Center for Inquiry West

Center for Inquiry West The Center for Inquiry strives to foster a secular society based on reason, science, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values. We fight for the unbeliever, the scientist, and the skeptic whose view the world is based on evidence and reason.
The Center for Inquiry | Los Angeles is an educational nonprofit organization that explores and advances critical thinking, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values through education, outreach, and social services. Please visit our website at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/la.
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The Center for Inquiry | Los Angeles is an educational nonprofit organization that explores and advances critical thinking, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values through education, outreach, and social services. Please visit our website at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/la.

Mission: Center for Inquiry-LA is working to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry and humanist values.

Extended run in the Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater at CFI West! Don't miss it!
03/10/2020
For the Love of a Glove

Extended run in the Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater at CFI West! Don't miss it!

Some much great press! We have rave reviews from LA Weekly, NPR's Weekend Edition, Forbes Magazine , Compton Herald and MORE!
Only six shows left in this run so get on it!

LA Weekly review of For the Love of a Glove, now showing in the Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater at CFI West!
01/27/2020
A Theatrical Take on Michael Jackson’s Life That's Beyond Off The Wall - LA Weekly

LA Weekly review of For the Love of a Glove, now showing in the Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater at CFI West!

Today’s doublespeak world can be perplexing. Quentin Tarantino rewrites the tragedy of the Manson murders into a cheerful award-winning finale, our president tells tall and twisted tales daily, and social media spins everything into multiple layers of distracting dogma and “fake news” (a term ...

Coming in January to the Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater at CFI West!
11/27/2019
Julien Nitzberg Announces His New Musical FOR THE LOVE OF A GLOVE, An Unauthorized Musical Fable About The Life Of Michael Jackson As Told By His Glove

Coming in January to the Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan Theater at CFI West!

Local playwright/filmmaker Julien Nitzberg announced here today that his new work for the theater, FOR THE LOVE OF A GLOVE, AN UNAUTHORIZED MUSICAL FABLE ABOUT THE LIFE OF MICHAEL JACKSON AS TOLD BY HIS GLOVE, will open Friday, January 25, 2020. FOR THE LOVE OF A GLOVE is the inaugural prodution of....

Center for Inquiry West's cover photo
08/27/2019

Center for Inquiry West's cover photo

CFI West Executive Director James Underdown interviews former SNL cast member Jerry Minor for Point of Inquiry
08/23/2019
Jerry Minor - From Jehovah’s Witness to Comedian | Point of Inquiry

CFI West Executive Director James Underdown interviews former SNL cast member Jerry Minor for Point of Inquiry

This week, Point of Inquiry welcomes actor, comedian, and former Jehovah's Witness, Jerry Minor. Minor has been a cast member and writer on Saturday Night Live and appeared on HBO's Mr. Show and various other television and film spots throughout his career. He joins Jim Underdown to di ...

Julia Sweeney is back in Los Angeles! Have a listen...
07/25/2019
Julia Sweeney on Atheism, Saturday Night Live, and Me Too | Point of Inquiry

Julia Sweeney is back in Los Angeles! Have a listen...

Julia Sweeney joins the show to discuss SNL, her catholic faith after the passing of her brother, how CFI and Carl Sagan helped her become an atheist, and her conflicting opinions surrounding The Me Too movement after her good friend, Al Franken was accused of misconduct.

Skeptical Inquirer
04/10/2019
Skeptical Inquirer

Skeptical Inquirer

See a black hole for the first time in a historic image from the Event Horizon Telescope

Center for Inquiry West
02/25/2019

Center for Inquiry West

Tonight! On National Geographic Explorer.(Check your local listings.)The Independent Investigations Group squares off w...
12/10/2018

Tonight! On National Geographic Explorer.
(Check your local listings.)

The Independent Investigations Group squares off with flat earthers.

It says TV PG, so they must have done some editing...

Call your Senators: The #JohnsonAmendment protects our democracy from religious electioneering. No sneaky budget deal sh...
12/04/2018
Protect the Johnson Amendment! | Center for Inquiry

Call your Senators: The #JohnsonAmendment protects our democracy from religious electioneering. No sneaky budget deal should block enforcement of this law!

https://centerforinquiry.org/alerts/protect-the-johnson-amendment/

Dear Friend, Earlier this year, you helped us protect the Johnson Amendment from repeal by the religious right. But the fight isn’t over yet. The Johnson Amendment is the federal law that prevents nonprofit organizations, such as churches and groups like the Center for Inquiry, from endorsing ca ....

Center for Inquiry West
10/19/2018

Center for Inquiry West

Today is #OpenlySecularDay! You can also add an Openly Secular Day frame to your profile pictures using the link in the ...
10/19/2018

Today is #OpenlySecularDay! You can also add an Openly Secular Day frame to your profile pictures using the link in the post below this one.

Happy #OpenlySecularDay everyone! How can you participate or celebrate today? Here are a few ideas. Check out more at openlysecular.org/osd!

#OSD2018

Openly Secular
10/19/2018

Openly Secular

Today is #OpenlySecularDay! Show off your secular pride by adding this frame to your profile picture!

Center for Inquiry West's cover photo
10/19/2018

Center for Inquiry West's cover photo

Watch our video about why CFI is suing CVS!
07/31/2018
Why Are We Suing CVS? | Center for Inquiry

Watch our video about why CFI is suing CVS!

Homeopathy is fake medicine. It doesn’t treat or cure anything. It’s based on junk science. But retailers and pharmacies will sell it to you anyway. The Center for Inquiry is taking a stand and suing CVS for fraud.

07/19/2018
CSICon - Skeptical Inquirer Conference

Register now for CSICON 2018 in Las Vegas! Featuring Stephen Fry, Yvette d'Entremont, James Randi, and more!

The 2019 CSICon Conference schedule includes Plenary Sessions, Workshops, Special Events, Magic Shows, Halloween Costume Party and more!

Center for Inquiry West
07/19/2018

Center for Inquiry West

Profile Pictures
06/21/2018

Profile Pictures

Center for Inquiry West's cover photo
06/19/2018

Center for Inquiry West's cover photo

Center for Inquiry West's cover photo
02/15/2018

Center for Inquiry West's cover photo

Center for Inquiry
02/23/2017
Center for Inquiry

Center for Inquiry

“This is a callous and spiteful act on the part of the President. The basic rights of our most vulnerable students should not be left to the whims of states and individual localities,” said Nicholas Little, CFI’s Vice President and General Counsel. “The resulting patchwork quilt of regulations will subject transgender students in much of the country to discrimination by school administrations, and leave them unprotected from bullying by fellow students and school employees.”

Center for Inquiry
01/30/2017
Center for Inquiry

Center for Inquiry

“This executive order has no basis in facts, reason, or human decency,” said Michael De Dora, CFI’s domestic and international policy director. “Not a single terrorist attack in the U.S. traces back to any of the seven countries named in the order. Yet people fleeing certain countries on the list — including Syria, Yemen, and Iraq — are trying to escape humanitarian crises that the United States had a hand in creating. Now we are going to shut the door on them? That is simply shameful behavior.”

Need a little physics tune-up from Cal Tech's Sean Carroll?Have a look. It's both accessible and fascinating!
08/09/2016
Atheists United @AtheistsUnited

Need a little physics tune-up from Cal Tech's Sean Carroll?

Have a look. It's both accessible and fascinating!

@seanmcarroll - The Big Picture @center4inquiry — Los Angeles, CA, United States

Center for Inquiry West's cover photo
05/19/2016

Center for Inquiry West's cover photo

03/30/2016

*Cafe tonight CANCELLED*

Due to concurrent events and the unavailability of the back-up PA system following the recent theft of our theater soundboard, we regret to inform you that we have cancelled Café Inquiry tonight and the showing of DVD episodes from lectures by Neil deGrasse Tyson on The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries. We will show those episodes at a future Café Inquiry.

03/04/2016
David J. Morris - The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Video of Cafe Inquiry with David J. Morris discussing post-traumatic stress disorder is now on Youtube! Thanks for recording and uploading, Carl Wong!

Post-traumatic stress disorder haunts America today, its reach extending far beyond the armed forces to touch the lives of millions of us. In a special Café ...

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The Center for Inquiry West is an educational nonprofit organization that explores and advances critical thinking, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values through education, outreach, and social services. Please visit our website at http://www.centerforinquiry.net/la.

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Hey Jim and Alice! Maybe CFI folks would be interested in the Big Debate over Michael Moore's new doc, Planet of the Humans at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1703133273251795/permalink/2744085375823241/
https://facebook.com/events/s/death-valley-secular-star-part/125344105470390/?ti=cl
New Tweet: Agree? Richard Dawkins @RichardDawkins · 13h It’s one thing to deplore eugenics on ideological, political, moral grounds. It’s quite another to conclude that it wouldn’t work in practice. Of course it would. It works for cows, horses, pigs, dogs & roses. Why on earth wouldn’t it work for humans? Facts ignore ideology.
Where are the Neanderthals? Wm Barr, Att Gen USA, says: "Scholarship suggests that religion has been integral to the development and thriving of Homo sapiens since we emerged roughly 50,000 years ago." https://youtu.be/IM87WMsrCWM?t=1608 Of course, Barr is relying on the "scholarship" of the experts at the The Creation Museum, in Petersburg, Kentucky, where photographs of Homer Simpson riding dinosaurs prove Barr's case beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Most Vital 773 Words Ever Written ? The Purpose of Life …is Life The sole purpose of life, and therefore our only human purpose may simply be, life itself. That, upon reflection, would appear to be enough. The life force does have its urges though, lots of them, it would appear. After countless eons of self-replication along came sexual reproduction, life had apparently gotten to be in somewhat more of a hurry. Life then pursued bigger and better forms of itself as mobility, size, vision etc. ensued over time. Vision was unique and a promising end in itself, but life appeared to desire a different platform with which to fully employ this new sense. Many prototypes came and went, and eventually on the scene appeared humankind complete with a newly acquired awareness. Whence came then, this thing, this awareness, this brightness in the void, now so cherished by life our very species could be made forfeit to preserve it? Perhaps it was the animal curiosity of some lumbering hominids possessed of sufficient cranial matter that chanced upon a source. The menu of vegetable suspects is quite large. The plants, cacti, mushrooms and vines that possess the chemical soups that have the ability, and perhaps desire to exert themselves aggressively when combined with suitable host brain, is legion. We currently regard these substances as “mind altering” but could they perhaps have been “mind creating” at some remote point in time? Students of psychedelic phenomenon have reported a tendency among this family of substances to exhibit a strong urge to promote its own agenda over the host consciousness at times. Life, in this way, may have introduced the initial spark of awareness in receptive hominid brains with suitable vegetable matter containing psychedelic chemical ingredients. Imagine the wonder this revelation surely produced in a previously unconscious world. The binges and quest for more light shows that followed in the still only partially illuminated minds of these creatures must have been incredible. Perhaps this initial visitation of consciousness onto a receptive human brain and the incredible awakening produced therein is responsible for the ongoing human quest for enlightenment. Our species has demonstrated a universal affinity for various visions, ecstasies and raptures and they have been zealously sought for millennia. Perhaps then, a racial memory of, and longing for a return to that original staggering event gives impetus to the universal spiritual quests we humans faithfully follow to this day Eventually something went wrong between human beings and the life force. Life lives on by consuming itself but the feasting is benign. Humans often miss this subtlety. We know large portions of the recent history of our species and it's not very good. Considering our history, can we begin to significantly amend our ways if life demands a timely accounting? If and when life decides we have exhausted all possibility of further usefulness, and our excesses overwhelm life's other vital interests, do we then risk severance of the thread with life? Should we begin to tug ever more gently at this tether to lessen our risk? Does life even care about the fate of us, its creature? Probably not, countless other species have traveled along on life's quest, prospered to a degree and vanished. Will we join them? Of course it is possible life may now be providing itself with a non-life fallback to the dilemma posed by our misuse of awareness and consciousness. If humankind becomes suspect of probable catastrophic losses to many of its other progeny, life then may seek to substitute Artificial Intelligence for flawed human intelligence. We, ourselves, may rapidly be creating the instruments for our future replacement with life's resigned encouragement. Life may value this tediously acquired awareness beyond all measure. More the pity for humankind. These phenomena are unique on the planet; life, the life force and the awareness/consciousness of one primate species. What we regard as ultimate reality is simply the stories we tell ourselves and others combined with whatever actions humans are capable of accomplishing. Humanity must now learn to live with 5 Gigabit technology becoming a reality and should perhaps begin to wonder which future Gigabit number will be the one to provide the artificial intelligence and awareness deemed sufficient by the life force to render human beings redundant if it chooses to do so? Could we, perhaps, change our behavior? Robert Magill [email protected] Note: (I used logical simplicity a.la Einstein but could not include freedom since the life force on our planet appears to be a closed system. The premise is advanced without a prior model and with the near certainty of rejection because worldwide left hemispheric lateralisation resists right brain grounding.)
My Fellow CFI Members! Can Trump’s Appointment to the Federal Bench be Annulled? First, it seems clear to me that the US Constitution is not only a secular document, but it is strictly secular. For example, Art 1, s 8: The Congress shall have power … To promote the progress of science and useful arts. First Amd: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion Art 2, s 1, gives a secular alternative to the Presidential Oath; that is, by “Oath or Affirmation.” (Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.") Finally, in Art 6 the same secular alternative Oath is given to other federal and state officers, including “judicial officers.” And most importantly is this clause: “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” (The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.) So, my question is this: If it can be proven that President Trump used a “religious test” in his selection of “judicial officers,” and the Senate was knowingly complicit in this practice, can each appointment made in this manner be annulled, or declared a nullity, by Congress with a different president in office, or by a federal court in a lawsuit? Bill Kelleher
Secular Coalition Founder and President Emeritus Herb Silverman will be speaking at two upcoming events in California beginning tomorrow. Would Society Be Better Off Without Religion? An Atheist and a Christian Discuss Wednesday, January 30th 7:30-9:00pm in the PAC. Doors open at 7:00p.m Cal Poly Performing Arts Center 1 Grand Ave, San Luis Obispo, CA 93405 Candidate Without a Prayer - a talk by Dr. Herb Silverman Thursday, January 31, 7:30 pm Senior Citizens Center-San Luis 1445 Santa Rosa St, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
I spent a great evening with friendly, funny, smart people at the Nov. LA CFI Skeptics Book Club meeting. I also got to introduce my new book & it was suggested I post it here… “THE MAN WITH THE LIST: A Picture Book For Grown-Up Skeptics, Freethinkers, Realists, Doubters, Questioners, Agnostics, Atheists or Anyone Who Can’t Believe In The Unbelievable.” You can “Look Inside" at amazon.com/dp/1722825421 (& share the link if you like). Many thanks! twitter @ManWithList
Tickets on sale at https://atheistblackwoman.brownpapertickets.com/
Hello I'm #DangerMan I Love the work you do!, How can I help?
A classic example of Norman design was advertised as being in my perfect condition with my blue blood and aristocracy. I was born in the March of Pannonia, to the north, FRANKISH MOUNTAIN is bordered by the Danube river, was a frontier march of the Carolingian Empire, named after the former Roman province of Pannonia. Sirmium was an important city in the Roman Empire. It was the ECONOMIC CAPITAL of Roman Pannonia and one of four capital cities of the Empire. Ten Roman Emperors were born in this city or in its surroundings: Herennius Etruscus (227-251), Hostilian (230?-251), Decius Traian (249-251), Claudius II (268-270), Quintillus (270), Aurelian (270-275), Probus (276-282), Maximianus Herculius (285-310), Constantius II (337-361) and Gratian (367-383). Either as a concession to the Senate, or perhaps with the idea of improving PUBLIC MORALITY, PATRICIAN Decius endeavored to revive the separate office and authority of the CENSOR as the PLAGUE OF CYPRIAN (the bishop of Carthage), where both the plague and the persecution of Christians were especially severe. According to other sources, however, PATRICIAN Probus was killed by disgruntled soldiers, who rebelled against his orders to be employed for civic purposes, like DRAINING MARSHES. After the murder of Probus at Sirmium, USURPER Carus was proclaimed emperor by the soldiers (mithras). THE CRISIS OF THE THIRD CENTURY, also known as Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis, (AD 235–284) was a period in which THE ROMAN EMPIRE nearly collapsed under the combined pressures of invasion, civil war, plague, and economic depression. In any event, both Non-Frankish-Germanic and Slavic pagans ultimately became the LINGUA FRANCA in the Avar Khaganate. I am very proud of my ancestry of Norman-French Crusader, after the collapse of the Charlemagne (Carolingian) Empire caused by the Vikings romped to victory to be called the blend of Viking and Frank by the name of my surname SAVATE and then during the First Crusade.