Speakers

Join us in celebrating the legacy of Charles Darwin and his commitment to reason and inquiry for our annual Darwin Day, and engage with our honorary speaker, James Croft, about the evolution of religion. (February 12th at 6pm in Margaret Morrison 103) Religion has always...

Author of The Happiness Hypothesis, The Righteous Mind, and The Coddling of the American Mind and acclaimed Professor of Psychology at NYU, Jonathan Haidt, will be honored this Tuesday at 5pm for our annual Sagan Day. In a time of rising cross-partisan hatred, when social...

Join us at 5:30pm on Thursday April 11 in Porter Hall 100 to hear Suzanne Braun Levine discuss how the world has changed for women and men since the first issue of Ms. Magazine – with Wonder Woman on the cover – hit the newsstands....

Does college make you liberal? Is American academia a bastion of leftist groupthink or an enclave that produces free-thinking, progressive intellectuals? Evidence from Sociology and History suggests not — but finds that academic liberalism has become a self-reproducing phenomenon. Neil Gross is the Charles A....

Join us for a fresh look at the miracles of the Bible through the lens of modern science with Clay Farris Naff. The results are truly surprising. Upon closer examination, some “miracles” such as the resurrection emerge as plausible, while others such as the story...

Autonomy, Conciousness, & Responsibility What is science telling us about our human abilities and frailties, and does this have revolutionary implications for our traditional ideas of moral responsibility, praise and blame, reward and punishment? Some eminent thinkers have surmised that “free will is an illusion”...

Come hear from two members of the Steel City Satantists and learn about what Satanism really is, and how they came to their beliefs. Santanism in short is a religious belief system centered around empowering communities and dismantling injustices through compassionate action. Join us Thursday...

Women, Beauty, and the Therapeutic Narrative A long overdue awareness of the punishing nature of our beauty standards has finally arrived; but its accompanying narrative that women don’t like their appearance pushes other experiences beauty out of the conversation. Join us this Thursday March 22...

The son of an Evangelical pastor, Bart Campolo spent thirty years in Christian Ministry before leaving religion. Now Bart continues to work as a community builder and pastoral care provider as the Humanist Chaplain at the University of Cincinnati. Join us on February 6th at...

Join us on Tuesday November 7th for Carl Sagan Fest, our annual celebration of science and human values! This year, the internationally renowned biologist and public intellectual Richard Dawkins will receive the CMU Humanism Initiative’s Carl Sagan Award. The CMU community will have a chance...

Learn how to make reason — not fear, cynicism, or rage — the loudest voice in the room! Leave with the skills, tools, and knowledge to have meaningful political conversations that generate insights without ideological food fights. The HearYourselfThink method helps people see past media...

Ari Berman charts both the transformation of American democracy under the Voting Rights Act and the counterrevolution that has sought to limit voting rights from 1965 to the present day. The act enfranchised millions of Americans and is widely regarded as the crowning achievement of...

On this Monday February 20 at 4:30pm in Margaret Morrison 103, the Humanist League will be hosting Lee McIntyre to speak about the role of truth in our society: Many say that we are now entering the ‘post-truth’ era. From fake news to outright lying...

The Past, Present, and Future of Violence “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” - Carl Sagan Join us for the Humanist League’s annual Carl Sagan Fest, a celebration of learning and reflection complete with apple...

On Being a Woman in Hezbollah Culture On Wednesday, October 5th from 4:30-5:30pm in Margaret Morrison A14, the Humanist League will be hosting Hiba Krisht, who will be speaking about the realities of a woman growing up in a fundamentalist Muslim culture. Since Muslim communities...

A Dialogue between a Christian, a Humanist, and a Hindu This Thursday, March 31 from 4:30-6:30 in CUC Rangos Ballroom, the Humanist League, Student Life Office, Inter-Fellowship Association, and CMU OM are putting on an Interfaith Forum. On Good and Evil, and Why It Matters,...

Jennifer Michael Hecht is a poet, historian, and commentator. Her newest book is Stay: A History of Suicide and the Arguments Against It. She also authored the bestseller Doubt: A History, a history of religious and philosophical doubt all over the world, and The Happiness...

This Tuesday (January 26), we are hosting a film screening of “A Better Life” with the director, Chris Johnson. The documentary film tackles the question of how non-religious people find meaning and purpose in a world without God. Please join us from 5:00 to 7:00...

Come enjoy some apple pie and celebrate science education at Sagan Fest! The event is held annually to celebrate Carl Sagan’s contributions to science outreach and education. This year’s speaker, Dr. Massimo Pigliucci, is a biologist and philosopher of science, and he will be speaking...

The Humanist League is proud to be sponsoring Alice Dreger, activist and author of Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science to speak at CMU on October 21st at 5:30 pm on “Why the Pursuit of Evidence is the Most...

Climate Change: Where we are and what we can do about it This Thursday, the day after the International Earth Day, the Humanist League is hosting a speaker event, where Neil Donahue, Lord Professor of Chemistry and Director of Steinbrenner Institute, will speak on the...

A talk by Chip Walter, and an award for Humanist League The annual Darwin Day is here. We invited journalist and author, Chip Walter, to give a talk on human evolution and its importance to us today. We are also receiving the University Award for...

How Ethics is More Like Science Than You Think Many people consider morality a matter of subjective, emotional preference, or of unarguable faith. Yet ethical inquiry is (or can be) comparably rational in form to sciences. In this presentation I will point out the formal...

A talk on critical thinking and skepticism Instead of a meeting, this Tuesday we present a talk by Hemant Mehta, editor of the popular Friendly Atheist blog, on how we can all improve our skeptical abilities.

It’s finally here! Our signature event of the semester will be held this Friday. Join us for a campus-wide celebration of science and human values, and to commemorate the life and works of scientist and humanist, Carl Sagan. We have two exciting and engaging speakers...

Jointly with Aha!, the Humanist League presents The Science of Fiction - how stories make us human, a talk by author and scholar Jonathan Gottschall. This Tuesday, instead of a discussion, we will be meeting 5pm at 136A Adamson Wing, CMU Baker Hall to learn...

Why Live With God’s Sexual Hang-Ups? The sexual morality of traditional religion tends to be based, not on solid ethical principles, but on a set of taboos about what kinds of sex God does and doesn’t want people to have. And while the sex-positive community...

Carl Sagan believed that empirical science should be used wherever possible to broaden our understanding of the universe and lend clarity to the human condition, even if it means occasionally treading on sacred ground. In his new book The Way of Science, author Dennis Trumble...

Science and Bayesianism in everyday life One of science’s biggest strengths is its ability to change its mind when new evidence comes to light. Unfortunately, we as individuals don’t often live up to that ideal – even scientists aren’t perfect at changing their minds, and...