Unfortunately I was out partying all night with my dear friends after the Gala Dinner, and only arrived home at 4am so was unable to write up day 2 prior to going to sleep. It was an awesome day with speakers including Peter Singer, Leslie Cannold, Dan Barker, Dan Dennett, AC Grayling, Lawrence Krauss, Geoffrey Roberts, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Richard Dawkins and many more. Needless to say, they all did the day and the convention justice. I won’t go too deeply into what they each discussed as I won’t really be able to do it justice, and the DVD of the talks will be out in a few months anyway!
The Gala Dinner went off too, with comedy from MC Simon Taylor, Brian Dalton (Mr Diety), Tom Ballard and Catherine Deveny, and some beautiful inspiring atheistic tunes from the talented sensational secular singer Shelley Segal!
Day 3 also went off, although I missed Eugenie Scott’s lecture but for the questions at the end as a result of the previous nights escapades. It was great to hear Tanya Smith from the Freedom From Religion Foundation speak, as well as Sam Harris, Jason Ball (President of the Freethought Student Alliance), and PZ Myers who gave a smashing lecture of which I’m hoping to see over many times on YouTube in the future!
The tribute to Christopher Hitchens definitely did the recently fallen horseman of atheism justice, and it was evident just how much he was missed by everyone, audience and speakers alike.
Richard Dawkins speaking about his late friend Christopher Hitchens.
The panel at the end with the remaining three horsemen, Dennett, Dawkins and Harris, alongside Ayaan Hirsi Ali wasn’t too bad either. Although they didn’t cover as much as I would have liked I still enjoyed it, and question time was one of the better ones of the conference.
Massive thanks to the Atheist Foundation of Australia and all their volunteers for putting all this together and running it so smoothly. They definitely did an amazing job!
I might leave you with a few funny pictures from the Christian and Muslim protestors that appeared outside the conference.
My dear friends Michael and Greg giving some love back to the Muslim protestors at lunchtime on Day 3
Muslims arrived on the Polly Woodside vessel and started sharing the love of Islam with us unbelievers...
The atheists didn't take too kindly to the bearded believers. One somehow acquired a megaphone and stood in front of them yelling back into their faces. At one point between all the laughter and sniggering the crowd began to chant "where are your women?". Their replies were restricted to "Allah o'ackbar" and "Burn in hell".
PZ Myers and other atheists taking the piss out of the fruitloop Christian protestors
The following are a bunch of Christian chalk sentences, checked for spelling and punctation by my fellow atheists at the convention!
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