Category: Forums

Karen L. Garst

May 14, 2017

Karen L. Garst will trace the female images and figurines of the Paleolithic through the Neolithic and examine the loss of the female deity in several cultures in the Middle East at about the same time in the Bronze Age. She will then contrast the memes of the goddess with the memes of the sole male deity that develops into monotheism in Judaism and eventually Christianity and Islam. Finally, she will show the impact religion has on the rights of women in the United States compared to less religious countries.

Karen L. Garst has a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, and is the former executive director of the Oregon State Bar. She has a blog at www.faithlessfeminist.com, a Facebook Page, a YouTube channel, and is on Twitter (@karen_garst). She is also the author of “Women Beyond Belief: Discovering Life without Religion” (2016). She obtained book blurbs for the book from Richard Dawkins, Valerie Tarico, Peter Boghossian, Rebecca Hale, John Loftus, Sikivu Hutchinson and others. The book will be available for purchase at the Forum.

 

Humanist Community Forum (2017-05-14): From Goddess to God: Elimination of the Feminine Divine (Karen L. Garst) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Christopher Boscia

May 7, 2017

This presentation will provide participants with a framework to evaluate the lawfulness of police shootings of civilians. Topics to be covered include how criminal charges are instituted, the definition of homicide and its defenses, and how cognitive bias affects the evaluation of officer involved shootings.

Christopher Boscia has been a Deputy District Attorney for seven years prosecuting cases in Santa Clara County and Contra Costa County. Prior to working as a prosecutor, he was a staff member to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice. The Commission examined the causes of wrongful convictions and evaluated the death penalty system in California.

After the Forum, please join us for a lunch at 12:30pm. The lunch is complimentary for first-time visitors and students.

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Dr. Ralph Merkle

April 30, 2017

History makes it abundantly clear that science and technology are constantly advancing. Flight to the moon was little more than a dream in 1900, by 1969 it had become a reality. Today, medical technology can’t always keep us alive, let alone healthy. Looking ahead, we can already see technologies that will keep us both alive and healthy for as long as we want. How can those of us alive today, who are in need of this future medical technology, reach it? By preserving ourselves using ultracold temperatures. This will stabilize our condition and preserve us, unchanged, until future technologies can be developed that can restore us to vibrant good health. This is the promise of cryonics. This talk will offer a glimpse of these future technologies and how they might work, as well as the practice of cryonics today.

A Stanford University Ph.D. who co-invented public key cryptography, Dr. Merkle (merkle.com) was a research scientist at Xerox PARC, a Nanotechnology Theorist at Zyvex, and a Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology. A winner of the Feynman Prize for Nanotechnology, he is now a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, a Director of Alcor, and Department Chair for Nanotechnology at Singularity University.

 

Humanist Community Forum (2017-04-30): Cryonics – Preserving Ourselves for the Future (Dr. Ralph Merkle) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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Tom Bergstrom

April 23, 2017

HCSV member Tom Bergstrom will discuss how to use mobile phone apps and web commerce to fight right wing groups, how to buy products and invest in socially responsible companies that value ethical behavior, and socially responsible investing and lobbying, mostly through online sources.

After the Forum, please join us for a lunch at 12:30pm. The lunch is complimentary for first-time visitors and students.

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Jason Kazarian

April 16, 2017

What’s it like to live in Armenia, a former Soviet republic and a member of today’s Commonwealth of Independent States? Pretty much like living in America before the Great Depression. People have cars, electricity, factory jobs, and homes, but still make their own bread and cheese.

Jason Paul Kazarian worked in Armenia from 2008-2009 as a director of an IT training academy. Join him for an “agri-tour” of this tiny nation in the Caucus Mountains where the 21st century has, in some respects, yet to arrive.

Humanist Community Forum (2017-04-16): Forward To The Past: Life In A Second-World Country (Jason Kazarian) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

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