Tag Archives: events

Special event: Dr. Jared M. Diamond on “How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed”

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School is out, and SHAFT has not met as a group this summer. I would like to see 8: The Mormon Proposition together, but there is also an event being hosted by the Salt Lake Valley Atheists that we can attend. On July 4th, at 11:30 AM at Sizzler (371 E 400 S, SLC), they will watch a video about Dr. Jared M. Diamond’s book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. He examines what caused some great civilizations and cultures like Polynesian Easter Island, Anasazi, Maya and the Viking colony on Greenland to collapse.

I am excited for this event. You may remember Dr. Diamond from his Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Guns, Germs, and Steel.

It is unclear to me whether Diamond himself will make an appearance or if we’ll just watch a documentary of his. Either way, this promises to be a great event. I’ll keep you posted about the details as they become available. In the meantime, please visit the Facebook event page for more info.

Atheist bake sale!

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Tomorrow (Tuesday) SHAFT will be on the TSC patio selling baked goods from 10:00 AM to 2:30 PM. This event was very successful last year, and I hope it continues to be a SHAFT tradition in the future.

All proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders. So please stop by, enjoy a treat, and contribute to a good cause!

And if you would like to make some stuff for the table (cookies, brownies, etc.), it would be greatly appreciated. Just remember that all goods must be individually wrapped.

Department of Science Hosts Robert Lang

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I just got this email from the computer science mailing list:

This Friday, the College of Science is hosting Dr. Robert Lang, who
will be visiting USU to talk about the connections between
mathematics, science and art through origami folding.  Robert is a graduate of Caltech in engineering and applied physics, and  the recipient of their Distinguished Alumni Award.

While he is here on campus, we’ve arranged for some informal time for students and faculty to visit with Robert and talk about his career and current activities.  It  should be of interest to students and faculty alike.  Please join us:

—> Dr. Robert J. Lang
—> FRIDAY, 2 April 2010
—> 3:00 – 4:30pm
—> College of Science Conference Room, ESLC 245D

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Carpooling and Club Business

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Just a quick post, then we’ll get back to the fun stuff:

♦ UofU’s SHIFT is bringing Austin Dacey, a former UN representative for the Center for Inquiry,  to their campus to give a talk! So we thought we’d organize a carpool to go down there and support our fellows while enjoying a good speaker. The event starts promptly at 4pm on February 27, a Saturday. If you can provide rides or just want to tag along (and split gas :D ) please comment here or on Facebook with your status as a driver/rider.

♦ Would you like to be a guest blogger for USU SHAFT? Just contact us through Facebook or at info@usu-shaft.com it may take us a while to get back to you, but we’ll get there.

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Meaning in a godless universe

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Tomorrow (Wednesday, December 2nd) will be SHAFT’s last event of the semester. SHAFT member and philosophy major Aaron Orlovitz will be giving a presentation on whether one can have meaning or purpose in life without God. Aaron is a brilliant guy and has invested a lot of time into this presentation, so you won’t want to miss it!

The event is Wednesday @ 5:00 PM in Old Main 117. Again, it’s our last event, so let’s make it count.

Countdown to Collision

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*Please note the room change!

SHAFT is proud to premiere the documentary Collision next Wednesday (Oct. 28th) in Engineering 302 (the new room) at 5:00 PM.

To learn more about this movie, refer to the previous post. In short, it’s a docudrama following the debates between atheist author Christopher Hitchens and pastor Douglas Wilson.

Be sure to bring along your theist friends—it will be fun for people to cheer on their respective camps (atheism, Christianity) in this debate/docudrama.

Snacks will also be provided (but if you can contribute some, please do!).

I smell a potential SHAFT event…

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Next Tuesday, October 27th, the documentary Collision: Is Christianity Good for the World? will be released. It follows noted atheist writer Christopher Hitchens and his rhetorical punching bag, Pastor Douglas Wilson. These two personalities have debated each other across the country, and the best of those debates have been distilled into this critically-acclaimed documentary.

I’ve ordered a copy of the documentary. If it gets here in time, we may watch it for next week’s social. I think it would make for a great joint event, as well—we could invite FOCUS, the Religious Studies Club, and the Philosophy Club. Yet another reason why this would make a great event is that I’m working on getting Hitchens to speak at USU next semester. This film may gin up some interest in and support for that effort.

Below is the trailer. Let me know what you think.

In the Beginning, God…

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On Tuesday, October 13th in Old Main 115 at 7:30 PM, there will be a presentation entitled “In the Beginning, God…A Limited Perspective Examining Science and Faith” by Dr. Tricia Shepherd, a chemistry professor of Westminster College. The presentation is being hosted by FOCUS (the Christian student group) and they’ve invited us to attend.

I (and several other SHAFTers) have attended FOCUS meetings throughout the semester. I think it’s important that we foster a friendship with them, as it furthers a healthy religious dialogue. So try to make it to this event if you can—it should be a really interesting talk.