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Human Tree of Knowledge rally and dinner

Saturday, December 3, 2011, 3:00 PM to 7:30 PM

Chester County Courthouse, High & Market Sts., West Chester, PA

 The Freethought Society continues to demand the right to display a holiday Tree of Knowledge on the grounds of the Chester County Courthouse, alongside Christian, Jewish and Santa displays. We believe that the non-theist community deserves the same treatment as religious groups when using overnment property.

A 2011 display request will very likely be denied, therefore, supporters must be prepared to conduct a “Human Tree of Knowledge” event/protest rally. The event/protest rally schedule will included the distribution of ornaments and participants will be invited to say a few words about how much certain books meant to them. Please plan to participate on Saturday, December 3, 2011 at the Chester County Courthouse located at the corner of High and Market Streets (2 North High Street, West Chester, Pennsylvania). The event will start at 3:00 PM and will include speeches, singing, photo opportunities and a press conference.

2010 Human Tree of Knowledge, West Chester Courthouse
2010 Human Tree of Knowledge, West Chester Courthouse

Please email FS to volunteer (volunteers@FtSociety.org) for one of many jobs that need to be done ahead of time (new ornaments, press releases, media training, etc.).

Should the FS petition to include the Tree of Knowledge in the 2011 display be approved, FS supporters will be notified by email, and a notice will be posted on the Freethought Society websites/meetup. An actual tree will be decorated in that case.

A 5:30 PM “Dutch-Treat” post-event dinner and get-together will take place at Kildare’s Irish Pub located at 18 West Gay Street, West Chester,  Pennsylvania, 19380. The restaurant is located just around the corner from the Chester County Courthouse.

For directions to the restaurant call (610)431-0770. To reserve dinner seats, please call the FS office at (610) 793-2737 or email margaret@ftsociety.org  by December 1, 2011.

 PLEASE RSVP via our meetup or Facebook pages.

Meetup:  http://www.meetup.com/Freethought-Society-Meetup/events/41411862/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=220480284692245

September/October 2011 Freethought Society Newsletter

We hope you enjoy reading the following articles:

The Friggatriskaidekaphobia 2011 Party
by Margaret Downey

FS Friggatriskaidekaphobia Party Cures All
by Glen Love

FS Friday the 13th Party—Predictably Great!
by Carol Everhart Roper

Frigg Cures of the Past and Future
by Shaun McGonigal

A First-Timer’s Amazing Meeting
by Celestia Ward

Also see the “Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Philadelphia Region Billboard Campaign” article and the announcements about two on-going charity efforts (“Jump Into the Jean Pool” and “Sole Searching”).

Included in this issue is an update on the Free Thinkers of Haiti’s Solar Box Cooker efforts.

Please check out the 2011 Four-Month Activities Calendar and plan to attend the events created to entertain and educate.

In this newsletter you will find a report from the Helping Hands Committee and a new Anti-Discrimination Support Network report.

Download Here: September/October 2011 FS Newsletter

June 2; evolutionary psychologist Robert Kurzban, PhD, at Free Library, Phila.

FRobert Kurzban, PhDS proudly presents Robert Kurzban, PhD as the Thursday, June 2, 2011 speaker at the Free Library of Philadelphia.  The meeting will begin promptly at 7:00 PM  in the Skyline Room.  The address of the library is 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Kurzban’s free and open-to-the-public speech, “Why Everyone (Else) is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind,” will explore human inconsistency, including hypocrisy from an evolutionary perspective. Emphasizing how modularity helps to explain various features of human behavior, Kurzban will cover “self deception,” “self control,” “self esteem” and many other aspects of social behavior. This speech is based on  Kurzban’s book of the same title.

From the Wikipedia article on Kurzban:

“Robert Kurzban was trained by two pioneers in the field of evolutionary psychology, John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, and his research reflects this background. He takes an adaptationist view of human psychology, and his work is aimed at understanding the functions of psychological mechanisms designed around social life. He uses methods drawn from social psychology, cognitive psychology, and especially experimental economics. His early work investigated the social category “race” and was directed at the hypothesis that people “automatically” encode the race of people they observe. Continue reading: June 2; evolutionary psychologist Robert Kurzban, PhD, at Free Library, Phila.

2011 Newsletters

July August 2011 NewsletterDownload the recent 2011 Newsletters here:

Archived Newsletters: July 2010 – December 2010

Here’s the last of the archived newsletters for your enjoyment!