Tag: Science

News: Godless Billboards Return to Sioux Falls, South Dakota

 

2016 Billboard
2017 Billboard

Sioux Falls Freethinkers, in coordination with Sioux Falls Atheists & Humanists, recently activated an annual billboard campaign promoting science and evolution.

Dale Hemming, the President of Sioux Falls Freethinkers, gave a description of the billboard campaign’s main intent. “The Sioux Falls Atheists and Humanists wish to take a stand against the anti-science rhetoric of creationists, revisionists, fundamentalists, and ultra-conservative Evangelicals. Their distrust of science does a disservice to everyone, but especially to our children who do not yet have the mental ability to defend themselves from misinformation and deception. Toward this end, we are launching an Evolution Billboard Campaign.”

According to Hemming, the objective of the campaign is not to attack religion, but to support the ideas that evolution is a fact and the Earth is not 6,000 years old, as taught by some religions.

http://www.SiouxFallsFreethinkers.com

YouTube Channels We Love: Joe Rogan and The Joe Rogan Experience

Courtesy YouTube

A standup comedian for over 20 years with an inquisitive and intense comedic style, Rogan is host of The Joe Rogan Experience, a long form conversation with guests that is  broadcast live via YouTube.

Rogan just broke 1000 episodes on YouTube with timely guests such as Bret Weinstein, Gad Saad, Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris and Peter Boghossian.

Rogan is amazingly well-informed and comfortable with a variety of topics and guests. He often invites skeptics and freethinkers and the sometimes up to 3 hour or more interviews are very in-depth. One of our favorite practices with Rogan is that facts are checked in real time through live internet searches.

 

1,610,980 subscribers • 381,002,382 views
Joined Jan 11, 2013

 

David Silverman Has Been Terminated by American Atheists

Cranford, NJ—The chair of the American Atheists Board of Directors, Neal Cary, has released the following statement:

Last night, the American Atheists Board of Directors voted to terminate David Silverman as President of American Atheists. Board Chair Neal Cary and Vice President Kathleen Johnson will continue to fulfill the duties of the President while National Program Director Nick Fish oversees the day-to-day operations of the organization.

On April 10, 2018, the Board of Directors placed President David Silverman on leave pending a review of allegations raised regarding Mr. Silverman’s conduct. The Board of Directors has reviewed internal documents and communications related to the initial complaint as well as evidence relating to the additional allegations brought to the Board’s attention. Today’s announcement is based on these findings, and the Board intends to cooperate with any future investigations.

American Atheists is committed to creating and maintaining an environment that is safe and welcoming to all. Based on the allegations made, and the evidence presented, the Board believes it is prudent and necessary to reaffirm that commitment and move forward with new leadership.

The staff of American Atheists will continue our mission to advocate for the absolute separation of religion from government, to elevate the profile of atheism in public discourse, and to build and strengthen communities that fully represent the growing number of atheists in America. We thank our members, supporters, and volunteers for their dedication and support of our mission.

Note: After American Atheists announced the termination of Mr. Silverman, a Buzzfeed News article was posted detailing additional allegations of misconduct. In response, National Program Director Nick Fish released the following statement.

We take our obligation to create safe and welcoming communities for our staff, volunteers, members and supporters very seriously. We have zero tolerance for the type of behavior alleged in these accounts. We will continue to demand the highest standards and accountability from our leaders, staff, and volunteers.

David Silverman Courtesy Atheist Alliance of America
David Silverman Courtesy Atheist Alliance of America

More about Silverman from 2017:

Atheist Alliance of America and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science are pleased to announce David Silverman as the 2017 recipient of the Richard Dawkins Award. Silverman is President of American Atheists and was the creator and executive producer of the 2012 Reason Rally.

The award will be presented to David Silverman at Atheist Alliance of America’s convention in Atlanta, September 1-4, 2017, which will be held at Dragon*Con’s Skeptrack, where Atheist Alliance of America will be celebrating its 25th-year anniversary.

The Atheist Alliance of America celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2017.

Atheist Alliance Convention at DragonCon in Atlanta, Georgia

Courtesy Atheist Alliance of America. Photographer: Mark W. Gura.

Previous winners of the Richard Dawkins Award:

2003: James Randi

2004: Ann Druyan

2005: Penn & Teller

2006: Julia Sweeney

2007: Daniel Dennett

2008: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

2009: Bill Maher

2010: Susan Jacoby

2011: Christopher Hitchens

2012: Eugenie Scott

2013: Steven Pinker

2014: Rebecca Goldstein

2015: Jerry Coyne

2016: Lawrence Krauss

Steven Pinker’s new book “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress” to be released February 27, 2018

The follow-up to Steven Pinker’s groundbreaking The Better Angels of Our Nature presents the big picture of human progress: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science.

Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.

Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature–tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking–which demagogues are all too willing to exploit.

With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.

Release date: February 27, 2018

Podcasts We Love: Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe

 

photo courtesy of http://www.theskepticsguide.org/

The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe is dedicated to promoting critical thinking, reason, and the public understanding of science.  The first episode of the SGU podcast went online on May 4th, 2005. It soon became a popular science/skeptical podcast, and remains one of the most popular science podcasts on iTunes.

The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe now has its own channel on YouTube, taking excerpts from past podcasts episodes and adapting them to the YouTube format.

 

Facilitators include:

  • Dr. Steven Novella
  • Jay Novella
  • Cara Santa Maria
  • Robert Novella
  • Evan Bernstein
  • Rebecca Watson
  • Perry DeAngelis

YouTube Channels We Love: Anthony Magnabosco

Courtesy Facebook

Anthony Magnabosco is a Street Epistemologist who converses with and interviews random strangers on the street to ask about their beliefs, such as faith, superstitions, and so much more.

Check out his YouTube channel at: 

https://www.youtube.com/user/magnabosco210

According to Magnabosco, “I initiate friendly conversations with people to see how they arrived at their deeply-held beliefs (e.g., Gods, karma, ghosts, politics, etc.), and then ask respectful questions to help them discover if the method(s) used are unreliable so that more reliable methods can be employed to maintain the belief and/or the level of confidence in the belief can be adjusted to be more in line with reality.”

Of particular interest are these playlists:

My Top Ten Talks

Street Epistemology Presentations

Relativism (“It’s true for me.”)

Street Epistemology Tutorials

(20,599 subscribers • 2,096,049 views  Joined Dec 25, 2011)

Skeptics We Love: James Randi

Photo courtesy of http://web.randi.org/about-james-randi.html

James Randi has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but today he is best known as the world’s most tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. 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 has received numerous awards and recognitions, including a Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 1986 for his work in investigating claims of the supernatural, occult, and paranormal powers—in particular his exposures of TV evangelist/healers and of “psychics” such as Uri Geller.

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. His lectures and television appearances have delighted — and vexed — audiences around the world.

Our Favorite Quotes:

“No amount of belief makes something a fact.”

“There is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out.”

“The New Age? It’s just the old age stuck in a microwave oven for fifteen seconds.”

Website:

http://web.randi.org/

Skeptics We Love: Sam Harris

Photo courtesy www.samharris.org

Sam Harris is the author of five New York Times bestsellers. His books include The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, Waking Up, and Islam and the Future of Tolerance (with Maajid Nawaz). The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. His writing and public lectures cover a wide range of topics—neuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, human violence, rationality—but generally focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live. Harris is also the host of a popular podcast, Waking Up With Sam Harris.

Sam Harris received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.

Our Favorite Quotes:

“Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious. In fact, ‘atheism’ is a term that should not even exist. No one needs to identify himself as a ‘non-astrologer’ or a ‘non-alchemist.’ We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.”

“What I’m asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.”

“I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs.”

Website:

https://www.samharris.org/

Skeptics We Love: Peter Boghossian

Courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Peter Boghossian teaches Critical Thinking, Science and Pseudoscience, the Philosophy of Education, and Atheism at Portland State University, is an Affiliate Research Assistant Professor at Oregon Health Sciences University in the Department of General Internal Medicine, is a national speaker for the Center for Inquiry and the Secular Student Alliance, an international speaker for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Boghossian’s primary research areas are critical thinking and moral reasoning. His doctoral research studies, funded by the State of Oregon and supported by the Oregon Department of Corrections, consisted of using the Socratic method to help prison inmates to increase their critical thinking and moral reasoning abilities and to increase their desistance to criminal behavior.

Boghossian published A Manual for Creating Atheists in 2013 and developed the Atheos app to help people have non-confrontational discussions about gods, religion, faith, and superstition. As of August, 2017 he is wrapping up his second book. More on this to follow.

Our Favorite Quotes:

“Belief in God(s) is not the problem. Belief without evidence is the problem.”

“Your new role is that of interventionist. Liberator. Your target is faith. Your pro bono clients are individuals who’ve been infected by faith.”

“Few things are more dangerous than people who think they’re in possession of absolute truth. Honest inquirers with sincere questions and an open mind rarely contribute to the misery of the world.”

Website: www.peterboghossian.com