"Goodness Without Godness", with Professor Phil Zuckerman
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Newsletter of the Humanist Society of Santa Barbara www.santabarbarahumanists.org AUGUST 2019 Join Us for the August Speaker Meeting at Valle Verde: Confessions of a Public Defender Denise M. Gragg From a lifetime as a public defender, Denise Gragg will share the lessons she’s learned about the criminal justice system, the causes of criminal conduct, the cures for criminal conduct, and the singularly destructive impact of the death penalty on the institutions of justice. Our Speaker: Denise M. Gragg has been a southern California public defender trial attorney for over 30 years and has represented both juveniles and adults charged with crimes ranging from misdemeanors to homicides. For the last 25 years, she has specialized in capital defense. Source: Steve Benson/Creators Syndicate Denise has taught courses on subjects ranging from forensics to psychiatry in multiple fora, including the NAACP LDF’s capital defense training seminar, the California Public Defender’s Association (CPDA) and California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (CACJ) yearly capital defense seminar, and other CPDA and CACJ training events. She has a BA in Government from Pomona College and a JD from Berkeley Law at the University of California, Berkeley. When: Saturday, August 17, 2019 Where: Valle Verde. 900 Calle De Los Amigos, Santa Barbara, CA. Parking: Please park at Veronica Springs Church, 949 Veronica Springs Road. Free shuttle to and from meeting. No parking at Valle Verde (except for handicapped parking). Shuttle driver has a dedicated cellphone: 805-679-3660 Time: Doors open at 2:30 pm. Program begins promptly at 3:00 pm Meeting Donation: $2 members, $5 non-members. Students with ID are free. ========================================================================== After Meeting Buffet Dinner: Join us for dinner at Valle Verde, $25 per person. We are required to provide a firm count for dinner therefore please RSVP to Nan Cisney at [email protected] by noon Wednesday, August 14 if you plan to join us for dinner. Parking lot shuttle also available after dinner. For More Info: Call 805-769-4772 The HSSB Secular Circular – August 2019 2 The President’s Column based on the simple concepts of variation Reflections between generations and selection by natural By Roger Schlueter processes. Those who argue “goddidit” attempt to reduce this sprawling idea into a bland, meaningless explanation. It’s their loss but our As most of you know, I have relinquished my responsibility to see that future generations are position as President and member of the Board not deprived of the beauty of evolution. although I will still engage in a few activities to help the Society. In addition, I will have an The concept of simple things combining to form occasional column in our newsletter. At our complex entities extends to the whole universe. summer solstice party, the Board - lead by Judy For example, all matter that we now know of, Flattery - gave me a poster board of pictures of consists of differing combinations of electrons, the speakers we’ve had over my years of getting protons and neutrons. You, a rock and a speakers for our monthly meetings. I also got a submarine are all just various combinations of nice thank you note signed by those who were at these three constituents. As another example, the picnic and a copy of The Origin of Species by the incredibly complex flow of water going over Natural Selection which is a prized addition to Niagara Falls can be modeled as just points my book collection. My sincere “Thank You” to moving on an octagonal lattice. Our brains, the Judy, the Board and to the entire Society. most complex organ that exists, is simply a vast array of neurons sending electrical impulses You certainly know about Darwin’s seminal across synapses. work and the enormous influence it had and continues to have on the course of life sciences Thanks, Darwin! for the last 200 years. But I suspect that most of you don’t know how his masterpiece ends: “There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breather into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” What a poetic and “grandeur” way to bring his decades of work on evolution to a conclusion, although he went on to publish several more works, his final effort focusing on worms. This is arguably the most important implication of evolution that naysayers and creationists Photo by Robert Bernstein miss. The seemingly endless variety of life that has evolved on Earth arose from just a self- [And Thank You, Roger for your many years of replicating molecule is truly stunning. Whales support & leadership to our society and to to spiders to redwood trees to cancer all arose keeping Darwin’s discoveries alive! –ed. ] The HSSB Secular Circular – August 2019 3 HSSB Breakfast with Nick Fish, President of what we are “for” not just what we are “against” Atheists United and that’s where humanism comes into play. By Robert Bernstein & Diane Krohn American Atheists is not a top-down On the afternoon of Friday, July 26, we received organization. It can provide support and an urgent email from the headquarters of activism to local organizations that are allied American Atheists, advising that their new with them. president, Nick Fish, was going to be driving He sees these local community organizations as through Santa Barbara that evening, was very important. "After all, you know your available for breakfast the next morning, and community best." American Atheists has 170 would love to meet with representatives of our "affiliate" organizations. There is no exclusivity HSSB group if we could pull something together requirement. For example, a local Unitarian on such short notice. Society is welcome to be an affiliate even if they or their members believe in a god. We jumped into action and greeted him the next morning with a delegation of 12 members. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has a team of ten attorneys and is ready to take on a range of lawsuits as needed. They can provide "constituent service" to an individual or local organization dealing with religious intrusion in local public governance. American Atheists is a smaller organization with only two attorneys. They have to be more selective and take on what he calls "high impact" A dozen Santa Barbara Humanists meet Nick Fish, cases. They tend to take on cases in Federal President of American Atheists, for breakfast at court. Unfortunately, the Federal courts under Cody’s Café. Photo courtesy of Robert Bernstein. Trump often block such cases. In particular, they deny "standing" in the case of many Nick was heading up to San Luis Obispo to give lawsuits. a talk to the local Atheists United chapter. "Standing" means that you personally are Robert asked him about the anticipated shift of affected by the law in question. Under recent the American Atheists organization from being more restrictive rulings, "standing" has come to staunchly anti-religion to taking on a more mean that you are physically and materially positive Humanist stand. harmed in an ongoing manner. Fish said that he is not the "pope of atheism" and So, if you go to a local planning commission for can't speak for all atheists, but he feels it is project approval and they have some religious important to talk openly about our values, i.e. procedure or symbols, you can't claim "standing” because before and after that short interaction you no longer have any "harm" done “An atheist believes that a hospital should be to you by their religious activity. built instead of a church. An atheist believes that deed must be done instead of prayer said. American Atheists intends to publish a set of An atheist strives for involvement in life not official principles they stand for, similar to a escape into death.” - Madalyn Murray O’Hair short version of the Humanist Manifesto. The HSSB Secular Circular – August 2019 4 However, American Atheists will not deal with men.”]. He mentioned another group, No Longer every issue. It won't take a position on issues Quivering, an organization supporting women such as urban planning, public transit, or gun in breaking free from strict religious laws. Fish said what we can all do as individuals patriarchies which forbid any form of birth is to affirm in public that we are atheists when control and promote having many children. we take a position on such matters of public policy. This normalizes atheism in the same way Fish has been with American Atheists for seven that LGBTQ people have normalized themselves years. Prior to that he was with Secular by “coming out". Coalition for America. He worked for the Obama 2008 presidential campaign and other Some issues are inherently matters of religion. Democratic Party efforts. The “End of Life” issue is a good example. In general, the only organized opposition to He is particularly drawn to solving problems compassionate end of life choices have been where the common opposition to progress is religious "right to life" people. Their opposition religious in nature. is based on religion rather than on how it harms real people in the here and now. Another example is child marriage. There are still many U.S. states where children as young as 15 years old can be pressured into marriage. In many cases this is only allowed in the case of "religious exemption". Fish currently lives and works in New Jersey and said that the state of New Jersey is finally moving to end such religious exemptions for child marriage.