Name: Human hearted community of practice (COP)
Start: 2024-10-06T00:30:00.000Z
End: 2024-10-06T02:00:00.000Z
Location: Darling Square Library

Film starts at 2:00 p.m. at the Regal Twin. No tickets have been prebooked. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1TycuGX4Mw

#ghostlight

**Directed by** Alex Thompson, Kelly O'Sullivan
**Starring** Dolly de Leon, Keith Kupferer, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Tara Mallen, Hanna Dworkin
Regal Graceville.

When a construction worker unexpectedly joins a local theater's production of Romeo and Juliet, the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life.

We will meet after the screening to discuss the film over an early light dinner.

Humanists Brisbane

Dr Neville Buch

Susan Waring

Samuelu Fiaali'i

2024 Film and Dinner Discussion: September event. Ghostlight at 2.00 p.m.

Regal Graceville — Five Star Cinemas

This month the talented painter in our group, Rosemary, will introduce the topic of Art and Values. We hope you'll join us.

This discussion group covers a broad and varied range of topics, but there's a focus on the values aspects. One person offers a 5-10 minute introduction and then everyone has a chance (if they want to) to briefly give their first thoughts on the topic. From there there's free discussion and the group can take the topic in the direction they choose.

Afterwards some of us usually stay in town to have lunch - most often at the food court in the Canberra Centre near David Jones, as that offers a good variety of choices.

Canberra Humanist Community

Debbie H

M Seeker

Dan V

Values Discussion Group  - Art and Values

Central Social Club 

Humanists advocate free enquiry and rational standards for developing viewpoints and positions on matters of public discourse. What are cognitive biases and in what way do they influence our judgments and decisions? In an age of conspiracy theories, echo chambers and social media manipulation, how do we, as humanists, lessen the influence of cognitive bias on our thinking processes? By understanding these biases, are we in a better position to influence other parties (for their benefit, of course) towards a more rational viewpoint? Following the presentation there will be an opportunity for questions and discussion.

This event is free. Your donation to help keep these events going is greatly appreciated. Please make your donation at [https://www.humanistsaustralia.org/donate](https://www.humanistsaustralia.org/donate)

Humanists Australia

Leslie Allan

Hein Htet

Humanism, Reason and Cognitive Biases

Online event

The Humanist Book Club explores both fiction and non-fiction books with humanist themes. Everyone is welcome. You don't have to have finished the book in order to attend, but spoilers will abound.

**Friendaholic: Confessions of a Friendship Addict**
by Sunday Times bestselling author Elizabeth Day

Growing up, Elizabeth wanted to make everyone like her. Lacking friends at school, she grew up to believe that quantity equalled quality. Having lots of friends meant you were loved, popular and safe. She was determined to become a Good Friend. And, in many ways, she did. But in adulthood she slowly realised that it was often to the detriment of her own boundaries and mental health.

Then, when a global pandemic hit in 2020, she was one of many who were forced to reassess what friendship really meant to them – with the crisis came a dawning her truest friends were not always the ones she had been spending most time with. Why was this? Could she rebalance it? Was there such thing as…too many friends? And was she really the friend she thought she was?

In Friendaholic, Day unpacks the significance and evolution of friendship. From ghosting and frenemies to social media and communication styles, to the impact of seismic life events, Day leaves no stone untouched.

Mary-Anne Cosgrove

Grant Clifford

Humanist Book Club: Friendaholic

**Event summary:**
This is the monthly meeting of our human hearted community of practice (COP). The COP is both a support group, and a mutual encouragement group, for people who want to explore living a more human hearted life. The COP is part of Human Hearted Sydney's goal of building community. Interested new members of the COP are welcome.

**Who is the COP for ?**
The COP is for people who dislike the alienation and emptiness of our modern finance driven society, and are looking for a new form of community - one based on the reality of our human social capacities such as sympathy and friendship, rather than based on returning to religion and other traditional practices. If you would like to be part of building a supportive community for living out socially positive values in today’s world we encourage you to come along and check it out.

**Some background: The meaning problem modern society faces -**
The development of modern society has seen the destruction of earlier systems of meaning, like religion and tradition. They have not been replaced by a new set of ethics or community, but by market values and hyper individualism. This has created a world of material wealth in which far too many people feel insecure, alone, and unlikely to succeed. We now live in an atomised society in which each person suffers alone and there is no form of community, or meaning other than material wealth, to sustain them. This has led to substantial increases in loneliness and mental health issues like anxiety in modern society. Now there is even a category called ‘[deaths of despair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease_of_despair#:~:text=The%20three%20disease%20types%20are,%2C%20West%20Virginia%2C%20and%20Delaware.)’ that refers to people whose reliance on drugs, alcohol etc. to numb their isolation from society leads to their early death.

**More background: The solution we will look at -**
The obvious solution to the collapse of values in modern society is to build alternative forms of community. Many groups try to achieve this by calling for a return to religious values, or building new religions. As humanists we do not turn to religion but the best of the human potential to provide a foundation for community groups.

[Human heartedness](https://web.archive.org/web/20240109160949/https://areomagazine.com/2022/05/05/a-human-hearted-modernity/) is an approach to life which sees humans as inherently social beings. It is backed both by many famous thinkers of the past, and by the findings of recent neuroscience and evolutionary studies which show the path to human happiness and fulfillment is more dependent on building good relationships and positive social connection than on competition and being purely ‘rational’.

So one part of the solution to the existential emptiness of modernity is for people to build small communities; groups of like minded people who want to live in a more human hearted way, and support each other to live better in the face of modernity’s onslaught. There are other parts of the solution of course. However in relation to this event our focus is on setting up a COP to support each other to practice living in a more human hearted way, and to provide communal support generally in today’s disenchanted world.

**Basic structure of this meeting:**
The meeting will be facilitated by a member of the Sydney humanist community and will involve a brief talk explaining human heartedness and the problems of modernity. Then we will proceed to conduct our regular COP meeting. The meeting will finish with a Q/A and discussion period, followed by a lunch and more informal discussion.

**Donations:**
While this event is free, we would be grateful if you chose to make a [donation](https://www.humanistsaustralia.org/donate) to sustain Humanists Australia which would help it to continue delivering events that serve the community in Sydney.

**Please note Date Time and Venue:**
Meeting date is Sunday 06/10/2024; we're back to our usual practice of meeting on the first Sunday of the month. Meeting time is 11:30am at Darling Square Library. The room we'll be in is called Idea Space 2

**Directions:**
The venue is a ten minute walk from both Town Hall and Central. The Darling Square Library is part of a hive-shaped building called The Exchange. The Idea Spaces are on level one of The Darling Square Library which is accessible via elevators facing towards Darling Square and stairs which are on the other side of the building. Please see the photos on the event page if you need assistance finding the entrance.

Human Hearted Sydney

Elijah

Lyndon Storey

James D

Human hearted community of practice (COP)

Darling Square Library

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