HUMANIST SOCIETY OF WEST YORKSHIRE
Affiliated to the British Humanist Association

NEWSLETTER (123), FEBRUARY 2010

Next Meeting
Thur. 11th February 2010, 7.30 to 9.30pm at Swarthmore C (meet in Café from 7.00pm)
“What Darwin Didn’t Know”
BBC4 programme written and presented by Armand Leroi
Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Imperial College, London

The date of this meeting is one day before Darwin Day so, as usual, we have an evolution theme. This programme was on BBC4 a few months ago, but very late in the evening when all good humanists should have been in their beds, so probably you missed it!  It uses recent discoveries in Genetics and DNA studies to fill in the holes in Darwin’s theory.  In fact, Darwin admitted he could not answer these outstanding questions, but surmised that they would be answered by scientists in the future - quite correctly, as it has turned out!  Some of these findings are very recent; in fact, one contradicts a statement Richard Dawkins wrote a few years ago about the evolution of the eye.
The presentation takes about 90 minutes, so if we get cracking at the start, it will finish at about 9.00pm. However, we have booked an extra half-hour for discussion, but if you want to get off home, or to ‘The George’, at the end of the programme feel free as there is no speaker present to feel miffed!

January meeting  “The New Atheists” Tim Stephenson.

 We had 17 members present, not bad considering the slippery conditions underfoot; quite a few rang to apologise because they could not get out of their road.   The challengers of the “God belief” in the past, such as Robert Ingersoll, Thomas Huxley and  Bertrand Russell were agnostics, so were not as shocking to the religious establishment as the more recent anti-religious writers who are unashamedly atheists.
Sam Harris started his book on 12/9/01, the day after ‘9/11’; it was entitled “The End of Faith,  published in 2004.  He said Western Democracy was threatened by Islam.  Those who accept the propositions in an ancient book tend to go to extremes.  The less extreme religionists provide cover for the extremists, because one therefore cannot robustly criticise the religion.  He studied Buddhism and its offshoots such as Jainism, which forbids the killing of a fly even; so unlike those of the Abrahamic religions, a Jainist could never be suicide bomber.
Daniel Dennett is a professor of philosophy and wrote “Breaking the Spell”.  In it he described the behaviour of a type of ant that repeatedly climbs to the tip of a blade of grass and then falls off. Why?.  It is because it can then be eaten by a grazing animal and its eggs will then be excreted in a dollop of lovely food for its larvae! Similarly fluke worms are born to be eaten.  An in-depth understanding of religion shows it to be a similar natural phenomenon, explaining behaviour such as mass bathing in the Ganges.
Richard Dawkins is a biologist, the first scientist to give a Royal Institution Christmas Lecture. His “The God Delusion” outsold all anti-religion books, topping the best seller lists and is still at number 17.  He described the God of the Old Testament as a terrible malevolent bully.  He attacked agnostics, such as  Stephen J. Gould who said that being guided by ’the ages of rocks  and being guided by ‘the Rock of Ages’ could each exist in their own sphere.    Dawkins calls agnostics ‘fence sitters’.  He postulated a seven-point scale of belief; this goes from 1) ‘the strong theist’ to 7) the ‘strong atheist’.  He himself is at 6) the ‘de facto atheist’.  He took the cargo cults of the Pacific islands as exemplars of how ancients religions developed.
Christopher Hitchens was born English, but is now a U.S. citizen.   Unlike the others he tends to the right politically.  He wrote “God is  not Great”, “How Religion Poisons Everything” and “Good Without God”.  He shows that the basis of morality predates “The Ten Commandments”.
A.C, Grayling has written “Against all Gods” and could be seen as the fifth ‘New Atheist’.  The religious have coined the term ‘atheist fundamentalism’; we perhaps see that as the classic oxymoron!

“Can Multiculturalism Work?” An audience with Kenan Malik at Bradford University

This was attended by your Secretary and  Mike Davies.   The speaker is a broadcaster, a panellist on “The Moral Maze”, and a Distinguished Supporter of the BHA.  His theme was that, in trying to manage diversity, the Government puts people into boxes according to religion, allowing self-appointed community leaders to speak for them, but, in fact, there is much diversity within these groups so the government’s policy of encouraging multiculturalism by this way suppresses diversity.  The lecture-theatre was full, but not a burqa in sight!  Both our attenders had their say in the discussion

Casualty List 
At the time of writing Ken Austin is in Ward 82 at St James’s Hospital and Gerry Hannant is in Ward 24, Floor G, Jubilee Wing, Leeds General Infirmary, recovering from an operation.  Please phone the Ward first if you are thinking of visiting.  The Secretary  has visited Gerry and he was still quite weak.

Quote of the Month
Why did no earthquake shake Nazi Germany?  Why did no earthquake swallow up the killing fields of Cambodia?  Why did Hurricane Katrina destroy far more evangelical churches than casinos?  Why did so many murderous dictators live to die of old age while many missionaries die young?
(Albert Mohler, Baptist preacher in response to Pat Robertson’s claim that the Haiti earthquake was a punishment from god.)  We humanists can answer  those four questions in five short words!

Dates for your Diary
11th March; “The Catholic Church - Big Church or Big Business?” Mike Granville, Sheffield Humanist Soc.
29th April; AGM. and “Dear Sir“ a selection of the letters Peter Wilson wrote to the Bradford T. & A.
13th May; “Humanism and Public Services in Yorkshire” Brian Quinn, Yorkshire Regional Representative.
Other meetings: Member Chris Worfolk is trying out running social meetings at the Cosmo’ Hotel, 2 Lower Briggate at 10.30am on the first Sunday of the month. Visit leedshumanists.org.  Also Leeds Skeptics meet at 7 Greek St. at 2.00pm  on the third Saturday of the month.  Visit leedsskeptics.org.    

Dates for Your Diary
Meetings, unless indicated otherwise are at Room 2 Swarthmore, 2-7 Woodhouse  Square, (off Hanover Way) LS3 1AD  at 7.30pm.  (Park in the adjacent ‘Joseph’s Well’ car park).
11th March; “The Catholic Church - Big Church or Big Business”, Mike Granville, Sheffield Humanist Soc..

29th April; The AGM and “Dear Sir“ a selection of the letters Peter Wilson wrote to the Bradford T.&A.

13th May; “Humanism and Public Services in Yorkshire”, Brian Quinn, Yorkshire Regional Representative.