Seattle Atheist Church

Online Service: Buddhism Part 1: What on Earth is Buddhism? Roots and Branches
2026-04-26 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Los_Angeles)
Is Buddhism a philosophy, a religion or a type of psychology? We’ll explore the diversity of many schools and denominations of Buddhism that developed in Asia, noting a large variety of practices and teachings over its 2,600 year history, shaped by isolated geographies more than imperial decrees or inquisitions. What is different, and what do the major branches have in common?
This week’s speaker will be Topher.
After the talk, we’ll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share related thoughts, resources, and personal experiences.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom. You can register for it here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83032918828?pwd=[REDACTED]

Online Service: You are the worst and I hate you.
2026-04-19 12:00 - 13:30
How do we identify when we’re not practicing forgiveness? It’s easy to get fused to an idea about someone else or even ourselves and not allowing them to grow and change. It’s easy to build up frustration that does you more harm than good. Forgiveness allows us to let things go, release ourselves from the burden.
This week’s speaker will be Mikki.
After the talk, we’ll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share related thoughts, resources, and personal experiences.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom. You can register for it here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81448561119?pwd=[REDACTED]

Online Service: Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Doing Badly
2026-04-12 12:00 - 13:30
Popular wisdom tells us that anything worth doing is worth doing well. But according to G. K. Chesterton, “A thing worth doing is worth doing poorly.” If you know you’re not likely to do a job well, is it still worth doing, and, if so, why, when, and under what circumstances? What if you’ll never be any good at it? What if lots of other people can do it much better than you? This is a talk in praise of the job done half-assedly, amateurishly, or half-heartedly, because there is a place in the world for each of these things, and we cannot always be the best, or even our best. (This will be similar to the talks by this name I gave in 2019 and 2024).
This week’s speaker will be Eva-Lise Carlstrom.
After the talk, we’ll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share related thoughts, resources, and personal experiences.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom. You can register for it here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89215387190?pwd=[REDACTED]

Online Service: "Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity"
2026-04-05 12:00 - 13:30
Here’s the description on Amazon:
“A groundbreaking manifesto on living better and longer that challenges the conventional medical thinking on aging and reveals a new approach to preventing chronic disease and extending long-term health, from a visionary physician and leading longevity expert.
…
“Wouldn’t you like to live longer? And better? In this operating manual for longevity, Dr. Peter Attia draws on the latest science to deliver innovative nutritional interventions, techniques for optimizing exercise and sleep, and tools for addressing emotional and mental health.
“For all its successes, mainstream medicine has failed to make much progress against the diseases of aging that kill most people: heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and type 2 diabetes. Too often, it intervenes with treatments too late to help, prolonging lifespan at the expense of healthspan, or quality of life. Dr. Attia believes we must replace this outdated framework with a personalized, proactive strategy for longevity, one where we take action now, rather than waiting.
“This is not “biohacking,” it’s science: a well-founded strategic and tactical approach to extending lifespan while also improving our physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Dr. Attia’s aim is less to tell you what to do and more to help you learn how to think about long-term health, in order to create the best plan for you as an individual.”
This week’s speaker will be Jack.
After the talk, we’ll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share related thoughts, resources, and personal experiences.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom. You can register for it here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88595303957?pwd=[REDACTED]

Online Service: LessWrong: The Two-Party Swindle + A Fable of Science & Politics
2026-03-29 12:00 - 13:30
Let’s review a few fascinating posts from the Rationalist community blog LessWrong and discuss them together afterwards.
This week’s speaker will be Jack.
After the talk, we’ll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share related thoughts, resources, and personal experiences.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom. You can register for it here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86081161338?pwd=[REDACTED]

Online Service: Clean Enough & Fair Enough
2026-03-22 12:00 - 13:30
Most of us don’t have a house spouse at home to take care of the housekeeping while we work; it’s no longer feasible for most households to get by on a single income, yet when a heterosexual couple both have full-time jobs, the woman still almost always gets saddled with most of the housework. Or you may have found yourself the only roommate who ever does the dishes. Even if everyone in the house helps out, the amount of work to keep a house clean and running can seem overwhelming, especially if there are children or disabilities in the mix. I’ll discuss some approaches to make keeping the house livable more manageable and to share the load more evenly, speaking as an expert in trying things and figuring out how to get by, *not* as an expert on having a clean house.
This week’s speaker will be Eva Carlstrom.
After the talk, we’ll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share related thoughts, resources, and personal experiences.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom. You can register for it here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86482881094?pwd=[REDACTED]

Online Service: 5-Minute Speed Talks
2026-03-15 12:00 - 13:30
This week is our popular Speed Talks event! Three to five speakers get 5-8 minutes each to expound their ideas, followed by our group discussion period where the community react to the ideas presented, discuss their own thoughts on the topic, and ask questions of the presenters.

If you have an idea for a talk, but you’re not sure you can go for a full 20-30 minutes, this is for you!

If you’d like to sign up to give a 5-Minute Speed Talk, let us know using this form:
https://forms.gle/cdz869YYQDDLBvb87

This week's speaker will be various volunteers.
After the talk, we’ll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share related thoughts, resources, and personal experiences.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom. You can register for it here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82392633644?pwd=[REDACTED]

Online Service: Wait But Why's Story of Us, 1: The Great Battle of Fire & Light
2026-03-08 12:00 - 13:30
“When you’re a single cell in the body of a giant, it’s hard to understand what the giant’s doing, or why it is the way it is, because you can’t really zoom out and look at the whole thing all at once. But we do our best.”
This is the first in what I hope to be a series of talks drawn from the series of posts on Wait But Why called The Story of Us. This series is the result of Tim Urban, creator of Wait But Why, following “some sick-ass rabbit down a hole for three years, deep into U.S. history, world history, evolutionary psychology, political theory, and neuroscience, through dozens of books, hundreds of datasets and articles, and into literally thousands of conversations.
…
“Part of what [Tim has] spent three years working on is a new language we can use to think and talk about our societies and the people inside of them. In typical Wait But Why form, the language is full of new terms and metaphors and, of course, lots and lots of badly drawn pictures. It all amounts to a new lens. Looking through this lens out at the world, and inward at myself, things make more sense now.”
“In the early parts of the series, we’ll get familiar with the new lens, and as the series moves on, we’ll start using the lens to look at [more challenging topics]. If I can do my job well, by the end of the journey, everything will make more sense to you too.”
“As with all Wait But Why posts, everything in this series is open for debate—it’s [Tim’s] latest draft in a never-ending work in progress.” As the series progresses, your comments and discussion will help enhance our clarity and understanding.
This week’s speaker will be Jack.
After the talk, we’ll have a group discussion to explore the ideas presented, and to share related thoughts, resources, and personal experiences.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom. You can register for it here:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88100488322?pwd=[REDACTED]
