Our Friday night talk by Orie Gilad was a marvelous success. On behalf of all our attendees, I'd like to say a big thank you to Orie for her informative and entertaining presentation. As a first, we had more attendees than acceptances.

We hope that all our newcomers had a great evening.

Steve Marton

The Sydney Atheists Monthly Talk

• 
  

  Friday, November 8, 2013

  6:00 PM
• Strattons Hotel

  249 Castlereagh Street, 2000, Sydney
• This Months talk will be:

  Dr Orie Gilad "Evolution through Natural Selection"

  Orie is a Conservation Ecologist who has spent over 15 years working on wildlife related projects with an ecosystem approach.  Orie received her Doctorate degree in Zoology from Texas A&M University where she remained as a lecturer while founding Balanced Ecology Inc., a non-profit organization focusing on wildlife conservation through research and public education.  Her projects involved Mountain Lions, Bighorn Sheep, Arabian Oryx and Giant Pandas as well as other species.

  She continued as a Medical Zoologist with the US Army, studying the environmental factors contributing to zoonotic diseases and developing methods to minimize and prevent spread and transmission. 

  Orie joined the University of Sydney in 2012 and is pursuing a multi-scale system approach that blends theory with practice.  Projects include detecting missing links in disease paths of vector borne diseases, identifying the threshold of soil ecosystem resiliency, environmental factors affecting wildlife populations, and investigating the impact of micro-climate changes on emerging and re-emerging diseases.   

  
  Synopsis;
  

  Charles Darwin defined evolution as “descent with modification”.  This presentation will explain the adaptations of organisms to their environment through the process of natural selection and explain the unity and diversity of life.  It will also discuss some of the overwhelming amount of scientific evidence supporting this concept.  Evolution of population and the origin of species may also be visited, time permitting.

  Please note that the dinner and talks will both be at the one venue, First Floor Strattons Hotel, 249 Castlereagh Street Sydney.

  We do request at a minimum a couple dollar donation to cover the cost of the hall hire and any other costs we incur, we are not for profit and 100% of funds will go to operating the group. Also, as the hotel is doing us a very good deal for the space, we hope that you will avail yourself of some of the fine food and drink that they offer.
  
  Dinner will be available from 6.00pm whilst the talks will begin at 7.00pm.

  You will be able to eat before or during the talks. We will also have a 15 minute intermission. This venue affords us much in the way of social possibilities as well as the talks. Please note that catering will not be available after 8.30pm. Meals are available from $10.00.

  Location: 249 Castlereagh St, Sydney NSW
  The nearest station is Museum, whilst Town Hall Station is a 5 to 10 minute walk. Cheap parking is available at 730 George Street, $9 flat rate 6 mins from the meetup hotel. If you come in the door to the furthest right of the Pub on Castlereagh Street, then up the stairs to the right, and all the way to the top, there is a large room to the left.

  
  

  Please RSVP at http://www.meetup.com/sydneyatheists/events/134131062/

Resignation and Appointments

On behalf of the Committee of Sydney Atheists, I would like to make three announcements:

1)  Murray Love has resigned as Treasurer of Sydney Atheists Incorporated. Murray has been the Treasurer for almost two years. He has also been an active committee member. Murray has been instrumental in organising the Penrith Meetups and has been a prolific attendee at many Sydney Atheist functions. We thank Murray for all of his input and wish him well.

2)  We have offered the position of Treasurer to Semih Ilhan, which Semih has accepted.

3)  We have offered the position of Assistant Treasurer / Secretary to Mike Beecham, a position that Mike has accepted.

Many will remember Semih for his talk on "From Islam to disbelief". Semih and Mike have been frequent attendees at our social and talk evenings. They will add vibrancy to Sydney Atheists and work toward our common goals. It is with great pleasure that we welcome these two gentlemen to the committee as we look to drive membership and attendance to ever greater heights. The committee seeks to grow Sydney Atheists so that we can have a greater impact in the broader community.

October Monthly talk

The next monthly talk will be on October the 11th at the Strattons.

Raphael Lataster - 'There Was No Jesus, There Is No God', Jesus mythicism, Bayesian reasoning and William Lane Craig

Religious Studies scholar, Raphael Lataster (University of Sydney), discusses various issues relating to his recently released book, ‘There Was No Jesus There Is No God’, including: - What the book is actually about - Why he wrote it - The controversy of Jesus mythicism and the thesis that formed the basis of the book - His ongoing research - Why Bayesian reasoning is awesome - Finally, a brief and humourless romp through the arguments of William Lane Craig. There will be plenty of time for questions, and some jocularity.

Copies of his book will be available for $10, and signing will be available.


Murray Love - 21st Century Humanism
Committee member of the Humanist Society of NSW, Murray Love, will talk on the value of Humanism in the 21st Century. In the last century, the label of Humanist (or Secular Humanist) seemed appropriate, but many now shed it for the clear and simple label of Atheist. Yet famous Atheists like Dawkins and Grayling and Tim Minchin retain links to the Humanist movement, and the term Humanism remains valuable for a range of lifestyle issues, social and environmental concerns, and philosophical groundings. Murray will offer ideas on how Atheists might benefit from exploring Humanism as a customisable life-stance and community of people and ideas for those going beyond 'a lack of belief in a god'.

The dinner and talks are both on the First Floor of Strattons Hotel, 249 Castlereagh Street Sydney.

Dinner will be available from 6.00pm to 8.30pm whilst the talks will begin at 7.00pm

Location: 249 Castlereagh St, Sydney NSW 

The nearest station is Museum, whilst Town Hall Station is a 5 to 10 minute walk. Cheap parking is available at 730 George Street, $9 flat rate 6 mins from the meetup hotel.

Debate - Did God create man, or did man create God?

The  Muslim Students Association and the Islamic Awareness Forum of NSW debated Sydney atheists on the 23rd of August 2013 at UNSW.
For the affirmative; Uthman Badar, Faraz
For the negative; Steve Marton, Aleks Zablotskii
Steve's book is available here; http://amzn.com/B00EK4VINK

This is the first part of the debate, the second is in the description of the first on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWVKm2JXeH0

Announcement

Carolynn Valbuenna has resigned from the position of Public Relations Officer due to other commitments. We thank Carolynn for her contributions to the committee of Sydney Atheists and to the social aspects of Sydney Atheists. She will be missed.

As a result of Carolynn's departure, there has been a shift in positions on the committee. Nick Sewell has become the new secretary, whilst Thomas Kraemer has replaced Carolynn in the position of Public Relations Officer. On behalf of everyone at Sydney Atheists we welcome and congratulate Nick and Thomas in these new roles and wish them well in their endeavours in building Sydney Atheists to become an even more successful organisation.

Youtube

Lots of new videos, and some old ones that were found have been uploaded to the Sydney atheists youtube page, click on the youtube button over there, on the right and subscribe as there are more of our previous talks coming.