Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:45:10 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/ The Humanist Association of Massachusetts en-us http://masshumanists.org/images/logo.gif http://masshumanists.org/ masshuma@masshumanist.org http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=62 Richard W. Wrangham is a British primatologist. He is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. His book, “Catching Fire,” is a plain-spoken and thoroughly gripping scientific essay that presents nothing less than a new theory of human evolution, one he calls “the cooking hypothesis,” one that Darwin (among others) simply missed. Apes began to morph into humans, and the species Homo erectus emerged some two million years ago, Mr. Wrangham argues, for one fundamental reason: We learned to tame fire and heat our food. “Cooked food does many familiar things,” he observes. “It makes our food safer, creates rich and delicious tastes and reduces spoilage. Heating can allow us to open, cut or mash tough foods. But none of these advantages is as important as a little-appreciated aspect: cooking increases the amount of energy our bodies obtain from food.” He continues: “The extra energy gave the first cooks biological advantages. They survived and reproduced better than before. Their genes spread. Their bodies responded by biologically adapting to cooked food, shaped by natural selection to take maximum advantage of the new diet. There were changes in anatomy, physiology, ecology, life history, psychology and society.” Put simply, Mr. Wrangham writes that eating cooked food — whether meat or plants or both —made digestion easier, and thus our guts could grow smaller. The energy that we formerly spent on digestion (and digestion requires far more energy than you might imagine) was freed up, enabling our brains, which also consume enormous amounts of energy, to grow larger. The warmth provided by fire enabled us to shed our body hair, so we could run farther and hunt more without overheating. Because we stopped eating on the spot as we foraged and instead gathered around a fire, we had to learn to socialize, and our temperaments grew calmer. “Relying on cooked food creates opportunities for cooperation, but just as important, it exposes cooks to being exploited,” he writes. “Cooking takes time, so lone cooks cannot easily guard their wares from determined thieves such as hungry males without their own food.” Women needed male protection. It is not a pretty picture.” Marriage, or what Mr. Wrangham calls “a primitive protection racket,” was a solution. Mr. Wrangham’s nuanced ideas cannot be given their full due here, but he is not happy to note that cooking entrapped “women into a newly subservient role enforced by male-dominated culture.” (Much of the above is from the NY Times book review by Dwight Garner, May 26, 2009) Richard Wrangham will speak Sunday March 7 at 1:30 PM at Phillips Brooks House, Harvard Yard. Free and open to the public. For directions and Parking: call 617.547.1497 FREE PARKING: From Oxford St. at the Dworkin Building drive left toward the rear of the Science Center and park. PBH is a short walk away. Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:45:10 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=61 Untitled Document On Sunday, February 21, 2010 Our first formal meeting of the year will take place at Phillips Brooks House in Harvard Yard at 1:00 PM (note the earlier time). Humanist activist and good friend Ellery Schempp will be our speaker As a kid he realized it was wrong to endure compulsory Bible-readings and prayers in the public school and won an historic case before the Supreme Court. He went on to earn his doctorate in Physics and to be a lifelong humanist activist. A Unitarian Universalist, he is an advisory member of the Secular Coalition of America, the Secular Student Alliance, and well known throughout the humanist community. Ellery will speak on THE IMPORTANCE OF NARRATIVE IN POLITICS AND RELIGION. He will be exploring how a story frames discussions and how to use this insight in talking with religious believers. Because he will draw a good bit from the idea of "framing" as described by George Lakoff, maybe readers should be aware that Lakoff, a 'cognitive scientist,' has fascinating views of the human brain (see his Moral Politics), and how we “frame” our thoughts and speech. How one establishes the assumptions of his argument may well determine effectiveness. Lakoff believes having the facts doesn’t lead to the right conclusions; this is a new science of reason, a new understanding of the brain. But the old view is inscribed indelibly in its synapses so it will be hard for progressives to comprehend the new science as it seems to contradict daily practice. Prepare for a learning experience. Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:37:30 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=59 Be Advised: We have postponed our Winter Luncheon to January 10. We are determined to celebrate our holiday and the secular values which bind our humanist community -- so, please let us know by Friday of this week if you can join us on the tenth. That will be at one o'clock at the Royal East Restaurant, 782 Main St., Cambridge.Confidently, for the last time, you must RSVP (by email or telephone) and pay at the door. ($21.00 per person). Please RSVP by calling Tom Ferrick at 617--547-1497 no later than Dec. 31. Remember, it will take place at the Royal East Restaurant, 782 Main St., Cambridge. (Free Parking available around the corner on Windsor, first lot on left). You will pay at the door, $21.00 per person. This is just the time to ask all our other members and friends to add their names to the Jan. 3 festivity. (It was celebrated by our forebears as the light returning to the earth). We’ll meet at 12:30 pm, dine at one o’clock and have a wideopen discussion starting with the amazing unification of free minded people that is occurring across the country. Guests from other local free thought groups will offer their ideas. In the meantime, take care of yourself – and let us hear from you, So, let’s party. HAM (Humanist Association of Massachusetts), is giving way to GBH, (the Greater Boston Humanists). We are establishing a network among all the free-thought groups in our area, each with its own web site and its way of expressing its non-theism. We are being overwhelmed with new friends and new ideas, from the Boston Atheists with their hundreds of adherents, to the Brights, just lately taking hold. In November all these groups participated with the Coalition of Reason in placing ads acclaiming atheism on local T buses. Great publicity. And, what’s more, our community now has Greg Epstein’s book, “Good Without God,” with a positive ideal beyond stark unbelief. A wonderful read. Our friends at the Royal East Restaurant, 782 Main Street, Cambridge, provide a generous feast and spacious setting as well as free parking nearby. If you are driving down Main St. from Mass Ave, turn right onto Windsor and go one block, turning into the first parking lot on your left. (Follow these directions carefully). Please let us know if you have special dietary needs that the restaurant will meet. At meal's end, we'll have a "round table" discussion, starting with the two paragraphs opening this letter. If our president, Joe Gerstein, is able to complete essential repairs to his Florida house in time, he’ll lead the discussion; otherwise I’ll fill in. Come ready to speak your mind about the rational state of modern thinking, or the absence thereof. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:34:28 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=58 The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard and the Harvard Gay and Lesbian Caucus cordially invite you to join us at 7:30 to 9:00 PM on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009 in honoring and his commitment to equal rights for gays in the military. It will happen in Harvard’s Science Center, Hall D. It is a free event and open to the public. Lt. Choi will receive the Humanist Chaplaincy`s first ever award for Service to Humanity, to be given annually to a Harvard student who has demonstrated exemplary leadership in ethical service to others. After receiving the award, Lieutenant Choi will speak about truth, service, integrity, and his experience with the U.S. Military`s "Don`t Ask, Don`t Tell" policy. We Greater Boston Humanists are also a co-sponsor. Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:41:03 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=57 “Reflections on Two Movements: Gay Rights and Humanism.” This is the title of talk on October 4, in Hall A of Harvard’s Science Center, (1:30 PM). It is open to the public and free parking is available in the Littauer Lot behind the Center and Law School. Robert Mack’s life is balanced by strong interests that have been nourished by his rationality and energized by his gay activism. Here’s what we can expect. As a Humanist and a gay man he will compare these two movements, drawing on his experience as a leader of Harvard's gay and lesbian alumni group, and, more recently, as a co-founder of the Harvard Humanist Alumni. He is particularly interested in seeing whether the history of the gay rights movement offers any ideas for planning the future of the Humanist movement. Bob grew up in Concord, Mass. and attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School. He practiced law at the Boston firm of Hale and Dorr for 16 years, followed by another 16 years helping the same firm with its information technology. He currently works part time atFreshAddress.com, which he co-founded in 1999. Bob has been a leader of the Harvard Gay & Lesbian Caucus, which now has more than 5,000 members, since 1992. He recently helped found Harvard Humanist Alumni, which already has more than 750 Harvard-affiliated members and several thousand non-Harvard friends. That clearly is proof how well the two movements blend in one person. For the past 15 years he has lived in Central Square, Cambridge. Here are some further musings from your editor on the variety of links these two movements have. At first glance, one might well ask what one has to do with the other. Clearly neither is a cause of the other nor is there a contradiction. Each profits from the other’s existence. Each is a defender and a refuge for the other. And each has been amazingly successful in recent years. Is there a chance they possess a compatibility that we can find to be energizing and rewarding? Humanism, with its rationality and science, frees the mind from religious dogma. Gay rights liberates a host of feelings, long suppressed, to thrive in the light of day, and under the gradual protection of society’s laws. Everywhere they meet on the terrain of religion where both arouse great hostility, even outright prosecution. Both flourish wherever civil and human rights prevail. Lastly, each has a rallying word: For the Humanist, evidence is the primal requirement in the search for meaning, (not faith), while equality is the cry of Gay Rights. After the talk, we’ll have an open and frank discussion of this complex issue. Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:12:12 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=56 At one o’clock, on Sunday afternoon, November 1st, we Greater Boston Humanists will host a seminar at Phillips Brooks House, Harvard Yard, inaugurating an expansion of free-thought unity. We are about to witness a bold experiment which will light forward a cooperative spirit among all reasonable and fair-minded human beings The United Coalition of Reason is a national organization created to raise the visibility of and cooperation between local groups in the larger community of reason. Our longtime friend and leader of the seminar, Fred Edwords, former editor of the AHA’s magazine, The Humanist, now heads up this well-funded, well-designed umbrella organization. In cities across the nation, a number of atheist, free-thought, Humanist, skeptic, secular Jewish, Ethical Culture, and other non-theist groups exist in one city. These groups, no matter if they are large or small, all have unique ways of organizing --  some meet in libraries or community centers, others are congregationally focused, and some use meetup.com. However, no matter what they call themselves or how they meet, the problem is that the groups either don’t know about each other or don’t communicate. But we've seen time and time again, across the US, that cooperation between secular groups brings greater success for all-- the whole is greater than the sum of all our parts. To remedy this situation, United CoR offers the following:   The initial work to establish a local Coalition of Reason to serve as an informal forum for group leaders and a clearinghouse for public information on local groups. Free Web hosting and a design template for the local CoR website. For example, see PhillyCOR's site: http://phillycor.org/ Free public relations and media training of local group leaders so they may improve the public profile and outreach of their groups. Funding for a local publicity campaign aimed at bringing traffic to the CoR website, where the local groups will be listed.   The publicity campaign in Boston will feature a high-visibility T ad campai In Boston, United CoR will launch these advertisements to coincide with an appearance by Harvard Humanist Chaplain, Greg Epstein, on his book tour, along with leaders of the United CoR. The advertisements will tie in with Greg's book "Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe" (which will be released on October 27th). His book tour will bring him to Boston Nov 1-2. Here is where we local Boston Humanists come in. To have a local connection, the advertisements will highlight the website of the Boston CoR. United CoR thinks this will give the groups in Boston an amazing publicity boost. The most important point -- perhaps your biggest concern: United CoR is a new national organization, but its focus is local. As such, it doesn’t compete with other national organizations.  And its local work is geared toward fostering the success of existing groups, not changing their nature or adding a new group.  A central goal is to help unaffiliated non-theists in a given geographic area learn about local activities and, ideally, get involved. Across the country, United CoR is arranging visits by Fred Edwords, communications director, of United CoR. Fred's visit will include a joint lunch or dinner with one leader from each group in the Boston area. Fred will provide a two-to-four-hour seminar for those interested in learning how to do publicity. For all of this, there is never any obligation, financial or otherwise, to United CoR from any local CoR or the groups within it! Once the media training has been provided and the advertising campaign has been launched, the rest is totally up to the groups involved as to what direction the CoR will take next. With our full support, Fred Edwords, along with Jende Andrew Huang, National Coordinator United Coalition of Reason look forward to changing the future of non-theism in greater Boston. www.unitedcor.org // 866.897.7248 This is truly big! We will keep you abreast of developments through the weeks ahead. Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:21:35 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=55 Grass Roots News, the newsletter of the American Humanist Association Chapter Assembly, is featuring the Greater Boston Humanists in the July '09 issue's Chapter Profile on the front page. From Joe Gerstein and Tom Ferrick's statement: We the members thank the American Humanist Association for designating us as the Chapter of the Year, 2009. It came as a complete surprise. Our full attention this past year was on achieving incorporation from the state and in changing our name by 2010 to the Greater Boston Humanists. We have numbered well over one hundred members for several years so it was wise to have the protections that come with corporate status. Equally important is the fact that we aren’t the only Humanist Chapter in Massachusetts (as was the case a few short years ago). To our joy and satisfaction, playing the role of mid-wife, we now have in our state the Humanists of Greater Worcester, a Humanist Chapter on Cape Cod, the Humanist chapter of Harvard University, (and a chapter “on the way” at Tufts University). We are presently helping a Concord group achieve viability. Our name indicates the new focus, the Boston area. We members are a happy lot; attend any one of our social events, luncheons or picnics, and it’s obvious we enjoy each other’s company. We’re loyal -- we set a budget annually and we meet it. We put out a fairly erudite newsletter, (Joe Gerstein’s essays and Peter Denison’s book reviews) and announce the relevance of coming programs. The latter have been notable, remember Fr. Drinan, the progressive-minded Jesuit, John Kenneth Galbraith, B.F. Skinner, and of course, E.O. Wilson. Harvard University has been a fabulous resource. For several years now we have had both an innovative and indefatigable president, Dr. Joe Gerstein, and a steady executive director, Tom Ferrick, who helped found first the Chaplaincy and then the Chapter in the 1970’s. Our board members have been self-sacrificing and responsible, (one of whom, David Niose, now heads the AHA). Several chapter members are authors of note, including Tom Clark (Philosophy), James Farmelant, (Atheism), Mark Lindley (Gandhi) and, the latest, our colleague, Greg Epstein, whose book, “Good Without God,” will soon be published. Among our proudest achievements has been Smart Recovery, an addiction program based in cognitive science and free of any supernaturalism, which is now world wide - thanks first and foremost to Dr. Gerstein. It has been also his generosity and imagination that have supported two educational centers in India and one in Turkey; their leaders have journeyed here to thank and inspire us. We’ve had our share of shortcomings, of course, such as failing to involve more of our members in voluntary action and bringing a sufficient number of younger persons into membership. However, when it comes to living out the principles of Humanism, through reason and empathy, we are doing our very best. Tue, 14 Jul 2009 19:39:03 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=54 Members & Friends of HAM/GBS:   I hope you are having a pleasant and relaxing summer despite the recession and a world out of balance. Let’s take a break and go to a Picnic.  This year we’ll invite “Humanists” of every ilk INTO OUR COMPAY.  In a very true sense we are all related; our thinking is based on science and a this world  philosophy, and it’s the human person, not the supernatural, not a revealed deity, that stands atop our value system. Let’s get to know one another better….at a Picnic.   Joe Gerstein offers to be our host again this year and we hope you are free on SATURDAY, AUGUST 1 WITH SUNDAY AS THE RAIN DATE. You are asked to arrive around NOON. If the weather seems threatening, call Joe  at (781) 891 8667.  Location: The Gerstein Home, 400 Highland St., Weston.   Please bring a salad, drink, or appetizer, if you can. There will be hamburgers, turkeyburgers, veggieburgers, regular and fat-free hot dogs and a fruit-and-sherbet dessert provided. Cold beer (with and without alcohol), wine and soft drinks will be available. IMPORTANT.  Please let me know that you will be coming and what you will bring so we can plan better: call (617) 547-1497. Also, let me know if you are a Vegetarian or a Vegan. Directions below. Let us know if you need to be picked up and/or dropped off at Riverside MBTA Station or at Weston’s Kendall Station on the North Station-Fitchburg Line.   We can arrange a trip to the Weston Swimming Pool after the program or a walk in the Weston Town Forest with comment on the natural wonders thereof. Please bring a bridge chair or beach chair if you drive and have some. There is plenty of parking if first arrivers will pull behind the house. Please do not park on the grass.   DRIVING DIRECTIONS: From the West, Mass. Turnpike (I-90) E. Exit at Natick/Route 30 and go East on Route 30 about 5 miles. Watch for WINTER ST. on the left 200 YDS. after you pass the Tennis Club on the right. Turn L into Winter St. At the T, turn Right. This is Highland St. Take 2nd paved driveway on the L (400). House is a Gray and White Cape Ranch. From the East: Mass. Tpke. Or Route 30 to Weston/Wayland/Route 30 W Exit. Take Route 30 W about 2.7 miles. Pass the football stadium/track on your L and pass through the Wellesley St. traffic lights. Highland St. forks to R about 0.3 miles from this intersection. 400 is 1st driveway on R. From South & North: Take 128/95 to Route 30 West Exit; follow the “From the East” Directions from there. We’ll try to mark the important landmarks with balloons. On behalf of Joe and the Board, here’s wishing you a healthy, relaxing, and care-free summer. - Tom Ferrick Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:55:40 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=53 Dear Members and Friends, We are holding our Summer Solstice Luncheon on Sunday afternoon, June 28, at the Royal East Restaurant, 782 Main St., Cambridge at one o'clock. And you are invited - of course! The ambience and the food are wonderful, friendliness abounds. This year we will be celebrating for a special reason. Our national organization, the American Humanist Association, has designated us as "Chapter of the Year," an honor bestowed earlier this month in Phoenix, AZ at the Annual Conference of the AHA.. We received great praise (for just being who we are), a framed citation, and a check for $500. It was fun. One very happy effect of that occasion was the willingness, the eagerness, of the AHA president to speak at the June Luncheon. He is our own David Niose, a husband/father and lawyer/writer in the Fitchburg area, and a member of our board of directors. He heads the AHA at an eventful time for Humanism, when its ranks are expanding, its programs multiplying,  and the media focussing on our secular causes, such as separations of church and state, civil rights and gay rights, educational reform, health care and world peace. What is he seeing from his advantaged heights in Washington, DC and how does he size up the Obama administration?  He'll tell us at our summer luncheon. Our president, Dr. Joe Gerstein, and the Board join me in wishing you a healthy and relaxing summer, Tom Ferrick Update 1:  While you are thinking about it, please reply by email or call in your reservation today, (617--547-1497) -- that's necessary. Deadline to reserve: the last Friday of June. Plan on paying $21.00 per person, by cash or check, when you arrive at the restaurant, (or ahead of time by mail).  Update 2: Directions to the restaurant’s Parking Lot:  In Cambridge’s Central Square area, turn from Massachusetts Avenue onto Main Street.  After passing by the Royal East on your right, take the next right, Windsor Street, and turn into the first parking lot on your LEFT, repeat, LEFT).  Update 3:  Members of the Board of Directors will meet at the Royal East at 11:45 AM. Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:02:53 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=52 Humanism has long been concerned about freedom and self-management for all of us when death draws near. Doctors, hospitals and relatives must be aware of our desires. Let’s learn to take charge. The "End of Life" video, funded by former HAM member Lisa Kuhmerker when she became aware that she had a fatal brain tumor, and subsequently supported by her Gifts of Time Foundation was produced by the Tufts Healthcare Institute. It features 3 separate vignettes illustrating various aspects of interplay between physicians and patients/families in difficult scenarios. Each vignette is followed by a group discussion moderated by John Paris, Professor of Bioethics at Boston College. The dicussion group consists of physicians of various specialties, patients/families in precarious situations, social workers and clerics. The product design envisions an ensuing group discussion among the viewers. This video has been shown to physicians and lay people around the world (including the Asia-Pacific Conference on Chronic Lung Diseases and Sloan-Kettering Institute and has proved a very provocative and useful tool for helping professionals and laypeople to gain insight and empathy for these types of difficult social, political, religious and ethical situations.  The group discussion will be moderated by Dr. Joe Gerstein, who helped in the production of the video and has presented it and led discussions in many other venues. Sun, 22 Mar 2009 11:27:07 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=51 Our program for SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15 will be a talk by Dr, Jerome Kassirer, author of On the Take: Medicine’s Complicity with Big Business Can Harm Your Health [ Google Books ]. He will examine the current issues of the intrusion of economics into medicine. Dr. Kassirer is presently the Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Tufts University Medical School and Visiting Professor at Stanford School of Medicine; he lives in Boston. He was the editor of the New England Journal of Medicine from 1991-1999. Last May he received the Humanist of the Year Award from the Ethical Society of Boston. He reported how drug companies have corrupted doctors by paying them to serve on research committees thus biasing their findings for personal gain. Here is an example of the favorable reviews: “His book is a call to the physicians today to resist the insidious effects of subtle and not-so-subtle conflicts of interest in accepting funding from the pharmaceutical industry. Scores of examples are documented of greed, venality, laziness and ignorance which have led physicians and professional organizations to compromise their integrity in the quest for financial support…..The book is a must-read for physicians of conscience and a warning to consumers to be careful where they place their trust.” Charles I. Campbell, former executive in the American Heart Association of New York. Dr. Kassirer will speak at 1:30 pm Feb. 15. Free parking is available in the Littauer Lot adjacent to the Science Center, (enter at the Dworkin Building on Oxford.) The location of this event is new for us, the Yenching Institute’s Auditorium, 2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge [ Google Maps ]. To orient you, think of the Oxford St. entrance of the Science Center, where Kirkland St. begins. Walk one block on Kirkland and the first street on your left is Divinity Ave., immediately after the traffic light. Turn onto Divinity and the Yenching Library is the first building on your right. Call the editor for more information, (617) 547-1497. UPDATE: Permission has been given to use the Yenching parking lot through the afternoon. The lot is located right there behind the Institute. Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:47:57 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=50 First, Harvard's Janet Browne, Aramont Professor of the History of Science, will explore Charles Darwin’s cultural significance and what he has come to represent over time: the idea of scientific progress. Free and open to the public in the Geological Lecture Hall, 24 Oxford Street. Time 6 PM. Second, at Harvard’s Memorial Hall, aside the Science Center, there will be an evening party with Chaplain Greg Epstein as your host. There’s a great deal more on the Harvard campus. Click on “Events” here : Darwin Day 200 at Harvard . And, third, note that many humanists are expected to be attending an event at Framingham State College on February 12 at 7 p.m. to hear author and philosopher Daniel Dennett give a Darwin Day lecture there. It's hoped that members of both the Boston and Worcester AHA chapters will have a chance to meet one another and enjoy a snack or drink afterwards. All are welcome, admission is $5.00 (paid to the college when you get there - no reservations needed), so please show up and join us if you can     Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:41:25 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=49   Dear Members and Friends of HAM, We are going back to tradition this year and will celebrate the Winter Solstice on the day itself -- Sunday, December 21. The Light returns! Would you be kind enough to register by telephone between now and Friday, the 19th. Just call our number, (617) 547-1497 to make your reservation. Plan on paying the $21 at the door, (checks payable to the Humanist Association of Massachusetts). We suggest you arrive at 12:30 p.m. expecting to dine at 1:00 p.m. Our friends at the Royal East Restaurant, 782 Main Street, Cambridge, provide a generous feast as well as free parking nearby. If you are driving down Main St. from Mass Ave, turn right onto Windsor and go one block, turning into the first parking lot on your left. (Follow these directions carefully). Please let us know if you have special dietary needs that the restaurant will meet.   At meal's end, we'll have a "round table" discussion, led by President Joe Gerstein, on the variety of ways Humanists and Freethinkers handle the "Holy Season." How do we get through it? Do you totally submit, or just go with the flow, or grumble "Humbug"? Do you seek out fellow Druids or volunteer at a soup kitchen? We'll have some fun with the question . . . UPDATE – Snow on Dec. 21 forced this Postponement. If you have made a reservation before, please do so again, to be sure. If this is a new reservation, add “NEW.” SEE YOU ON THE 28th. thomasferrick@gmail.com Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:20:15 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=48 Solstice Greetings to All! We have been operating HAM for years under the presumption that it was founded as a Massachusetts Corporation. Despite our dutiful registration annually with the Secretary of State, it appears that HAM was constituted during the 1970s as a Voluntary Association, not a corporation. For a variety of reasons, including limiting any potential liability, your Board of Directors has decided that the organization should be constituted as a Massachusetts non-profit corporation. We are planning to institute this change on January 1, 2009 and to continue as a chapter of the American Humanist Association. HAM will be dissolved as of December 31, 2008. Additionally, your board has decided to change the name of the organization. Since there are now 2 other Humanist organizations in Massachusetts (both instigated by Tom Ferrick): Worcester and Cape Cod. Thus our current name no longer is accurate or appropriate and is, perhaps a bit presumptuous. The new name of the organization will be GREATER BOSTON HUMANISTS, Inc. Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:09:46 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=47 Ronald Aronson   Ronald Aronson has a mission: to demonstrate that a life without religion can be coherent, moral, and committed. Optimistic and stirring, Living Without God is less interested in attacking religion than in developing a positive philosophy for atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, skeptics, and freethinkers. Aronson proposes contemporary answers to Immanuel Kant’s three great questions: What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope? Grounded in the sense that we are deeply dependent and interconnected beings who are rooted in the universe, nature, history, society, and the global economy, Living Without God explores the experience and issues of 21st-century secularists, especially in America. Reflecting on such perplexing questions as why we are grateful for life’s gifts, who or what is responsible for inequalities, and how to live in the face of aging and dying, Living Without God is also refreshingly topical, touching on such subjects as contemporary terrorism, the war in Iraq, affirmative action, and the remarkable rise of Barack Obama. “Obama has managed to generate a new sense of possibility by reminding a new generation that they are not just separate individuals but social beings. This has been his truly radical accomplishment: to awaken the slumbering social side of millions, especially among the younger generation.”(p. 198) Ronald Aronson is author or editor of nine books, including Jean-Paul Sartre: Philosophy in the World and Camus and Sartre: Story of a Friendship and the Quarrel that Ended It. Distinguished Professor of the History of Ideas at Wayne State University, he has lectured widely, including at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and other South African universities. He is a frequent contributor to the Nation, USA Today, and other widely read publications. Free Parking – Directions To reach the Littauer Lot, on Oxford Street turn into the drive at the Dworkin Building, follow the drive to the left, proceeding behind the buildings to the Law School area, and the Science Center on your left. The Center’s address: I Oxford St. Cambridge, MA 02138 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:39:07 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=46 Judge Samuel Sewall   We Humanists are great admirers of “our founding fathers” especially those who were imbued by the Enlightenment with its rationality and its scientific bent. The Puritans, theocratic, and rigidly biblical, don’t measure up. And when it comes to that generation dealing so blindly and cruelly with witchcraft and summary executions, we have no tolerance whatsoever. Eve Laplante may change some minds. This program takes place on Sunday afternoon, October 26, also in Phillips Brooks House, Harvard Yard at 1:30. Eve Laplante’s book, published just last year by Harper One, is her second personal historical study; she is the author of American Jezebel, her 12th generation ancestor, Anne Hutchinson. Samuel Sewall is her sixth great-grandfather, a man, says the Philadelphia Inquirer, “ whose second act became one of atonement as well as contrition -- an affectionate and affecting portrait.” Eve Laplante gives us this amazing summary : “In 1692 Samuel Sewall, a forty-year-old father of five, sat on the colonial court that tried hundreds of people accused of witchcraft. Believing the girls who claimed their neighbors bewitched them, Sewall convicted and condemned to death more than thirty women and men, including two of his friends. He and the court executed twenty people before public opinion turned and the governor halted the proceedings. Sewall struggled internally for years before publicly assuming "the blame and shame" for the wrongful convictions and deaths. He went on to compose America’s first antislavery tract and a revolutionary essay portraying Native Americans as virtuous inheritors of God’s grace. In a period when women were considered inferior to men, Sewall publicly affirmed the fundamental equality of the sexes. Through his long repentance Sewall became America’s most surprising moral hero. Former Governor Michael Dukakis offers this intriguing endorsement: "The toughest thing in politics is to admit you were wrong and to do something about it. That, remarkably, is what Samuel Sewall did, and in so doing, he fundamentally changed the debate over witchcraft forever. At a time when at least some Americans are arguing that we have to cut back on our civil liberties in the interest of national security, LaPlante’s biography of Sewall profiles an early American politician whose example stands out for its courage and its wisdom.” On October 26 let’s plan to meet this Puritan. Maybe we will want to measure him differently… maybe. Sat, 13 Sep 2008 14:20:34 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=45 Katrina Scott   Katrina Scott, a Humanist, and Board Member of the Boston Ethical Society, will speak in Phillips Brooks House, Harvard Yard, on Sunday, September 21, 2008, at 1:30 PM. Four years ago she discovered the work that fulfills her life – she is the Oncology chaplain at Massachusetts General. A long time friend of the Humanist Association she was among the three finalists when the Humanist Chaplain’s position at Harvard opened up. Gradually, we have grown comfortable with the idea of Humanist university chaplains but how about hospital Humanist chaplains? Well, Katrina Scott forcefully answers that question. She describes her pastoral care based “on a holistic approach to healing that acknowledges and respects the heart/mind relationship. I define spirit (naturally) as the vital force characterizing a person as being alive, our sense of self. The spiritual aspect of wellness includes personal beliefs, behavior principles, and methods to achieve peace of mind between our interior being and exterior influences. Within her own religious tradition (Ethical Culture), members are guided by a simple principle; by treating each person so as to bring out the best in her or him, we also work toward bringing out the best in ourselves.” She quotes Abraham Maslow and his humanistic stance on religious experience: “I want to demonstrate that spiritual values have naturalistic meaning, that they are not the exclusive possession of organized churches, that they do not need supernatural concepts to validate them, that they are well within the jurisdiction of a suitably enlarged science, and that therefore, they are the general responsibility of all mankind.” She will show us how this view fits into the traditionally theistic world of hospital chaplaincy, where “all good chaplains share the same values and goals; they want to walk with people through their suffering, to accompany them during a short blip in their life journey that is also possibly the worst, or the best, time. For me the last four years have been a formative period in my life, especially in my development as a chaplain whose personal religion is humanistic.” She continues, “The more I reflect the more sure I am that my ability to be human is my strength. To accompany an injured person, to sit with a grieving spouse, to hold a son’s hand, to listen and hear their stories are gifts which have strengthened my ability to meet the patient where she or he is, to facilitate their search for meaning in times of trauma and loss.” We will want to ask her on September 21 how humanist values can be employed in caring for the ill, without resorting to prayer, to revelation, to an afterlife. How does she get along with the other chaplains and with the hospital administrators? And for the dying, is there comfort in a brave stoicism ? Plan on voicing your questions. Sat, 13 Sep 2008 13:58:05 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=44   HAM Members & Friends: Our annual HAM Picnic and Gabfest is approaching: Saturday, August 16, 2008; 1:00pm THE GERSTEINS 400 HIGHLAND ST., WESTON, MA (781) 891-8667 or (339) 927-1020 See full entry for travel instructions. We guarantee great weather, based on past experience. If wrong, we’ll retreat inside and still have fun. We’ll have the usual beef, turkey and vegetarian burgers, regular and fat-free hot dogs, and fruit and sherbet desert. Please contact Tom prior to the 16th to register (by using his new gmail address above or call 617—547-1497) and plan to bring an appetizer, salad, fruit, or whatever. Please, if you are driving, bring an aluminum chair. We’ll have frigid alcohol-free beer & soft drinks available. If you arrive early, please pull deep into the driveway behind the house so there will be room for everyone. If you need transportation, let Tom know if you need a pick-up at Riverside MBTA Station or at Kendall (Weston) Station on the North Station-Fitchburg Line. See full entry for driving directions. Tom suggests, for the PROGRAM, that we answer the question, “What Do I Believe?” It’s a picnic, now, so let’s not get too heavy. But we can imagine the question coming up at a school reunion. What words would you choose? Michael Shermer, editor of The Skeptic, answered the question his own way, as a person versed in science. Imagine your own answer. Read the rest of this entry. Wed, 23 Jul 2008 08:54:42 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=43   You are cordially invited to our Summer Solstice Luncheon on Saturday, June 14 at 1:00 PM. As in past years, it will take place at the Royal East Restaurant, 782 Main Street, Cambridge. It is important that you make your reservations by telephone before June 12 with a call to our number, (617— 547-1497). Leave your name and telephone, and we’ll confirm within days. Now would be just the time to dial us, (or use email). When you arrive present your check, (for $21.00 per person), and choose your seat. We always have a good time at these luncheons; it’s a real pleasure to greet old friends and new. And the Chinese food is varied and plentiful. Afterward we will hear Dr. Abby Hafer, an expert in Human Anatomy, present a special view of Evolution which she calls: Un-Intelligent Design. She examines five blunders in the "design" of the human body which confound the notion of a planned creation. Funny and surprising. *Free parking: From Massachusetts Avenue, turn on to Main Street, then right on Windsor for one short block. Turn left (important) on State Street and park in the MIT lot on your right. Click "Read the full article" below for more information on the program. Thu, 29 May 2008 13:18:34 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=42 Greg Graffin, Bad Religion   A true punk-rock philosopher will perform and speak about his life as a humanist musician and scientist! Greg Graffin, the lead singer and songwriter for seminal punk band Bad Religion, will receive the 2008 Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism. Graffin, who is also a life sciences professor at UCLA and an expert in religious belief among scientists, will speak about his experience in music and science and his views on humanism in general. The award, presented last year to novelist Salman Rushdie, is sponsored by the Humanist Chaplaincy and Harvard Secular Society. Graffin will follow his acceptance speech with an acoustic performance and a question and answer session. Tickets are available now from the Harvard Box Office: $5 for students, $10 for the general public. Since forming Bad Religion in 1980 while still in high school, Greg Graffin and Bad Religion have recorded fourteen albums and toured extensively around the world. Hits such as 1988’s Suffer and 1994’s Stranger than Fiction have kept them at the forefront of punk music for almost three decades. Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:54:15 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=41 Dan Barker, Freedom From Religion Foundation   Dan Barker, leading spokesman for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, will speak in Phillips Brooks House, Harvard Yard, on Sunday, April 20 at 1:30 in the afternoon. It will be a talk on "Fighting the Imperial Presidency - Keep Church and State Separate." His organization, for decades now, has constantly fought the right to be free from government's support of religion, both in the media and through lower jurisdictions up to the Supreme Court. Visit FFRF.org for an amazing education; their radio programs will enlighten you. Dan Barker will also entertain us at the piano. Attendance is without charge and parking in the Law School lot is free.   Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:31:34 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=40   Happy Spring from HAM! We have a special announcement in advance of our next newsletter to add to your personal calendars: The First Annual HAM Spring Equinox Brunch Sunday March 30, 2008 we invite HAM members and guests to celebrate the arrival of Spring at our first Equinox Brunch. We will gather at Changsho Restaurant (1712 Mass. Ave between Harvard and Porter Square) at 1:00 pm for food and good spirits. Changsho serves an all-you-care-to-eat Asian buffet including Chinese dishes and sushi for $18.95 a person (drinks are extra), and has a semi-private area with large tables we have reserved for the occasion. Payment by cash or check only, please. We have invited leader Zachary Bos and a few guests from the Boston Atheist Meet-up as our members Marcia Weiss and Stuart Wamsley lead a discussion "Even Freethinkers Need Community: Recruiting New Members in the Internet Age". This casual discussion will consider successful ways to increase interest and membership in humanist and secular organizations going forward. Changsho has its own parking lot for customers across the street from the restaurant. There is street parking on Mass, Ave. as well. Please let Tom Ferrick know you are attending by Saturday morning, March 29 so we can fine-tune the reservations. HAM is following up on our successful Winter and Summer Solstice luncheons in Central Square to add to our Humanist celebrations of the turning of the seasons, without supernaturalism. Please consider attending what promises to be a casual and very social Humanist celebration. Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:28:44 -0400 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=39 Robert Boston, Director of Communications Americans United for Separation of Church and State   Bill O’Reilly rails against “secular progressives” nightly, and it has become fashionable among the far-right intelligentsia to bash secularism as morally bankrupt. In this speech, Rob Boston will explain why the secular state is the only vehicle that can ensure religious and philosophical freedom for all. Boston will discuss how an official policy of government secularism, far from being hostile to religion, is in many ways the best friend faith ever had. Robert Boston is assistant director of communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the assistant editor of AU's monthly magazine Church & State. Boston, who joined the Americans United staff in 1987, is recognized as a leading writer and researcher on church-state topics and an articulate advocate for the separation of church and state He covers the U.S. Supreme Court for Church & State and has attended oral arguments in every church-state case at the high court since 1988. Boston is the author of three books: Close Encounters with the Religious Right: Journeys into the Twilight Zone of Religion and Politics (Prometheus Books, 2000); The Most Dangerous Man in America? Pat Robertson and the Rise of the Christian Coalition (Prometheus Books, 1996) and Why the Religious Right Is Wrong About Separation of Church and State (Prometheus Books, 1993; second edition, 2003). DIRECTIONS TO THE SCIENCE CENTER/LAW SCHOOL PARKING LOT From Kirkland Street turn right onto Oxford Stret. Take the entrance road on your left at the Maxwell Dworkin Building, (across from the Museum of Natural History). Take first left and follow it to the parking lot closest to Littauer and the Science Center. Parking is free for guests of the Humanist Chaplaincy.   Tue, 26 Feb 2008 19:06:17 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=38 Nathaniel A. Raymond   Do you have any doubt that the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" are methods of torture? That they can cause severe and often irreversable harm, mentally and physically, that under American law, they are war crimes and that the use of torture against detainees in US custody has degraded the discipline, traditions, and honor of our armed services and our country? The counter argument is an obvious one – torture may save innumerable lives. Let’s engage in this debate as if we were policy makers for the US administration and then decide, as citizens, what we ought to do. Nathaniel A. Raymond is currently the Senior Communications Strategist at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), an organization that shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.  In this position he is responsible for crafting all communications strategies for PHR's No Torture Campaign and other work on armed conflict, as well as detention and asylum policy. He has lectured on humanitarian and human rights issues, particularly famine and conflict on the Horn of Africa, at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Harvard University, and other graduate programs dealing with international issues. (Editor’s Note: Nathaniel Raymond, in a long conversation by telephone, outlined his argument against torture, not just philosophically, but historically and politically, naming clearly those agencies and persons who have violated American principles and traditions, going back to our Revolution). Also - Late last year the House of Representatives passed important anti-torture legislation as Section 327 of H.R. 2082, the Intelligence Authorization bill.  Section 327 would require all elements of the intelligence community, including the CIA, to abide by the restrictions in the Army Field Manual while conducting interrogations.  The Army Field Manual prohibits torture and many of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" being used by the CIA. Notice to Members – We will hold our Annual Meeting, same day, Feb. 10, at 12 Noon, in Phillips Brooks House. We will have lunch (thanks to Joe Gerstein) while we order our business affairs and plan for the coming year. Then, promptly at 1:15 pm, we will walk over to Hall D in the Science Center. Directions to the Harvard Science Center / Law School Parking Lot (free for event) From Kirkland Street turn right onto Oxford Stret. Take the entrance road on your left at the Maxwell Dworkin Building, (across from the Museum of Natural History). Take first left and follow it to the parking lot closest to Littauer and the Science Center. Parking is free for guests of the Humanist Chaplaincy. Sat, 02 Feb 2008 15:56:11 -0500 http://masshumanists.org/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=37 The Humanist Association of Massachusetts will be holding its Winter Luncheon on Sunday, January 6, 2008. It will, as usual, take place at the Royal East Restaurant, 792 Main St, Cambridge, MA 02139 (Map) at one o'clock. The cost per person will be $21.00. Always a cheerful experience, we will have a fun program -- all humanists, freethinker, and skeptics, are welcome. Fri, 14 Dec 2007 01:11:10 -0500