AAI Conference

I recently got back from the 2009 Darwin's Legacy convention in Burbank, CA. It was hosted by Atheist Alliance International and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. It was an amazing convention and I suggest everyone consider attending one in the future (btw, if you attended this one let everyone know your thoughts on it). It included speakers Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, PZ Myers, Jerry Coyne, Mr. Deity and many, many more.

The only poor presentation was Maurice Bisheff, I can only hope AAI wasn't too familiar with his subject because it was a bit out there. It seemed like it would be great, he was going to be giving a lecture on Thomas Paine (founding father and author of Common Sense). Mr. Bisheff never went off paper and was a very dry speaker. But the weirdness was when he started talking about science eventually studying and measuring mysticism. Luckily PZ Myers was in the audience and got up and asked him a few questions. Bisheff rambled off some gibberish that didn't come close to addressing the point and that was the end of it.

With the exception of Bisheff the rest was a blast, not only did we have all the wonderful speaker, Bill Maher was there to accept an award from Dawkins foundation and treated us to 20 or 30 minutes of his hilarious self. I would consider picking up a set of dvd's from the convention at AAI.com.