Archive for the ‘Humanism’ Category

This month at Leeds Skeptics in the Pub, we welcomed Dr Andrew Rae presenting a talk on “Dealing Reasonably with Irrational Fear.” The talk turned out to be fantastic, probably one of the most interesting we have had this year!

Last Thursday, Brian Quinn gave a talk to the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire on superstition. It turned out to be a brilliant talk, both entertaining and informative with Brian pointing out that superstition is actually wider spread than religion even though it’s even more nonsensical.

I would just like to congratulate my friends in the various north west humanist groups that were involved in the inaugural North West Humanist Conference which took place last weekend. Unfortunately I missed the event due to illness (gutted, as a Yorkshireman I can’t stand not attending events I’ve already paid for) but it was never the less a big success and I look forward to attending next year.

Last Friday, another series of the One Life course kicked off with a session on the meaning of life which Will had asked me to chair.

I tried to expand the discussion a little further than previously, where it has often stuck to its philosophical roots, to go beyond that and get into questions like, what would be a wasted life and what tenants do you live your life by. All in all, it seemed to go very well.

The biggest problem, however, is that for the first time ever, they didn’t provide a hot meal. I’ll be filing an expense claim for my McDonald’s shortly…

Last Tuesday, Simon Wellings spoke to the Atheist Society on why he isn’t a Christian. He had given a debate speech for the society a number of years ago, facing off against the always delightful Anna Brown and the talk was essentially a re-work of that, with plenty of new material.

Simon had also given a talk on money reform to Leeds Skeptics recently, which was also entertaining.

As I seem to get shouted at every time I take photos now, the photos were taken by Elettra.

At the September meeting of Leeds Skeptics in the Pub, Arthur Chappell presented a talk entitled “Brainwashed! A Cult Survivor’s Tale” describing his experiences as part of the The Divine Light Mission, a cult centred around the worship of Guru Maharaj.

As part of Atheist Society’s intro meeting activities, Will had organised a bowling trip. Well, organised is probably granting too much credit, but after a significant amount of faffing, we eventually hit the lanes.

I probably haven’t bowled since hitting up Xscape with the McCrew three years ago. As such I was very rusty and only bowled a 98 in my first game, allowing James to smash his way to victory.

I recovered a little in the second game, bowling a 124, but that’s still not exactly an impressive score and I failed to make any strikes in the second game. Still, for the £3 that the evening cost us each, you can’t really go wrong.

On Tuesday, Atheist Society held their 2011/2012 intro meeting. It was great to see a lot of new faces there and James is looking to take the society in an exciting direction, so I’m sure they’re in for a great year.

I accidentally squashed the photos in processing, but it doesn’t matter too much because they were rubbish photos anyway.

Because a certain group of people who wine a lot about Atheist Society always going to Stick or Twist, el preisdente James decided that the weekly summer socials should start rotating around venues.

So the final summer social before freshers’ week was scheduled to take place at the Slug & Lettuce, which the A-Soc oldies will remember as the venue for the first ever A-Soc Winter Solstice meal.

Unfortunately, the people who whine about it don’t actually bother to turn up – the week saw a total of four of us there, myself, James, Elettra and Will – whereas those of us that actually do just want to go to steak night at ‘Spoons every week, bravely stick by the society! Oh, the irony… :D.

As it happens, Slug & Lettuce was pretty rubbish. We waited an hour for service, which despite asking for never actually arrived, so in the end we walked out and headed over the road to Beckett’s Bank for a proper steak night. Good times.

Earlier this month, myself and George headed down to the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire social at The Adelphi for a few drinks.

James had a voucher for two meals and a bottle of wine – so we ended up having a rather romantic evening. Surprisingly as well, I found myself around the median age range – shocking for HSoWY! 😛

Having had to eat and drink at quite some speed in order to make it to Alea on time to register for the poker tournament, I was somewhat intoxicated by the time I left and ended up doing quite well – adding further evidence to the idea that I play better poker when I’m drunk.