|
James H.
Dee
-
The Second Wave of Secular Humanism: How
Scholarship Undermines Religion |
|
James H. Dee The Second Wave of Secular Humanism: How Scholarship Undermines Religion Sunday, Jan. 10 Note: the regular first Sunday lecture in January (only) has been moved to Jan. 10 11 a.m. In a provocative exploration of ways in which the work of the "new atheists" can be expanded and multiplied, retired Classics Professor James H. Dee will discuss how secular humanism can and should enlist academic allies, who have impeccable scholarly credentials but whose views are not always publicized, in the perpetual conflict with irrational religious beliefs. Dee, who taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago for 25 years, is the author of nine books in the field of classics. He has held two National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships and has been a Visiting Scholar in the Classics Department at the University of Texas. A founding member of the CFI Austin Group, Dee has written many articles, including two for Free Inquiry magazine.
$8, or free
for Friends of the Center.
NOTE: Due to a work
commitment overseas, TOM QUINN, the scheduled speaker for
Jan. 31 in Hollywood and Costa Mesa, had to postpone his
talk until later in the year. Dr. Kirschner has kindly
agreed to appear in his place.
$8, or free
for Friends of the Center.
Seth Shostak The scientific hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence is about to enter its sixth decade, and there hasn't been a confirmed peep from the cosmos. We still don't even know id life at any level of intelligence exists beyond Earth. Could this mean that finding aliens, even if they're out there, is a project for the ages - one that may take centuries or longer? SETI astronomer Seth Shostak will peer into the future as exciting new technologies for use in the search for ET suggest that, despite the continued lack of contact, there is good reason to expect that success might not be far off - that within a few decades we might find evidence of sophisticated civilizations. Why this is so, what contact and what such a discovery would mean are the subject of his talk on the role of humans in the universe. Shostak, the Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, has an undergraduate degree in physics from Princeton University and a doctorate in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology. Shostak has conducted radio astronomy research on galaxies and published about 60 papers in professional journals; written hundreds of popular magazine and Web articles on various topics in astronomy, technology, film and television; lectured on astronomy and other subjects at Stanford and other venues in the Bay Area; edited and contributed to a half dozen books and wrote the Confessions of an Alien Hunter: A Scientist's Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence for National Geographic; and been a Distinguished Speaker for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics for the past six years. Every week he hosts the SETI Institute's science radio show, "Are We Alone?"
$8, or free
for Friends of the Center.
Victor J. Stenger Stenger, who received a doctorate in Physics from UCLA in 1963, taught at the University of Hawaii, retiring to Colorado in 2000. He is currently am adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado and emeritus professor of physics at the University of Hawaii. Dr. Stenger has also held visiting positions on the faculties of universities in Germany, England, and Italy. Dr. Stenger's distinguished research career has spanned the period of great progress in elementary particle physics to very high-energy gamma ray and neutrino astronomy. He also is the author of nine critically acclaimed popular science books about physics, cosmology, philosophy, religion, and pseudoscience. His 2007 book, God: The Failed Hypothesis. How Science Shows that God Does Not Exist, was a New York Times bestseller. His latest books, which came out in 2009, are Quantum Gods and The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason. $8, or free
for Friends of the Center.
Brian Fagan Sunday,
March 7 Who were the Cro-Magnons? Where did they come from? How did they survive the dramatic Ice Age climate tens of thousands of years ago? And what happened when they confronted those primordial humans, the Neanderthals? Brian Fagan, author of the New York Times bestseller The Great Warming, brings these early humans out of the deep freeze in his new book being published in March, Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans. Cro-Magnons, the first anatomically modern humans, had modern brains and linguistic abilities, a penchant for innovation, and all of the impressive cognitive skills of Homo sapiens. Yet the first modern inhabitants of Europe remain a shadowy presence, defined by more by their cave paintings - vibrant images that seize our imaginations after thirty thousand years - and stone artifacts than by the nature of their lives. Cro-Magnon reveals human society in its infancy, facing enormous environmental challenges from glaciers, predators, and a rival species of humans - the Neanderthals. The story of the Neanderthals and the Cro-Magnons tells us much about how our forebears adapted to climatic crisis and sudden environmental changes. Brian Fagan was born in England, did fieldwork in Africa and taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His other books include Fish on Friday, The Little Ice Age, and The Long Summer.
$8, or free
for Friends of the Center. |
