Calling All Freethinkers in UP Diliman

The First Filipino Freethinkers Film Fest at Cine Adarna in UP Diliman (Photo by Beatriz Torre, FFUPD Member)

If you’re a University of the Philippines Diliman student looking for fellowship with other atheists, agnostics, deists, skeptics, and freethinkers in general, you are not alone!

The first Filipino Freethinkers campus chapter is setting up in UPD and we are looking for members.

Prospective founding members need to provide the following:

Send these to [email protected] by 11:59 PM on Friday, June 11, 2010.

We need to give these to the UP Diliman Office of Student Affairs so we can get officially registered as a university organization, which makes conducting activities much easier.

If you are unable to provide a scanned UP ID via email, you may leave a hard copy at the security guard’s desk of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Albert Hall) near the College of Fine Arts.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask us at [email protected]. 🙂

You can keep updated with our activities and future meetups at our Facebook group where you can also find out more about the organization.

You can help our org get going by sharing t-shirt design ideas related to freethinking, fundraising activity ideas, ACLE ideas, ideas for guest speakers to invite, ideas for movies to screen at the 2nd Annual Filipino Freethinkers Film Festival, ideas for meet-up (General Assembly) discussion topics, and more ideas!

Help make UP Diliman a nicer place for freethinkers! 🙂

30 comments

  1. I think it is a very good idea to have some official FF campus chapter. Usually all kind of religious and political groups have their chapters set up, and it is time to be visible as a critical voice (candle in the dark) against all the noisy lobby groups for all kind of superstition and dogma. Especially the religious cults are well established and powerful and encroaching and sometimes dominating all aspects of life in the RP. So establishing a group as a (still tiny) counterweight to promote secularism, humanism, reason and science is a start.
    And well at least one Trolls was showing up here on the comments section and seems to be so scared to reply by throwing around “you give ‘us’ (?!?) a bad name – shut up and back to your closet ”, “you are so weak and insecure that you need a group” of some old fashioned closet atheists and then the most uninformed drivel about atheism: “atheism is just another belief system” you are also preaching” boring old chestnuts plus a bunch of ad hominine attacks, which I usually see from uninformed or malicious theist, so I am not sure who is posing here.
    And there is a difference between atheism and freethinking, a definition of the FF ideas can be found in the ‘about’ menu on the main-page. Just some topics of the about FF section e.g. vision and mission:
    [ practice and promote reason, science, secularism, and, of course, freethinking.
    Freethinking is a process of thinking free from dogma, authority, and tradition.
    Freethinkers can live in a Philippines free from all forms of violence, discrimination, and prejudice, their rights and freedoms fully protected, their concerns and opinions adequately represented. ]
    Sorry don’t find the ‘preach together and spread belief in atheism’ topic there..

  2. ugh, 20+ comments on this thread, and none of it even related to the original post.

    let's take the conversation somewhere else, shall we? out of respect for the original poster

    sorry for the thread hijack Garrick 🙁

  3. Or super-duper-uber-ultra-mega-atheist because clearly you are more atheist than any of us because you don't need an "atheist club" or an atheist "support group." If we do not believe in a god, you probably do not believe in a million gods – or a trillion, billion, bazillion gods. 🙂

  4. "then shut up. the grownups are talking."

    oh my i missed this one. no longer cockroaches! you really love us. don't worry i won't claim i am one of them, i need your affirmation to know who I am. that much is clear.

  5. "You won’t need others to affirm your belief. You won’t mind talks of religion, and you can even smile when someone is preaching (instead of taking it as a personal attack)- since none of those things would affect you."

    Not my desire to argue. I'm your friend. I'm sold, I'm smiling. 🙂 You're giving me attention from shit to ants to cockroaches. I got fucking promoted man! All thanks to your loving attention. I'm doing what you preached, said, written…what do you call what you did?

    Now if only all my critics in the office, powerful persons all, who also consider me shit, dunno about the ant though, a cockroach most likely; if they keep giving attention like you did maybe i'll get promoted also. Suffice to say they're ignoring me. Threw me in the provinces even. Perhaps they dunno how to really treat shit like you do.

    keep it up dude perhaps one you me can build something together eh…

      • naks, bro-mance blooms in the unlikeliest of places 😛
        i love you pare! pa-kiss naman dyan

        [politically-correct disclaimer: no anti-gay or homophobic sentiments intended]

    • Hi Dean. Correct me if I am mistaken, but it seems to me that you have appointed yourself the arbiter of the Atheist Lifestyle.

      First, the Forum is not all about posing, it is all about fighting for causes, causes like science education, reproductive health, equal rights and the like. Members of FF are not sissies who need a support group to gain self-confirmation — we have enough confidence in ourselves to stand for our beliefs Alone. Rather, we are organizing ourselves not for cover but so that we can mobilize for causes we care for and against causes the enrage us. Second, most if not all people need a sense of community and belongingness. The fact that you don't have that need does not put you in a superior position over those who have, and it surely does not give you the right to say what other atheists should do with their lives and what they should not.

  6. Dustin… yes.

    Igme. of course i care- but you get it wrong. i care not whether you guys are atheists or posers. it seems very clear to me.

    read the first reply. i care because i like squishing ants.

    so yes. i do care.

    • "i care not whether you guys are atheists or posers."

      oh you do because you reminded us what true faith and belief in oneself is like. and you keep coming back and reading the page to check if we get the error of our ways.

      thanks for your support.

      • ho hum. again… please battle my ideas and points- not my presence.

        your posts do nothing to advance the discussion.

        i'm not trawling- but i think i hooked someone.

        stick to ideas and points kid (old kid)- your putting your group to shame.

        • I would like to see how his "putting his group into shame" looks like. How many does he have? Where does he buy his supply? How much does one cost?

          That us, unless you meant YOU'RE…

          • [oh another bite]

            i meant igme is putting his group (freethinkers) to shame because he has no arguments. he targets presence instead of points and ideas.

            like you.

            you didn't even understand the post. how sad.

            you're putting your group to shame as well because you couldn't understand a simple message.

            sadly, your wit (humor) is lost- because of your dimwittedness.

            if you have no points- and you can't refute mine… then shut up. the grownups are talking.

        • Hey Dean,
          did you get my email? I used your dnd email to set an appointment of coffee but you didn't reply. Hope you're not using a dummy account, if you are just message me nalang instead.

          Still up for a face to face meet up and coffee, 🙂 it would be nice to humanize the conversation.

          regards
          Justin

  7. This is so hilarious. A congregation of Atheists and Agnostics?

    Hell – you guys even preach! You preach "there is no god" or "i don't care if there's a god" – but you preach nonetheless.

    Since when did non-believers (non-traditional believers) need support groups? You can't find your niche in normal society because of your "beliefs"?

    Oh please. Spare me and my dvorak keyboard. (inside joke, brief pause- and…)

    You guys give real agnostics and atheists a bad rap.

    Not that they'd care though. Unless that particular person likes being cruel and putting (pathetic maybe? sad? insecure?)people in their place.

    Posers in need of a support group. Name change please.

    If your faith (or lack of faith) is really a part of your being- you won't need a support group. You won't need others to affirm your belief. You won't mind talks of religion, and you can even smile when someone is preaching (instead of taking it as a personal attack)- since none of those things would affect you.

    But if you have doubts… then you do need a support group. You do need people to reinforce your beliefs.

    If your belief (whatever- my meaning is clear)is strong- there is no need to preach. There is no need to be afraid. Say it with me: "There is no God! and even if there is… it wouldn't change a single thing about me- because I don't give a shit!

    People who have doubts give a shit.

    People who need support groups give a shit. They,re really not agnostics or atheists- they,re just in denial. They don't really believe that there is no god- they're hellishly afraid that there is one. Why you ask? Because they give a shit.

    So are you really one of us? Or are you merely an insecure poser?

    You know what? I don't give a shit.

    • dude, you have to be in the trenches to realize just how much religion has affected the lives of some of the people I've met here, whether they want it to or not. in most cases, they weren't given a choice to even ignore it.

      some were bullied by their own families and friends to stop questioning superstitious beliefs, some were threatened to convert or be disowned, a lot experienced harassment in the workplace about their lack of faith and not joining in religious meetings, some are affected by religion-inspired laws that infringe on their secular rights to responsible family planning, their stories are legion and they need people who understand what they're going through.

      I don't understand what you have against organizations and support groups. Its an open group, no pressure to join, people come and go all the time. Would you likewise make fun of special interest-groups for blacks? for gay people? for the disabled? we're all in the same boat here, being a minority group which is often misunderstood, abused, demonized, laughed at, or pitied just because we're different. We don't want pity, we need understanding, and we get that from sharing our stories with other people who would understand our pain, our frustrations, and unique daily challenges caused by non-faith.

      There's nothing worse than someone pretending to be on your side but is actually tearing you down from the inside like a cancer. That's what "insecure posers" do.

      • I left my house before college because of religious views wes. I even have an oblates priest for an uncle.

        so was i affected by religion? sadly… the answer is no.

        if your family can't accept who you are- then leave. fend for yourself. maybe fight until they know that atheism is in your grain and make them accept it.

        otherwise you have no right to complain. If you can't make the effort to fend for yourself- i'm not saying you shouldn't be an atheist. i'm saying you shouldn't be alive.

        harassment in the workplace? religion-inspired laws(abortion? otherwise there are none i could think of)? that's just drama. harassment in the workplace… they work in church?

        * Would you likewise make fun of special interest-groups for blacks? for gay people? for the disabled? we’re all in the same boat here, being a minority group which is often misunderstood, abused, demonized, laughed at, or pitied just because we’re different. We don’t want pity, we need understanding, and we get that from sharing our stories with other people who would understand our pain, our frustrations, and unique daily challenges caused by non-faith.

        – the answer would be YES. given your groups actions.

        there's nothing wrong with flocking (it's sad but not wrong. weak people do need crutches- sometimes they forget how to walk altogether). but when atheists preach- it's a different thing.

        do black people want the world to be all black? or do gays make an effort so that everyone turns gay? do disabled people want to disable others?

        there's nothing wrong with having a support group. the thing is… you guys preach. that's different. you want to convert people and make new atheists. That is so funny.

        I don't care about religion because it is insignificant. It doesn't bother me.

        Apparently, religion bothers your group. It shouldn't.

        How can you be atheists and care about religion?

        • Blacks, gays, and atheists have one thing in common – all have been systematically demonized and oppressed by religious institutions at one point of time or another.

        • Dean, I'm quoting you here and finding the line of reasoning quite frankly illogical:


          "I left my house before college because of religious views" followed by "so was i affected by religion? sadly… the answer is no."

          So… you left home because of religious friction but you "aren't affected". Pray tell, what would then be your criteria for "being affected" ?

          Which leads me to conclude either:

          1. you are flagrantly lying
          2. rationality has completely left you
          3. absolutely nothing short of actual death "affects" you

          But your doubtful claims aside, we have met real flesh-and-blood people through the org who *are* affected by religion and aren't ashamed to admit it, unlike you. There clearly is a need for mutual support especially for those coming out of the closet for the first time. It doesn't have to come to the point where you have to choose between family and belief like you claim to have gone through if you manage it properly.

          And there is nothing wrong about "flocking", as you termed it. It's natural to want to seek people with common bonds. Take the case of lonely homesick OFW workers. Do you think its pathetic of them to want to seek fellow pinoys abroad when they could just try to "blend in" the white folk? In much the same way, we just want a few moments away from all our "praise be to god!" friends, turn off our bullshit detectors, and have good conversation with more skeptical minds. Special-interest groups are just that – they have specific needs, objectives, and interests that would be best served by bonding with people of similar inclinations.

          • Somebody who is not bothered by religion is affected by "preaching" atheists that he had to exert an effort two write while not being bothered? Somebody here is just lying… tsk tsk…

    • You're a perfect, non-poser atheist. Wow you're my idol, you should be a god! You know how to live the life of a TRUE ATHEIST.

      You are THE BEST ATHEIST EVAR.

      Oh except atheists only agree on one thing, that deities does not exist. If some atheists want to form a preaching or non-preaching atheist organization they are free to do so. Don't you ever "So are you really one of us? Or are you merely an insecure poser?" them because there is no US. They want to form a THEM where YOU are not included if YOU DON'T WANT TO.

      Understand that, k?

      Poser.

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