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Recent Events (2008)

Our current calendar of events is on our home page and in our newsletter.
When What
Tuesday, June 24th Hartford-area dinner at Lemongrass, 7 South Main Street, West Hartford, Link to map of Lemongrass restaurant location.
Sunday, June 22nd June board and standing committee meetings.
Monday, June 16th
Monthly Meeting: Humanist Proselytizing in the Information Age

Our special guest was New York-based videographer Dror Kahn, who talked about using blogging, podcasting, YouTube, and social networking to spread the word about humanism.
Saturday, June 14th

Humanist Conversations: Lester Brown at Berkeley

We watched and discussed a video of the Berkeley Institute of the Environment's first annual Distinguished Lecture, featuring Lester R. Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute and the Earth Policy Institute: "Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble"
Monday, June 2nd New Haven area social dinner at Pasta Fair 262 Boston Post Rd, Orange Link to map of Pasta Fair restaurant location.
Saturday, May 31st
Third meeting of the HAC Bible Reading Group. The assigned reading for this session was:
  1. Look at: “Jewish and Christian Bibles: A Comparative Chart”
  2. From our series reference How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, by James L. Kugel.
    • Chapter 7. Two Models of God and the “God of Old” 107-118
    • Chapter 8. The Trials of Abraham 119-132
    • Chapter 9. Jacob and Esau 133-151
    • Chapter 10. Jacob and the Angel 152-162
    • Chapter 11. Dinah 163-175
  3. Read the Wikipedia entries on:
    • “Binding of Isaac” — note the differences in treatment of this story by different religions
    • “Abraham” — note the differences in treatment by different religions.
  4. Think about the differences in these stories and their interpretation among different religions and about how your religious background has affected the way you relate to these stores.
 cover of 'How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now' by James L. Kugel
Tuesday, May 27th Hartford-area dinner at Lemongrass, 7 South Main Street, West Hartford, Link to map of Lemongrass restaurant location.
Sunday, May 25th May board and standing committee meetings.
Monday, May 19th
19th Anniversary Meeting: Humanism for Young People

Amanda Metskas (Executive Director, Camp Quest, Inc.) and August Brunsman (Executive Director, Secular Student Alliance) presented their work with two organizations focused on bringing humanism to young people.

Camp Quest (www.camp-quest.org), a sleepaway summer camp with six locations around North America, is aimed at kids from humanist and other nontheistic families. The Secular Student Alliance (www.secularstudents.org) is an umbrella organization that supports atheist, agnostic, and humanist groups on college and high school campuses, with over 130 affiliates worldwide.

A poster for this talk is available for download.
Saturday, May 10th
2:30 to 4:30 PM
cover of 'Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body' by Neil Shubin Book discussion on Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body, by Neil Shubin. It's a relatively new book, but copies are available at public libraries as well as at bookstores and online.
Monday, May 5th New Haven area social dinner at Pasta Fair 262 Boston Post Rd, Orange Link to map of Pasta Fair restaurant location.
Saturday, May 3rd

Humanist Conversations: Water

We watched and discussed a Democracy Now! interview with Maude Barlow, author of "Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water."
Wednesday, April 30th Hartford-area dinner at Lemongrass, 7 South Main Street, West Hartford, Link to map of Lemongrass restaurant location. (860) 233-4405 for directions.
Sunday, April 27th April board and standing committee meetings.
Saturday, April 26th
Second meeting of the HAC Bible Reading Group. The following material was covered:
  1. From our series reference How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, by James L. Kugel.
    • Chapter 2. The Creation of the World, and of Adam and Eve 47-57
    • Chapter 3. Cain and Abel 58-68
    • Chapter 4. The Great Flood 69-80
    • Chapter 5. The Tower of Babel 81-88
    • Chapter 6. The Call of Abraham 89-106
  2. The Wikipedia entries on:

Attendees were asked to catch up on any of the readings for the first session that had been missed.

 cover of 'How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now' by James L. Kugel
Monday, April 21st
Monthly Meeting: Abraham Lincoln, as Seen in His Own Lifetime, by Robert G. Ingersoll.

Our vice president, Doug Peary presented an unusual variation on his Humanist Heroes series: Robert Ingersoll's evidence that Lincoln was a deist and freethinker in the tradition of of Voltaire, Jefferson, Paine and Franklin.

A poster for this talk is available for download.

The talk replaced one previously scheduled for April 14th, so we moved the monthly meeting back to the third Monday of April.

At the business meeting, the board asked the membership to approve donating the collection at the May meeting to Camp Quest and disbursing the amount necessary to make the total donation equal to the cost of one campership.
Monday, April 7th New Haven area social dinner at Pasta Fair 262 Boston Post Rd, Orange Link to map of Pasta Fair restaurant location.
Saturday, April 5th

Humanist Conversations: Election Rhetoric: How Do We Decide Where to Get Our Information and What Does It Mean - Really?

The last two weeks brought crises for the Democratic candidates; Rev. Wright for Obama and Clinton's over-heated description of her arrival in Bosnia. How did this happen? What did they say? How did we find out about any of it? We have video of Obama's speech, Bosnia, and an interview with McCain as well as some print articles.
Saturday, March 29th
First meeting of the new HAC Bible Reading Group. The following preparatory reading was required to get the most out of the meeting:
  1. The New York Times review article "Reading Is Believing, or Not" By David Plotz
  2. From our series reference How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now, by James L. Kugel.
    • Preliminaries, pages xi-xiv
    • The Rise of Modern Biblical Scholarship, pages 1-46
  3. The article "The Editorial Team Behind the Bible--Interview with Richard Elliott Friedman"
  4. The Wikipedia entry on the "Documentary Hypothesis"
 cover of 'How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now' by James L. Kugel
Wednesday, March 26th Hartford-area dinner at Lemongrass, 7 South Main Street, West Hartford, Link to map of Lemongrass restaurant location.
Sunday, March 23rd March board and standing committee meetings.
Saturday, March 22nd
cover of '1984' by George Orwell Book discussion on 1984, by George Orwell.
Monday, March 17th
Monthly Meeting

Ken Feder returned with another educational, skeptical talk: The Loch Ness Monster: Anatomy of a Plesiosaur or Anatomy of a Myth? Ken is a professor of anthropology at Central Connecticut State University and the author of Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology.

A poster for this talk is available for download.
Monday, March 3rd New Haven area social dinner at Pasta Fair 262 Boston Post Rd, Orange Link to map of Pasta Fair restaurant location.
Saturday, March 1st

Humanist Conversations: Nader for President?

We watched and discussed the seventeen minutes of Ralph Nader's announcement on Meet the Press on Sunday, February 24.
Thursday, February 28th Hartford-area dinner at Lemongrass, 7 South Main Street, West Hartford, Link to map of Lemongrass restaurant location.
Sunday, February 24th February board and standing committee meetings.
Monday, February 18th
Monthly Meeting

Our speaker was Egyptian-born political activist and ACLU member Khalil Iskarous, who presented a talk “Iraq and Palestine: Historical Discourse as a Factor in Maintenance of Occupation”
Monday, February 11th New Haven area social dinner at Pasta Fair 262 Boston Post Rd, Orange Link to map of Pasta Fair restaurant location.
Saturday, February 2nd

Humanist Conversations: Enjoying podcasts without an iPod

While battling with technical problems, Carol Stone gave a gentle introduction to podcasts, MP3 players, and other technology you might need to know about to take advantage of some of the humanist material now available on the internet.
Thursday, January 31st Hartford-area dinner at Lemongrass, 7 South Main Street, West Hartford, Link to map of Lemongrass restaurant location. (860) 233-4405 for directions.
Sunday, January 27th January board and standing committee meetings.
Monday, January 21st
Monthly Meeting

HAC vice-president Doug Peary, presented the latest in his series of inspirational talks, Stephen Jay Gould, Humanist Hero.

A poster for this meeting is available for download.
Monday, January 14th New Haven area social dinner at Pasta Fair 262 Boston Post Rd, Orange Link to map of Pasta Fair restaurant location.
Saturday, January 12th
cover of 'Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think' by George Lakoff Book discussion on Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, by George Lakoff. Copies of this classic book are available at public libraries as well as at bookstores and online. (The earlier edition of this book, Moral Politics: What Conservatives Know that Liberals Don't is essentially the same.)
Saturday, January 5th

Humanist Conversations: Freedom to Vote: Protecting the Ballot

We watched and discussed a short movie by Robert Greenwald from the second season of the ACLU's Freedom Files on the problems with attempts to require valid ID to vote.

Click here to see some other events we've enjoyed over the years.


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