Sunday Meeting

Sunday, February 5 at 10:30 am

Darwinism and Spirituality

Presented by Sterling Bunnell

Darwin Day, the anniversary of Darwin’s birthday in 1809, is coming up February 12.  In honor of Darwin Day, Sterling’s talk this morning will be about Darwinism and spirituality.  Sterling will break out of the myopic bonds that usually hamper discussions on this subject.

All of Sterling’s talks manifest his brilliant command of both abstract explanations and historical examples — both theory and fact — and they exhibit the amazing broad scope of his mind, encompassing so many fields: the hard and soft sciences and earth and biological sciences, spirituality, psychology, philosophy, history, at alia. Sterling is a rare generalist, a philosopher, freely sharing his thoughts in our world of guarded specialists. Hear Sterling talk, participate in the group discussion, and get the education you might have missed in the course of your life!

Our Sunday talks are accompanied by optional pot luck refreshments. Please feel free to bring scrumptious food, organic and local, suitable for brunch. Our doors open at 10:00 am and talks begin at 10:30 am.

by

Joel Nakamura

To learn more about Sunday Programs held

at Humanist Hall

click here

Thursday, January 19 at 6:30 pm

Community Democracy Forum

with Occupy Oakland

Presented by Shawn McDougal

It’s time for us progressives to take our work to the next level — from agitation and defense to shifting the terrain of struggle altogether.  We’re looking for people interested in participatory democracy and building an effective, broad, high-impact movement for progressive change.  Let’s create a social life beyond the rat-race competition for scarce resources;  a broadly-shared sense of our interdependence, based on concrete experience and not just good intentions;  synergy between the hard-won wisdom of elders and the bold ideas of youth;  community that emerges from dialog across differences rather than static assumptions about “us vs. them;”   a politics of participation, interaction, and conversation, instead of the elite-driven politics of personality, performance, and spectacle;  an informed and vigilant public that will hold leaders accountable;  and a working model of collective power  emphasizing the regular actions of many over the extraordinary actions of a few.

Community forums, i.e., neighborhood assemblies, would not merely make recommendations to officials but they would actually make fundamental decisions.  They would decide the city budget:  what percentage of it should go to police, to youth programs, parks, transit, and so on.  How much of it do we provide for new programs;  which progams do we phase out?  Should we change our revenue stream?  And so on.  We would have strong participatory democracy  at the local level.  The neighborhood assemblies could be a scalable model for deepening democracy at the county, state, and national level.  Bringing people together to discuss, debate, and decide on concrete issues that affect our lives — this is exactly the kind of culture shift our society needs.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday

January 14, 15, and 16 at 9:30 am

The Transformational Power of Compassion Workshop

Presented by Robert Gonzales

The focus of this fantastic workshop is to establish and cultivate an embodied consciousness of self-compassion and compassionate communication as a means to engage in a living practice, moment to moment.  You will be introduced to — and practice — processes that Robert Gonzales has developed to deepen the experience of self-compassion and living compassion in relationships.  The workshop will include:

* Developing an embodied awareness of compassion and authenticity
* Deepening awareness of the beauty of needs
* Inner work of cultivating deep self-compassion
* Bringing our authenticity and compassion into the relational space with others

This workshop is brought to us by Bay Area Nonviolent Communication (BayNVC) which meets regularly and holds events, workshops, and trainings in Oakland and the greater Bay Area.  

Tuesday, February 14 at 7:30 pm

Earth Awareness

and Climate Change Reality

for Science Fans

Presented by the Fellowship of Humanity

Our meeting this evening will feature a film of a talk by Alder Stone. It is the introduction to his Story of Gaia, an amazingly clear and basic, yet sophisticated exposition on the science of Gaia and the climate change that’s upon us.  Alder Stone is able to facilitate our learning the fundamentals of systems science and geophysiology by way of his clear exposition and memorable pictures and graphs — which everyone can understand.  Over time, in future meetings, we will show films of other filmmakers about climate change and we will show films about other authors in the field of Gaia science.  You don’t have to be a scientist to love science! All you need to understand the Earth in this new systems science way is to have enthusiasm for science!

Our meetings have three goals:

1) To understand the nature of the living Earth, and, in general, gain a deeper, intuitive, and awe-inspiring understanding for how nature works, including the nature of Life itself. This is not an intellectual exercise, but relevant to the survival of humankind.

2) To understand the abrupt, chaotic, extreme, and unstoppable 1-in-50-million-year climate-change event that has begun and will force a significant revision of civilization as we have known it no later than mid-century.

3) To discuss how we integrate our awareness of Earth and climate change reality into our own lives; to support one another around sacrifices we make and hardships we endure for the sake of our awareness; and to celebrate our successes in harmonizing with the Earth.

$5 donation

http://alderstone3.com/?p=1847

To learn more about Sunday Programs held

at Humanist Hall

click here

Holiday Gathering

Friday, December 23 at 7:00 pm

HumanLight Celebration

By The Fellowship of Humanity

December 23 is the day that Humanists celebrate the winter solstice and Christmas festivities.  This holiday is an alternative to both the winter solstice and Christmas holidays:  it celebrates the Humanist light that we shed on humanity and the Humanist vision we have for the future of humanity — rather than celebrating the sunlight or the light from an alleged “God.”  It is a time to express the positive, secular human values of reason, compassion, humanity, and hope!  The Fellowship of Humanity expects to celebrate HumanLight every year — and at all times of course!  So let’s all of us Humanists come together at this time this year and shine some Humanist light on one another!

Our celebration will include conversations about what affected us most strongly this year, 2011, and what we hope for in the coming year of all years, 2012.  Let’s all share our enthusiasms for what we love most and what we’re most interested in!  Let’s get to know one another better and reinforce our Humanism!  And by all means, we shall have music and song and refreshments as well!  We urge you to bring your favorite instrument to play, your favorite Humanist song of the season, and a favorite light refreshment to share!  Let’s enjoy the holiday season with Humanists, for Humanists!

To learn more about Sunday Programs held

at Humanist Hall

click here

Sunday Meeting

Sunday, December 18 at 10:30 am

Life on Earth 6

Appreciating the Gaia Theory

By Florence Windfall

Florence’s talk this Sunday continues her appreciation of Lynn Margulis who recently died.  Florence shows how Lynn Margulis helped develop the Gaia Theory which was initiated by James Lovelock.  Florence will outline some of the basics of, and importance of, the Gaia Theory.  After her talk, Florence will facilitate a round-robin discussion on the issues she brought up.

Traditionally, Humanism did not officially include ecological or environmental awareness. Humanism was about humans, making humans central to its ethics and philosophy, rather than “God.”  But today Humanism does embrace the environment, or what used to be called conservation.  And what exactly do Humanists think they should do for the environment today?  Do Humanists expect to save the Earth, or some part of it, from environmental destruction today?  What do YOU think Humanists should be doing for the environment?  And what are you doing, or what would you like to be doing, for conservation today?

Our Sunday talks are accompanied by pot luck refreshments. Please feel free to bring scrumptious food, organic and local, suitable for brunch. Our doors open at 10:30 am and this talk will begin at 11:00 am.

by

Joel Nakamura

www.joelnakamura.com

To learn more about Sunday Programs held

at Humanist Hall

click here

Sunday Meeting

Sunday, December 4 at 10:30 am

Reason versus Nominalism

Presented by Sterling Bunnell

Sterling’s talk this morning will be about Realism versus Nominalism and their spiritual and cosmological implications.

All of Sterling’s talks manifest his brilliant command of both abstract explanations and historical examples — both theory and fact — and they exhibit the amazing broad scope of his mind, encompassing so many fields: the hard and soft sciences and earth and biological sciences, spirituality, psychology, philosophy, history, at alia. Sterling is a rare generalist, a philosopher, freely sharing his thoughts in our world of guarded specialists. Hear Sterling talk, participate in the group discussion, and get the education you might have missed in the course of your life!

Our Sunday talks are accompanied by optional pot luck refreshments. Please feel free to bring scrumptious food, organic and local, suitable for brunch. Our doors open at 10:00 am and talks begin at 10:30 am.

by

Joel Nakamura

To learn more about Sunday Programs held

at Humanist Hall

click here

Sunday Meeting

Sunday, November 27 at 10:30 am

Life on Earth 5

Appreciating Lynn Margulis

By Florence Windfall

Florence’s talk this Sunday is an appreciation of Lynn Margulis who recently died.  Lynn Margulis is the author of ground-breaking theories in biology.  She was a preeminent life scientist and author of new ways to look at life, what life is, what life does, how it evolves, and how it interacts with its environment.  In fact, she changed evolutionary biology forever, countering Darwin’s approach to evolution.  After her talk, Florence will facilitate a round-robin discussion on the issues she brought up.

Traditionally, Humanism did not officially include ecological or environmental awareness. Humanism was about humans. But today it does; today Humanism embraces the environment, or what used to be called conservation. And what exactly do Humanists think they should do for the environment today? Do Humanists expect to save the Earth, or some part of it, from environmental destruction today? What do YOU think Humanists should be doing for the environment? And what are YOU doing, or what would you like to be doing, for conservation today?

Our Sunday talks are accompanied by pot luck refreshments. Please feel free to bring scrumptious food, organic and local, suitable for brunch. Our doors open at 10:30 am and this talk will begin at 11:00 am.

by

Joel Nakamura

www.joelnakamura.com

To learn more about Sunday Programs held

at Humanist Hall

click here

Sunday Meeting

Sunday, November 6 at 10:30 am

Looking at Probable Futures through the Rear-view Mirror

Presented by Sterling Bunnell

Sterling’s talk this morning will be about probable futures. But these are futures to be found by looking through the rear view mirror!

All of Sterling’s talks manifest his brilliant command of both abstract explanations and historical examples — both theory and fact — and they exhibit the amazing broad scope of his mind, encompassing so many fields: the hard and soft sciences and earth and biological sciences, spirituality, psychology, philosophy, history, at alia. Sterling is a rare generalist, a philosopher, freely sharing his thoughts in our world of guarded specialists. Hear Sterling talk, participate in the group discussion, and get the education you might have missed in the course of your life!

Our Sunday talks are accompanied by optional pot luck refreshments. Please feel free to bring scrumptious food, organic and local, suitable for brunch. Our doors open at 10:30 am and talks begin at 11:00 am.

by

Joel Nakamura

To learn more about Sunday Programs held

at Humanist Hall

click here

Tuesday Meetup

Tuesday, December 27 at 7:30 pm

Earth Awareness

and Climate Change Reality

for Non-Theists

Presented by the Fellowship of Humanity

Our Meetup this evening will feature slides created by Alder Stone.  They are the introductory slides for his Story of Gaia, an amazingly clear and basic, yet sophisticated exposition on the science of Gaia and the climate change that’s upon us.  Alder Stone is able to facilitate our learning the fundamentals of systems science and geophysiology by way of his clear exposition and beautiful slides — which everyone can understand.   You don’t have to be a scientist to love science!  All you need to understand the Earth in this new systems science way is to have enthusiasm for science!

Our Meetup has three goals for our meetings:

1)   To understand the nature of the living Earth, and, in general, gain a deeper, intuitive, and awe-inspiring understanding for how nature works, including the nature of Life itself.  This is not an intellectual exercise, but relevant to the survival of humankind.

2)  To understand the abrupt, chaotic, extreme, and unstoppable 1-in-50-million-year climate-change event that has begun and will force a significant revision of civilization as we have known it no later than mid-century.

3)   To discuss how we integrate our awareness of Earth and climate change reality into our own lives;  to support one another around sacrifices we make and hardships we endure for the sake of our awareness;  and to celebrate our successes in harmonizing with the Earth.

$5 donation

http://alderstone3.com/?p=1847

To learn more about Sunday Programs held

at Humanist Hall

click here