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Rationalists of East Tennessee Newsletter October 2025 |
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Blount County First Wednesday Meetup
Wednesday, October 1, 6:00 - 7:30 pm
Come join us at "The Bird and The Book" Cafe, 1509 E Broadway Ave, Maryville, for socializing and dinner.
If you have any extra copies of Free Inquiry, Skeptical Inquirer, Freethought Today, or other Freethought magazines, bring them to the social. We will try to have RET stickers ready to place over your addresses to make the magazines suitable for distribution for outreach.
This will be a monthly event, normally on the First Wednesday. All are welcome to join in. |
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Knox Pride Events cancelled because unable to secure liability insurance.
CANCELLED!!!!
Knox Pride Fest Night Parade
- When: Friday, 10/03/2025
- 6:00 PM
- Location TBA
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CANCELLED!!!!Knox Pride Tabling Booth
- When: Saturday, 10/04/2025
- 11:00 AM - 6:30 PM
- Location World's Fair Site
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First Sunday In Person Meeting
October 5, 2025 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM Eastern Time Pellissippi State, Hardin Valley, Goins Bldg Cafeteria Annex
Join us for a presentation by RET Member Carl Westman who will speak on "Rejuvenating the Non-Commercial Internet."
The internet wasn't always commercialized. Its origins trace to time-sharing on networked computer systems used by educational, research, and military organizations. Today, the Web dominates the public perception of the internet, yet its many benefits come with an increasingly heavy price in terms of surveillance, advertising, security holes, political polarization, and even environmental damage. Although the public, non-commercial internet was eclipsed by the Web,
it never quite died out - it's still around - and in recent years,
there has been a revival in interest in its communities both old (like
Gopher) and new (like Geminispace and the tildeverse). This talk will
explore what these corners of the Internet have to offer, and what
motivations are driving new users to spend some of their online time there.
Coffee and other hot beverages will be served. Bring a snack to share if you wish.
The meeting will be held in the cafeteria Annex of the Goins Administration Building. Please enter from the rear of the building to avoid interrupting other groups who may be using the rest of the building. |
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The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks. Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and “life hacks” to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks. Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks
introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society―and that we could do things differently. 288 pages.
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September Third Sunday Zoom
October 19, 2025 10:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Our topic this month will be a continuation of the Bart Ehrman video course, "How Jesus Became God." |
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Knox County Fourth Wednesday MEET-UP10/22/2025 6-8 pm, Corner 16 Restaurant, 9637 Kroger Park Drive
Come join an informal gathering for food and conversation at the Corner 16 Restaurant, 9637 Kroger Park Dr, Knoxville, TN 37922 near Pellissippi and Northshore.
If you are interested in seeing the menu beforehand, you can check it out here.
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October 26, RET Reflections
Sunday, 10/26/2025 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM ZoomWhere are we going and is defiance the answer?
Just about everyone is frustrated about the state of the nation and the reactions involve withdrawing, introspection, protests, physiological analysis of events, and activism. Many of us are thinking about activism and an upcoming RET meeting will feature how we might partake in these activities. But, before we go there, what do you think works for you in your neck of the woods? In the street or boycotts? In your face or quietly in the background?
A Guide to the Everyday Acts That Can Gum Up the Fascist Machine
Join us for a discussion about little things or big things.
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NEW! Secular Events Calendar RET has created a Google calendar named Secular Events that includes additional secular events in and around our community. Members can access this calendar here: Secular Events
If you know of events that you would like to be included, please email <outreach@rationalists.org> We hope this will enhance your social connections with other like-minded people. |
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Job opportunity at American Atheists
Hello folks! American Atheists is hiring and we would love some help getting the word out!
American Atheists is looking for a National Field Organizer. Fully remote, salary $45-50k, benefits include unlimited paid sick leave; more than 30 days of vacation and holiday leave (including a week-long summer holiday, service and volunteer leave, 3+ weeks of self-directed vacation, and other leave categories); 401(k) with 3% employer match; fully employer-funded comprehensive health and dental insurance; paid parental and family leave; flexible scheduling and remote work (plus home office equipment stipend).
https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit-job/3a1c56dc66d14de883aa42ce744515e6-national-field-organizer-american-atheists-cranford
Please pass this along to your affiliate groups, and of course. apply if it seems like a good fit for you!
Cheers!
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Call for books for the Skeptic Book Club RET members,
It is again time for us to select books. The books must be nonfiction but can cover a wide range of topics: medicine, history, religion, politics, science, biography, ethics, economics, you name it! We don’t have a page limit, but remember there is a month between meetings, so select something you think can be covered in about a month. A couple of shorter books would be welcome for a change. In fact, I would like it if some of you could recommend some essays or articles of less than 50 pages or so that can be read in less than a week so some of our busier members can jump in; web references are okay but watch for paywalls. A golden oldie perhaps?
Leading a session is not hard, as this group has plenty of opinions and viewpoints, so feel free to dive in with something you have always been interested in. All you need is an outline to guide the discussion; you can be more elaborate if you wish, but it is not necessary to have a full-fledged power point presentation. Ideas and knowledge are the goal. Open your mind and ours!
Please send me your titles soon so I can put together a list for 2026. Previously, I have been compiling the book list over the months as I get titles, but I would like to have a complete list by the end of this year. Send the titles to:
rmorris126@comcast.net
Thanks for your participation, Bob Morris
Skeptic Book Club Coordinator |
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Something else our members should know about: RET has a discussion group on Facebook. Feel free to join the group and post topics that you would like to have discourse about, or events that you would like to attend with other like-minded folks. If you are on Facebook, search under Groups for Rationalists of East Tennessee Discussion. |
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Copyright © 2020 {Rationalists of East Tennessee, Inc.}. All rights reserved. Please request use of any material at contact below.
Contact email: info@rationalists.org
Edited by Sharron King: newsletter@rationalists.org.
Opinions expressed are those of authors and/or editors and are not necessarily the opinions of RET | | |
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