Posts Tagged ‘talk’

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.

Last Tuesday, I headed down to Nottingham to present a talk to Nottingham Skeptics in the Pub.

Nottingham seems to be a lot like Leeds – a reasonable sized city with a confusing one-way system running through the middle and a few gems hidden away inside it, such as our venue, Fellows Morton and Clayton, a traditional Victorian pub, with a traditional Victorian fruit machine by the door.

I got down there in plenty of time to grab some food beforehand (and because you never know with the M1) and found the place easily enough. The food was OK, the grilled chicken was excellent though the ribs were somewhat disappointing. However, given the last time I had ribs was at Cattle Grid, my standards are probably simply still tuned too high.

I also met Andy, who runs the group and is an absolutely lovely guy. He also works with computers so we managed to squeeze in a few minutes of geek talk before the event!

The talk itself went pretty well, at least from my perspective lol, and I hope the audience enjoyed it too. I think the questions and discussions afterwards lasted until nearly 10pm, which from a 7:30pm start is quite a lot of discussion.

In general, I think the talk was well received by the audience. They certainly weren’t as critical as when I spoke to Hull Humanists – not that I didn’t very much enjoy the tough questions I took there!

In general, a really enjoyable evening and a big thanks to Andy for inviting me down.

For the Friday of Reason Week, Mark Edon presented his talk on Creationism. Mark is a committee member with the British Centre for Science Education which is a group that campaigns against creationism in the UK – and you can tell they do excellent work because the creationists have put up an “exposed” site about them.

Mark spoke recently on the same topic at Leeds Skeptics and his colleague Professor Paul Braterman is also speaking at the Enquiry 2011 Conference.

Last Tuesday I delivered a talk entitled “A History of Atheist Charity” at Leeds Atheist Society. I’m not sure how accurate the title was, it also looked at religious charities and why we shouldn’t expect atheist charities, before going on to discuss atheist charities past and present. The feedback was positive however, so it seemed to go quite well.

On Tuesday, James delivered the first Leeds Atheist Society talk of 2011, on alternative medicine.

On Tuesday, Leeds Atheist Society hosted a talk by James Murray on “Christmas Beliefs around the World” which looked at the true origins of the holiday season and the various, often comical, holiday traditions around the world.

On Wednesday I headed over to Bradford to present a talk to the newly formed Bradford Atheist and Humanist Society.

It only actually took me 30 minutes to get into Bradford, which results in a very embarrassing situation for Imran who lives there and told me that it takes him over an hour to get home – even though I managed it in half the time with me just guessing at which lanes and turn offs I needed to be using.

The talk was well received and the society seemed a positive and friendly bunch of people and I wish them all the best in the future! It’s fantastic to see such a society get going at Bradford University.

On Monday I was thinking about the talk I was giving to Leeds Atheist Society the next day was probably a little too similar to talks I have given to them previously.

Therefore I decided to try and re-write the entire talk in one evening. The result was what I’m calling “The Atheist Responses.” It’s basically the same as my Debating the Theists talk but as well as giving some general answers it also gives quotations from what famous atheists have said previously. The result seems to have been positive.

Last week I delivered a talk to the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire on the same subject I spoke at the Enquiry Conference on – my experiences with the Christian Union.

The talk itself went well enough and it was great to see that even after the summer break the group was still well attended and indeed had many new, and more importantly younger faces. If the group can sustain more of a mixed demographic, I think it will prove to be of real benefit.

I also got the chance to meet Joel, the new interfaith secretary at the Christian Union, who suggested I check out Hope City Church in Leeds – it’s much better than all the others apparently.

Recently Professor Ian Cram spoke at Atheist Society on freedom of expression with regards to religion in a talk entitled “Freedom of Expression and Protection of Religious Beliefs.” It provided a fascinating insight into the law surrounding the subject and as well worth attending.