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dorsethumanists.co.uk @dorsethumanists Dorset Humanists meetup.com/Dorset-Humanists

Saturday 9th July 11am Dorset Humanists at Bourne Free. Assemble East Cliff BH1 3AF by 11am Wear your Dorset Humanists T-shirt with pride! (Or a white T-shirt to blend in.)

Do rset Humanists at the Bourne Free Festival Following the shocking Orlando massacre we’re inviting all of our members, supporters, and friends to show their solidarity with the LGBT community by joining us in the Bourne Free march.

One of oldest members, a grandmother approaching her 90th birthday, is planning to join us. Will you too?

Great strides have been made in LGBT equality in this country in recent years, culminating in the legalisation of same-sex marriage in 2014. The situation for LGBT people in many other countries, however, remains dire.

We will also have a stall in the Lower Gardens after the parade. We’d love to see you!

Wednesday 27th July 7.30pm Green House Hotel, Grove Road, BH1 3AX

Understanding Islam A talk by David Warden

In this talk David will be explaining why he believes a Humanist approach to Islam requires a different emphasis from our more combative approach to Christianity. This is not about giving privileged treatment to Islamic beliefs but about recognising there is an overriding need for ordinary Muslims to feel part of British society rather than a marginalized minority. It is therefore essential that we avoid misunderstanding, stereotyping and oversimplification based on ignorance.

David will explore Islam’s history with a special focus on how extremism has developed over the last century. He will also highlight moderate voices within Islam and

assess the likelihood of reform.

David Warden is a former business trainer with a degree in theology and a continuing passion for studying religious beliefs. He has been Chair of Dorset Humanists for seven years.

July 2016

http://dorsethumanists.co.uk/



Saturday 13th August 2.00pm Moordown Community Centre, Coronation Avenue, BH9 1TW

Animal Journeys - Migration & Navigation

Emeritus Professor Norman Maclean. Migration is widespread within the animal kingdom and millions of mammals, fish, birds and insects make incredible journeys each

year in their efforts to find food, a more hospitable climate, or places to breed. This phenomenon is one of the great wonders of the natural world, made all the more interesting by the fact so many mysteries remain about how animals do it. Our present understanding suggests that animal migrants have evolved a range of differing navigation systems that use the sun, the stars, reflected light, the Earth's magnetic field and sense of smell to find their way, and in some cases at least, their navigation relies on quantum entanglement. A fascinating afternoon is guaranteed! Norman Maclean is an Emeritus Professor of Genetics at Southampton University, and he has written many popular books on nature and genetics. He is also Chair of South Hants Humanists, and his popular talks for Dorset Humanists have previously covered topics such as animal rights, and the enigma of nature vs nurture.

Please join us for Dorset Humanists members’ complimentary Summer Cream Tea after Norman’s talk (a small charge will be levied for non-members).

Thursday 7th July 7.30pm and every first Thursday evening of the month at Moon in the Square, Exeter Rd, BH2 5AQ

Social Evening Enjoy stimulating conversation over a drink or two at our pub

social evening. There is no fixed agenda.

Dean 07713 858773

Saturday 23rd July 6:00pm

Beach Barbecue Our third beach barbecue hosted by Sam Cox which features an evening of eating, drinking, beach games and conversation. All invited, humanists and their friends. We will be on the stretch of beach in front of Middle Chine. Weather forecast: tropical and balmy. Sam 07543 640906

Sunday 17th and 24th July 7.30pm

Walks Our popular walks are usually on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of

each month throughout the summer.

Lulworth Cove Moved to July 17th – 10:15 start from Lulworth Cove car park, main entrance. 3+ miles, coastal walk.

Swyre Head and Kimmeridge July 24th – 8 miles. Start at the Swyre Head car park (1 mile west of Kingston) - further details to follow. Shorter options will be available. Join us on Meetup.com for further details.

Wednesday 24th August 7.30pm Green House Hotel, Grove Road, BH1 3AX

Is God Required for Morality? Philosopher and author Jonathan MS Pearce

While most religious believers agree that atheists are capable of living moral lives, many claim that questions of right and wrong ultimately collapse into relativism and subjectivity without a religious foundation. In this thought-provoking presentation, philosopher Jonathan Pearce will present a wide range of arguments challenging the claim that God is necessary for morality, and he will show that empathy, compassion, reason and science are all that are required to build a sound moral framework. More controversially, he will demonstrate that the


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theist’s God must himself be a consequentialist, and that Christians place themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to defend biblical genocides as good because they are commanded by God, while condemning secular genocides.

Jonathan Pearce is a Hampshire-based philosopher who has written and/or edited many books that will be of interest to humanists. He also writes the popular ‘A Tippling Philosopher’ blog for the Patheos blog network.

Saturday 10th September 2.00pm Moordown Community Centre, Coronation Avenue, BH9 1TW

The Population Predicament Eric Rimmer from ‘Population Matters’.

Humanity has now grown to a size which is draining the planet of its ability to support us - too many people consuming too much stuff. This fully-illustrated and educational presentation will offer some answers.

Other events of interest…

Wednesday 13th July 7.30pm

Bournemouth Skeptics in the Pub, Brunswick, 199 Malmesbury Park Road Bournemouth BH8 8PX

Are we discovering new antibiotics quickly enough? John Broughall

Multi-drug antibiotic resistance has been recognised as a global threat to health yet the solutions to this issue are not obvious. The current commercially-driven pharmaceutical process does not appear fit for purpose. The charity which John is representing tonight, Antibiotic Research UK, is proposing a new approach to overcome this impasse. He will discuss their plans and the science behind their proposal.

John Broughall will discuss the issue of why the antibiotic development pipeline has dried up: what are the problems and why the pharmaceutical industry is not investing in research and development to produce new compounds.

John is a PhD microbiologist and a volunteer for Antibiotic Research UK.

Committee addition We are delighted to announce that Phil Butcher (left) has joined the Dorset Humanists committee on a co-opted basis (subject to election at the next AGM).

Phil writes: ‘Despite going to a school that had a

strong Christian tradition and a fierce Methodist headmaster, or perhaps because of it, I have been an atheist since my teens. I studied natural sciences and mainly physics at university and have worked for over 40 years in the nuclear ind ustry, mostly in the field of safety assessment, and for 13 years in Russia and Eastern Europe.

I like to try to base my view of the world on science - good reasoning from good evidence - and I'd like to think I maintain an open mind as I read more and as human knowledge expands. Stretching the scientific approach into the understanding of human interactions and how society works is a challenge for a physical scientist but I feel that the answer is to keep reading and keep listening because more is understood all the time.

I was introduced to Dorset Humanists about 10 years ago when there was a talk by the President of the National Secular Society and feel very happy to be part of such a friendly group with a common interest in discussing big subjects and using our reasoning abilities. I find myself in agreement with the values and broad aims of humanism, more than any other group or party I have come across. The programme of talks is excellent and I also very much enjoy the informal events - walks and social evenings. I hope I can be useful to the committee.’


http://bournemouth.skepticsinthepub.org/Event.aspx/8003/Are-we-discovering-new-antibiotics-quickly-enough





One Life 2016 An enjoyable and affordable seven-week evening course about Humanism

In Britain today over 50 per cent of the population identify as ‘non-religious’. Humanism offers a positive identity for non-religious people and a lively community of like-minded people.

Our popular and well-established ‘One Life’ course is an opportunity to find out more about this growing movement. No gimmicks, no brainwashing. Just a great opportunity to learn about Humanism with open-minded people.

If you subscribe to a religious or a non-religious worldview you are equally welcome to attend.

1. An overview of Humanism Monday September 5th

2. Thinking skills – how to avoid biases and intellectual black holes Monday September 12th

3. How to achieve a secular society Monday September 19th

4. How to live an ethical life Monday September 26th

5. How to be happy – the science and psychology of human flourishing Monday October 3rd

6. How to build the good society for everyone Monday October 10th

7. The future of Humanism Monday October 17th

All sessions 7.30pm – 9.30pm at Green House Hotel, Grove Road, Bournemouth BH1 3AX. £15 deposit (£5 off for DH members) + £3 donation per session. Cheques payable to David Warden.

Course leader: David Warden BA (Hons), MA, Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Chair of Dorset Humanists.

[email protected]

07910 886629

Book early to avoid disappointment – limited number of places

“An amazing course – it’s been fantastic!”

“Just what we need to introduce people to Humanism.”

Josie Butcher inspects our tent at Winton Carnival before a deluge of rain




The Agnostic Confusion?

At our Moordown meeting in May philosopher Gary Cox set out his reasons for arguing that agnosticism is the only tenable philosophical position to hold in relation to the question of God’s existence. Gary explained that the word ‘agnosticism’ has two meanings: one denotes a person who is undecided or in doubt as to whether God exists or not; a second refers to a person who holds that certain knowledge of a God is impossible. Gary is an agnostic in both of these senses. He also defined the meaning of the word ‘atheism’ as the claim to know beyond all possible doubt that there is no God. In his book The God Confusion he writes: ‘A number of high-profile evangelical atheists, reacting against the menacing absurdities of religious fundamentalism and extremism, are belligerently spreading the New Atheist gospel that God definitely does not exist and that any suggestion that he might exist is utterly ridiculous’. However, Cox’s definition of atheism seemed to put him at

odds with most atheists in the room. Members of the audience explained that atheism can also be thought of as a reasonable conclusion given the absence of valid evidence. This falls short of certainty because valid evidence could emerge, or God could exist in a dimension wholly beyond evidential reach, but nevertheless, given that our beliefs are usually supported by evidence, atheism surely counts as a tenable philosophical position. Atheism, in this sense, is wholly compatible with a healthy scepticism because it is prepared to look again at the conclusion if new evidence were to emerge.

In the conclusion to his book, Cox writes: ‘As for worshipping God, I may be wrong, but I cannot see that if God exists he requires or appreciates all that undignified grovelling, praising and pleading. My problem is not with God but with organised religion’.

From Gary Cox:

I completely take on board what you and others have said and learned much myself yesterday. It is important that people engage the evils of religion in a 'battle of ideas' and I accept the notion of 'atheism' as a world-view free of religious dogma, rather than an assertion that God definitely does not exist. My overall thesis is pretty dryly epistemological in The God Confusion I guess, but I am pretty scathing about religion in the introduction as you will see. If there is a God I think he would have contempt for much of religion too.

Dorset Humanists member Barbara Fogg celebrating her 100th birthday. Congratulations!




Ten Ways the Universe Tries to Kill You At our Green House Hotel meeting in May, astronomer Steve Tonkin entertained us with genuine, but mercifully unlikely, apocalyptic scenarios.

1. Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) GRBs are believed to consist of a narrow beam of intense radiation released during a supernova as a rapidly rotating, high-mass star collapses to form a neutron star, quark star, or black hole. A gamma ray burst would wipe us out but this is unlikely because the Earth is such a small target.

2. Magnetars A magnetar is a type of neutron star about the size of Bournemouth with an extremely powerful magnetic field. An omnidirectional electromagnetic pulse from a magnetar could knock out our satellites and bathe us in X-rays and gamma rays. It would take the internet out immediately. They pose a high risk of satellite disruption but a low risk of Armageddon.

3. Cosmic Rays These are high energy particles sometimes referred to as the ‘Oh my God particle’. They can cause DNA deletions and instabilities in the human genome. They can also cause errors in microchips. They are constant – even if you live underground. You are better off living at low altitude. Aircrew and astronauts are particularly at risk.

4. Hypervelocity Stars A hypervelocity star travelling at 1.6m km/h could cause gravitational disruption to our solar system if it passed by. Or it could disrupt the Oort Cloud. We know of 34 of them but thankfully none are headed this way. We can’t do anything about them but we would have centuries of warning if we knew one was coming for us.

5. Rogue Black Holes A rogue black hole results from the merger of two black holes. They travel at several million kilometres per hour. They are invisible and cause massive gravitational disruption. Earth would be ‘spaghettified’ and the Oort Cloud could send gigatons of

bricks onto us. Nobody knows their frequency but the risk is somewhere of the order of 1:1016.

6. Rogue Planets Rogue planets are planets which have been ejected from a star system or which were never in one to start with. They orbit the galaxy. They could hit us or collide with the Oort Cloud. A low estimate is that there are 400 billion of them but the nearest one is 130 light years away. Not with losing sleep over.

7. Verne shot (named after Jules Verne) These are hypothetical volcanic eruptions caused by the buildup of gas deep in the interiors of tectonic plates. We would be pulverised by a hypersonic shockwave and crushed by 20 billion tons of debris. It would feel like an incoming asteroid with a few minutes warning. The 1908 Tunguska Event may be have been caused by one but there’s no evidence of this. The risk is possibly zero because they probably don’t exist.

8. Galactic Collisions Galactic collisions are happening all the time. The risk to us is certain. Andromeda will collide with the Milky Way in 4.5bn years’ time.

9. Asteroid Strike In 2013 there was an asteroid strike in Chelyabinsk, Russia. A lump of rock the size of a house caused a 500 kiloton explosion. 1400 people were hospitalised – mostly because of flying glass. If an asteroid 100m in diameter was headed for London everything inside the M25 circle would be destroyed. There would be no point trying to destroy it because this would turn it into a cluster bomb. The best solution would be to try and deflect it. We should be investing in the technology to do this (about £225m per year). We know how to do it.

10. Red Giant Sun We will be fried by the Sun when it turns into a red giant in about 2 billion years from now.

Dorset Humanists has donated £25 to the Commission for Dark Skies – a charity which Steve supports. Dark skies are good for the environment, good for animals and insects, and good for star-gazing!




Letters & Emails It’s your column…

From Sally Hawksworth on our Bourne Free march

I'd march if I could. I did last year, with the Amnesty group. Unfortunately, I committed, some months back, to a dance gig at a fair in Yetminster, so I shan't be around. But best wishes for a really strong presence on the part of the Humanists, and a fun, successful weekend for Pride.

Sally is a member of our schools team

From Phil James

The EU referendum was both objectively divisive: young-old; graduates-uneducated; Scotland/NI-England/Wales; metropolitan-provincial; rich elites-poor working class; and subjectively, cosmopolitan-insular; experts-unskilled. It even split politics: blue-on-blue; Blairites-Corbynistas.

Populist lies fuelled overconfident beliefs; to our national shame mainly over immigration. Propaganda triumphed over facts, emotion over rationality. Sovereignty and democracy became misunderstood battlegrounds. Instead of cooperating to build consensus and reform weaknesses we’ve become insular and heralded in a new era of uncertainty, weakening our security and those of our allies. I mourn the loss of liberalist ideals and abhor the new populism/neo-fascism.

We are where we are. Time to move forward.

From John Davison

I awoke Friday morning 24th June 2016 fully expecting the reverse result of what actually happened, remembering that before I went to sleep rehearsing my attitudes I had decided that it would be time to regain our humour, rebuild and move on.

These attitudes served well as I ignored abuse from ‘bremainian’ social network friends. By midday, I acclimatised to the fact this is going to be the situation for a few days and settled with a glass of wine on top of the cliff overlooking the English Channel to enjoy the sensation of feeling more European than I did on 23rd June. More European because now our relationship is detached from the failed, federalising impulse of the EU, our contribution to European culture and economics will have a new efflorescence and resurgence with democracy at its core.

From Aaron Darkwood

As history wakes up to the dawn of an independent, free and democratically run country once more, a sigh of relief is released by 52% of the British population. Right now the ‘Project Fear’ team are hastily back-peddling on their lies stating now that there won't be a recession, won’t be a punishment budget, won't be mass job losses, won't be house prices drop. Britain can now leave the EU, control immigration, evaluate our laws, and start trading with the world's prospering markets through the WTO. Great times lie ahead. Feeling very privileged to have been a part of leading the way forward.

From Martin Brennan

Now we have the result I hope we can build a new and better Europe. But it may be difficult because the rich and powerful people of the feudal spatial structure known as the 'UK' or 'Britain' have never been enthusiastic about the countries of Europe. In fact, they have preferred fighting them for hundreds of years. They failed to modernise after the end of Empire and hung on to silly words like 'Great' and 'United' when, in fact the post-colonial project was falling apart. The monarchy, the unelected House of Lords and the Church add to the toxic brew. However, I hope that Scotland will be independent soon and the North will join the Republic. A modest and humble England based on the Scandinavian model would be nice. Let's stop all the bluster about being a 'world power'.




Dorset Humanists

Chairman’s View July 2016

’d like to share a message from the British Humanist Association:

“In these times of uncertainty, we humanists must put our values into practice.

Following on from the historic EU vote, much about the future of the UK and of

Europe is, for better or worse, profoundly uncertain. As a non-partisan, charitable

organisation, we did not take a side in the EU referendum, apart from encouraging a

more democratic debate from all quarters. In that same enthusiastically democratic

spirit, it falls to us to ensure that as humanists we play a critical role in steering this

country through the difficult moral and intellectual questions ahead of it. As humanists,

and collectively as members of the BHA, we have an important role to play… The UK

has a great deal of healing to do. The referendum debate exposed some of the ugliest

aspects of British society, and we are deeply concerned by the spike in racist,

xenophobic, and nationalistic incidents. We will work to challenge hate and repair

divisions however we can... In challenging times, the values we need most are those of

reason and honesty, empathy and compassion, and respect for democracy and the rule

of law. Humanists do not own these values, but we are their consistent and loyal

champions.”

I’d like to thank members of Dorset Humanists for conducting our internal debate with

civility, courtesy, and rationality. We now know the result of the referendum but it

brings a larger question into sharper focus: how can we build a good society in which

prosperity is shared equitably and fairly? I’m reading Professor Steve Hilton’s book

‘More Human’ which has some interesting answers. For decades, firms have been

giving a greater share of their profits to shareholders rather than workers, partly

because executive remuneration is bound up with shares. This is ultimately self-

defeating because workers end up with no money to buy the goods which capitalism is

producing. This causes depression and democratic revolutions. One firm which has

bucked the trend is Costco – the second largest retailer in the world after Walmart. It

pays it workers well above the living wage and provides employer-sponsored health

insurance. Last year Costco made over $2 billion in profits which demonstrates that

paying good wages can be good for business. We’ll be looking at more ideas on the

‘One Life’ course starting in September. I hope you’ll join us for 7 weeks of stimulating

discussion and learning.

If you can, please join the British Humanist Association in addition to joining Dorset

Humanists. Join the BHA here or pick up a joining form at our meetings.

I


https://humanism.org.uk/join/

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