Joe Terranova

Hey people, long time no see.

Okay, first up is Software Freedom Day at PACS. The NJ LoCo Team helped out the PA Team with this event, and Dave Harding gave the main presentation. Pictures:

The rest are here.

Next up, the NJ LoCo Team was at the Columbus Farmer’s Market on Saturday. Farmer’s Market, you say? Well, we certainly talked to quite a few people who had never heard of Ubuntu (or linux) before, and we gave out at least 30 OpenCDs and 50 Ubuntu CDs (we never seem to count these things).

Pictures:

More are here.

Kurt is up in heaven now.

What can be made of atheists, then? If the evolutionary view of religion is true, they have to work hard at being atheists, to resist slipping into intrinsic habits of mind that make it easier to believe than not to believe. Atran says he faces an emotional and intellectual struggle to live without God in a nonatheist world, and he suspects that is where his little superstitions come from, his passing thought about crossing his fingers during turbulence or knocking on wood just in case. It is like an atavistic theism erupting when his guard is down. The comforts and consolations of belief are alluring even to him, he says, and probably will become more so as he gets closer to the end of his life. He fights it because he is a scientist and holds the values of rationalism higher than the values of spiritualism.

Evolution and Religion – Darwin’s God