• INFORMAL DISCUSSION - For the first 30 minutes of the Thursday night forums we will have informal discussion. This will allow for late arrivals, food & drink ordering, and new attendees to become acclimated.
• ANNOUNCEMENTS - Any events, news, or other items that you feel are of interest to the group can be announced at the start of Free Inquiry Forum.

TOPICS for Thursday (7/29/04) & Monday (8/2/04):

1. Discuss the Democratic National Convention. Which speakers have you been most impressed with? Least impressed with? Do you feel the overall tone at the Democratic Convention has been positive?
2. What is a miracle? Do miracles happen? Do miracles (improbable events) have a natural or supernatural explanation? Are most improbable events guaranteed to happen due to the Law of Large Numbers?
3. A recent study by HealthGrades Inc. concluded that as many as 195,000 people a year could be dying in U.S. hospitals because of easily prevented errors. This estimate is nearly double that of a 1999 study. Are you surprised by these figures? What can be done to make hospitals safer?
4. The New Yorker magazine reports in its July 26th edition that members of all four branches of the U.S. military can get free face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction and other cosmetic surgery -- something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills. Should cosmetic surgery be a covered health care benefit for members of the military and their immediate families?

Quote of the week: "No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish." [David Hume, "Of Miracles", from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, 1748]

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