Subject: [AthofSV] FW: Toward a New Enlightenment-- World Congress, Amherst, New York

From: "Mark W. Thomas" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2005 16:21:53 -0700

Toward a New Enlightenment, Amherst, New York, October 27-30 2005

      The Center for Inquiry - International    |   www.centerforinquiry.net

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                  Greetings,

                  Toward a New Enlightenment:

                  International Academy of Humanism World Congress,

                  Council for Secular Humanism-25th Anniversary

                  October 27-30, 2005, Amherst, New York

                  The prestigious International Academy of Humanism and the
Council for Secular Humanism are co-sponsoring a World Congress titled
"Toward a New Enlightenment" on October 27-30, 2005. The Congress will
convene at the State University of New York at Buffalo (Amherst Campus) and
the Buffalo Marriott in Amherst. The Congress will bring together
distinguished scientists, academics, and authors from around the world,
representing many countries, including France, the United Kingdom, Poland,
Russia, Spain, Israel, Egypt, Sweden, Greece, and others. They will confront
the moral and scientific challenges facing the world by backward-looking
ideologies and the urgent need to create a new roadmap toward a New
Enlightenment.

                  Congress organizers have said that there are strong
antiscientific forces opposing scientific progress, such as those opposed to
stem-cell research and world population control. These same forces seek to
return morality to a premodern conception of reality-ushering in a new Dark
Age-out of touch with the changing world. The values of the
Enlightenment-which created western ideals such as democracy, liberty, and
freedom of conscience-are being threatened worldwide. The fundamentalist
agenda-in both the east and west-rejects these values wholesale. Antiscience
and anti-intellectualism abound; evangelicals are attempting to supplant
genuine science education in our schools with creationism. The pressing
question is: Can we learn from the lessons of the British and French
Enlightenment and help to bring about a New Enlightenment?

                  Scheduled sessions for the conference include:

                    a.. The Threat of Fundamentalism to Secular Democracy
                    b.. Moral Values Based on Reason
                    c.. The Role of Science and Education in Public Policy
Formation
                    d.. Media Misinformation
                    e.. Can Islam Enter the New Enlightenment?
                    f.. Strategies for Reviving Enlightenment Values
                  Speakers include: Nobel Prize laureates Sir Herman Kroto,
Ph.D., of the United Kingdom, and Herbert Hauptmann, Ph.D., of SUNY Buffalo;
Richard Dawkins, famous author, Charles Simonyi Professor for the
Understanding of Science, Oxford University; Sir Hermann Bondi, University
of Cambridge, co-originator of the steady-state cosmology theory; Prof.
Shulamit Aloni, Tel Aviv University, former Israeli Minister of
Communications; Etienne Baulieu, creator of RU 486 and former president of
the French Academy of Science; Prof. Thomas Szasz, M.D., School of
Psychiatry, SUNY Health Science Center, Syracuse; Prof. Vern Bullough,
California State University; Lionel Tiger, Ph.D., Charles Darwin Professor
of Anthropology, Rutgers University; Prof. Ioanna Kucuradi, Turkey,
President, World Federation of Philosophy; Prof. Antony Flew, famous
philosopher, University of Reading, England; and others.

                  "Intellectual leaders worldwide are dismayed by the
current xenophobic flight from reason and the new irrationalism that
dominates the United States," says Paul Kurtz, President of the
International Academy of Humanism and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at
SUNY-Buffalo. "There is an urgent need to develop a new agenda for the
planetary community, including American ideals."

                  "This Congress will explore principles which we think must
be embraced if modern civilization is to continue to evolve and remain
progressive," said David Koepsell, Executive Director of the Council for
Secular Humanism.

                  General Registration is $ 195.00 per person. Price
includes ALL conference sessions.

                  To register, or for more information, please call the
Council for Secular Humanism at 1-800-458-1366

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