Tickets on sale NOW: http://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/

2.00pm Wednesday 28th March

Nigel Warburton: LITTLE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

Nigel Warburton makes difficult philosophical concepts easy with his Little History of Philosophy. The senior lecturer in philosophy at the Open University follows humanity’s quest for answers to some of the big questions: what is reality? and how should I live? Warburton, author of several popular introductions to philosophy, takes a chronological look at key moments in the history of Western thought from the execution of Socrates to the modern animal rights movement. Warburton presents more than a history of ideas, he invites the reader to think for himself.

12.00 noon Thursday 29th March

David Aaronavitch: CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Our age is obsessed by the idea of conspiracy. We see it everywhere – from Pearl Harbour to 9/11, from the assassination of Kennedy to the death of Diana.  David Aaronovitch’s VOODOO HISTORIES entertainingly demolishes the absurd and sinister conspiracy theories of the last 100 years. Aaronovitch reveals why people are so ready to believe in them and the dangers of this credulity. Meticulous in its research, forensic in its reasoning, hilarious in its debunking, this book will arm anyone who has found themselves at the wrong end of a conversation about moon landings or the twin towers. His book explodes the conspiracy theories surrounding:

- the Protocols of the Elders of Zion
-Pearl Harbour
-The deaths of Kennedy, Monroe and Princess Diana
-“Pseudohistory” such as the Holy Blood, Holy Grail
-9/11 Truth Movement
-The moon landings

David Aaronovitch is a writer, broadcaster and commentator on culture, international affairs, politics and the media.

12.00 noon Saturday 24^th March

Prof Steve Jones: CREATIONISM AND EVOLUTION

Many biologists are worried by a recent and unexpected return of an argument based on belief by the certainty, untestable and unsupported by evidence, that life did not evolve but appeared by supernatural means. Worldwide, more people believe in creationism than in evolution. Why do no biologists agree? Steve Jones will talk about what evolution is, about new evidence that men and chimps are close relatives and about how we are, nevertheless, unique and why creationism does more harm to religion than it does to science.

Steve Jones won the Aventis Prize for Science Books (then known as the Rhone-Poulenc Prize) in 1994 for ‘The Language of the Genes’. In 1997 he was awarded the Royal Society’s Michael Faraday Prize – the UK’s foremost award for communicating science to the public.

10.00am Thursday 29^th March

Stephen Law: BELIEVING BULLSHIT

Nutty, and sometimes dangerous, forms of religious beliefs are on the rise around the world. We need to be on our guard.

The central aim of Stephen Law’s latest book is to immunize readers against the wiles of many cultists, creationists, “New Age” faddists, self-styled gurus, psychics and healers and other purveyors of snake oil by providing a “How to…” pocket guide to the tricks of the trade. By such means, an impregnable fortress can be constructed around a set of beliefs, rendering it immune to any sort of rational criticism – an intellectual black hole. Law flags up eight main mechanisms involved in producing such psychological fly-traps and reveals how they succeed in imprisoning minds.

Stephen Law is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London and Provost of Centre for Inquiry UK. He has written several popular introductions to philosophy including The Philosophy Gym (Headline) and The Philosophy Files (Orion, for children). His latest book is Believing Bullshit (Prometheus).

BEYOND THE VEIL – A CLOSER LOOK AT SPIRITS, MEDIUMS AND GHOSTS

Saturday 14^th January 2012

Presented by CFI UK and The Ethical Society

Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL

Bookshop by Newham Bookshop

TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE.

General: £10 general public

Members and students: £8 BHA, AHS and SPES members and students with valid ID

Free to members of the Centre for Inquiry UK.

***Special offer*** Tickets to this event and the Blasphemy! event on the 28^th January £16 general, £12 members and students):Members and student ticket offer and General public ticket offer.

10.30am REGISTRATION

11.00 CHRIS FRENCH

Spirits on the brain: Insights from psychology and neuroscience

Chris French is a Professor of Psychology and Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist Association and former editor of the Skeptic.

Belief in spirits can be found in all human societies and a substantial proportion of the population claim to have had direct contact with a spiritual realm beyond ordinary experience. This talk presents an overview of scientific research into sleep paralysis, near-death/out-of-body experiences and reincarnation claims in support of the claim that such topics can be understood without recourse to paranormal explanations.

12.00 HAYLEY STEPHENS

‘Is there anybody there?’

A ghost hunter that doesn’t hunt for ghosts, Hayley Stevens has been researching paranormal reports since 2005. She is the co-host of the Righteous Indignation Podcast, blogs at ‘Hayley is a Ghost’, occasionally writes for numerous publications, and has spoken internationally about ghosts and critical thinking.

As someone who used to actively hunt for proof that ghosts existed, Hayley has first hand experience with the weird and scary lengths that ghost hunters will go to, to contact the dead and prove they exist in spirit form. ‘Is there anybody there?’ will give insight into the modern world of ghost hunting where a scientific approach is more likely to be an updated version of seance parlour antics – from the evolution of table tipping, to the revolution of the Ghost busting Smart phone apps.

1.00-1.30 LUNCH BREAK

1.30 PAUL ZENON

Mediums at Large

Paul has been a professional trickster for almost thirty years during that period has appeared countless times as performer, presenter and pundit on numerous TV shows across many genres. As someone who spent a brief period (in his admittedly misguided youth) as a fortune-teller and ‘psychic’, and as a lifelong student of cons, scams and swindles, he is well qualified to talk about the current crop of mediums and the media bias towards their promotion. He would like to take the precaution of prefacing his entire talk with the word ‘allegedly’.

A mild rant about TV mediums and the similarity to their predecessors of a century ago.

2.00 RICHARD WISEMAN

Parnormality

Richard Wiseman is the Professor for the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. He has been active in the skeptical movement for many a year, does Twitter stuff, has recently written ‘Paranormality: Why we see what isn’t there’, and likes dogs.

Do ghosts really exist?  What actually happens at seances?  How do you go about testing mediums?  Why do these sorts of paragraphs often involve a long list of questions?  All of this and more will be revealed in an exciting talk that will dig deep into the psychology of belief. Free packet of peanuts for the best question.

3.00 IAN ROWLAND

You Are The Magic

Ian Rowland is a writer and entertainer with an interest in various aspects of how the mind works or sometimes doesn’t. He taught FBI agents how to be persuasive, and taught Derren Brown how to read fortunes. In America, in front of 10 million TV viewers, he proved that he could talk to dead people – or at least fake it well enough to convince complete strangers. He knows an awful lot about cold reading (look it up), but tries not to drone on about it at parties. He is good at drinking tea and waiting for interesting invitations to come his way. Ian will perform a few miracles, just because he can and it’s fun, while explaining the truth about psychic powers, miraculous gifts and the afterlife. He will also demonstrate that you are just a little bit more magical and miraculous than you may realise.

4.00 END

CONWAY HALL. 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn London WC1R 4RL

Introduced by Dr Stephen Law of Heythrop College, University of London and Editor of Think (Royal Institute Philosophy) Provost of Centre for Inquiry UK.

Presented by CFI UK and The Ethical Society.

This event focuses on the criminalization of religious hatred, defamation, and insult under European human rights, and how this functions as a de facto blasphemy law.

Tickets on sale here.

General: £10 general public

Members and students: £8 BHA, AHS and SPES members and students with valid ID

Free to members of the Centre for Inquiry UK.

***Special offer*** Joint tickets to this event and the Beyond the Veil event on the 14^th January: £16 general public and £12 members and student ticket offer.

PROGRAMME

10.30am REGISTRATION

11.00AM Kenan Malik

Beyond the sacred

Kenan writes: The idea of blasphemy is closely linked to the concept of the sacred. Detachment from the sacred, the former Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor claimed at the installation ceremony for his successor, has been responsible for war and terror, sin and evil. In this view the acceptance of the sacred is  indispensable for the creation of a moral framework and for the injection of meaning and purpose into life.

I want to deconstruct the concept of the sacred and to challenge the idea that without a notion of the sacred there can be no boundaries to human behaviour, no anchor for our ethical beliefs, no meaning to our existence. The sacred, I want to argue, is less about the transcendent than it is about the taboo. ‘The sacred order’, as Leszek Kolokowski, the late Polish Marxist-turned-Christian philosopher, observes, ‘has never ceased, implicitly or explicitly, to proclaim “this is how things are, they cannot be otherwise”.’

The certainties of the sacred, I will argue, provides false hope and in so doing undermine our humanity by denying human choice.

Kenan Malik is a writer, lecturer and broadcaster. He is a presenter of Analysis, BBC Radio 4′s flagship current affairs programme and a panelist on the Moral Maze. He used to present Nightwaves, BBC Radio 3′s arts and ideas programme. He has written and presented a number of radio and TV documentaries including Disunited Kingdom, Are Muslims Hated?, Islam, Mullahs and the Media, Skullduggery and Man, Beast and Politics.

Kenan Malik’s latest book is From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and its Legacy. The book was shortlisted for the 2010 George Orwell Book Prize.

12.00 Andrew Copson

Blasphemy laws by the back door

Andrew Copson has been chief executive of the British humanist association since 2010 before which he spent five years coordinating the association’s campaigns work including on blasphemy and free speech issues.

After decades of campaigning the criminal offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel have been abolished but censorship of blasphemous content and even threatened prosecution of blasphemes continues in the UK. Andrew explores how corporate interests, opaque advertising regulations and new criminal laws continue to stifle free expression and free criticism and mockery of gods and religions.

1.00-1.30 Lunch

1.30 Austin Dacey

The Future of Blasphemy

Austin Dacey, Ph.D., is a representative to the United Nations for the International Humanist and Ethical Union and the author of The Future of Blasphemy. He writes:

If blasphemy is an affront to values that are held sacred, then it is too important to be left to the traditionally religious. In the public contestation of the sacred, each of us—secular and religious alike—has equal right and authority to speak on its behalf and equal claim to redress for its violation. Laws against blasphemy and “religious hatred” are inherently discriminatory because they give traditional faith communities a legal remedy that is not available to religious minorities and secularists when their sense of the sacred is violated.

2.30 Jacob Mchangama (to be confirmed)

Between blasphemy and hate speech: How hate speech laws are being used to enforce blasphemy norms

Most European states have abolished or ceased enforcing blasphemy laws. Yet “controversial” criticism of religion still risk falling afoul of speech restrictions in the form of hate-speech laws prohibiting incitement to religious hatred. A term which is defined differently in many jurisdictions and may include anything from satirical religious cartoons to  harsh criticism of religions. Rather than securing tolerance and social peace modern hate speech laws reinforce group identities and illiberal religious norms to the detriment of freedom of expression and conscience.

Jacob Mchangama is director of legal affairs at Danish think tank CEPOS and an external lecturer in International Human Rights law at the University of Copenhagen. Jacob has a special focus on freedom of expression and has published articles in international newspapers such as Wall Street Journal Europe, Jerusalem Post, Spiked, Globe and Mail, The Australian and Jyllands Posten. His work on human rights and free speech has been mentioned in The Economist, CBS.com and Courrier International.

3.30 Maryam Namazie

Blasphemy, Offence, and Islamophobia limiting Citizen Rights

Maryam will be speaking on how accusations of blasphemy, offensive speech and ‘Islamophobia’ censor and restrict free speech, limit citizen rights, and aid and abet Islamism.

Maryam Namazie is Spokesperson of the One Law for All Campaign against Sharia Law in Britain, the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and Equal Rights Now – Organisation against Women’s Discrimination in Iran. She is also National Secular Society Honorary Associate and the NSS’ 2005 Secularist of the Year award winner and was selected one of the top 45 women of the year 2007 by Elle magazine Quebec.

4.30 end

As of  2nd April 2011, CFI London will cease to exist. CFI UK will be a new organization that is both an affiliate of Centre for Inquiry, Inc. and a section of the British Humanist Association (BHA).

The website address and the kind of activities CFI UK engage in we be more or less the same, as will the mission statement.

The benefits to CFI UK of its relationship with the BHA include a wide advertising reach to all BHA members, some administrative help, and charitable status as part of the BHA. The benefits to the BHA include a new section putting on excellent talks and lectures (currently at both Conway Hall and at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival).

Suresh and I look forward to being a part of the BHA, and will be organizing a new series of events very shortly.

(Friends of CFI London will automatically have their friendship transferred to CFI UK.)

Stephen Law

CFI UK and South Place Ethical Society present:

Public Debate

Does Science Support Belief In God?

Prof. Herman Philipse vs Prof. Richard Swinburne

Chair: Stephen Law

Tuesday May 10th, 7-9pm.

Main Hall, Conway Hall, Red Lion Square. Holborn London WC1R 4RL

£3 on the door. £2 students. Free entry to CFI UK friends (i.e. season ticket holders).

An evening with two of the world’s most powerful and respected thinkers from either side of the theism/atheism divide. Topics likely to be addressed include: Does the orderliness of the universe point to a designer? Do discoveries in neuroscience, cosmology and other branches of empirical science reveal evidence of the hand of God?

Richard Swinburne is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Religion at the University of Oxford. Over the last 50 years, Prof. Swinburne has established himself as one of world’s foremost philosophers of religion. He is an influential proponent of natural theology, that is, philosophical arguments for the existence of God. Prof. Swinburne’s “Is There A God?” has been translated into 14 languages.

Herman Philipse Is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utrecht, The Netherlands, and one of the world’s leading atheist thinkers. Philipse’s 1995 Atheist Manifesto was republished in an expanded edition in 2004 with a foreword by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who partly credits the book for her shift from Islam to atheism. Philipse’s forthcoming book “God in the Age of Science? A Critique of Religious Reason” will be published by OUP in 2011/12.

Tickets available from the BHA here.

==Monday 21st – “Think About Politics”==
19:45 – Corpus Christi auditorium, Corpus Christi College
‘Towards a Secular State’ – Panel debate with Tory, Lib Dem, and Labour parliamentarians
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126481704090876

==Tuesday 22nd – “Think About Evidence”==
13:00 – Pusey Room, Keble College
Baroness Mary Warnock – ‘Religion, Morals and Politics’
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135155363213851

==Wednesday 23rd – “Think About Heresy”==
20:00 – Copa of Oxford
Paula Kirby at Skeptics in the Pub

==Thursday 24th – “Think About Method”==
13:00 – Pusey Room, Keble College
‘But what do you do?’: The Point of Atheist Societies

20:00 – Friends Meeting House, 43 St. Giles
Peter Atkins and Stephen Law – ‘Can science alone can answer our questions?’
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=183737714990390

==Friday 25th – “Think About Thought”==
13:00 – Friends Meeting House, 43 St Giles
Colin Blakemore – ‘Is there something special about the human brain?’
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=193747630652426

19:00 – Friends Meeting House, 43 St Giles
Raymond Tallis and David Papineau – ‘Will science ever explain consciousness?’
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=161432453907459

==Saturday 26th – “Think About Education”==
14:00 – Friends Meeting House, 43 St Giles (Time TBC, please check www.thinkweek.co.uk for updates)
Samantha Stein (TBC)
Keith Porteous Wood, CEO, National Secular Society

==Sunday 27th – “Think About Sundays”==
15:30 – St Columba’s URC, Alfred St
The BHA Choir
(Performing, among other things, Tim Minchin’s ‘White Wine in the Sun’ and the immortal ‘Every Sperm is Sacred’!)

17:15 – Moser Theatre, Wadham College
Naomi Phillips (campaigner, BHA) and Dr Evan Harris (campaigner and former Oxford MP)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126626624072204

Centre for Inquiry UK and South Place Ethical Society present

The Root Causes of The Holocaust

What caused the Holocaust? What was the role of the Enlightenment? What role did religion play in causing, or trying to halt, the Holocaust?

Prof. A.C. Grayling

Prof. Jonathan Glover (King’s College)

Dr David Ranan (author of Double Cross)

11am-2pm, Sat. December 18th, 2010

Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL – Main Hall

10.30-11.00 Registration

11.00-12.00 Jonathan Glover

12.00-1.00 David Ranan

1.00-2.00 A.C. Grayling

Just £10 on the door. Free to Friends of CFI UK, PLUS GLHA, SPES, BHA, AHS, CAMP QUEST, NEW HUMANIST SUBSCRIBERS.

Tickets on the door.

The Sheldonian Theatre is top centre-left.

In partnership with The Oxford Literary Festival CFI UK has the following events lined up in April 2011 (held at Christ Church College, University of Oxford).

A.C. GRAYLING - THE GOOD BOOK: A SECULAR BIBLE

Grayling launches his latest book in the glorious Sheldonian Theatre (built by Wren), Oxford University on Sunday 3rd April, 12pm.

NATHAN PENLINGTON – URI AND ME

Magician/skeptic/entertainer/poet Penlington presents an entertaining yet informative show based on his Edinburgh Festival success Uri and Me for CFI UK. About Uri Geller….. Sunday 3rd April 10am. Venue TBA.

PROF JUSTIN BARRETT – BORN BELIEVERS

Justin Barret, Prof. of Psychology at University of Oxford, explains we he believes we have an innate tendency to religious belief (he is religious himself). He’ll be presenting some fascinating experimental results. 4pm Wed. April 6th. venue TBA.

DOES GOD EXIST?

CFI UK Provost Stephen Law (author, a Very Short Introduction to Humanism, The Philosophy Gym) debates with Prof Alister McGrath (author of The Dawkins Delusion and A Fine-Tuned Universe – The Quest For God in  Science and Theology.) Thursday 7th April, 6.30pm Venue TBA.

THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, THE PAPACY AND THE HOLOCAUST

John Cornwell, author of Hitler’s Pope and David Ranan, author Double Cross, debate the relationship between the Church and The Holocaust. Friday 8th April 2.00pm. Venue TBA.

Tickets will be available from The Festival website at http://www.oxfordliteraryfestival.com/

Centre for Inquiry UK and South Place Ethical Society present

Prof. KEITH WARD

THE GOD VIRUS?

Keith Ward is a philosopher and theologian, Regius Professor of Divinity (Emeritus), Oxford, and the author of The God Conclusion. Now at Heythrop College.

Ward addresses Richard Dawkins’s suggestion, developed by Ray in The God Virus, that religion functions in a similar way to a virus. Ray spoke on 23rd October. Here, Ward offers a vigorous response! Plenty of opportunity for discussion. Ward is one of the world’s leading religious thinkers. He’s also a great guy!

This is a free-standing talk. No familiarity with Dawkin’s or Ray’s work is assumed.

Tues. November 30th, 2010, 7.30-9.00 pm

Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London WC1R 4RL – Main Hall.

Just £4 on the door. Students £3.

Tickets on the door. To book in advance go to www.cfiuk.org, hit button “support cfiuk” and follow instructions. Credit and debit cards welcome. Include names of those coming, phone number, return address, etc.