"Birth Of The Earth" Highlights CFI Fall Season
The following article is from the Secular
Humanist Bulletin, Volume 13, Number 1.
The Center for Inquiry -
International in Amherst, New York, headquarters of the Council
for Secular Humanism, has hosted distinguished speakers twice a month during late
summer and fall. The best-attended of these was October 23's "Birth of the
Earth" party. According to 17th-century bishop James Ussher, the exact date of
Creation could be determined by calculating the lifespans of Old Testament patriarchs.
Ussher's conclusion that the earth began on October 23, 4004 B.C. was accepted throughout
Christendom for centuries.
On the 6000th anniversary of that auspicious date, the Center for Inquiry - International held
a light hearted birthday bash. The main seminar room was decked out with balloons. There
were two birthday cakes - a sheet cake for flat-earthers and a round cake for everyone
else. Special guests included Charles Darwin (expertly played by Clyde Herried) and Noah
(defensibly played by Tim Madigan). H. James Birx, professor of anthropology at Canisius
College and director of the Alliance of
Secular Humanist Societies (ASHS), squeezed in some serious reflections on the power
of Darwinism and the threats it faces in today's increasingly credulous world.
Other highlights of the fall season included a rare US screening of Christopher
Hitchens's critical documentary on Mother Teresa; a cornucopia of dubious medical devices
presented by quackery expert Olgierd Lindan, M.D.; and a Friday, December 13 superstition
bash and winter solstice party that garnered canned goods for area secular charities.
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