What we’re about
Meet other local Humanists, people who believe in the basic goodness of the human spirit without supernaturalism.
The Washington Area Secular Humanists (WASH) was incorporated in 1989 as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational organization in Maryland. Our purpose is to promote scientific literacy and critical thinking, to provide a forum for humanists and others to explore humanist principles and how they relate to all aspects of human experience, and to study the significance of humanism throughout history. Secular humanists are distinguished by an emphasis on scientific methods of knowing, separation of church and state, and a commitment to the pursuit of humanist goals outside religious frameworks.
WASH has several active Chapters from Roanoke, VA to Baltimore, MD.
WASH is a Cooperating Local Group of the Council for Secular Humanism, a Chapter of the American Humanist Association, and an affiliate of American Atheists and an endorsing group of The Secular Coalition of America.
While being a member of the WASH meetup group is free please consider joining as a member of WASH to help support our activities.
http://www.wash.org/join
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Upcoming events (3)
See all- Secular versus religious ethicsLink visible for attendees
Douglas James Grothe (DJ) has agreed to talk to WASH MDC on Secular versus religious ethics. DJ, friend of WASH is an American skeptic who has served in leadership roles for both the Center for Inquiry (CFI) and the James Randi Educational Foundation. While he was at CFI, he hosted their Point of Inquiry podcast. After leaving Point of Inquiry he hosted the radio show and podcast For Good Reason. He is particularly interested in the psychology of belief and the steps involved in deception and self-deception.
- Secular Zoom CommunityLink visible for attendees
As usual the craziness out there is getting more twisted and insane. Or perhaps my tracking of events is just better at finding that insanity. The newest anti-choice tactic is to claim that abortions are not private medical information. They think it should be treated like death certificates. Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly had to veto legislation that would have demanded detailed and invasive information on every abortion. This would streamline the demonization of the women who pursue an abortion and ease criminal prosecutions. Indiana and New Hampshire are dealing with similar efforts. Rep. Tommy Tuberville has introduced a Federal bill that would require the Veterans Department to collect and provide data on abortions within their facilities.
I felt that Christian nationalism was largely centered in organized fundamentalism such as Southern Baptists. It seems that the unaffiliated charismatic churches are more to blame. The NAR, New Apostolic Reformation, is the organizing label used by these nondenominational churches. The Nation has an excellent article highlighting the rhetoric fueled by claimed direct messages from God received by these new prophets. From the article: Anthea Butler, the chair of the University of Pennsylvania religious studies department and the author of White Evangelical Racism. “All the talk you hear about demonic stuff, about violent stuff—people should take that very seriously.”
I have claimed that AI will change everything. Obviously, it could be a great boon for humanity. Truly intelligent machines might solve problems with great efficiency. Creativity can be massively enabled with AI. As people know, I love to create exotic images that would be appropriate for the cover of a science fiction book or magazine. Check out the images in this short AI music video, C3PO x Childish Gambino - Gold Gang (Official AI Music Video) Star Wars. I read many newsletters about AI. One common claim is that it is easy to create bot to answer questions. A company needing to support their products could train an AI bot on prior messages dealing with customer questions. The bot might then be able to provide needed information.
However, that same capability could be used for malice. Facebook has become a forum for major hacks. I have received numerous phone SMS messages with codes to complete my password reset when I did not request any reset. This implied to me that people were trying to hack my account. Several of my Facebook friends actually did have their accounts hacked. Each of them then sent me messages claiming six figure payments from government and other agencies. They said they saw my name on a list of others deserving such payments. Of course, they then offered a URL where I could request my payment. I presume that my bank account information would then be solicited because how else could they program a bank transfer to my account? I also had gorgeous young woman send me a friend request. Normal I would just ignore such nonsense. However, this one had a couple of my respected friends in common. I then looked at her posts. There was a certain amount of intelligence and humor in her posts. The posts made me laugh and I decided that I would not mind such posts in my news feed. So I accepted the friend request. She then started to message me. I very much suspected then that the account was a bot. Another friend sent me a message saying that she was a bot and I then noted that the other personal friends of mine were no longer friends with her. In the past there was usually a con-man working such bot accounts. With AI, there now might only be trained machines running such accounts. The single most promoted AI application is marketing. There is no guarantee that such marketing will be lacking in malice.
There are QANON accounts on youtube making six and seven figure annual incomes sending out “Q-drops.” What if such nonsense becomes automated and becomes an even greater fraction of the social media landscape. In 2015, Facebook research found that Russian bot farms were controlling 19 of the 20 most visited Christian Facebook groups. This gullibility presents an opportunity that AI systems could exploit on a massive scale. Polls indicate that absurd fractions of the population now think that violence might be required for democracy to survive. What if AIs start to more radically inflame that insanity?
The link for our meeting is posted now. I will likely send the full zoom info in the 24 hours before our meeting as a reminder to those who RSVP.
- The Conflict Between Religion and Science in HistoryChevy Chase Neighborhood Library, Washington, DC
Author Fred Seiler will speak at our May WASH MDC meeting on "The Conflict Between Religion and Science in History" He will inquire into what has been the relationship between science and religion through history. Among the topics are:
What have been the main areas of conflict?
What are the philosophical issues involved in this conflict?All are welcome and we expect some good discussion.
Fred will discuss these issues and talk about how he came to write his book God Versus Nature: The Conflict Between Religion and Science in History.
Fred Seiler has an M.A. in the History of Science from Indiana University, and degrees in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. After working for 30 years on software for Navy and FAA systems, he recently retired in order to focus on writing about the history of science. He is the author of God Versus Nature: The Conflict Between Religion and Science in History (Epigraph Books, 2020), and he regularly writes at SeilerOnScience.substack.com.