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March April 2023 Freethought Society Ezine

Click here to see the March/April 2023 Freethought Society (FS) Ezine.

In the Ezine you will find the following:

  • President Biden Signs Bill to Honor Thomas Paine
  • Photos from the Thomas Paine Proclamation Celebration
  • The 2022 Life Behind Bars: Compassion and Reform Conference Report
  • Life Behind Bars: Compassion and Reform Speaker Photos
  • Life Behind Bars: Compassion and Reform Volunteer Photos
  • FS Signs Anti-Blasphemy Support Letter
  • Technology and Science
    by Herb Silverman
  • A Tribute to Alan B. Palmer
  • Humanism is the Best Future for Haiti
    by Billy Almoza
  • Freethought Society Multi-Month Zoom Calendar
  • Donation and Information Page

We hope that you will remain or become an active supporter of the great work FS is doing. Please donate to the general fund or select a project you want to help sponsor. All donations to FS are tax-deductible (EIN: 23-2738574).

The Freethought relies on small donations to make ends meet. Please support freethought, educational programs, and much more by starting a monthly recurring donation of $5 today. We made it easy for you to donate. Please visit: https://www.ftsociety.org/donate/

If the Ezine inspires you to become more actively involved with FS, please provide us with your contact information, including your phone number and mailing address.
Special events are being planned in your area so don’t miss an opportunity to participate further. All personal information is confidential and will not be shared with other organizations.
We want supporters to stay informed at all times.

Check for upcoming events at the FS Meet Up page
Like FS on Facebook!
Follow FS on Twitter

The Freethought Society News Editorial Staff

2022 September October Ezine

Click here to see the September/October 2022 Freethought Society (FS) Ezine.
In the Ezine you will find the following:

  • The 2022 Thomas Paine Festival Activities Report
  • Photos from the 2022 Thomas Paine Festival
  • Congressman Jamie Raskin’s Greeting to Attendees of the 2022 Thomas Paine Festival
  • The 2022 Friggatriskaidekaphobia Treatment Center’s Online International Educational Seminar
  • More Photos from the June 2022 Thomas Paine Festival
  • Fables
    by Herb Silverman
  • Racism, Religion, and Irrationality in Buffalo and Beyond
    by Norm R. Allen, Jr.
  • Announcing a New Freethought Society Committee!
  • Several Freethought Board Members React to the Anti-Choice Supreme Court Decision
    Submissions by, Margaret Downey, Glen Loev, Alan Gold, Victoria De la Torre, and Sally Flynn
  • Freethought Society Two-Month Calendar
  • Donation and Information Page

 

We hope that you will remain or become an active supporter of the great work FS is doing. Please donate to the general fund or select a project you want to help sponsor. All donations to FS are tax-deductible (EIN: 23-2738574).

If the Ezine inspires you to become more actively involved with FS, please provide us with your contact information, including your phone number and mailing address.

Special events are being planned in your area so don’t miss an opportunity to participate further. All personal information is confidential and will not be shared with other organizations.

We want supporters to stay informed at all times.

Check for upcoming events at the FS Meet Up page

Like FS on Facebook!

Follow FS on Twitter

Chetan Ahimsa Zoom event

The Freethought Society and the American Ethical Union are pleased to host Chetan Ahimsa via Zoom on ThursdayMarch 102022 at 6:45 PM EST/3:45 PM PST. Ahimsa is an actor from Kannada, India and a political/social activist.

The 15-minute pre-event chat social will highlight some of the films Ahimsa has appeared in.

Ahimsa is known for his efforts protesting against the Indian caste system. In June 2021, Ahimsa was arrested by Basavanagudi police who were following a complaint from the president of a little-known organization called “Yuva Vipra Vedike.” Read more at: bit.ly/3Ilf31P

Chetan Ahimsa

Ahimsa fights for equality, justice, rationality, and non-violence. He will tell us what motivates him to be a social activist.

Ahimsa credits his mother, Mangala Kumar, and his father, Amar Kumar (both doctors), for providing him with the willpower to continue his important activism work, but as a young adult Ahimsa studied the writings of Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy.

Revered as “Periyar,” Ramasamy was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement called Dravidar Kazhagam. He is known as the Father of the Dravidian, a social movement that advocates to eradicate the ills of the existing caste system including untouchability. Ahimsa will talk about Periyar’s importance in India’s rational thinking movement, the acceptance of atheism, and to himself personally.

Register for this Zoom event at: https://bit.ly/chetan-ahmisa

March/April 2022 Freethought Society (FS) Ezine

Click here to see the March/April 2022 Freethought Society (FS) Ezine.

In the Ezine you will find the following:

  • 2021 Tree of Knowledge Event
  • Photos from the 2021 Tree of Knowledge Event
  • The 2021 Celebration of HumanLight
  • Purpose of Human Existence
    by Herb Silverman
  • The Light of Day: John Burroughs and a Freethinker’s Religion ~ Part Two ~
    by Chris Highland
  • Freethought Society Three-Month Zoom Calendar
  • Donation and Information Page

We hope that you will remain or become an active supporter of the great work FS is doing. Please donate to the general fund or select a project you want to help sponsor. All donations to FS are tax-deductible!

If the Ezine inspires you to become more actively involved with FS, please provide us with your contact information, including your phone number and mailing address.

Special events are being planned in your area so don’t miss an opportunity to participate further. All personal information is confidential and will not be shared with other organizations.

We want supporters to stay informed at all times.

Check for upcoming events at the FS Meet Up page
Like FS on Facebook!
Follow FS on Twitter

Einstein, Schrödinger, Dice, Cats, & Quantum Physics: What is Our Weird Universe Made Of?

The Freethought Society joins with the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia and the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia to host acclaimed science writer and physicist Paul H. Halpern as a speaker onSundayMay 31, 2015 at 4:00 PM. Halpren’s presentation is entitled Einstein’s Dice and Schrödinger’s Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics. The presentation will take place at the EHSP building, located at 1906 South Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia.

Halpren’s presentation, based on his book of the same name, investigates how physicists Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger battled together against the incompleteness and indeterminacy of quantum mechanics. Their conversations resulted in many interesting quips, including Einstein famously and amusingly saying that God does not play dice with the universe and Schrödinger creating his famous fable and thought-experiment of a cat in a box that is in a mixed state between life and death until it is observed, that was neither alive nor dead not to explain quantum mechanics but to highlight the apparent absurdity of a theory gone wrong. But these two giants did more than just criticize: they fought back, seeking a unified Theory of Everything that would make the universe seem sensible again, a theory that would unite the forces of nature and supersede quantum weirdness.

Einstein dedicated the final decades of his life in the search for unification. Even on his deathbed he asked for pencil and paper in a vain attempt to complete his calculations. Less familiar, but similarly intriguing, are the efforts of Austrian physicist Schrödinger to solve the same riddle and beat Einstein, with whom he had collaborated, to the answer. The relationship between the two extraordinary physicists offers a riveting tale about a deep friendship challenged by the temptations of scientific glory.

Einstein’s Dice and Schrödinger’s Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics has received positive reviews from a diverse readership, both professional and everyday reader. A seemingly inscrutable subject to cover, Halpern’s writing and speaking is down to earth as he easily engages the reader and listener on what is a complicated problem involving two of the greatest minds who ever lived. Among the many reviews, the Library Journal said of Halpern’s work that it is “A highly approachable book that will appeal to readers…who are interested in physics, the history of science, and the human and political aspects of scientists and their work.” The Wall Street Journal stated that it is “A fascinating and thought-provoking story, one that sheds light on the origins of some aspects of the current challenging situation in physics…. Mr. Halpern’s engaging account is a great human story and should be of interest as well to anyone fascinated by the still-unsolved questions that they pursued together.” And in the reveiw by Nature, “Physicist Paul Halpern tells the entangled tale of Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, and their search for a Grand Unified Theory with humour and concision.”

Halpern is Professor of Physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and an acclaimed author of 14 popular science books, exploring the subjects of space, time, higher dimensions, dark energy, dark matter, exoplanets, particle physics, and cosmology. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, and an Athenaeum Literary Award. A regular contributor to NOVA’s The Nature of Reality physics blog, he has appeared on numerous radio and television shows including Future Quest and The Simpsons 20thAnniversary Special.

Halpern’s presentation is free and open to the public, and begins at 4:00 PMSundayMay 31, at the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia building, 1906 Rittenhouse Square. Books will be available for purchase.

Paul Halpern portrait

Paul Halpern

 

Check for this and other upcoming events at the FS Meet Up page.

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Follow FS on Twitter.

The Freethought Society News Editorial Staff