If you are in or around Omaha, NE the first weekend of August, check out the Midwest Freethought Conference.

The Midwest Freethought Conference is coming up (all too quickly) on August 3-5 in Omaha, NE. We have a GREAT lineup of speakers, and, due to the OmahaCoR’s billboard invitation to non-believers (the first atheistic billboard in Nebraska), a huge amount of publicity. The speakers are, in (more or less) order of appearance: Brian Dunning, Adam Brown, Dave Muscato, Amanda Knief, PZ Myers, Amanda Brown, Hemant Mehta, Jerry deWitt, Sarah Morehead, AJ Johnson, Dan Barker, and Fred Edwords.

It promises to be a fantastic weekend full of great presentations, great conversations, and great fun! These sorts of gatherings are perhaps particularly important in the traditionally staid and conservative religious Midwest area, where being religious is more or less assumed, and the opportunity to gather and build community among nontheists is rare. The billboard and its reactions have proved this to us, with everything from people telling us to read Lee Strobel to notes from closet atheists thanking us for putting up the billboard, for letting them know that there is a community out there for non-believers.

A quote from someone who walked out of the restaurant that the billboard is located near: “Thank you so much for the billboard! My fiance and I have always wanted to be a part of an organization that supports our beliefs. We walked out of HuHot, I looked up and almost started crying. It really was a ‘beacon of hope’ for us. We’re really excited to become a part of this community!! THANK YOU!!!!”

Then just a month later, Labor Day weekend to be exact, it’s the Ascent of Atheism Conference in Denver, CO sponsored by the Atheist Alliance of America and with an impressive speaker line up. Having seen a lot of them speak a few months ago, it would be worth going just for Jessica Ahlquist, although I’m sure PZ Myers, Taslima Nasrin, Dan Barker, Greta Christina, and another two dozen big names will do alright too.

Then October 12-13 in Portland it’s the FFRF Annual National Convention with a lineup that includes my friends Teresa MacBain and Jerry Dewitt, as well as the Richard Dawkins. I just might have to make it up for that one.