2012
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The Geek Manifesto
There are 650 MPs in the House of Commons. 158 have a background in business, 90 have been political advisers or organisers, and 86 are lawyers. Only one of them is a scientist. Is it any wonder that politics so often lets science down, and fails to exploit its skeptical methods to design policies that are fit for purpose?
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The New Visibility of Atheism in Europe
Dr Stuart McAnulla (University of Leeds, POLIS) delivers a talk about the political aspects of the 'New Atheist' movement.
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Learning From Monks
Julian has spent several days visiting and staying at monastries researching a forthcoming article for the Financial Times magazine. He and his partner were asking the question. does monastic life contain any lessons from the secular world? In this talk, he discusses his conclusions.
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How Do People Lose Religion?
Millions of people have lost religion in the western world since the 1960. How does this happen? At what ages? What are the triggers? Is there a difference between men and women? Professor Callum Brown draws on the accounts of those he has interviewed in North America and Britain.
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Campaigning for a Secular World
In this talk, Pavan reviews the position as to secularism and religion in Britain today, and then discusses some current campaigns the British Humanist Association are working on.
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Humanism for a Better World
Should we be working together, as humanists, for a better world? Richard addresses the potential problems and poses some questions.
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Going Soul-o: Lessons from an Atheist's time at Christian Camp
Alex Gabriel, former chair of Oxford Atheist Society, recently attended Soul Survivor - the largest evangelical Christian festival for young people in the UK. In this talk, he discusses his experiences at the event.
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You Know Less Than You Think
Every day we all make perceptions of people and the world around us. But perception is a two-way process and most people don't stop to think about the biases inherent in their own perception. What are these cognitive biases and how much can they affect our judgement?
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Mental Health
Chris Worfolk presents a short summary of how mental health is an area that touches all our lives, and why we need to premote a more open dialogue in society about it.
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Bad Science in the Developing World
Martin Robbins, of the Guardian's Lay Science blog, reports on dangerous pseudo-medical practices outside the Western world, from homeopaths in East Africa to flat earthers and anti-vaccine campaigns in Nigeria.
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Is There Life Out There?
Two years ago the description of the Universe was changed from billions of stars in each of billions of galaxies to billions of planets in each of billions of galaxies. The probability of finding intelligent life out there looks like a certainty and however improbable life is, it looks as if we will find it sooner rather than later. How will it change our world?
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Synthetic Biology - A Brave New World?
Imagine a world in which we could make fuels or pharmaceuticals in the same way we ferment malt to make beer. A world in which materials as strong as steel are made without industrial waste, or artificial viruses can be used to administer anti-cancer drugs without the usual side-effects of chemotherapy. Synthetic biology promises new technologies that could change our lives through the design and construction of new biological parts and devices, and the redesign of existing, natural biological organisms for new purposes.
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Nothing
Why should nothing matter? If anything matters, why should nothing matter? And yet it does, for there isn't anything, it seems, that nothing does not touch, or anything that does not touch nothing. History, philosophy, religion, science, art, literature, music - all look towards nothing at some point, stimulating questions that would otherwise not be asked.
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Social Networking
Simon Duncan presents and introduction to social networking and how it applies to non-profit organisations.
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Arms Regulation
Dr Neil Cooper from the University of Bradford discusses arms regulation.