"Show and Tell"

On Wednesday 17th December Stockport Humanists had a member generated discussion and social evening, which proved very successful with several members contributing.

Books profiled and discussed were:

Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here by Karima Bennoune which says that the politicised version of Islam peddled by fundamentalists is dangerous and misrepresentative

 

What is Good? The Search for the Best Way to Live by A.C. Grayling in which proposals on how to live a good life are examined, from the ideals of the Greek poets to Kant’s theories on freedom and the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Almost Like A Whale by Steven Jones is a modern introduction to Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species.

Six Poets, Hardy to Larkin: An Anthology by Alan Bennett in which the poems and the poets are described in Bennett’s customary conversational style.

Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall describes the life of a young woman growing up in and eventually leaving the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints (FLDS).

The Village Against the World by Dan Hancox tells the story of Marinaleda in Andalusia, Spain where the inhabitants are attempting to create a communist utopia, where no-one has a mortgage and everyone works to clean up the village.

Also recommended were The BBC Reith Lectures presented by Dr Atul Gawanade on Radio 4 talking about Why do Doctors Fail, the Century of the System, the Problem of Hubris, and the Idea of Well Being.

The film Inherit the Wind starring Spencer Tracy depicts the arrest and trial of a teacher for teaching Darwin’s ideas on evolution. This is a thinly disguised rendition of the Tennessee monkey trial.