Category: Forums

11 a.m., December 21, 2025

Join our friend Keith Swenson next week, either in person or online.

Ancient philosophers debated ethics and morality, which is the topic of how to live the right life (also called the good life or eudaimonia). Many of my non-religious friends struggle to understand what should be considered the source of morality. These are fine, upstanding moral people. They understand what it means to be fair, good, and kind. They would not live their lives any other way. But they are not really sure where morals come from.

This talk will take the point of view that moral truths are real, and they come neither from God nor are they random. Moral behavior is as it is because of the form of human interaction with each other and with the world. Humans have learned how to behave morally through a self-reinforcing natural process that can be readily seen in the world once we know how to look for it. Moral guidelines are not an accident, nor are they commandments from the supernatural. Instead, we can say succinctly: we discovered the best way to live because it is the best way to live.

Bio:
Keith is a local resident of the Silicon Valley area and a long-time member of the Bay Area Humanists and Humanist Community. After a career in software engineering, he focuses mainly on philosophy topics and runs a couple of websites on topics of philosophical interest. He has a degree in physics and in computer science from the University of California. In his spare time, he likes to hike in the wilderness and plays in a classic rock band.

12/21/25 Objective Morality from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

Attend in Person:
Join fellow Humanists in the Apricot Room of the Los Altos Community Center, 97 Hillview Ave, Los Altos, CA 94022. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation.

Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

Join the meeting by phone: +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
Find an international phone number to call: here.

Subscribe to our events in your Apple Calendar:
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Add this event to your Google calendar:

Like us on Facebook:
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Visit the Humanist Community web site:
https://www.humanists.org/blog/2025-12-21/

RSVP on Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/humanistcommunity/events/312423350/

Click the Interested button or share on Patch:
https://patch.com/california/paloalto/calendar/event/20251221/a74c6f82-07cb-42b5-97dc-251276f6878b/objective-morality

Retweet our announcement on the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter:
https://x.com/HumanistCommSV/status/1999941155908415612

Objective Morality https://t.co/MSuG3LgnHF #Meetup via @Meetup pic.twitter.com/xQxLmt1zUT

— Humanist Community (@HumanistCommSV) December 13, 2025

Watch videos of our past Forums: https://vimeo.com/user2798508

11 a.m., November 30, 2025

Join us this Sunday, either in person or online, as we welcome Humanist Community member Carl Angotti to tell us about “My Life Journey to Discover Meditation”.

Carl writes: I am giving this talk to introduce fellow humanists to meditation, not as some super solution to life’s problems and concerns, and not because I discovered something that suddenly changed my life forever, but something that has been part of a lifelong process.

As I see it, most Humanists are thinkers, and many of us are “doers”, but learning to “un think” and “un do” is foreign to many of us. Only a few of us have discovered Meditation as another way to enhance their understanding of their world. My talk will literally start from childhood, through adulthood, to my first real experience of Meditation, and later experiences. I have been meditating, off and on, for 24 years. Perhaps you might want not take so long as I did to experiment with this different state of being, and learn to use it in your life.

Come join us to hear my thoughts, and answer questions about what meditation is, and what it is not, in my experience.

Bio

Carl Angotti was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, and after graduating from college in 1962 he came to Southern CA, and then to the SF Bay Area of CA in 1965. He is a long time humanist and member of the Humanist Community. He started his journey from agnostic to unbeliever over 62 years, starting as a Unitarian, then shifting later to becoming a Humanist over this same period. He has long been interested in learning about philosophy, psychology and of course engineering. He as been a technical engineering consultant in the Bay Area for more then 35 years.

Attend in Person:
Join fellow Humanists in the Old Mill Clubhouse, 49 Showers Dr, Mountain View, CA 94040. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation.

Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, click here.
No password is needed — our host will admit you from the waiting room. Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it’s not already installed), and then take you to the meeting. You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smartphone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634

Join the meeting by phone: +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
Find an international phone number to call: here.

Subscribe to our events in your Apple Calendar:
webcal://p162-caldav.icloud.com/published/2/Mjk3Nzk1MTgyMjk3Nzk1MRBa7aU6zKSIJMfDjhqBP8r3muvKK3GLLCRnZoCneHpXv08CyGJAJRVI5yyh-SVWxGJE9xHfdUs72pmiBNlOBpY

Add this event to your Google calendar:

Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/humanistcommsv/

Visit the Bay Area Humanists and Humanist Community web site:
https://www.humanists.org/blog/2025-11-23/

RSVP on Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/humanistcommunity/events/312147371/

Click the Interested button or share on Patch:
https://patch.com/california/paloalto/calendar/event/20251130/fddb3930-f625-4a55-8b82-60768f290ce9/my-life-journey-to-discover-mediation

Retweet our announcement on the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter:
https://x.com/HumanistCommSV/status/1992799035581972907

My Life Journey to Discover Mediation https://t.co/W7sCEq0REo #Meetup via @Meetup pic.twitter.com/63DS7M6TXM

— Humanist Community (@HumanistCommSV) November 24, 2025

Watch videos of our past Forums: https://vimeo.com/user2798508