The Christian Bible and the Muslim Quran are used as “handbooks for life” by millions of people around the world. These books are used to find guidance in how to lead a “good” life, how to resolve conflicts, or how to become happy and fulfilled. Skeptics, rationalists, and atheists typically reject the authority of these books; they belief that these books were simply written by people, and that most of the guidelines of these books are outdated.

Nevertheless, all human beings have a desire “to know” how to become a fulfilled and happy human being. The lack of belief in supernatural beings does not diminish such desires. But which books can skeptics, rationalists, or atheists turn to to find guidance? Do Dawkins or Darwin offer the same sort of insights that believers get from their holy books? Does science actually say anything about daily life issues and fulfillment? What guidelines for life would follow from a rational analysis of life?
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This month’s talk is by Dr Antony Lempert of the Secular Medical Forum will be entitled “Prescribing Religion: What’s the harm?”

Google

MapQuest

Microsoft

Yahoo

Today saw the March edition of Leeds Skeptics in the Pub. Norm had decided to pull out last week so Daryl bravely stepped up at the last minute to present his talk. There were quite a few new faces down there which was good to see, hopefully the word is starting to spread.

Daryl’s talk was amazing, it was about the power of exponentials and the technological singularity which obviously was of great interest to me as a computer scientist. It was interesting because we also carried out usual hat of skeptism but nobody could really pick any major wholes in the latest thoughts outlined by Ray Kurzweil in his book “the singularity is near.”

In the book he outlines that the technological singularity is both achievable and near given that technological growth is exponential. It really is a facinating area and one that I will be keeping a much closer eye on in future.

The Boston Phoenix

By GEORGIANA COHEN | March 19, 2009

EVIDENTLY, MY DEAR WATSON? Rebecca Watson’s Boston Skeptics group isn’t all about casting aspersions — there’s critical thinking and the occasional pi(e)-throwing contest, too.

It’s a few days after Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday, and Rebecca Watson is posted up at the Asgard, a popular bar down the road from MIT, passing out leaflets promoting an upcoming “Skeptics in the Pub” event. The flyers suggest evolutionary-themed pickup lines: “I’d like to sail my HMS Beagle right into your Galapagos” and “If I were an enzyme, I would be DNA Helicase so I could unzip your genes.” The last time the Boston Skeptics gathered for Sunday brunch, they consumed 28 pancakes. (They keep records.) This time, they’ve been joined by members of the Boston Atheists group, so more than 40 diners overflow two long tables in the back room of the Asgard, guzzling coffee, ordering breakfast, and chatting about Battlestar Galactica — poised to break the pancake record.

But in the end, the flapjack tally somehow falls short. The tab, nevertheless, comes to $554 (including tip). People start tossing cash around. Then Scott Frazer, a 23-year-old software engineer from Brighton, throws down a credit card, complicating everything.

“I’m okay with being an asshole,” he says.

Fellow skeptic Jared Juliano reassures him: “You’re in the right crowd.”

Skeptics aren’t just assholes, though. When they’re not counting pancakes or making natural-selection puns, the Boston Skeptics double as public advocates for the cause of critical reasoning. They worship the scientific method and insist on filtering everything, from religion to the color of the sky, through experimental verification and critical reasoning.

“A lot of people, I think, get the false impression that science is something that only happens in a lab,” says Watson, “when, in fact, science is just a really great way of sorting things out, of stripping away your own senses, which can be fooled, and understanding how you can be fooled.”

They host talks at local bars — where guest speakers hold forth on topics ranging from atheism to the abuse of quantum mechanics — and organize field trips. They attend Harvard’s Humanist of the Year award ceremonies together. In December, 40 skeptics descended on Boston’s Museum of Science to browse the cryptozoology exhibits. They also just screw around.

On March 14, antic BSers held a “pi(e)” fight on the Boston Common. And this May, a group is heading down to Foxwoods to see Penn and Teller, minor deities in the skeptics’ world, perform.

The pies, pancakes, and pilsners are the skeptics’ comforting props — the glue of a community reinforcing what can be a lonely, challenging way to look at things. Members frequently discuss “interfacing” (i.e., coping) with a world that runs on blind faith.

Enter the Skepchick
Watson, a T-shirt-and-jeans kind of girl with geeky glasses and an ebullient demeanor, worked her way through Boston University as a magician. In 2005, while attending the Amaz!ng Meeting — an annual skeptics conference organized by magician and paranormal debunker James Randi — Watson was inspired to start a blog called Skepchick, which focuses on psychics, self-image, and “anything on Oprah, pretty much,” sorting fact from fiction, especially in areas where women may be targeted. Like a lot of skeptical activity, it’s done with a sense of humor; one of Skepchick’s early successes was a pin-up calendar featuring scantily clad female skeptics, Watson included.

“It’s a weird overlap,” says Watson, who also co-hosts the popular podcast “The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe” and contributes skeptic-centric articles to the blog Bostonist (bostonist.com). “When you’re a magician, you learn all the secrets behind everything. You see psychics like John Edward or Sylvia Brown doing magic tricks, but they’re calling them magical supernatural powers. They’re using that lie to manipulate people’s emotions or take their money.” Magicians like Watson see that as a call to action; Penn and Teller’s Showtime series Bullshit!, a skeptic touchstone, embodies that ethos.

But Watson saw the need for more. Taking a cue from friend Sid Rodrigues’s London-based Skeptics in the Pub organization, she started a Boston version a year ago. About 70 people showed up for the first event, a talk with local blogger Mike the Mad Biologist. Out of that effort, the Boston Skeptics were born. Since then, similar events have been launched in Pittsburgh, Chicago, Calgary, Phoenix, Atlanta, and elsewhere around the world.

Oh yeah?!
So who joins Boston Skeptics? And why?

“There are a lot of people out there who struggle with certain questions about how the world works, and they don’t know that there are other people out there who feel the same way,” says Watson.

Tressa Breed, a 42-year-old administrative assistant from Gardner, sees the group as an opportunity to make up for having “spent too much time living too quietly.” For Claudia Flores, a 32-year-old government researcher from Falmouth, the best part of the group experience is “realizing that I’m not alone, that your off-the-wall thinking is not unique.”

Others have professional objectives. “The more I can learn about [science versus pseudoscience],” says Elizabeth Grimm, a 26-year-old science-and-health-regulations lawyer, “the better I’ll be able to help folks separate fact from fiction.”

Groups like Boston Skeptics are also resources for people who may just be emerging from the shadow of a “long-held belief,” which suggests such things as a religious conviction, social prejudice, or superstition.

And some skeptics are activists. Atlanta-based software engineer and one-time pub-night guest speaker Tim Farley took the call to advocacy to heart. His Web site, whatstheharm.net, compiles accounts of the financial and physical victims of homeopathy, detoxification, psychics, chiropractic medicine, exorcisms, and more. (The site has been praised by no less than doubter-royalty Penn Jillette himself.) By Farley’s current tally — drawn from 790 sampled and documented cases — 368,379 people have been killed and more than $2.8 billion lost as a result of pseudoscientific practices.

“Why are we skeptics? Are we just complainers who sit in the corner and make snide remarks?” Farley asks rhetorically. “I needed to do something and not just be another skeptic.”

Another common denominator among many skeptics is atheism. That said, skeptics claim to be more concerned with separating church and state and the dangers of fundamentalism than with convincing someone there is no God. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want to have a discussion.

“We tend to think that your religion or your beliefs about astrology are just as open to criticism as, say, the political party you’re in,” says Jackie Lavache, co-founder of Boston Atheists.

“Nobody’s going to tell you that you shouldn’t believe in whatever you believe in,” says Watson. “It’s more like, ‘Why do you believe that?’ ”

So, in a room full of godless heathens, what sayeth a person of faith? Catholic and self-described “pop-culture girl” Jen DeChristofaro works with Watson and spends a lot of time hanging with the Skeptics. “You have to be pretty willing to step outside your box,” DeChristofaro admits, adding that listening to Watson made her consider for the first time why somebody would be an atheist. “If you respect other people’s ideas, you’re going to learn something. Even if you don’t agree with it 100 percent, you’re going to know something you didn’t know before.”

Yes, mutual respect is a big part of the skeptics’ creed, despite the common perception that they’re a bunch of know-it-all jerks. Or assholes.

“A lot of people just take things on faith. I don’t come out and confront them about it,” says Scott Frazer. He has a friend who believes in shamanism — which Frazer calls “legitimate BS” — but he doesn’t call him out. “There’s no point in an argument. I’ll lose him as a friend.”

Georgiana Cohen doesn’t believe a thing Rebecca Watson told her — especially about the high price of pancakes at the Asgard. She can be reached at georgy.cohen@gmail.com. Maybe.

He said: “Some of these tours claim Edinburgh is the most haunted city in Europe, but it doesn’t even register as the most haunted in Britain. York has more alleged ghost ‘sightings’.

“However, regardless of the number of sightings, once you put these things under the microscope, they just don’t stand up to scrutiny.

“When I was out doing the ghost tours, I was presenting stories as fact, when most of the time they had several interpretations and on many occasions had no historical basis whatsoever.

“With a bit of research, I was able to discover that the truth was often more exciting than the myths.”

Mr Pryce e-mailed his ideas to Dr French, head of the University of London’s Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, who suggested that a good way to gauge the popularity of such tours would be to set up an Edinburgh chapter of the growing Skeptics in the Pub phenomenon.

Dr French said: “Skeptics in the Pub has been going for about ten years in London, but in the last 18 months it’s grown from a hard core of around 30 people to a group of over 200 who meet over a pint to hear regular presentations and discuss alternative explanations for supernatural phenomena.

“There are now Skeptics groups springing up all over England, but to the best of my knowledge no one’s tried a walking tour before.”

Dr French was among the 30 people who attended the first Edinburgh Skeptics meeting at Nicol Edwards pub on Niddry Street last week – billed as “Edinburgh’s most haunted pub”.

He believes the popularity of the inaugural meeting is a testament to the potential market for Mr Pryce’s tours.

However, Mr Pryce hasn’t got the city’s ghost tour operators rattling in their ghostly chains just yet.

Ian McKain, manager of Auld Reekie Tours, said: “We’re not worried in the slightest! What we do is intended to be tongue-in-cheek and is supposed to be entertaining.

“Alex Pryce has tried to set up tours in the city before with little success – probably because he takes life too seriously.”

The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) is pleased to announce that Dr. Philip Plait — renowned astronomer, author, and skeptic — will be taking on the role of President of the JREF effective immediately.

The goals of the JREF are to bring critical thinking to the public, expose pseudoscientific frauds, and promote real science and rationality.

“Phil is a skeptic, a scientist, and a colleague, and his ideas and vigor will take the JREF very far indeed. We’re pleased and proud to have him take the reins,” said James Randi, internationally known magician and critical thinker, who is the founder and outgoing president of the JREF. “I will now be dedicating much of my time to completing my next two books, Wrong!, and A Magician in the Laboratory.”

Dr. Plait has a long affiliation with the JREF. He has been a speaker at all of The Amaz!ng Meetings — a JREF-sponsored annual conference series and the largest gathering of critical thinkers in the world — and over the years has provided valuable advice and support for the JREF in scientific and other matters. During that time he has grown to be a strong part of the Foundation.

Before joining the JREF, Dr. Plait spent ten years performing scientific research using the Hubble Space Telescope, much of it as a contractor at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. It was at this time that he created the Bad Astronomy website, where he critically (and humorously) analyzes various astronomical myths and misconceptions. His debunking of the Moon Hoax (people who think NASA faked the Apollo Moon landings) became an Internet favorite, bringing in tens of millions of views.

His award-winning Bad Astronomy Blog is one of the largest and most popular scientific blogs in the world. In July 2008 it was acquired by Discover Magazine, where his audience continues to grow. Plait is an internationally sought-after lecturer and has given numerous interviews on national TV, radio, and podcasts. He has written two popular-level science books: Bad Astronomy (Wiley and Sons, 2002), and the upcoming Death from the Skies! (Viking 2008), which deals with cosmic catastrophes. It was his first book that brought him to the attention of Mr. Randi, who asked him to speak at the JREF’s 2003 conference.

In fact, Plait attributes his current stature in the skeptical community to James Randi. “When I was young, I believed in all sorts of antiscientific silliness like the Bermuda Triangle, astral projection, and the like. But then I saw Mr. Randi on television masterfully and literally dissecting psychic surgery [con artists who fake using psychic powers to do phony surgery on desperately ill victims], and he opened my eyes — and my brain — to the idea that reality is a better place to live in than fantasy. I owe it all to Mr. Randi, so I am very excited and deeply honored to continue his vision with the JREF.”

Outgoing President James Randi has pursued “psychic” spoonbenders, exposed the dirty tricks of faith healers, investigated homeopathic water “with a memory,” and generally been a thorn in the sides of those who try to pull the wool over the public’s eyes in the name of the supernatural. He is the author of numerous books, including The Truth About Uri Geller, The Faith Healers, Flim-Flam!, and An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural. Mr. Randi’s long-standing challenge for proof of claims of the paranormal now stands as a $1,000,000 prize administered by the Foundation. It remains unclaimed. Mr. Randi will become the Chairman of the JREF Board of Directors, where he will continue to guide the JREF and be a driving force for its endeavors.

With Dr. Plait at the helm, the JREF will be expanding its efforts, including educating children. “I want to teach kids about the wonders of the real Universe. We can do this by partnering with the educational community and developing fun, hands-on materials that schoolchildren can use in the classroom to teach them about critical thinking and the scientific method. Science is sometimes taught as being cold and dull, but nothing could be more wrong! It’s exciting, it’s fun, and it’s cool. Kids are natural scientists, and we need to encourage that, foster it, and let it grow.”

The JREF was established in 1996 as a registered 501(c)3 organization under the IRS code, and as such, all donations to the Foundation are tax-exempt to the full extent under the law.

For further information and media inquiries, contact the JREF:
Via phone: +1-954-467-1112
Via email: jref@randi.org

More information on the James Randi Educational Foundation can be found online at http://www.randi.org/joom/about-the-foundation.html

Print-quality photographs of Dr. Plait are available on his website at http://www.badastronomy.com/pr/images.html. Pictures of James Randi are available at http://www.randi.org/joom/press-center.html.

Warning! This months SitP is now on a Monday.

This months speaker is Terry Sanderson, the President of the National Secular Society and will be giving us a talk on news of a world religious revival.
There will be a skeptical nuddie calendar for the best question at Q&As – I have both male and female nuddies from skepchick.org, in case you were wondering. I’m feeling generous this month. Full details are under under the fold….right at the bottom.

If you have any photos of past Skeptics in the Pub meetings, feel free to share them on the group Flickr site or on our Facebook group.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/skeptics/

*London*

Dr Caroline Watt will be giving a talk at Kensington Central Library this Thursday, 6:35 pm:
Psychic experimenters and psychic healers: Research at the KPU
http://www.spr.ac.uk/expcms/index.php?section=4

If you missed it the other week, mind magician Philip Escoffey will be doing his excellent and mind-boggling stuff again at the Soho Theatre on Thursday 24th July – very good.
Tickets are £10. http://www.6impossiblethings.co.uk/

And just in case I forget and it sells out again next month, Robin Ince will be having a short run at the Camden Fringe in August with his “School for Gifted Children”, featuring more people being enthused about stuff they’ve found out about – science, comedy, music, serial killers; and is very good too.
http://camdenfringe.org/index.php?id=2&disp=details&acts_id=177

*York*
If you’ve got friends in the North East that would like to join in on the fun, John Jackson and Graham Lappin from UK Skeptics have organised a social at The Punch Bowl in York. Details can be found here: http://ukskeptics.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2689

*Leicester*

Simon Perry has another instalment of SitP Leicester. http://leicester.skepticsinthepub.org

The few of you subscribers who are on the WRONG side of the pond, Mike Feldman has managed to coerce a van load of people at TAM to start their own skeptics meetups around the US. You’d be a fool to miss out on one near you.
http://drinkingskeptically.org/

I think that’s it!

Please feel free to forward this email onto anyone you’d think would be interested in coming to any of these events, or even subscribing to this mailing list.

See you soon and toodle pip!

Sid Rodrigues

———————

Monday, July 21, 2008@7:00pm

Terry Sanderson – A World Religious Revival: Fact or Fiction?
There are repeated claims that there is some kind of massive religious revival going on around the world – but is it true? Terry Sanderson takes a skeptical look at the figures and finds that all is not as it seems.

Terry Sanderson is the President of the National Secular Society. He is also a freelance journalist and his column in GT magazine is the longest-running feature in any gay paper in the world – 25 years and still going strong.
He has also been an agony aunt on Woman’s Own under the tutelage of Claire Rayner.

The NSS wesbite is http://www.secularism.org.uk.

The Penderel’s Oak
283-288 High Holborn
London
WC1V 7HP

Tel: 020 7242 5669

–

http://www.skeptic.org.uk/pub

Help Iraqi women
>>

Sceptics in the Pub on True Tube
>>

SCEPTICS IN THE PUB

The brain is not immortal – it is very much a part of nature
>>

Christian Theologians Prepare for Extraterrestrial Life
>>

Pseudoscience: A Threat to Our Environment
>>

BBC caught in row over payment to academic who denies gas chambers
>>

Paedophile jailed after message from psychic
>>

A party where Friday the 13th is just another day
>>

‘Homeopathy works!’
>>

CRISP AD BEAMED TO ALIENS
>>

New evidence in hunt for UFOs
>>

It’s official, you can’t pop corn with your cell phone
>>

The exploitation of Aids
>>

Report debunks myths surrounding Generation Y in consulting sector
>>

Ghostly goings on in Cheddar
>>

Lavenham TV medium with rare insight
>>

Richard Dawkins: Podcast
>>

Ghosts detected at historic city pub
>>

‘Brangelina turn to nursery psychic’
>>

Prison papers reveal Myra Hindley petitioned Government for hypnosis
>>

Update:
Facebook group is now in.

Hi All,

Some time ago you enquired about Skeptics in the Pub. We’ve now got enough interest to make this work, so here is the first invitation.

The first date is Tuesday the 20th May at 7:30. The pub is The Rutland & Derby Arms in Leicester – click here for info on the pub.

This meet will be an talk by Simon Singh and if the interest is good enough I’ll try and arrange another speaker for the next meet.

Please RSVP.

Many thanks,

Simon

leicesterskeptics [at] googlemail

Phil Plait’s Moon Hoax London Speech – Report
>>

More skeptics than you could shake a crystal pendant at
>>

DOES GRAVE HIDE SECRET OF LEGEND?
>>

The Law Explored: supernatural protection
>>

Dr House: The 30-Day Diabetes Miracle?
>>

An Evening With James Randi And Friends
>>

American ghost busters probe Samlesbury Hall
>>

Psychics are staring into a future of hard times
>>

Religion is ‘the new social evil’
>>

Exposed: the great GM crops myth
>>

Electric devices left on in your bedroom could be the reason why you can’t get a good night’s sleep
>>

Sabermetrics
>>

Alternative therapies should not be dismissed
>>

DRAWING A VEIL OVER IT
>>

This is a long one as there’s lots on in April…

Firstly, we’re all happy to announce that we’ve had successful year so far. SitP has had an article in both Nature and the Londonist’s websites and have also been awarded “Top 50 best London websites” and “Top 10 best London communities” by Time Out magazine. Thanks to everyone who has helped us over the last 9 years, 100 Skeptics in the Pubs and have lent support by coming each month to make us one of the best communities in all Ye Olde London towne.

On the 15th April, our resident lawyer and skeptic, David Green, will be giving us the lowdown on how the law handles the issues of belief and non-belief through the courts. It will range from The repeal of The Fraudulent Mediums Act to blasphemy. Full details below.

Date: 15th April
Time: 7.00pm
Location: The Penderels Oak (Cellar Bar), Holborn
Title:
The Skeptic in the Courtroom

This talk will address, in an objective and balanced manner, how the law deals with certain controversial issues of belief and non-belief. Prompted by recent developments, the talk wil explore whether the courtroom is really the appropriate forum for settling disputes that relate to controversial issues of belief and non-belief.

For example, the Fraudulent Mediums Act 1951, the last remnant of the old witchcraft legislation, is to be repealed in April 2008. Mediums and psychics will now be under a new and modern legal regime in respect of any unfair commercial practices. But how will these new sanctions work in practice? Will mediums and psychics who adopt questionable practices be more or less likely to face legal action?

The ancient common law offence of blasphemy may also soon be abolished. A recent High Court decision has effectively narrowed its scope in any case. There is the new offence of incitement to religious hatred. But can the legal process really deal with what can be questions of religious dispute?

Other examples of where the law grapples with issues of belief and non-belief include the “Evolution” trials in United States, the Holocaust denial trials, and when religious groups seek to incorporate aspects of religious law into more general legal systems.

The talk will describe and assess these and other legal developments, using practical examples. It will also offer practical suggestions for both skeptics and non-skeptics on how legal regimes may affect them.

David is a solicitor in London with wide experience of the communications, media and public sector fields. He is the author of the chapters on the restrictions that criminal law places on free speech in the current edition of Law and the Media.

————————-

As I mentioned at our April Fools’ special, James Randi will be giving a lecture at Conway Hall on the 19th April.

Guest Speakers will include:

Simon Singh

Ben Goldacre

Chris French

Susan Blackmore

Richard Wiseman

Details and tickets can be booked from here: http://skeptic.org.uk/randi/

————
Last, but not least; TAM regular, Phil Plait – otherwise know as the “Bad Astronomer” – will be having a get together in London while he’s over here filming about the particle accelerator at CERN (LHC) with Prof. Brian Cox of the University of Manchester. When I get details of the meeting place I’ll post them on The Skeptic Magazine News page.

Please feel free to forward this email on to anyone who would be interested in coming to any of these events.
You can always subscribe and unsubscribe from our website: http://www.skeptic.org.uk/pub

See you all soon.

Sid Rodrigues

Science and the Media – Can we trust TV?

Hi All,

We hope everyone enjoyed Andy Lewis and David Colquhoun’s two excellent presentations on quackery and the lively Q&A session last week.

We have a 100th SitP special on the 1st of April.
Science author and documentary maker, Simon Singh will be giving us a whistle-stop tour of science documentaries, the good, the bad and the ugly.

After nine years it will be our 100th meeting, there will be some cake to celebrate (and Simon will be dressed in a jesters out-fit too).

Hope to see you there…fool!

Sid

All other events of interest will be on The Skeptic Magazine News page.

Please feel free to forward this mail to anyone you think would be interested in coming along.

Time: 7.00pm

Location:
The Penderel’s Oak
283-288 High Holborn
London
WC1V 7HP

Maps: Streetmap Gmap

Tel: 020 8943 7540
http://www.skeptic.org.uk/pub