Meetings & Events

News/Updates:

• "Secrets of the Psychics", a documentary with James "The Amazing" Randi
  Thursday, April 12th, 2007
  Room 66-160
  Documentary and Snacks, 6:30 pm
  Discussion, 7:30 pm

  Are you an atheist, agnostic, or humanist?
  Come meet others who think like you while enjoying good food and good company!

  Interested in learning more about atheism, agnosticism, or humanism?
  All are welcome. Come ask questions or just to watch the film.

  Are psychic powers real or just the work of good magicians and scam artists?
  We'll watch a documentary with James Randi, a well-known magician and pseudoscientific debunker. Randi will explain how he thinks many psychics use psychology and magic tricks to fool people into believing they have real supernatural abilities. Evelyn, a former assistant to Randi and also a MIT graduate student, will lead the discussion along with Scott, another MIT grad student.

  How does belief psychic powers relate to Atheism, Agnosticism, and Humanism?
  We'll discuss the similarities and differences between belief in psychic powers and belief in supernatural religious phenomena.

• New Students: Join our mailing lists!
  E-mail <mitaah-officers@mit> if you wish to be added to our mailing lists. There's an announcement list everyone should join and a discussion list only for those who don't mind being deluged by an occassional flood of posts. :) See "Mailing Lists" below for more details.

Calendar: The Upcoming Events is only a partial list. Please see our Calendar of Events for a complete list of future (and past) events.

Lunch Discussions: We have periodic social lunch discussions. See the calendar for details.

Minutes: This year's minutes are archived.

Other ad hoc events occur occasionally. All events are announced to our announcement mailing list (see below).

Mailing Lists

We have a number of mailing lists, for various purposes. Please contact <mitaah-officers@mit> for instructions on how to add yourself to any of these lists, or use the links below. (MIT community members only.)

Announcement-Only list, public - For official announcements only.
Discussion list, public - For discussion about anything and everything.
MIT/GCF joint discussion list, public - For joint discussions related to Christianity with the Graduate Christian Fellowship.
Planning list, private - For officers and active members to discuss upcoming events. Talk to an officer about being added.

(For privacy purposes, membership of our announcement and discussion lists are hidden to the public and visible only to the officers.)

Here's a sampler of posts to mitaah-discussion from the past.

Purpose

People: MITAAH serves as a unique opportunity for freethinkers to meet and learn from each other. Our meetings are open to anyone who would like to explore secular outlooks on life, or just wants to gain an understanding of our perspectives.

Discussion: MITAAH provides an open and supportive environment for atheists, agnostics, Humanists, and other students skeptical of religious claims to discuss issues of relevance to freethinkers. Some of our discussions are led by such guests as Harvard Humanist Chaplain Tom Ferrick, while others are organized by individual members.

Education: MITAAH members work to promote the ideals of Humanism; including morality, responsibility for personal actions, rational scientific thought, and the inherent worth of all humanity. We think that it's important to correct common misconceptions of freethinkers, and to demonstrate that people can lead moral lives without religion.

Fun: MITAAH organizes a variety of social activities throughout the year; such as pizza and movie nights, joint meetings with other groups, study breaks, and retreats.

The MIT Atheists, Agnostics, and Humanists group (known as MITAAH -- pronunciation still a matter of debate), as described in the MITAAH Constitution, became an officially recognized student activity on December 9, 1996. We are a forum mainly for secularists and freethinkers in the MIT community, though our meetings are open to all interested students, faculty, staff, and community members. MITAAH is also affiliated with the fast-growing, now-international Campus Freethought Alliance!

Resources

Local Resources

• MITAAH Library Catalog - books available for (free) borrowing.
• MITAAH News - an archive of our every-now-and-then news mailing and links to other news sources.
• Definitions of words we use a lot.

Off-Site Resources

• Campus Freethought Alliance
• Council For Secular Humanism
• Internet Infidels
• People for the American Way
• American Humanist Association
• Page of Honest Intellectual Inquiry
• James Randi Educational Foundation
• The Non-Believer's Page
• The Talk.Origins Archive
• Celebrity Atheists, Agnostics, and other Non-theists
• Famous Dead Non-theists

People

Officers

Co-President: Evelyn Mervine <emervine@mit.edu>
Co-President: Scott Burdick <sburdick@mit.edu>

Former Officers

• Joshua Tasoff (President Emeritus)
• Sarah Carlson (President Emerita)
• Matt Reagan (President Emeritus)
• Kenneth Lu (President Emeritus)
• Kris Schnee (Vice President Emeritus)
• Emily Hanna (Secretary Emerita)
• Matthew Gray (Treasurer Emeritus)
• Jared Showalter (President Emeritus)
• Ryan Rygg (Vice President Emerita)

Other Members with Homepages
(added by request only)

• Chris Beland

E-mail <mitaah-officers@mit> to be added to this list.