Drinking Skeptically - Dinner and Social - Book: Sex & War by Malcom Potts

Have dinner, conversation and your favorite beer (or beverage of your choice) with other skeptics from Bellingham and beyond!

We need at least 8 RSVP'S to retain the private "Quiet" room at Bob's Barkley Burger & Brew, but lately attendance has been double that!

Nonetheless, please sign up! We won't hold it against you if at the last minute you can't come. If you haven't RSVP'd, but at the last moment decided you can make it, come on in!

This venue isn't conducive to a general discussion, but between neighbors we may break the ice and discuss the following:

Today's Starter Topic: Book Discussion, Sex & War by Malcom Potts, Chapters six through ten (of 15 chapters).

The book is a look at the evolutionary causes of violent conflicts that’s “worth reading, and arguing about” (Toronto Star).

Why does war seem to be so fundamental to our species? And is there anything we can do about it?

Sex and War explores these questions from the frontlines of war-torn countries around the world. As a scientist and obstetrician, Malcolm Potts has worked with governments and aid organizations globally, and in the trenches with women who have been raped and brutalized in the course of war. Combining their own experience with scientific findings in primatology, genetics, and anthropology, Potts and journalist Thomas Hayden explain war’s pivotal position in the human experience, and how men in particular evolved under conditions that favored gang behavior, rape, and organized aggression. Drawing on these new insights, they propose a rational plan for making warfare less frequent and less brutal in the future.

Anyone interested in understanding human nature, warfare, and terrorism at their most fundamental levels will find Sex and War to be an illuminating work, and one that might change the way they see the world.

If you have topic suggestion for future meetings, bring up at end of meeting or email me at [masked]!

You do not need to read the above book, nor have these books to participate in discussion. Our discussion will broaden out to any timely topic that is on each of our mind. Starter topic is just an ice breaker.

Sorry for repeating myself but we have the "quiet" room reserved for every meeting through the end of this year! But remember, we may need to cancel if there are less than 8 RSVP's a few day before the meeting, so be sure to say "yes" to attending if you think you might show. You can always go back and change to "no" if near the date you change your mind.

Tom Kearney & Monty Vonn
Co-coordinators