Category: Video+discussion

Alex Havasy, facilitator

11 a.m., September 5, 2021

This Sunday we will view and discuss a video entitled “Grief Beyond Belief”.

In this video from the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s “Ask an Atheist” series, Peggi Johnson and Rebecca Hensler will discuss grieving without god. Peggi works with The Compassionate Friends, an organization that supports families who’ve lost a child, and Rebecca Hensler is the founder of Grief Beyond Belief, a popular Facebook page devoted to faith-free grief support. The video talks about how we deal with grief and also how we respond to religious friends who try to comfort us with faith based fantasies.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American non-profit organization, which advocates for atheists, agnostics, and non-theists. Learn more about them at https://ffrf.org/.

The video lasts just over 53 minutes, and you can view it here: http://www.facebook.com/4ffrf/videos/4358091197583894/.

———-

Because of the coronavirus situation, this Forum will be held online.

If you don’t intend to ask any questions or make any comments during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view the Forum as it occurs (in real time):

www.facebook.com/humanistcommsv/live

Note the new website above for streaming the Forum.

If you may want to ask a question or make a comment during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view, and possibly take part in, the Forum as it occurs (in real time):

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/314247393?pwd=d285R2VxWWdNcmk4NHdPaVNpWjc4dz09

(Note: this is a different link than has been posted here previously.)

If you don’t have the Zoom app installed on your desktop computer, then joining the meeting via the above link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer, and then take you to the meeting.

You can also install the Zoom app on your smart phone, and then enter:

314247393

as the meeting number, and

255787

as the passcode, to get to this Zoom meeting.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Alex Havasy, facilitator

11 a.m., August 29, 2021

This Sunday we will discuss the upcoming recall election of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Alex Havasy will describe the history and the method for recalling a governor. Then we will discuss the possible outcomes, concerns and possible changes to the recall procedure.

———-

Because of the coronavirus situation, this Forum will be held online.

If you don’t intend to ask any questions or make any comments during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view the Forum as it occurs (in real time):

www.facebook.com/humanistcommsv/live

Note the new website above for streaming the Forum.

If you may want to ask a question or make a comment during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view, and possibly take part in, the Forum as it occurs (in real time):

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/314247393?pwd=d285R2VxWWdNcmk4NHdPaVNpWjc4dz09

(Note: this is a different link than has been posted here previously.)

If you don’t have the Zoom app installed on your desktop computer, then joining the meeting via the above link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer, and then take you to the meeting.

You can also install the Zoom app on your smart phone, and then enter:

314247393

as the meeting number, and

255787

as the passcode, to get to this Zoom meeting.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Alex Havasy, discussion facilitator

11 a.m., August 22, 2021

This Sunday we will watch and discuss ‘Why Women Are Too Polite About Religion’, a video from a 2016 panel discussion put on by the Center for Inquiry in which prominent secular scholars Rebecca Goldstein and Susan Jacobi discuss the unique cultural expectations for women regarding religion, touching on motivation for religious participation, family pressure, and politeness of female atheists.

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein is an American philosopher, novelist, and public intellectual. She has written ten books, both fiction and non-fiction. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy of science from Princeton University, and is sometimes grouped with novelists such as Richard Powers and Alan Lightman, who create fiction that is knowledgeable of, and sympathetic toward, science

Susan Jacoby is an American author. Her 2008 book about American anti-intellectualism, The Age of American Unreason, was a New York Times best seller. She is an atheist and a secularist.

You can view the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJDZWTOs79I

———-

Because of the coronavirus situation, this Forum will be held online.

If you don’t intend to ask any questions or make any comments during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view the Forum as it occurs (in real time):

www.facebook.com/humanistcommsv/live

Note the new website above for streaming the Forum.

If you may want to ask a question or make a comment during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view, and possibly take part in, the Forum as it occurs (in real time):

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/314247393?pwd=d285R2VxWWdNcmk4NHdPaVNpWjc4dz09

(Note: this is a different link than has been posted here previously.)

If you don’t have the Zoom app installed on your desktop computer, then joining the meeting via the above link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer, and then take you to the meeting.

You can also install the Zoom app on your smart phone, and then enter:

314247393

as the meeting number, and

255787

as the passcode, to get to this Zoom meeting.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Alex Havasy, discussion facilitator

11 a.m., August 15, 2021

This Sunday we will watch ‘Dogmatic Delusions’, a video from the American Humanist Association’s 80th annual conference, given last July. Alex Havasy will lead a discussion after the video.

‘Dogmatic Delusions’ examines the surge in conspiracy theories and other delusions in the United States. What properties of the human mind make us so susceptible to these kinds of delusions and how can we strengthen the role of reason? Mark Reimer will examine the surge in conspiracy theories and other delusions in the United States. What properties of the human mind make us so susceptible to these kinds of delusions and how can we strengthen the role of reason?

Mark is an associate professor in the neuroscience program at Michigan State University College of Engineering where he integrates statistical analysis with biological theory while analyzing and interpreting the very large data sets now being generated in neuroscience, especially from the high-throughput technologies developed by the BRAIN initiative.

You can view this video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jhxOdAlPX8&list=PL5Gb8MNhOZ4kG6b35fl67gBcTnvlL_smT&index=16

———-

Because of the coronavirus situation, this Forum will be held online.

If you don’t intend to ask any questions or make any comments during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view the Forum as it occurs (in real time):

www.facebook.com/humanistcommsv/live

Note the new website above for streaming the Forum.

If you may want to ask a question or make a comment during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view, and possibly take part in, the Forum as it occurs (in real time):

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/314247393?pwd=d285R2VxWWdNcmk4NHdPaVNpWjc4dz09

(Note: this is a different link than has been posted here previously.)

If you don’t have the Zoom app installed on your desktop computer, then joining the meeting via the above link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer, and then take you to the meeting.

You can also install the Zoom app on your smart phone, and then enter:

314247393

as the meeting number, and

255787

as the passcode, to get to this Zoom meeting.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.

Facilitated by Alex Havasy

11 a.m., July 25, 2021

At this Sunday’s Humanist Forum, Alex Havasy will show part of an hour and 20 minute video entitled “Mental Immune Collapse: Mind-Parasites and the Roots of Mass Irrationality – AHA Center for Education” (see https://americanhumanistcenterforeducation.org/mental-immune-collapse-mind-parasites-and-the-roots-of-mass-irrationality/). Alex will then lead a discussion of the video.

Here is the description of the video:

Why are ideologies poisoning public discourse? Why is extremism on the rise? How did we get here, and what can we do about it?

It turns out some influential assumptions are suppressing our culture’s “immune response” to dangerous ideas. These assumptions prevent us from normalizing critical thinking, and leave us vulnerable to epidemics of unreason. In this video, philosopher Andy Norman will identify the root cause of mass irrationality, and argue that we can inoculate minds against unhinged thinking.

Andy Norman studies how ideologies short-circuit minds and corrupt moral understanding. Then he develops tools that help people reason together in more fruitful ways. In his book Mental Immunity, he lays out the conceptual foundations of cognitive immunology—the emerging science of mental immune health. He’s currently testing a “mind vaccine”—a way to inoculate minds against infectious ideas. Andy directs the Humanism Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University.

———-

Because of the coronavirus situation, this Forum will be held online.

If you don’t intend to ask any questions or make any comments during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view the Forum as it occurs (in real time):

www.facebook.com/humanistcommsv/live

Note the new website above for streaming the Forum.

If you may want to ask a question or make a comment during this Forum, then please click the below link on Sunday around 11 a.m. in order to view, and possibly take part in, the Forum as it occurs (in real time):

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/314247393?pwd=d285R2VxWWdNcmk4NHdPaVNpWjc4dz09

(Note: this is a different link than has been posted here previously.)

If you don’t have the Zoom app installed on your desktop computer, then joining the meeting via the above link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer, and then take you to the meeting.

You can also install the Zoom app on your smart phone, and then enter:

314247393

as the meeting number, and

255787

as the passcode, to get to this Zoom meeting.

———-

RSVP on Meetup here.
Like us on Facebook here.
Follow us on Twitter here.
See videos of our past Forums here.
To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/) of the Humanist Community.

Do your online shopping at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/94-6173979, and Amazon donates to the Humanist Community every time you do.