Over the course of about two hours, Sweeney recounts her personal journey from believing in traditional Catholicism, to a more liberal, “mythish” interpretation of Christianity, to exploring Buddhism and New Age thought, to seeing nature as God, love as God, and then not seeing a god at all. Many of us connected with her progression, and though it’s a little long to listen to one person talking, she keeps the mood light with the sense of humor she was known for on Saturday Night Live.

Prof. Bishop described it as “a down home, folksy way of explaining to people” how one can come not to believe in god. Sweeney is much more approachable than atheist poster-boys Dawkins and Hitchens. She has no agenda to convert or attack — she’s simply telling her story.

If you missed the event, it’s definitely worth checking out. Here’s a 15-minute preview on TED, and check out some memorable quotes below the jump.

• “Jesus’ story made me want to go out and campaign for free speech, not sit in church and worship him.” “If this is all there is, everything means more, not less, right?”
• “[Those big maturing moments in life involved...] accepting what is true over what I wished was true.”
• “Truth is such a poor competitor in the market of ideas.”
• “When I think of myself as my inner most being, I don’t think of it as a body function. My brain creates this idea that myself is not itself. I think of myself as something separate looking out from my eyes, listening through my ears, pulling the strings that make my body move. That is because the brain cannot perceive its own functioning. … the mind is what the brain does, just like pumping blood is what the heart does.”

Announcing the DFS Movie Night: Julia Sweeney’s Letting Go of God. You and your friends are welcome to join us for our first movie night ever. We will be watching Letting Go of God on Wednesday February 24 at 5 pm. The movie will be shown in Curtis 455. It is also the first DFS event with FREE FOOD & DRINK. You can RSVP on Facebook. We hope to see you there!

Thanks if you came out to the meeting tonight. We had a pretty good turnout. At the meeting we watching Dan Dennett’s TED talk, highlighting Rick Warren’s previous TED talk, and his book Breaking the Spell. Dennett believes that everyone should be taught facts about the world’s religions, and everyone at the meeting seemed to agree that this is a laudable though logistically problematic goal. Watch his discussion, and let us know what you think.

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, February 2) the Foundation of Undergraduates for Sexual Equality is hosting a discussion about religion and sexuality (RSVP on Facebook). A description of the event was posted online:

How do your religion and sexual orientation relate? Has your religion (or your family’s religious beliefs) affected your coming out process? How do you come to terms with aspects of your religion that you might disagree with? How important is religion to you?

We’ll be discussing these questions and many, many others tomorrow night @ FUSE. Come to the North Hall gameroom and bring your opinions.

This is a great opportunity for DFS members to meet with people from other student orgs and have an interesting, lively discussion.