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Center for Inquiry-L.A.
4773 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90027

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Upcoming__________

Sunday, March 21
FEED YOUR BRAIN:
CANCELLED due to L.A. Marathon

Wednesday, March 10
Skeptics' Book Club

Friday, March 12
Drinking Skeptically

Sunday, March 14
GALAH-LA

Wednesday, March 17
Orange County Skeptics Supper Club

Saturday, March 20
Independent Investigations Group

Saturday, March 20
Spanish Speaking Atheists

Saturday, March 13 & 27
Freethinkers Toastmasters

Sunday, March 21
Steve Allen's Meeting of Minds

Friday, March 26
West Los Angeles Fourth Friday Dinner

Wednesday, March 31
Cafe Inquiry

Tuesday Evenings
S
ecular Organizations for Sobriety

More... 



Join the Greater L.A. Skeptics Meetup Group!



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Orange County Groups

     The Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles wants to gather freethinkers and rational people in a purely social setting. We want to introduce people who share a common rational worldview - that is, the idea that the universe operates on principles and ideas which are or will be explained by science and rational means. Paranormal and religious followers have, in many ways, dominated the media and the culture. Consequently, many skeptics and non-religious people experience a feeling of isolation in their communities, and even among friends and family. We seek to erase that feeling by getting some of the thousands of freethinkers and rationalists in the area together.  

We sincerely hope you'll join us.

Click on the links below to jump to different groups and meetings.

Feed Your Brain Lectures
April 18 - John Nichols
May 16 - John C. Avise

OC Skeptics Supper Club

CFI Community of Orange County

The Fullerton Atheists and Agnostics

Students for Science and Skepticism




John Nichols

This is the Age of Paine

Sunday, April 18
3
:30 p.m.

     Tom Paine was 200 years ahead of his time, and he paid a steep price for being a man of vision. Many of the public figures of his day did not accept him, and he was written out of the history of the republic for the better part of a century, comments John Nichols, the political writer for The Nation magazine who has written extensively on Thomas Paine in particular and the founding of the American experiment in general. Yet, it is clear now that Paine was the greatest of the founders. And it is clearer still that his passion, his ideas, and above all, his radicalism remain the most vital characteristics for those who still believe that "we have it in our power to begin the world over again."

     Nichols has argued in his books and essays that the radicalism of the American revolution needs to be renewed, along with our understanding of this country as a rebel state founded in opposition to empire and in embrace of the enlightenment. Of Nichols, Gore Vidal says: "Of all the giant slayers now afoot in the great American desert, John Nichols's sword is the sharpest."

     Nichols has worked as a daily newspaper journalist and magazine writer for 25 years, reporting from more than 25 countries and interviewing every U.S. president since Jimmy Carter. A pioneering political blogger for The Nation, he is the magazine's Washington correspondent. He is also the associate editor of the Capital Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin. A co-founder of Free Press, he appears regularly on MSNBC, CNN, the BBC, and other broadcast and cable networks. His current book written with Robert W. McChesney is The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again.

Co-sponsored by the Thomas Paine Society of Pasadena.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.
$4 for students.

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John C. Avise

Inside the Human Genome:
The Case for Non-Intelligent Design


Sunday, May 16
4:30 p.m.


     Proponents of intelligent design focus on the many beauties of life, claiming that smooth-working biological traits prove direct creation by a supernatural deity. However, natural selection combined with genetic processes also can produce complex biological systems that usually function well. So both natural selection and intelligent design are consistent with the appearance of biological craftsmanship. Serious biological imperfections, on the other hand, says Prof. John C. Avise, a Distinguished Professor of Ecology and Evolution at the University of California, Irvine, can be expected of evolutionary processes but they are troublesome to rationalize as overt mistakes by a fallible God.

     How do believers reconcile a loving God with a world of evil and flaws? Can evolution emancipate religion from the shackles of the problem of evil? The blame for biological flaws falls squarely on the shoulders of evolutionary processes, thus relegating religion to its rightful realm - not as a secular interpreter of the biological minutiae of our physical existence but rather as a counselor on grander philosophical issues.

     Avise, who received his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis, studies animal behavior, ecology and evolution primarily, as well as the relevance of evolutionary and molecular genetics to human affairs, including religion. He has received many academic honors and distinctions, including being elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition, he has published more than 300 refereed articles in scientific journals and 18 books, including his new one, Inside the Human Genome: The Case for Non-Intelligent Design.

$8, or free for Friends of the Center.
$4 for students.

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OC Skeptics Supper Club

IMPORTANT NOTE: WE’RE TRYING DIFFERENT DAYS OF THE MONTH SO AS NOT TO CONFLICT WITH OTHER LOCAL GROUPS, AND FOR THE BEST AVAILABILITY OF THE MOST PEOPLE. Please mark your calendar accordingly!

Wednesday March 17th: skeptics, humanists, freethinkers, atheists, agnostics, pagans, and all other non-believers and inquiring minds are once again meeting for dinner and social discourse! Dave Richards be on the JREF Amaz!ng Cruise to the Caribbean, Bruce Gleason will be hosting the supper in his absence this month.

We’ve enjoyed The Red Lobster in Garden Grove previously – we’re giving it another shot this month. Once again here is the location:

Red Lobster
12892 Harbor Boulevard
Garden Grove, CA 92840

(714) 638-9500 map

(At the intersection of Harbor Blvd and Garden Grove Blvd Ave, a block North of the 22 fwy)

The time will be 7:30 to approx 9pm. When you arrive, ask for OC Freethinkers and Skeptics.

For more info, please contact Dave Richards at: david[at]iigwest.com.


CFI Community of Orange County
For information, email Dave Richards david[at]iigwest.com.


The Fullerton Atheists and Agnostics
A chapter of the Campus Freethought Alliance. Please contact Fullerton Atheists and Agnostics president Brandon Johns at fullertonskeptics[at]shoutmail.com, or phone (909) 924-1885 for more info.


Students for Science and Skepticism
at University of California, Irvine http://spirit.dos.uci.edu/sss.
Fax and voice mail: 1-206-201-8828.


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