Special Cafe Inquiry Presentation - Complimentary Reception and Lecture


A.C. Grayling

The Good Book: A Secular Humanist Bible

Tuesday, April 12
8 p.m., food and wine reception at 7 p.m.

Who owns the best ideas about the good and well-lived life? Noted scholar A.C. Grayling says it is philosophy and presents the idea of a humanist bible drawn from the great non-religious traditions of thought about ethics and humanity in world history. He has made a humanist bible out of texts that embody these traditions and will explain how it was done and what it says about how we should live. Copies of his new book, The Good Book: A Humanist Bible, will be available for sale in the book store and signing by the author.

Grayling is professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of The Good Book: A Humanist Bible, Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan, Descartes: The Life and Times of a Genius, Toward the Light of Liberty: The Struggles for Freedom and Rights That Made the Modern Western World, Meditations for the Humanist, and Thinking of Answers: Essays in the Philosophy of Life. A former fellow of the World Economic Forum and past chairman of the human rights organization June Fourth, he contributes frequently to The (London) Times, Financial Times, Economist, New Statesman, and Prospect. Grayling's play Grace, co-written with Mick Gordon, was acclaimed in London and New York.  He lives in London.

The reception and the lecture are free.

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Special introduction by writer Amy Alkon
 

Barbara Oakley

Pathological Altruism - When Does Caring Go Too Far?

Sunday, April 17
11 a.m. at CFI-L.A.; 4:30 p.m. in Costa Mesa*

Are some people predisposed to kindness – to the point of being destructive to themselves and others? How much of our help is fulfilling our own needs, including those of our hidden passions? Can neuroscience help us understand how we can keep from being hurt while retaining and building our best traits?

Dr. Barbara Oakley, author of the best-selling Evil Genes and who previously spoke at CFI-L.A., takes the audience on a spellbinding voyage of personal discovery through the lens of a murder case in her new book, Cold-Blooded Kindness. Harvard’s E.O. Wilson has called her research “wonderful!”, while National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Oates has called her writing “riveting and disturbing.” Oakley will bring extraordinary insight to our deepest questions. Is kindness always the right answer? Is kindness always what it seems?

A professor of engineering at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, Oakley also is the editor of the forthcoming academic book, Pathological Altruism. She is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science as well as the American Institute of Biological and Medical Engineers, and a recent Vice President of the IEEE-Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society – the world's largest bioengineering organization. Oakley holds a doctorate in the integrative discipline of systems engineering, and her research highlights how neuroscience is informing our understanding of complex societal issues. Her colorful background includes stints in the U.S. Army, working experience in China, Russia, Germany, Antarctica, and New Zealand, and extensive travels throughout Europe, Asia, and the Balkans.

Copies of Cold-Blooded Kindness: Neuroquirks of a Codependent Killer, or Just Give Me a Shot at Loving You, Dear, and Other Reflections on Helping that Hurts, will be available for sale in the book store and signing by the author.

*This lecture will be repeated 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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A Special Café Inquiry Presentation

Join us for complimentary breakfast at 9:30 a.m.

The Vaccine Debate: Faith, Facts, and the Crisis of Science in a Democratic Society

Sunday, May 1
11 a.m.

Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear, will discuss his new book and use the controversy over the false link between vaccines and autism as a lens through which to examine how the public interacts with medical authorities, the ways in which information is transmitted in modern society, and how we decide what counts as truth. He also will address the implications of declining vaccination rates on the health of society, the responsibility individuals have as members of a community, the failure of the country's medical and public health institutions, and the ways in which the media have failed in their responsibility to communicate the truth to their audiences.

Mnookin is a journalist and author of several books, including Hard News, which was chosen as a Washington Post "Best Book" of the year. A contributing editor at Vanity Fair, Mnookin is a former senior writer at Newsweek and has written for a variety of other outlets, including Scientific American and Wired.

A complimentary Continental Breakfast will be served before the lecture from 9:30 – 10:45 a.m. RSVP: (323) 666-9797, x102, or alice[at]cfiwest.org. Join us during our spring fundraising month.

Admission
Friends of the Center: Free
Public: $8
Students: $4

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A Special Café Inquiry Presentation

Join us for complimentary breakfast at 9:30 a.m.

Note: location change for the 4:30 p.m. lecture in Orange County

Carl Zimmer

Viruses: The Dangerous Myths and the Startling Truths

Sunday, May 15
11 a.m. at CFI-L.A.

4:30 p.m. at the OC Airport Hilton Hotel* (more info below)

It's been just over a century since scientists realized that invisibly small things called viruses could cause diseases such as influenza and rabies. In that time, scientists have come to recognize that viruses are the most abundant form of life on Earth. Unfortunately, viruses have also become the inspiration for myths, conspiracy theories, and dangerous resistance to modern medicine. Carl Zimmer, the author of the new book A Planet of Viruses, separates the science from the anti-science, showing how the latest discoveries about viruses are far more astonishing than any fiction.

Zimmer is the author of 10 books about science and writes frequently for The New York Times about science. His articles appear regularly in magazines, including National Geographic, Scientific American, and Discovery, where he is a contributing editor, and blogs at "The Loom." Zimmer has won numerous awards for his science writing. He is a lecturer at Yale, where he teaches science writing.

A complimentary Continental Breakfast will be served before the lecture in Hollywood from 9:30 – 10:45 a.m. RSVPs for breakfast are requested, but not required: (323) 666-9797, x102, or alice[at]cfiwest.org. Join us during our spring fundraising month.

Note: Location change for Orange County lecture at 4:30 p.m.
*This lecture will be repeated at 4:30 p.m. at the Orange County Freethought Alliance Conference, held at the Orange County Airport Hilton Hotel.

People attending only the Zimmer talk will pay regular lecture admission (no additional conference fees).

OC Airport Hilton
18800 MacArthur Blvd.
Irvine, California 92612
1-949-833-9999
map

Hosted by the CFI Community of Orange County.

Admission
Friends of the Center: Free
Public: $8
Students: $4

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Rescheduled from March 20

Sikivu Hutchinson

Moral Combat: Black Atheists and the Values Wars

Sunday, June 5
11 a.m.

African Americans generally view atheism as a form of race betrayal, and black churches are socially conservative on abortion, same-sex marriage and church/state separation, largely abandoning their historic emphasis on civil rights. While urban black communities struggle economically, black churches -- which are principally attended by black woman -- have made destructive alliances with the Religious Right, resulting in "values wars" that have further solidified institutional sexism and homophobia in black communities.

In this probing analysis, black feminist social commentator and author Sikivu Hutchinson examines the cultural and historical influence of African American humanist and atheist social thought that has included such visionary freethinkers as Frederick Douglass and Alice Walker. She situates this tradition within the broader context of public morality, exploring the dynamics of civil rights and Christian activism, feminism and social justice, the whiteness of "New Atheism" and the science debates, and the insidious backlash of Tea Party-style white nationalism against social welfare public policy. As the nation has become more religiously conservative, a growing number of progressive African American non-believers are challenging black religious and social orthodoxies online and in atheist advocacy groups.

Hutchinson, who has a doctorate, is a writer and an educator. She is the author of Imagining Transit: race, Gender, and Transportation Politics in Los Angeles (Lang, 2003) and has published fiction, essays and critical theory in Social Text, California English, Black Agenda Report, Secular Nation and American Atheist Magazine. She is also the editor of blackfemlens.org, a founder of the L.A. Black Skeptics, and a senior fellow for the Institute for Humanist Studies. Her new book, Moral Combat: Black Atheists, Gender Politics, and the Values Wars, will be available for sale and signing.

Admission
Friends of the Center: Free
Public: $8
Students: $4

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Prof. David Goldfield

America Aflame: Evangelicalism and the American Civil War

Sunday, June 19
11 a.m. at CFI-L.A.; 4:30 p.m. in Costa Mesa*

The Civil War was America's greatest failure. It resulted from the breakdown of our political system. That system depended on moderation and compromise. By the 1840s, evangelical Protestants began to influence public policy, especially in the North. Articulating a strong anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic philosophy, the evangelicals also strongly opposed the extension of slavery into the West. Election campaigns grew increasingly violent and contentious. By the mid-1850s, the center in American politics began to erode. Political issues formerly susceptible to compromise now became much more difficult to address, as each side framed their position as Good vs. Evil. The result was the breakup of the Union and a bloody Civil War. The mixture of religion and politics proved volatile and deadly, according to Prof. David Goldfield in his provocative new book. America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation. Although the war saved the Union and ended slavery, could there have been a better, less destructive way to accomplish those noble ends?

Born in Memphis but educated at Brooklyn College and the University of Maryland, Goldfield is the Robert Lee Bailey Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He has written or edited 16 books on various aspects of American history, particularly the history of the South and of urban America.  He is a two-time recipient of the Mayflower Award for Nonfiction, for Cotton Fields and Skyscrapers and Black, White and Southern.

Copies of America Aflame will be available for sale in the book store and signing by the author.

*This lecture will be repeated 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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