Archive for the ‘Humanism’ Category

What did I do for Valentine’s Day this year you ask? Why, I went to the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire to listen to a talk about death.

To be fair, I then went home for a romantic meal and some quality time with Elina, but the talk itself was well worth attending too – the speaker Matthew Simpson, is a Celebrant and talked us through his take on death and how the Humanist approach differs from that of the religions.

Recently, Margaret Bramham, a former Religious Education teacher, gave Atheist Society her take on the Gospels. Here are some photos.

Last month, Paul Hopwood presented his talk “You Know Less Than You Think.” I have already blogged about it, but this time, I’ve got pictures. Also, if you missed the talk, don’t worry as it was the 2012 Worfolk Lecture, so you can watch the Leeds Skeptics event online.

Last week at Atheist Society, retired Religious Education teacher Margaret Bramham presented a talk on the Gospels. It was an interesting talk, though I couldn’t help thinking about this Mitchell & Webb sketch.

Last week, Paul Hopwood delivered a talk to the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire entitled “You Know Less Than You Think”.

Though, for the sake of those being busy, he included a more accurate title that went something along the lines of “you may or may not know more, less or the same as you may or may not think you know.”

It is a really interesting talk and one that he has previously given at Leeds Skeptics, as well as round the country. So interesting in fact that I actually went away from the event and read The Invisible Gorilla – one of the books Paul recommends in the talk.

I think what it comes down to is that Paul is just a really interesting guy. We went for a couple of drinks after the talk and settled in to some fascinating conversations – it was only realising I had to be at work in eight hours that made me call it a night.

If you missed it, don’t worry, you can see the version he gave to Leeds Skeptics online via Worfolk Lectures. Or, why not see it in person – Paul will be speaking at Sheffield Skeptics on 28 January!

Earlier this month, the Humanist Action Group completed our third annual Holiday Food Drive for local homeless shelters. This year was bigger than ever, raising, including in-kind giving, almost £3,000! We learned a lot from what we did this year, tried some new things, some of which worked and some of which was less successful.

To reflect this, we’ve now got a new edition of the HAG Food Drive guide – this publication provides all the information you need to run a food drive in your local area and now includes whole new sections based on our recent experiences. Get in touch if you would like a copy – it’s free!

A massive thank you to everyone who contributed to the Humanist Action Group‘s 2012 Holiday Food Drive for local homeless shelters! Last Sunday saw the (almost) final day of what has been six nearly two months of hard work, planning, coordinating and executing the project and we’re pleased so that in total, we raised in-kind donations worth a brilliant…

The donations went to three local homeless shelters, two of which are direct access – this means that service users are able to turn up, often coming in just for a day or two to escape the cold – so being able to give out a box containing food and some warm clothing is invaluable to such organisations.

You can see all the photos from the event on our Flickr page.

This month at Leeds Skeptics, John Wilson, founder of Wilsons Solicitors, presented a talk “do we get the legal system we deserve?”

He argued that the legal profession was in need of a shake up. He used an analogy of the opticians industry, that thirty years ago was hidden away in offices, where nobody really knew how much anything cost, everything was slow and customer service was just shockingly bad. Today, after reform, you can walk into an opticians on the high street, get an eye test and select from a huge range of glasses, should you need them. Shouldn’t be going to see a solicitor be just as simple?

John argues that it should, and I imagine most of us will strongly agree with him! It was a great talk to round out the year, and one that I found extremely interesting.

This month at the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire, Simon Wellings presented a talk on Positive Money: A Simple Solution to the Debt Problem. It is a talk similar to the one he had given at Leeds Skeptics, though truth be told, I enjoyed the Skeptics talk a little more.

It was certainly thought provoking as Simon laid out the problems with the monetary system, and much debate followed the talk, though one of the members, who works in a bank treasury, strongly disputed some of the facts in the talk.

Ultimately there were two possible take home messages from the talk – you need to overhaul the monetary system and completely change the way the financial sector operates across the world. Or you need to start a bank.

It’s hard to believe that us non-believers have now been getting together for six years to celebrate the holiday season with a meal. This year saw us visit an old classic – Spice Quarter.

They were surprisingly quiet for the Christmas period – I thought it would be rammed but someone even got a walk up table while we were there.

There was also a chav-tastic moment when we spotted a young lady wearing what I can only describe as a “magician’s assistant” leotard, covered in a thin net skirt that didn’t cover anything.