Category: Forums

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Let’s teach religion — all religion — in schools

Daniel Dennett

A video of Daniel Dennett

11 a.m., January 14, 2023

This Sunday, we will meet online to watch and discuss a 2006 TED talk by Daniel Dennett, Let’s teach religion – all religion– in schools.

In this talk, Dennett calls for teaching religion, all religion, in schools, so we can understand its nature as a natural phenomenon. Then he takes on “The Purpose Driven Life”, a 2002 bible-study book written by Christian pastor Rick Warren, disputing its claim that, to be moral, one must deny evolution.

Daniel Dennett is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centers on philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, as those fields relate to evolutionary biology and cognitive science. He is one of the “Four Horsemen of New Atheism” with Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens.

You can watch this video at:
https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_dennett_let_s_teach_religion_all_religion_in_schools

———-

The Forum meets this week only online via Zoom. On the first and third Sundays of the month, you can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists at the Mountain View Senior Center at 266 Escuela Ave, Mountain View, CA 94040.

Thus, this week, we present our forum 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

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

Add this event to your calendar:

Like us on Facebook:
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Visit the Humanist Community web site:
https://www.humanists.org/blog/2024-01-07/

RSVP on Meetup:
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Retweet our announcement on the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter here.

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

The Evolutionary Biology of Religion

Mitchell Diamond

Mitchell Diamond

11 a.m., January 7, 2023

Join Mitchell Diamond in Mountain View, where he will discuss and answer questions, OR join us on Zoom.

Academics in the cognitive science of religion (CSR) field disagree about the origin and purpose of religion. Their theories fall into several camps. The most popular are:

  • to enhance social cohesion and cooperation
  • through mythologies religion functions to explain the existential mysteries—purpose of life, what happens after we die, etc.
  • Religion is a byproduct of other evolved cognitive features and itself doesn’t have any function at all.

In this talk, Diamond briefly explains why these CSR theories are flawed and insufficient and offers a science-based alternative, specifically addressing why religion evolved biologically, and why it’s evolutionarily adaptive.

Diamond received a BA in biology with a focus on behavioral and evolutionary biology. He has extensively researched the prevailing cognitive science of religion theories and stumbled upon an explanation for the evolution of religion that better fits the evidence. He’s given talks to many of the atheist and freethinker groups in Northern California and has appeared on atheist podcasts including The Atheist Experience with Tracie Harris.

1/7/2024 Mitchell Diamond from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-

You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists at the Mountain View Senior Center at 266 Escuela Ave, Mountain View, CA 94040. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch. Help us make sure we have room for you. If you can join us in person, please email vp@humanists.org to let us know.

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

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

Add this event to your calendar:

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Like us on Facebook:
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Visit the Humanist Community web site:
https://www.humanists.org/blog/2024-01-07/
Share to your Linkedin account here.
RSVP on Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/humanistcommunity/events/298343746/
Retweet our announcement on the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter here.


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

Refugee Crisis

Scott Wakefield

12/17/23 Scott Wakefield from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

Scott Wakefield

11 a.m., December 17, 2023

Join Scott Wakefield in Mountain View, where he will discuss and answer questions, OR join us on Zoom.

Millions of people left their countries for fear of war or persecution for a variety of reasons, such as race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.

These 100 million people are roughly 1 percent of all the people on the earth. For example, millions of refugees are from Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Venezuela, South Sudan, and Myanmar (formerly Burma).

Refugees are often regarded as a burden, greeted with xenophobia and racism, and denigrated and dehumanized in politics and the media.

The Commission on Social Witness, part of the Unitarian Universalist Association, has issued a statement called “Immigration as a Moral Issue”. It states that our Unitarian Universalist Principles and Sources compel us to affirm that all immigrants, regardless of legal status, should be treated justly and humanely.

Here are the questions Scott will address in his presentation:
Why is the refugee count increasing?
Where do they come from?
Where do they end up?
Is it our problem?
What are the situation of refugees in different parts of the world?
How does the refugee crisis relate to us as Americans and as Humanists?
This is a good chance for us to step out of our “America” box… and into the world of troubled countries.

———-

You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists at the Mountain View Senior Center at 266 Escuela Ave, Mountain View, CA 94040. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch. Help us make sure we have room for you. If you can join us in person, please email vp@humanists.org to let us know.

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

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

Add this event to your calendar:
Add to Calendar
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/humanistcommsv/
Visit the Humanist Community web site:
https://www.humanists.org/blog/2023-12-17/
Share to your Linkedin account here.
RSVP on Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/humanistcommunity/events/297916986/
Retweet our announcement on the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter here.


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

Palestine-Israel: How the Conflict is Covered

Sharat G. Lin, Ph. D.

12/10/23 Dr. Sharat Lin from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

Sharat G. Lin, Ph. D.

11 a.m., December 10, 2023

Join Sharat G. Lin, Ph. D., in Mountain View, where he will discuss and answer questions, OR join us on Zoom.

From the coordinated effort to forge the State of Israel through to the present humanitarian catastrophe, controlling the narrative has been crucial to shaping outcomes. Those narratives are asymmetrically propagated not so much by what is reported than by what is not reported.

Dr. Lin writes and lectures on global political economy, the Middle East, and public health. He has been to Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel several times, and been an eyewitness to some of the great upheavals of the Arab World. He is affiliated with Human Agenda, the San José Peace and Justice Center, and the Initiative for Equality.

———-

You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists at the Mountain View Senior Center at 266 Escuela Ave, Mountain View, CA 94040. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch. Help us make sure we have room for you. If you can join us in person, please email vp@humanists.org to let us know.

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

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

Subscribe to our Apple Calendar here.
Add this event to other calendars:Add to Calendar
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/humanistcommsv/
Visit the Humanist Community web site:
https://www.humanists.org/blog/2023-12-10/
Share to your Linkedin account here.
RSVP on Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/humanistcommunity/events/297782567/
Retweet our announcement on the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter here.


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

California Motherlode Gold Country

Susan Shalit

Susan Shalit

11 a.m., December 3, 2023

Join Susan Shalit in Mountain View, where she will discuss and answer questions, OR join us on Zoom.

A journey from my experiences traveling to and from and living part-time in the Motherlode town of Jamestown, CA for the past 8 years. It is a very rich area of California in history, geography, geology, animal life, literature, music, art, and scenic value. If you grew up in California, most likely you know about the famous 49er Gold Rush. I will go into how to get there, places to stop, side trips, etc. I will touch on some of the many places, people, and items of interest that I have experienced so far. I am continually learning about this area so there is much more to explore only 2 ½ hours from the Bay Area.

About our speaker
Susan Shalit was born in Boston, MA, the youngest of four children. At 18 months her family relocated to the SF Bay Area where she went to school and then went on to the University of California at Berkeley to graduate with a degree in Economics. After graduation, she went to SF State for a teaching credential working with the disabled but decided to take a break and become a letter carrier for the USPS in Berkeley. At the same time, as a single person, she bought her first house in Oakland where she tore out walls, re-tiled floors, painted, and did some electrical and plumbing. Her father taught her a lot about house repair. Her mother taught her to cook without recipes. She does some gardening, indoors and outdoors. Realizing that she needed to go beyond the postal service and house rebuilding, she took a course in software programming and, for over 40 years, has worked as a computer programmer/software engineer/Sr. Business Analyst in the IT industry for major corporations. This brought her to live in Silicon Valley, continuing to buy and fix houses and own an independent coffee house in Gilroy. She has one son and three teenage grandchildren. In 2015, she bought a 2nd house in the Motherlode area of California where she visits every other week. She loves to explore new places and entertain.

Susan has been an HCSV member for over 30 years where she was a board member. For HCSV she evaluated and installed a membership management system that eliminated manual renewals, created an effective attendance monitoring system, designed and produced name badges for members, organized many events, hosted many potlucks, designed and created posters, flyers, and the HCSV trifold brochure. She was the primary administrator for many years of the database system and helped author the membership page of the HCSV webpage. In 2019, she received the HCSV Humanist of the Year award.

Most recently she co-hosted a very successful concert/educational event in the Motherlode area which involved extensive research in Native American culture, food, dance, and music. She designed and produced the graphical promotional materials and online references for the event. She also volunteers at a Los Gatos thrift store that donates to Pacific Clinics, a large family services, and foster care agency, Railtown Historical Park in Jamestown, the Tuolumne County History Research Center, and the Tuolumne County Center for the Arts.

See Susan’s slides here.

12/03/23 Susan Shalit from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

———-

You can attend our forums in person with fellow humanists at the Mountain View Senior Center at 266 Escuela Ave, Mountain View, CA 94040. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation for lunch. Help us make sure we have room for you. If you can join us in person, please email vp@humanists.org to let us know.

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

You can also call any of the following phone numbers and then enter the above Meeting ID and the Passcode in order to join the meeting by phone.
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
You can find international phone numbers to call here.

———-

Subscribe to our Apple Calendar here.
Add this event to other calendars:Add to Calendar
Like us on Facebook here.
Share to your Linkedin account here.
RSVP on Meetup here.
Check out the Humanist Community web site here.
Retweet our announcement on the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.