Leicester Secular Society

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Leicester Secular Society
OP - November 11, 2015, 08:40 AM
Hi All,

My name is John Catt and I'm treasurer of Leicester Secular Society which is the first secular society in the world and the only one that still has its own purpose built hall. We were established many years before the National Secular Society. You can find some of our history at w w w. Lsec .org.uk (remove spaces). The Hall was built because back in the 19th century the Church of England prevented freethinkers in the area from hiring halls. We aim to provide a friendly environment and space for free speech and thought. If there are any of you who would like to form a group in the East Midlands using the Hall we would be pleased to provide space at no cost while you get established subject to the rooms not already being booked.

If you don't want to make it too obvious that you are meeting, we have a smaller room that you could use while we hold our normal talks - you can see our typical programmes on the website.

If anyone is wants any more details please get in touch using exmuslims@leicestersecularsociety.org.uk or post here.

The Society is committed to:
- creating a civil society that is for everyone equally, that promotes respect
  for individual human rights and encourages trust and co-operation between those sharing these values;
- opposing policies that emphasise religious identity and allow religious discrimination or indoctrination in education and social services;
- opposing religious privilege and the promotion of any religion by the state.
Hope we might be able to help.
Regards,
John
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Reply #1 - November 11, 2015, 08:47 AM

Welcome to CEMB. Have a parrot.

`But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
`Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: `we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.'
`How do you know I'm mad?' said Alice.
`You must be,' said the Cat, `or you wouldn't have come here.'
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Reply #2 - November 11, 2015, 11:07 AM

Welcome - have two parrots (well lorikeets actually) snapped by my other half who hails from down your way. I was interested in the historic titbits you mentioned about your society being so old.
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Reply #3 - November 11, 2015, 11:38 AM

Welcome I went to a couple of meetings at the secular hall a long time ago. It's good to see it's still going.

Which side are you on?
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Reply #4 - November 12, 2015, 04:08 PM

I am in Leicester and would like to take advantage of this if there were others willing to come out. As far as I know I'm the only Leicester bod on here. :/

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
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Reply #5 - November 12, 2015, 05:42 PM

You guys in your weird country pronounce Leicester wrong. Here in America, we pronounce it "Lie-chester", it's the name of the county where the Pennsylvania Dutch (Quakers and Mennonites) live. They're not actually Dutch, they're "Deustch", but we have called them Dutch in our proud tradition of refusing to speak foreign. They live a rather cloistered life and so they still speak English with a German accent after all these years.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I have a sonic screwdriver, a tricorder, and a Type 2 phaser.
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Reply #6 - November 13, 2015, 07:56 AM

"Lie-chester"? Sounds like a place where you might get boob enhancements.

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
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Reply #7 - November 13, 2015, 08:35 AM

Quote from: Gandalf on November 13, 2015, 07:56 AM
"Lie-chester"? Sounds like a place where you might get boob enhancements.

Psh...at least we recognize that there's a C in there, why not just cut out the "eic" if you're going to call it Lester anyway?

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I have a sonic screwdriver, a tricorder, and a Type 2 phaser.
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Reply #8 - November 13, 2015, 09:58 AM

Putting aside your use of OUR language I am currently learning to speak Irish. You want to gripe about pronunciation? Irish will drive you nuts!

Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.
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Reply #9 - November 13, 2015, 11:49 AM

We also took out a lot of unnecessary letters...like an "i" in aluminum, an "o" in airplane and esophagus, a "u" in tons of words like humor and labor, and like half the letters in donut. There is actually a reason for all the differences--when reading came to the masses, there was a need to standardize texts pretty quickly, and the people in America and Britain had different philosophies when it came to that. Webster, who did our dictionary, felt that education should be accessible to everyone and therefore spelling should be kept as simple as possible. Johnson, who did the British dictionary, felt that it was more important to keep with tradition and legacy and therefore used what he felt were the most historically accurate spellings.

And Canada was just like, "Eh? Are you two fighting? We'll just sit over here and speak French and hope this blows over..."
_{I'm working hard to keep that jester cap away from asbie}

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I have a sonic screwdriver, a tricorder, and a Type 2 phaser.
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Reply #10 - November 13, 2015, 03:15 PM

You're doing a good job. Your visual illustrations never fail to amuse me

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Reply #11 - November 15, 2015, 01:57 PM

Welcome to the forum, John,
Good to see you here.

I'm a member of the Leicester Secular Society and attend some of the talks, although I live in a different town. The people at the society are intelligent and very knowledgeable on matters of secularism and social justice. I've learnt a lot not just from the talks but also from speaking with members afterwards over tea and biscuits.

To any ex-Muslim from Leicester or the surrounding towns, if you want to meet me, just turn up to one of the talks. There is a chance you will meet me or one of the other ex-Muslims. There have been meetups in Midlands but I haven't been to any. I can envisage a time when there are enough ex-Muslims in Leicester to organise regular parties at the Secular Hall. We have the perfect venue.

"Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so." -- Bertrand Russell

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Reply #12 - November 15, 2015, 09:56 PM

Welcome John
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Reply #13 - July 10, 2016, 02:37 PM

Looking forward to coming over for next week's event, John!

The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views. Which can be uncomfortable if you're one of the facts that needs altering
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