Lake Hypatia Events 2012

The 23rd annual Independence Weekend Celebration at Lake Hypatia, Ala., Friday, June 29 through Sunday, July 1, at FFRF’s southern Freethought Hall and Freethought Advance.

The 23rd annual Independence Weekend Celebration at Lake Hypatia, Ala., is set for June 29 - July 1, Friday through Sunday, at FFRF’s southern Freethought Hall and Freethought Advance near Talladega. Lake Hypatia’s motto is “No preaching, no praying, no walking on water.”

The agenda for 2012 includes well-known speakers from the freethought community. In addition to the program, you will be able to relax and enjoy lake activities such as boat rides with “Cap’n Jon,” swimming, and fishing. You may also play softball and/or volleyball, or join Karon Park for her arts and crafts workshop in Freethought Hall. Special activities for children will be hosted by Camp Quest innovator Aleta Ledendecker during the film festival and during other selected parts of the program.

Lake Hypatia is hosted by the Alabama Freethought Society, an FFRF chapter and its director Patricia Cleveland, and co-sponsored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

The master of ceremonies for this year’s Freethought Advance will be Ed Buckner, a familiar face to many attendees. Ed is a former president of both American Atheists and the Atlanta Freethought Society. He is a life member of American Atheists, Council for Secular Humanism, FFRF and AFS. He has spoken and debated widely on diverse topics. Ed is co-editor, with Michael Buckner, of Quotations That Support Separation of Church and State.

Among the 2012 speakers is Alabama chapter member Bob Truett. Bob is a regular fixture at the Freethought Advance being requested time and again by attendees. Bob always provides a naturalist’s twist to any talk. This year Bob’s talk will be “King Kong Plays God” a whimsical freethought criticism of a king-like god who demands blood sacrifice. In addition to enjoying Bob’s own brand of humor, in the process there’s a good possibility you will learn a thing or two about mankind’s closest relatives, the great apes.

Lecia Brooks is Director of Outreach for the Southern Poverty Law Center. She leads the Center’s outreach efforts on key initiatives and social justice issues nationwide, giving presentations promoting tolerance and diversity. Ms Brooks, a graduate of Loyola Marymount University, has been with the SPLC since 2004. She serves also as director of the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery, Alabama, an interpretive center designed to provide visitors to the Civil Rights Memorial with a deeper understanding of the civil rights movement. Brooks will speak on how the SPLC pursues its primary goals of fighting hate, teaching tolerance, and seeking justice.

JT Eberhard is a campus organizer and high school specialist with the Secular Student Alliance. He is author of the blog What Would JT Do? and has been a contributing author to AtheismResource.com.

Before joining the SSA, JT was most known as a debater on atheism and LGBT rights and as the co-founder of the Skepticon annual conference. JT’s talk at the 2012 Freethought Advance will be titled "Reason as a Moral Obligation."

Dr. Darrel W. Ray is the founder of Recovering From Religion, as well as the author of The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture and Sex and God: How Religion Distorts Sexuality. He has been a psychologist for over 30 years. He has been a student of religion most of his life and holds a MA degree in religion as well as a BA in Sociology/Anthropology and a Doctorate in psychology. The title of Dr. Ray’s talk at Lake Hypatia will be “Sexy Evolution (or, What the Pope Doesn’t Know About Human Sexuality).” Each species has a unique reproductive strategy. Unfortunately, the Pope's view of sexuality almost opposite of what we are really like. Dr. Ray explains the difference between human sexuality and religious sexuality.

Dale McGowan edited and co-authored Parenting Beyond Belief, which Newsweek called “a compelling read,” and Raising Freethinkers, the practical sequel. He also edited Voices of Unbelief, an historical anthology of atheist and agnostic documents due for release in September of this year. He writes the secular parenting blog The Meming of Life, teaches nonreligious parenting workshops across the United States, and is founding executive director of Foundation Beyond Belief, a humanist charitable organization whose members have raised over a quarter million dollars for charity. In 2008, Dale was named Harvard Humanist of the Year by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University. He lives near Atlanta with his wife Becca and their three children. McGowan’s presentation will be titled "Secular Parenting."

The International Freethought Film Festival celebrated its first season in 2011. This niche film festival is sponsored by the Freethought Film Festival Foundation (FFFF) and celebrates films that challenge the status quo, in fact, the unchallengeable. This includes the examination of truth claims by governments, religions, pseudo-scientists, psychics, astrologers, and the like. Selected entries also include films that expose human rights violations and tales of those who, against the odds, affect positive change by questioning authority. This year, FFFF board member Judi Green brings to Lake Hypatia selections from the 2011 International Freethought Film Festival to be shown in two ninety-minute installations. The mission statement of the FFFF is “Promoting reason, critical thinking and freedom of inquiry through the medium of film.”

The Cleveland family generously opens up their personal grounds for participants who reserve in advance for RVs or primitive camping. Showers and washrooms are available onsite. There are many motels in the area.

You can register online at right or use the form on the Freethought Today back wrapper. You can also download a registration form online to mail in to Alabama Freethought Society, PO Box 571, Talladega, AL 35161.

Registration is $35 per FFRF member, $40 per nonmember, $5 per FFRF student member and $10 per nonmember student.

Four catered meals will be offered (Friday night, Saturday lunch, Saturday dinner, Sunday brunch) and are $10 per adult, $5 per student. (There will be an inexpensive hot dog/veggie dog lunch offered by a private couple on Friday.)

There are no nearby restaurants so order meals now. Meal orders and early registrations must be in hand by June 24. There is a $10 late fee per person for registration after June 24. No meals may be ordered after that cutoff.

We ask that in respect for other attendees you do not bring your pets to Lake Hypatia.