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Showing posts from April, 2013

8th June event: Can science solve every mystery? A scientist, a philosopher and a Christian discuss

  Centre for Inquiry UK and Conway Hall present Can science solve every mystery? A scientist, a philosopher and a Christian discuss. Peter Atkins, David Papineau, Peter S. Williams Can science answer every question? Should scientists show a little humility and acknowledge there are questions that only religion can answer? Are science and religion “non-overlapping magisteria”, as the scientist Stephen Jay Gould claimed, or is science capable of showing that religion is false, as Richard Dawkins believes? And what, exactly, do philosophers do? Presented and chaired by Stephen Law (Philosophy, Heythrop and Provost of CFI UK). Saturday June 8th, 2013 Conway Hall 25 Red Lion Square Holborn London WC1R 4RL £7 (£4 students) Free to friends of CFI UK. Tickets on door. or go here http://humanism.org.uk/events/?page=CiviCRM&q=civicrm/event/info&reset=1&id=22 10.30am registration. 11am-2.30pm Speakers Professor Peter Atkins (Univ. of Ox

Rough draft for comments

Here is a first half only of a rough draft of a chapter for someone else's book. Feedback please... Theme is Humanism: reason, science and skepticism What are science and reason? Humanists expound the virtues of science and reason. But what are science and reason? And we should we think it wise to rely on them? By science, I shall mean that approach to finding out about reality based on the scientific method. This is a method that was fully developed only a few hundred years ago. Science, as I’ll use the term here, is a comparatively recent invention, its development owing a great deal to 16th and 17th Century thinkers such as the philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) . So what is the scientific method? Here’s a rough sketch. Scientists collect data through observation and experiment. They formulate hypotheses and broader theories about the nature of reality to account for what they observe. Crucially, they then test their theories. Scientists

Protest arrest of atheist bloggers in Bangladesh this coming Thursday NOW 2ND MAY

CFI UK will be part of the action taken world-wide on Thursday April 25th NOW RESCHEDULED 2ND MAY DUE TO DAY OF MOURNING ON 25TH FOR BUILDING COLLAPSE DHAKA). Details to follow. Do please take part. Here is a link to a piece on other action you can take: http://iheu.org/story/call-action-defend-bloggers-bangladesh  UPDATE: Please get to the Bangladeshi High Commission on 28 Queen's Gate, London SW7 5JA (nearest tubes South Ken and Gloucester Road). Flyers available. 10am - 4pm.