Michael Shermer

THOUSAND OAKS, CA. - The Secular Student Alliance at California Lutheran University is hosting the first SSA SoCal Leadership Summit from Friday, Feb. 18, through Sunday, Feb. 20.

While the conference is designed for members of high school and college secular organizations, it is open to the public. The keynote presentation by Skeptic Magazine founding Publisher Michael Shermer on “Why People Believe Weird Things” from 8 to 9:30 p.m. Feb. 19 is free.

Evan Clark, the founder and president of the SSA chapter at CLU and president of the Associated Students of CLU, will speak on “How an Atheist Became Student Body President at a Lutheran University.”

Other presentations and workshops include “Beyond Kumbaya” by feminist author Sikivu Hutchinson, “How to be a Campus Fundraising Ninja,” by SSA Executive Director August Brunsman IV, and “You Can’t Reason with Them: The Chinese Finger Torture of Talking Religion with True Believers” by Atheists United President Bobbie Kirkhart. Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, will present “How to be an Anti-Antidisestablishmentarian.”

SSA began in Minnesota in 2000 and now has 250 campus affiliates. Its mission is to organize, unite, educate and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism and human-based ethics. Members include atheists, agnostics and humanists.

Clark started the SSA affiliate at CLU in 2009 to provide a community for non-religious students and to live out the university’s commitment to critical inquiry into matters of faith and reason by examining a variety of beliefs and traditions. The group meets weekly for discussions and, unlike many secular student groups, takes field trips to a variety of churches, temples, mosques, pagan gatherings and other places to participate in services and rituals and learn firsthand about various beliefs.

The keynote address will be held in CLU’s Samuelson Chapel, which is south of Olsen Road near Campus Drive on the Thousand Oaks campus.

Registration rates for the conference run from $39 to $149. To register, go to http://www.secularstudents.org/socal.reg.

For more information, contact Clark at ebclark@callutheran.edu or (978) 501-2691.