Event Calendar
Join us online for trivia night!
You will need a laptop/pc with two windows open, or two devices in order to play along
1) We will use JITSI to meet each other online (meet.jit.si/seatrivianight)
2) We will utilize an online platform (myquiz.org) to play trivia against each other in real time. Quiz code will be given to people on the night.
Westwood Free Thinker book club will be meeting online as long as we are struggling with Covid 19.
The meetings will be held at regular time and date (see below) at:
The book club is designed to:
- provide participants with a broad and balanced look at the major ideas of atheism, humanism, ‘free thinking’, environmentalism and other social movements
- provide a critical response to atheism and
- examine issues related to parenting secular children.
The book club meets online on the last Wednesday evening of the month 7:00-8:30 PM. In true Unitarian tradition theists, atheists, post-theists, agnostics and the unclassified are all invited to participate in one or all book club meetings.
Special Double Hitter! Read One or Both!
1. A Good War: mobilizing Canada for the climate emergency
“This is the roadmap out of climate crisis that Canadians have been waiting for.” (Naomi Klein, activist and New York Times best-selling author of This Changes Everything and The Shock Doctrine)
- One of Canada’s top policy analysts provides the first full-scale blueprint for meeting our climate change commitments
- Contains the results of a national poll on Canadians’ attitudes to the climate crisis
- Shows that radical transformative climate action can be done, while producing jobs and reducing inequality as we retool how we live and work
- Deeply researched and targeted specifically to Canada and Canadians while providing a model that other countries could follow
Canada needs to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent to prevent a catastrophic 1.5 degree increase in the earth’s average temperature – assumed by many scientists to be a critical “danger line” for the planet and human life as we know it. It’s 2020, and Canada is not on track to meet our targets. To do so, we’ll need radical systemic change to how we live and work – and fast. How can we ever achieve this?
Top policy analyst and author Seth Klein reveals we can do it now because we’ve done it before. During the Second World War, Canadian citizens and government remade the economy by retooling factories, transforming their workforce, and making the war effort a common cause for all Canadians to contribute to.
2. How to Avoid a Climate Disaster; the solutions we have and the breakthroughs we need.
n this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical – and accessible – plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe.
Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet’s slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal.
He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions – suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise.
As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.
**THIS EVENT IS HOSTED BY THE SECULAR HUMANISTS OF ALBERTA**
Physical Distancing is necessary in the time of pandemics. Therefore, let’s meet online. The last meeting went well for the four of us who went. Come join us on the video link.
a. On our computer – You may have to be on the Chrome web browser, although I understand FireFox may also work. Click on this link:
https://meet.jit.si/SecularHumanistsofAlberta
b. By smartphone, just download the “jitsi Meet” app and put:
“SecularHumanistsofAlberta” where it says “Room”
An evening of lively intelligent conversations. Feel free to suggest a humanist topic for an ice breaker. The topics flow naturally after we get started. Each meeting is uniquely enjoyable with the diverse crowd of like-minded individuals.
Please RSVP to the meetup group if you are attending, as they are limited to numbers due to the nature of the space.
Online Coffee Meetup using JITSI App.
meet.jit.si/seacoffeenight
Join us online for game night!
**THIS EVENT IS HOSTED BY THE SECULAR HUMANISTS OF ALBERTA**
Physical Distancing is necessary in the time of pandemics. Therefore, let’s meet online. The last meeting went well for the four of us who went. Come join us on the video link.
a. On our computer – You may have to be on the Chrome web browser, although I understand FireFox may also work. Click on this link:
https://meet.jit.si/SecularHumanistsofAlberta
b. By smartphone, just download the “jitsi Meet” app and put:
“SecularHumanistsofAlberta” where it says “Room”
An evening of lively intelligent conversations. Feel free to suggest a humanist topic for an ice breaker. The topics flow naturally after we get started. Each meeting is uniquely enjoyable with the diverse crowd of like-minded individuals.
Please RSVP to the meetup group if you are attending, as they are limited to numbers due to the nature of the space.
Online Coffee Meetup using JITSI App.
meet.jit.si/seacoffeenight
Join us online for trivia night!
You will need a laptop/pc with two windows open, or two devices in order to play along
1) We will use JITSI to meet each other online (meet.jit.si/seatrivianight)
2) We will utilize an online platform (myquiz.org) to play trivia against each other in real time. Quiz code will be given to people on the night.
Westwood Free Thinker book club will be meeting online as long as we are struggling with Covid 19.
The meetings will be held at regular time and date (see below) at:
The book club is designed to:
- provide participants with a broad and balanced look at the major ideas of atheism, humanism, ‘free thinking’, environmentalism and other social movements
- provide a critical response to atheism and
- examine issues related to parenting secular children.
The book club meets online on the last Wednesday evening of the month 7:00-8:30 PM. In true Unitarian tradition theists, atheists, post-theists, agnostics and the unclassified are all invited to participate in one or all book club meetings.
Feb. 23, 2022
Second Double Hitter! Read One or Both!
1. Caste: The Origins of our Discontents
In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings.
Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people – including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others – she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.
Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.
2. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
Antiracism is a transformative concept that reorients and reenergizes the conversation about racism—and, even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. At its core, racism is a powerful system that creates false hierarchies of human value; its warped logic extends beyond race, from the way we regard people of different ethnicities or skin colors to the way we treat people of different sexes, gender identities, and body types. Racism intersects with class and culture and geography and even changes the way we see and value ourselves. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi takes readers through a widening circle of antiracist ideas—from the most basic concepts to visionary possibilities—that will help readers see all forms of racism clearly, understand their poisonous consequences, and work to oppose them in our systems and in ourselves.
Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.
**THIS EVENT IS HOSTED BY THE SECULAR HUMANISTS OF ALBERTA**
Physical Distancing is necessary in the time of pandemics. Therefore, let’s meet online. The last meeting went well for the four of us who went. Come join us on the video link.
a. On our computer – You may have to be on the Chrome web browser, although I understand FireFox may also work. Click on this link:
https://meet.jit.si/SecularHumanistsofAlberta
b. By smartphone, just download the “jitsi Meet” app and put:
“SecularHumanistsofAlberta” where it says “Room”
An evening of lively intelligent conversations. Feel free to suggest a humanist topic for an ice breaker. The topics flow naturally after we get started. Each meeting is uniquely enjoyable with the diverse crowd of like-minded individuals.
Please RSVP to the meetup group if you are attending, as they are limited to numbers due to the nature of the space.
Online Coffee Meetup using JITSI App.
meet.jit.si/seacoffeenight
Join us online for game night!
**THIS EVENT IS HOSTED BY THE SECULAR HUMANISTS OF ALBERTA**
Physical Distancing is necessary in the time of pandemics. Therefore, let’s meet online. The last meeting went well for the four of us who went. Come join us on the video link.
a. On our computer – You may have to be on the Chrome web browser, although I understand FireFox may also work. Click on this link:
https://meet.jit.si/SecularHumanistsofAlberta
b. By smartphone, just download the “jitsi Meet” app and put:
“SecularHumanistsofAlberta” where it says “Room”
An evening of lively intelligent conversations. Feel free to suggest a humanist topic for an ice breaker. The topics flow naturally after we get started. Each meeting is uniquely enjoyable with the diverse crowd of like-minded individuals.
Please RSVP to the meetup group if you are attending, as they are limited to numbers due to the nature of the space.
Online Coffee Meetup using JITSI App.
meet.jit.si/seacoffeenight
Join us online for trivia night!
You will need a laptop/pc with two windows open, or two devices in order to play along
1) We will use JITSI to meet each other online (meet.jit.si/seatrivianight)
2) We will utilize an online platform (myquiz.org) to play trivia against each other in real time. Quiz code will be given to people on the night.