the right of people of faith to have a voice in matters of public interest." But I do question the usefulness of "people of faith" when set against an implied "people of not-faith," as though the "people of faith" are of one worthy mind and the "people of not-faith" are less serious or less admirable in motives.

Read more: Let's examine loaded terms

Tom Stavros, past president and CMF member-at-large, wrote to the St. Cloud Times recently regarding a piece that portrayed atheists negatively:

I found the (Page 3A, Jan. 8) story on religion and atheism interesting in that so few people who are “spiritually apathetic” won’t define themselves as atheists. While that is their choice, when one looks at the root of the word, all atheism means is “without” and theism means “belief in a god or gods.” It does not require that one believes there is no god (although some atheists do).One aspect of religion not mentioned in your story is identifying those I call “Pascal Christians.” (Google “Pascal’s Wager.”) If you could get a count of people who go through the motions just to be on the safe side, but don’t really believe, the atheist totals would be much larger.

People avoid the atheist label because of the negative connotation of the word. That baggage stems from religion drumming into people from the time they are toddlers until death that unless one believes in their god, that person can have no morals and is destined for hell. And the media reinforces it continually (i.e. the canard that there are no atheists in foxholes even though there are many who have come forward to make a lie of the statement) while whitewashing religious leaders.

Read more: Letter: Negative, untrue views of atheists persist