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Steve Egger
The Myths of Serial
Killers, Psychic Detectives, and Criminal Investigations
**TRAFFIC NOTE:
The day of this lecture,
Hollywood Blvd. from Western to
Normandie, several blocks west of CFI-L.A, will be closed
for the Thai Festival. The Center may be easily accessed
from Vermont to Hollywood Blvd. or
from Franklin
to Berendo.
Sunday,
April 7
11 a.m.
A number of myths surrounding serial killers are generated by
the mass media. Additional myths about psychic detectives and
criminal investigations have crept into the media and affected
the beliefs of individuals. To illuminate these myths and the
difficulties of serial murder investigations, Prof. Steve
Egger, an international expert on serial murder who wrote
the first dissertation on serial murder in the world in 1985,
will draw on his research, 35 years of teaching in higher
education, and experiences that include work as a police officer
and homicide investigator of serial murder.
Egger is associate professor and Program Director of the
Criminology Program at the University of Houston - Clear Lake in
Houston, Texas. He has taught at both the community college and
university level and was Project Director of the Homicide
Assessment and Lead Tracking System (HALT) for the State of New
York, a computerized system he developed to track serial and
violent offenders. He has worked with the FBI and the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police as well as local police agencies in
criminal investigations. Dr. Egger is currently a board member
of the Innocence Project of Texas. He has written four
nonfiction books on serial murder and is currently working on a
fifth, as well as a serial killer novel.
Admission
Friends of the Center: Free
Public: $8
Students: $4
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Kendrick Frazier
Shadows of Science:
Pseudoscience and Its Refutation
Sunday,
April 21
11 a.m.
at CFI-L.A.
4:30 p.m. in
Costa Mesa*
Pseudoscience is everywhere,
lurking in the shadows of real science.
It pretends to be science and uses some
of the same language, but betrays itself
with an absence of scientific
methodology, grandiose claims, a direct
appeal to the public, reliance on
testimonials, and lack of any connection
to published scientific research.
Antiscience, a direct hostility to
science or at least to unwelcome
scientific findings, has several
especially pernicious strains in today's
public discourse (e.g., antievolution
and climate science denial). Both
pseudoscience and antiscience confuse
the public and impede scientific
progress.
Kendrick Frazier, the longtime
editor of Skeptical Inquirer
magazine, will survey examples of
pseudoscience and antiscience, past and
present, and chronicle some of
scientists' and skeptics' efforts to
counter or expose it.
He is the author or editor of 10 books,
most recently the SI anthology
Science Under Siege, and is a former
editor of Science News and a
fellow of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science. He is a
member of the Executive Council of the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
(formerly CSICOP) and a member of the
Board of Directors of the Center for
Inquiy.
Admission
Friends of the Center: Free
Public: $8
Students: $4
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AmyJo Mattheis
Jesus, an Atheist and a
Woman Walk into a Bar...
Sunday,
May 5
11 a.m.
AmyJo Mattheis says she's an atheist who would go out
for drinks with Jesus and discuss the terrible consequences that
male-divine, male driven religions have had on girls and women
in our society and world. She would talk about how it is
critical that free-thinkers, atheists, secularists and skeptics
keep the conversation going. They would agree that religion
unchecked is dangerous.
A former ordained Lutheran pastor, Mattheis has written a book,
Religion Made Me Fat, that narrates the reality of being
raised in a religion and the difficulty of questioning, and
eventually, extricating herself from it - which she did. As a
"former indoctrinated
woman-turned-indoctrinated-pastor-turned-atheist-rebel," she
understands the power of belief but thinks it necessary to
engage and challenge religious beliefs to open avenues for women
and men to los the "religious weight."
Mattheis earned her Masters of Divinity from the Graduate
Theological Union in Berkeley. She is a professional retreat
leader, author and motivational speaker. As a Peace Corps
Volunteer living in Ghana, a graduate student in Jerusalem,
Israel and recently working in Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya,
Mattheis is a well-traveled thinker who has achieved the rare
feat of changing her mind.
Admission
Friends of the Center: Free
Public: $8
Students: $4
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Paul Marshall
Blasphemy and the
Threat to Free Speech
Sunday,
May 19
11 a.m.
at CFI-L.A.
4:30 p.m. in
Costa Mesa*
Many westerners first realized the dangers of being accused of
blasphemy or "insulting religion" in the Muslim world when the
late Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the death of
the novelist Salman Rushdie. Currently, accusations of
"blasphemy," "apostasy," or "insulting Islam" are increasingly
used by authoritarian governments and extremist forces in the
Muslim world to acquire and consolidate power. These
accusations, which traditionally carry the death penalty,
intimidate not only converts and heterodox groups, but also
political and religious reformers. Victims, who are now in the
millions, include political dissidents, religious reformers,
journalists, writers, artists, movie makers, and religious
minorities throughout the world.
Author Paul Marshall will talk not only about the impact
of those Muslim accusations but also the repressive effects of
these restrictions (usually called anti-"hate speech" or
"discriminatory speech") by many Western governments. However,
they are de facto blasphemy laws in the West and threaten to
stifle commentary on and within Islam and other religions.
Marshall is a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute's Center for
Religious Freedom and the author and editor of more than 20
books on religion and politics (especially religious freedom),
including most recently, Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy
Codes Are Choking Freedom Worldwide (with Nina Shea),
Blind Spot: When Journalists Don't Get Religion, and
Religious Freedom in the World. He is the author of several
hundred articles, and his writings have been translated into
many languages. He is a frequent lecturer and TV commentator.
His work has been published in many newspapers and magazines,
including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, New
Republic, and the Weekly Standard.
*This event will also be held at
4:30 p.m. at the Costa Mesa Community Center at 1845 Park
Avenue, Costa Mesa.
map
Hosted by the
CFI Community of Orange County.
Admission
Friends of the Center: Free
Public: $8
Students: $4
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Sheldon Kardener
From Cradle to
Apocalypse: The Danger of Not Outgrowing Childhood
Sunday,
June 2
11 a.m.
To survive, the human being at
birth must have a connection to a caretaker, resulting in the
development of a whole range of early ways of thinking about and
being in the world. Ideally, this gradually yields to a mature
adult as free as possible of early emotional distortions.
Unfortunately, conflicts at personal, communal, and world levels
testify that this is not the common occurrence.
Dr. Sheldon Kardener, MD, a clinical professor at UCLA,
reflects on the urgent, critical consequences for human survival
when childhood thinking continues in adults, precisely because
of the exponential growth and reach of weaponry. The paradox is
that the vital connections that ensure human survival may be
what now lead to the possibility of human extinction. Dr.
Kardener discusses this phenomenon in explaining the stages of
growth from a child's state of mind to, ideally, and adult's
state of mind. However, he offers some specific antidotes all
can employ to counter the danger.
Dr. Kardener was a mechanical engineer who then obtained his
medical degree and completed a residency in psychiatry at UCLA.
He lectures widely to bit professional and lay audiences on
topics including short-term therapy and couples psychotherapy.
He has published several articles in professional journals and,
with Monika Olofsson Kardener, Marriage Family Therapist (MFT),
has published a book discussing emotional conflicts and their
resolution called Breaking Free: How Chains From Childhood
Keep Us From What We Want. He practices in Santa Monica.
Admission
Friends of the Center: Free
Public: $8
Students: $4
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Greg Cavin
The Argument for the
Resurrection of Jesus - A New "Double-Edged" Critique
Sunday,
June 16
11 a.m.
at CFI-L.A.
4:30 p.m. in
Costa Mesa*
Resurrectionists such as as William Lane Craig and Mike Licona
level a series of charges against skeptics who reject the
Resurrection, saying they presuppose the non-existence of God
and the impossibility of the supernatural; falsely assume the
relevance of science to the Resurrection; ignore the total
evidence for the Resurrection, including so-called religio-historical
context; and offer no plausible alternative explanation for the
alleged facts of Easter, such as the empty tomb and postmortem
appearances of the Risen Jesus.
Robert Greg Cavin, professor of philosophy at Cypress
College, will refute these charges, showing that it is the
Resurrection theory rather than its naturalistic rivals that has
an astronomically low probability and that the theory is
incapable of explaining the alleged facts of Easter.
Cavin, who received his M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological
Seminary and his Ph.D. in Philosophy from UC-Irvine, teaches
classes in the Philosophy of Religion and Jesus and His
Interpreters. His research specialty is the Bayesian
epistemology of miracles and the Resurrection of Jesus. He is
the co-author of The Doubting Thomas Guide to Logic and
Religion and several articles on the Resurrection of Jesus
and miracles. Cavin has debated a number of leading Christian
philosophers, including Craig, Licona, and Douglas Geivett.
*This event will also be held at
4:30 p.m. at the Costa Mesa Community Center at 1845 Park
Avenue, Costa Mesa.
map
Hosted by the
CFI Community of Orange County.
Admission
Friends of the Center: Free
Public: $8
Students: $4
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