On Wednesday, November 30th at 7PM Dr. Chris DiCarlo will be giving a presentation at the Rowntree Theatre at Georgian College. This award winning presenter will talk to us about how to ask the right questions and how to spot bad answers. Dr. DiCarlo will tell us about the important big five questions: What can I know? Why am I here? What am I? How should I behave? What is to come of me?

The event is free for members. The public is welcome to come with a food donation for the Grocery Assist Program or pay a $5 charge

• Location: Georgian College, Rowntree Theatre in the Canadian Automotive Building (H)
• Parking: $2 for parking in parking lot 11 (don’t park at a meter, park in lot 11)
• Cost: $5 for non members OR a food donation for the Grocery Assist Program will be collected

Join the Facebook Event for this meeting.

More information below:

On Wednesday, November 30th at 7PM Dr. Chris DiCarlo will be giving a presentation at the Rowntree Theatre at Georgian College. This award winning presenter will talk to us about how to ask the right questions and how to spot bad answers. Dr. DiCarlo will tell us about the important big five questions: What can I know? Why am I here? What am I? How should I behave? What is to come of me?

This dovetails beautifully with last January’s video presentation of Sam Harris’ book “The Moral Landscape.” Ethics, free will, and critical thinking are corner stones of  Dr. DiCarlo’s lively and engaging presentation. His book, “How To Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass” will be on sale. A must have guide for all budding critical thinkers.

Many new members and guests to the Central Ontario Humanists don’t remember the last time Chris DiCarlo came by to entertain and inform us. When speaking to some members, one said he had Dr. DiCarlo as a professor and that he was a great speaker and teacher. I soon got word that another person in that conversation went home and looked him up on YouTube. She immediately said she understands why Chris DiCarlo is held in such high regard by humanists when she saw a video of him debating the existence of God with William Lane Craig. It’s easy to see why he was Humanist Canada’s 2008 Humanist of the Year.

My fellow skeptics,

This month we have yet another great presentation: Dr. Chris DiCarlo will talk to us about the importance of asking questions, and which ones you should ask to live a meaningful, fully developed life. On Wednesday November 30th we will meet at Georgian College’s Rowntree Theatre.

Also, next month, on December 11th is our AGM/Solstice party. We are looking for you to help out with our executive committee. We train on the job, and the hours are light and fun.

Read below for more information on all this and more.

This month: Dr. Chris DiCarlo

• Location: Georgian College, Rowntree Theatre in the Canadian Automotive Building (H)
• Parking: $2 for parking in parking lot 11 (don’t park at a meter, park in lot 11)
• Cost: $5 for non members OR a food donation for the Grocery Assist Program will be collected

We are pleased to present last month’s presentation by Dr. Monika Havelka on the biology of aging:

You can also view her previous presentations:

• The Biology of Sex (2010)
• Evo-Devo (2009)

Good day everyone,

I’m pleased to announce that this month’s meeting will feature Chris DiCarlo as our guest speaker. We will be meeting at Georgian College’s Rowntree Theatre on Wednesday the 30th for this event. More details to follow but to wet your appitite here are a few details about Chris DiCarlo if you have not had the pleasure of seeing him speak before:

Voted TV Ontario’s Big Ideas Best Lecturer and Canadian Humanist of the Year by Humanist Canada in 2008, Dr. DiCarlo presents highly insightful and lively discussions. He is a past Visiting Research Scholar at Harvard University and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

His new book, How to Become a Really Good Pain in the Ass is an incisive, engaging, and entertaining guide to critical thinking and its benefits. The overall purpose of this book is to provide readers with tools which will allow them to question beliefs and assumptions held by those who claim to know what they’re talking about. A really good pain in the ass is someone who is empowered with the ability to spot faulty reasoning and, by asking the right sorts of questions, hold people accountable not only for what they believe but how they behave. This book revolves around asking and answering five very important questions.

They are so important they are called the Big Five. They are:

1. What can I know?
2. Why am I here?
3. What am I?
4. How should I behave?
5. What is to come of me?

The way you answer these questions can tell you a lot about yourself. And if you ask others, their answers will tell you a good deal about them, how they think, and what they value. Of course, if you persist in asking these questions, others may think you’ve become a pain in the ass. But that’s not such a bad thing according to Dr. DiCarlo because it means you’ve learned to think critically.

This witty and incisive guide to critical thinking provides you with the tools to allow you to question beliefs and assumptions held by those who claim to know what they’re talking about – from politicians and lawyers to bankers, doctors, the divinely inspired, and even your boss. But be aware that many people do not like having their views and beliefs questioned and challenged. As a result, being a really good pain in the ass can be lonely; it can lose you friends, promotions, jobs, and marriages; it can get you hurt, beaten up, and sometimes even killed.

Copies of his book will be on sale at the Georgian College event. I will see you there!