Video of Programs (search and sort)

Winners of the HGP Del Allen Memorial Scholarship
06/29/2025
Dakota Mears, Shahzad Khosravi & Abigail La Brie

The Scholarship Committee (Amanda Feller and Sue Pearce chairs) felt hope and optimism in adjudicating 27 high school essays submitted from across the Metro area. From FH, we’ll hear how these thoughtful, forthright, and earnest individuals think about their futures as informed by Humanism. Dakota Mears, 1st place, responded to the prompt "How might Humanism as a philosophy help you navigate a personal challenge in your life?” Shahzad Khosravi, 2nd, responded to "How can the application of Humanism serve a particular field or organization (e.g, your possible career interests)?” And Abigail La Brie, in 3rd, responded to "Is there a threat from religious fundamentalism to the U.S. democracy and U.S. governance? …How does Humanism respond to those threats?"

The Shadow Gospel in Education
06/15/2025
Whitney Phillips & Mark Brockway

 

People often blame the chaotic precarious political landscape in the US on polarization and culture wars, with the wars playing out in the classrooms and campuses. Instead, Whitney Phillips and Mark Brockway argue that the seeming left-right battle is the result of 80 years of densely overlapping religious and secular messages that have transformed how we see education. Whitney Phillips is Ass’t Prof. of Inf. Politics and Media Ethics at the U of O, and author of You Are Here and Share Better and Stress Less. Mark Brockway is Assistant Teaching Professor in Pol. Sci. at Syracuse University.

 

Issues Facing our Beloved Forest Park
06/08/2025
Will Aitchison

 

Our speaker, Will Aitchison, will lead us through stages of Forest Park, from formation through the adoption in 1995 of the Forest Park Natural Resources Management Plan to restore “ancient forest”, and the city’s subsequent failure to conduct necessary scientific studies of the park. He’ll cover development pressures on the Park from mountain biking and PGE, and list organizations protecting the park, ending with a look to the future. Will Aitchison is a labor lawyer, long-time Willamette Heights resident, and president of the Coalition to Protect Forest Park.

 

The Neurobiology of Religious Experiences (updated)
05/25/2025
Dr. Sarah Strand

 

Dr. Sarah Strand returns to discuss the neurobiological basis of out-of-body experiences (OBEs), beginning with a description and testimony given by those who have had an OBE, then a brief tour of the brain and the neuroanatomy responsible for OBEs. While OBEs are not always interpreted as religious, there is a compelling neurobiological explanation for why they often are. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of the implications of these findings on the role of religion in the lives of individuals as well as in our worldwide community.  Dr. Strand is an associate lecturer in the Psychology Department at California State University, Sacramento. She received her Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has been lecturing about religion and neuroscience since 2010. In 2019, she created a Psychology of Religion course for Sacramento State, and in 2022, extended her teaching to Finland and Sweden.

 

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