On Saturday, August 2nd, several members of SHL joined well over a hundred other peaceful protesters on busy Rivers Avenue to remind the Trump Administration that Americans are paying attention and many of us do not approve. The protesters waved American flags and signs with slogans like “Protect Due Process!” and “Hate Never Made America Great!” as passersby showed their support by honking and waving.

“Rage Against the Regime” was sponsored by the South Carolina chapter of the activist group 50-50-1 as part of the national day of action. Nationwide, the group planned actions in over 300 cities. Several media outlets came to cover the rally, we’ll post those links in the comments as when they become available.

More pictures of the event can be found on our website, here.

July marked 100 hundred years since the landmark Scopes Monkey Trial put the teaching of evolution on trial in a small Tennessee courtroom, yet the battle over science education in America is far from over. The Scopes Trial in 1925 was a turning point in the national debate over evolution and public education. Eighty years later in 2005, the Dover Panda Trial was another landmark case, this time establishing that intelligent design is not science and cannot be taught in public schools. Today alarming legal and legislative developments threaten to roll back decades of progress.

Scopes Monkey Trial

The Scopes Monkey Trial has long been seen as an attempt to bring light to the darkness of entrenched religious ignorance. The reality is just the opposite. The case was more the extinguishing of the light of truth. It was an attempt by Christian fundamentalists to remove all mention of evolution from public education.

Most Americans’ understanding of the Scopes Trial comes from a fictionalized version, the play Inherit the Wind. While that story captured the courtroom drama largely right, it stood the entire history of the case on its head. Viewers come away with the impression that Scopes was trying to bring evolution to high school students.

But the evolutionary theory that John Scopes was teaching was not novel to the curriculum. In fact, he was teaching out of the state’s required text book. The Butler Act, which outlawed the teaching of evolution, had passed the state legislature only a few months prior. Local leaders thought a trial testing the law would bring publicity to the town of Dayton, and they recruited Scopes to be the defendant. Scopes was a math and science teacher, but had substituted in the biology class where he may have taught evolution–it is not clear that he actually did violate the law. Scopes encouraged students to testify against him, and coached them what to say to get the grand jury indictment.

Part of what made the case such a spectacle was the attorneys arguing the case. William Jennings Bryan, a 3-time Democratic presidential nominee, was a Christian fundamentalist who argued that all of the country’s problems could be traced to a lack of religious faith. He gladly signed on to prosecute the case. Famed lawyer and outspoken agnostic, Clarence Darrow volunteered to defend Scopes. The trial was front-page news across the country.

Darrow wanted to call experts to provide scientific evidence in favor of evolution and against the biblical account of creation, but the trial judge ruled against them. Since the judge ruled that scientific testimony about the bible was irrelevant, Darrow took the extraordinary step of calling Bryan to the stand to testify as a bible expert. This led to two hours of sparring between Bryan and Darrow over questions such as, “Where did Cain’s wife come from?” While the exchange was the dramatic climax of the trial, as portrayed in Inherit the Wind, it actually had no impact on the outcome. The judge ruled the entire exchange irrelevant and instructed the jury to disregard. In the end, the defense chose not to provide a closing statement because, having been prevented from presenting their evidence, they agreed that there was only one conclusion the jury could reach–guilty. And so it was.

They intended to press the case on appeal, but the state supreme court sidestepped the main issue. They vacated the conviction on a technicality–the judge, not the jury, had set the fine at $100 as prescribed by the law, but judges were allowed to assess fines only up to $50. The state’s attorney declined to retry the case, so the merits of the case could not be appealed, and the Butler Act was upheld.

At the time of the Scopes trial, only Tennessee, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and (of course) South Carolina had anti-evolution laws. But national attention prompted a surge of similar legislation across the country. While most proposals failed, Mississippi and Arkansas enacted bans. The chilling effect was lasting—most biology textbooks avoided discussing evolution for decades.

Then came Sputnik. The Soviet Union’s 1957 satellite launch sparked the space race as well as a panic over the state of American education. Overnight, learning calculus became a patriotic duty. The 1958 National Defense Education Act led to the creation of new textbooks, written by scientists, emphasizing the importance of evolution as a unifying principle of biology. Even then, the fight over teaching evolution in public schools continued until 1968 when the Supreme Court ruled in Epperson v. Arkansas that laws prohibiting the teaching of evolution violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

Dover Panda Trial

Religious fundamentalists are a persistent lot, and the Supreme Court ruling forced them to find a new tactic. Rather than banning the teaching of evolution, they would try to force their religion into the school curriculum in other ways, inventing “Creation Science” and then a new theory they labeled “Intelligent Design”. School board elections matter, and in 2002 a group of Christian fundamentalists got elected to the Dover, Pennsylvania school board and started trying to get creationism added to the biology curriculum.

In 2004 the high school needed the board's approval to purchase new textbooks, but board members objected to the proposed books written by Kenneth R. Miller and others. Board member Bill Buckingham objected, saying the Miller book was "laced with Darwinism" and saying it was "inexcusable to have a book that says man descended from apes with nothing to counterbalance it." The controversy at the school board made local newspapers and caught the attention of staff at the Discovery Institute, a Seattle based “think tank” that pushes intelligent design and promotes “teach the controversy” as a way to sneak religion into our schools.

Staff from the Discovery Institute reached out to the Dover school board and helpfully suggested they stop talking about “creationism” and start talking about intelligent design. In addition to persistence Christian nationalists, fundamentalist or otherwise, are an organized and well-funded lot. The Discovery Institute connected the Dover school board with the Thomas More Law Center, a Christian, conservative, nonprofit, public interest law firm, established by the founder of Domino’s Pizza. They provided attorney Richard Thompson to advise and defend the school board. And Thompson recommended Of Pandas and People, a bullshit, psuedo-science text that argues that life shows evidence of being designed by an intelligent agent. The book takes pains not to say that that intelligent agent is god, but it is understood by its authors and proponents that that agent is the Christian god.

In November 2004, the Dover school board voted to require 9th grade biology teachers to read a statement to students that included the following:

Because Darwin's Theory is a theory, it is still being tested as new evidence is discovered. The Theory is not a fact. Gaps in the Theory exist for which there is no evidence. A theory is defined as a well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations.

Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view. The reference book Of Pandas and People, is available for students to see if they would like to explore this view in an effort to gain an understanding of what intelligent design actually involves.

The ACLU sued, and in September 2005, Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District, or The Dover Panda Trial, commenced. Because the trial was for an injunction against the school board, it was a bench trial, presided over by John E. Jones, III, a lifelong republican appointed to the bench by George W. Bush in 2002. Many assumed that his political affiliation would advantage the defense. But Judge Jones took his duties to the law and to the truth seriously, and unlike in the Scopes trial, the experts were allowed to give evidence. In particular Kenneth Miller, author of the biology text book favored by the biology teachers, was able to give detailed testimony of the evidence for evolution.

The defense had their own experts to testify, including Michael Behe, author of the best selling Darwin’s Black Box, which introduced the idea of irreducible complexity as a challenge to evolutionary theory. But Behe did not come prepared and was utterly demolished on the witness stand.

On December 20, 2005, Judge Jones issued a 139-page decision that ruled that intelligent design is not science, and that teaching it as an alternative to evolution is unconstitutional intrusion of religion in public schools. Importantly, this ruling was issued after the November election, in which 8 of the 9 members of the Dover school board were up for re-election. All 8 were turned out of office in favor of a slate of candidates who opposed teaching intelligent design. Before the judge issued his ruling, the people issued theirs. In this episode of history, science won out over bad faith.

Epilogue

The fight between light and darkness never ends, and as the Scopes trial demonstrates, the good guys don’t always win. Progress is not irreversible. On June 27, 2025, the Supreme Court issued a 6–3 ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, affirming that parents may opt their children out of school lessons involving LGBTQIA+ themes if those lessons conflict with religious beliefs. This ruling ignored prior evidence—such as in Montgomery County, Maryland—that opt-outs are often unworkable in practice. The decision paves the way for parents to demand opt-outs from any material that conflicts with their religion, including basic biology lessons on evolution.

In recent years, several U.S. states have introduced bills seeking to undermine evolution education. Some, like Louisiana and Tennessee, have enacted laws encouraging teachers to “critique” evolution by presenting its supposed “strengths and weaknesses.” Other bills in states such as Florida, Colorado, and Montana have so far failed but reflect the ongoing effort to erode science education.

With a conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court, the threat to truth is real.

Conference Report

The Scopes Trial Centennial conference, jointly organized by the Freedom From Religion Foundation and the Center for Inquiry, was held in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Dayton Tennessee from 18-20 July, 2025. Thanks to the support of the SHL Conference Fund, I was able to participate in the conference. The conference included presentations from multiple authors of books on the Scopes trial, as well the presentation of the Defender of the Constitution Award to Judge John E. Jones, III, who presided over the Dover panda trial. His perspective on the trail and comments on the current state of jurisprudence in America was a highlight of the conference. The second day of the conference concluded with the performance of the audioplay “The Dover Panda Trial", written by actor and playwright John de Lancie (best known for portraying Q in multiple Star Trek series) and co-written by Kristen Tregar. The audioplay was performed by de Lancie and a troupe of local actors, with Judge Jones capping off the performance by reading an excerpt from his ruling. On the last day of the conference we bussed from Chattanooga to Dayton and toured the Rhea County Courthouse, site of the Scopes trial.

🪧 Aug 2 – Rage Against The Regime 50501 Flag Rally, at Northwoods Mall

🎞️ Aug 3 – The Friendly Infidels Movie Club: Oh, Hi!

🤔 Aug 6 – Freethinkers' Forum: Are you anti-religious?
NEW: The Forum is a monthly gathering to discuss topics of interest to freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and other non-religious people.

📖 Aug 9 – EMERGENCY Book Club: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

🍸 Aug 12 – Happy Humanist Hour 843 Korean BBQ & Sushi House

🥫 Aug 12 – Food Distribution with Park Circle Cares You’re needed in the heat!

🎲 Aug 12 – SHL Board Game Day

📖 Aug 24 – SHL Book Club: The Sirens' Call by Chris Hayes

⁉️ Aug 26 – Trivia Night: Commonhouse Aleworks in North Charleston

🥞Aug 31 – 5th Sunday Brunch: Mpishi on Daniel Island August has 5 Sundays!

Humility means displaying modesty about accomplishments, talents, gifts, or importance of self. It acknowledges we humans are fallible and have limitations in what we know and can do. Being humble isn’t about having low self-esteem or denigrating oneself. Humility at its core is robust self-awareness—awareness of our strengths and weaknesses, our faults and our merits. Humility involves setting aside personal pride and overcoming our egos to embrace gratitude for what we have and appreciate others for who they are. In being humble, we recognize our own value in relation to others; inherently, we are neither better nor worse than anyone else.

SHL will be joining activists across the nation to Rage Against The Regime in another 50-50-1 mass mobilization. The party is on Saturday, August 2nd from 9 to 11 am on River's Ave in North Charleston at Northwoods Blvd.

Bring your flags. Bring your protest signs. Bring your voice!

Park at Northwoods Mall and walk to the "Flag Rally" site on the west side of Rivers Ave between Northwoods Blvd and Easy St.

RSVP on Meetup

And if you need a great protest shirt, get yourself one of our Activist T-Shirts.

Our guest speaker for July’s Activist Sunday was Belvin Olasov from the Charleston Climate Coalition (CCC). Olasov spoke about a gas megaplant joint venture between Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy that, if completed, will threaten the pristine Ace Basin Wildlife Preserve, contribute massive amounts of air and water pollution, and cost rate payers millions.

You can help prevent this catastrophe by signing the petition to tell Dominion NO megaplants in the ACE Basin and then ask everyone you know to do the same. Then you can sign up for CCC’s mailing list to stay in the know.

If you aren’t familiar with the ACE Basin, it gets its name from the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto Rivers (ACE) and is one of the largest undeveloped estuaries on the East Coast. It provides diverse habitats and abundant wildlife. The basin is one of the few truly untouched pockets of nature left on the South Carolina coast and is home to nine federally endangered species and six federally threatened species. The basin also provides habitat for many other state designated threatened and endangered species. In addition to its ecological value, it is also a beloved recreation site for fishing, bird watching, kayaking, hiking and more.

The history of the megaplant site, outside the town of Canadys in Colleton County on the banks of the Edisto River, is disturbing and obscure. The site is the former location of a coal plant, decommissioned after 50 years of polluting the air and water outside of Canadys. While the plant operated, residents experienced documented increases in respiratory diseases such as asthma, and increased mortality due to the pollution. Now they want to subject the people of southern South Carolina to a new round of pollutants, jeopardizing the air quality of nearby residents, the health of the ACE Basin ecosystem and the water quality of the Edisto River, which provides the source water to Charleston Water Systems.

If completed– or not (remember the $8B VC Summer Nuclear Plant fiasco?)-- the energy companies have the green light from the state legislature to increase our energy rates to pay for the project. That includes the associated pipeline from Mississippi to bring the gas to the plant where it will be converted to electricity. South Carolina already pays the 3rd highest energy rates in the country–once again we are striving for number one in all the wrong places.

Earlier this year, the legislature paved the way for this joint venture by passing a law allowing publicly owned and privately owned utilities to work together on the same project. However, this is by no means a done deal. The project still has to go through a maze of approvals and permitting, starting with the Public Service Commission. If they are successful in convincing the PSC, they will still need to get state, federal and local permits before construction can begin. The whole process could take up to ten years to complete, but we need to start fighting now before it has an opportunity to gain momentum.

Olasov spoke about similar projects that were defeated through grassroots activism, including the Keystone XL pipeline, the Dominion pipeline through Appalachia, the expansion of the Woodbridge gas plant, and the Transmountain Pipeline in Canada. These projects and others were stopped by the people, using protests, public comment, and writing to elected officials. The CCC is partnering with several other like-minded agencies to defeat this project and have plans to canvass Canadys neighborhoods, table at local events, protest at Dominion offices, and much more. But they need our help.

SHL will be supporting the CCC in their ongoing efforts to fight against this project. Engaging in this fight is one way to practice humanist values, such as our commitments to environmentalism, peace & social justice, global awareness and service and participation. For more on our humanist commitments, click here.

If you would like to watch Olasov’s presentation to SHL, you can find it on our YouTube Channel.

Normally I try to find a bunch of good news stories to share, but this month I am focused on reporting a single good news story. At a time when culture wars and political interference in education often dominate the headlines, we’ve come to expect bad news regarding science instruction—especially on controversial topics like evolution. That was certainly the assumption among attendees at the recent Scopes Trial Centennial Conference, held in July 2025 in Tennessee. During a presentation titled “Evolution for Educators,” Bertha Vazquez, Director of Education at the Center for Inquiry, challenged that assumption—and surprised the audience with some genuinely good news.

Vazquez is no stranger to the classroom or to the challenges of teaching evolution. Before joining the Center for Inquiry, she spent 34 years teaching middle school science in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. In 2015, she launched the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES), a program designed to empower science educators with the tools and knowledge to effectively teach evolution. Since its inception, TIES has offered more than 340 professional development sessions for science teachers in all 50 states. Vazquez has made it her mission to ensure that educators have the resources they need to teach evolution confidently, accurately, and without fear of backlash.

As part of her Scopes Centennial presentation, Vazquez revisited a study she first published in 2017: “A State-by-State Comparison of Middle School Science Standards on Evolution in the United States.” The study evaluated evolution standards in middle-grade science curricula across all 50 states, using a consistent 10-point scale assessed by four independent reviewers. Points were awarded for the inclusion and clarity of key concepts such as the definition of evolution, the mention and explanation of natural selection and adaptation, and the presentation of multiple lines of evidence—like fossils, genetics, and homologous structures. States were then assigned letter grades based on their scores: A for 9–10 points, B for 8, C for 7, D for 6, and F for anything 5 or below.

The 2017 results were, in many ways, disheartening. Just 23 states earned an A. One state received a B, six states received C’s, five states were graded D, and a discouraging fifteen states earned a failing grade of F. These findings highlighted the uneven and often inadequate approach to evolution education across the country—especially in states where religious fundamentalism or political interference compromised science standards.

Then came the big reveal: Vazquez and her team had repeated the evaluation for 2025. Before disclosing the results, she asked the audience to speculate. Most expected the situation to have worsened, given the rise in political interference in public education and the increasing influence of far-right lawmakers on school boards and curriculum committees.

But the reality defied those pessimistic expectations.

In 2025, the number of states earning an A jumped from 23 to 38. Six states received a B, only one state earned a C, and just three were graded D. Only one state—Texas—received an F. This marks a dramatic and encouraging shift in the quality of evolution education in the U.S.

What accounts for this improvement? Vazquez credits the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), a framework developed by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. Although not federally mandated, the NGSS has been adopted outright by 20 states and has heavily influenced science standards in many others. The framework emphasizes scientific inquiry, evidence-based reasoning, and critical thinking—all of which support robust instruction in evolutionary biology. It represents a quiet but powerful counterforce to the political and ideological battles over science education.

One notable outlier is North Carolina, which was the only state whose science standards declined between 2017 and 2025—dropping from a C to a D. While this decline is disappointing, it stands in sharp contrast to the overall trend of improvement across the country.

The takeaway is clear: despite the noise, evolution education is making meaningful strides. Teachers are better equipped, curricula are stronger, and students in most states are more likely to encounter evolution as the foundational scientific principle it is. These gains are especially important given that evolution is not just a cornerstone of biology—it is a unifying theory that connects genetics, anatomy, paleontology, and ecology. Students who understand evolution are better prepared to understand the natural world, engage with scientific issues, and think critically.

But the work is far from over. Vazquez emphasized the importance of vigilance. While curriculum standards have improved, implementation varies from classroom to classroom. Teachers still need professional development, support, and protection from political pressure. Organizations like the Center for Inquiry and the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science continue to play a crucial role in equipping educators with resources and creating networks of support.

The legacy of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial was a warning: science education can easily become a battleground. But the lesson from 2025 is more hopeful: with persistence, collaboration, and evidence-based policy, real progress is possible—even in the face of cultural headwinds.

For secular humanists, this moment is worth celebrating. It reaffirms that reason and science can prevail, even in a polarized environment. And it underscores the critical importance of supporting educators, resisting ideological encroachment in public education, and standing up for the integrity of science in our schools.

As Bertha Vazquez has shown—through data, dedication, and decades of experience—when we invest in teachers, we invest in the future of truth.

On Sunday, July 20th, SHL hosted Layla Luna, CEO of Just Bee, as the speaker at our monthly meeting. The event was covered by Live 5 News.

Founded by Luna and inspired by her nonverbal Autistic son Rio, Just Bee is a nonprofit working to make communities safer, more inclusive, and welcoming for the Autistic and Neurodivergent community. Luna walked us through how the organization came to be, from passing Rio’s Law in South Carolina—creating the nation’s first autism-alert license plate—to launching outreach, training, and educational programs.

Just Bee is transforming awareness into action! Through initiatives like the “Just Bee My Friend” school program, the Bee Hive sensory safe zone trailer, and sensory equipment vending machines, Luna and her network of advocates are building a culture of acceptance where all families can thrive. For people looking for safe spaces that have been trained and equipped to make Autistic folks feel welcome, there’s an app for that! The Just Bee app can help families find food, shopping, entertainment and more that is Autism and Neurodivergent friendly.

So far we have raised $490 four our third quarter Charity of the Quarter, Just Bee. We hope you will join us in supporting a movement that’s not about disabilities—it’s about possibilities.

Donate Now

This essay was originally published in August/September issue of Free Inquiry.

Atheists come in many flavors in the United States. Many of us enjoy criticizing theists and debunking irrationalism while popularizing science. Many other atheists prefer not talking about it. I think we are all useful to a free-thought movement because we often represent different constituencies. I’m a “big tent” atheist who welcomes all to come out of their atheist closets to help normalize free-thought in America.

One advantage to being old is having had the experience of personally witnessing history in the making. I’m happy to say, at my current age of eighty-two, I’ve been a witness!

Recalling twentieth-century public attitudes toward atheism is one vivid example. Being an atheist usually brought social disapproval, so most atheists hid their lack of religious belief even toward the end of the century.

I “knew” as a trusting child that the Hebrew Bible was God’s word. Fortunately, Jews are taught to question. After many of my biblical questions—such as “Who created God?”—went unanswered, I became an example of what Isaac Asimov later observed, “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.”

As a youngster, I was influenced by the movie The Wizard of Oz, in which the gatekeeper tells Dorothy that nobody has ever seen the great wizard. Dorothy replies, “Then how do you know he exists?” The fictional curtain is later pulled back to reveal that the “wizard” is an elderly man operating machinery and speaking into a microphone. So, the wizard doesn’t exist, and Dorothy is on her own. That sounded to me a lot like what I was beginning to think of God.

At age sixteen in 1958, I hadn’t told anyone that I no longer believed in God, thinking I might be the only one in this country with that opinion. (No one else was professing atheism, which was just slightly more acceptable at the time than a taste for cannibalism.)

I then discovered in the public library Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian. I felt better about myself after learning that Russell was more than just not a Christian. He was as many “nots” as I was and brave enough to say so. Russell transformed the lives of many in my generation. For the first time, we heard articulate arguments that confirmed and gave voice to our own skepticism and doubts. Even some theists were led on a thoughtful journey toward altered religious views. I also learned that Russell was a logician and mathematician, which at least partially inspired me to become a mathematician.

Around that same time, I read George Orwell’s 1984. I thought the character Big Brother was an omnipotent, omniscient, eternal, authoritarian figure who demanded absolute obedience. I didn’t know at the time that Orwell was an atheist. Here’s what Orwell said about Big Brother: “In 1984, the concept of Big Brother is a parody of God. You never see him, but the fact of him is drilled into people’s minds so that they become robots, almost. Plus, if you speak badly against Big Brother, it’s a thought crime.”

Later, when I became open about my atheism, I didn’t talk about it much because I assumed that all my friends and mathematical colleagues were also atheists who didn’t talk about it, and there was nothing more to say.

That changed when I moved to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1976 to teach at the College of Charleston. When asked by colleagues about my religious views, I was honest. That was fine with my colleagues there. In 1990, I became an accidental activist atheist when I learned that the South Carolina Constitution prohibited atheists from holding public office. I knew this violated the U.S. Constitution, which disallows religious tests for public office. I challenged this illegal requirement and eventually won a South Carolina Supreme Court victory in 1997, enabling atheists to hold public office in South Carolina. The state media gave my case a lot of publicity. I then heard from people who thought they were the only atheist in South Carolina. We then formed an active local secular humanist group.

The situation for public atheism in the United States then improved significantly, largely because of best-selling books about atheism by Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Susan Jacoby, and others and national organizations that were formed to provide fellowship and support for public atheists and humanists.

Several popular blogs now promote atheism and secularism. In the internet age, people hear about many worldviews, not just the one in which they were raised. Every new national survey shows a significant increase of atheists, agnostics, and others who claim no religious affiliation (called Nones). Many Nones have broken from conservative religious denominations that are anti-LGBTQ, anti-women’s rights, and anti-science. Pedophilia by clergy has also discouraged some people from maintaining their church affiliation.

There is mounting evidence that many of today’s younger generation may be leaving religion for good. Changing views about the relationship between morality and religion also appear to have convinced many young parents that religious institutions are irrelevant or unnecessary for their children.

While our community is growing rapidly, we are still severely underrepresented in politics. We need to encourage more members of our freethought community to run for public office as well as encourage elected officials to acknowledge their nonbelief. The percentage of people who say they would vote for a well-qualified atheist has steadily risen from 18 percent in 1958 to over 60 percent today.

The national Congressional Freethought Caucus works to promote secular, evidence-based public policy was formed in 2018. It includes two humanist secular members of Congress: Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD). The Congressional Freethought Caucus now has twenty-two members and continues to grow. There are also more than fifty state legislators who identify with the atheist and humanist community.

Here are some of our important political issues: protecting a strict separation of religion and government; addressing climate change; advancing human rights and civil liberties (including ending disparities in incarceration rates, fighting for easier access to vote, and supporting women’s rights and death with dignity); promoting religious freedom abroad.

We need our atheist and humanist community to become more visible and welcomed by participants in the electoral arena. I hope to live to see the day when every political party at every governmental level embraces our constituency.

And I’m glad to have lived to see the current day, when being a public atheist is just matter of fact.

Come see the film Oh, Hi! with your non-religious friends from the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry (SHL)! We are going to the 12:15 pm showing at Citadel Mall Stadium 16 Theater.

From writer/director Sophie Brooks, Oh, Hi! is a genre-blending romantic dramedy about a couple, Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman), whose relationship rapidly unravels over the course of their first romantic weekend getaway in Upstate New York. What starts as a bright and hopeful trip takes a dark, comedic, and at times unsettling turn after the couple explores some sexual boundaries and then confronts their vastly different expectations and communication failures. Oh, Hi! is a modern relationship story that veers from romantic comedy to psychological farce, exploring how love, expectation, and miscommunication can lead to both comic disaster and personal revelation.

You can use the link below to purchase tickets. Tickets are assigned seating, and Tucker and Charles have purchased seats D5 and D6. Sit wherever you like, but we encourage you to check the comments on Meetup to see which seats your SHL friends have purchased, and buy seats next to them, in front of them, behind them, near them… then post your seat choice in the comments on Meetup.

After the movie those who wish will be going to the lunch buffet at Zen Asian Fusion Restaurant, located at 2037 Sam Rittenberg Blvd in West Ashley, for drinks, food and to discuss the film. If you don't want to attend the showing, feel free to join us to discuss the film afterwards. We should get there around 2 pm, depending on the number of commercials and previews. If you want to reach out to me ahead of time, I'd be happy to text you when we leave the theater. Please just let me know so I can try to get a big enough table.

RSVP on Meetup

Buy tickets at:
https://www.southeastcinemas.com/movies/CitadelMallStadium16/OH-HI/OH13409-066397000005

Additional info:
Tickets bought online are $10.
The movie is 94 minutes plus or minus commercials and previews.

Movie Selection:
The SHL Movie club normally meets on the first Sunday of the month. Films are usually chosen by a ranked choice vote. An email with the voting link is sent to the movie club mailing list about 10 days before the film. If you are not on the movie club mailing list, but would like to vote on future film selections email [shl@lowcountryhumanists.com](mailto:shl@lowcountryhumanists.com) and ask to be added to the list.

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, SHL has funds available to ensure everyone feels welcome and able to participate. If the cost of participation presents a challenge, please email us at shl@lowcountryhumanists.org, and we can discreetly arrange to cover your costs.

We are having an emergency book club meeting on Saturday, August 9th to discuss Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

How is a book club meeting an emergency? A trailer was just released for the film based on the book, and the trailer spoils key plot points of the book. DO NOT WATCH THE TRAILER UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE BOOK. This is an exceptionally good book that is difficult to talk about without spoiling. The movie looks amazing. It isn't coming out until March, but it is a big studio film starring Ryan Gosling that will likely get a lot of promotion, so it is important to read the book ASAP. It is best to read the book without knowing too much about it. The book is science fiction. It is by the author of the excellent book The Martian which was also made into a very good film.

If it is such an emergency, why are we waiting till August? Well, people need time to read the book! It is a real page turner. Many people won't need that much time, but we want everyone to have a chance. You’ve got 39 days from this event announcement.

The SHL movie club will be going to see the film when it comes out in March, so keep an eye out for that event.

This very special meeting of the book club will take place at 3 pm on Saturday, August 9th in the community room of the Otranto Library in North Charleston. Why Otranto? We are trying out different spaces, and they have free parking which is not as easy downtown on a Saturday.

Per our usual, we will go out for food & drinks after the meeting. Location TBD. Somewhere close to the library.

RSVP on Meetup

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, SHL has funds available to ensure everyone feels welcome and able to participate. If you would like to participate in dining with us after book club but the cost presents a challenge, please email us at shl@lowcountryhumanists.org, and we can discreetly arrange to cover your costs.

About the book:
This is a non-spoiler description from the publisher.
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.

Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.

All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.

And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.

Or does he?

An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Volunteer to distribute food with Park Circle Cares! SHL continues to support Park Circle Cares’ monthly food distribution.

Park Circle Cares is a non-faith based, non-profit organization created in 2016 to assist people in the lowcountry who struggle with food insecurity. Park Circle Cares is a member agency with the Lowcountry Food Bank, and distributes 120-150 thousand pounds of food each year. What makes them unique among the many organizations working on the widespread problem of food insecurity in our community is that they only distribute healthy and nutritious foods, 75% of which is produce. Healthy dry goods and proteins make up the remainder.

Park Circle Cares is operated by an all-volunteer working board, and an enthusiastic group of volunteers who set up a farmers’ market style distribution at North Charleston High School on the third Saturday of each month. The next distribution will be on August 16th.

RSVP on Meetup

On Wednesday, August 6th at 6:30 pm in Community Room A at the Keith Summey Library, located at 3503 Rivers Ave in North Charleston we are having our inaugural Freethinker's Forum. The forum is intended to be a monthly discussion group where we will engage with topics of interest to freethinkers, atheists, agnostics and other non-religious people. The purpose of the forum is to foster respectful dialogue of interesting and intellectually stimulating topics, with an emphasis on navigating the world as non-religious people.

While I think all of SHL's activities support our mission of (1) building community for atheists, agnostics and freethinkers of all stripes, (2) exercising progressive values through mutual aid and volunteer service, and (3) defending the separation of church and state through activism, we actually don't actually spend a lot time talking about humanism, and how to be humanists in the world. Looking back on the last 3 years of activities, I only count six events where that was an explicit topic of discussion. I hope that the forum will engage with a broad range of topics, but that we will conscientiously create more time and space for discussion of humanism, humanistic values, and the challenges of living in a world that does not often makes space for the non-religious, and is at times outright hostile towards us.

For our first meeting we will be discussing the topic, "Are you anti-religious?" SHL, as an organization, is fundamentally NOT anti-religious. We are defenders of religious freedom and believe that everyone should have the right to believe (or not believe) and practice their religion (or lack thereof) as they see fit–so long as doing so does not infringe on the freedoms of belief and practice of others. However, part of our mission is to advocate for visibility and equal rights for non-religious people, and to create a supportive community of non-religious people, many of whom have been hurt by religion and may themselves be anti-religious. How do we, as a community, support those individuals while maintaining a positive environment that is welcoming to people with a wide range of views toward religion?

We will also spend some time organizing and planning for future forums, discussing what topics we may want to tackle at future forums.

Please RSVP on Meetup and join us!

RSVP on Meetup

The administration proposes to allow churches to support or oppose political candidates churches to directly advocate for and against political candidates. Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry has signed on to a group letter to oppose this change and to protect nonprofit non-partisanship.

Interfaith Alliance, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, National Council of Nonprofits, Independent Sector, Public Citizen, American Humanist Association, and Freedom From Religion Foundation have written a letter calling on the Trump Administration to continue to follow the Johnson Amendment.

The letter reads, in part

The prohibition on political campaign intervention by 501(c)(3) nonprofits is often called “the Johnson Amendment,” and it was adopted with broad bipartisan support in Congress and signed by a Republican president. For more than 70 years, it has ensured that all tax-exempt charitable nonprofits—including houses of worship—do not become conduits for partisan politics, protecting public trust in religious institutions and preserving the integrity of elections. Weakening the provision threatens to erode public trust, risk policy capture by special interests, and dilute regulatory oversight.

We believe that even if churches are allowed to support or oppose candidates, the privilege would be unlikely to extend to atheist and humanist groups like SHL. Therefore, churches would be advocating for and against candidates, but we would be risking art nonprofit status if we did the same.

Join your Humanist friends on the second Tuesday of each month for Happy Humanist Hour, where we will share a meal, drinks, and good company.

For August we will be going to 843 Korean BBQ & Sushi House at 6601 Rivers Ave in North Charleston.

Please RSVP so we can get an accurate headcount and try to make a reservation.

Look for our new table top sign to find the group.

Dinner group is always a fun and relaxing evening of stimulating conversation over drinks (alcohol is optional) and yummy food among old and new friends! Hope to see you all there!

RSVP on Meetup

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, SHL has funds available to ensure everyone feels welcome and able to participate. If the cost of participation presents a challenge, please email us at shl@lowcountryhumanists.org, and we can discreetly arrange to cover your costs.

For our August member gathering we are holding a Game Day in the auditorium of the Charleston Country Public Library at 68 Calhoun St in Charleston on Sunday, August 17th, starting at 2:30 pm.

Get ready for an afternoon of fun, laughter, and a little friendly competition playing board games! This is the perfect chance to connect with fellow members, enjoy some lighthearted rivalry, and show off your game-winning skills.

What to Bring:

• Your favorite board games, card games or other fun group games.

• Snacks and drinks to fuel the fun!

Mark your calendar, and we’ll see you for a day of good company and great games. Let the games begin!

RSVP on Meetup

Note that we originally planned to host a presentation from Coleman Watts titled “Confessions of a Former Conspiracy Theorist” for our August member gathering, but decided to postpone due to disappointing turnout at at last few summer events with speakers. We hope to reschedule when we believe we can field a more respectable turnout for our speaker.

We are reading The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource by Chris Hayes for our August book club meeting.

The meeting will be held at 3 pm on Sunday, August 24th, in Meeting Room B of the Main Public Library downtown (68 Calhoun St, Charleston). Metered street parking is free on Sundays, and there is parking available in the garage under the library (garage closes at 5).

After the meeting we'll go out for food and further conversation.
Thanks to the generosity of our donors, SHL has funds available to ensure everyone feels welcome and able to participate. If you would like to participate in dining with us after book club but the cost presents a challenge, please email us at shl@lowcountryhumanists.org, and we can discreetly arrange to cover your costs.

RSVP on Meetup

About the book:
We all feel it—the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they’re us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, “With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade.” Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the nineteenth century: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated. The Sirens’ Call is the big-picture vision we urgently need to offer clarity and guidance.

Because there is a breaking point. Sirens are designed to compel us, and now they are going off in our bedrooms and kitchens at all hours of the day and night, doing the bidding of vast empires, the most valuable companies in history, built on harvesting human attention. As Hayes writes, “Now our deepest neurological structures, human evolutionary inheritances, and social impulses are in a habitat designed to prey upon, to cultivate, distort, or destroy that which most fundamentally makes us human.” The Sirens’ Call is the book that snaps everything into a single holistic framework so that we can wrest back control of our lives, our politics, and our future.

Calling all Trivia buffs! SHL is heading to Commonhouse Aleworks, located at 4831 O'Hear Ave in North Charleston at 6 pm on Tuesday, August 26th for Trivia Night.

Each month we will select a different trivia competition in the Charleston area, so the nights might vary, but if you enjoy a fun night out pitting your random knowledge against others, plan to join us.

RSVP on Meetup

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, SHL has funds available to ensure everyone feels welcome and able to participate. If the cost of participation presents a challenge, please email us at shl@lowcountryhumanists.org, and we can discreetly arrange to cover your costs.

If you need an excuse for having brunch with your humanist friends, how about that there are 5 Sundays in August? Join us for 5th Sunday Brunch at Mpishi on Daniel Island on Sunday, August 31st at 11 am.

Please RSVP so we can get an accurate headcount and try to make a reservation.

RSVP on Meetup

Thanks to the generosity of our donors, SHL has funds available to ensure everyone feels welcome and able to participate. If the cost of participation presents a challenge, please email us at shl@lowcountryhumanists.org, and we can discreetly arrange to cover your costs.

Our humanist commitment for September is Altruism. For our member gathering we are going on a sea kayaking adventure at low tide off Bowen Island. Low tide is the best time to paddle. When the water’s down, wildlife come out to take advantage of all the food available, like shellfish exposed in the mudflats, and fish trapped in shallow pools. We will be flipping Movie Club and Activist Sunday, with Activist Sunday on the first Sunday of the month and Movie Club on the second. We are making the swap so that we can host an organizing training from Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s Resistance Lab on September 7th. We will be tabling again at the Feminist Magic Market, and the SHL Book Club is having their 3rd annual Banned Books discussion and celebration in anticipation of Banned Books week in early October.