This Will Change Everything, edited by John Brockman, includes 136 answers from leading thinkers to the question "What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?"

Join us even if you haven't finished reading. The book club is open to all ... and free! Every meeting is a book swap, too. Bring the books gathering dust on your shelves and take your pick of other readers' castaways. The leftovers? Donated.

For any branch science, there are numerous methods by which one may gather and look at data; psychology is no different. Dr. Allan Clifton , clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor at Vassar College, proposes a fresh perspective on clinical psychology and how we think about personalities. Join us as as Dr. Clifton provides an overview and critique of current psychological methodologies, and shares with us what he believes social relationships can tell us about ourselves. Following his lecture, Dr. Clifton will be interviewed by the Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry in New York City, Michael De Dora Jr.

This event is co-sponsored by CFI | NYC and the New York Society for Ethical Culture.

Dr. Allan Clifton received his B.A. in psychology from Haverford College in 1995, and his M.A. and PhD. from the University of Virginia in clinical psychology. He completed both his clinical internship and a postdoctoral research fellowship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Clifton's research interests focus on ways to improve the assessment of personality, with an emphasis on maladaptive expressions of personality. He is currently working on a series of studies investigating the cross-situational consistency of personality, using social network analysis to map variations in interpersonal behavior.

Michael De Dora Jr. is executive director of the New York City branch of the Center for Inquiry, where he serves as a public voice for science, reason, and secular values. Along with his full-time work at CFI, Michael is finishing a political science master's degree CUNY’s Brooklyn College. Before joining CFI, Michael was a news writer and editor at both FOXNews.com and CUNY. Michael spent his undergraduate years at SUNY-Albany, receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Rhetoric and Communication.

After the event, there will be a dinner at a nearby restaurant. Ask CFI volunteers at the event for more information. 

April's topic is homophobic legislation in Uganda and American influence on such laws. For related reading materials, visit us on Facebook .

Drinking Skeptically, organized by the New York City Skeptics, is an informal event designed to promote fellowship and networking among skeptics, critical-thinkers, and other like-minded individuals. Drinking Skeptically provides an opportunity for skeptics to talk, share ideas (and yes, drink) in a casual, relaxed atmosphere. We discuss the issues of the day and whatever else is on our minds. But most of all, we have fun while promoting skepticism, science, and rationality.

For more information, click here .

Important: this event is free, but open to students only.

Massimo Pigliucci 's Critical Thinking Workshop will explore the basics of how to build your own baloney detector by being aware of logical fallacies and distinguishing different types of reasoning and their pitfalls. As Noam Chomsky put it: "Citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self-defense to protect themselves from manipulation and control, and to lay the basis for more meaningful democracy." Critical thinking, then, is fundamental to a functional democracy.

Massimo Pigliucci is Chair of the Philosophy Department at City University of New York (CUNY) at Lehman College. Before going to Lehman, Pigliucci was professor of Ecology and Evolution at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His research is concerned with philosophy of science, the relationship between science and philosophy, and the relationship between science and religion. He has published over a hundred technical papers and several books; he has columns in the magazines Philosophy Now and Skeptical Inquirer, and pens the "Rationally Speaking" blog. His upcoming book will be released in the spring, and is entitled Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science From Bunk.

The Center for Inquiry in New York City is sponsoring Yuri's Night NY 2010, the local of an annual worldwide celebration of the date Yuri Gagarin became the first man to be in outer space and the first to orbit Earth. 

Admission is $20 in advance, $25 door. Tickets are on sale at www.yurisnightny.net -- use the discount code "CenterforInquiry". Guests must be 21+. General Admission opens at 8 p.m.

The evening begins with a VIP cocktail hour, $60. Mingle with today's space and entertainment luminaries including Bob Werb (Chairman and Founder of the Space Frontier Foundation), Dr. Denton Ebel (American Museum of Natural Historys Curator of Meteorites), Dr. Gregory Matloff (CUNY professor of Astrophysics), William Watson (Executive Director of the Space Frontier Foundation), Jeff Krukin (NewSpace Advisor to the North Carolina Aerospace Alliance), Michael De Dora (Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry, New York), Ross VanBurg (Speaker Chair at the Explorers Club), Taylor Dinerman (Space Journalist), Carol Pinchefsky (Editor of SpaceFuture.com), John Huntington (CUNY professor of Entertainment Technology), Kenji Williams (Violinist and creator of Bella Gaia).

After that, enjoy:

- An action-packed Space Trivia Survival game, after which prizes will be given to the last space travelers left alive at the end of the game. Visit www.SpaceFuture.com to pack your brain with space trivia before the event.

- Composer and violinist Kenji Williams then presents Bella Gaia Live, a poetic vision of Earth from Space.  Developed in collaboration with NASA, Bella Gaia is a celebration of Planet Earth and the music of our world, performed by a live orchestra coordinated with gorgeous satellite imagery. Self-described as Sci-Fi Middle Eastern Funk that also Rocks, the New York City based instrumental trio Consider the Source will deliver effect-soaked riffing, spaced-out shredding and sitar-like twanging with funky bass and anchoring drums.  The band draws on influences from progressive rock and jazz fusion.

- The Manhattan-based New York Jedi Stage Combat group will perform a Star Wars style light-saber battle.  The 15-minute performance features teams of costumed Jedi and Sith clashing glowing light sabers with whirling choreography on the main stage.

- Lastly, the midnight toast to Yuri Gagarin and all who have or who will follow him into space includes commemorative shot glasses provided by the Space Frontier Foundation.

- Guest will also enjoy dance to an intergalactic music mix from star DJ the Bass and more.

From Austin Dacey’s review in Free Inquiry: “Her marvelous new novel, witty, wise, cativating and sumptuous ... is about many things — atheism, religion, mathematics, academia, the life of the mind, and the blessings and duties of genius. Throughout, it is about the subjective and the objective; about what it is like and what it is, and what it is like to live and believe somewhere in between. ... “I won’t give away ... this expertly paced story line ... gripping intellectual suspense. I will simply urge atheists and believers alike to experience this wonderful book.”

Join us even if you haven't finished reading. The book club is open to all ... and free! Every meeting is a book swap, too. Bring the books gathering dust on your shelves and take your pick of other readers' castaways. The leftovers? Donated.

Drinking Skeptically, organized by the New York City Skeptics, is an informal event designed to promote fellowship and networking among skeptics, critical-thinkers, and other like-minded individuals. Drinking Skeptically provides an opportunity for skeptics to talk, share ideas (and yes, drink) in a casual, relaxed atmosphere. We discuss the issues of the day and whatever else is on our minds. But most of all, we have fun while promoting skepticism, science, and rationality.

For more information, click here .

More information to come.

"How," Scott Atran asks in his book," is it that religious beliefs and practicies are manifest anywhere there are people, past and present? How could evolution have favoured wasteful investment in preposterous beliefs?" 

Join us even if you haven't finished reading. The book club is open to all ... and free! Every meeting is a book swap, too. Bring the books gathering dust on your shelves and take your pick of other readers' castaways. The leftovers? Donated.