Rationalist Day 2011 - Videos

Videos from Rationalist Day 2011 organized by Sri Lanka Rationalist Association (SLRA) held on 7th June 2011 at "Namel - Malini Punchi Theatre". Members from Secular Sri Lanka (SSL) were also present and we were given the opportunity to convey a lecture on Secularism on this event. Following are the video segments from the event.

Rationalist Day 2011 welcome speech by Mr. Dharmapala Senaratne (President – SLRA)

( Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLE7E1D2E8B6A7C273 )
[3 videos in the playlist]


Mr. Hemachandra Wijesooriya of SSL delivering a guest lecture on Secularism at Rationalist Day 2011

( Youtube playlist : http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PLA3627C731CD1392C )
[3 videos in the playlist]


Discussion on Secularism and other Rationalist arguments at the Rationalist Day 2011. This included exposing the fraud behind the "Badrakali Amman Temple in Galthanna" and the fake doctor "Eliyantha White". Professor Carlo Fonseka also took part in this discussion explaining the issues.

( Youtube playlist : http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL80FB835CA5D91CAA )
[9 videos in the playlist]

Event: Rationalist Day 2011

Sri Lanka Rationalist Association has organized the "Rationalist Day 2011". You are cordially invited to this event.

Date: 7th June 2011
Venue: Namel - Malini Punchi Theatre, Borella, Sri Lanka.
Time: 3.00pm onwards

Agenda includes discussions, guest lectures by Nalaka Gunawardene and many more...

හේතුවාදී දිනය සැමරුම

අප සංගමය විසින් පසුගිය වසරේදී මුලපුරන ලද හේතුවාදී දිනය සංවිධානය කිරීමේ කර්තව්යයය මෙවරද ඒ අයුරින් පැවැත්වීම සඳහා කටයුතු සංවිධානය කොට ඇත.

හේතුවාදී දිනය මෙලෙස යොදා ගැනීමට ඒකමතිකව යෝජනා වූයේ, පසුගිය සියවසේ දී එංගලන්තයේ බිහිවූ විශිෂ්ඨ සාහිත්යකධරයෙකු, ගණිතඥයෙකු, දාර්ශනිකයෙකු, සමාජ ක්රිියාධරයෙකු, ඉතිහාසඥයෙකු, යුධ විරෝධියෙකු , විවේචනාත්මක නිදහස් චින්තකයෙකු, නොබෙල් ත්යා්ගලාභියෙකු වූ බර්ට්රින්ඩ් ආතර් රසල්ගේ ජන්ම දිනයයි.

අපගේ හේතුවාදී දර්ශනය හා ක්රිායාකාරිත්වය සමඟ සමීප බුද්ධිමය සාම්ය ත්වයක් බර්ට්රේන්ඩ් රසල් කෙරෙන් ප්ර්කාශ වූ නිසා මේ තෝරා ගැනීම සුදුසුම හා අවිවාදාත්මක වෙයි.

ඒ අනුව මේ වසරේ එම දිනය සමරනු ලබන්නේ 2011 ජුනි 07 වෙනි අඟහරුවාදා ප.ව. 3.00 ට බොරැල්ල "නාමෙල් - මාලිනී පුංචි තියටර් " හිදීය.

ආරාධිත දෙසුම පවත්වනු ලබන්නේ ප්රබවීන දේශක නාලක ගුණවර්ධන මහතා විසිනි.

මෙම විශේෂ වැඩසටහනට සහ විවෘත සාකච්ජා අවස්ථාවට සහභාගීවීම සඳහා ආරාධනයයි.

තාරක වරාපිටිය
ලේකම් - හේතුවාදී සංගමය

Event: Child Psychology and Child Developent

S. L. R. A. Lecture series

S. L. R. A. Special seminar on child psychology and child developent from a rationalist point of view.

Venue - Public Library Auditorium, Colombo 07.
Time - 3. 00 pm, Tuesday 26th April 2011

 

 

Resource persons,

• Dr. Nilupul Prera, Neurologist,
• Dr. Ajith Amarasinghe, Paediatrician,
• Dr. Prasanna Gunasena, Neuro-surgeon,
• Dr. Namal Wijesinghe, Cardiologist
• Dr. Mahesh Harishchandra, Cnsultant Physician.

You are cordially invited.

Dharmapala Senaratne
President, Sri Lanka Rationalist Association

SSL – Social Gathering

Secular Society of Sri Lanka has organized a Social Gathering and we invite all our members to participate in this gathering.

Venue: 36 A, Siripa Road, Thimbirigasyaya, Colombo-5
Date & Time: Sunday, 20th March 2011 at 10.30am
Event Host: Mr. Srilal Perera (Contact No: 0757118836)

Please confirm your participation on SSL event thread ( link - http://groups.google.com/group/secular-sri-lanka/browse_thread/thread/aa9f487000e9778b )

Poya Day Tuition Ban Discussion - Videos

Sri Lanka Rationalist Association (SLRA) had organized a public lecture and discussion on the topic “Poya Day and Sunday Tuition Ban” (See SSL blog post http://blog.secularsrilanka.com/2010/06/event-poya-day-tuition-ban-lecture-and.html )

The videos from this discussion are available on YouTube

( YouTube playlist : http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F97A65AC68CC04F3 )
[5 videos in the playlist]

Event: De-Personalization Disorder – Lecture and Discussion

Join the public lecture on 'De-Personalization Disorder' organized by the Sri Lanka Rationalist Association (SLRA)

SLRA Annual General Meeting & Monthly Lecture

Date: Friday, 16th July 2010
Time: 4.15 pm
Location: Dr. N. M. Perera Centre, Cotta Rd. Borella. (200 meters away from the Borella junction)

The Agenda:

• Lecture on: De-Personalization Disorder (Near Death Experience - NDE & Out Body Experience - OBE) - A Psychological review.
  Speaker: Dr. Kapila Ranasingha, Psychiatrist.


• Discussion regarding the given speech.


• Proposed executive committee of SLRA for the coming year is to be seconded.

Tharaka Warapitiya
Secretary - SLRA

Link(s): Young Rationalist :: SLRA

Rationalist Day 2010 Videos

Introducing the Secular Sri Lanka group to the members of Sri Lanka Rationalist Association (SLRA) by the President of SLRA during the welcome speech of Rationalist Day

( Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71Zoak6gB8M )


Introducing Secular Sri Lanka group and the web site www.secularsrilanka.com by a member of Secular Sri Lanka to the members of SLRA at the Rationalist Day 2010

( Youtube playlist : http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=0EAA89836CD1470C )
[2 videos in the playlist]


Discussion on Religion in Sri Lanka at the Rationalist Day 2010

( Youtube playlist : http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=197140D82F477278 )
[4 videos in the playlist]

Event: Poya Day Tuition Ban - Lecture and Discussion

Join our SSL staff and members at this public discussion and share your views on 'Poya Day Tuition Ban'

Take Action!

www.secularsrilanka.com

Please share this event information with your family and friends, share on Facebook profiles and Twitter, and support our campaign.

SLRA Monthly Lecture & Discussion

Date: Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
Time: 4.15 pm
Location: Dr. N. M. Perera Centre , Cotta Rd. Borella. (200 meters away from the Borella junction)

The Agenda:

Lecture on:
1. Prohibition of Tuition classes on Poya days & Sunday morning hours.
2. Government blocking of Facebook, Wikipedia in Pakistan and the world trends in this regard.

Speaker: Mr. Gamini Viyangoda.

Recommendations of the Executive Committee (for the AGM - likely to be held on 16 th JULY) for the coming year.

A Brief Discussion on the budget proposed by Mr. Ranjan Fernando.

Tharaka Warapitiya
Secretary - SLRA

Our New Discussion Forum & Report from Rationalist Day

Friends,

Our Discussion Forum is now open for you to meet fellow secularists online and share your views. Join this Discussion Forum online or subscribe by sending an email to: secular-sri-lanka-discussions+subscribe@googlegroups.com

Google Group URL: http://groups.google.com/group/secular-sri-lanka-discussions

We had a fantastic day presenting our campaign website and discussed our vision for a Secular Sri Lanka at the Rationalist Day 2010, which was organized by the Sri Lanka Rationalist Association. Prasad, Chathura and Lahiru represented Secular Sri Lanka staff, and it was well received by a large enthusiastic audience. Those discussions after the presentation were mostly focused around our core concerns; the need for Constitutional Separation of Religion from The Republic of Sri Lanka, and how can we succeed in removing religion in the tax payer funded public school system? We will bring you a full-length video series on this presentation and audience discussions via our Youtube Channel, so stay tuned.

We would like to share the following report on the Rationalist Day 2010 sent by Dharmapala Senaratne, the current President of Sri Lanka Rationalist Association. In this report he points out how SLRA campaigned in the 1970’s supporting a secularized Constitution: ‘In a multi-religious country like Sri Lanka, the best protection for freedom of conscience is a Secular State.’

Cheers,
Hemantha Wijesooriya
Secular Sri Lanka
www.secularsrilanka.com


Rationalist Day – May 18, 2010

The Sri Lanka Rationalist Association chose May 18 as the Rationalist Day on the basis that it was the 138th birth anniversary of Earl Bertrand Russell. It needs to be said that Russell was a great personage who can be looked up to by not only rationalists, secularists and all other varieties of humanists but by all discerning men and women right throughout the world. Announcing the decision of the SLRA to declare this day to be Rationalist Day, I wrote a brief account of this great man in the "The Island" newspaper of May 11, 2010.

http://www.island.lk/2010/05/11/opinion5.html

By this time, I had already established a rapport with Secular Sri Lanka, as I mentioned in my welcome address. It was not very long ago that Hemantha Wijesuriya inquired from me through Facebook if I am the President of the SLRA. Not knowing much as to why such a question was posed, I truthfully answered him in the affirmative. It did not take long thereafter for me to be a member of their Innercircle.

While it is not proposed to go into details, I must state that the SLRA has right along been advocating secular governance, meaning that the government should be separated from all religions, religion being a private matter of individuals. Indeed, it was as far back as 1970 that the SLRA (then known as Ceylon Rationalist Association) submitted a Memorandum on this issue to the then Minister of Constitutional Affairs, when he sought the views of the members of the public and NGOs on the proposed new Constitution.

Item 6 of our Memorandum dated 25. 09. 1970, stated as follows. ‘In a multi-religious country like Sri Lanka, the best protection for freedom of conscience is a Secular State. India, a country ridden with diverse religions and superstitions, although the vast majority of its teeming millions are Hindus, is, through the wisdom of its political leaders, a secular state. It is good to remember that in the history of the human race, more blood has been shed in the name of religion than in any other cause’.

This Memorandum was published in ‘The Ceylon Rationalist Ambassador - 1971’, the annual Journal of the Association, edited by its then President, Dr. Abraham Kovoor. Subsequently, I added its Sinhala version at the end of the Chapter on ‘The Eternal Conflict Between Rationalism and Religion’ in the Sinhala book, named ‘Hetuvadaya Saha Kovoorge Darshanaya’, written by me and published in 1983.

Unfortunately for the nation, our suggestion was overlooked and for the first time, one particular religion was afforded a preferred position by the Constitution of 1972. We have little doubt that it was so done for political expediency. The minorities felt discriminated and ethnic and religious strife took a firm root, as I stated in my welcome speech. The nation now repents at leisure.

We are firm in our view that religious dogma of whatever brand pollutes human mind. It is, however, a theme that deserves a separate treatment, which is not attempted here except to say this. When one set of people are deeply convinced of the truth of an Almighty God and Creation, for instance, and a different set of people are equally convinced of the diametrically opposed dogma of karma, samsara and rebirth, the much-talked of inter-religious harmony and reconciliation will remain hypocritical and mythical, as it has happened today.

But, quite apart from that, from a politico-social perspective, we deem it grossly unfair to utilize the public funds, collected from those belonging to all religions, for the benefit of one preferred religion, as I stated in my welcome address.

During this address, I read out quite a few Goodwill Messages we received in connection with this event. I wish to make special mention of that, sent by James Randi, the head of James Randi Educational Foundation in Florida, USA. Randi is the holder of two Guinness Book records for magic, which term he avoids in preference to ‘conjuring’, in addition to being a movie actor, author and an indefatigable crusader for rationalism and secularism. He has challenged anyone from any part of the world to demonstrate any supernatural, supernormal or psychic powers in exchange of 1 million USD.

Randi not only wrote the book ‘The Truth About Uri Geller’ (1982) but also exposed Geller, who had earned a world fame as being able to bend and move metal objects, such as spoons, forks and keys by mind power - the so-called psychokinetic abilities – to be a conjurer-cum-fraudster. Geller then sued Randi but the court ordered Geller to pay 120,000 USD to Randi for bringing a frivolous law suit ! I have been associating with Randi for quite sometime and in my Sinhala book ‘Elovin Aa Jeevakaya Saha Venath Hetuvadi Lipi’, put out last year, I have not only referred to Randi but even carried his photograph.

Randi underwent heart by-pass surgery in 2006, laparoscopic surgery for the removal of a malignant tumor in June last year, and chemotherapy for quite a few months thereafter. Last month, in April, however, he was given a clean bill of health by his doctors. At the age of 82, he is now as active as a youth of 22 years.

When I emailed him informing of our Rationalist Day, he acknowledged it within minutes and sent us a Goodwill Message a little time later !

To cut a long story short, on the occasion of the Rationalist Day, the SLRA launched its Rationalist Song, a CD containing rationalist songs and the Tamil version of the Young Rationalist magazine.

All in all, it was quite a success and those present had a very lively discussion as well. Last but not least, it should be thankfully said that Secular Sri Lanka played a major role in making it a success.

Dharmapala Senaratne
President – Sri Lanka Rationalist Association

Rationalist Day 2010

Rationalist Day 2010 Celebrations !!!


Referring the Birth aniversary of the great rationalist literate & rationalist activist Bertrand Russell, Sri Lanka Rationalist Association has decided to announce a Day of Rationalist on 18 th May.

Join Us...

Date:18th May 2010
Venue: Namel - Malini Punchi Theatre, Borella, Sri Lanka.
Time: 4.00pm onwards

Agenda includes discussions, public lectures by Prof. Carlo Fonseka, Mr. S.M. Banduseela and many more…

For more information visit: http://www.secularsrilanka.com/news

The Bishop Cyril Abeynaike Memorial Lecture

The Bishop Cyril Abeynaike memorial lecture will be delivered by Prof Priyan Dias of The University Of Moratuwa. "Is Science Very Different From Religion?" this will be the focus of the talk, on the 7th of May at The Cathedral of Christ the Living Saviour (Bauddhaloka Mw, Col 07.), 5.30 pm onwards.


I have met Prof Dias (who is a practitioner of his faith) on Campus on several occasions and he is never one to shy away from discourse and debate.


The last time I met him was at The Methodist Church in Colpetty but unfortunately the discussion had nothing to do with Religion or Science. Expecting an interesting discussion!