The CFI Web Network -----  Make a Selection  ----- CFI Home Amherst, NY Austin, TX Chicago, IL Indiana Los Angeles, CA Michigan New York City, NY San Francisco, CA Tampa, FL Washington D.C. Daytona Beach Fort Lauderdale Harlem Long Island Miami Naples, FL Northeast Ohio Orange County, CA Pittsburgh Portland Southern Arizona Tallahassee Bucharest India Calgary London Montreal Ontario CFI On Campus Point of Inquiry Podcast Naturalism Research Project Science and the Public Visiting Fellows and Scholars CSI CSH CSER ISIS CSMMH

CFI Director Presents ‘The Dangers of Freethinking Women’

October 10, 2008

Second Talk and Radio Spots Focus on Promoting Science & Reason in Law and Policy

Toni Van Pelt, director of the Center for Inquiry's Office of Public Policy, will undertake a speaking tour of Florida during the next two weeks, presenting two separate talks in 10 venues, and interviewing for two live radio shows.

Van Pelt will present "The Danger of Freethinking Women," with emphasis on the struggle for women's suffrage in the United States to the call for Equal Rights in the U.S. Constitution in our current era. Focus will be on the brave women of the times- Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Emma Goldman, Ernestine Rose, Jessie Ackermann, Matilda Joslyn Gage, to name a few-who struggled fiercely against religious oppression to ultimately secure political and civil rights for all women. The title of her talk was inspired by an Inquisition-era church publication, "Malleus Maleficarum," or "The Witches' Hammer," which indoctrinated the world to "the dangers of freethinking women," including female scholars, priestesses, nature lovers, and midwives who eased the childbirth suffering believed to be God's rightful punishment of the female descendants of Eve, and instructed the clergy how to locate, torture, and destroy them.

• "The Dangers of Freethinking Women" tour will begin at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10 at the Jim Ward Community Center, 301 NW 46^{th Ave., in Plantation, Ft. Lauderdale. Subsequent dates include:}
• Miami, 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 11 at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 7701 SW 76th Ave.
• Daytona Beach, noon Thursday, Oct. 16 at the Red Lobster, 2735 N. Atlantic Ave.
• Orlando, 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 16 in Reeves Lodge, Rollins College, 1000 Holt Ave, Winter Park.
• Tallahassee, 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 21 at Leroy Collins Public Library 200 West Park Ave.
• Gainesville, 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 22 at the University of Florida.
• Tampa, 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24 at the Marshal Center, 4202 E Fowler Ave., Univ. of South Florida.

Ms. Van Pelt will also give a second series of talks while in the Sunshine State, titled "CFI's Office of Public Policy: Promoting Science & Reason in Law and Policy," focusing on the national work the D.C. branch of CFI has accomplished in its first two years in the nation's capital. Despite the success of science and technology in providing us with unparalleled benefits, religious fundamentalists and some postmodernists seek to inhibit free inquiry. This is a highly charged political issue, because both science and secularism are under attack.  While a number of organizations lobby and work to defend science politically, Van Pelt will show why so far no organization has worked to defend science and free inquiry more than the Center for Inquiry.

• "Promoting Science & Reason in Law and Policy" will open at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9 at Mythos Taverna, 2864 N. University Drive in Coral Springs, Pompano Beach. Subsequent dates include:
• Naples, 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 13 at Empire China restaurant, 2085 9th Street North.
• Tampa, 11 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 18 at CFI-Tampa, in the Bridgeport Center, 5201 West Kennedy Blvd., Ste. 124.

Toni Van Pelt is the director of the Center for Inquiry-Office of Public Policy, centered in Washington, D.C. Prior to her reassignment to Washington, she was the first executive director for the Center for Inquiry-Florida. In her former role as the president of Florida National Organization for Women, she lobbied the Federal and Florida Legislature, helping to write and establish new law in the state. She is a veteran of Congressional and state political campaigns working for candidates as well as on issues.

While on the road, she will accept invitations to interview for several live radio broadcasts, including:

• WELE-AM 1380, Orlando and Daytona Beach, from 4:15-5:45 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15.
• WMNF-FM 88.5 (NPR Station), Tampa/St. Petersburg, from 10-11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 18.

For more information, or to arrange an interview, please e-mail Toni Van Pelt at tvanpelt [at] centerforinquiry.net

The Center for Inquiry/Transnational, a nonprofit, educational, advocacy, and scientific-research think tank based in Amherst, New York, is also home to the Council for Secular Humanism, founded in 1980; the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly CSICOP), founded in 1976; and the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health. The Center for Inquiry's research and educational projects focus on three broad areas: religion, ethics, and society; paranormal and fringe-science claims; and medicine and health. The Center's Web site is ^{www.centerforinquiry.net}