The Freethought Society is pleased to host standup comedian and author Leighann Lord on Saturday, March 13, 2021. The Zoom event starts with a pre-event chat session at 11:45 AM PST/2:45 PM EST. The formal presentation begins at Noon PST/3:00 PM EST.
The title of Lord’s presentation is “I’m not funny. What I am is Brave!” In an interview-style format, she will be talking about her career as a professional standup comedian who happens to be a secularist and a skeptic. After the interview session, Lord will be taking questions. After a break, plan to stay for a post-event happy hour/social.
Lord was the 2013 New York City face of the African Americans for Humanism outreach campaign sponsored by the Center for Inquiry (CFI) and its “Millions Living Happily Without Religion” campaign. Lord is a former co-host of the Emmy-nominated “StarTalk” with Neil de Grasse Tyson and has been the emcee for several Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CFI’s skeptic arm) conferences. She is the author of “Dict Jokes” and “Real Women Do It Standing Up.”
The Freethought Society (FS) is pleased to host author Katherine Stewart on Saturday, January 23, 2021 via Zoom. The event starts with a pre-event chat session at 11:45 AM PST/2:45 PM EST. The formal presentation begins at Noon PST/3:00 PM EST.
Stewart’s presentation is entitled “The Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.”
For too long the religious right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with cultural issues such as abortion and anti-LGBT equality. Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and impose its vision on all of society. America’s religious nationalists aren’t just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy. By pulling back the curtain on the movement’s inner workings and leading personalities, Stewart explains how Religious Nationalism works — and how to fight back.
After a break, plan to stay for a post-event happy hour/social.
Stewart is an American journalist and author who often writes about issues related to the separation of church and state. Her books include The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children and The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism.
Please RSVP at the below Meetup link to participate in this event:
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FS is pleased to host author and attorney Andrew L. Seidel on Saturday, October 10, 2020 at 3:00 PM (EDT)/Noon (PDT) for an online Zoom meeting. Seidel’s presentation, “The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American,” is based on his book by the same name.
Please note the information under the headline of this page to learn how you can obtain the Zoom link by registering as a member of the FS Meetup.
Seidel is the Director of Strategic Response at the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). When not fighting for the First Amendment with FFRF, Andrew writes for Slate, ThinkProgress, Religion News Service, Rewire News and many other publications.
Renowned constitutional scholar Erwin Chemerinsky described The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American as “a beautifully written book” that “explodes a frequently expressed myth: that the United States was created as a Christian nation.”
Seidel’s book illustrates that not only is the United States not a Christian nation, but Judeo-Christian principles are fundamentally opposed to the values on which America was founded. Religion, law, and history will collide in this presentation. Seidel will discuss his book and field questions.
The Freethought Society (FS) is pleased to host Professor Christopher Cameron on Saturday, August 1, 2020 at 3:00 PM (EDT)/Noon (PDT) for an online Zoom presentation entitled “Black Freethought from Slavery to Civil Rights.” His talk is based on his book, Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism.
Learn how you can obtain the Zoom link by registering as a member of the FS Meetup.
Cameron’s talk will explore the origins of black freethought among 19th century slaves, many of whom could not reconcile notions of a loving God with their condition on Earth. The talk will then examine freethought in the 20thcentury as well as cultural and political movements such as the Harlem Renaissance, radical leftist politics, and the Black Power movement. Cameron argues that religious skepticism was prevalent among some of the most prominent voices in African American history, including Frederick Douglass, Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Huey Newton, and Alice Walker.
Cameron is a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with research and teaching interests in African American and early American history, including slavery, the antislavery movement, religious and intellectual history. His first book, To Plead Our Own Cause: African Americans in Massachusetts and the Making of the Antislavery Movement, explored the relationship between Puritan theology and the rise of black abolitionism, arguing throughout the work that African Americans were central to the development of the antislavery movement in America.
The Freethought Society is very pleased to host Dr. Paul Offit as an honored speaker on Monday, October 15, 2018. The meeting takes place at the Ludington Library located at 5 South Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania). The meeting will start at 7:00 PM. The meeting is free and open-to-the-public.
Dr. Offit’s highly informative speech is entitled, “How to Communicate Science to the Public—Or Die Trying.” Using a series of personal experiences, Dr. Offit will discuss the challenges that scientists face in trying to communicate science to the public.
Dr. Offit is the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a recipient of many awards including the J. Edmund Bradley Prize for Excellence in Pediatrics from the University of Maryland Medical School, the Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development from the Infectious Disease Society of America, and a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health.
MeetUp Details
Dr. Paul Offit Discusses Science Communication
Monday, Oct 15, 2018, 7:00 PM
Ludington Library 5 S. Bryn Mawr Ave. Bryn Mawr, PA
18 Freethinkers Went
The Freethought Society is very pleased to host Dr. Paul Offit as an honored speaker on Monday, October 15, 2018. The meeting takes place at the Ludington Library located at 5 South Bryn Mawr Avenue, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania). The meeting will start at 7:00 PM. The meeting is free and open-to-the-public. Dr. Offit’s highly informative speech is enti…
The Freethought Society (FS) is pleased to host Professor Christopher Cameron on Saturday, August 1, 2020 at 3:00 PM (EDT)/Noon (PDT) for an online Zoom presentation entitled “Black Freethought from Slavery to Civil Rights.” His talk is based on his book, 
