What we’re about
The Humanist Community in Silicon Valley was established in 1962 and is a chartered chapter of the American Humanist Association. We have a long tradition of promoting humanist values while providing interesting educational programs and fun, friendly social events for our members.
Check out our WEBSITE, like us on FACEBOOK, and follow us on TWITTER (@HumanistCommSV).
Our main event is the Sunday Forum which features a different speaker each Sunday discussing a topic of interest. A wide variety of topics are covered from week to week. Forums are held in various locations from 11am until 12:15pm. Look at each individual Forum listing to see where it is being held.
A buffet lunch follows the Forum at 12:30pm. Lunch is free for first time visitors and students. Otherwise we ask for a donation of $10. If you can't afford that, please give what you can, and join us for good food and even better conversation.
NOTE: Approximately 30 to 40 people attend the Forum each Sunday. Because Forums happen every Sunday, most of our members do not RSVP on Meetup, so don't let our RSVP count fool you.
Other weekly programs include the Free Thought Discussion Group (http://www.humanists.org/blog/free-thought-...) every Wednesday night at 7:30pm, and the Academic Video Group (http://www.humanists.org/blog/academic-vide...) every Thursday night at 8pm.
Monthly events include a Potluck, workshops (see the calendar for classes and schedules), and our Fun Group (www.humanists.org/blog/fun-group), which organizes a "fun" activity around the first of each month.
We hope to welcome you soon to the Sunday Forum or one of our other events. If you would like to suggest a topic for our Forum series, please send a message to the organizers (Brian and/or Matt Courtney). We would love to help you share your enthusiasm for a topic, a speaker, a social action project, a fun outing, etc., with other community members.
Humanists have more fun... together!
See you soon!
Brian
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- This is what a digital coup looks likeLink visible for attendees
Join us this Sunday, either in person or online, as we watch and discuss a video of Carole Cadwalladr, who is a journalist who probes the nexus of politics and Silicon Valley power. A longtime feature writer for the UK's Guardian and Observer, she now explores "How to Survive the Broligarchy" in her Substack newsletter. Her reporting has won a Polk Award and the Orwell Prize for political journalism; she was also a Pulitzer finalist for National Reporting in 2019 with the New York Times, investigating Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and the misuse of data in the Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential election.
“We are watching the collapse of the international order in real time, and this is just the start,” says investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr. In a searing talk, she decries the rise of the powerful tech executives who are using their global digital platforms to amass unprecedented geopolitical power, dismantling democracy and enabling authoritarian control across the world. Her rallying cry: resist data harvesting and mass surveillance, and support others in a groundswell of digital disobedience. “You have more power than you think,” she says.
In April 2019, she gave a TED talk about the links between Facebook and Brexit, entitled "Facebook's role in Brexit — and the threat to democracy". British businessman, political donor, Arron Banks objected to her statement that Mr. Banks had told untruths about a secret relationship he had with the Russian government and initiated a libel suite the settlement of which is now to be taken to the European Court of Human Rights.
You can watch this 17-minute talk at: https://www.ted.com/talks/carole_cadwalladr_this_is_what_a_digital_coup_looks_like
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Attend in Person:On the second Sunday of the month, like this Sunday, you can attend our forum in person with fellow humanists in the Orchard Room at the Los Altos Library, 13 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos, CA 94022. Lunch will be served after the forum. We request a $10 donation.
If you can join us in person, please email vp@humanists.org to help us make sure we have room for you. If you have symptoms that may be COVID, kindly attend on Zoom.
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Also, we will continue to present our forums on Zoom. To join and be able to ask questions and make comments, go to:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81653890712?pwd=QzN4MTVNbGEwQ0Zua3d1VG9tVE50UT09
No password is needed -- our host will admit you from the waiting room.
Joining the meeting via the link will download and install the Zoom app on your desktop computer (if it's not already installed), and then take you to the meeting.You can also install the Zoom app on your computer or smart phone, and then enter:
Meeting ID: 816 5389 0712
Passcode: 250634Join the meeting by phone. +1 408 638 0968 US (San Jose)
Find an international phone number to call here:
https://zoom.us/u/afYkAuvE6***
Subscribe to our events in your Apple Calendar:
webcal://p162-caldav.icloud.com/published/2/Mjk3Nzk1MTgyMjk3Nzk1MRBa7aU6zKSIJMfDjhqBP8r3muvKK3GLLCRnZoCneHpXv08CyGJAJRVI5yyh-SVWxGJE9xHfdUs72pmiBNlOBpYAdd this event to your Google calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&tmeid=NWVpcjhmNHFzaXF0c3QzZzAwYjRoMGRpb3AgaHVtYW5pc3Rjb21tc3ZAbQ&tmsrc=humanistcommsv%40gmail.com
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/humanistcommsv/
RSVP on Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/humanistcommunity/events/309098715/
Click the Interested button or share on Patch: https://patch.com/california/paloalto/calendar/event/20250713/b67c7100-723b-4785-a281-d707857207bb/this-is-what-a-digital-coup-looks-like
Retweet our announcement on the social-media platform formerly known as Twitter: https://x.com/HumanistCommSV/status/1943077837453627751
Humanist Community website: http://www.humanists.org/
Videos of previous forums: https://vimeo.com/hcsv/
To help our Forum series continue, please consider making a donation or becoming a member (http://www.humanists.org/blog/membership/)) of the Humanist Community.
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If you would like to speak at a Humanist Forum, or know someone who would, or there is a topic you think we should discuss, please let us know by emailing vp@humanists.org or havasy@live.com.
Photo by By Molly MEP, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77508825
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