http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/feed/feed.xml http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/ Thought For The Day Podcasts and web development by www.xactit.com Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:03:15 -0500 EN All rights reserved Copyright 2007 - 2008 Humanist Society of Scotland Thought For The Day Humanist Society of Scotland Humanist Society of Scotland admin@humanism-scotland.org.uk no Thought for the day - Wednesday Marion Richardson was for many years a guidance teacher and is now a humanist celebrant married to another humanist celebrant. They are Secretary and Treasurer respectively of the Aberdeen Group of HSS, which group was much enhanced by having among their number the young man who inspired this thought for the day. He is much in their thoughts at this crucial point in his life. They would be only too glad to hear from anyone who could advice or help. www.humanism-scotland.org.uk Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Wednesday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-03-05_marionrichardson.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-03-05_marionrichardson.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Wed, 05 Mar 2008 05:09:43 -0600 Thought for the day - Tuesday Having been a HSS Registered Celebrant since spring 2001, Mandy Evans Ewing was one of the first twelve to be authorised as a Marriage Celebrant in 2005. She is Humanist Chaplain for the University of Glasgow, and has served on the HSS NEC and Glasgow Group Committee. As a Social Worker to trade and with a passion for holistic models of care, Mandy has run her own business for 10 years offering Life Guidance, Coaching and Consultancy. She also works in the arts, and currently dances and works with Indepen-dance, a mixed ability dance company. Mandy Evans Ewing is a Director of 'Emerge - The Foundation-, which is implementing the pioneering 'Coming of Age Project', and is a co-founder of The (Scottish) Constitutional Commission. She climbs mountains. Mandy is an advocate for, and leader in, connecting with, calling forth, cultivating and celebrating the best of the human spirit. She is soon to launch 'The Love Alliance'. www.humanism-scotland.org.uk Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Tuesday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-03-04_mandyevansewing.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-03-04_mandyevansewing.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Tue, 04 Mar 2008 05:01:02 -0600 Thought for the day - Monday Currently "resting" after many years working in IT within the Financial Services industry, Jon Pullman graduated from Edinburgh University in 1984 with an honours degree in English and History only to realize too late that the life of the mind, and all the creativity that flows from it, was a viable career option. Always interested in the whys and wherefores of everything, but with an increasing compulsion to analyse, write about, film and generally document the marvellous miscellany of people, places and ideas which form this amazing world, he is now trying to make up for lost time. His weblog of comments, reflections and images is at www.jonpullman.com Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Monday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-03-03_jonpullman.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-03-03_jonpullman.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Mon, 03 Mar 2008 05:11:22 -0600 Thought for the day - Friday Andrew joined the BHA in 2005 and is now responsible for education and public affairs, co-ordinating the BHA's campaigns. He came to the BHA from the Citizenship Foundation and has wide experience embarcing sex and sexuality education, education funding, and curriculum reform as well as from a number of single issue campaigns. He has also taught Latin, Greek and Ancient History, having graduated from Oxford with a first in Ancient and Modern History. He was a member of the winning team of the 2005 Young Educational Thinker of the Year Programme. www.humanism.org.uk Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Friday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-29_andrewcopson.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-29_andrewcopson.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Fri, 29 Feb 2008 04:09:15 -0600 Thought for the day - Thursday Stella Potter lives and works in Aberdeenshire with her daughters. She came to Humanism through agnosticism and some eclectic reading from an excellent local library. She trained as a Humanist celebrant seven years ago to provide her district with non-religious life ceremonies. She also serves her community as a Home Carer, Librarian and producing local community publications. Stella considers that the way to way to live her one life is to fully engage at all levels with her fellow human beings. She rejected a successful high salaried career that did not involve her with people. She says for her Atheism is not enough - to merely not adhere to theism is too negative, but Humanism, with its long established ethical principles, enables her to have a positive moral framework to live her life well. www.humanism-scotland.org.uk Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Thursday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-28_stellapotter.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-28_stellapotter.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:49:38 -0600 Thought for the day - Wednesday Hanne joined the BHA as Executive Director in December 2001. Previous to this she had worked for another charity for 15 years, most recently in management development. She has a particular interest in human rights and discrimination issues, and in promoting the fact that it is not necessary to have religious beliefs to have values. Her personal ambitions are to see Humanism much more widely understood, and to get more sleep. www.humanism.org.uk Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Wednesday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-27_hannestinson.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-27_hannestinson.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:58:53 -0600 Thought for the day - Tuesday Clare Marsh is a retied teacher of biology, now secretary of the Glasgow Group of the HSS. She is assisting the education officer of the HSS by co-ordinating the development of teaching materials for schools in Scotland by the recently established working groups. www.humanism-scotland.org.uk Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Tuesday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-26_claremarsh.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-26_claremarsh.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:13:29 -0600 Thought for the day - Monday Originally from Canada, Tim is currently finishing a PhD in linguistics in Edinburgh and is Vice-president of the Edinburgh University Humanist Society. Tim and his wife are members of the HSS and the Humanist Academy. "We recently became parents, and are enjoying this new adventure in being human animals". friendlyhumanist.blogspot.com humanist.eusa.ed.ac.uk Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Monday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-25_timmills.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-25_timmills.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:57:27 -0600 Thought for the day - Friday Gordon Ross is Treasurer and National Ceremonies Co-ordinator of the Humanist Society of Scotland. He was an active celebrant until Parkinson's Disease made that impossible. In earlier lifes he worked in travel, broadcasting, the theatre, taxi driving, the barras, and even the civil service.Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Friday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-22_gordonross.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-22_gordonross.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:07:08 -0600 Thought for the day - Thursday Christopher Brookmyre is the author of eleven published novels to date, the latest being "Attack Of The Unsinkable Rubber Ducks", published August 2007. Chris won the seventh Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with "All Fun And Games Until Somebody Loses An Eye" and, as is tradition, a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig was named after the winning novel.On accepting the award, Chris said:"My favourite PG Wodehouse quote is 'It is seldom difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman and a ray of sunshine'; today I'd like to think that I resemble the ray of sunshine."He was raised and schooled in Barrhead, before attending the University of Glasgow. Chris is married to an anaesthetist and supports St Mirren F.C. Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Thursday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-21_christopherbrookmyre.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-21_christopherbrookmyre.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:10:17 -0600 Thought for the day - Wednesday "A Johannesburger in London becoming British", Brett Lock is the editor of Gay Humanist Quarterly, published by the Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association. He is also a regular contributor to the political blog Harry's Place and a campaigner with the gay human rights group, OutRage!. Coming of age in South Africa during the turbulent 80s, Brett has always been involved in politics of one sort or another, and always been more than willing to provide an opinion. www.gayhumanist.com www.galha.org Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Wednesday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-20_brettlock.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-20_brettlock.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:04:09 -0600 Thought for the day - Tuesday Maryam Namazie is a rights activist, commentator and broadcaster on Iran, the Middle East, women's rights, cultural relativism, secularism, Humanism, religion, Islam and political Islam. She is the Spokesperson of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain; National Secular Society's 2005 Secularist of the Year award winner and an NSS Honorary Associate; producer of TV International English; Director of the Worker-communist Party of Iran's International Relations Committee; and co-editor of WPI Briefing. She is also involved in the Third Camp against US militarism and Islamic terrorism; a Vice president of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association; and an honorary associate of the Rationalist International. She has spoken at numerous conferences and written many articles on women's rights issues, violence against women, political Islam, and secularism - some of which have been translated into various languages. She has been interviewed on BBC TV and radio, including the Heaven and Earth programme and the Moral Maze, ABC TV Australia, quoted in Time magazine, the Independent, the Observer, the Guardian, Al Ahram Weekly, Persian media outlets, and had articles published in various sources, including Tribune, the Blanket and Gender Policy Review. Previously, Namazie was the elected Executive Director of the International Federation of Iranian Refugee, a refugee run organisation with 60 branches in 15 countries worldwide; founded the Committee for Humanitarian Assistance to Iranian Refugees (CHAIR); was the Human Rights Advocates Training Programme Coordinator at Columbia University's Centre for the Study of Human Rights in New York and the NYC Refugee Coordinator/ US National Steering Committee Member of Amnesty International. She also ran a refugee women's leadership training programme in NYC. www.maryamnamazie.comRead the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Tuesday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-19_maryamnamazie.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-19_maryamnamazie.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:19:45 -0600 Thought for the day - Monday Julian Baggini is a British philosopher and writer. He is the author of The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 other thought experiments (2005) and is a co-founder and editor of The Philosophers' Magazine. He has written for The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, and the BBC, and has been a regular guest on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time. Baggini was awarded his Ph.D. in 1996 from University College, London for a thesis on the philosophy of personal identity.www.julianbaggini.comRead the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Monday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-18_julianbaggini.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-18_julianbaggini.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Mon, 18 Feb 2008 04:37:02 -0600 Thought for the day - Friday Stephen Law is currently senior lecturer in philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London, and editor of the Royal Institute of Philosophy journal THINK: Philosophy For Everyone. He is the author of several popular introductions to philosophy, including The Philosophy Gym and The Philosophy Files - a philosophy book for children that combines cartoons and quirky humour and addresses such perrenial philosophical puzzles as "How do I know my parents aren't virtual?" Phillip Pullman said about his book on faith schools - The war For Children's Minds - that it "should be read by every teacher, every parent, and every politician." After being asked to leave Sixth Form College, he worked as a postman for four years before discovering philosophy. He first entered university as a mature student. Stephen was Junior Research Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford for three years while he wrote his doctoral thesis on hidden essences. Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Friday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-15_stephenlaw.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-15_stephenlaw.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Fri, 15 Feb 2008 07:15:51 -0600 Thought for the day - Thursday Nigel Warburton is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the Open University and author of a number of books on philosophy, including Philosophy: The Basics, Philosophy: The Classics, Thinking from A to Z, and The Art Question. He is a founder member of the Humanist Philosophers Group, and a regular contributor to Radio 4 programmes. His weblog, Virtual Philosopher, is at www.nigelwarburton.typepad.com/ Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Thursday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-14_nigelwarburton.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-14_nigelwarburton.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Thu, 14 Feb 2008 07:50:58 -0600 Thought for the day - Wednesday Iain Macwhirter is the award-winning political columnist for the Sunday Herald and the Herald. He is also a political broadcaster of twenty years standing, in Westminster and Holyrood. Iain joined the BBC from Edinburgh University, becoming Scottish Political Correspondent in 1987. In 1989 he moved to Westminster where he was a member of the Parliamentary Lobby for ten years. In that time he presented programmes like "Westminster Live" on BBC 2 and wrote political commentaries for the Observer and the Scotsman. In 1999 he returned to Scotland to launch the Sunday Herald and present the 'Holyrood' television programmes on BBC Scotland. He lives in Edinburgh and walks the hills. Read the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Wednesday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-13_iainmcwhirter.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-13_iainmcwhirter.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Wed, 13 Feb 2008 07:37:52 -0600 Thought for the day - Tuesday - Darwin Day Anthony Grayling MA, DPhil (Oxon) FRSL, FRSA is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited many books on philosophy and other subjects; among his most recent are a biography of William Hazlitt and a collection of essays. For several years he wrote the "Last Word" column for the Guardian newspaper and is a regular reviewer for the Literary Review and the Financial Times. He also often writes for the Observer, Economist, Times Literary Supplement, Independent on Sunday and New Statesman, and is a frequent broadcaster on BBC Radios 4, 3 and the World Service. He is the Editor of Online Review London, Contributing Editor of Prospect magazine. In addition he sits on the editorial boards of several academic journals, and for nearly ten years was the Honorary Secretary of the principal British Philosophical Association, the Aristotelian Society. He is a past chairman of June Fourth, a human rights group concerned with China, and has been involved in UN human rights initiative. Anthony Grayling is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum, and a member of its C-100 group on relations between the West and the Islamic world. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and in 2003 was a Booker Prize judge. www.acgrayling.comRead the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Tuesday - Darwin Day http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-12_acgrayling.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-12_acgrayling.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Tue, 12 Feb 2008 04:04:27 -0600 Thought for the day - Monday Writer and comedian Arthur Smith was born in South London in 1954. He started on the alternative comedy circuit in the 1980s, specialising in being a compere. He has been a regular performer at the Edinburgh festival. He is also an accomplished playwright. Plays include: An Evening with Gary Lineker (1994), My Summer with Des (1998), 'The Bed Show' and his one-show 'Arthur Smith Sings Leonard Cohen'. He has presented the BBC Radio 4 travel programme 'Excess Baggage' and has been a regular on 'Loose Ends'. On TV, he's been a regular Grumpy Old Man and Countdown wordsmith. The BBC website says, "He regularly produces material that's both surreal, and almost instantly cultish, as well as popular." The story in Arthur's podcast will also appear in his forthcoming autobiography. www.arthursmith.co.ukRead the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Monday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-11_arthursmith.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2008-02-11_arthursmith.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Mon, 11 Feb 2008 04:39:32 -0600 Thought for the day - Saturday My background lies in Nursery Nursing and over the years I have worked at the Queen Mother's Special Care Baby Unit at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow, at a Nursery School and Family Centre in Fife, and along with 2 other women run my own successful private Nursery business. In 1987 our son Roy was born. Unfortunately he had a serious heart and lung condition, which meant that his life was limited. Sadly Roy died when he was just 4 years old and my husband and I were devastated. This loss, along with other painful losses of both my parents, gradually led me towards humanism. When we suffer such losses it makes us question what life is all about, and I decided that I wanted to use my experiences positively and in a way that would help others. So I started working with the families of children with life-limiting illnesses at Rachel House Children's Hospice in Kinross. It was a truly wonderful experience and I learned so much. However there finally came a point in my life where I had to think about moving on and when I discovered humanism it felt like the last piece in the jigsaw puzzle had fallen into place, and since becoming a humanist celebrant I have been both challenged and fulfilled in the role of conducting non-religious ceremonies to mark the important events that occur throughout our lives. Whether it's a baby naming, a wedding or a funeral, my aim is to create a personal and memorable experience for everyone involved. www.humanism-scotland.org.ukDownload the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Saturday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-15_gillianstewart.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-15_gillianstewart.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:23:31 -0600 Thought for the day - Friday Julian Baggini is a British philosopher and writer. He is the author of The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 other thought experiments (2005) and is a co-founder and editor of The Philosophers' Magazine. He has written for The Guardian, The Independent, The Observer, and the BBC, and has been a regular guest on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time. Baggini was awarded his Ph.D. in 1996 from University College, London for a thesis on the philosophy of personal identity. His forthcoming book: Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind is published by Granta in march www.julianbaggini.comDownload the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Friday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-14_julianbaggini.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-14_julianbaggini.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:05:04 -0600 Thought for the day - Thursday Nigel Warburton is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the Open University and author of a number of books on philosophy, including Philosophy: The Basics, Philosophy: The Classics, Thinking from A to Z, and The Art Question. He is a founder member of the Humanist Philosophers Group, and a regular contributor to Radio 4 programmes. His weblog, Virtual Philosopher, is at www.virtualphilosopher.orgDownload the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Thursday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-13_nigelwarburton.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-13_nigelwarburton.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:03:44 -0600 Thought for the day - Wednesday Kate Hudson has been chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament since 2003. She is a leading anti-nuclear and anti-war campaigner nationally and internationally. She is also author of CND Now More than Ever: The Story of a Peace Movement. www.cnduk.orgDownload the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Wednesday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-12_katehudson.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-12_katehudson.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:02:24 -0600 Thought for the day - Tuesday Stewart Lee is a stand-up comedian, writer and director. His last show was a monologue about Judas at the Bush theatre, London, and he is currently devising a site-specific piece about DIY for the Manchester festival. www.stewartlee.co.ukDownload the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Tuesday http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-11_stewartlee.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-11_stewartlee.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:00:45 -0600 Thought for the day - Monday - Darwin Day Grayling was born in Luanshya, Zambia and spent his formative years in the British expatriate community of East Africa. His first exposure to philosophical writing was at the age of twelve when he read an English translation of Plato's Charmides dialogue. At fourteen he read G. H. Lewes's Biographical History of Philosophy. This work was instrumental in confirming his ambition to study philosophy. Grayling later remarked on the text, "It superinduced order on the random reading that had preceded it, and settled my vocation." After returning to England in his teens Grayling studied at Sussex University and Magdalen College, Oxford where he obtained his doctorate in 1981. The subject of his thesis was "scepticism and transcendental arguments." This was supervised by the philosophers P. F. Strawson and A. J. Ayer. Grayling lectured in philosophy at St Anne's College, Oxford before taking up a post at Birkbeck, University of London where he subsequently became Reader in Philosophy. www.acgrayling.comDownload the transcript of this Thought For Today Thought for the day - Monday - Darwin Day http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-09_acgrayling.mp3 http://www.thoughtfortheworld.org/p.php?file=2007-02-09_acgrayling.mp3 Humanist Society of Scotland no Fri, 23 Feb 2007 05:58:32 -0600