Humanist Group
The Humanist Group meets on the last Sunday of the month online at 7:30 pm. Humanism is a philosophy that encourages people to think for themselves, valuing science and reason. It is focused on human means for comprehending reality and pursuing good. Humanist ethics are based on respect for all life and regard human values as having meaning in the context of human life rather than the promise of life after death.
Register in advance for this meeting. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Register once to attend any or all.
Sunday February 25th: We will discuss the questions:
Are we animals?
How are we different from/the same as the other animals?
What does being truly human mean?
What does this mean about our relationship with the other animals?
Does it separate us or connect us?
Sunday March 31st: What is instinct? Does it manifest itself differently in humans than in other animals? How is it different from reflexes? What can we learn from studies of instinct? These are some of the questions that Gunnar Jonsson will introduce.
Sunday April 28th: How much is enough? What is fair in this world? Can we settle for clothing, shelter and food? What more do we want? Would it be foolish to enjoy what we have?
Sunday May 26th: How does ChatGPT work and is AI a menace to society? Tristan Engst, a third year Ph.D. student in machine learning/computer science at SFU will be leading this discussion. Source material includes a podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVm2IoUUxdo and a New Yorker article: https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-artificial-intelligence/what-kind-of-mind-does-chatgpt-have both by Cal Newport.
Past topics:
and with your approach. Visit CoqZest for more information.
Sunday Dec. 31st: No meeting this month.
Sunday Jan. 28th: Marilyn presents this month. We will take Will Storr’s, The Status Game a little further, by way of Gabor Matés, The Myth of Normal.
Status, says Storr, is our life. Status meaning competition in very many ways, placing others on many hierarchies of value, labelling them as good at this and bad at that. Gabor wakes us up to recognition that we are diverse, to be looked at as whole people, not one of us fitting some arbitrary definition of normal, status not defining the person. Can we do this?