tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27819955382582866602024-03-14T03:23:04.067-07:00Berkeley Atheists and Skeptics SocietyDelivering the message of reason and honest inquiry...one blog post at a time.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2781995538258286660.post-67053836525338382712015-03-10T23:08:00.000-07:002015-03-10T23:10:31.833-07:00How I became an Atheist: Jonathan Morales<b>Our club will be posting personal stories of how we each came to repudiate belief in God, so stay posted for more stories!</b><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Take the risk of thinking for
yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that
way."- Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How exactly does one become an atheist? What leads
to the rejection of belief in God? How does one cope with the idea of leaving
behind a tight-knit religious community? These thoughts were never really
things that crossed my mind when I was 16 years old; I identified as a Roman
Catholic, but merely because of my circumstances. Coming from a community of
Mexican-Americans, Catholicism is so deeply ingrained into my culture that
being anything but a Catholic is almost akin to being anything but a Christian
in the Deep South. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I was born and raised a Catholic, baptized and
whatnot, but religion never really played an integral part of my life. My
mother, herself a Catholic, never took it upon herself to read me Bible stories
or tell me that certain thing were wrong because God said so. I was taught how
to pray and other formalities, but as a youngster, I only really did this
because I thought <i>mamá</i> knew what was
best for me. Was it necessarily enforced on me? Not particularly. My mother
never went out of her way to enforce beliefs on me, so religion never became a
topic of discussion. We never really did attend church either, with the
exception of a few weddings and the occasional <i>quinceañera</i>, but for the most part, we were not a church going
family. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So when exactly did I begin to question my faith? During
the summer before my junior year, I began to have doubts surrounding my
Catholicism. This was in response to the feelings of confusion I felt when I
went with a friend of mine and his mother for Ash Wednesday as part of Lent. The
feeling of puzzlement while standing in church with an ash cross on my forehead
left me with one question: why? Why was this necessary to please God? Following
Lent, I began to think long and hard about my faith. The dormant years of my
adherence to Catholicism without question were over and in ushered a period of
questioning. <i>I’ll probably end up still
being a Catholic anyways</i>, I thought to myself throughout this period. I
wasn’t particularly afraid of having my beliefs challenged, so I didn’t feel
afraid to dive deep into questions that might’ve made others uncomfortable. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the summer before my junior year, I trekked
through an intellectual landscape to find answers to my questions. This mainly
took form in the act of setting aside time to think critically about God. One
of the most memorable moments during that summer was when I stumbled upon a
debate about the existence of God from a British television show called <i>The Big Questions</i>. After watching the debate,
I felt interested, but my mind yearned for more answers. The pragmatism of this
new position I had never heard of, atheism, looked appealing to me. I ended up
spending a lot of time on YouTube watching multiple debates surrounding the
existence of God, but as the summer drew to a close, I didn’t really know if I
would embrace atheism over Catholicism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The fateful day where I finally self-identified as
an atheist came on September 24<sup>th</sup> 2012 while I was sitting in my Advanced
Placement Biology classroom. The textbook lie open in front of me, on a page
depicting the Miller-Urey experiment. That moment finally hit the nail on the
head for me; the experiment was so compelling that I remember looking up from
the page and thinking to myself, <i>Huh, I
guess God wasn’t needed for life to begin.</i> From that day on, I repudiated
my ties to Catholicism and instead took up the label atheist. I’ve never looked
back since then.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So what does life look for me now? Since I no longer
believe in God, where do I stand in terms of death and my place in the world? Although
I do miss the concept of eternal existence after I die, I’ve taken solace in
knowing that my life now is great. Moreover, I feel that this is my only life
to live, and consequently, this is the only chance I have at maximizing
happiness for myself and for others I love. The world is not senseless and
meaningless through the lens of atheism, but rather, it has become even more
meaningful given the finitude of my existence as a living being. So is a
godless life worth living? Absolutely, and I wouldn’t trade it for any dogmas
anytime soon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03955815754613633355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2781995538258286660.post-7430249314180903962014-11-23T20:40:00.000-08:002015-03-10T23:20:53.509-07:00On Death and Mortality <div style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Having recently lost my dog, the past few days have
consisted mostly of crying, solitude, and a weak attempt at trying to get work
done (to no effect unfortunately). Yesterday night was extremely difficult;
insomnia hung over me and I couldn't muster up the strength to close my eyes
since they burned. In the wee hours of the morning, I stepped outside onto the
balcony to escape the confinement of my dorm room and I sat there for a good
hour or so, trying to collect my thoughts on what had happened. The following
is more or less a summarization of what I feel at the present moment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I gazed on the stars and shivered and wondered if
I’d ever see my dog again. Being an atheist almost always commits one to the
thought that the afterlife is merely human invention meant to cope with
bereavement, so reconciling this thought with my disbelief is quite a struggle.
I really want to believe that somewhere, my dog is happily frolicking around
like he used to, playing with the other dogs that have passed away, and
awaiting my arrival into the afterlife with him. I want this to be true, but I
can’t help but feel this is only wishful thinking on my part. Will I see my dog
again? I don’t think so. Is this unacceptable? Yes, but reality is what it is.
However, I take solace in knowing that for the decade that I owned my dog, I
gave him the best life possible and I gave him my heart and soul, and I’d like
to think that he did too. His finite existence with me was certainly rewarding
and I think this only makes it so much more meaningful that most of his life
was spent in company of a loving family who adored him. I can only hope that in
his last moments, he was truly at peace and tranquil in his mind and heart,
despite the fact that he’d never wake up again. I also take solace in knowing
that the state of non-existence my dog currently dwells in is the one we’re all
headed towards. Our lives, much like his, are finite and the day we cease to
exist is the day we enter the realm of nothingness that more than likely
follows. Depressing? I don’t think so. Our finite existence only magnifies that
meaning of our lives we chose to espouse, and I think that having my dog’s
finite existence within my own finite existence makes it so much more
meaningful and significant. The day I enter the nothingness after my own
passing is the day I join my dog forever in the state of non-existence, where
we’ll never be apart. That being said, do I want to join him right now? No. I
still have a finite existence to live out, as granted to me by Nature, and I
intend on using that time wisely to bring meaning to other’s lives much like
they do for me. The times are rough right now for me, but having the time to
think and be alone for the past few days has been good to say the least. I can
only hope that I can recover from this in due time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Lastly, I want to say thank you to the individuals
in my life, outside of this university and in this university, who lent support
and a shoulder to cry on when my emotions decided to erupt. I don’t care about
too many things and I don’t show emotion very regularly, but I’m truly thankful
to have helpful and supportive people in my life. So, if you happen to be
reading this, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I sincerely mean it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03955815754613633355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2781995538258286660.post-7035202146124014912014-11-11T14:04:00.001-08:002014-11-21T23:06:17.956-08:00There are atheists in foxholes...<i>"When one proudly dons a U.S military uniform, there is only one religious symbol: the American flag. There is only one religious scripture: the American Constitution. Finally, there is only one religious faith: American patriotism"- Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (link <a href="http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: orange;">here</span></a>)</i><br />
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As most of you may have noticed, today is Veteran's Day (or Remembrance Day for our Canadian friends). For many, it's a day to relax from school and whatnot. For others, it's a day set aside to respect the commitment some men and women made to defend their nation from all threats, foreign and domestic. While some of you reading this may disagree with the recent wars the U.S has embroiled itself in, I feel this escapes the point of today. You are free to disagree with U.S foreign policy and it's implementation (I myself think U.S foreign policy is in need of major change) and it's fine to denounce the wars. For today's post, this won't be the topic; that's a discussion for another time.<br />
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What I want to get at today is this notion that there are no atheists in foxholes, that when the bullets start flying and the shells start coming down, those who claimed to be atheists immediately turn to God. I feel this is an insult to the brave individuals who didn't turn to God when they were in the heat of combat. Moreover, it's disrespectful to the brave atheist veterans who willingly risked their lives for their fellow man (or woman), who didn't care if that comrade was religious or not. It's extremely irritating to see that people who are willing to serve their nation, populated mostly by Christians, be harassed and stigmatized for lacking <span style="color: orange;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uazHajo574" target="_blank">faith</a>.</span> Really? Is this really how we want to treat people who made a commitment to you and me? Is this really how we want to thank individuals who willingly went into harm's way? If it is, you've disregarded the meaning of today and in the process acted like a self-righteous bigot. If someone's lack of faith bothers you so, perhaps it's time to re-evaluate your ideals.<br />
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Remember that today isn't just a day off, but is meant to remember that among us are individuals who took an oath to defend the constitution and everything it stands for. So, if it's not too much to ask, thank anyone you may know who was prior military (or is still serving). Beneath that uniform is a person with goals and dreams much like you and me; having met a lot of people in the military (and having a few friends currently serving), they're down to earth and great individuals, regardless of their religions or lack of. To all the veterans of the U.S Armed Forces, past and present: thank you.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03955815754613633355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2781995538258286660.post-21822224396358885672014-11-06T22:42:00.000-08:002015-03-10T23:14:51.983-07:00Look at the Moon: Bill Maher's Bigotry and the Tyranny of Words<div class="p1">
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Words are
hard. Hard to understand, hard to use properly, and hard to control once
they’re out there. Those of you who know me personally have heard me say
this, and I certainly believe it, but even I often don't realize just how
powerful and dangerous words can be. Words are powerful because they
represent reality, and they are dangerous because – and you might want to write
this down – words are not reality. They have no meaning apart from the
ideas they convey, and they have no importance apart from the actions they
inspire. Ignorance of this fact is, I think, the biggest problem behind
the whole Bill Maher thing. I was bothered at first that people wouldn’t
stop talking about it, because I don’t think it’s important, but the
controversy has given me the opportunity to clear up something that I think is
important.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I had the
opportunity last Tuesday to hear from a couple of students who opposed Bill
Maher’s invitation to speak at Cal's commencement, and although they were both
Muslims themselves, they ostensibly didn’t object to Maher because of his
criticism of Islam. The reason they gave was that Bill Maher has a
tendency to say offensive things, and someone who says such things shouldn’t be
given such a prestigious platform to speak. It was a relief to hear that
they don’t have a problem with criticism of Islam (yes, maybe it’s just a giant
coincidence that there also happen to be plenty of loud people in the West who
try to silence any criticism of Islam, but I’ll take them at their word), but
their criticism of Bill Maher qua Bill Maher demonstrates an irritating habit
of focusing on language over action. Every critic I’ve seen has been
throwing out offensive quotes from him, as if they represent something other
than that his job is to produce offensive quotes, and this infuriates me
because it’s contrary to the most important principle for achieving success and
happiness: What matters is what people do, and everything else is a lie.
Bill Maher is going to say inflammatory things in any case – an occupational
hazard of being a comedian – but if one wants to object to his views, one needs
to look past his words, look at his impact on the real world, in order to
determine which views he actually holds.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Since
this totally isn’t about criticism of Islam, let’s take as an example a Tweet
that Bill Maher made recently, saying “Dealing w/ Hamas is like dealing w/ a
crazy woman who’s trying to kill u – u can only hold her wrists for so long
before you have to slap her”. A member of the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/bassatcal" target="_blank">Facebook group</a> showed us this
Tweet last week, referencing it as an example of how Bill Maher is a sexist,
and then mentioning it again, just in case we hadn’t noticed how good he was at
calling things sexist. He then went on to contemplate self harm/destruction
of property due to arguments over whether the Tweet was in fact sexist.
Now, I agreed with him that the Tweet was objectionable, but I also saw that
the moment he started arguing over whether the term “sexist” applied to it, he
gave the conversation away to the forces of nonsense. Protip: if you
think something is bad, your time is wasted arguing over which label best
applies to it, because this takes the focus entirely off why the thing itself
is bad. Let people define “sexist” any way they want, but if it's really
something wrong, you still win by pointing to all the negative consequences
that this Tweet produces in objective reality. So, what effect does this
Tweet have on the real world that makes it so objectionable?<o:p></o:p></div>
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“It
perpetuates the stereotype of women as irrational and insane.” In whose
mind? Yours? Maybe if you’re an idiot. The Tweet doesn’t say
anything about women; it mentions “a woman” who isn’t even a real woman (What’s
her name? How tall is she? Does she prefer Thai food or Chinese?) for the sake
of a simile, to make a point about the extent to which violence can be
justified in self-defense. That’s an interesting conversation, and one
worth having, but apparently the word “woman” means it’s a gender issue instead
(I just thank God that the word “man” wasn’t in there to perpetuate the
stereotype of men as violent and lacking in empathy). I find it unlikely
that this Tweet has actually affected gender relations. I’m sorry you
have to find out like this, dear reader, but if reading that Tweet put the
belief into your head that women in general are crazy, then you were already a
misogynist. And if the Tweet just reinforced a belief you held
previously, well, you shouldn’t need me to tell you.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But you
didn’t think about it like that, did you? Be honest here, did you wonder
what sort of effect reading that Tweet would have on<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>your own beliefs</i>? If you
did, you’re a better person than you think you are. But the rest of you
had to be thinking of someone, right? Stereotypes are beliefs held in individual
minds, after all. What kind of individual did you imagine, in whom this
stereotype would be perpetuated, who would treat women differently based on a
glib remark from the host of HBO’s<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Real
Time</i>? It would be a strange individual indeed who held racist or
sexist beliefs and looked to Bill Maher’s Twitter account for validation.
So if this isn’t the real-world impact of the Tweet, what is?<o:p></o:p></div>
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If you
said, “It trivializes issues of domestic violence”, pat yourself on the back
because you're looking in the right place. If you want to know what my
problem is with stuff like this, well, you’re looking at it. This blog
post that you’re reading right now, this whole conversation we're having, is
part of the problem because it keeps the focus on Bill Maher’s words instead
of, you know, actual domestic violence. But that’s the System we’re all
in: we are forced to focus on words over actions to assess a person’s value
because the System wants us to forget that only actions matter. It’s
easier for us to use words to identify brands – and make no mistake, everything
is a brand these days – so those who want to impose brands on the public do so
with words. The Tweet, like everything, is a branding move, and it has
two results. The first result is that it reinforces the branding of Bill
Maher as unafraid to say abrasive things, as secure enough in his convictions
that he doesn’t care whose feelings he hurts. And so what? I say
Bill Maher can do whatever he wants with his brand, but the problem is that
it’s not just his brand that’s affected. The second result, which is less
an effect than a cause of the first, is where the damage is done. You’re
not supposed to see it, but here's a hint: does persistent indignation over a
comedian's 140-character comment on foreign affairs make one look more or less
crazy than before? The really serious problem that I've never seen anyone
point out is that controversies like the one around this Tweet dilute the brand
of Feminism. Feminism is not an objectively real thing; like Bill Maher –
or Islam, for what it’s worth – it is a brand; it’s a set of ideas and actions
that we all agree to put under this label. As such, Feminism is defined
by what is done in its name. If Feminists attack people who make disagreeable
remarks on social media, then – in the public perception, at least – Feminism
comes to entail attacking people who make disagreeable remarks on social media,
and that’s all anyone needs to know to safely dismiss the brand altogether
(e.g. "Feminists? You mean those people who say you can never call a
woman crazy, even if she's trying to kill u?"). If you want to brand
yourself as the kind of person who throws a fit whenever a public figure says
something unflattering, don’t be surprised when people stop listening to you,
even about real issues. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>But
that’s exactly what the System wants.</i> Bill Maher and his ilk are how
the System feeds your need to be outraged. He gives you a reason to feel
righteously indignant, and in turn, you safely direct your anger at his words
in order to ensure that nothing important ever actually changes.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Why do
you think Bill Maher made that tweet in the first place? Who was his
intended audience? Did he want to tarnish the public perception of
women? Encourage domestic violence? Now, I’m no mind-reader, but
no. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://jezebel.com/bill-maher-tweets-hamas-is-like-dealing-with-a-crazy-wo-1606959806" target="_blank">He</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/07/18/bill_maher_s_sexist_tweet_the_so_called_progressive_makes_light_of_domestic.html" target="_blank">wanted</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2014/07/18/bill-maher-gets-slap-happy-with-tweet-comparing-hamas-to-a-crazy-woman/" target="_blank">this</a>. He wanted to be talked
about, and he used an inflammatory analogy precisely because he knew we were
going to get mad about it. If I bought into conspiracy theories, I’d be
convinced that this whole thing was a plant by the Patriarchy to discredit
Feminism and take the focus off of real issues. If Bill Maher is actually
hitting women, or if people are reading his tweet and deciding that that makes
it okay to hit women, that needs to stop. This should go without saying,
but violence, including violence against women, is bad. Don't do it.
But to call Bill Maher a misogynist obfuscates the fact that there are
actual misogynists. Somewhere in the real world, at this very moment, a
man is slapping a woman; do you think it's because Bill Maher told him to?
The proper response to this tweet, if you disapprove of it, is to treat
it like an outburst from an annoying child: ignore it, because it doesn't
actually hurt anyone, and it will stop on its own once he realizes it won't get
him any attention. As a public figure, he has no more power than what we,
the public, give him. Remember, words are nothing unless they inspire
actions (which is why, contrastively, the proper response when a partner who's
beaten you apologizes and says, "I love you," is to say, "That's
demonstrably not true," and then duck). I even agree that the fact
that we were so receptive to a comparison between women and Hamas – i.e. no
matter what you think of the Tweet, its specific mention of "a woman"
isn’t a total non-sequitur – but come on, guys. You know we live in a
rape culture, right? Tweets do not hurt women. Fists hurt
women. Unwanted pregnancies hurt women. Poor educational
opportunities hurt women. Will attacking Bill Maher fix these things, or
anything? <i>Will it even make him less likely to say sexist things in
the future?</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> Or is he a
diversion? I totally get that it’s easier to call out hypocrisy on
Twitter than actually do something about anything, but at least recognize that
it's the path of least resistance, and don't present it to us all like you're
doing the Lord's work. That's not how progress happens.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The
saying goes, “Truth has nothing to do with words. Truth can be likened to
the bright moon in the sky. Words, in this case, can be likened to a
finger. The finger can point to the moon’s location. However, the
finger is not the moon. To look at the moon, it is necessary to gaze beyond
the finger, right?” Words are not reality; words are cheap.
Language is a tool, a logical system that we use for describing and
interpreting reality. It is the wall between our minds and the world we
inhabit. This fact seems obvious when it’s right in front of you, but it is
terrifyingly easy to forget. Our relationship with language is the most
unique aspect of the human condition, and to forget it is to abandon one’s
commitment to rationality. So, what does Bill Maher really believe?
Unless you can read the man’s mind, the answer to this question is found in his
actions, in how he treats the people in his life. The question worth
asking is, what does he do? Remember, everything else is a lie.</div>
</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2781995538258286660.post-62774079350917074922014-10-30T20:20:00.001-07:002015-03-10T23:31:41.350-07:00Welcome to the official blog of the Berkeley Atheists and Skeptics Society (BASS) at Cal!<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
Dear
Reader,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><br />
</b>First and foremost, I want to welcome you
to the official blog of UC Berkeley's one and only atheist and skeptic society,
or BASS as us members call it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
This blog was started in the hopes of spreading our ideals
of rationalism, reason, and honest inquiry, among other things. Here, you'll be
able to read posts from club members about topics ranging from societal effects
of religion to discussion/criticism of philosophical arguments for the
existence of God. It is our hope that these blog posts will help the Berkeley
campus, and society in general, understand the ideas of atheists like
ourselves, who are generally misunderstood or not heard enough in certain
regions of the world.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
By the way, just a quick introduction, I'm Jonathan
Morales, a freshman hoping to major in history here at the University of
California Berkeley. Stay tuned for more updates from our club blog as there's
more to come! See you guys soon ;)<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03955815754613633355noreply@blogger.com0