Central Ontario Humanist Association » 2009 Presentations

Evo-Devo by Dr. Monika Havelka

admin — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:55:44 +0000

This month the Central Ontario Humanist Association was pleased to have biology professor Dr. Monika Havelka give us a presentation on Evo-Devo. In this presentation she explains how small changes in the HOX genes that control development can lead to big changes in how an animal looks.

This video is now posted online and you can watch it right here:

You can download the slides in PDF format.

News Flash!

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:37:01 +0000

I just received an email from our featured speaker, Dr. Monika Havelka, saying that her daughter has contracted H1N1 flu, and Monika thinks she is coming down with it too. So, … we will reschedule her visit to a later meeting. Tomorrow we will meet as planned, at 7pm the Barrie Native Friendship Centre (175 Bayfield). In lieu of Dr. Havelka, we will present:

Saturday Night Live comic actor Julia Sweeney’s video: Letting Go of God
When two young Mormon missionaries knock on her door one day, it touches off Julia’s “quest for something I could really believe in” — which turns out to be no God at all. In the process she explores love, cancer, family and faith.

For those inclined to break bread before the meeting, see you as usual at 5pm at the Swiss Chalet, 397 Bayfield.

Sorry about the late notice. And please, … stay healthy or stay home!

Evo-Devo: Endless Forms Most Beautiful

admin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:11:38 +0000

The Central Ontario Humanist Association’s Wednesday, October 28th, meeting will feature Dr. Monika Havelka giving her extraordinary presentation on the emerging biological specialty of “evo-devo” — the application of evolutionary theory to the development of all life forms, including us of course. We will see you at the Barrie Native Friendship Centre, 175 Bayfield St. Doors open at 6:30pm. Our usual pre-meeting dinner will be at the Swiss Chalet, 397 Bayfield, 5:00pm.

COHA October Newsletter

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:29:43 +0000

Hello Everyone,

A record 38 people attended our September meeting. And two first timers wanted to become members on the spot. Momentum is building!

Thanks to fellow member Klaus Kuch, we learned about behaviorism in everyday life.

This was our first experience in the Barrie Native Friendship Centre (175 Bayfield Street, south of #400). We were supposed to meet in their Board Room, but a very heavy roll of carpet took up so much room that at the last minute we decided to cram into a smaller room. And it was crammed. As October’s meeting could enjoy an even larger turnout, I’ve asked the Centre to move or dispose of the carpet.

Why a larger turnout? Last January a snow storm caused most of us to miss Dr. Monika Havelka’s extraordinary slide presentation. Since 2009 is Darwin’s 200th birthday, it is entirely appropriate for us to invite TVO’s twice nominated best lecturer back to tell those who missed her the first time about the exciting discoveries coming from the emerging biological specialty of “evo-devo” — the application of evolutionary theory to the development of all life forms, including us of course. Sooo, by popular demand,… I am pleased to announce she will be treating us to a repeat performance at our October 28 meeting (this time the weather gods will cooperate). There will be ample time for questions, and I intend to ask her about the even newer field of epigenetics.

I expect many non-members, as Barrieites, scientists and non-scientists alike, should have another chance to enjoy it. To this end, I’ve attached a publicity poster of this event. Please post a copy on your favorite grocery store’s bulletin board or other places.

In other news, COHA is now officially a non-profit corporation. This should enable us to meet at the Barrie Public Library during 2010.

More potentially good news: In a recent revision of their affiliation rules, it appears that the Humanist Association of Canada will now permit us to issue tax receipts. We are in the process of confirming this revision.

Warm regards,
Paul
President, Central Ontario Humanists Association

Behaviorism and Daily Life

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:52:54 +0000

UPDATE: Download the presentation below!

Dr. Klaus Kuch, retired Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto, and member of COHA, will be our September 30 speaker. Dr. Kuch has practiced and taught behavior therapy for many years and has published in international medical journals and textbooks. He will treat us to slides and a talk on:

BEHAVIORISM AND DAILY LIFE.
Subtle cues, rewards and punishments shape many of our hopes and fears, often without awareness. We may have less control over ourselves than we might wish. Behaviorism, when applied to daily life, can show us how to study our behavior in this context, objectively and without speculation.

He will also demonstrate some of the theory and methods of behavioral assessment, concerning habits, fears and phobias. I expect this talk to be extremely interesting for all Humanists, so please plan to meet us at the Barrie Native Friendship Centre, 175 Bayfield St. Doors open at 6:30pm. Our usual pre-meeting dinner will be at the Swiss Chalet, 397 Bayfield, 5:00pm.

Download the presentation:

Slides used in the presentation
- Behaviourism slides in PowerPoint format
- Behaviourism slides in PDF format
Download an audio recording of the presentation
- Behaviourism audio in MP3 format
- Behaviourism audio in OGG format

Reinventing the Sacred

admin — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:02:03 +0000

The May 27 meeting is coming up soon — Zehrs Community Room, Big Bay Point Rd. and #11 at 7pm. Coffee tea and juice will be available for donations of $2 to cover costs.

And of course those who would like to meet that day for dinner at our usual Swiss Chalet — 85 Barrie View Drive — see you there at 5pm.

This month’s topic: Reinventing the Sacred

I will critically review the important and deeply provocative ideas contained in scientist-philosopher Stewart Kauffman’s latest book – Reinventing the Sacred. Dr. Kauffman was the first to mathematically show how the origin and evolution of life critically depends on nature’s myriad self-organizing processes. Now he convincingly demonstrates that the universe possesses a “ceaseless creativity” from which emerge such stunningly diverse phenomena as the biosphere, culture, economics, self-awareness, moral principles, and much much more. He also shows why science will never be able to predict the detailed unfolding of these phenomena. This unpredictable, stupendous creativity is the true source of mystery, and of the sacred. Indeed, Prof. Kauffman argues that it is a natural notion of God worthy of superseding all others. Food for secular humanist rumination, indeed!

Bonus: I will also summarize my discussions with Stewart in which we agree to disagree about the nature of mind. Copies of Reinventing the Sacred will be available for a donation.

Download the audio for the May edition of this presentation: MP3

Download the slides for the November edition of this presentation: PPT

Paul
President, COHA

Exercise in Consciousness Raising

admin — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:13:23 +0000

Are there any lessons a Western humanist might learn from experiencing other cultures in other countries around the world? Tom Cooke thinks so. Maybe you do to? Tom, past president of the Central Ontario Humanist Association, has recently returned from Thailand. On Wednesday, April 29 at the COHA meeting he will present a humanist perspective on Thai culture, politics and religion. His presentation will include a slide show.

Are there are better ways to appreciate and celebrate life than the Western world would have us believe?

Others who have also had their eyes opened and minds broadened by their world travels are encouraged to comment on Tom’s observations and to contribute insights from their own experiences.

We are back from winter vacations and anxious to see you again at the April 29 meeting — Zehrs Community Room, Big Bay Point Rd. and #11 at 7pm. Coffee will be available for donations of $2. Admission is free for your first three visits.

And of course those who would like to meet that day for dinner at our usual Swiss Chalet — 85 Barrie View Drive — see you there at 5pm.

Atheist Bus Ads

admin — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:21:57 +0000

On Wednesday the 25th the Central Ontario Humanist Association will be discussing the atheist bus ad phenomena that is sweeping the world. COHA meets on the last Wednesday of the month at 7PM in the Community Room on the second floor of Zehrs at Big Bay Point Road and Yonge Street. Admission is free and everyone is welcome.

Darwin: Ethics & God

admin — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 12:56:45 +0000

Atheist? Agnostic? Curious?

Join the Central Ontario Humanist Association on Wednesday, February 25 at 7PM.
In honour of Darwin’s bicentenary Dr. Vincent di Norcia will present “Darwin: Ethics & God”. We meet in the Community Room on the second floor of Zehrs at Big Bay Point Road and Yonge Street. Admission is free for anyone interested.

Visit http://www.cohumanists.ca/ for details.

On Wednesday, February 25 we are celebrating the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth in 1809, a man who is on any account one of greatest intellectual and scientific minds since Newton. The aim of my talk will be to celebrate Darwin’s epochal scientific achievement, by describing his amazingly wide-ranging mind, his extraordinarily observant and meticulous scientific work in botany and zoology, his equally impressive achievement in developing the scientifically and socially revolutionary notion of the origin and evolution of species through natural selection, his still unacknowledged and equally innovative view of the intelligence and ethics, in animals as well as humans, and, last but not least, a Darwinian view of religion and God. Throughout I wish to communicate to everyone the grandeur and beauty of Darwin’s scientific achievement in ethics as well as evolution.

Dr. Vincent di Norcia provided us with some notes from his lecture. You can read them here:

DARWIN on ETHICS

Vincent di Norcia PhD

Author, Hard like Water – Ethics in Business

Ethics, Sustainability and Communications Consulting

Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Sudbury

vdn@sympatico.ca / www.dinorcia.net

It seems to me highly probable–namely, that any animal whatever, endowed with well-marked social instincts, would inevitably acquire a moral sense or conscience, as soon as its intellectual powers become …nearly as well developed, as in man.

Charles Darwin. The Descent of Man. 1871.

Today we celebrate the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth in 1809, a man who is on any account one of greatest scientists since Newton. In this talk I wish to describe Darwin’s wide-ranging mind, his extraordinarily observant and meticulous scientific work in geology, botany, and biology, and his still revolutionary hypothesis about ‘the moral sense.’ Darwin is deservedly renown for his epochal achievement in developing the revolutionary notion of the origin and evolution of species through natural selection and environmental adaptation (which, he showed, is not explicable by sexual selection). It rests on two key probabilities, that of the original emergence of a species and of its ultimate survival, both of which directly reflect its fitness to its environmental habitat. The work of both Mendel and now Watson and Crick have shown that genes are the underlying biological mechanism in evolution, for which Darwin himself was searching.

What still is less noticed is that survival, wellbeing and reproduction are natural values evident in the evolutionary variation and adaptation of species to their environments, or natural selection. They would appear to constitute, many think, a natural foundation for morality. This insight underlies Darwin’s equally revolutionary hypothesis about the evolutionary emergence of the moral sense. It is, he felt, ‘aboriginally derived’ from ‘social instincts’ of humans and other intelligent animals, and is ‘fundamentally identical’ to them, especially primates, as indicated in the above quotation. The main value driving the moral sense, he added, is the good of the community, or the utilitarian notion of the greatest happiness of the greatest number (probably based on his reading of J. S. Mill). Also, the moral sense was reinforced by the need to ensure, and enforce social peace in the community. Thus, he wrote, ‘social virtues’ are more important than self-regarding virtues. A major problem he posed was how groups extended their moral code beyond their tribe and kin. In reply he suggested that Golden Rule was key, in effect recognizing other intelligent animals as similar to oneself.

While neuroscience and socio-biology and other work has proven Darwin right about the instinctual basis of our social being, and our intellectual powers or ‘multiple intelligences’, Darwin’s social view of ethics represents an early stage in developing a scientific understanding of ethics. It has been independently supported by Kropotkin’s work on cooperation in evolution, Piaget’s findings on cooperation in early childhood moral development, the multiple neural correlates of both social and moral intelligence as shown by Damasio, Casebeer and others, the fundamental importance of communication and language, of mutually beneficial exchange and trade, as shown by Boulding and Ridley, and, of course the work of many others. Largely unnoticed however is To the extent to which Darwin’s and their work has totally undermined mainstream moral philosophy and psychology (as found in say, Kant and Kohlberg), which still assumes that morality is primarily a matter of individual values, feelings, choices, reasoning, and other subjective mental operations. A variety of questions remain, concerning the complex interconnections between morality and social life and individual psychology, not to forget socio-biology and neuroethics. Nothing in Darwin’s work proves, or disproves, the existence of gods. Darwin’s ethics however still is largely ignored or ignorantly opposed in mainstream moral theory—whose abhorrence of his scientific approach to ethics now approaches ideological, if not implicitly creationistic, levels of self-delusion.

But the fact clearly remains that in both the matters of natural history and ethics, Charles Darwin’s work to this day represents a ground-breaking intellectual and scientific achievement. What he wrote on natural selection at the end of the Origin of Species, to my mind can also be said about his view of ethics in the Descent of Man:

There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers. Whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed laws of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and still are being evolved.

RELEVANT READINGS

DARWIN’S WORKS

The Voyage of Beagle. 1839.

The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs. 1842

*On The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. 1859 (Washington Square Press, NYC 1970)

The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication. 1868

*The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex. 1871

*The Expression of the Emotions in Humans and Animals. 1875

The Power of Movement in Plants\. 1875, revised 1880

The Different forms of Flowers on Plants of the same species 1876, revised 1877

The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms. 1881

WORKS ON ETHICS & RELATED SUBJECTS

Janet Browne. 1995. Charles Darwin. 2 vols.

William Casebeer. 2003. Natural Ethical Facts.

Antonio Damasio. 1994. Descartes’ Error.

Richard Dawkins. 1986. The Selfish Gene. & 1992. The Blind Watchmaker.

Daniel Dennett. 1995. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea.

Frans De Waal. 1996. Good Natured-the Origins of Right & Wrong in Animals.

Theodosius Dobzhansky. 1963. Evolution, Genetics and Man. 1962. Mankind Evolving.

Vincent di Norcia. 2009. Darwin on Moral Intelligence. Philosophy Now. Jan.-Feb.

Vincent di Norcia. 1998. Hard Like Water – Ethics In Business.

Howard Gardner. 2006. Multiple Intelligences – New Horizons.

Richard Leakey. 1992. Origins Reconsidered.

James Lovelock. 1979. Gaia.

Mary Midgley. 1994. The Ethical Primate.

Matt Ridley. 1997. The Origin of Virtue.

Michael Ruse. 1986. Taking Darwin Seriously.

Niall Shanks. 2006. God, the Devil, and Darwin.

Michael Shermer. 2004. The Science of Good and Evil.

George G. Simpson. 1949. This View of Life.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. 1964. The Phenomenon of Man.

Robert S. Trivers. 2002. Natural Selection and Social Theory: Selected Papers.

Edumund O. Wilson. 1992. The Diversity of Life. 2000. Socio-Biology – The New Synthesis. & 1978. On Human Nature.

Robert Wright. 1995. The Moral Animal.

Darwin’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful

admin — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:18:36 +0000

To Commemorate the 200th Anniversary of Charles Darwin’s Birth Dr. Monika Havelka will present about the leading edge of modern biology: Evo-Devo: The Amazing Story of How Darwin’s “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” Arose

To commemorate Darwin Day Dr. Havelka will talk about the new science of evo-devo: Biologists have long sought to understand the processes that give rise to the dazzling diversity of life forms found in nature. She will discuss some revolutionary ideas about the diversity of life and the “genetic toolkit” common to all animals, including us.

To find out some more, download these one page PDFs:

Dr. Monika Havelka was kind enough to turn her slides in to a PDF for us to view. Download the slides for “Darwin’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful” (PDF).
Dr. Havelka’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful Poster (PDF).
Dr. Havelka’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful Press Release (PDF).

The Central Ontario Humanist Association meets on the last Wednesday of the month at 7PM in the Community Room on the second floor of Zehrs at Big Bay Point Road and Yonge Street. Admission to this event is $4 for non-members and free for members and students with valid ID. Seating is limited to 60 so come early.