Archive for the ‘Foundation’ Category

It was such beautiful weather at this month’s Humanist Community meeting that we held the meeting outside. However, just as we were going to get started, a drum parade started behind us! Luckily it had soon passed and we got down to discussing a range of topics – so much so I didn’t even get chance to give the talk I had written – but maybe that is what people were aiming for ;).

Often, volunteering with the Humanist Action Group is a very rewarding experience. We always receive positive feedback on the homeless outreach work we do. However, sometimes, it’s heartbreaking.

Last week, myself and Katie were out out on the usual run, when we encountered a man sat at the bottom of Briggate. He was very memorable because of the amount of blood covering his eye and nose.

Having sat down to talk to him, we soon discovered that only about fifteen minutes before we arrived, he had been badly assaulted by a group of young men.

After finding an eye witness and taking his details should the police be able to do anything, we walked Matt up to Leeds General Infirmary to get him checked out. Despite having a headache he thankfully seemed still coherent, but you can’t be too careful with blows to the head.

My point is though, who does that?

Who just goes up to someone and starts kicking them in the head? Or tramp whacking was Matt described it.

I’ll be honest, normally I would be a little dubious of such a story, but having had it entirely collaborated by an eye witness you have to wonder to yourself what kind of sick bastard would do such a thing. It degrades your faith in humanity.

Matt was clearly an intelligent guy who had been down on his luck; on the way to the hospital he discussed various programming languages with me, and the various flavours of physics with Katie. If it can happen to Matt, it can happen to anyone.

Yet somehow, some individuals, luckily a very, very small minority of our society, think it is OK to abuse people like Matt.

Luckily, there is something we can do. Getting out there and making a difference not only provides a valuable service but also has an incredibly powerful psychological impact, showing that people do care.

As such, I would like to take this opportunity to says thank you to everyone who has been involved with HAG work over the years. It is times like this that really remind you why it is important.

The July issue of our newsletter, Engage, is now available to download from our website. This quarter’s issue is rather Humanist Action Group heavy, with a number of articles looking at their work we’re doing there, as well as some exciting news on new projects and the regular news round-up.

We’re pleased to announce that online video site Dailymotion has accepted us into their content partner programme!

Over the past twelve months, we have been building up an archive of the academic lectures and events that we and our follow groups have been staging and we will now be able to bring this collection to the world – all in full 1080 HD.

Look out for more exciting news on this topic in the upcoming weeks and months, but for now you can browse our newly opened Dailymotion channel. The first lecture we have posted is Dr Terrence Kee delivering the 2010 Worfolk Lecture on “did life on Earth originate on Earth?” and we are adding new talks on a regular basis.

At Chris Worfolk Foundation, we support and manage a number of local community groups, allowing us to leverage our resources to provide a better experience for members of the local community who attend them.

We’re also passionate about Transhumanism and the benefits that GNR can bring to society.

As a result, we’re now supporting the Leeds Transhumanists group, a group for anyone interested in discussing and furthering Transhumanism and related topics, such as the technological singularity.

So, if you’re around the Leeds area and have an interest in the future of humanity, why not join us?

Last Sunday saw the June meeting of the Humanist Community of Leeds. This month’s meeting saw a very elaborate array of discussions with topics ranging from The moral landscape and global politics to exactly how you should cook extra thick steak. Big thanks to Gijsbert for his excellent news round up as usual.

The Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge is a circular walk of 39.2km (24.5 miles) round the peaks of the Yorkshire Dales – Whernside (736 m/2,415 ft), Ingleborough (723 m/2,372 ft) and Pen-y-ghent (694 m/2,277 ft).

All this and only twelve hours to do it in – are you up for the challenge?

Join us for this fun day taking in some amazing scenery in the Yorkshire Dales, and raise money for charity at the same time! The event is taking place Saturday 23 July 2011. For further details see the Facebook event or email us.

We’re pleased to announce that today we are launching the first in what will be a series of guides by the Humanist Action Group. HAG does great work in Leeds and if you have ever thought about running such a group in your local community, these guides are for you.

The guides have been under development for a while and we would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to them.

The first guide we are making available is the organiser’s guide which explains the basics of organising a group, finding and recruiting volunteers, staying on top of everything and making sure you have the correct paperwork in place.

The second guide we are launching today is the homeless guide which explains how to run a simple feed the homeless programme. If you would like to get a copy of these, just get in touch!

We have further guides under development also, to keep an eye out for those.

On April 3rd, Humanist Community returned due to popular demand. Back in February we had announced that the pilot project was coming to an end and while we had enjoyed our time, we did not intend to continue the project. But after the number of people who announced that they were deeply disappointed in this we decided to extend it’s life to see it’s continued development over the coming months.

At the April meeting, much of the discussion focused around an article featured in The Guardian, written by Deborah Orr claiming that the Census Campaign (the campaign to get those with no religion to actually tick no religion rather than CoE) was militant secularism in action. Surprisingly enough, most of the attendees didn’t agree.

For the final session of Perspective Citywide, Nicola Jackson presented a talk on Judaism.