San Diego Coalition of Reason

06/14/2026

Atheisting in Balboa Park: Started out super slow today. We figured out that people were at the county fair, probably. Didn't get the first visitor until just after noon. He was a 14yo Mormon kid. His basic argument was 'faith.' He didn't stay long.
Holy s**t do we get some real, um, lets just say, odd people? So this guy walks up and asks Carlos about "believing in science." Carlos gives a standard answer- I don't 'believe in' science. I accept it as the best explanation. The guy didn't understand what he meant. Thought Carlos was saying he believe in anything. Before Carlos could explain, the guy goes Gish galloping all over the place. And saying a bunch of nonsense. When asked about his definitions on belief, Christianity, atheism, etc. He had his own definitions. And they didn't make any sense. Not an easy person to talk to. Not to mention, he had a very condescending laugh when we challenged or questioned what he was saying.
Super nice conversation with a lady from Sierra Leone. We talked about a wide variety of things. I brought up how the Wodaabe women do the choosing for their men. And in Nepal, practice fraternal polyandry—a tradition often associated with the Mahabharata's Draupadi. One woman can marry up to five brothers. This idea come from the Mahabharata epic, where Draupadi was married to the five Pandava brothers. I love it when I get to talk about non-Biblical history. 🙂
Another couple showed up. You know it is going to be fun (sarcasm intended) when the conversation starts "We are not here to argue." Nope, they didn't want to argue. They wanted to preach. They couldn't understand that we have heard this argument 100 times before. And have a different take on it. When Carlos asked the guy specifically 'how do you tell the difference between god and not god?' The guy tells us about his 'experience.' We interrupted the guy telling him 'you didn't answer the question. And why it wasn't an answer. But he couldn't comprehend what we were trying to tell him. Then Wayne talked to the guy and I talked to the lady (see below) A lot of the time I have to really 'dumb down' my explanations on history. I can easily bring up things the average person doesn't know about when talking about History. So when I mention something like the Gallic wars by Julius Caesar. And the person says they are familiar with it. I go into detail. Then find out what they meant was that they heard the name before. What I use as an example of 'maybe/ maybe not' history. Caesar claims a village rebelled against him. So he cut off all the men's hands and turned them loose. There is no historical evidence for this. Historians put this in a could have happened- pending evidence. Then compare this to Herod slaying all the children. Possible. But no evidence. Stuff like this gives people a better idea of how historians do history.
We have some of the best talks while waiting for guests to show up. We talked a lot about actors and different roles they play. And who or favorite Dr. Who actor was.
In other words, this makes for another great day at the park.
From Carlos:
Wow!! Busy day. Many convos and now I can’t remember them. Another beautiful day in San Diego. A young 14 y/o kid approached telling us he wants to explain that god was a man (from our QOTD). He tried, but he was just regurgitating what he learned from Mormonism, that he divulged. He seemed like a smart kid tho. Next was one of our funny arguments where words don’t mean words. He was extremely cognitive dissonant. Turned out to be a frustrating talk. A younger (20s) couple approached. The guy just wanted to tell us his personal experience and did not want us to go to hell. His wife was the same. He stated that the exact moment that he prayed for a woman to be the love of his life, she “appeared”. That’s when it got even more frustrating. I asked more questions that he just dodged. So Wayne took over with him and Rob talked to the wife. She was a handful and projected a lot. Saw my little buddy Reef, he’s four and just loves to talk to me. Had other good positive convos, but having brain farts and can’t remember them all. The highlight of the day was seeing Tony Hawk. Saw him skating around the fountain. Nobody really noticed. I was fan-boying out. He’s a legend. I called out his name and he nodded. Then tons of people started to approach him for selfies. I got one too. One of the best days at the booth in a while, as far as the great conversations.
From Wayne: Another very good day at the booth, with fellow booth folks at first, then various group discussions. A fun discussion in particular was with a young christian couple, especially when the young man and I broke off to a side conversation. By being concise, he and I could listen to each other and discuss various topics. He had been saying how he prayed to find a woman and then he and she found each other, so I started out by pointing out that divorce is often the right thing for people but my wife and I found each other over 50 years ago and we're both atheists. Then in talking more I found out that he's a young earth creationist, so I gave him our evidence for evolution handout, and we discussed some of those points (agreeing to disagree). He referred me to Kent Hovind and I told him about PZ Myers' blog (hope he looks for it). We discussed various topics but I think he understood my point of view a bit too. I got to use my "Maybe God created the universe and then was no more...maybe She died giving birth to the universe" and he did get that and smiled.
We didn't expect to get much traffic for the question today.

06/07/2026

Atheisting in the park: A really slow day as far as visitors go. And I missed the one I should have been there for. (had to p*e) A guy came up and said something about the Sumerians being the first people in Mesopotamia. I guess he never heard of the Ubaid culture. I am so pi**ed I missed this. UGH.
We did get a few friendlies stopping by. Why is it that the nicest people are always from some other place? 😛
A young lady deconstructing had a really good conversation with us. I am sure we were very helpful answering her questions. Everyone gets their chance to say what they want. So we all got to talk to her. So, giving her different views and experiences.
Weird encounter with Thom. He was arguing with some other guy about morals. When we asked him about that. He said things we could agree with. It was kind of weird what he was saying. But we didn't have a disagreement.
From Carlos: "So, had a few last night, was late again. Kinda slow for a bit but we had fun. Had some good positivity from walk-bys. It makes me feel good to represent atheism. A young lady approached, she Is a believer, but also stated she is in a deconstruction zone. Her and Rob talked a while. He recommended The Line YouTube. Hope she watches to assist her. Another young man had a cool Spider-Man shirt. I love using nerdy topics to break the ice. He was a believer too, but in just a general god/creator. No name or religion, he was against religion. But then, he stated he reads the bible, so I went deeper with some good questions. He was honest and genuine, and said he’d come back for more conversation. Towards the end, we got into it with a guitar playing busker. He had a loud speaker so it was hard to have convos nearby. We had a little arguing/yelling match. He was just an as***le. We broke down kinda early so I could go to my weekend night job. Awesome as usual!!!!"
From Wayne: "Another very good day at the booth, mostly with fellow booth folks this time (not any discussions with religious visitors). I had written a description of an encounter I, and a fellow booth person, had with someone at one of the Christian booths a week ago, and shared and discussed that with a few of us and we learned quite a bit. For example, one booth person's family member had a similar encounter with this Christian but with a different 'trigger'. And others had similar experiences to an encounter I had described, one that happened years ago with me and a different person, a one-time visitor."
Question did get a lot of people thinking about the question. And a few people talking about the small board question.

05/31/2026

Atheisting in the park... yet again 😛 Another fun day. Even though most of it was slow. We still had some of "those" conversations. If you can all it that. OK, so the first guy that approached us asked, or rather said "You won't know if you are truly an atheist until two seconds from death." I did tell him I need to move the goalposts slightly. And talk about times I thought there was a possibility of death. He said that wasn't the same. I got tired of going back and forth. And flat out asked "So, lets say you a right. Two seconds before death, I say I believe in god. SO WHAT? He never did answer that.
A guy from India told us about his story. The fun part for me, and surprising part for him was when I brought up Ashoka and how he became Buddhist. Not all Americans are ignorant of the rest of the world. And what was funnier to me was, shortly after that a guy recognized the Faravahar symbol on my shirt. So we talked about Zoroastrianism for a while. The guy was also well educated on the founding fathers and their beliefs.
Later in the day this nice 19 year old kid was talking to us. He was in the process of deconstructing. We were have a pleasant conversation. When this hardcore nit-wit comes over and starts complaining about us. We are the bad guys and shouldn't be so negative. It was him being negative, The guy starts shouting "If there is not god. Then you can do anything you want. Needless to say, he wasn't interested in anything we had to say.
A young man from Brazil was interesting to talk to. Told us about ho he became atheist and the people that helped along the way.
Two other guys came up. Only one of them asked questions. Said he never talked to an atheist before (he was the second person that said that today.) And asked for a definition. Chad said "Lack of belief in any gods." Apparently that confused the guy. So we explained several different ways. Then he asked "What would spark your belief in god?" (this is me bragging 😛 ) While everyone give their view. He couldn't make sense if it. So I told him "If god told everyone on the planet at the same time in their own language. So there are no interpretation problems. Then god said "I am creating a fruit that only children 12 and under can eat. It grows anyplace children are. Adults can't eat it. Children shouldn't suffer because adults are idiots." God explains "I am not omnipresence. But I am back now. I am benevolent. Which is why I am doing this. Sorry, I have been gone so long." The fellow we were talking to liked that answer (yay me 😛 )
Had plenty of friendlies From all over the world. I like that.
From Carlos- "Regardless of what happens at the booth it’s always fun. Really slow for me, got there a little late and all my convos were short. Also, a lot of positivity, even a high five, for us representing atheism. Funny that the same questions keep coming… How did we get here? What happens after we die? What is atheism? Why are we there? Each of us always try answer respectfully and cordial, unless otherwise occurs. One guy started with “what does atheism mean to you guys?” We all answered in some form. Rob got real detailed. A good 10-15 mins later he asks the same question because he said we never answered. I’m like, were you not listening? We also got a couple drive-bys, they definitely have slowed down, we don’t hear it as often these days. All in all, beautiful sunny day to be outside in SD."
From Wes D. - "Had a younger guy today talking to us about why we were here and got around to discussing if we got rid of all religion would the world be better off. Neither Wayne nor myself thought it would. That lead into a discussion about tribalism and had a good question, this is the closest I could write down:
How would secular humanism channel our tribalism?"
We did get a lot of people commenting on the question. When they asked? I replied with- the question is to get people to think. You obviously were thinking. Or you wouldn't have asked a question. So it is a win"

05/30/2026

Local secular humanist leader is offering yoga in Balboa Park.

05/24/2026

Atheisting in the park: I love that we get so many people coming up just to tell us how happy they are to see us there.
Starting the day off nicely. with a navy chap that asked me about being an atheist. I told him how I was raised non-religious. Did a lot of reading on religions, mythology, history, etc.
A gentleman and his wife asked about humanism. The simple version- it takes the supernatural out of the picture. Treats all humans as humans. And tries to make the world a better place. And we talked about Sri Lanka (his shirt)
One of the funnier things that happened. A lady walks up to us. Identifies as atheist. And then apologizes for her husband (he was standing far away) as he did not want to be near us.
Ok, some people are just annoying to talk to. When they keep interrupting because they are (incorrectly) anticipating what I am going to say. Instead of listening. He kept saying 'blanket' things. When I called him on it, he denied he said that. And what usually happens is they accuse me of what they are doing. I had to repeat myself, and had to say "I didn't say that" a lot. Wesley joined the conversation. And said the same thing I did about what is known about the origin of the universe. No one know beyond the singularity. Then we discussed the Epicurean and Euthyphro arguments. The guy gave up at the point and ran away.
John and I, and Carlos, had an amusing conversation with a couple of LDS. They said they were from Finland. So I showed them the asl sign for Finland.
From Carlos: "As always, sunny, beautiful day at the booth. Got there late. I was meeting an old friend and her son that I haven’t seen in over 25+ years. It was so amazing to see her again. I was their tour guide around the park. And we talked a lot. So awesome to see that she had the same worldview as us. She really fit well into the group. Didn’t have as many conversations as I wanted, so I just listened to smart guys talk, Rob and John. Heard some discussion of NDE’s, that always fascinates me. People so want to believe in them. I always just say, our brain can do weird things. Afterwards, had a couple beers with these great friends. Love the booth!"
Had more marks on the board then I thought than we would get.
Still having a great time. Wish you all could join us. 🙂

05/19/2026

"If parents want to erase the line between religious doctrine and verifiable fact, no U.S. government, state or federal, has the right to stop them. But no government concerned with educating children should be paying for the eraser."

— Kate Cohen, commenting on Oklahoma's decision to let a Catholic archdiocese operate a public school funded by taxpayers. (Washington Post, June 27, 2023)

05/18/2026

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, weighs in on the May 17 prayer rally in Washington, D.C.

History shows us exactly why the Founders rejected government involvement in religion.

05/17/2026

Atheisting in the park... again 😉
Overcast, but it didn't rain. So I was happy about that.
Early on we had a deaf guy with a cute little doggo stop by. So I was able to communicate with him. We talked more about his doggo than anything else. Those sign language lessons finally paid off 😛
A couple from Seattle stopped by. It is always nice to talk to people from out of town.
Talked with a guy from Georgia. First thing he did was thank us for trying to 'convince' him of anything. What was interesting was that he did not claim to be Christian. But did go to Church. Because of loneliness. Living in Georgia if you want to be with people? Church is pretty much all you have. At one point he asked about why I am here. Then he says "Let me guess." And he totally nailed it. 🙂 There were way more things we agreed with than disagreed about. Pleasant conversation.
Bunches of teens running around all dressed up for prom. Tow ladies stopped by. One asked what happens after you die? I replied "Nothing. Life goes on as it has. My view on death is it is like sleeping without dreaming- you don't know you are doing it. So, being unalive? I won't even know it." She liked that answer and thanked me.
The kid with the angry parents, his mother was not happy he talked to us either. I asked him about his belief in the Bible. Circular reasoning of course. So I asked "Do you care if your beliefs are true or not?" He said yes. Then explained the outsiders test of faith. And my go to is the flood story. So I gave him a quick lesson in geology. He was surprisingly receptive. I am hoping that I planted the curiosity seed.
From Carlos- "Today, I was at the booth all day and love when that happens. We set up and sat for a few hours with nobody approaching us. Then, a young xtian lady came to talk to us. She basically just wanted to proselytize and tell us about her experience with her god. But yet, didn’t answer our question or acknowledge the topics we brought up. Then we got hit pretty hard with several different groups approaching. Most of us engaged in some discussion. A father and son wanted to understand where we come from and seemed genuine. The father ended up being an a-hole. The son was decent, at least he attempted to answer some basic questions. Let Rob take over and they had a good convo. A nice xtian family walked up and said some really nice things about us. That always makes us feel appreciated. Another fun day, prom and college grads were all over the park."
Had a few interesting conversations from the QOTD.
A young lady from the Philippines that marked yes on the board talked to us for almost an hour. Unfortunately, she was not interested in having a conversation. Only proselytizing. She would not answer any of our questions. Only prattle on about her experience with God. And the funny part? A Christian family that has talked to us before. Was telling her that we are good people. We did feel for her. She said because she changed from Catholic to Pentecostal (I think) Her parents and siblings/ friends all disowned her. That was just sad.
One other guy that marked yes was a panentheist. Kind of a goofy fellow. I asked him about how you look into information. And suggested two books. I was very happy when he had me write down the names so he could read them.
How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age. by Theodore Schick; Lewis Vaughn and
How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life by Thomas Gilovich
And a funny part was when Daniel said he needed to read both of them 🙂
Well, that is all I can remember. So if all goes well? You'll hear from me next week.

05/10/2026

Atheisting in the park: Relatively a slow day. But we still get in good conversations. Lots of friendlies stopping by saying how good it is to see us there. That we are their favorite booth. We appreciate that.
A group called 'Armor of God' filmed Doug and myself. That didn't go as well as they thought it would. I let Doug go at them for a while. Then hit them with the history stuff. I don't think they were prepared for people capable of answering their questions. Gish gallop did not work as planned. 😛 So, when the guy that was doing the interview started talking to Carlos, I talked to the cameraman. He was easier to talk to. Not as closeminded. The first guy we talked to really couldn't comprehend much outside his belief-zone. His entire world was Jesus Christ.
Had a nice conversation with a kid, David, that was into philosophy. He talked to Carlos first. Then I talked to him for a while. I got really annoyed at myself because I couldn't remember Epicurus name. David mentioned it. In a weird sort of way. But I knew what he was talking about. So explained the entire argument. Earlier in the conversation he was talking about Euthyphro's dilemma. So we discussed that too. (Sure glad we have a information source at hand. Our phone.)
Thom and Deng stopped by again. Not as annoying this time. But, I didn't talk to them much. Deng is from Somalia (I think) Last week I asked him if he thought A&E were real people and he answered yes. So, I really didn't have much to say to him.
Carlos was talking to another kid, I joined in later in the conversation. It was one of those annoying conversations because the guy was very ignorant of, well, of pretty much everything. And was very sure of his beliefs. He is one of those kinds of people that will ask irrelevant question in the middle of a conversation. And then kept repeating the same set of questions over and over. When I asked him how he answered any of those questions it was always Jesus Christ. Ugh. 🤦
I got tired of his nonsense and talked to his lady friend. She was very sweet. We had a nice conversation. She had a few questions. But was actually interested in the answers.
From Carlos: "Arrived late today, woke up feeling poopy, but can’t miss the booth. Sat down and the gang said it’s been a quiet morning. Two approach, one with a small mic in hand, the other with a phone camera. Told us they were from Armor Of god or something like that. Guy didn’t want to “argue” so instead he just regurgitated all the weak apologetic topics. Rob took care of him though. The guy went from subject to subject. Went from wanting to talk about heaven and hell, to govt lies to us, to science lies to us. I whispered in Robs ear, “he’s gonna do the something from nothing argument”. Lo and behold, he says it. Rob and Doug had him stumbling because they answered the barrage of questions he was throwing. Gish galloping like most them theists. I talked a little with him, but kinda told him off. Dude was pretty clueless…..
A possible new guy, David came by and talked to us, fellow atheist, but really knowledgeable with philosophy. Good convo and then Rob talked to him. Hope he comes back……
It ended with a young xtian guy. At first, he seemed honest and genuine, but after he didn’t like some of my answers and responses, he started pulling some passive aggressive snarkiness. I’m still not sure if he was doing it on purpose or if he was really that way because he was so willingly ignorant with major cognitive dissonance. I was getting really frustrated with him so I let Rob take over. Same BS with him too, but Rob explains it better and more intellectually. It’s funny how that kid tried to say that I seem so angry, I was frustrated and if he kept going, I would’ve been angry. Both me and Rob called him an as***le, and we both didn’t know the other said it. Kid was a punk. Anyways, fun day as usual."
A lot of people liked our question. But we really didn't get much in the way of comments 🙂