The first summer meeting of the University of Toronto Secular Alliance will be held this upcoming Friday, May 22nd, at 7:30pm. The meeting will have an informal structure and everybody is both welcome, and encouraged, to attend. We will meet at the Hart House Arbor Room at 7:30pm (map), and most likely proceed to a nearby bar from there.

The CFI will be hosting UofT professor Leslie Jermyn this Friday for a talk on the universality of religion. All UTSA members are invited to attend. Details are as follows:

All human societies that we know about have beliefs that can be considered ‘religious.’ This is true regardless of level of material technology, the presence of formal education or type of political organization. This talk explores what human beings seem to need and get from religion that is not easily substituted by other epitemologies like science.

$5, $3 for students and FREE for CFI Members

This will be taking place Friday May 8th (this Friday) from 7pm to 9pm. The talk will be held at the Centre for Inquiry, located at 216 Beverley St. (just south of College at St George).

You can view the original post on the CFI’s website here.

When: March 16th 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Where: Centre for Inquiry, 216 Beverley St., Toronto, ON
How much: $8 regular, $4 students, FREE for CFI Friends of the Centre
What is the topic? Freedom of Expression and Political Islam

Who is Maryam Namazie?

Maryam Namazie is a rights activist, commentator and broadcaster. She is spokesperson for the One Law for All Campaign against Sharia Law in Britain. The campaign is opposed to faith based laws and promotes citizenship rights and one secular law for all. She is Spokesperson of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain which aims to break the taboo that comes with renouncing Islam and to oppose apostasy laws and
political Islam. She hosts and produces a weekly TV International program broadcast in the Middle East via New Channel TV. Moreover, she is a National Secular Society Honorary Associate and the NSS’ 2005
Secularist of the Year award winner; spokesperson of Equal Rights Now – Organization against Women’s Discrimination in Iran; Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association; Central Committee
member of the Worker-communist Party of Iran and co-editor of WPI Briefing. She is involved in the Third Camp against US militarism and Islamic terrorism among other things. Her blog has been rated one of
the top 100 atheist blogs and she was selected one of the top 45 women of the year 2007 by Elle magazine Quebec. She has campaigned for freedom of expression during the Muhammad caricature affair, when
along with 11 others including Salman Rushdie, she signed a statement against Islamism and in defence of freedom of expression.

For more information, visit: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/ontario/events/maryam_namazie_at_cfi/

This is our first pub night of 2009. Come join us at The Ferret and Firkin for food, drinks, socializing, and a great discussion!

Date: Thursday, January 15, 2009
Time: 8pm
Location: The Ferret and Firkin (720 Spadina Ave, just south of Bloor)

Join us for a movie and free dinner (not just chips and snacks!) – and of course, free discussion afterwards!

We’ll take a vote from everyone who shows up to decide what movie we see! Choices will include:

- Deliver Us From Evil — critically acclaimed documentary (100% on Rotten Tomatoes): “a superb documentary and a searing look at an institution protecting its leaders at the expense of its followers. A profoundly disturbing chronicle of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, the film builds a clear-eyed case against pedophile priest Oliver O’Grady, and the Catholic bureaucracy that protected him. The recollections of O’Grady’s victims are nothing short of shocking and heartbreaking.”

- Jesus Camp — “Evangelical indoctrination is given an unflinching, even-handed look in this utterly worthwhile documentary.”

- Secular Believers — “Beliefs, and believers, come in many shapes and sizes, and not all of them can be described as ‘religious’. This programme provides an introduction to a fascinating range of non-religious people and their beliefs.”

_______________________

The entrance to the Multi-Faith Center is right by the Grad Student Pub, not off of Spadina.

When you enter the Multi-Faith Center, go to the right and take the elevator up to the second floor. It’s the first door on the left – it’s humongous and you can’t miss it!

Popular evolutionist PZ Myers on:

SCIENCE EDUCATION: THE WAR BETWEEN SCIENCE AND RELIGION

At U of T, October 31st, 2008, 7:30pm

The UTSA and the Centre for Inquiry Ontario are hosting Dr. PZ Myers, author of the popular science and atheism blog Pharyngula (http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/), and Professor of Biology at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Dr. Myers’ blog is the most widely read science blog on the internet. He has generated significant controversy with his writings on religion, intelligent design creationism, the culture wars, and getting kicked out of Ben Stein’s Expelled.

More information can be found here: http://www.centerforinquiry.net/ontario/events/pz_myers_of_pharyngula_comes_to_toronto

Advance tickets are $5 for students and $8 for everyone else. Tickets are $10 at the door. However, tickets are free for new and renewing Friends of the Centre for Inquiry (http://www.centerforinquiry.net/support)

More details will follow. This should be a fantastic event!

Please email us or kkish@centerforinquiry.net for more information.

Join us at our first meeting and social of the year at our brand new meeting space and time!

When: September 10th, 2008 7pm-10pm
Where: Multi-Purpose Room (2nd Floor) of the Multi-Faith Centre, 569 Spadina Ave. (Entrance from Bancroft Ave. off Huron St.)

This is another good opportunity to check out our group and socialize with other like-minded students. We’ll have snacks, good discussion, and possibly a movie (but definitely snacks and good discussion!)