About us
WELCOME!
HSGP is a warm and welcoming community of people with open minds and lots of questions. While we have a lot of diverse opinions and interests, we are accepting and tolerant of differing ideas and positions. While non-belief in the supernatural brought many of us together, our belief in the essential goodness of humanity and dedication to open discussion keeps us together and helps us grow. We have only one life and we strive to make it a good one for ourselves and for others. We are home to people with a wide range of beliefs and positions such as: humanists, atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, and Nones. That covers a lot of ground!
In addition to our Facebook group, we offer a variety of activities to support our Humanist goals and we are always looking for more ways to socialize, learn, and help others. We have a community center near downtown Mesa! Be sure to check us out at our Game nights, Sunday Speaker meetings, or other events.
To learn more, go to our website at [www.HSGP.org](http://www.hsgp.org/). There you will find more information about HSGP and our scheduled events. If you are not a member, please consider becoming a paid member. Your support keeps the building open and the activities running. If you’re not ready to commit to a membership, please join us at one of our free and open to the public events where we hope you will find like-minded individuals. Thank you and we look forward to meeting you!
About Humanism (from the American Humanist Association)
Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.
Alex Zygmunt
President, HSGP
Visit our website at www.hsgp.org
See our Code of Conduct Policy Here.
Upcoming events
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HSGP@ Project Humanities Homeless Outreach Service Saturday **MUST REGISTER**
Community Christian Church - ASU/Tempe, 1701 S College Ave, Tempe, AZ, USASU's Project Humanities Homeless Outreach Distribution is now every 1st and 3rd Saturday!
Sign Up with Project Humanities required through: https://projecthumanities.asu.edu/homeless-outreach
Their current partner for Service Saturday distribution is "a very social justice forward church with a very progressive congregation and pastor" and is a couple blocks south of the ASU Tempe campus.
The distribution is held indoors. One of the things that makes this event special is the "personal shopper" experience. Each client is greeted at the door and a volunteer carries their shopping bag and helps them select items from the various stations.
HSGP members have been active volunteers with Project Humanities over the years, so we were among the first invited to participate. They are still building their clientele, so are still not seeking large numbers of volunteers. ** Please maintain your RSVP, and if you're on the wait list keep an eye open for last minute changes **.
Volunteers should be there by 8:15 am. Distribution will begin at 8:30.
What to bring: your smile and desire to help clients shop for clothing and other items available for free.
We're excited to continue our partnership with Project Humanities.
Donations of seasonally appropriate attire and items are especially appreciated. Please see our weekly 'Sorting Friday' event for the time and location to drop off donations (or help sort).
3 attendees
Sunday Speaker: Transparency and the Death Penalty - Dale Baich
Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix, 627 W Rio Salado Pkwy, Mesa, AZ, USSunday Speaker Topic: Transparency and the Death Penalty: Witnessing Executions - Dale Baich
Between 1996 and this year, Dale Baich witnessed 17 executions in Arizona and other jurisdictions. He will share his observations to add to the debate about whether the death penalty is sound public policy.
Dale Baich will recount nearly thirty years of witnessing executions and make the argument that the public cannot meaningfully evaluate capital punishment without understanding what occurs inside an execution chamber. Between 1996 and 2026, Baich witnessed seventeen executions in Nebraska, Ohio, Arizona, Texas, and the federal prison in Indiana—one by electrocution and fifteen by lethal injection. He will describe witnessing executions as an obligation to observe and report what government does when it deliberately takes a human life.
The presentation will contrast the unmistakable violence of electrocution with the sanitized appearance of lethal injection. Lethal injection, however, creates the illusion of a medical procedure in which a condemned prisoner peacefully falls asleep, concealing the brutality and uncertainty of the process. The firsthand accounts will demonstrate that executions frequently depart from that image. Descriptions include repeated and failed attempts to establish IV access, invasive femoral-line procedures, bleeding, pain, last-minute changes in execution drugs and protocols, and prisoners struggling physically as the drugs took effect. Particularly significant is Joseph Wood’s 2014 Arizona execution, during which Wood repeatedly gasped for nearly two hours and ultimately received fifteen doses of the execution drugs.
A central theme of the presentation will be the importance of transparency. Public witnesses serve as a check on government conduct and provide information necessary for informed debate over whether executions are fairly and humanely administered. Litigation and eyewitness accounts forced Arizona to reveal portions of the execution process previously hidden behind curtains, including IV insertion and administration of the lethal chemicals. Yet substantial secrecy remains concerning execution personnel, drug sources, and procedures.
The presentation will be both an eyewitness testimony and a challenge to the abstraction surrounding capital punishment. The death penalty is not simply a legal doctrine or political issue: it is government officials intentionally killing citizens. Recounting what was seen and heard during executions will allow the public to decide whether capital punishment remains sound public policy or is a tarnished relic from our past.Bio:
Dale Baich spent twenty-six years as a member of the Capital Habeas Unit with the Federal Defender’s office in Arizona. He left that office in 2022. Dale serves as an adjunct professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where he has taught a course on the death penalty since 2004. He is also a consultant to the Arizona Capital Representation Project on policy matters related to capital punishment.Dale led litigation teams that challenged execution protocols in Arizona and other states. Some of the issues litigated related to the nature and origin of the drugs used, the qualifications of the executioners, the medical procedures employed, and what the media and other witnesses can see during the execution.
Over his career, Dale witnessed the executions of seventeen people. He was present at the 2014 execution of Joseph Wood in Arizona; it took nearly two hours because of an experimental drug cocktail used by the state, against the advice of experts. Dale has testified as a fact witness at method-of-execution cases in federal and state courts.Please Note:
Doors open at 9:00 am for optional buffet breakfast ($10 donation) and socializing. Speaker program begins at 10:00 am.Important: $10 breakfast fee waived for awesome humans bringing in food to share!
If you can help with set-up, clean-up, and/or by bringing a breakfast casserole, please go to SignUpGenius Here
A Children's Program is available during the Speaker Meeting. Please check the Meetup listing for details and to RSVP for your kids.
Prefer to join us remotely?
YouTube: You can watch live (15 second delay), or you can watch later. Link Here
Need help? Email humanist@hsgp.org before the day of this meeting.The Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix presents its Sunday Speaker meetings twice a month on Sunday mornings. Meetings are free and open to the public.
**Go to our YouTube channel to see past meetings, presentations, and interviews. Please become a subscriber--it's free! Link Here
**We invite you to become a dues-paying member of HSGP. To become a member or make a donation, go to www.hsgp.org13 attendees
Discord Monday Evening Social
·OnlineOnlineTopic: Discord Monday Evening Social!
Time: Every Monday, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Arizona Time (MST)
Here is a community HSGP social event for you if you don’t live close to the Center, and no Zoom events fit your work schedule. This is an opportunity to meet people and take advantage of the free HSGP Discord Server which provides Voice, Video, and Text opportunities to interact socially with other humanists.
The Discord service is similar to Zoom, but no “host” is required for you to use it in a group setting. There is no 45 minute time limit without a Zoom host with a paid account. Groups can meet as long as they want whenever they want for free. In this regard, an ad hoc group can choose to get together on Discord any time two or more people show up to talk.
Here is the larger view of how to do it and get into the Discord Server:
Details
Topic: Discord Monday Evening Social!
Time: Every Monday, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Arizona Time (MST)
Note that the Attendees list won’t necessarily reflect the number of participants. This is a new activity and will be growing. Everybody is respectful of each other and everyone gets to talk more than enough. The facilitator will act as a moderator, but no Host is actually required. This event will be using our Discord server which does not require anyone to pay for the Zoom service, and there is no time limit as there would be on the free version of Zoom.For those not on Discord already, here are the Discord Registration instructions:
Registration for a Discord account is relatively easy, you can have a username that doesnothave to be your real name (you can also have different Nicknames on different servers and change them at any time). You will have to provide Discord a valid email account which you have access to from any computer or phone you will be using to login to the discord server. No one on Discord has access to this email address and you will not be spammed by Discord or any businesses. Discord uses the email to confirm you are the one using the account any time you login from a new device or to send you notifications if someone has named you in a posting.
To create an account simply access Discord at https://discord.com . If you want to just use your browser to register or later to get into the Discord system select “Login” (note: this page also allows you to download the application to install on your computer or phone). If you are logging in, at the Login screen you will provide your valid email and password. If this is a first time login you may be told that an email is being sent to you that you will use to confirm you are really you, otherwise you will be allowed into the Discord system. If you need to register for an account you will see a link on the Login screen that says “Need an account? Register”. You will select this to set up your account.You will be asked several questions including what you want to use as a username (does not have to be your real name), your valid email address, setting a password and a few others. Simply respond as appropriate. After you are registered you will be allowed to Login.
Once you are inside of Discord, you will need to add a server. Select the + symbol on the far left which starts “Add a Server”. You will see several options and at the bottom you will see and can select “Join a Server.” At the top of the next window you will enter the Invitation link which is https://discord.gg/c4PT5sJTrw and this will put you in the Virtual Library channel of the HSGP Discord Server. As you get used to Discord you may find other servers that are of interest as well (the American Humanist Association also has a Discord server).
If this is your first time accessing the HSGP Server you will have to wait 10 minutes before you can “connect” to the voice channel, or post any text in the HSGP Discord Server. You may see a “countdown timer” that shows you when the 10 minutes has completed. You will not experience this on subsequent visits.
You simply click on the Virtual Library after the 10 minute limit has lapsed to join the voice channel and once you are in you can also turn on your video camera if you so desire via a camera symbol in the lower left (use of a camera is not required). Note: you may also see a notification that Discord needs to access your microphone and you will need to accept that request.
The little Gear symbol on Discord is a place where you can set or check a number of items. It is good to be familiar with “Voice and Video” which allows you to test those items and change settings if you want to. Things like Push to Talk for you microphone can be set here.
Also you should become familiar with your Profile since this is where you set things like a different name you want to be known by on a Server by Server basis, Password changes, and it also lets you supply a picture for your avatar (a picture of you or some artwork, otherwise you will have a generic avatar which is fine).
For those who are already Discord users, here are the instructions for adding the HSGP server.
You will add the HSGP Discord Server by selecting the + symbol on the far left which starts “Add a Server”. You will see several options, and at the bottom you will select “Join a Server.” At the top of the next window you will enter the Invitation link which is https://discord.gg/c4PT5sJTrw and this will put you in the Virtual Library channel of the HSGP Discord Server.
If this is your first time accessing the HSGP Server you will have to wait 10 minutes before you can “connect” to the voice channel, or post any text in the HSGP Discord Server. You may see a “countdown timer” that shows you when the 10 minutes has completed. You will not experience this on subsequent visits.For those who are already HSGP Discord users, simply select the Virtual Library to join the conversation.
In case of difficulty please contact: Curtis.Eickerman@cox.net
2 attendees
Past events
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