ACA Monthly Lectures
ACA Monthly Lectures
DATE / SPEAKER / TOPICAug 14, 2016 / Russell Glasser / Outreach and Communication for Atheists and other unpopular grups
July10,2016 / Mimi Marziani / The Texas Civil Rights Project
Jun12,2016 / Anthony Magnabosco / A Different Approach: Street Epistemology
May22,2016 / Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker / Freedom From Religion Foundation (a BONUS lecture at the Little Walnut Creek branch library)
May8,2016 / Steve Bratteng / The Good, the Bad, and the Genetically Modified
Apr10,2016 / Sarah Morehead and Neil Carter / Removing the Fig Leaf - sex and religion
Mar13,2016 / Chase Hunter / Why Humans Created God
Feb14,2016 / Chris Robison / The Chemistry of Love
Jan17,2016 / Neil Carter / Bonus lecture: Godless in Dixie. This talk will be given at the Little Walnut Creek branch library (835 W. Rundberg)
Jan10,2016 / Elliott Naishtat / The Adventures of a New York Yankee in LBJ's Court
Dec13,2015 / Adam Narkiewicz / What is wrong with the burden-of-proof logic?
Nov8,2015 / Chris Robison / The Mess in Your Head: How Cells in Your Brain Communicate
Oct11,2015 / Dan Quinn / Update on the Texas Freedom Network
Sep26,2015 / HeinaDadabhoy / Sex and Islam
Sep13,2015 / Alan Covey / Incan Religion and Culture
Aug9,2015 / Heather Teague / Contemporary Mayan Culture and the Modern World
July12,2015 / Jen Peeples / Equal Dignity Under the Law: The Long Road to Marriage Equality
Jun14,2015 / Alix Jules / How the Church is Beating Atheism at Diversity
May10,2015 / Steve Bratteng / Mother's Day Special: Your Mother's First Gift to You: Your Microbiome
Apr12,2015 / Janet Heimlich / Religious Maltreatment of Children: based on her book, Breaking Their Will.
Mar8,2015 / Ryan Bell / My Year Without God: Now a Permanent Condition
Feb1,2015 / Chase Hunter / Inside Scientology 2: the Sea Org
Jan18,2015 / Clare Wuellner / Fire Ants!
Dec7, 2014 / James H. Dee / Why there are no gods (and no God)
Nov9,2014 / Clare Wuellner / The Foundation Beyond Belief
Oct12,2014 / Steve Bratteng / The New Tree of Life -- Where have all the Kingdoms gone - the new organization of organisms.
Sep14,2014 / Chase Hunter / Inside Scientology
Aug10,2014 / AtifShahnawaz / Testing Tests
July13,2014 / Wonders of the Living World / A multimedia presentation of some of the amazing organisms sharing our planet.
Jun8,2014 / Clifton Stuckey / "Sex Education in Texas: Just the Facts, Ma'am"
May11,2014 / Robert Jensen / White Privilege
Apr6,2014 / Lydia Pyne / "Meet the Neanderthals" Note that this lecture is on the first Sunday this month instead of the usual second Sunday.
Mar9,2014 / Vic Cornell / ACLU Update. Recent news in the conflict over church/state and free speech issues.
Feb9,2014 / Steve Bratteng / What Darwin Never Knew -- Video clips and discussion of science since Darwin
Jan12,2014 / Reeve Hamilton / Politics and Higher Education in Texas
Nov10,2013 / Steve Bratteng / The ABCs of Biotechnology. A primer on the composition of organisms and how their genes can be manipulated.
Oct13,2013 / Russell Glasser / How Online Social Media is Changing the Face of Atheism
Sep28,2013 / PZ Myers / Bat Evolution
Aug11,2013 / Innes Mitchell & Victoria Davis / "Perspective by Incongruity: Teaching Atheism at a Catholic University"
July14,2013 / Don Baker / Broken Six Ways from Sunday: The Astounding Backwardness of the Christian Anti-Abortion Movement
Jun9,2013 / Donald Wright / A Secular Perspective on the State of the Nation
May12,2013 / Matt Dillahunty / Reflections on a "lifetime" as ACA President
Apr14,2013 / Val Benavidez / Update on Church-State separation and education issues facing Texans
Mar10,2013 / Hans Hofmann / Does Free Will Exist?
Feb10,2013 / James Aldrete / The Political Landscape from the Consultant's Perspective
Jan13,2013 / David Prindle / The Politics of Evolution
Dec2,2012 / Darrel Ray / Religion and Sex (tentative)
Nov4,2012 / Steve Bratteng / What's Eating You! An exploration of the evolving world of parasites. Visually gross, but fascinating.
Oct7,2012 / James Dee, Ph. D. / The X-Rated Stories about Jesus: Weird Tales from the Apocryphal Gospels
Sep22,2012 / Teresa MacBain / The Clergy Project and how she found freedom from religion
Aug5,2012 / Sissy Bradford / Paying the Price for Defending Religious Freedom
July1,2012 / Dr. Karl Gebhardt, University of Texas Professor of Astrophysics / “HETDEX”, The Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment
Jun3,2012 / Jerry DeWitt / Laughing through the Apocalypse!
Apr1,2012 / Vic Cornell / The ACLU of Texas & Religious Freedom
Mar4,2012 / Wrath James White, author and blogger / Escaping The Overseer: Atheism in Black America
Jan8,2012 / Steve Bratteng / Unintelligent Design: Deceit and Hypocrisy vs. Science
Dec4,2011 / The Lord is Not on Trial Here Today / We'll be showing a documentary about the landmark Vashti McCollum school prayer case.
Nov6,2011 / Gardner Selby, Austin American Statesman PolitiFact Texas Editor / Pants on Fire and Other Ways to Judge What Politicians Say
Oct2,2011 / Dr. Bruce J. Hunt, Associate Professor of History, UT Austin / Darwin and Religion, or the Lack of It
Sep11,2011 / Sarah Wheat, CEO of Planned Parenthood, Austin / Standing up for Planned Parenthood---why healthy Texas women and families matter
Aug7,2011 / Brett Buchanan / Beyond The Reach, a look inside the FLDS
July3,2011 / Nick Lee, President, Atheist Alliance America / The New/Old Atheist Alliance
Apr3,2011 / Åron-Ra / What we can and cannot honestly say we 'know'
Mar6,2011 / Jen Peeples / Comfortable Lies About Don’t Ask, Don't Tell
Feb6,2011 / The Mormons! / Brian Spears talks about his experience of being steeped in Mormonism and his path out.
Jan2,2011 / Don Baker / Mechanisms of Religious Evil
Nov7,2010 / Eileen Flynn Delao / Observations: Why the Media Still Fears Atheists, and other observations from a religion writer
Oct3,2010 / Steve Bratteng / Dr. Darwin Makes a House Call
Sep25,2010 / Matt Dillahunty / The Superiority of Secular Morality
Sep12,2010 / Dr. James H. Dee / The Second Wave of Secular Humanism: How Scholarship Undermines Religion
Aug1,2010 / Sarah Weis and Brian Spears from Americans United / The Importance of the Separation of Church and State
July11,2010 / Aime Parsons / Camp Quest Texas, A Journey of the heart for the secular community in Texas
Jun6,2010 / Doyle Duke, author / A Critical Analysis of Christianity
May2,2010 / Election meeting / In lieu of a lecture, we will have an election meeting for the next ACA Board at the Austin History Center.
Apr11,2010 / Noelle George / Effective Secular Activism -- Not Just Politics and Protests
Mar7,2010 / Kathleen Johnson / A Place at the Table
Feb7,2010 / Dr. Jennifer Whitson / The Perception of Patterns in the Noise of Everyday Life
Jan3,2010 / Fred Edwords / "Sailing the Rising Tide of Reason"
Dec6,2009 / Dr. Jay Banner / Climate change in Texas – A long past and view to the future
Nov1,2009 / Don Moore from Final Exit Network / Don Moore talks about the death with dignity movement and the Final Exit Network
Oct29,2009 / Dr. Victor J. Stenger / The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason
Sep13,2009 / Kathy Miller / Texas SBOE -- Dragging our schools into the culture wars
Aug2,2009 / Chris Comer / Standing Up for Science in Texas
July5,2009 / Panel Discussion / ACA Members will talk on the subject of school vouchers
Feb1,2009 / Matt Dillahunty / How to fool the mind
Dec7,2008 / Dr. James Dee / The Truth about the Christmas Story
Oct5,2008 / Russell Glasser / How atheists can be effective evangelists
Sep7,2008 / Oak DeBerg / Are Atheists in the Military the "New" Gay, (or Black or Female)?
Aug3,2008 / Matt Dillahunty / Belief
July6,2008 / Dr. Rory Coker / Pseudoscience, Antiscience and Nonscience!
Jun1,2008 / Representative Donna Howard / Religion and the Texas Legislature
May4,2008 / ACA Board Election Meeting / In lieu of a lecture, we will use the time at the Austin History Center to elect a new board.
Apr6,2008 / Charles Jackson, PhD / Climate Prediction: What can or can't we tell about our future - The little-known inner-workings of climate model development
Mar2,2008 / Dr. James H. Dee / "Thinking about Religion...and Why it's so Hard" This lecture will discuss some of the obstacles to clear and honest thinking
Feb3,2008 / Dicky Grigg / It's Not About Them, It's About Us
Jan6,2008 / Don Rhoades / Early Freethought in Texas - The Immigration and Settlement of the "Deutsche Freidenkers" and the Struggle to Preserve Their Sto
Dec2,2007 / Movie showing / "The God who wasn't There"
Nov4,2007 / Meet the Atheist Longhorns / We'll have several members of the new UT group "Atheist Longhorns" to talk about their group.
Oct7,2007 / Membership appreciation meeting / In lieu of a lecture, we'll have a membership appreciation meeting.
Sep9,2007 / Mark Loewe / Low cost textbooks, progressive vouchers, and incorrect TAKS scores
Aug5,2007 / Matt Dillahunty / Visions of Hell
July1,2007 / Members of CASA / From advocacy to reason and back again
Jun3,2007 / Video Showing and Discussion / Showing of "The Creation Adventure Team: Jurassic Ark Mystery"
Apr15,2007 / Lori Lipman Brown, Secular Coalition of America / Protecting Our Freedoms: Taking the Message to Congress
Mar4,2007 / Three members of the Travis County Archaeological Society / Three mini-lectures covering human history in Texas and the practice of archeology.
Feb4,2007 / UT History Professor Howard Miller / The Atheist Moment: The Sudden and Remarkable Emergence of Public Atheism in George Bush's America
Jan7,2007 / Robert "Rock" Howard / Libertarianism: Philosophy, Religion or What?
Nov5,2006 / Robin Matthews / Teaching Evolution in Austin
Oct22,2006 / Don Baker / The Influence of Religion in the Spanish Conquest of the Americas
Aug20,2006 / Jeff Jones, Center for Inquiry / The New Austin CFI Community.
July23,2006 / Danielle Tierney / The Religious Right's War on Birth Control
Jun18,2006 / Thomas Van Orden / Recapping the 10C case and looking to the future of church-state separation
May21,2006 / Mark Loewe / Muon catalyzed nuclear fusion
Mar19,2006 / Matt Dillahunty / The History of the Biblical Canon
Feb19,2006 / Dr. Alan Cline / The Disregard of Science and the Responsibility of Citizens
Jan15,2006 / Joe Zamecki / A special atheist tour of Inner Space Cavern.
Oct16,2005 / DJ Grothe, Center for Inquiry / Arguing for America: Secularism and the Culture Wars
Sep18,2005 / Don Baker / Universal Darwinism: How Computer Science has Validated the Theory of Evolution
July17,2005 / Craig Nazor / The Hartman Prehistoric Garden - a Place for Ancient Plants in a Modern World
Apr17,2005 / Deece Eckstein of People for the American Way / Challenges to church-state separation
Mar20,2005 / Several ACA Members / A panel discussion on debating theists
Feb20,2005 / Heather Alden / Church-state separation and the Texas Freedom Network
Jan16,2005 / Joe Zamecki / Tales from the Trenches: A Report on Atheist Activism
Nov21,2004 / M. Draper / Darwin and Mendel were clueless: Why we shouldn't teach evolution in schools
Oct17,2004 / Dr. Elaine Rich / Our Quest for Machines that Act (and Look) Like Us
Aug15,2004 / Shannon Rauh / Texas, Health Education and the Textbook Debates
July18,2004 / ACLU Attorney Jay Jacobson / A "quick and dirty" guide on the history of the establishment ofreligion clause in the First Amendment - from colonial times to
May16,2004 / Thomas van Orden
Feb16,2004 / Don Baker / Morality and Christianity
Dec7,2003 / Dr. Robert (Bob) Solomon / Philosophy, Spirituality, and Atheism
Nov2,2003 / Dr. James Dee / The Death of the Afterlife: How Fossils, Embryos, and Brains Falsify Promises of Heaven and Threats of Hell
Jun1,2003 / Don Baker / The implications of viewing Christianity as a meme
Oct6,2002 / Don Baker / Memes: The New Replicators
July2,2000 / H. Thompson, R. Florence, J. Dee, J. Koonz, and M. Loewe / Panel discussion on political activism
Dec5,1999 / Mark Loewe / Predictions of science