Progressive Atheists Inc.

Religious dogmatism persist when people remain ignorant of their own history, of their own origins. Religions, especially short-term creationism, who believe that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old have their own versions of events. They tell us that we came from Adam and Eve and all the species today came from those that survived Noah's Great Flood. However, through the study of fossils, continental drift and our very own DNA, science tells us a different story: human evolution.

Clik here to find out how human beings evolved from earlier life forms on Earth for over 4.4 billion years, from single-celled organisms to the diverse multitude of species alive today. This article comes with a diagram of the evolutionary Tree of Life.

Here is a quick history of cats. I provide this here because of its reference to what Christians did to cats in the Middle Ages and the dire consequences it had.

• 65 million years ago, dinosaurs became extinct and mammals began to dominate the planet.
• 30 million years ago, the first true cat evolves from a tree-dwelling insect-eater in western Europe.
• 12 million years ago, cats evolve into five groups: Neofelis, Lynx, Panthera, Acinonyx and Felis.
• 10,000 years ago, Farming settlements in the Fertile Crescent in the Middle East began attracting mice as their food supply increases. Cats proved to be useful in keeping the food safe.
• 9,500 years ago: remains of a man and a cat buried together have been found, dating 9,500 years ago.
• 4,000 - 3,900 years ago, ancient Egyptians began keeping cats.
• Around 3,500 - 3,000 years ago, Ancient Egyptians worship cats as gods and tried to prevent other nations from acquiring them. Having seen the effectiveness of cats to control rodents, traders smuggled them up the Nile to the coast where Green and Phoenican traders take the cats with them to Europe and the Middle East.
• 2,500 - 1,500 years ago, Cats spread throughout Europe and Asia through both trade and the expansion of the Roman Empire.
• Around 1500 to 600 years ago, the Christian Church suspects cats are evil and starts a campaign to wipe them out. The drop in cat numbers allows rat populations to soar and rats help spread the plague that kills nearly a quarter of Europe's population in the Middle Ages.
• 500 years ago the present day, the cat is a favoured pet and the relationship he has with humans changes from one of working to one of companionship.

Source: The Cat Expert by Rebecca Watson, p25., Blog Post from Reasonism.org

Elida Radig and Andrew Rawlings went to Canberra in support of the challenge to the National School Chaplaincy Program in the High court of Australia: the controversial program funded by taxpayers to pay chaplains, predominantly Christian, to hang about in schools. Here, Elida reports to us her experience in what maybe the most important court case to give our children the right not to be indoctrinated in school.

Progressive Atheists Inc. is having its Second Annual General Meeting on Saturday, 27th of   August 2011 and you are invited to join us for lunch and for the rest of the afternoon. It will be held at the Olmec's Restaurant at 410 Bridge Rd., Richmond, Melbourne .

This year, Scott Hedges will be providing an update report on the efforts to uphold the rights of children to be free from being indoctrinated in schools and to stop the government from continuing to fund the National School Chaplaincy Program with millions of tax dollars.

The day is scheduled as follows:

12 noon to 1pm: Lunch

1pm – 2pm: Annual General Meeting – Report and Presentation

2pm – 3pm: Guest Speaker  –  Scott Hedges (Update Report on the National School Chaplaincy Program)

3pm – 4pm: Social Hour and Networking

On the day, Progressive Atheists Members will also be voting for their Committee for 2011-2012.

We hope to see you there. Please invite your friends, relatives and acquaintances to join us for a pleasant afternoon.

For more information, contact Andrew on 0438 043 050 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.