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Food For Thought Lecture Analysis

Decent Essays

On Monday, March 21, I attended a Food for Thought Lecture presented by the Center for Inquiry (CFI), “the largest and most significant atheist organization in North America” (“Discovering Atheism” 434). According to the mission statement on their website, “Center for Inquiry-Austin is a secular community dedicated to fostering science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values in our communities and society.” The lecture I attended, “The Future of Humanity,” was given by University of Texas Astrophysicist Dr. Craig Wheeler.
I decided to attend the CFI meeting for several reasons. First and foremost, CFI is an atheist community, and atheism can be construed as the exact opposite of my own religion, Christianity. As The Oxford Companion to Philosophy entry on atheism notes, “…[atheist] arguments are usually directed against the Christian concept of God, …show more content…

This movement is generally called New Atheism, and Erika Blair has identified five main “pillars” of the movement, two of which I will focus on here: “(1) faith and belief in human evolution and the finality of the genius of Charles Darwin …. (4) self-realization through knowledge/humanism/morality” (Blair 9). Stephen LeDrew studies “active atheists,” such as those who join groups like CFI, and he asserts that a scientific worldview (“Reply” 466) and morality (“Discovering Atheism” 447) are key aspects of New Atheist belief. I found these pillars and aspects evident at the CFI meeting. In our conversations, my friend Lance has also made comments that reflect some of these

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