From the Facebook event page:

Is there really any better way to say “let’s be friends” than to throw things at a person? We think not. So join us, Thursday evening. If the weather is awful, we’ll socialize in Old Main 201 with games and a movie. If the weather is great, we look forward to meeting you on the battlefield. For those not inclined to getting wet in either case, Old Main 201 will be available with games and/or a movie.

Please come prepared to get wet or at least with a good avoidance plan. See you there!

The SHAFT site has been a success that far exceeded anyone’s expectations. It has strengthened our group’s sense of community and served as an important forum for critical religious dialogue. And the site largely owes its success to you, the readers. You voted it “Best New Blog” in the 2009 William Law X-Mormon Awards, and your continued readership and participation have made this among the most popular sites of its kind.

Here are some of the site’s stats over one year of activity:

• 66,938 visits
• 124,045 pageviews
• Average time on site: 2:58 minutes
• 255 posts
• 2,812 comments
• Top content: Worst superhero partner ever, If Eve had a sassy gay friend, A tragedy close to home
• Viewed in 141 countries/territories (56% of the visits came from the US, and half of those from Utah)

Again, thanks for all your support!

If you’re a USU student and interested in writing for the site, please let us know.

Many of my fondest memories will be of SHAFT. I have been involved with the group as an officer since its inception in Spring 2008. SHAFT has introduced me to some amazing people and, more generally, has given the secular community a much needed presence on campus. I think we all have reason to be proud of what SHAFT has accomplished.

There has been some discussion recently over what the future of SHAFT should be, however. SHAFT’s mission, as I understand it, is two-fold: (1) provide a fun and safe community for non-theistic students, and (2) promote skepticism (of ourselves and others), scientific literacy, and secular humanist values. There is a slight tension between these objectives. Were SHAFT only a social and support group for atheists, then we run the risk of groupthink. But when we neglect this social/support aspect of SHAFT, we could alienate those who most need SHAFT—people who have been ostracized from family and friends because of their religious doubts or disbelief.

I am convinced that both purposes of SHAFT are vital, so there must be a balancing act. The criticism (and it may well be a legitimate one) that has been leveled at me lately is that I have not struck the appropriate balance. So for the benefit of next year’s officers, let’s discuss what the future of SHAFT should be. Answering the following questions will help inform our discussion:

What has been your favorite SHAFT event? Why?

What has been your least favorite event? Why?

Do you have event ideas for next year? Please share.

Should SHAFT be more accommodating of religious people and their concerns, or less?

To what extent should SHAFT practice self-criticism and challenge atheism?

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your interest in this club. I am going to miss SHAFT, but I am also excited to see how it will evolve. I trust next year’s officers to do a phenomenal job, and they should have your confidence too.

SHAFT’s 2010-2011 officers:

Administrative – Mike Otteson

Activities – Chris Gardner

Public Relations – Mike Linford

Advertising – Caitlin Laughlin

All proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders. So please stop by, enjoy a treat, and contribute to a good cause!

And if you would like to make some stuff for the table (cookies, brownies, etc.), it would be greatly appreciated. Just remember that all goods must be individually wrapped.

And while many who frequent this blog are members of USU SHAFT and are friends, other visitors have never been to a club meeting and may not even attend Utah State. This is yet another reason why introductions are in order.

I’ll go first. You can find the basics (name, majors, etc.) in my blogger bio. Here, I just want to share those things that you wouldn’t know about me from this blog.

For starters, I’m a bit of a teutophile—that is, I have a love for German culture. My dad and that side of my family is German, so it’s my heritage. I own a $400 dollar pair of lederhosen, some German WWII memorabilia, and an ungodly amount of German punk-rock. In fact, I have an entire YouTube channel dedicated to translating and subtitling German music videos.

I cried (several times, actually) during the movie Hairspray.

I started shaving in 6th grade.

Believe it or not, I used to be an avid Bill O’Reilly fan back in middle school. I bought his books, watched his show, and applauded his shouting down liberal guests. To this day, I rather like O’Reilly. He’s one of the most reasonable voices at Fox News, but—to borrow a line from Jon Stewart—that’s like being the skinniest kid at a fat camp.

My orange-peeling skills are totally unrivaled.

I have two boxer dogs that I spoil and love to death.

Final factoid: I am romantically-challenged. I have never been in a relationship, and only recently received my first kiss at the age of 20. 

Your turn. What would you like the readers of this blog to know about you?

The latter award (“Best New Blog”) was extremely hard-fought. We were often neck-and-neck with The Whore of All the Earth, a great blog that I recommend you visit. But we pulled ahead in the polls on the last day, winning 750 – 601. So thanks to all those who voted!

And be sure to check out the other winners. There was a lot of well-deserved recognition.

None of you have posted yet.

Well, get cracking. Readers, expect to see some posts from Jacob, Erik, Neal, and Mike in the hopefully near future.

Your vote will do more than stroke my ego. It will bring more traffic to our blog and attention to our group. So please…Vote! Vote! Vote!

If you need yet more convincing, here is P. Diddy on the importance of voting:

USU SHAFT is in the running for “Best Humor Piece” (my post entitled “Watching LDS General Conference so you don’t have to”) and “Best New Blog.” If you follow this blog, please show your support by voting for us here. It’s a great way to bring more traffic to our humble blog.

So vote! Vote! Vote! Thanks.

♦ UofU’s SHIFT is bringing Austin Dacey, a former UN representative for the Center for Inquiry,  to their campus to give a talk! So we thought we’d organize a carpool to go down there and support our fellows while enjoying a good speaker. The event starts promptly at 4pm on February 27, a Saturday. If you can provide rides or just want to tag along (and split gas  ) please comment here or on Facebook with your status as a driver/rider.

♦ Would you like to be a guest blogger for USU SHAFT? Just contact us through Facebook or at info@usu-shaft.com it may take us a while to get back to you, but we’ll get there.

♦ Would you like to be our new webmaster? Please contact us through Facebook or at  info@usu-shaft.com. You must be a member of the club at USU (enrolled student, staff, etc).

♦ There will be a bake sale at the first week of April, so start thinking of delicious recipes. The proceeds will either go toward funding club activities or a charity; we haven’t decided yet.

Thanks for your time!

I’ve ordered a copy of the documentary. If it gets here in time, we may watch it for next week’s social. I think it would make for a great joint event, as well—we could invite FOCUS, the Religious Studies Club, and the Philosophy Club. Yet another reason why this would make a great event is that I’m working on getting Hitchens to speak at USU next semester. This film may gin up some interest in and support for that effort.

Below is the trailer. Let me know what you think.

We hope to see all of you tonight at SHAFT’s Opening Social!

The USU part of the acronym is Utah State University, of course. The school’s most famous building, Old Main, is at the right. (Shoutout to the CS department on the 4th floor!) Established in 1888 as a land-grant institution in Logan, Utah, USU is a strong engineering school with long-standing ties to NASA, the Department of Defense, and aerospace companies such as Boeing and Lockheed-Martin. Interesting fact: USU has developed the highest number of cooperative space experiments with NASA compared to any other university, and has been nicknamed “Space University” by NASA. Pretty cool.

SHAFT stands for “Secular Humanists, Atheists, and Free Thinkers.” I’m giong to break down what each of these means.

Secular Humanism (also called Scientific Humanism) is a philosophy that upholds reason, evidence, and a rejection of supernatural explanations as a basis for moral thought and decision-making. Tenets of the philosophy include:

• Reason, evidence, and the scientific method are better methods than faith, mysticism or authority for gaining an understanding of ourselves and the world, and for creating human solutions to human problems.
• A constant search for objective truth, with the understanding that all knowledge is subject to revision and improvement as more evidence is gathered.
• Political, social, and religious beliefs ought to be tested by each individual and not simply accepted because of faith or tradition.
• A commitment to bettering this life through better understanding of ourselves, our history, and our human achievements.
• Building a better world for ourselves and our decendents through an open exchange of ideas, goodwill, tolerance and hard work. We understand that no one is looking out for us except us.

Atheism, in the broadest since, is simply the absence of belief in deities. It’s not really a position or developed philosophy on its own. The word originates from Greek “atheos” meaning no gods, and interestingly enough was originally applied to anyone who didn’t believe in the classic Olympians of ancient Greece. This included believers of other so-called false gods, or anyone with beliefs that went counter to doctrine. The term has narrowed somewhat to mean someone who has no belief in any god(s).

In practice, many atheists also reject any supernatural explanations or magical thinking, and do not believe in ghosts, leprechauns, psychic phenomena, souls, “magical auras,” or Tom Cruise. While the definition of “atheist” doesn’t strictly preclude any of these ideas, many of the same thought processes that lead to atheism leads to rejecting these others as well. I personally would prefer to simply say “I don’t know” rather than have an evidence-free explanation that doesn’t mean anything.

Finally, the “Free Thinkers” portion refers more or less to just a general open-mindedness. SHAFT has many members who are in fact religious, but value the free exchange of ideas and discussion that SHAFT attempts to produce. While this term is often used to refer to atheists alone, I prefer it to mean essentially “anyone who actually gets what freedom of speech is really for.” If you are religious and not offended or threatened by the mere existence of people who disagree with you, go ahead and claim yourself as a free thinker. And then come to SHAFT meetings.

Please feel free to ask any questions or say whatever else in the comments.

I thought I’d put up a quick introduction of the SHAFT officers, the people who will be posting on this blog. First off, there’s myself, James Patton. I’m studying computer science and am the group’s finance officer. Which will be an important job once we have some finances.

You’ve already met Jon Adams, a crazily prolific writer and student doubling in sociology and political science. Keep an eye on his “Why I Don’t Believe” series currently in progress, especially if you have any experience with Mormonism. Or–more particularly–if you haven’t. He’s our administrative officer.

Also posting here is the lovely and talented Kimi Anderson, studying english. Watch for her planned blog series “Haunted Utah,” a look at and debunking of supposedly haunted places in Utah (spooky). She also happens to be the group’s public relations officer and my smart and gorgeous girlfriend.

Rounding out the club’s five officers are Caitlin Laughlin and Jake Nelson, who have yet to show, slackers. Caitlin is advertising officer, and studying like, Birdomancy or something. Jake is our activities officer, and I’m pretty sure he’s a student in civic engineering. Show up and say hi, you guys!

I’m looking forward to some good discussions here, and a great godless (I wish ) school year.

I’m a blogoholic, but my writing has largely been restricted to Facebook. I’ve been encouraged to transfer some of my notes to a blog in order that they receive a wider audience. So over the next couple days, expect a torrent of posts from me—I’ll be posting those Facebook notes that I think will be relevant and welcome here. If all goes according to plan, my posts will spark discussions and bring some traffic to our humble site.

You will undoubtedly tire of my writing. But no worries—in due time, there will be other contributors. This is NOT my personal blog and it won’t function as such. I just want to get the proverbial ball rollin’.

I hope you’ll continue to grace this site with your readership. SHAFT will regularly update this site with event information and freethought writings, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, there is a Humanists of Utah BBQ happening TONIGHT at 6 pm in Salt Lake City. This BBQ will be co-hosted by SHIFT, our sister group at the University of Utah. If you’re around or interested, please try to attend. It’s important to support and socialize with fellow secular humanists across Utah. And why pass up free food and fun, anyway? See the complete event details on Facebook.