Category: Forums

James Hunt

May 1, 2016

Humanist Community member James Hunt speaks on the “Recent Chromosomal Fusion” theory, and presents his book: “23, How Humanity Came To Be”. Over many years, in many books, there are many suggestions that Africa launched anatomically modern humans, replacing all older species. Anthropologists say something happened, but there are very few suggestions of what exactly that macro-evolutionary event was. What evidence is there for macro-evolution in human DNA? Why did anatomically modern humans all come “out of Africa”? Ernst Mayr wrote that chromosomal fusions have no effect on species, but there is clearly evidence that 23 chromosome humans are drastically less diverse than earlier 24 chromosome species. Is it time to consider the obvious? Homo Erectus was a 24!

 

Humanist Community Forum (2016-05-01): A New Theory of Human Origin (James Hunt) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

 

August Brunsman

April 24, 2016film Sandy Wexler 2017

Your connections to other people matter more to the success or failure of our movement than anything else. The most important thing we’ve learned via the Secular Student Alliance (https://secularstudents.org/) over the last 16 years has been the unimaginable importance of community. Our whole movement needs to build on its momentum by forming communities based on helping each other live the amazing and rational values that we all share. If you want to strengthen your secular group, or just make closer secular friends, this presentation will have lots to offer you.

August Brunsman has been the executive director of the Secular Student Alliance since 2001, and served as the Secretary of the Board of the Secular Coalition for America from 2006 through 2012. He has volunteered for Camp Quest since 1999, and is a humanist celebrant (for weddings and funerals, etc.).

 

Humanist Community Forum (2016-04-24): Community and the Secular Student Alliance (August Brunsman) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

 

Arthur Jackson

April 17, 2016

Longtime Humanist Community member and leader Arthur Jackson (who authored the book “How to Live the Good Life: A User’s Guide for Modern Humans”) will offer a concise, focused talk on what humanism is, and why it is important for individuals and for humanity.

 

Humanist Community Forum (2016-04-17): A Humanist Perspective (Not The Humanist Perspective) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.

 

Suds Jain

April 10, 2016

Suds Jain (B.S. and M.S. in Electrical Engineering from MIT, and a Board member of Acterra.org) will discuss his work with a team of retired engineers on a geoengineering project that someday may have to be used to reduce the amount of extra heat being trapped on the planet due to global warming gasses. See http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/energy/environment/tech-industry-vets-fight-effects-of-climate-change for more details of this project.

Alfred Jan

April 3, 2016

Who coined the word “blurb”, published a short story in 1905 which anticipated the 1980s movie “Ghostbusters”, and was responsible for Picasso getting his first solo exhibition in America? Gelett Burgess, a truly remarkable Renaissance man, started out as a civil engineer and became a West Coast bohemian who responded to the European Decadent movement with nonsense poetry. He wrote essays and short stories about the nature of humor, the function of art, gender relations, and the basis of empathy. Our speaker, Alfred Jan, is a practicing optometrist with an M.A. in Philosophy specializing in Aesthetics. He compiled a collection of Gelett Burgess’ works called “A Gelett Burgess Sampler: Ethics and Aesthetics” in 2012, and has lectured several times about Burgess since.

 

Humanist Community Forum (2016-04-03): Gelett Burgess, a Renaissance Man (Alfred Jan) from Humanist Community-SiliconValley on Vimeo.