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.

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 "Booklist":

A historian of science, Freely chronicles the transmission of scientific ideas from ancient Greece and Rome to an early modern Europe on the cusp of the scientific revolution. Many ancients’ notions about nature were, Freely recounts, preserved from oblivion by scholars based in centers of Islamic learning such as Baghdad, Cairo, and Cordoba. Before reaching those destinations, Freely profiles the Greek sages, enumerating their surviving works and what information they held about mathematics, astronomy, and medicine, among other subjects. Leaving behind a roster of names that is likely familiar to the core audience, Freely’s account then addresses Islamic rulers, such as the first caliphs of the Abbasid dynasty around 800, who sponsored translations into Arabic of Greek texts. Freely ranges over the names of Islamic scholars so occupied, who served as arks for Greek science, and of original thinkers who formulated such topics as algebra, all of which reached the West in the cultural diffusion Freely describes. A sinuous odyssey through scientific ideas, Freely’s work will most appeal to tastes for intellectual history. --Gilbert Taylor

HSGP member Dr. Harvey Turner was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1932. His undergraduate work was at Columbia University, where he majored in psychology and contemporary civilization. He attended medical school at University of Berne, Switzerland. That was followed by an internship in 1960 and general surgery residency in Brooklyn, NY and thoracic surgery residency in Boston, MA. Dr. Turner has been an Arizona resident since 1987 and is on several hospital ethics committees. He taught medical ethics at Gateway Community College for several years. Dr. Turner retired from active practice in 2000.