DARWIN SOCIETY PROGRAMME – 2024-2025
All meetings are scheduled to run in the Lunar Room at Darwin House from 7.30-9pm
Wednesday
25 September 2024
David
Dundas
What we can do to stop climate change
This presentation will look at what each one of us can do to reduce our energy needs,
and help stop climate change. Key themes will explore how we can stop wasting energy, use more
efficient machines and equipment, stop using fossil fuel, and generate our own electricity. Come
prepared to review practical examples, and discuss what we can do to make a difference.
Wednesday 30
October 2024
Iwan
Griffiths
‘Principled insubordination’ – breaking the rules to do the right thing
Rule-breaking and dissent have been key to historical progress across all fields of human
endeavour. But how can we understand and review these acts of defiance and the people who
carry them out? This paper introduces a formula for ‘principled insubordination’ and looks at how it
can be used to review dissent movements, including mass trespass, the Anti-poll tax campaign and
the Intellectual Dark Web. Come prepared to reassess ‘champions of rule-breaking’ and your own
experience of insubordination.
Wednesday 27
November 2024
Mike
Jacob
Sex, gender and cancel culture
The issue of sex and gender is one of the most polarising and contentious subjects to have
attracted public attention and debate in recent years. This paper will examine the way in which this
debate has been conducted in the context of civil liberties, equal rights and freedom of expression.
.
Wednesday 29
January 2025
Phil
Coombes
Has globalisation stalled?
Is the concept of a continuing 'Globalisation' of almost everything still valid? This paper will contend
it has already stalled and, in fact, there is evidence it is declining. Looking through a crystal ball,
what does this mean for mankind as a whole?
Wednesday 26
February 2025
Ken
Howcroft
Erasmus Darwin and John Wesley
Darwin and Wesley were contemporaries, yet so far as we know they never met. Both though can
be considered Enlightenment thinkers with interests in philosophy and natural philosophy. Both had
interests in medicine (Wesley wrote a book on “Primitive Physic”). Both were interested in practical
inventions but also published poets. Both campaigned for the abolition of the slave-trade. This
paper will attempt to explore where their thinking overlapped and where it differed.
Wednesday 26
March 2025
Michael
Hawkes
Space exploration in the 21 st century
Many of us will remember the sputnik in orbit and the moon landings around sixty years ago. Space
will almost certainly be the new political battleground in the 21 st C. At the present time there are six
sites around the world with full launch capabilities – Europe, Russia, USA, India, China and Japan.
Will there be competition or cooperation – or both? This presentation will look at possible scenarios
for discussion.
Wednesday 30 April
2025
George
Barbrook
Faith – a Layman’s Perspective
The wolves in the woods are animals. They do not have philosophical discussion like we do about
the meaning of life. They are animals, not humans. To imply that we are the same is to attack the
sovereignty of God, destroying the unique value and beauty of our existence. Without our spiritual
faith or belief systems do we become part of the wolf pack?
Wednesday 28 May
2025
Kate Hall Food, Glorious Food
We've come a long way since the post-World War 2 selection of food with its limited choice of meat,
vegetables and fruits. The queues outside shops which had just received a delivery of bananas
seem incomprehensible today. So where are we now with the relatively free availability of
asparagus and apples any month of the year, flat leaf parsley, sea bass, prawns, aubergines? The
current situation will be explored and discussed.