Alessandra Soler Meetze has been Executive Director of the ACLU of Arizona since February 2006. She brings nearly eight years of ACLU experience to Arizona, and is the first Latina to head the statewide civil liberties organization. She served as Communications Director of the ACLU’s fifth largest affiliate in Florida, where she was responsible for spearheading statewide public education campaigns. Before joining the ACLU, Meetze worked as a reporter for the Miami Herald, where she covered local government, business, crime and education. She also worked for a brief period at the Roanoke Times in Virginia. Meetze, who is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism, and a minor in Latin American Studies.

Our HSGP member Dr. Geoff Clark gave his fifth talk to our group! Archaeologist and paleoanthropologist Geoffrey A. Clark is the author, co-author or editor of over 250 articles, notes, reviews and comments, and 11 monographs and books on human biological and cultural evolution in ‘deep time’—the past four million years. A University of Chicago Ph.D. (1971), his current interests turn on the logic of inference underlying knowledge claims in the various aspects of modern human origins research (Conceptual Issues in Modern Human Origins Research, co-edited with Cathy Willermet, Aldine de Gruyter [1997]; New Approaches to the Study of Early Upper Paleolithic ‘Transitional’ Industries in Western Eurasia, co-edited with Julien Riel-Salvatore, Archaeopress [2007]) and with applications of neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory in archaeology (Rediscovering Darwin: Evolutionary Theory in Archaeological Explanation, co-edited with C. Michael Barton, American Anthropological Association [1997]). Clark has done fieldwork in Arizona, Mexico, France, Spain, Cyprus, Turkey and Jordan. Other research foci include European Mesolithic forager adaptations (The Mesolithic of the Atlantic Façade, co-edited with Manuel González Morales, ASU Anthropological Research Papers [2004]) and the peopling of the Americas (The Settlement of the American Continents, co-edited with C. Michael Barton, David Yesner and Georges Pearson, University of Arizona Press [2004]). A Regents' Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, Clark has headed the Archeology Division of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), and the Anthropology Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He lectures on race, racism and ethnic conflict; the evolution of human mating; the conflict between religion and science (‘creation science’); human evolution; and modern human origins. A materialist to the core, and a committed evolutionist, he has been concerned lately with the promotion of western science as a conceptual framework for describing and explaining the experiential world, and with contesting the claims of the various anti- and pseudo-science constituencies arrayed against it.

We held our annual elections at this meeting.

The Humanist Book Club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m., Mesa Main Library, Main Branch, 64 East 1st Street (East of Country Club Way at the intersection of N. Centennial Way -- N.W. corner)

From Publishers Weekly:

A former submarine commander in Britain's Royal Navy, Menzies must enjoy doing battle. The amateur historian's lightly footnoted, heavily speculative re-creation of little-known voyages made by Chinese ships in the early 1400s goes far beyond what most experts in and outside of China are willing to assert and will surely set tongues wagging. According to Menzies's brazen but dull account of the Middle Kingdom's exploits at sea, Magellan, Dias, da Gama, Cabral and Cook only "discovered" lands the Chinese had already visited, and they sailed with maps drawn from Chinese charts. Menzies alleges that the Chinese not only discovered America, but also established colonies here long before Columbus set out to sea. Because China burned the records of its historic expeditions led by Zheng He, the famed eunuch admiral and the focus of this account, Menzies is forced to defend his argument by compiling a tedious package of circumstantial evidence that ranges from reasonable to ridiculous. While the book does contain some compelling claims-for example, that the Chinese were able to calculate longitude long before Western explorers-drawn from Menzies's experiences at sea, his overall credibility is undermined by dubious research methods. In just one instance, when confounded by the derivation of cryptic words on a Venetian map, Menzies first consults an expert at crossword puzzles rather than an etymologist. Such an approach to scholarship, along with a promise of more proof to come in the paperback edition, casts a shadow of doubt over Menzies's discoveries. 32 pages of color illus., 27 maps and diagrams.

Richard Carrier is a nationally-renowned author and speaker. As a professional historian, published philosopher, and prominent defender of the American freethought movement, Dr. Carrier has appeared across the country and on national television defending sound historical methods and the ethical worldview of secular naturalism. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University in ancient history, specializing in the intellectual history of Greece and Rome, particularly ancient philosophy, religion, and science, with emphasis on the origins of Christianity and the use and progress of science under the Roman empire. He is best known as the author of Sense and Goodness without God and a major contributor to The Empty Tomb, as well as writer and editor-in-chief (now emeritus) for the Secular Web, and for his copious work in history and philosophy online and in print. He is currently working on his next book, On the Historicity of Jesus Christ, after which he will expand his dissertation for publication as The Scientist in the Early Roman Empire. Visit his website at: http://www.richardcarrier.info/

The Humanist Book Club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m., Mesa Main Library, Main Branch, 64 East 1st Street (East of Country Club Way at the intersection of N. Centennial Way -- N.W. corner)

From Wikipedia:

Letters from the Earth is one of Mark Twain's posthumously published works. The essays were written during a difficult time in Twain's life; he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters. Initially, his daughter, Clara Clemens, objected to its publication in March 1939, probably because of its controversial and iconoclastic views on religion, claiming it presented a "distorted" view of her father. Henry Nash Smith helped change her position in 1960. Clara explained her change of heart in 1962 saying that "Mark Twain belonged to the world." and that public opinion had become more tolerant. She was also influenced to release the papers due to her annoyance with Soviet propaganda charges that her father's ideas were being suppressed in the United States. The papers were edited in 1939 by Bernard DeVoto. The book consists of a series of short stories, many of which deal with God and Christianity. The title story consists of letters written by the archangel Satan to archangels, Gabriel and Michael, about his observations on the curious proceedings of earthly life and the nature of man's religions. Other short stories in the book include a bedtime story about a family of cats Twain wrote for his daughters, and an essay explaining why an anaconda is morally superior to Man.

We viewed a 52-minute DVD sponsored by the American Humanist Association, followed by a brief discussion.

Advertising guru Simon Cole loves his job, his car and his wife, but feels spiritually empty and disconnected. Wondering if he were the only person in America not talking to God, he starts an entertaining personal trip across the country in search of God in different cultures. In encountering the Mormons, Muslims, Jews and Jehovah’s Witnesses of America, So Help Me God is the amusing story of one man’s journey to find a spiritual life and fill the hole he feels his life is missing.

Our property at 627 W. 8th Street in Mesa (between Country Club and Alma School) served as the location for a delightful Fall event as we joined with our fellow Humanists and Freethinkers in an afternoon of fun, food and friends. There were pony rides, a trivia contest, and much more! Hot dogs and soft drinks were provided.

Dr. Ann Kinzig is an Associate Professor at the School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University. Dr. Kinzig received her B.A. in Physics from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (1986), her M.A. in Physics from University of California at Berkeley (1989), and her Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from Berkeley (1994). Before arriving at ASU, Dr. Kinzig was a post-doctoral researcher and lecturer at Princeton University (1994-1998).

Ann Kinzig's research interests focus broadly on ecosystem services, conservation-development interactions, and the resilience of natural-resource systems. She is currently involved in three major research projects, including: (1) Advancing Conservation in a Social Context (examining the trade-offs between conservation and development goals in developing nations); (2) The resilience of pre-historic landscapes in the American Southwest; and (3) Assessments of ecosystem services, their valuation, and mechanisms for ensuring their continued delivery.