Halton Peel Humanist Community

End of Faith by Sam Harris

2010-11-02T08:44:00.001-07:00

The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mainly focusing on the monotheistic faiths, Sam makes a compelling case for letting go of irrational beliefs in favour of rational ones.

However, it appears that (faith in) religion is evolving to a gentler, kinder sort and as long as it learns to incorporate the current state of knowledge (generally of the scientific kind rather than divinely inspired) it will continue to be a force for good in the world. We are already seeing some of the more liberal flavours of Christianity accept LGBT orientations as biological while others continue to accord them the death penalty. Guess which ones will survive?

View all my reviews

Biking route

2010-08-21T13:57:00.001-07:00

TerryFox/Credit River 17k route

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Goodreads

2010-07-07T17:56:00.001-07:00

The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures by Nicholas Wade

Interesting history of dance and singing in the evolution of religion.

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2010 Annual HPHC General Meeting

2010-05-20T15:06:00.000-07:00

The meeting was held on Tuesday, May 18th at Cheri's beautiful place in Caledon. It was well attended by stalwart members as well as newbies. The discussion centred around what Humanism meant to each of the attendees. This was in preparation for the appointment of the new executive committee which was as follows:

John Jackson, President
Cheri Cowan, Vice-President
Mark Devenish, Treasurer
Jim Young, Secretary
Kostas Tsembelis, Webmaster
Matthew Bin, Communications

Welcome to newest member Kerem

Darwin Day Event

2010-02-20T23:09:00.001-08:00

When: Monday, February 22, 2010 @ 6:30 pm

Where: UTM, South Building, Room 2080
Who: Dr. Jason Head (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, UofT)

Jason Head is a vertebrate palaeontologist and biologist who studies the evolutionary histories of reptiles, primarily from 66.5 million years ago to the present. He received a B.S. in biology from the University of Michigan in 1995, a Ph.D. in geology from Southern Methodist University in 2002, and has conducted field research in Pakistan, Tanzania, Mali, India, Jordan, and North America. While collecting Miocene reptile fossils in Pakistan, Jason developed an interest in the relationship of reptile diversity and body size to climate change, especially in snakes. His subsequent research includes quantitative analysis of skeletal morphology in modern and fossil lizards and snakes in order to reconstruct historical patterns of genetic control and development of the reptile axial skeleton, as well as continuing studies of paleoecology and paleoclimate, inferred from the fossil record. In 2009, Jason described the Worlds largest snake, Titanoboa cerrejonensis, and developed a method for estimating paleotemperature from body size in fossil reptiles. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Toronto, Mississauga, a research associate and the Royal Ontario Museum, and an Adjunct Assistant Curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

He will be giving a talk entitled “Natural selection and adaptations as logical theories in studying evolution”

2010-02-20T23:09:00.000-08:00

Humanlight celebration and Tree of Knowledge dedication

2010-01-09T12:45:00.001-08:00

December was an exciting month as we had our HumanLight celebration on the winter solstice, December 21st, 2009, at my place in Mississauga.

However, preceding this social event to close off our annual activites, we had a dedication ceremony to a Tree of Knowledge at the Halton-Peel Freethought Centre at 5330 Creditview Road. The event, styled after the annual event in Philadelphia, saw a few friends and members of the centre decorate a tree with their favourite book covers, laminated to protect them from the elements. The event was covered by the local Mississauga News.

======================
Humanists celebrate the season

Many people decorate trees this time of year, and the Halton Peel Humanist Community didn't want to be left out of the fun.

The group, founded three years ago, hosted an event Monday night in which its members decorated a tree with covers from some of their favourite books read this past year.

Being humanists, there were plenty of books that focused on science and logical thinking; Charles Darwin's Origin of Species made an appearance as did Al Gore's The Assault on Reason and David Suzuki's The Sacred Balance.

Kevin Saldanha, the group's president, said the event wasn't designed to denigrate people's faith. Rather, it was a way for the group to celebrate and enjoy the season in a way that's in line with their beliefs.

"It was our way of celebrating with a tree that we felt was appropriate and, hopefully, would inspire people," said Saldanha. "It allows us to celebrate the season in a positive way without being offensive."

About 15 people took part in the tree decorating, which was held on Saldanha's property on Creditview Rd.

Saldanha said it seemed like a good idea because many people are decorating Christmas trees this time of year. He pointed to the recently erected Loving Memory Tree for grieving families outside City Hall as another example.

"Our tree promotes knowledge, education and scientific literacy," said Saldanha.

cclay@mississauga.net .

October Meeting - Advance Directives

2009-11-10T20:04:00.000-08:00

The October meeting was held on Friday, the 23rd instead of our usual 'third Tuesday of the month' due to non-availability of the Acorn Grill at the Oakville Town Hall for that day.

It was well attended by the public as a result of the announcement in the Oakville Beaver and a last minute reprieve by Ruth von Fuchs, President of the Right to Die Society and the editor of their newsletter 'Free To Go'. This public meeting was to be a workshop on creating your living will by a representative of Dying with Dignity but due to adminstrative changes at the organization, they were unable to provide us with a speaker. Edgar Coxeter, a long time supporter and co-founder of the Oakville Humanist Community used his charm to help us out. Ruth braved a blustery evening to make the GO train ride out to the Oakville station from where I picked her up.

Driving in to the venue, I was concerned that due to the adverse weather, we may not have anyone show up for the event and was pleasantly surprised at the turnout, mostly of members of the public who were interested in the topic for personal reasons. As it turned out, most of them had first hand experience with the prevailing medical dictat of preserving life regardless of the quality that they wanted to make sure that their own wishes would be honoured.

Ruth spoke about her own experiences and how she got involved with the Society, eventually becoming it's president. In her own soft-spoken way, she explained how an advance directive document needs to be personalized, using her own as an example of what she meant. She also handed out some material on appropriate books and websites to access for guidance. One link from the Right to Die website will take you to a comprehensive guide to creating a living will from the University of Toronto's Joint Centre for Bioethics. To access the pdf documents, you will have to register and agree to the terms of their disclaimer.

We all left a little more enlightened into the workings of our wonderful medical system and how to ensure that our wishes would be at least be acknowledged if not honoured.

September Meeting

2009-09-23T16:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I added a post to this blog.

We met at Symposium Cafe in the Meadowvale Town Centre on the 15th to resume our monthly HPHC meetings generally held on the third Tuesday of the month.

There was no set discussion topic and so the conversation meandered along, with the introduction of a new member, Alex Thomas, who came from a long line of devout Syrian Christians from South India. His father is a minister of their local community but Alex and his brother have deviated from the religious fervour of their ancestors. We welcomed back Cheri Cowan, all the way from Caledon, to her second meeting with HPHC, the first being a backyard barbeque at my place. The rest were HPHC stalwarts, Prof. Jackson and his brother-in-law, Bene, Mark (Devenish) our treasurer (came hoping to coax new memberships) and Elka. Ernie was unable to attend.

Cheri is a certified secular officiant although not yet with the Humanists. Her recollection of a recent secular wedding opened the door to a discussion on marriage vows and how stable can it be for non-religious. I was of the opinion that a common-law relationship was probably more likely to succeed, given that marriage is generally considered the 'graveyard of romance' though not necessarily so. From an evolutionary perspective, Homo Sapiens sapiens are considered to be opportunistically serially monogamous. As such, vows such as 'till death do us part' are artificial constraints on otherwise healthy relationships.

The conversation then centred on Alex's deconversion and the threats his family faced (of excommunication) since his defection from the faith. The community involvement of their faithful keep all under a tight wrap.

Our next meeting will be held at the Oakville Town Hall, Acorn Grill at 7:00pm on Friday, Oct. 23rd. It will be a public meeting to hold a workshop on preparing a Living Will by Dying with Dignity

DARWIN DAY CELEBRATION report by David McCamus

2009-02-17T19:53:00.000-08:00

“Evolution in Canadian Education”

Location: Noel Ryan Auditorium, Mississauga Central Library - 7 p.m. Date: February 10, 2009, 301 Burnhamthorpe Road West, Mississauga
Present: Edgar Coxeter, Marc Devenish, Elka & Ernie Enola, John & Doreen Giesbrecht, John Jackson, Andy Krantz, Dave McCamus, Bene Pirtam, Fred Riche, Kevin & Lisette Saldanha, Shaun Lalla (new).

After an introduction by our Past-president, Elka Enola, Dr. Douglas Currie, Entomolgy Curator at the ROM, gave a preview of the new Schad Gallery of Biodiversity, which is scheduled to open in the middle of May, 2009. This all new gallery will have 7 ecosystems represented: Coral Reef, Western Alberta, Great Lakes Basin, Grasslands, Tropical Forest, Boreal Forest, and the Arctic. There will be a special section called the Earth Rangers Studio with high tech presentations as well as live birds and animals on display. Among the many other features there will be an active Leaf Cutter Ant colony. Dr. Currie indicated that they are expecting in excess of 250,000 visitors per year. It all sounded very exciting, and it does serve to illustrate the story of evolution in a way that will undoubtedly appeal to a very broad audience.

This was followed by the keynote speaker of the evening, Dr. Jason Wiles, from the University of Syracuse, who was introduced by our President, Dr. Kevin Saldanha. Dr. Wiles is also the co-director of the Evolution Education Research Centre at McGill University. He began his discourse by indicating that there appears to be a relatively high level of awareness of the theory of evolution amongst the general public and academia. By way of illustration he presented two humorous videos one entitled the “Evolution of Homer Simpson”, and a Canadian Tire commercial called “The Evolution of Need”, both suggesting that the public are generally aware of the theory of evolution, but with a very fragile grasp of the fundamental principles involved.

He went on to talk about a statement recently signed by leading senior scientific officials representing 67 countries around the world (in some cases representing more than one country) about the Theory of Evolution. They agreed that the world began 4.5 billion years ago and that life appeared 2.5 billion years ago and that, while life has taken many forms, DNA research reveals a common primordial origin.

He outlined why the study of evolution is so important:

It provides a fundamental understanding of science and how it should work.
It requires a basic understanding and integration of Biology, Geology, Astronomy, etc.
Nothing in Biology makes sense without evolution.
In the field of medicine, without the Theory of Evolution how would one explain the development of antibiotic resistant drugs? How would it be that using animals to test drugs can possibly work, if we are not related to the rest of the animal kingdom?
In agriculture, we have a very long history of using selective breeding, or perhaps more accurately, “directed evolution”, in order to evolve stronger, larger, more disease resistant, and fertile strains of crops and animals.
In the environmental sphere we are rightly concerned about the ability of many species to adapt to the altered reality that we humans are creating. It is essential that we gain a far better grasp of the critical issues involved before we lose more and more of world’s biodiversity.
A basic understanding of the Theory of Evolution is essential to grasp the fundamental imperative that we as humans must continually adapt or ultimately perish. “The very future of humanity is at stake”!

Despite the high level of general awareness, approximately half of all adults in the United States do not buy into it, and most students have a very weak understanding of the Theory of Evolution. In contrast, polls show that 59% of Canadians believe in evolution. In the US, 43% of respondents in a recent poll agreed that “ dinosaurs and humans had coexisted”. This result speaks to the successful efforts of some well organized ultra-conservative churches. As an example of their activities, Dr. Wiles described the Creation Museum based on intelligent design located at the Family Discovery Center in Kentucky, with the following stated intent; “The Museum will be a wonderful alternative to the evolutionary natural museums that Satan is using to influence so many minds”. He also pointed out that Canada has a number of such museums including one located nearby the Tyrell Museum in Alberta. He noted that the intelligent design idea was not developed through any accepted scientific process, but is non-the-less being promoted by these religious organizations as an equivalent theory to that of evolution. It is his view that these efforts to equate the two as simply two alternative theories that should be taught in our schools must be actively resisted.

Dr. Wiles warned us not be complacent about the teaching of the Theory of Evolution in Canada. He stated that “it is not unusual for Canadian students to go through their entire public school career without being taught about evolution”. Indeed, it is often omitted from the curriculum, or taught by teachers with limited knowledge and/or commitment to the subject.

Dr. Wiles went on to discuss the recent controversy about the Canadian Government’s denial of a grant to the Evolution Education Research Centre at McGill to conduct a study of the teaching of evolution in Canadian schools on the basis that there was not adequate justification provided for the assumption that evolution is correct versus intelligent design, an objection which not only revealed an appalling lack of insight into the subject area, but which was also totally irrelevant to the purpose of the study. Apparently, they have found other funding for the study and are planning to proceed regardless.

His final message was:

Learn the science of evolution well.
Help educate the world about evolution.

Dr. Wiles’ speech was followed by a discussion period, with broad participation from the audience of forty plus people.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Darwin

2009-02-11T14:46:00.000-08:00

Our Darwin day event went off marvelous if I may say so myself, thanks to the assistance rendered by the staff (Kathryn Franklin) of the Mississauga Library and the Mississauga Freethought Association (Tom Ulanowski).

Dr. Doug Currie gave us an overview of the upcoming Schad Gallery of Biodiversity, including the rationale behind the exhibit, which will be one of the crowning achievements of the new ROM and a leading natural history exhibit on the continent.

Dr. Jason Wiles opened our eyes to the state of affairs regarding the dissemination of evolution information via the academic system in this country. We are not as bad as our American neighbours but we aren't lagging far behind... only 3 out of every 5 Canadians 'believes' in evolution BUT 46% still think that man co-existed with dinosaurs. We all owe it to the younger generations to do everything in our power to educate them on one of the fundamental theories of biology which will, in turn, help them make educated decisions on their future.

A spirited Q&A period followed his hour-long presentation. Zak Fiddes of CFI/atheistbus.ca was at the event selling fundraising material for the campaign which has topped $40,000 in less than a month. Our congratulations to them in getting the debate into the streets, literally. Check out the atheistbus.ca website for more information.

Darwin Day, 2009

2008-12-30T14:19:00.000-08:00

We are excited to inform you that we will be hosting the 2009 Darwin Day event in the Noel Ryan auditorium of the Mississauga Central Library on February 10th at 7:00pm.

Our speaker is Dr. Jason Wiles, biology professor at the University of Syracuse and co-director of the Evolution Education Research Centre with Dr. Brian Alters at McGill University in Montreal. He will be speaking to the public on the topic of evolution in education and why this basic tenet of biological life on earth is still misunderstood and refuted by a majority of the general population.

2009 being the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, one would have thought that evolution would have been as common a concept at that of gravity or heliocentricity. However, this is not so as evidenced by current polls.

Understanding why required appropriate research, funding for which was denied by Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) a major source of funding for such research. It was the focus of an issue of Humanist Perspectives and a source of major embarrasment for the Council.

Prior to Dr. Wiles presentation, we will have Dr. Douglas Currie, Entomology curator at the Royal Ontario Museum, give us a sneak preview into the new Schad Gallery of Biodiversity portraying the natural history of a planet in peril.

HPHC November meeting

2008-12-30T14:06:00.001-08:00

Our November meeting was held in the boardroom of the Creditview Animal & Bird Hospital in Mississauga and was attended by several members.

The topic of discussion centred around our mortality as recent celebrations at the beginning of the month revered the souls of the dearly departed. Death is a topic not very often visited in daily conversations and it is an issue that all too often is swept under the rug unless confronted through reality.

The 'spirited' discussion covered much ground from dying with dignity to living wills. It was resolved that we should invite members of the Canadian group Dying with Dignity to one of our next meetings to hold a workshop on preparing a Living Will.

How Humanists celebrate seasonal and life events

2008-10-20T16:19:00.000-07:00

This months meeting will focus on how the non-religious celebrate life events and special occasions. With Thanksgiving having just taken place and Halloween around the corner heralding the arrival of Christmas, there is a need to acknowledge the event without necessarily believing in the dogma. All these festivals have pagan origins and together with pivotal life events fulfill a human need.

We hope to have a Humanist Officiant describe some of the ceremonies they perform and discuss the origins of other universal festivals. In the spirit of the season, we will have a small 'pot-luck' with bite-sized finger-foods (or Thanksgiving leftovers ;-). However, we cannot imbibe in the spirits as this is a municipal facility.

Most religious festivals have been co-opted from previous pagan or other traditional feasts of the natives prior to introduction of religion. Typical Christian celebrations of Christmas and Easter both have secular origins.

With Halloween coming up shortly, we will again be thinking of the secular origins of this popular kids festival which is celebrated by all. By most accounts, it has several counterparts world-wide and was preceded in North America by a native Mexican festival called the Day of the Dead.

As a Community, there are certain traditional life event celebrations that do not require religious ceremonies but are never-the-less pivotal to our passage. Baby naming ceremonies, coming of age ceremonies, weddings and funerals. All these need to be appropriately marked but not necessarily blessed by a supernatural deity.

We hope to explore the need for these celebrations in our secular lives and how we can maintain a healthy relationship with all these events without going overboard.

Sept 16th Restaurant Meeting

2008-09-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

The next meeting of the Halton Peel Humanist Community will be held at Montfort Restaurant on Iroquois Road, just south of the Oakville Town Centre in Oakville on Tuesday, Sep. 16th at 7:00pm.

The topic of discussion at this meeting will centre on how our personal dietary choices affect others, whether those be humans or animals.

This topic is becoming more important for our emotional, physical and planetary well-being as we are currently much more removed from our food sources than we have ever been in the short history of humankind. With diverging issues of health ranging from cardiac to social and environment, it is important that we discuss the implication of our personal choices.

As with everything else, whatever we do... or eat, we need to do it conciously with the ultimate goal of reducing our 'foodprint'. That involves eating locally and, whenever possible, organically.

Besides improving the quality and taste of the food, it is more healthy for our bodies as well as our environment.

Looking forward to seeing some of you at the meeting.

Kevin Saldanha
cat-herder
Halton Peel Humanist Community.

Public Meeting May 20th, 2008

2008-04-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

Peter Orphanos, chair of the Peel Region chapter of the Sierra Club, will be speaking at our public meeting on May 20th, 2008 on the topic of the 'The true cost of fossil fuels' in relation to the environment.

As we see gas prices reach new heights, we need to understand how we have arrived to this level of dependence on fossil fuels and what this means for the environment which is changing so rapidly due to human activity.

Peter, who retired from a successful teaching and administrative career five years ago, is now an active environmentalist, with expertise at several levels of governmental administration. He is regularly called upon by municipalities for advice on how to create sustainable neighbourhoods while reducing our dependency on non-renewable resources.

We encourage you to attend this interesting evening which starts at 7:30p in the Acorn Grill of the Oakville Town Centre.

Kevin Saldanha
President
Halton Peel Humanist Community