Civil Liberties; Church/State Separation; Fundamentalists in Major Religions, Is There Any Difference?

Three seminars hosted by Center for Inquiry-Florida touch on the reality of church/state separation; answers the question, "Is there a diference between fundamentalists in the major religions?"; and makes clear the difficulty for critical thinkers (skeptics) to be heard. These discussions are part of Center for Inquiry-Florida's educational outreach across Florida.

(PRWEB) August 13, 2005 -- How the religious right stands ready to destroy modern culture -- talks by Dr. Donovan and Edward Tabash on skeptical thinking, the separation of church and state, and analysis of modern religions:

EDWARD TABASH 2005 FLORIDA SPEAKING TOUR

The Real Meaning of Church/State Separation

Hosted by the CFI Community of Fort Lauderdale

Wednesday, September 14th, 7:00 PM

Broward Community College

North Campus, Building 46, Room 152

1000 Coconut Creek Boulevard

Coconut Creek, Florida

RSVP -- 954-201-2240

How The Religious Right Stands Ready To Destroy Modern Culture

Hosted by CFI-Florida

Saturday, September 17th, 12:30 PM

Bridgeport Center/West Shore

5201 W. Kennedy Blvd. Suite 124.

Tampa, Florida

RSVP - 813-849-7571

Who's a Fundamentalist? Do Fundamentalist Christians, Jews and Muslims Differ?

Hosted by the CFI Community of Daytona Beach

Sunday, September 18th, 12:00 PM

Red Lobster, 2735 N. Atlantic Ave.

Daytona Beach, Florida

Call for reservations ASAP! 386-671-1921

Edward Tabash is a constitutional lawyer living in Beverly Hills, California. He graduated magna cum laude from UCLA in 1973 and obtained his law degree from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles in 1976. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Council for Secular Humanism and Chairs the Council's First Amendment Task Force. Additionally he is a member of the First Amendment Committee of the ACLU of Southern California. Tabash is considered a leading expert in First Amendment law as it applies to free speech and to the separation of church and state. He has debated the atheistic position against such noted theistic philosophers as Peter Van Inwagen, William Lane Craig, Gregg Bahnsen, and noted Oxford professor Richard Swinburne. Edward Tabash also serves as a part time judge for the trial courts in Los Angeles County.

In October, this seminar:

Title: Equal-Opportunity Critical Thinking: Skeptics? What Skeptics?

"In an intensely polarized world, equal-opportunity critical thinking is rare. Even skeptics have sacred cows--typically models or approaches that appear to be the polar opposites of the skeptics' clearly irrational, ideological or faddist nemeses. This polarization makes it extremely difficult for equal opportunity critics to be heard above the fray or not to be mistakenly assimilated into one of the polarized sides in a particular debate. But there is much that needs to be examined critically. In this talk, I'll focus on what I view as the disastrous consequences of the absence of equal-opportunity critical thinking in education and mental health means for the future of American culture."

Bio:

Dr. Donovan received his M.D. from the Faculty of Medicine of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario in 1975. An internationally-known expert on the psychology of adoption with extensive clinical experience with all members of the adoptive experience, Dr. Donovan has lectured widely on adoption psychology. Dr. Donovan has extensive experience as a trainer in the psychiatric aspects of abuse and neglect for psychology, psychiatry, social service, law enforcement, education, and nursing and Healing the Hurt Child, co-authored with Deborah McIntyre, M.A., R.N., has been considered a classic in the child psychotherapy/trauma therapy literature since its publication in 1990. r. Donovan is a member of the Distinguished Editorial Advisory Board of Trauma and Loss, the journal of the National Institute for Trauma and Loss in Children, and was a member of the founding editorial board of Traumatology. In 1983 Dr. Donovan and Deborah McIntyre, his wife and collaborator, started the Children's Center for Developmental Psychiatry in St. Petersburg, Florida. Out of their intense clinical work together has developed an innovative approach to child psychotherapy that is reflected in their 1990 book, Healing the Hurt Child: A Developmental-Contextual Approach (W. W. Norton, 1990).

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