I’ve just returned from Vancouver, Canada, where I attended a really fine 4-day conference titled, “Imagine No Religion.” I got to re-establish my acquaintance with some old friends I’d not seen in quite some time: Julia Sweeney of Saturday Night Live fame, Joe Nickell of CSI, and the effervescent Margaret Downey, and for the first time ever, I heard Professor Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California deliver her stunning Illusions of Memory lecture.
The Keynote addres...s of the event was by the Master of the New College of the Humanities, London’s renowned Professor A. C. Grayling, who kept us all “glued to our seats” with his well-designed and powerful talk The Secular Good, an event I can highly recommend to any and all skeptical groups.
I received the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Humanist Association of Canada, which was listed in the program to be delivered by Penn & Teller. In my innocence, I assumed this would occur via Skype or some other such electronic magic, but was rather surprised when those two actually walked in the door! They were in Canada on other business, and made a detour to perform this favor. Thank you, gentlemen!
Penn also told our audience of my early association with P&T, so many years ago, which very much moved me…
My next trip takes both Jose Alvarez DOPA Deyvi Orangel Peña Arteaga and me to the Reason Rally in Washington, in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln. We hope to see many friends there.
Life is good…
