Past Meetings
2010
January 2010 - Chris Worfolk of Leeds Atheist Society talking about "Inside the Evangelists' Lair: My Experiences with the Christian Union".
February 2010 - 'What's it all for?: a Lesson on Humanism', led by Andrew Copson, CEO of the British Humanist Association.
March 2010 - A selection of Humanist and Atheist videos from YouTube and other sources.
April 2010 -Gary Knamiller talking about the charity, WaterAid, which uses practical solutions to provide safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene education to the world’s poorest people.
2009
January 2009 - A talk by Gerry Hannant entitled, 'Religion: how does it get away with it?'.
February 2009 - Commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of 'The Origin of Species', Chris Street presenting a talk on 'Darwin, Science & Humanism'.
March 2009 - Our speaker is Dr Stephen Burwood of Hull University, who talked about 'Indoctrination, Religious Schools and a Plural Society'.
April 2009 - A discussion on the topic, 'Should we be actively promoting Humanism, and, if so, how?'.
May 2009 - 'Humanists and their Political Beliefs', a group discussion that tried (among other things) to find out if being a Humanist makes you more likely to subscribe to particular political positions.
June 2009 - 'What Humanism Means To Me', a talk by Phil Mason.
July 2009 - 'A Conversation between Paganism and Humanism', led by Kim Dent-Brown
September 2009 - A Discussion on Contradictions and Absurdities in Scripture.
October 2009 - 'The Unwoven Rainbow': Richard Parker tells the story of his journey to rational thinking.
November 2009 - A talk by Tim Stephenson on 'Bad Science'.
December 2009 -
Journalist and comedy writer Ariane Sherine spoke about creating the global Atheist Bus Campaign,
now running in twelve countries across the world, and how it started with just 700 words on
The Guardian’s website.
She also talked about editing the charity book The Atheist’s Guide To Christmas, which features 44 of the world’s most entertaining atheists, including Richard Dawkins, Charlie Brooker and Derren Brown.
2008
March 2008 - Retired Humanist Officiant Charles Miller talked to us about some of his experiences from twenty years of officiating at Humanist weddings, naming ceremonies and funerals.
April 2008 - A talk by Professor Colin Campbell of York University on `Humanism and the Search for Meaning in a Post-Modern World'.
May 2008 - A talk by Roderic Vassie on Islam.
June 2008 - Father Gerard Burns talking on "Are Humanists and Christians trying to build the same sort of Utopia despite having different starting points?
July 2008 - Soap Box evening. A chance for members to get up and start brief debates on a topic of their choice.
September 2008 - a Small Groups Discussion Evening, talking about "What does Humanism mean to you?"
October 2008 - Pepper Harow from the British Humanist Association,
giving a talk on The Inclusion of humanists and non religious people in
local government work.
November 2008 - a talk by Tim Stephenson on The New
Atheists
, the term that's been used to describe writers such as Sam Harris,
Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins.
December 2008 - An evening of seasonal festivities.
2007
January 2007 - An open discussion on the question, "Where Do Morals Come From?"
February 2007 - Soap Box evening. A chance for members to get up and start brief debates on a topic of their choice.
March 2007 - A talk by Alan Pennington on “Unitarianism”.
October 2007 - A talk by Charles Anderson on "Transhumanism and the Singularity".
November 2007 - Heaven on Earth: Gerrard Winstanley and the 'True' Levellers" - a talk by John Severs.
December 2007 - Showings of short films on the topic 'Why Atheism?'
2006
January 2006 A talk by our Treasurer, Paul Smith, on the
topic, Where the BHA has Been Going Wrong
.
February 2006 A talk by Dr Stephen Burwood from the
University of Hull on Intelligent Design vs. Anthropic
Agnosticism
.
March 2006 A talk by Peter Hale of Climate Concern UK:
Climate Change - a Threat to Mankind?
April 2006 A showing of the film, "The God Who Wasn't There".
May 2006 A talk on Quakerism by local Quaker, Joyce Pickard.
June 2006 A talk on “Religion and Education” by Dr John Adams
July 2006 “Buddhism and Humanism”; a talk by Charles Anderson
September 2006 “Coming to Humanism”; personal accounts of how members realised they were Humanists
October 2006 “Intelligent Design”; a talk by Dr Simon Hardy of York University
November 2006 “Politics, Power, and Cultural Change”; a talk by retired Chief Probation Officer Roger Statham
December 2006 "Running the W. Yorkshire Group - the First 40 Years"; a talk by Bob Tee, Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Humanist Society of West Yorkshire
2005
March 2005 A discussion on “What is Humanism?”
May 2005 “What Humanists Would Like from the General Election.”
June 2005 A talk by Prof. Colin Campbell of York University on "The history of humanism in the UK”.
July 2005 A discussion about "Thinking the Unthinkable.”
August 2005 A discussion on the ethical problems caused by emigration.
September 2005 Humanist Officiant Lorraine Emms talking about Humanist ceremonies.
October 2005 A talk by Charles Anderson on Privacy in the
Information Age
.
November 2005 A talk by Jason Tipples entitled, "Evolutionary Psychology: An Answer to Life's Problems?"
December 2005 A discussion on the topic, "Faith does breed charity".
