Southampton Atheist Soc

Christians In Science are holding a talk tomorrow in the Physics Building LTA at 7:30pm. The talk is called:

“Can we explain all our behaviour & thoughts in terms of the biology & chemistry of the brain? What are free will & consciousness and do these leave any room for God?”

One local group of the BHA, who meet in Winchester, have seen great success recently. You can read a bit about their success on Aimee Daniells’, one of their co-founders, blog.

Unfortunately exam period is upon us. We will not be having our normal meetings, but for those still craving their weekly dose of reason and good conversation, we will be meeting in the Pub this Monday. We will be going to the Stag’s Head at 8pm (note the hour later start time), so if you’re bored revising please come and join us. Last week we didn’t finish talking about all the topics, so we will be looking at the article on after-birth abortion that we didn’t get too. Hope to see you there!

Hello all,

This week we’re going to the Crown to discuss interesting things. These include:

• The heathens manifesto, do we need to create as a group an ‘official ideal’  or set of things to aim for? : http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/mar/25/atheists-please-read-heathen-manifesto
• Analytical thinking and religious belief, how analytical thinking undermines reliance on intuition and religious belief in particular. : https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=losing-your-religion-analytic-thinking-can-undermine-belief
• The evidence for the existence of Jesus, how strong is the case for his case (following our Case for Christ book night)? http://stephenlaw.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/published-in-faith-and-philosophy-2011.html
• After birth ‘abortion,’ read the article before you pass judgement. Does leaving the womb immediately confer onto you rights that you didn’t before? What are the requirements to be ‘human’ in terms of legal rights? : http://jme.bmj.com/content/early/2012/03/01/medethics-2011-100411.full

We’re hoping to generate good discussion, and with luck get people to consider issues important issues that they might not have been exposed to otherwise.

This is also our last official event this year (don’t worry guys it’ll be OK!) before we stop for exams and revision. There will be informal meetings at the Stags for the last few weeks afterwards if people want to be sociable or just take a break from work. Emails will be sent out as normal. The meeting starts at 7pm. We will be leaving the usual Nuffield LTB at 6:45pm sharp if you are unsure of your way to the Pub.

We hope to see you Monday!

This Monday we have organised for some members of the local Unitarian Church to come and give us a talk, which will be followed by a Q&A session. This will follow the same style as previous Alternative Views nights, and we’re expecting it to be an interesting talk that should generate good discussion. The meeting will be at 7pm in the Nuffield Building Lecture Theatre B, followed by drinks in a nearby pub.

Also, on next Tuesday we’ve been invited to a debate between Dr Stephen Hunt and Dr Timothy Hinks (Southampton) on the topic of “The evidence for and against the resurrection of Jesus”. The debate is being held in the General Hospital at 1pm, although we don’t know which specific room, further details will go out when I receive them

We hope to see you next week!