Center for Inquiry - Los Angeles  |   4773 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027
Home | Join | Store | Contact | Support
CFI International
CFI West
Steve Allen Theater
News
Events
Independent Investigations Group
New Horizons
Secular Organizations for Sobriety

Center for Inquiry-L.A.
4773 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027

Check out our online store!

---Upcoming Events---

Wednesday, June 24
Cafe Inquiry

Friday, June 26
West L.A. Fourth Friday Dinner

Saturday, June 27
Freethinkers Toastmasters

(No lecture Sunday, July 5)

Wednesday, July 8
Skeptics' Book Club

Thursday, July 9
Orange County Skeptics Supper Club

Friday, July 10
Drinking Skeptically

Sunday, July 12
GALAH-LA

Saturday, July 18
Independent Investigations Group

Saturday, July 18
Spanish Speaking Atheists

Sunday, July 19
FEED YOUR BRAIN:
Prof. Amos Nur
Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God

Tuesday Evenings
S
ecular Organizations for Sobriety

More... 



Join the Greater L.A. Skeptics Meetup Group!



Join the CFI-L.A. Group on Facebook!

_________________



NOW PLAYING at the
Steve Allen Theater

 


Orange County Groups

     The Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles wants to gather freethinkers and rational people in a purely social setting. We want to introduce people who share a common rational worldview - that is, the idea that the universe operates on principles and ideas which are or will be explained by science and rational means. Paranormal and religious followers have, in many ways, dominated the media and the culture. Consequently, many skeptics and non-religious people experience a feeling of isolation in their communities, and even among friends and family. We seek to erase that feeling by getting some of the thousands of freethinkers and rationalists in the area together.  

We sincerely hope you'll join us.

Click on the links below to jump to different groups and meetings.

Upcoming Orange County Events

OC Skeptics Supper Club

CFI Community of Orange County

The Fullerton Atheists and Agnostics

Students for Science and Skepticism


Upcoming Orange County Events

CFI-OC's FEED YOUR BRAIN Lecture Series presents
 

Jeff Schweitzer
Moral Life in a Random World

Sunday, June 21 at 4:30 p.m.

     Is morality the biological destiny of humans, or do they need religion to create their meaning and sense of purpose in life? Can we find happiness and fulfillment in life without submitting to a higher power? Dr. Jeff Schweitzer will answer these questions as he has done in his new book, Beyond Cosmic Dice: Moral Life in a Random World.

     We will not appeal to religion or god, Schweitzer says. Happiness and fulfillment are derived from the freedom to discover within ourselves our inherent good, and then to act on that better instinct, not because of any mandate from above or in obedience to the Bible, but because we can.

     Dr. Schweitzer is a scientist who has written extensively on topics of morality, religion, politics and science - how they relate to each other and their importance in today's polarized social environment. As a former White House science advisor under the Clinton Administration, he provided policy advice and analysis to the President, Vice President Al Gore and the director of the Office of Science & Technology Policy. Dr. Schweitzer says that from that perch, he realized "that one critical element was missing from global efforts to bring science, conservation and development together; there was no appropriate ethical foundation providing a compelling mandate."

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.

Costa Mesa Community Center
1845 Park Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
1 block west of Newport and Harbor Blvd.
 


Prof. Amos Nur
Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God

Sunday, July 19 at 4:30 p.m.

     Archaeologists and historians have traditionally rejected earthquakes as an important aspect of out ancient past, but now with the advent of plate tectonics and modern instrumentation, new information is emerging as scientists, such as Stanford University Prof. Amos Nur, begin to offer answers to some key questions in both disciplines.

     Prof. Nur, whose new book is Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God, will explore significant geophysical and archaeological questions about earthquakes and archaeological findings about regional destruction and civilization collapse, focusing on the catastrophic end of the Bronze Age circa 1200 B.C.E. He will also discuss how earthquakes have played a role in the way religious beliefs tried to comprehend the impact of catastrophic disasters.

     Prof. Nur is the Wayne Loel Professor of Earth Sciences at Stanford University, where he has taught since 1970, and the current director of the university's Overseas Studies Program. He received his BS in geology from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his Ph.D. in Geophysics from M.I.T. For more than 20 years, he has been investigating the temporal and spatial patterns of earthquakes throughout history to find clues useful for earthquake prediction.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.

Costa Mesa Community Center
1845 Park Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
1 block west of Newport and Harbor Blvd.


Brad Spellberg, M.D.
The Rising Antibiotic Crisis

Sunday, August 16 at 4:30 p.m.

     By the 1950s, the medical community predicted the end of infectious diseases as a threat to society. In fact, infections are a greater problem today than any time since the first widespread use of penicillin in 1945. Infections are now more frequent and antibiotic resistant, creating a critical need for the development of new antibiotics - all during a time when antibiotic development is dying.

     In his talk, Brad Spellberg, M.D., will discuss the causes and extent of antibiotic resistant infections and dying antibiotic development, which he describes in his new book, Rising Plague: The Global Threat from Deadly Bacteria and Our Dwindling Arsenal to Fight Them. Spellberg will explain that physician misuse or overuse of antibiotics is not the cause of the problem, but that economic, regulatory, and political forces are the causes. He will describe his own personal experiences at the front line of this policy struggle, share compelling patient stories , and describe a comprehensive plan that attacks the problem of dying antibiotic development at multiple levels, and will serve as a call to action for solving this problem.

     Dr. Spellberg is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Spellberg is an academic scientific investigator who sees patients, teaches students and resident physicians, and has an NIH-funded program in vaccines and immune-enhancing therapies. He is a member of a national task force at the Infectious Diseases Society of America charged with solving the antibiotic crisis.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.

Costa Mesa Community Center
1845 Park Ave.
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
1 block west of Newport and Harbor Blvd.


Darrel Ray, Ed.D.
Exposing the God Virus: Religious Infection in Our Society

Sunday, September 20 at 4:30 p.m.

     Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and Dennett opened the door to a hard-nosed look at religion in our society, but no one seemed to be using their concepts to explain the psychology of religion and its practical effects on people. So Dr. Darrel Ray, psychologist and author of The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture, stepped into this gap to discuss religious infection from the inside out. How does guilt play into religious infection? Why is sexual control so important to so many religions? What causes the anxiety and neuroticism around death and dying? How does religion inject itself into so many areas of life, culture and politics?

     Darrel Ray is an organizational psychologist and lilfelong student of religion. He has degrees in sociology, anthropology, and religion as well as a Doctor of Education degree in psychology. Ray also is the founder of Recovering from Religion, and organization devoted to helping people escape religion and recover from its effects [www.recoveringreligionists.com]. He has written two other books, both dealing with teams and teamwork in the business world.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.


OC Skeptics Supper Club
Meets the second Thursday of each month at 7:30pm

This Thursday June 11th is the second Thursday of the month, that means skeptics, humanists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, Pagans, and all other non-believers and inquiring minds are once again meeting for dinner and social discourse!

This month we’re returning to the IHOP in Irvine. (it looks like the Cask & Cleaver in Orange may have closed, at least the phone is disconnected).

Here is the location:

IHOP
18542 Macarthur Boulevard
Irvine, CA 92612
map
(949) 474-4467

(At the intersection of MacArthur Blvd and Business Center Drive)

The time will be 7:30 to approx 9pm.
When you arrive, ask for OC Skeptics.
For more info, please contact Dave Richards at:
david[at]iigwest.com.


CFI Community of Orange County
For information, email Dave Richards david[at]iigwest.com.


The Fullerton Atheists and Agnostics
A chapter of the Campus Freethought Alliance. Please contact Fullerton Atheists and Agnostics president Brandon Johns at fullertonskeptics[at]shoutmail.com, or phone (909) 924-1885 for more info.


Students for Science and Skepticism
at University of California, Irvine http://spirit.dos.uci.edu/sss.
Fax and voice mail: 1-206-201-8828.


-back to top-

 

Home | Join | Contact | Support | ©2005 Center for Inquiry