Female personhood is one of the most urgent issues of our time and is deeply entwined with questions of religion. Female personhood scholar Autumn Reinhardt-Simpson will explain what female personhood is and why it should matter deeply to Humanists around the world. Recorded at the Sunday, May 8, 2016 meeting of the BC Humanist Association in Vancouver. Learn more at www.bchumanist.ca Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. Subscribe on Soundcloud, Stitcher and iTunes. Intro music: We ar...
Jun 20, 2016•42 min
Dr Sue Hughson, Dying With Dignity Canada Board Member and Vancouver Chapter Coordinator and BC Humanist Association Past President, talks about the status of the fight for the right to die with dignity in Canada. This talk, recorded on Sunday, June 5, 2016, was one day before the Supreme Court of Canada's Carter v Canada decision came into effect, striking down the criminal prohibition on assisted dying and allowing physicians to help a suffering patient hasten their death. Sue also talks about...
Jun 09, 2016•29 min
From June 1-3, 2016, the BC Court of Appeal heard arguments in Trinity Western University vs the Law Society of BC. The BC Humanist Association was an intervener in the case and BCHA Executive Director Ian Bushfield attended the hearings. This is his report on the case. This is not intended as a thorough or objective legal analysis. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. Subscribe on Soundcloud, Stitcher and iTunes. Intro music: We are all connected instrumental - Symphony of Science ww...
Jun 04, 2016•15 min
In Canada registered charities are limited in the political activity they can undertake and are prohibited from any partisan activity. Under the previous federal government, Canada Revenue Agency was instructed to conduct a series of audits into the political activity of charities. The organizations scrutinized were seen to be critics of the previous Conservative government and while no evidence of wrongdoing was found, the audits put a chill on the entire sector and some organizations, like Dyi...
May 27, 2016•29 min
Paul Ingraham, a science writer at painscience.com, and Assistant Editor, ScienceBasedMedicine.org: speaks to us on the subject of Muscle Knots On Skeptical Trial - How suspicious should we be about "trigger points" as a cause of common muscle pain? Not just a fascinating case study of applying skepticism to a unsolved medical mystery, this talk also has plenty of practical "owner's manual" information about the biology of a nearly universal kind of pain. For more information on trigger points: ...
May 03, 2016•49 min
Ian Bushfield, executive director announces that the BC Humanist Association has been granted leave to intervene at the BC Court of Appeal in the case over Trinity Western University's proposed law school. Find out more about the BCHA and support our work at http://www.bchumanist.ca And be sure to subscribe to the BC Humanists podcast on Soundcloud, iTunes, Stitcher or your favourite service.
Apr 25, 2016•48 sec
Dr James Linville is an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. "Each After Its Own Kind”: How Creation Museums are not all created equal There are about 3 dozen Creation Museum in North America with a handful of others scattered around the globe. Many predate the large Answers in Genesis facility in northern Kentucky and a number more are in the planning or construction stage. While Christian young earth creationists are united on certain key doctrin...
Apr 08, 2016•1 hr 1 min
Benjamin Purzycki of the Centre for Human Evolution, Cognition, and Culture at the University of British Columbia first discusses contemporary approaches to understanding religion cross-culturally. Then, he draws from this discussion and attend to the role beliefs about gods’ minds play in our relationships with the natural world and with each other. Purzycki's recent study published in Nature on the role that belief in punitive gods played in the expansion of human societies received wide cover...
Apr 03, 2016•1 hr 3 min
Samir Gandesha is an Associate Professor in the Department of the Humanities and the Director of the Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University. He specializes in modern European thought and culture, with a particular emphasis on the 19th and 20th centuries. A key element of humanism must be a critical assessment of religion. Today such a critical assessment is more important than ever given the rise of Christian fundamentalism in the US, Hindutva or Hindu fundamentalism on the Indi...
Mar 23, 2016•47 min
Gail Miller speaks about the first pilot project in the planned global campaign to promote critical thinking among the children of the world. The pilot project is two secular schools and a library in Guatemala. Recorded at the Sunday, March 6, 2016 meeting of the BC Humanist Association in Vancouver. Learn more at http://www.bchumanist.ca Intro music: We are all connected instrumental - Symphony of Science http://www.symphonyofscience.com/
Mar 21, 2016•32 min
David Hutchinson, will be presenting an overview of the history, medical impacts and opinions of cannabis in 2016. What are the facts surrounding this widely available product and the changing perspectives of politicians, law enforcement, the medical community and the general public? Recorded at the Sunday, February 21, 2016 meeting of the BC Humanist Association in Vancouver. Learn more at www.bchumanist.ca
Mar 15, 2016•47 min
Dr Ahmed Hussein is a professor of nuclear physics at the University of Northern British Columbia and a research scientist at TRIUMF and Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US. Dr Hussein will be speaking about a a new and safer design for a nuclear power plants called dual fluid nuclear fission reactor. Among its other benefits, these reactors can make use of waste from traditional nuclear reactors as fuel while also extracting considerably more energy from existing nuclear fuel. Recorded at ...
Mar 12, 2016•1 hr 7 min
This interview of Khushi Ram was originally recorded on May 29, 2011 by Mclean Edwards. "From Servitude to Freedom (Autobiographical and Philosophical Reflections)" is an account by Khushi Ram of his life from a child servant in caste system India, to his emancipation and trials in stages of education, work in government, and eventual immigration to Vancouver, Canada, a place he now calls home and paradise. The second half of the book is an account of his philosophy and how his life, and especia...
Feb 29, 2016•1 hr 4 min
This is a recording of a lecture by former MP Svend Robinson to the BC Humanist Association in 1998 or 99. In the lecture, Svend touches on the challenges of fighting for secularism and progressive values against an increasing religious right. To learn more about the BC Humanist Association visit www.bchumanist.ca
Feb 09, 2016•43 min
Listen to an interview with author and educator Peter Boghossian. This podcast was originally produced in 2013. To find out more about the BC Humanist Association visit www.bchumanist.ca
Feb 02, 2016•28 min
Cherise Louie is the Territory Manager for Canadian Blood Services. She talks about the simplicity of blood donation and stem cell registration. Recorded at the Sunday, January 31, 2016 meeting of the BC Humanist Association in Vancouver. Learn more at www.bchumanist.ca
Jan 31, 2016•45 min
Nader Abdullah of the Syrian Canadian Council talks about Syria's culture, society and history. He touches on the expected difficulties newcomers to Canada encounter and suggests solutions from his group's perspective as a community and from experience with some newcomers. View the slides: http://www.slideshare.net/bchumanist/nader-abdullah-syria-the-land-of-diversity Recorded at the Sunday, January 24, 2016 meeting of the BC Humanist Association in Vancouver. Learn more at www.bchumanist.ca
Jan 22, 2016•34 min
John Ince, who intrigued and edified us with his excellent talk on The Political Implications of Sex on Dec 6, 2015, returns for a talk on Happiness and how to maximize it. Science has identified the ingredients of happiness. But most of us don't know them. We can help you learn them and grow happier! JOYSHIFT is a new concept in personal development, and yet is based in the ancient wisdom of our genes! It is a happiness practice that applies the latest discoveries of psychology to bring into ou...
Jan 16, 2016•40 min
David Simpson is a young man with a YouTube channel. David tells how he lost his faith while managing to keep a sense of spirituality (and morality) that is entirely Humanistic but still deeply Christian. He discusses worship, prayer, meditation, morality, scripture, the gospel and an Atheist Trinity. Find David on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3n-cydKGrfsYNktx96P64g Recorded at the Sunday, January 10, 2016 meeting of the BC Humanist Association in Vancouver. Learn more about us at ...
Jan 10, 2016•50 min
Effective altruism may be the fastest growing charitable movement you've never heard of. With 1.2 million views and counting for Peter Singer's TED Talk on the subject, and Givewell, the flagship charity evaluator of the movement, now moving more money than Charity Navigator, it's worth getting to know the basic tenets of Effective Altruism before making your next donation. Tee Barnett, the Programs and Educational Officer at Charity Science, will explore the potent blend of applying "the greate...
Dec 19, 2015•26 min
This speech contains some some discussion of sexual activities. Sex and politics seem like they operate in completely different spheres of life. But both are intimately connected through a complex psycho-social system that has received little attention. Lawyer and activist John Ince sketches out its key components. You will learn how the power structure of your key relationships: family, religious, work, and community, affect how you feel about sex and how your attitudes to eroticism affect your...
Dec 05, 2015•48 min
Listen to the first episode of our podcast Humanist LORE about What is Humanism? This episode was first recorded in 2013. To learn more about the BC Humanist Association visit www.bchumanist.ca
Mar 28, 2013•11 min
