Street Philosophy - Life the Universe and Everything

"Purity culture" began as a movement within the American evangelical Christian community, starting in the 90s, that placed a strong moral emphasis on abstinence until marriage. Since then, it has spread to several countries and denominations around the world. In part four of this five part series on religious trauma, counsellor and psychotherapist Caroline Winzenried will discuss the impact of purity culture's teachings on intimacy, sexual identity and self-esteem.
Cost: This event is free. Your donation to help keep these events going is greatly appreciated. Please make your donation at https://www.humanistsaustralia.org/donate
Events inHumanismReligion
Recovering from ReligionMeaning of LifeAtheism & Agnosticism

Join us for an evening of Stoic philosophy and discussion. We'll kick off the event with a short presentation exploring one of the core ideas of Stoicism, focusing on its real-world application with some practices drawn from the texts. Following the presentation, we'll break into smaller groups for a lightly-facilitated discussion about the topic.
This week, we’ll be discussing courage, bravery, and freedom. We’ll also be going over a couple practices; one to get over our fears of embarrassment and another to get over our fears of everything else.
Here's the video we'll be watching: https://youtu.be/G1nM9UCJCIs?si=8Ll8J-3-Y_VwQhsi&t=3731
And here's the text, along with the rest of the resources for the course: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-6r2KFyv7f-vChnX-9eKovdFsQ6DYoc_CV5RZtJb9XA/edit?usp=sharing
Thanks so much for your interest, and please remember:
"There is no such thing as good or bad fortune for the individual; we live in common. And no one can live happily who has regard to himself alone and transforms everything into a question of his own utility; you must live for your neighbor, if you would live for yourself." - Seneca, Letters from a Stoic, Letter 48

Our group enjoys reading the ancient and modern Stoic texts, so the next series we will go back to the first century, when Seneca wrote his famous essays 'On Anger'. It spans 3 books and 100 chapters. Like most books we've read, we'll be reading in depth. The book is online as a public domain book, so you won't need to buy a book and wait for shipping.
Here are the major themes in the reading:
- The Nature and Origins of Anger
- The Dangers and Consequences of Anger
- The Futility of Anger
- Strategies for Preventing Anger
- Healing after Anger
For those with a Stoic practice, this discussion will be an important exercise: (1) how to pause before reacting with anger, (2) how to improve focus and build awareness of anger, and (3) how to prepare for situations that might cause anger (using Premeditatio Malorum).
For those with an interest in psychology, our discussion will help: (1) to learn how anger leads to poor decisions and regret, (2) how to switch from emotional responses to value-based responses, and (3) how to expect adversity in life and reduce stress.
SCHEDULE
5-23-2025 Book 1 (Chap 1-10)
5-30-2025 Book 1 (Chap 11-21)
6-06-2025 Meeting was skipped
6-13-2025 Book 2 (Chap 1-12)
6-20-2025 Book 2 (Chap 13-24)
6-27-2025 Book 2 (Chap 25-36)
7-04-2025 Book 3 (Chap 1-10)
7-11-2025 Book 3 (Chap 11-20)
7-18-2025 Book 3 (Chap 21-30)
7-25-2025 Book 3 (Chap 31-43)
8-01-2025 Finale (maybe a special guest)
READING MATERIALS
The following materials are optional; read in advance if you have time. StoicDan will collect highlights from each book in an outline to further the discussion.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Of_Anger
Time
Meeting time (USA):
7:00PM Eastern
6:00PM Central
5:00PM Mountain
4:00PM Pacific
For our international friends,
Please convert time with the free tool
https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/
Zoom Info
CLICK TO START MEETING - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86559843870
If you don't have a computer with camera or mic, then you can attend by telephone. Dial one of these numbers and add meeting ID 865 5984 3870#
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US
+1 301 715 8592 US
In general, Stoicism teaches us how to handle difficult people and events, how to avoid anger and worry, and overall to use moderation in life. We will discuss how Stoic practice can lead to a meaningful and fulfilling life.
Our group enjoys open-minded, respectful conversations on Stoicism and how it relates to science, culture, philosophy, history, other belief systems, and pop culture (books and movies). If we differ in our opinions, then "we agree to disagree". The long-term goal is to improve our minds via group discussions. Our group does NOT discuss religion or politics.
This event is free and open to the public.
Events inAnger ManagementSeneca
Self-Help & Self-ImprovementPsychologyStoicism

Richard Volpato will present the topic and lead the discussion.

A Sociological Revamp of Angels and AI.

"The epoch of AI has begun. The rapid spread of AI into the lives of individuals and the processes within corporations will have global consequences. In this presentation, I will try to re-awaken a somewhat dormant aspect of our tradition - namely how angels can function to tame social disruptions.

These angelic forces were, in their heyday, described as ‘intelligences’ (plural) and different kinds of angelic intelligences could ‘assist’ humans to handle a wide variety of social predicaments. Those efforts left legacies operating today: hierarchy, resilience, striving for perfection and meditation.

With AI today, angelic functions can be (re)deployed using sociologically specifications of complex situations. As I hope to show, these angelic functions are not a mere enchanting ‘gloss’ but rather a class of guidance systems that can function in AI mediated social interactions.

Various technical comments about AI will be contrasted (loosely!) with some theological musings about angels. Specifically, three distinct domains of AI will be defined (1) “Situational AI”, (2) “Generative AI” and (3) “Agentive AI”. Each of these AIs systems align respectively to enhance: human habits, habitations and habitats.

These AI systems can then be applied across three modes of angelic invocations for harmonizing three modes of human engagement with situations:
(A) the affective (feelings), (B) cognitive (beliefs), and (C) conative (strivings).
The resulting cross-tabulation delivers a modern rendition of the so-called, “Hierarchy of Angels” by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (circa 550) in which nine orders of angels are defined; but in this talk are deployed to guide AI in distinct settings."

'Medium' on the Nine Orders of Angels

The ZOOM LINK will appear on this page for those who RSVP.
Meeting ID: 819 1233 1520 - - Passcode: 134976

SoFiA promotes the open exploration of religion, spirituality and the search for meaning. They welcome ALL viewpoints, including Atheism.

SOFiA Website.

Facebook: 'Sofiatalk' - Please join their ongoing discussions.

Existentialist Society's weekly Zoom Meetups