I have just returned from an excellent hiking and imaging trip to New Mexico. Look for the trip report on The Traveller in a few days.

I timed my departure so I would be at West Texas A&M University at 1 p.m. last Saturday, March 22, for an event in the form of a short lecture from three speakers followed by a question-and-answer session, followed by a period of handshaking. The speakers were three outspoken atheists I’ve followed for some time on YouTube: AronRa, Matt Dillahunty and Seth Andrews.

They called their event The Unholy Trinity Tour.

I sat through their speeches. As I expected, AronRa was pretty good, Matt was excellent, and Seth was the former radio performer I expected him to be. Their speeches all make their points quite eloquently, but I was disappointed by the fact that they didn’t give me anything new. Their presentations were simply condensed versions on the same things they talked about for years on YouTube. I was also troubled by my perception that it is easy for them, and for me, to mock and deride and belittle theists, and their presentations bore out my concern without fully addressing those issues.

Other notes:

• I was initially concerned about my attire (hiking), but when I arrived I realized, as I should have anticipated, that most of the guests were college kids and former hippies.
• There were about 100 people in attendance.
• Almost all of them were white.
• There were ten questions from atheists and four from theists.

I was glad I was able to attend, but only because it was on my way. If anyone asks me if they should attend such a meeting in the future, I would be inclined to tell them to skip it and look at their videos instead.