Past and Future Meetings

	18/07/11	"Superstition - The Odd Delusion" - a presentation by Brian Quinn Where does superstition come from? Who are the most superstitious people in the world? Can scientists be superstitious? What about atheists? What's God got to do with it? Does it matter? Just some of the questions we'll explore, touch wood.
	16/05/11	SCEPTICISM OF THE PARANORMAL AND AGM We will be having our Annual General Meeting followed by a discussion about scepticism of paranormal claims. All welcome. If you have been to one of our meetings before and would like to be a member of our committee which plans meetings for local Humanists, please contact Tim Stephenson (tim.stephenson@herhg.org.uk).
	18/04/11	SOAP BOX EVENING The HERHG will be having a "Soap Box" meeting where attendees will be invited, if they wish, to speak on a subject of their choice for a maximum of ten minutes, followed by discussion. The Hull and East Riding Humanist Group will be having a "Soap Box" evening where attendees are invited, if they wish, to speak for a maximum of ten minutes on a subject of their choice, with discussion to follow. All welcome.The Hull and East Riding Humanist Group will be having a "Soap Box" evening where attendees are invited, if they wish, to speak for a maximum of ten minutes on a subject of their choice, with discussion to follow. All welcome.
	21/03/11	TRANSHUMANISM AND THE SINGULARITY Chris Worfolk, founder member of Leeds Atheists will be coming to Hull to talk to us about "Transhumanism and the Singularity".
	21/02/11	Dr Gijsbert Stoet from the Psychology department of the University of Leeds will be talking to us about the Humanist Community of Leeds.
	17/01/11	Niccola Swan is a board member of Dignity in Dying which is a national campaign demanding greater choice and control at the end of life. They lobby, inform and educate people on rights at the end of life. Niccola spent many years working for Barclays Bank, ending her career in 2005 as Regional Director for the North-East. She has been a non-executive director of Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust since 2006, where she serves on the main board and the Audit Committee, and chairs the Resources Committee. She has recently completed two years as deputy chief executive of the Employers Forum on Disability and is now a member of the governmental Disability and Employment Advisory Committee. She is also a magistrate in Bradford and a Home-Start volunteer in Leeds. We have decided to hold the meeting at our usual venue, the Olde White Harte pub in Silver Street, Hull.
	20/12/10	“Godless Christmas Meeting” We will be taking the opportunity to have a drink and mince pies and to discuss how we would like the Hull and East Riding Humanist Group to develop in 2011.
	15/11/10	“The History of Humanism : from Democritus to Dawkins” by John Severs John Severs from North East Humanists will be coming to Hull to give a talk that he has already given to a number of other groups including NE Humanists and Bedford Humanists. Please come to support the Hull group for this talk. The meeting will be at the Olde White Harte Pub, Silver Street. “John Severs demonstrates an extensive knowledge and understanding of the history of humanism, taking his audience from the age of classical Greece to the enlightenment and beyond. He describes the torments that the non-religious had to endure through history in expressing their scepticism about religion and Gods, using a range of historical sources to highlight the key periods in the historical development of humanism. John does this in a highly engaging and entertaining manner. This was a fascinating talk.” Philip (Nathan) Chair, North East Humanists John clearly identified the historical and intellectual contexts in which major contributions were made, the emergence of the distinct strands of thought that constitute our modern concept of secular humanism, and brought to life, usually in their own words, the (often heroic) individuals who brought us to where we are today. From Charles Baily, Chairman of Bedford Humanists
	18/10/10	CREATION FROM NOTHING? The distinguished Cambridge Physicist Stephen Hawking has recently published a book called "The Grand Design" in which he explains his belief in the spontaneous creation of the universe with no role for a God. The HERHG will be discussing the ideas behind the recent books by atheist physicists such as Stephen Hawking and Victor Stenger. Everyone welcome. We will also be discussing the latest developments in the Jacob Bronowski Humanist Heritage campaign. There is now a section on the campaign on the Humanist Heritage website.
	20/09/10	LARKIN'S ATHEISM Hull and East Riding Humanist Group will be beginning its third year of existence with a timely discussion about Philip Larkin and his views about religion and atheism. This summer has seen giant fibreglass toads appear in Hull City Centre to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Larkin's death. Many of Larkin's poems, such as High Windows, Aubdade and Church Going express an atheistic world view. Whether you are a Humanist or not, why not come and join the discussion about Hull's most famous poet.
	AUGUST	As usual there will be no meeting in August as it is assumed that you will all be on holiday!
	19/07/10	BRONOWSKI'S HUMANISM As part of the HERHG Jacob Bronowski Humanist Heritage campaign we will be continuing our discussions of the life and Humanist ideas of the Scientist, Humanist and Broadcaster Jacob Bronowski who lived in Hull and the East Riding between 1934-1942. We will also be discussing future talks being planned for the coming year. All welcome.
	21/06/10	WORLD HUMANIST DAY 2010 AGM Monday 21st June is World Humanist Day and our June meeting will begin with a brief AGM followed by a discussion of the work of the International Humanist and Ethical Union which was established in Amsterdam in 1952. The IHEU is the umbrella organisation embracing Humanist, atheist, rationalist, secularist, skeptic, laique, ethical cultural, freethought and similar organisations world-wide. We will also be discussing Humanist Week and our new campaign for recognition of Jacob Bronowski.
	17/05/10	WHAT IS SECULARISM? HERHG Secretary Tim Stephenson will be giving a short talk and leading a discussion about the history and development of Secularism and the current issues in the debates about the role religion should play in public life in the 21st century. After the success of the last meeting we are going to hold the meeting in the top floor room of the Olde White Harte, Silver Steet, in the centre of Hull.
	19/04/10	UNIVERSITY OF HULL HUMANIST, ATHEIST, SECULARIST AND AGNOSTIC SOCIETY Members of the recently formed HASA society at the University of Hull will be giving a presentation to the HERHG at our April meeting. The meeting was originally planned for January but it was decided that it would be better if the meeting did not clash with the students exams.
	15/03/10	The Case for Vegetarianism by Brian Newbould Converts to vegetarianism usually respond to the question ‘Why?’ by citing compassion for animals or health concerns. By examining these and other motives, and taking into account the historical dimension, physiological considerations, and up-to-the-minute environmental alarms, we can construct a web of ethical issues to guide the humanist’s thinking. Brian Newbould is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Hull. He is the author of books on Schubert and completions of works left unfinished by that composer, which are performed and broadcast worldwide and recorded by conductors including Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir Simon Rattle. He is a regular pre-concert speaker and has broadcast on BBC2, Radio 3 and Radio 4. He is also on the speakers’ panel for the Vegetarian Society, and is an occasional contributor to The Vegetarian.
	15/02/10	SHOULD THE LAW RESTRICT OFFENSIVE CONDUCT? Dr Suzanne Uniacke is Reader in Applied Ethics at the University of Hull (Department of Philosophy) and will be our speaker in February. Suzanne is also a member of of the British Humanist Association Philosophers Group and contributed the chapter "Is Life Sacred?" to the book "Is Nothing Sacred?" which was produced by the BHA Philosophers Group and is available to buy from our books section.
	18/01/10	BAD SCIENCE In a late change to the planned meeting, group Secretary Tim Stephenson gave a talk on Bad Science based on the book by Dr Ben Goldacre.
	21/12/09	Wine and Mince Pies.
	16/11/09	Janice Thornton is a Humanist Celebrant from West Yorkshire who has been trained by the British Humanist Association to conduct Humanist Ceremonies which include Baby Namings, Marriages, Memorials and Funerals. If you would like to learn more about what is involved in a Humanist ceremony or would like to find out about the process of training to be a Humanist Celebrant, please come to our November meeting.
	19/10/09	THE PROBLEM OF EVIL Dr Stephen Burwood teaches Philosophy at the University of Hull and will be our speaker at our October meeting. He is an executive member of the Society of Applied Philosophy and a member of the Humanist Philosophers Group. Stephen's research interests are primarily in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of human embodiment.
	21/09/09	IS THE FAITH SCHOOLS DEBATE ABOUT FAITH ? Jackie Lukes teaches at the University of Hull and will be our speaker at the September meeting. Jackie is a supporter of the Accord Coalition and is involved in many local organisations including the Hull and East Riding Interfaith forum.
	AUGUST	THERE WILL BE NO MEETING OF THE HERHG IN AUGUST
	20/07/09	THE FOUR HOREMEN: DAWKINS, DENNETT, HARRIS AND HITCHENS The July meeting will begin with a 30 minute showing of THE FOUR HOREMEN DVD which is a discussion between the four "new atheists", Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, followed by a group discussion of the DVD. Richard Dawkins is one of the vice-presidents of the British Humanist Association.
	15/06/09	PAGANISM AND HUMANISM COMPARED PLUS HERHG ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The June meeting began with our first AGM where we elected 6 people to our executive which runs the group. The AGM was followed by a talk by Dr Kim-Dent Brown who is a member of the Hull Pagan community.
	18/05/09	Religion: How does it get away with it? Gerry Hannant from the Leeds Humanist Society will be the first external speaker to give a talk to the Hull and East Riding Humanist Group. Gerry is an early-retired enforcement scientist, now serving on a voluntary group advising Leeds City Council on religious education. His talk has been described as revealing the unreliability of religious 'truths', and shows how religions manipulate individuals and societies to present their beliefs as certainty.
	20/04/09	WHAT DOES HUMANISM MEAN TO YOU? Humanism is the belief that we can live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs, but is there anything more to Humanism than that? Phil Mason will be giving a talk to the HERHG on what Humanism is about. His talk covers a wide range of thinkers including Kurt Vonnegut, Epicurus, Socrates, Bill Hicks, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Karl Popper. 7.30pm at the Friends Meeting House in Bean Street, Hull.
	16/03/09	Humanists believe in a genuinely inclusive school system in which all pupils are educated together, not separately according to the beliefs of their parents, believing that the rights and entitlements of both the religious and the non-religious can be respected within community schools. Susan Edwards will be giving a short talk and leading a discussion about education and the future of schools from the Humanist perspective.
	16/02/09	February 2009 sees the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species. An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist. Professor Richard Dawkins, Vice-President of the British Humanist Association (taken from his book The Blind Watchmaker) To mark this important anniversary, the Hull and East Riding Humanist Group will be having a discussion about Darwin's influence on the development of Humanism.
	19/01/09	The Hull and East Riding Humanist Group is starting the new year in a new venue. The Friends Meeting House in Bean Street has disabled access, parking, tea and coffee making facilities and a ceiling mounted digital projector and sound system which we will be using to show a DVD. WHY ATHEISM? Films about people who don't believe in God The DVD includes a film about Humanist ceremonies and an interview with Philip Pullman.
	15/12/08	This is the fourth meeting of the Hull and East Riding Humanist Group at the Olde White Harte pub in Silver Street, Hull. Our chairman Arthur Spurr will be giving a shor talk and leading a discussion about the origins of some of the Christmas traditions followed by another general discussion of our plans for next year.
	17/11/08	This is the third meeting of the Hull and East Riding Humanist Group in the Olde White Harte pub in Silver Street, Hull. We will be planning a programme of talks for the coming year.
	20/10/08	This is the second meeting of the Hull and East Riding Humanist Group in the Olde White Harte pub in Silver Street, Hull. Tim Stephenson will be giving a short talk and leading a discussion about what Humanism is and how we can have a good life without religious or superstitious beliefs.
	15/09/08	The first meeting of the newly formed Hull and East Riding Humanist Group in the plotting parlour of the Olde White Harte pub in Silver Street, Hull.

Hull and East Riding Humanist Group

Past and Future Meetings

18/07/11

16/05/11

18/04/11

21/03/11

21/02/11

17/01/11

20/12/10

15/11/10

18/10/10

20/09/10

AUGUST

19/07/10

21/06/10

17/05/10

19/04/10

15/03/10

15/02/10

18/01/10

21/12/09

16/11/09

19/10/09

21/09/09

AUGUST

20/07/09

15/06/09

18/05/09

20/04/09

16/03/09

16/02/09

19/01/09

15/12/08

17/11/08

20/10/08

15/09/08