NFA Freethought conference 2009 a success!

Almost 120 people from the Northwest converged on Portland this past weekend for the Northwest Freethought Alliance’s 6th annual freethought conference, “Darwin@200, and other matters.”

There were some fabulous talks by Jim Corbett, Roy Speckhardt, David Domke and others. We Twittered much of the conference here (of course, you have to start at the bottom and read up). #freethought, for those of you who do that.

While we were there, of course, the article in the Seattle Times ran, and there was a DoS attack on the Seattle Atheists servers, so it was fun-filled and exciting, and most of all, great to see that atheists and humanists were coming out of the woodwork. It’s a wise, compassionate, and energetic group of people, and I’m honored to have been a part of it. Jerry, Sylvia (of the Humanists of Greater Portland), and I did a panel on using Meetup to build membership, which I think people enjoyed. I particularly enjoyed Jim Corbett’s talk on debating Darwin deniers, and the CFI presentation.

The food was great, the speakers were great, the coffee was great, and it was fun doing the set-up and introductions, and running around helping. I also learned, interestingly, that some Catholics have likened Humanists to cannibals. Hey, we don’t go for that transubstantiation thing, man. I don’t know what you’re talking about.

A big, huge thank you to the HGP and all the other groups for making this event possible. Look for a bigger, better conference next year in Seattle!