We also encourage members to attend meetings of our sibling organization, The Humanist Community in Silicon Valley, which meets weekly at 11:00 AM, Sundays over the hill in Palo Alto.

Secular Humanists of Santa Cruz County is a local group of atheists and freeethinkers who have come together to help promote discussion and participation in activities that promote our worldview. Our monthly meetings give participants the opportunity to exchange information about local, regional and national events, discuss relevant political issues that relate to the promotion of secular humanist ideals and educate fellow members as to developments in the nation-wide secular humanist movement. There is also the opportunity for free and open discussion of whatever participants are interested in sharing, for instance scientific advances in cosmology, evolutionary biology and anthropology that speak to the underlying foundation of secular humanism.

Our next meeting will be held on Saturday, Feb 13, 2010 in celebration of Charles Darwin's 201st birthday. Dr. Dennis Etler, Ph.D, an Anthropology Instructor at Cabrillo College will talk about new advances in the study of human evolution focusing on the recent description of Ardipithecus ramidus the most complete and oldest (4.3 mya) direct human ancestor known to date. The discovery and analysis of Ardipithecus sheds new light on how we relate to other apes and has the potential to overthrow previous interpretations of human evolution.