Archive for the ‘Humanism’ Category

At the April meeting of the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire, Guy Otten presented a talk on the origins of Islam. The thesis of the talk was that the origins were mythological, and were created in a similar way to the Christian religion, being affected by politics and evolving over time.

Last month, Michael Burgess gave a talk to Leeds Atheist Society on “The Christian Ideology of New Atheism”. The video will be available on Worfolk Lectures at a later date.

At April, Dr Brooke Magnanti presented a talk on her book, The Sex Myth.

For the March meeting of Leeds Skeptics, Professor Barry Cooper from the University of Leeds presented a talk entitled “Alan Turing: The Building of a Brain”.

Having recently read and very much enjoyed The Grapes of Graph (perhaps I should say “was moved by” rather than “enjoyed”), it is isn’t interesting to see the parallels between the harsh times experienced in the Great Depression and the not as bad but still regrettable plight of many of our own members of society.

In the book, Ma Joad says something along the lines of “the thing I’m learning more. If you’re in trouble or hurt or need—go to poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help —the only ones.”

This is a phenomenon that can be often seen throughout society. For example, my father, who is a gas engineer, once told me that poor people are far more likely to tip than wealthy people are – perhaps because they are more aware of financial pressures and the had work people do.

This can also be seen in the homeless world as well. Last night we met three people with dogs and all of them told us the same thing – the dog eats before I do. You can tell – all of the dogs looked well fed, their fur was in good condition and most of them were wrapped up in nice coats, one was even in a hoodie.

To matter how down on their luck people get, most never stop caring about others. Indeed, it may even be a prerequisite.

Tonight wasn’t the best night we’ve ever had at the Humanist Action Group. We judge that by the amount of people we find – on a good night, everyone will have found shelter and there will be nobody on the streets. Tonight, we got about 100m from our door before we had run out of coffee and had to go back to make more.

One of the people we chatted to gave us an insight into how much money you can make begging. It’s significantly less than you can earn in a minimum wage job. If anyone ever tells you they make loads of money – tell them to stop voting Tory and pull their head out of their ass.

Here is what you might expect to make in a week…

• Monday – Wednesday: £10-15 per night
• Thursday: £20 per night
• Friday: £25-30 per night
• Saturday: If the weather is good, maybe £35
• Sunday: Nothing, there is nobody in town on a Sunday

Not a great way to scratch a living.

I for one will be very disappointed if Monique doesn’t change her profile picture to this.

Last week at Atheist Society, Heini presented a talk entitled “Disproving God With Philosophy”.

For the March meeting of the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire, Jim Hatfield presented a talk entitled “Good and Evil in the Gospel Myth”.

At this month’s meeting of Leeds Skeptics, Brian Quinn presented his talk “Superstition – The Odd Delusion.” We gave a similar talk at West Yorkshire Humanists in 2011, and I enjoyed it so much I thought it work booking for Skeptics too.

As Brian points out, superstition is actually far more common than religion. Many people touch wood, won’t open umbrellas in doors – or the most common of all – say good luck (though you could argue this could potentially have a psychological benefit).

I also really enjoyed his thoughts on religion, which after all is just a collection of superstitions. So, if you swap the word faith with the word superstition, you get to see just how silly some of the current issues in our society are – imagine talking about superstition schools, superstition communities or even inter-superstition dialogue.