Open letter sent to the Bangladeshi Embassy in Canberra
In response to the following article, Sydney Atheists, in solidarity and sympathy with Bangladeshi Atheists in Bangladesh, Australia and around the world we sent this email.

http://m.bdnews24.com/en/detail/bangladesh/931299

Dear Sir / Madam,

In Australia, at least 25% of the population do NOT believe in any gods.

As an atheist, I was very distressed to read that Avijit Roy, an atheist in Bangladesh was hacked to death because of his non belief in the majority god of Bangladesh.

Could you please explain why this fellow and his wife were not protected.
Could you please explain what measures the Bangladeshi government is going to take to reduce the religious extremism that might bring such atrocious deeds to be performed.
Could you please explain how you will capture and deal with the perpetrators of this heinous crime.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Marton
President Sydney Atheists

Please write your own letters to the Bangladesh embassy at: http://www.bhcanberra.com/contact_us.php

Please keep your correspondence courteous

An open letter to the government of Saudi Arabia

Dear Sir/Madam,

I appeal to the government of Saudi Arabia to give leniency to those people who declare themselves to be atheists. To us the approach of beheading such individuals is seen by the overwhelming majority of Australians as barbaric and retrograde.

In Australia, at least 25% of the population do not believe in any gods. We don't consider that there is anything wrong with holding such views.

Atheists are good moral people who work in all sections of Australian society such as doctors, teachers, philosophers, lawyers, accountants, engineers, IT professionals and working people in various other areas.

In this country we enjoy freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of thought. We have a progressive, humane society where we respect the beliefs of others.

If, as I understand you to believe, that there is a god as is written in the Koran, then surely you would leave it to that god to punish people accordingly. Surely you would have to consider that it is not your place to do your god's work, it is his alone.

On behalf of Saudi atheists and humanity at large, please free those atheists who you accuse of blasphemy.

Yours sincerely,

Steve Marton
President
Sydney Atheists

Billboard Campaign - 
Have you escaped religion? We have!

Sydney Atheists would like to thank Billboards Australia for putting up our billboard when another billboard company declined us at the final minute. We would like to thank the Atheist Foundation of Australia for sharing in the venture to erect the billboard. We would like to thank all of the people who suggested slogans and voted on what the message should be. We would like to thank those people who made extraordinary donations to the campaign. We would like to thank our supporter members and all those people who come to our entry fee events, thereby contributing funds to make the posting of the billboard possible.

Not only did Sydney Atheists and the Atheist Foundation of Australia receive exposure on the M4 Motorway, we received coverage Australia wide through News Corp internet press, both news.com.au and the Daily Telegraph. Our billboard, interviews and press releases were covered by both theist and atheist websites from the USA to the UK, Italy, the Netherlands and probably very much more.

Collectively our websites  were seen by tens of thousands of people, the Billboard itself will have been seen by hundreds of thousands of eyeballs and the reach of the message potentially by millions of people in Australia and worldwide. AND, the campaign still has over a week to run.

Congratulations to Sydney Atheists and all those who made it possible!

Steve Marton - President

Welcome to Sydney Atheists

Please take time to discover our web site and meetup group, starting with the tabs at the top of this page.

On the right column you will find links to our most active sites, our Meetup events pages which list all of our social and Talk evenings or click on:
Join our events »

You can also click on the white arrow on the red background for our Youtube channel where you can watch many of our previous talks as well as a handful of interesting excerpts from elsewhere. The last box in the row is our most active Facebook site. Our twitter account, though not very active can also be accessed.

Sydney Atheists Press release:

Sydney Atheists have been involved in the presentation of a billboard that states:

Have you escaped religion? We have!

Most of the members of Sydney Atheists once belonged to a religion. With the benefit of a comprehensive and usually critical education, particularly in the areas of science, history, geography, philosophy and religion we have discovered the fallacies of religions. It is a great challenge for many to escape the religious indoctrination that most of us have suffered, usually from birth.

We have members who once belonged to religions ranging from Judaism, Christianity and Islam to Hinduism and Sikhism. It stands to reason that because all religions make the claim that they are somehow uniquely correct in their supernatural claims, they are all simply false belief systems that deny the realities of the universe, life in general and particularly the place of humanity on this earth.

Sydney Atheists invite those who are trapped by religious belief to escape the bounds and strictures of their religions to gain freedom of thought, deed and a better life, governed by morals that are determined through rational, humane and sceptical thinking and the just laws of the land.

Our billboard - put up in conjunction with the Atheist Foundation of Australia - went up the morning of Wednesday 4th of February on the M4 Freeway at West Homebush

Press enquiries 0450 123 211