<%@LANGUAGE="VBSCRIPT" CODEPAGE="1252"%> Meeting
  Joining together
in fun, conversation
and an occasional video.

Member Information


Standard

Date: Every Sunday Time: 2:00 p.m.
Location: Belt Branch Rolling Hills Library
1904 N Belt Highway


Book Collection
We dumped over a thousand books on the library and got reported on by the News-Press's Jenn Hall who, by the way, said she had a great time and hoped to be back another day just to be with such great people. Good job all.

Open Door Food Kitchen
Our February 6th Open Door Food Kitchen group says it was a success and they enjoyed the opportunity to help. We'll do it again soon.

Highway Clean-Up
We have been given a one mile stretch of Interstate 29 to keep clean. It involves picking up trash four times a year. We will be given safety vests and trash bags and they will erect signs indicating that piece of highway is ours.

American Atheists Affiliation
We are now officially affiliated with the American Atheists -- the nice guys who donated the money for our second "Goodness" sign. It costs us nothing and we get listed on their web site, in future magazines, and occasional "goodies". Drop by a meeting and pick up your copy of American Atheist magazine, a brochure and button.

Email address:mail@stjosephskeptics.org
Our Much Maligned Sign

    Hooray -- we made it all the way to New Years. Our sign was still there when we went to collect it and store it for next year. Or course, it was the second sign. The first was stolen.

    It was only four feet by eight feet, said simply, “Be Good For Goodness Sake”, and included the name of our organization and web site address. That one survived for three days until someone decided it was out of place surrounded by Christmassy style displays and ran off with it.

    For nearly 30 years the City of St. Joseph, Missouri, has turned its Krug Park into “Holiday Park” with close to a mile of lighted tunnels, snowmen, Santas and a crèche complete with the requisite shepherds and wise men. After several months delay processing a request, the Parks Department consented to the Skeptics display and we had the sign in place for the park opening the day after Thanksgiving. 

    Two days later the sign, three supporting posts and even the light provided by the parks department had disappeared. About the same time, our organization’s web site was attacked and filled with profanity.

    The internet version of the local newspaper provides a comment section following each local news story, "Letter to the Editor", and “Its Your Call”, a column of anonymous telephoned rants and complaints. Two items, including one giving the date and location of the next Skeptics meeting, brought out the religious zealots. For instance:

    “I want to know how (such) a group…can hold a meeting in a public building such as the Rolling Hills Library. Especially since it is a tax payer funded facility.
    “It also sickens me that this group was given a display in Holiday Park this year. While their message was not a bad one, what they state on their website has a certain connotation about it. I will post the quote. ‘As this was our first attempt at displaying our beliefs (or lack of them) we felt subtlety was called for. All in all, the work seemed worthwhile.’ ”

    More than one comment did say that stealing the sign was a “shame” and it “diminishes everyone.” But one person suggested that we stole the sign ourselves to become martyrs. Others indicated that members of the Skeptics were a “group of gays”, none had jobs, and the members had “self-righteous attitudes”.

One of the Skeptic members posted:

    “The sign said “Be Good For Goodness Sake.” This is not only a line from a Christmas song, “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”, it also expresses a different belief: You don’t need reward or threat of punishment to be good. It can come from intellectual understanding of your place within society.
    “As the theft of the sign illustrates, promise of future reward or punishment does not seem to work, so maybe doing the right things should be simply a personal choice.”

    It wasn’t surprising that drew little comment.

    Undeterred, and aided by a $150 donation from the American Atheists' sign fund, the St. Joseph Skeptic Society erected the second sign, a duplicate of the original. Why the second one went untouched is unknown. But it is most likely that the amount of publicity the Skeptic Society received from the theft of the first one was not what was hoped by those who wanted to make it just “disappear”.