The Ethics of War

Saturday 08th October 2.00pm
Moordown Community Centre, Coronation Avenue, Moordown, Bournemouth BH9 1TWWar Ethics poster

A presentation by Royal Navy veteran and Humanist celebrant, Peter Herridge.

Human beings have been fighting each other since prehistoric times, and people have been discussing the rights and wrongs of it for almost as long. Most people agree that war is terrible and should be avoided if at all possible. But are there situations when war is the lesser evil? If so, how should a ‘just war’ be conducted and should democratic leaders ever be prosecuted for ‘war crimes’?

Everyone welcome!

Free entry (donations appreciated)

If you can help us promote this event by displaying an A4 poster, please email Dave at DHcensus(at)hotmail.co.uk for a PDF copy.

Click here to view more forthcoming and recent events.

Transhumanism: Utopia or nightmare?

Thursday 27th October 7.30pmTranshumanism Poster
Moordown Community Centre, Coronation Avenue, Moordown, Bournemouth BH9 1TW

A presentation and discussion led by Chris Street.

'Transhumanism' is the belief that we can fundamentally improve the human condition by developing technologies to eliminate ageing and greatly enhance our intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.

How would these genetically modified ‘transhumans’ with computer implants in their brains, nanomachines fixing their cells, and cybernetic body parts regard the rest of us; and is it ethical to tamper with nature in this way? 

Everyone welcome!

Free entry (donations appreciated)

If you can help us promote this event by displaying an A4 poster, please email Dave at DHcensus(at)hotmail.co.uk for a PDF copy.

Click here to view more forthcoming and recent events.

CANCELLED: Thomas Hardy and ‘The Poetry of Unbelief’

***CANCELLED***Hardy Poster
West Dorset Humanists have regrettably had to cancel John Hubbard’s Thomas Hardy readings and commentary on 29th September, as he’s had to pull out due to another commitment.
There will now be no WDH meeting in September and the next one will now be towards the end of October. Keep an eye on the website and Facebook for any updates.  We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Click here to view other forthcoming and recent events. 
                    ***CANCELLED***



Greg Epstein’s ‘Good without God’

A Book Review by David Warden

This book could have benefited from much better professional editing. Epstein sometimes has difficulty putting across his ideas in a succinct and compelling fashion.  Some of his sentences weigh in at 85 or even 100 words and barely make sense.  He even includes a lengthy section about how he struggled to continue with the book and nearly gave up.  

Despite these technical criticisms I’m sympathetic to what Epstein has to say about Humanism.  He writes very much in the American tradition of Humanism and has no problem referring to Humanism as a ‘faith’, as long as that means ‘faith in our ability to live well, based on convictions reached by free, unfettered rational enquiry’. 

His mentor was the late Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder of Humanistic Judaism – a kind of secular religion similar in spirit to the Ethical Societies – which belongs to the broad and tolerant family of different Humanisms in America.  He is also broadminded and generous in his appraisal of liberal and progressive forms of religion such as Unitarian Universalists, reconstructionist Jews and liberal Muslims whom he calls ‘allies of Humanism’.   He is familiar with the positive psychology of Martin Seligman and includes many nuggets of wisdom from one of the greatest twentieth century humanistic psychologists, Erich Fromm.  He is proud of the fact that ‘in our Humanist community at Harvard we try to spend less time staging debates between fundamentalists and atheist philosophers and more time on how to empower ourselves to respond to all the problems of life – stress, pain, ageing and death – which make people turn to religion in the first place’. 

The character of British Humanism has been shaped to a large extent by our vigorous traditions of rationalism and secularism.  We’ve always been suspicious of some American versions of Humanism which cast it as a secular, non-theistic religion with secular ceremonies and Sunday schools for children.  We are right to be suspicious of any attempt to turn Humanism into another dogmatic, moralistic ideology. But we should not be too hard on our American cousins.  There is much to learn from them in how to make Humanism a fully constructive alternative to religion which might prove attractive to many people who are seeking for something more in life than just individualistic materialism.   Epstein Good Without God

  • Greg Epstein, Humanist rabbi and Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, spoke at the Eighteenth World Humanist Congress in Oslo, August 12-14.  Swami Manavatavadi,who leads our twinned Humanist organisation in India, also attended. 
  • Dr Aubrey Weinberg spoke to us about Humanistic Judaism in February 2003.  

Note: BHA’s Amazon Store

When you buy books and other products at Amazon you can ensure that a percentage of the sale price goes to the BHA as a referral fee.  You can:

A Hitchhiker’s Guide To Humanism

Monday 3rd October 7.30pm NM Humanists

The Rydal Arms, 93 Station Road, New Milton, BH25 6JJ

New Milton Humanists present an informal discussion hosted by Jane Bannister

“We humans can be kind, loving and moral beings without deluding ourselves that someone made us that way.” – Susan Blackmore

If you agree that reason and evidence provide a better way of understanding the universe than belief in God or gods; and ethics and morality should be based on their consequences for people, society and our planet, rather than on ancient dogma from religious texts, you are probably a Humanist.

In this informal talk and discussion, Jane will discuss Humanist values, the origins of Humanist morals, and the Humanist paradox.

Come along and find out if you are a Humanist too.

Everyone welcome!

Free entry (donations appreciated)

Click here to view more forthcoming and recent events.

(See also David Warden’s similar ‘What is Humanism’ for Dorset Humanists on 29th September at Moordown)

September Bulletin and Newsletter

DW 6298984 (crop)This coming Saturday, writer and filmmaker, Mike Freedman launches our Autumn season of unmissable events with a talk on population and sustainability.  We hope to see you there! 

Also in this month's Bulletin and Letter (PDF downloads), Thomas Hardy and the Poetry of Unbelief, what the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard has to say about being good without God, what Humanists think about cannibalism and torture, where you can march for a Secular Society, and lots more. 

We've also included a Questionnaire this month for you to tell us about how you'd like our group to develop in the future and a flyer enumerating five excellent reasons for joining Dorset Humanists if you haven't done so already. 

Don’t forget to keep an eye on the website, our Facebook page, and our bulletins for further news and updates. To receive our newsletters and bulletins every month, just enter your details in the subscribe box on our home page.

Best wishes,

David Warden
Chair, Dorset Humanists

P.S. If you’re planning to attend any of our New Milton meetings in September and October, please check out these programme updates first:

http://dorset-humanists1.blogspot.com/2011/08/new-milton-humanists-programme-updates.html

Click here to view our forthcoming and recent events.

Tip: Humanist Newsfeeds

NewsfeedsHere’s one way to quickly review and access the latest  news stories from the British Humanist Association (BHA), National Secular Society (NSS), and New Humanist Magazine’s (NHM) blog:

Scroll about half way down this page and view the section in the right hand column just below the British Humanist Association’s YouTube thumbnails. Here you’ll find the five latest  news stories from each of the BHA, NSS, and New Humanist Magazine blog.

If you’d like to subscribe to Dorset Humanists’ own newsfeed, or to those of the BHA, NSS and NHM follow this link to learn more about newsfeeds: http://dorset-humanists1.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss#

What is Humanism?

Thursday 29th September 7.30pmDorset Humanists (crop)
Moordown Community Centre, Coronation Avenue, Moordown, Bournemouth BH9 1TW
 A discussion led by David Warden, Chair of Dorset Humanists. 


Guest speaker: Chris Street of Teaching Secular Worldviews.


“We humans can be kind, loving and moral beings without deluding ourselves that someone made us that way.” – Susan Blackmore
If you agree that reason and evidence provide a better way of understanding the universe than belief in God or gods; and ethics and morality should be based on their consequences for people, society and our planet, rather than on ancient dogma from religious texts, you are probably a humanist.
In this introductory talk and discussion, David will discuss Humanist values, the origins of the modern Humanist movement, and some of the challenges facing Humanists today.


Chris Street will talk about the inclusion of Humanism in the Dorset RE Syllabus.


Come along and find out if you are a Humanist too.
Everyone welcome!
Free entry (donations appreciated)
If you can help us promote this event by displaying an A4 poster, please email Dave at DHcensus(at)hotmail.co.uk for a PDF copy.
Click here to view more forthcoming and recent events.