A Note on Our January Meeting

This evening's Hastings Humanists meeting went quite well, with eight people in attendance, including one new member, Graham. We held a round-table discussion on "What Does Humanism Mean for You?" and it was evident that we all come from very different backgrounds, some having received a very religious upbringing and others a much freer life. We also considered what other activities we could initiate to have more effect on the community locally.

I think everyone present agreed to pay £5 to become formal members. I must apologise that I failed to get a proper receipt book, or to print out copies of our programme of events. This will be corrected at our next meeting, if not before. We have now opened a bank account in the name of Hastings Humanists.

When I came home I listened to The Essay on Radio 3, and several back issues from earlier in the week. This week it has resumed it's "Enlightenment Voices" sequence, with a series of essays on Spinoza, who was born in 1632, was influenced by the philosophy of Descartes and his followers, and argued for religious tolerance and a rational basis for ethics. The terms of his excommunication by the Jewish authorities in Amsterdam for atheism were quite terrifying, but he seems to have been unperturbed.