A World Without Marriage: Living in a matriarchal culture
Presented by John Lombard
Monday, June 21
7:00pm to 9:00pm MDT
The Mosuo are a Chinese ethnic minority group who live high in the Himalayan Mountains, close to the border with Tibet. They are one of the last remaining matriarchal cultures in the world, where women are the head of the house, own the property, etc. They also have a very unique family structure -- there is no marriage at all, and the father role is taken by uncles, rather than the biological father. They have their own unique language, but it is a purely oral language, with no written form. And they are deeply religious, following a combination of Tibetan Buddhism and their own native animistic religion, Daba.
John Lombard is a Canadian who lived and worked in China for 25 years, and in 2004 he ended up spending a month living in a tiny Mosuo village on the side of a Himalayan mountain, experiencing and learning about the Mosuo daily life. He fell in love with the culture and the people, and in 2005 returned with a proposal to start a non-profit organization to help them in areas such as cultural preservation, education, and medical care. Over the years, John has built very deep ties in the Mosuo community, and in this presentation will both explain the Mosuo's very unique culture, as well as share stories of his own experiences there.
An Interview With
Rob Palmer
Wednesday, May 5
7:00pm to 9:00pm MDT
Rob Palmer is a volunteer for Recovering From Religion (RfR) involved with many aspects of peer support. He will join us to discuss why RfR’s services are so important, and share details of what RfR does to meet the needs of the community.
Rob Palmer is a retired aerospace engineer who now works for Recovering from Religion, filling a variety of roles. He is a Helpline Volunteer, Online Community Channel Moderator, a Social Host (for the weekly community Zoom sessions featuring professional presentations to the RfR community), and a member of the RfR Ambassador Program, charged with publicizing the organization. Rob is also a skeptical activist, as he is a member of the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project, and he is a columnist for the Skeptical Inquirer (‘The Magazine of Science and Reason’), writing as ‘The Well-Known Skeptic.’
Skeptical Inquirer column: https://skepticalinquirer.org/authors/rob-palmer
Follow Rob on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/TWKSkeptic.
Train Wreck Bible Verses that Sabotage Christianity
With David Madison
Tuesday April 27
7:00 pm to 9:00 pm MDT
To quote Mark Twain, "The best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible." No one is better at pointing out the passages in the bible that verify Mark Twain’s claim than our speaker, David Madison. David grew up in northern Indiana, in a Methodist home. At a young age, he developed a keen interest in studying the bible. This interest eventually took him to seminary and the ministry and all the way to a PhD in Biblical Studies. Finally, however, his doubts overcame his beliefs, and he became an atheist. After leaving the church, he entered the business world, but he never lost his interest in the scriptures. Now, however, he looks at them with a different view, which led to his first book, Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: A Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows You Why You Should Ditch the Faith. David also has a YouTube channel, and contributes to the blog, Debunking Christianity. Now retired, but still busy, David is happily ensconced in New York with his husband, David.
Want to find spiritual enlightenment? Want to learn how to put your chakras back in balance? Want to learn how to synchronize your brainwaves to healing frequencies? Tune in Monday to learn none of these things! Instead tune in to learn about the latest scientific findings and a breakdown of popular opinion from skeptic hard-hitters such as Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins and Robert Sapolsky — regarding meditation.
Monday, March 15, 2021
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM MDT
Facilitated Communication:
Holding on to (False) Hope
With Janyce Boynton, M.Ed., B.S.
Facilitated Communication (FC) is a technique used on people with severe communication difficulties as an alternative to valid Augmentative and Alternative Communication methods.
Janyce is an artist, educator, and advocate for evidence-based practices in the field of communication sciences and disorders. As a speech/language clinician in the early 1990s, she became involved with facilitated communication. Her story, first as believer, then as critic, is well-documented and was featured on Frontline's “Prisoners of Silence”.
Monday, March 1, 2021
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Mountain Standard Time
Animal Agriculture and the Environment
Join Mike Robinson for his talk: A Skeptical Examination of Animal Agriculture and the Environment.
Description: Vegans argue that animal agriculture is bad for the environment but others argue that that done properly, not only can animal agriculture be sustainable but can actually be good for the environment. This presentation will take a skeptical look at both sides in an attempt to find the truth. If nothing else it is my hope, to provide plenty of food for thought.
Adventures of an Australian Paranormal Investigator
Ghosts, Psychics and Mysterious Footprints.
Richard Saunders, who lived in Tribune, Saskatchewan from 1968-1969, is best known as an international expert on skepticism, a documentary filmmaker and one of the stars of the top rating Australian paranormal TV show, “The One: The Search for Australia's Most Gifted Psychic”. He is a life member of Australian Skeptics Inc., a Fellow of the Center for Inquiry and was part of the JREF $1,000,000 prize committee. Richard is the producer and host of “The Skeptic Zone” podcast, now in its 12th year, with thousands of listeners worldwide. An actor, author and origami expert with around twenty books and a DVD published, he also creates origami jewelry and invented ‘Origami Pigasus’ for James Randi. Richard is a founding member of the ‘Mystery Investigators’ live science show for schools now in its 16th year.
Monday, February 8, 2021
7to9 pm
Mountain Time
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Join us for our monthly webinars.
Street Epistemology
Easing the Tough and the Tricky - Learning what the toughest and trickiest parts of Street Epistemology are and how to distinguish SE from debate.
with
Dali Sadhana
Dali began his research into Street Epistemology in 2014 and through time found Anthony Magnabosco’s practical implementation to be a useful method.
In 2019 Dali’s serious conversations led him to creating two public table events a week, until March 2020 when Covid 19 moved him to online practice.
Soon Dali was doing regular public training/demonstration events on Discord and Youtube with a production team of up to a dozen.
Dali lives a lot of each week on a solar electric boat, with chickens.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
7 to 9 pm
Mountain Time
The Tourette OCD Alberta Network
Our mission is to improve access to care for people with Tourette Syndrome and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder province wide.
Find us at https://cumming.ucalgary.ca/resource/tourette-ocd/home
The Myths and Stereotypes of Tourette Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Join Adrienne Hill, a mother of two sons diagnosed with TS and OCD and presenter for The Tourette OCD Alberta Network for this talk exploring what these complex disorders truly look like. Be sure to bring paper and pencil to participate in a short exercise for a glimpse into the world of living with both these disorders.
Monday, December 7, 2020
7:00 to 9:00pm
Recording redo on Friday, December 18, 2020
11:00 am to 1:00 pm
All welcome!
(Mountain Time)
Disentangling Disinformation
its impact on science and society
Presented by Cami Ryan, PhD
The ubiquity of social media has created both opportunities and challenges for science and societies. For product brands, ideas, or campaigns to gain traction on social media platforms, they need to capture attention. This is often accomplished by creating and disseminating compelling information - even disinformation - on these platforms. Strategies that drive this attention economy are often not visible. How disinformation is created, shared, and monetized is illustrated and presented here through a case study on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Preliminary results suggest that a small group of alternative health and pro-conspiracy sites received more total engagements on social media than sites commonly regarded as media outlets on the topic of GMOs. These sites also promulgate disinformation about other issues: vaccines, COVID-19, food borne illnesses, autism, etc. In our brave new mass information world, getting attention derives value for those that benefit. Issues will always come and go but disinformation will continue on. This presentation presents outcomes of published research plus provides a platform for discussion around how disinformation affects science and societies in negative ways.
Monday, November 9, 2020
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM MST
Link will be posted here 1 hour before the event or you can sign up on Meetup
Confessions of a Gay Priest
Join us as we welcome Tom Rastrelli whose book, Confessions of a Gay Priest: A Memoir of Sex, Love, Abuse, and Scandal in the Catholic Seminary, was recently released. Tom suffered abuse not only by his mentor at the Catholic Seminary but also by his pediatrician as a young teenager. Years later, after Tom had left his faith, he became a founding member of The Clergy Project, an online organization created to provide support for religious leaders who have lost their faith. Tom will share with us, his journey, and passages from his book.
Thursday, October 29, 2020
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM MDT
Pascal's Wager
According to Pascal, if you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that god exists.
Let’s examine this idea. What is Pascal’s Wager?
What would you expect to see if god were true?
Monday, October 19, 2020
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM MDT
The Case Against the Separate School System
September 23, 2020
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Luke Fevin will lead us in a discussion of the separate school system, it's origins, the issues of challenging this system, and next steps.
Perspectives on Death and Dying
Janet Arnold, MSc, RWS, CT will present perspectives from different cultures on the meaning of death and dying.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM MDT
Procrastination
Have you been meaning to learn more about procrastination but haven't gotten around to it yet? Join us for a look at this habit that plagues us all!
Thursday, July 23, 2020
7:30 PM to 9:30 PM MDT
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to a Wikipedia Edit
Wednesday, June 24, 2020
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM MDT
Join Adrienne Hill for her journey to becoming a Guerilla Skepticism on Wikipedia editor. She will share the strange and weird discoveries made while researching for articles, along with stories from some of the amazing people she has met along the way since joining the project.