Meets Bi-Monthly on the Second Thursday, 7:00 p.m.
On Thursday, July 11, we’ll be discussing Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker. Using 15 different measures of human progress, like quality of life, knowledge and safety, Pinker provides a holistic view of why the world is getting better for humans across the globe. Warning – this book may challenge your world views! Using 70 graphs, some of which contain as much as 300 years of data, Enlightment Now puts complicated information in a way that is easy to access and understand. To my surprise, it is a “feel good” book. Enlightenment Now celebrates the triumph of reason, science, humanism and progress. All values shared by UU”s. Pinker acknowledges the brave and persistent work of people all over the planet to create a better world. He admits that much human progress has come at great cost to the environment and that humans have a unique global challenge ahead to set things right. He worries that there are all kinds of threats to what humanity has managed to achieve since enlightenment ideas first took hold in the 1700’s, not the least of which is the darker side of human nature. Join us to discuss and challenge the ideas in this book.