COHA Members and Guests,

Thanks to everyone who came out to our last meeting.  Your engagement and interest with the subject matter at hand amazing.  For anyone interested in donating to the Elizabeth Fry Society’s food program I’d point out that on March 26th 9AM-noon the Second Annual Superdrive is happening  behind 110 Dunlop St. W. (beside Meineke on Toronto St.) where they are taking e-waste (anything electronic, including kids toys) to be safely recycled, food for the EFS and used clothing for the Barrie Free Clothing Centre.

Lastly, I want your input to prepare for this months meeting:

This month: Humanist Perspectives on Social Issues

For our meeting on Wednesday, March 30th we have decided to have a discussion on social issues form a Humanist perspective.  If any of you have videos, readings, or quotes pertaining to the topics below please email them to me by Earth Hour on March 26th.  I encourage anyone who wants to give a 3 minute presentation on their views of their reading to contact me.

Here are the topics we are considering.  I hope and expect some of these to be controversial with people having different opinions on the subject.

Justice System

• What should it look like?
• Non-violent crime
• Sex industry: Prohibition/Legalization
• Recreational drugs: Prohibition/Legalization
• Restorative justice

Food issues

• Ethical implication of vegetarianism
• Food as lifestyle
• Kosher and Halal

Political

• Patriotism
• Change “O Canada” to be more inclusive
• Limits of free speech

Doors open at 6:30, and the presentation starts promptly at 7 PM. As is our tradition, we will be meeting for dinner and discussion at 5 PM at Swiss Chalet on Bayfield St. Anyone is welcome to come. If you have any questions about our pre-meeting dinner, please email me and ask.

President’s Message

Of course, social issues and disaster relief are linked issues, and as you all are well aware there have been floods in Manitoba and earthquakes with aftermath in Japan.  In any case were you think something must change I am sometimes reminded of the derisive adage becoming common in atheist circles: ”Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.”  However there is real benefit to prayer, but no more than any form of mediation. While I haven’t accepted the efficacy of prayer,  this reminded me of the following quote from an article about the Blair/Hitchens debate in Toronto. Thanks to Mike Savage for sending it my way.

Ponderāre

Religion, said the Vanity Fair columnist in a debate in which he was arguing that religion is in no way a force of good, has produced its fair share of the transcendent.That there is, he said, “the sense that there is something beyond the material, or if not beyond it, not entirely consistent with it, is, I think, a very important matter of what you could call the numinist, or the transcendent or at its best, I suppose, the ecstatic. I wouldn’t trust anyone in this hall who didn’t know what I was talking about.”

~ on Christopher Hitchens

(Do you have a quote we can use in a future newsletter? Submit your quotes online.)

This Monday, March 7th (please note the date change) we will be meeting at the Barrie Public Library for a presentation by Paula King the Executive Directory of the Elizabeth Fry Society in Barrie, where she will discuss their work and some of the innovative approaches they take to justice, assistance for those in need. Doors open at 6:30, and the presentation starts promptly at 7 PM.

As is our tradition, we will be meeting for dinner and discussion at 5 PM at Swiss Chalet on Bayfield St. Anyone is welcome to come. If you have any questions about our pre-meeting dinner, please email me and ask.