Leicester Secular Society

THE OLDEST SECULAR SOCIETY IN THE WORLD - FOUNDED 1851

Programme for Early 2008

See our Full Calendar of Events
for more recent and future dates

2005 and earlier - 2006 - 2007 - Early 2008 - Mid-2008 and later

Click on a month or on a marked date to go down the page to the appropriate entry.

Except where stated, all meetings are free, open to the general public, and held at Secular Hall, 75 Humberstone Gate, Leicester LE1 1WB. In accordance with a resolution passed in 2002: If a lecture is cancelled a discussion meeting will be held instead, on topics proposed by those present. Queries to the organisers: [MG] Michael Gerard 0116 210 9027 or [AH] Allan Hayes 0116 241 8747.
Most of our events are now also listed on the Lecture List site: search for Leicester or select Midlands in the menu.

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January

LSS Diary for January

Don't forget - 2008 Subscriptions are now due.

Sunday 6 January 6:30pm. – Rupert Halfhide of the Leicester Rationalist Trust (owners of the Secular Hall where we meet) will address members of the society on The Future of the Secular Hall. This is an important meeting and all members of the Society are urged to attend if they can.

This will not be a meeting of the Society, but of its members as individuals together with the Trustees of the Leicester Rationalist Trust. No decisions binding the Society can be taken but the Board of the Society will give full consideration to the points made at the meeting together with the proposals of the Leicester Rationalist Trust. The Board believe it to be most important that members have the opportunity to hear for themselves about this matter and contribute their own views. Please try to come.

Thursday 17 January 7:30pm. — IDEAS Group meeting. : Lyn Hurst on "Universalist or Relativist?". Here are some links that may be relevant to this discussion: — 'Butterflies and Wheels' has a lot on this, e.g. Relativism — and from Andrew Anthony in the Guardian — "This frontline of contemporary debate runs across issues as diverse as race, faith, multiculturalism, feminism, gay rights, freedom of speech and foreign policy. — Let's start with cannibalism, slavery and ritual human sacrifice. Do you think that they are a) unspeakable acts of barbarity? or b) vibrant expressions of a distinctive cultural heritage?" That's a rather satirical cartoon summary of the issues!

Sunday 20 January 6:30pm. — Ed Morrison - Madagascar and Ecology. Ed has been doing fieldwork research in Madagascar. How safe is this tropical wilderness? What do changes there tell us about the world?

Monday 21 January 7:30pm at Christchurch, 105a Clarendon Park Road, Leicester, LE2 3AH. — Allan Hayes - The faith schools debate in the series 'Faith, Ethics and Politics" organised by Christians Aware. Allan writes "These issues are coming into more political prominence: the government is coming under increasing criticism over faith schools and we need to make use of the major revision of RE that is coming up (local syllabuses are revised only once every five years). We need to engage with a wide range of people and organisations to promote secularism - we are about changing things for the better. It would be particularly useful to have a significant secularist presence."

Sunday 27 January 6:30pm 'til late. –

Grand Burns Night Celebration.
Dancing to Greenshoots Ceilidh Orchestra.
Haggis piped in by kilted piper.
Menu: Cock-a-Leekie, Haggis with Neaps and Tatties, Trifle.
Entertainment from Offshoots
Members £6; Concessions £4;
Non-members £10; Concessions £7
This was a great night last year and promises to be even better in 2008
Tickets from Dave Ray - Ring 0116 260 3072 or 0116 220 0628

Monday 28 January 7:30pm at Christchurch, 105a Clarendon Park Road, Leicester, LE2 3AH. — Allan Hayes - Religious education, humanism and the school curriculum - another in the Christians Aware series 'Faith, Ethics and Politics" (See 21 January). As before, it would be particularly useful to have a significant secularist presence."

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February 2008

LSS Diary for February

Sunday 3 February 6:30pm. — Headstrong meeting. All welcome for an evening discussing the issues of the day.

Sunday 10 February 6:30pm. — Caroline Moles will introduce a discussion about Archbishops and Sharia Law - What is Going On? If anyone has press cuttings of interest on this topic do feel encouraged to bring them.

This replaces Terry Liddle's planned talk on Slavery Ancient and Modern, already postponed from last December. Terry has sustained a knee injury subsequent to an operation and is once again not able to come tonight. We all hope that he will make a full recovery soon, and that we will be able to welcome him in the summer for his talk in which he looks at slavery from ancient times and asks how far slavery extends to the present day. And just what was Mr Wilberforce really like? Terry is well known for his punchy columns in the “Freethinker” magazine and his tireless research published by the Tom Paine Society.

Sun 17 February 6:30pm. — Professor John Newsinger — The US Marines. John, now a professor we have to mention, because it took so long for this massively published writer to get there, reveals all you need to know about this …er… crack force within the US military. (Moved from last season’s programme due to ill health).

Thursday 21 February 7:30pm. — IDEAS Group meeting. Harry Perry will introduce a debate on the topic "Race and Intelligence". Harry writes:

Are either of these concepts intelligible? Geneticists tend to say "race" is a dud but we all [sic] tick the appropriate box on ethnic monitoring forms. Could natural selection have led to different levels of intelligence in different populations? IQ researchers say the data on intelligence cannot lie but are white Brits happy that the Chinese are cleverer? Why does the debate stir up so much emotion? Why have James Watson and others lost their jobs for arguing the case? If differences were proved would it lead directly to eugenics? What's wrong with eugenics anyway? Plenty to get your teeth into on this one!

Background reading can be found for this topic simply by typing in the key words to your search engine: "Intelligence", "Race", "Eugenics", "Race IQ Gap"; etc.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Sunday 24 February 6:30pm. — Headstrong meeting. All welcome for an evening discussing the issues of the day (unless a speaker is arranged - watch this space).

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March

LSS Diary for March

Sun 2 March 6:30pm. — Dave Ray — Nought so queer as folk and religion. Dave tells in a series of anecdotes about the weird antics of people, especially the religious: of Quakers who danced naked; of cargo cults devotees, who thought their saviour would come in a ship; and the English king, a Thaumaturge, who could cure a sexually transmitted disease.

Sun 9 March 6:30pm. — Andrew Reeves — Climate Change meets peak Oil – Planning Leicester’s Energy Transition. Find out what meeting the challenges of climate change and ‘peak oil’ will mean for our City.

Sun 16 March 6:30pm. — Veronica and Matt Mathews — Unusual Views of China. Veronica and Matt are indefatigable travellers and are reporting back after their second trip to China. From their pictures and talk we learn that the real China is different from the myths and stereotypes we are used to in the west.

Thursday 20 March 7:30pm. — IDEAS Group meeting. Allan Hayes will introduce a debate on the topic "Evolution and Ethics".

Sunday 23 March 6:30pm. — Easter Sunday

Headstrong meeting (unless a speaker is arranged - watch this space). All welcome for an evening discussing the issues of the day.

Sunday 30 March 6:30pm. — Headstrong meeting (unless a speaker is arranged - watch this space). All welcome for an evening discussing the issues of the day.

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April

LSS Diary for April

Please see our new Calendar for full details of this month's events.

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May

LSS Diary for May

Please see our new Calendar for latest details of this month's events.

Sun 11 May 6:30pm. (provisional) — John Cook — Freethinking Glass. John has worked and taught about glass for 40 years. He will cast a fascinating Secular eye over the complex business of his art and craft. [MG]

Sun 18 May 6:30pm. (provisional) — Margaret Fleming — The C-Change Project. Margaret, a highly experienced educationalist and youth leader in the Woodcraft Folk, has been working for the Folk on the C-Change Project. This is to look at the effects of Climate Change and educate young people into its significance whilst empowering them to be positive and not retreat into despair. [MG]

Sun 25 May 6:30pm. (provisional) — Michael Gerard and Caroline Moles — Being Green and Musical in El Salvador. Last October Tim Hollins and Maureen Russell explained the �Nueva Esperanza� Project to support a settlement in El Salvador, built by people whose villages disappeared during the ferocious civil war there. Michael and Caroline will have visited the project in March, with a bundle of violins from Leicester to support the Music for Hope branch of the project. This talk is of their experiences, with videos of events and recordings of interviews. [MG]

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June

Please see our new Calendar for details of all this month's events.

LSS Diary for June

Sun 1 June 6:30pm. (provisional) — Mark Ure — Philosophical Counselling. Mark is well known in Leicester as an Herbalist, Counsellor and activity in the peace movement. This form of counselling should, he says, be of special interest to secularists. [MG]

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