Toronto Oasis, Secular Community

There will be no online meeting for Toronto Oasis this Sunday as we will be going to West Hill United to attend a talk by a featured speaker both our communities have in common: Steve Ghikadis – Ambassador Program Director of Recovering from Religion. Steve’s presentation is entitled: Family and Community: Living with Different Worldviews.

West Hill United starts their meetings on Sundays at 10:30 am. Participants can attend both in person and online. For those who wish to attend online, click here to join their meeting.

For those wanting to attend in person, you can access West Hill United by TTC or by car.  West Hill United is located at: 62 Orchard Park Drive, Toronto, ON M1E 3T7. 

West Hill United member Dan Cooperstock and Toronto Oasis organizer Ryan Zhang have a total of seven spaces available between their respective cars for those wanting to carpool. Please let them know as soon as possible via the following email addresses if you wish to be driven there:

Ryan Zhang’s email: ryan.zhang@oasisnetwork.com

Dan Cooperstock’s email: dcoops@sympatico.ca

For those taking the TTC, take the 86 (A, B, C, or D) bus from Kennedy Station and then get off at the stop located at the south side of the intersection of Kingston Rd and Manse Rd. West Hill United’s building is also on the south side of Kingston Rd and is a two-minute walk west of this stop.

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).

Please RSVP on the event’s Meetup page to give us an idea of how many people will be attending: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/307162589

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting.  See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions.  Our program will run from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.

We will be watching and discussing YouTube video(s) on the topic of electoral reform in Canada. Toronto Oasis Organizer Ryan Zhang will be providing an introduction to the topic as well as suggested discussion questions.

Please RSVP on the Meetup event page to get access to the Zoom link: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/307028568/

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting.  See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions.  Our program will run from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.

We will be watching and then discussing video(s) on Canada’s Constitution with a particular focus on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Toronto Oasis Organizer Ryan Zhang will be providing an introduction to the topic as well as suggested discussion questions.

Please RSVP on the Meetup event page to get access to the Zoom link: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/306899768

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting.  See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions.  Our program will run from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.

We will be watching and discussing YouTube video(s) on the topic of Canadian identity. Toronto Oasis Organizer Ryan Zhang will be providing an introduction to the topic as well as suggested discussion questions.

Please RSVP on the Meetup event page to get access to the Zoom link: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/306773372

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting.  See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions.  Our program will run from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.

We will be watching and then discussing a YouTube video on the impact of online recommendation algorithms.  The video will be introduced by Ryan Zhang, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

We will also be having live music!  Our guest musician will be Leslie Shapiro, a contemporary harpist from Southwestern Ontario.  She earned her degree in applied harp from the University of Guelph.  Leslie has performed all over Canada, using music to speak truth to power.  Whether performing her own compositions, or doing a unique twist on covers, Leslie is sure to entertain audiences of all kinds!

We will also be having live music! Our guest musician will be Leslie Shapiro.

Please RSVP on the Meetup event page to get access to the Zoom link: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/306646460/

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting.  See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions.  Our program will run from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.

Most of us have heard of Socrates, and some have encountered him in philosophy classes. The version of Socrates, we’ve seen was shaped by his student Plato, who was advancing his own philosophical agenda. Plato’s Socrates is a relentless inquisitor, exposing inadequate thinking, and showing up other people.

We have independent accounts of Socrates’ life, particularly from his other student Xenophon, who was a more practical man. The Socrates, that he describes was more of a humane, and even joyous, figure: he asks questions of people because he’s interested in understanding what makes them tick. Of course, he’s interested in the big questions: what makes for a worthwhile life, and how to achieve that; and he doesn’t take what people say at face value, but he doesn’t routinely humiliate people, and he cares very much about happiness.

Our featured speaker, Dr. Mark Reimers, will argue that the version of Socrates from Plato has set off Western philosophy in the direction of dry argumentation and has lost sympathetic but critical understanding, and the arts of conversation, which were so integral to Socrates’ life and aims. Perhaps if we can recover Socrates’ original motivation, we can make a better philosophy.

Dr. Mark Reimers is a quantitative neuroscientist at Michigan State University, whose research aims to elucidate how dynamic brain activities give rise to thoughts and feelings in people and animals. Dr. Reimers has worked at the US National Institutes of Health, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics and at Michigan State University. His broader aim is to ground our understanding of feeling and thought in the facts of biology.

Dr. Reimers was the leader of the Richmond Humanists in Virginia for five years, and now leads the UU Forum in Lansing, and speaks frequently at humanist and science outreach events in Michigan.

Please RSVP on the Meetup event page to get access to the Zoom link: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/306517033

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting.  See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions.  Our program will run from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.

We will be watching and then discussing YouTube video(s) on the topic of identity. The topic & video(s) will be selected & introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

Please RSVP on the Meetup event page to get access to the Zoom link: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/305996791

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting.  See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions.  Our program will run from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.

We will be watching and then discussing YouTube video(s) on the topic of what is fascism? The topic & video(s) will be selected & introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

Please RSVP on the Meetup event page to get access to the Zoom link: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/305996789/

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting.  See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions.  Our program will run from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.

We will be watching and then discussing a YouTube video – an episode of The Canadian Real Estate Investor Podcast hosted by Daniel Fock and Nick Hill. The topic & video were selected by and will be introduced by Tania Akon, a Toronto Oasis organizer.

Please RSVP on the Meetup event page to get access to the Zoom link: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/305996787

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This will be an online Zoom meeting.  See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions.  Our program will run from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.

Our featured speaker will be Lola Bradford, a Toronto Oasis participant.  She has a Master’s degree in linguistics from the University of Toronto and is currently a PhD candidate in linguistics at McGill.  Lola will explain how taking a linguist’s perspective on language shows us that language is beautiful in all its forms, including “incorrect” ones.  Things that seem chaotic and lawless have wonderful patterns you can even find yourself.

Please RSVP on the Meetup event page to get access to the Zoom link: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/305974929/

By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).

Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!

This meeting has been recorded: GMT20250223-163719_Recording_2560x1600.mp4