The Role of Faith Communities in Abolishing Nuclear Weapons

For decades, Artificial Intelligence was one of those “maybe someday” dreams. Seemingly out of nowhere, ChatGPT exploded on the scene in early 2023. The clock is now ticking – the capabilities of A.I. are going to improve exponentially, and very quickly. As with almost every technological advancement in our lifetime, we find it easy to imagine the beneficial uses, but have distressingly little imagination about what the unintended consequences could be. This talk will mostly be based on a collection of newspaper and magazine articles that give us glimpses of reasons that we could very well regret ever opening up this Pandora’s box.
Ken has a lso provided “points to ponder” document with links to some of the issues raised in his talk
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Bio: In September of 2023 Ken Ing presented “Left versus Left: What’s Happening Here Ain’t Exactly Clear”, then in March of 2024 he presented “I Before We Except Overseas: Tracing The Roots Of Our Multi-Century Identity Crisis”.
Ken retired in 2019 from a career in IT and lives in the Puget Sound area in Washington State.
Bob Simoni was the featured speaker for the April 19th service. The title was “Life After Death.”
“Life After Death.” At its heart, religion must try to provide answers to the questions surrounding our existence. Perhaps the biggest questions of all, and ones we have all asked ourselves is “What happened before and what happens next?”. Bob Simoni explored those questions in the April service as we transitioned from Winter to Spring and experienced nature’s rebirth.
Bob Simoni is our NAUA Treasurer, board member, a long time Unitarian, and a member of the Hayward Fellowship. Bob and his wife, Sandy, live in Paso Robles, California.
The newly established NAUA Member Services Committee presented their Action Plan to the NAUA Board of Trustees on March 12th. Many who participated in last year’s Summit will find their ideas expressed below. The Committee has a threefold purpose: 1. To recruit new members; 2. To ensure that current members are and remain engaged; 3. To Identify and reach out to Fellowships and Congregations about the advantages of joining NAUA.
Our first focus will be on enhancing member engagement. Out of the over 1,000 contacts on our list, only a small percentage are actively engaged. We are aware that unless folks are actively engaged, they are likely to drift away. We are also aware that enhancing member engagement is a two-way process that incudes providing wanted/needed programs and services, while also asking members what they need and want. Equally important is communicating what we are doing. Our current plan to is to:
This second list of items are no less important, but will likely take more time to develop. It was also decided that the committee will solicit new members with skills in these areas to assist in the development. Included are:
We’d love to hear your thoughts, reactions and new ideas. Feel free to communicate with this committee: judi.durham@gmail.com
“Yours, Mine and Ours: The NAUA Going Forward” March 15th, 2025 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM PST |
This month’s worship service explores various perspectives (“Yours, Mine and Ours”) on the future of the NAUA. Join on the 3rd Saturday of the month to take a closer look at our purpose and direction, what the NAUA is, and where we would like to see it going.
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