With or Without God: Minding the Gap
God is Not Great (Hitchens), The End of Faith (Harris), and The God Delusion (Dawkins), present religion as a bankrupt enterprise. Progressive Christians (Vosper) acknowledge the crisis but see an honest and useful future for religious belief and practice. Dr. Ian McGregor will review recent research on the motivational mechanics of belief, and suggest a bridge to a shared future for atheism and religious belief. He will also introduce Unitarianism and offer some insight into a very liberal and non-dogmatic religious group.
Ian McGregor is an Associate Professor of Personality and Social Psychology in the Faculty of Health at York University, Toronto, Canada. His experimental research on conviction and zeal is internationally acclaimed, published in the top scientific journals, and funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. His most recent research reveals social factors and personality traits that combine to cause political and religious extremism. It also illuminates neural mechanisms that can help explain why people go to extremes. His research is guided by rigorous psychological science methods and by insights gleaned from his eclectic personal and academic background.
Admission: $5, $4 for students, FREE for members
