Face to Faith: Christians and Humanists in Conversation

***Please note the change of venue from the one published in our programme***

Wednesday 25^th April 7.30pm
Elstead Hotel,  12-14 Knyveton Road, Bournemouth, BH1 3QP

With David Warden and John Macdiarmid

David Warden, chair of Dorset Humanists, will be talking with John Macdiamid, pastor of Poole Christian Fellowship about their different worldviews and how they came to hold diametrically opposed conclusions about God and the meaning of life.

John Macdiarmid was brought up a Catholic. He went through a brief phase of being an atheist and then converted to evangelical Christianity as a student. David Warden was an evangelical Christian in his teens and studied theology at university with a view to becoming a priest, but he graduated and left as a confirmed atheist. John and David are friends and have much in common, but on the biggest question of all they remain firmly in opposite camps. Tonight we bring them together with compère Dean Robertson to discuss their respective worldviews in front of a live audience.

Free entry (donations appreciated).     Everyone welcome!

Please indicate your interest in attending this event on Meetup.com and/or facebook as it helps raise our group’s profile on these sites (Meetup also offers you timely email reminders and an easy way to discover other interesting groups in your area). To help you find them, here are the direct links to our event listings on these sites: 

http://www.meetup.com/Dorset-Humanists/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/dorsethumanists/events/

Click here to view details of other forthcoming and recent events on this website.

***Please note the change of venue from the one published in our programme***

Religion in Schools?

Wednesday 22^nd February 7.30pm
The Green House Hotel,  4 Grove Road, Bournemouth BH1 3AX

Whether religion has any place in schools is a controversial question engendering strong feelings both from those who see it as a good thing and those who do not.

For this evening’s event, we have assembled a panel of current and former school workers with a vested interest in this topic to present us with their differing views on the various forms of religious involvement in schools. Our panel members will be Hilary Bond who is a Schools and Children's worker for the Parish of Wareham, Cathy Silman who is a retired teacher and current member of Dorset Humanists Education Group, and Dave Pegg who is a Christian schools worker. Together they will discuss the controversial and contested domains of religious education, worship in schools, and faith schools.

Is there scope for Humanists, Christians, and people of other faiths to find common ground on the place of religion in our children’s education? Come along and join this lively discussion.

“Join us for a thought-provoking discussion on the place of religion in our children’s education”

Free entry (donations appreciated).     Everyone welcome!

(The Green House Hotel can also be accessed via its rear entrance in Gervis Road. The hotel has a small onsite car park, and roadside parking is also available in Gervis Road).

Please indicate your interest in attending this event on Meetup.com and/or facebook as it helps raise our group’s profile on these sites (Meetup also offers you timely email reminders and an easy way to discover other interesting groups in your area). To help you find them, here are the direct links to our event listings on these sites:

http://www.meetup.com/Dorset-Humanists/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/dorsethumanists/events/

You can also help us promote Dorset Humanists and this event by displaying an A4 poster. Download an A4 printable copy here, or email Dave at DHcensus(at)hotmail.co.uk for a PDF.

Click here to view details of other forthcoming and recent events on this website.

Understanding Islam

Wednesday 27^th July 7.30pm
The Green House Hotel,  4 Grove Road, Bournemouth BH1 3AX

With Chair of Dorset Humanists David Warden

David will be explaining why he believes a Humanist approach to Islam requires a different emphasis from our more combative approach to Christianity. This is not about giving privileged treatment to Islamic beliefs but about recognising there is an overriding need for ordinary Muslims to feel part of British society rather than a marginalized minority. It is therefore essential that we avoid misunderstanding, stereotyping and oversimplification based on ignorance.

David will explore Islam’s history with a special focus on how extremism has developed over the last century. He will also highlight moderate voices within Islam and assess the likelihood of reform.

David Warden is a former business trainer with a degree in theology and a continuing passion for studying religious beliefs. He has been Chair of Dorset Humanists for seven years.

“A thought-provoking examination of our relationship with Muslims and the religion of Islam”

Free entry (donations appreciated).     Everyone welcome!

(The Green House Hotel can also be accessed via its rear entrance in Gervis Road. The hotel has a small onsite car park, and roadside parking is also available in Gervis Road).

Please indicate your interest in attending this event on Meetup.com and/or facebook as it helps raise our group’s profile on these sites (Meetup also offers you timely email reminders and an easy way to discover other interesting groups in your area). To help you find them, here are the direct links to our event listings on these sites:

http://www.meetup.com/Dorset-Humanists/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/dorsethumanists/events/

You can also help us promote Dorset Humanists and this event by displaying an A4 poster. Download an A4 printable copy here, or email Dave at DHcensus(at)hotmail.co.uk for a PDF.

Click here to view details of other forthcoming and recent events on this website.

Is Britain a Christian Nation?

Friday 06^th June 7.30 –9.30pm 
Custom House (top floor function room), The Quay, Poole BH15 1HP

Featuring former Mayor and Parliamentary Lib-Dem candidate Cllr Philip Eades, Bishop of Sherborne the Rt Revd Dr Graham Kings, and Chair of Dorset Humanists David Warden.

This topic has been prominent in the media recently following comments from David Cameron, with Justin Welby and some prominent secular philosophers also expressing their views.

No.34, a Christian based community café run by Poole Missional Communities, has invited Chair of Dorset Humanists David Warden to join the main speakers at their forthcoming event discussing ‘Is Britain a Christian Nation?’. This event is designed to offer an opportunity for people of all religious beliefs and none to engage with a live issue. After the main presentations the topic will be further discussed in groups and you are very welcome to participate in the conversations and discussions (We’re sure David would appreciate some like-minded support!). After these group discussions, each of the main speakers will offer a final reflection having heard some of your conversations around the tables.

No.34 is a Christian based community café run by Poole Missional Communities and their vision is to offer a place of welcome and hospitality and to offer events and activities that build community and help people live ‘life to the full’.

Free entry         Everyone welcome!

Click here to view details of other forthcoming and recent events on this website.

Rules of Engagement: Can atheists and faith groups work together constructively?

Saturday 12^th October 2.00pm 
Moordown Community Centre, Coronation Avenue, Moordown Bournemouth BH9 1TW

A presentation by the British Humanist Association’s Dialogue Officer Rory Fenton

As religious belief declines in the UK, interfaith initiatives are becoming increasingly popular as faith groups realise the benefits of working together, despite their conflicting beliefs and values. However, the non-religious are rarely invited to participate and are often regarded as the opposition.

In this talk, Rory Fenton will explain why he believes Humanists should constructively engage with their local religious groups, and will outline how we can overcome our differences and work together to achieve positive results.

Rory recently won the Charity Staff and Volunteers Award for 'Charity Innovator of the Year'

“Join us to discover how we can all benefit from constructive dialogue”

Free entry (donations appreciated).     Everyone welcome!

Please help us promote Dorset Humanists and this event by displaying an A4 poster. Download an A4 printable copy here, or email Dave at DHcensus(at)hotmail.co.uk for a PDF.

Click here to view details of other forthcoming and recent events on this website.

Is "interfaith" an idea whose time has passed?

source: Stephen Law tweet

“Interfaith” and Inclusion: Another View | Center for Inquiry centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/in…
— Stephen Law (@stephenlaw60) April 22, 2013

Tom Flynn of Center For Inquiry, USA says...

"On my view, those of us in the movement who are not comfortable with the "religious humanist" identifier should not be seeking entry to interfaith events. Instead, we should be boycotting them, then demanding something more inclusive in their place.

"When they say interfaith, they really mean interfaith." Really, though, who should find this surprising? Sometimes words mean what they say. Dictionary.com defines interfaith as "relating to, between, or involving different religions." Why should non-religious people want, much less expect, to be included in an event whose stated scope is only to bring together representatives of different religions? Why should atheists and hard secularists who actively disdain religion want to play any part in something like that?" 

"I don't appear on interfaith panels anymore. When invited, my stock reply is "Sorry, this is an event for representatives of various religions, and I do not represent a religion. When you plan an event that's not narrowly restricted to persons of faith, be sure to call me." 

"In my view, it's the real message of inclusiveness that most of us in the movement should be emphasizing -- a message we cannot credibly send while some of us are begging to be included onstage alongside the priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams." 

There's a popular impression that "interfaith" is the acme of inclusiveness, that when you want to stage an event that's designed to encompass an entire community, an interfaith observance is the way to go. That impression is decades out of date, and more of us ought to be saying so. Because an interfaith event embraces only members of religions, and does so frankly and openly, in a nation where twenty percent of adults don't belong to any religion, "interfaith" is not the last word in inclusivity. Interfaith events, by definition, exclude twenty percent of American adults. They exclude a third of the young." 

"If, after some traumatic event such as the Boston bombings, officials want to hold an event that includes everyone, from now on they need to do better than interfaith. They need to develop events that do not draw most of their architecture from religious services that no longer speak to the identities and aspirations of one adult American in five. Except in situations where representatives of different churches legitimately do want to just talk to one another -- wrangling out differences in how they interpret the Bible, or some such -- "interfaith" is an idea whose time has passed." 

"Of course, it's difficult to maintain that principled position when you're begging for grudging admission to what amounts to the back seat on the church bus." 

"To my mind, leaders of atheist and secular humanist and other strong-freethinker groups shouldn't complain that they are being excluded from interfaith events. They shouldn't campaign to get in. No, we should stay out even when asked, and use whatever spotlight that casts our way to press the argument that in a nation that is home to growing numbers of post-religious men and women, real inclusion demands something way better than an interfaith event ... something that is radically more inclusive than a church service with the points of doctrinal disagreement sanded down." 

"Traditional believers acknowledge the pain of loss, but cover it over with the ointment of beliefs in the afterlife. Unbelievers are confronting a starker reality: the deceased is truly, achingly gone and will never, ever be seen again. To put it more flippantly than I probably should, when believers and unbelievers sit side by side at a memorial event, they are two discrete groups doing two very different things. The unbelievers are there to say "Good-bye forever"; the believers are there to say "See you later." I don't know if it will ever make sense to try to achieve two such disparate objectives at a single event."

Full Story.