By Page, on September 22, 2009, at 7:03 am There is a question that I hear over and over from the skeptical community whenever there is an opportunity for Q&A at public skeptical events. The question is always some variation on: How do I convince [insert kith or kin’s name here] that [insert sacred cow here] is a bunch of baloney and they are stupid for believing in it… without telling them outright that I think they are an idiot?
There is a somewhat unsatisfying answer generally given to this query, and I have heard the SGU Rogues say this during live tapings of their podcast, and it was approximately the answer given to the audience from the “Why is it so difficult to be a skeptic?” panel at NECSS. The answer is: The chance that you will be able to change the mind of a true believer is slim to none. You will probably never get your friend to stop believing in a literal translation of the bible or that homeopathy works, or whatever. Within efforts to inspire the skeptical movement, this is a disheartening message to promote, and I have an alternate suggestion that I have had some success with in my own experience. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on September 17, 2009, at 7:03 am  Howard Schneider, founding dean of the Stony Brook University School of Journalism, speaks at NECSS (photo by Larry Auerbach) My post on Monday addressed Dr. Paul Offit’s lecture on the anti-vaccination movement and how I felt that, even though the lecture was interesting in it’s own right, it was information already widely disseminated throughout the skeptical community and therefore, my least favorite part of last Saturday’s NECSS. Because of this, I doubt it will come as a surprise to anyone that my favorite speaker in our entire lecture was, in fact, Professor Howard Schneider of Stony Brook University. What I loved about listening to Professor Schneider was that he brought a different perspective to our community on the news media. We come down fairly hard on them for spreading bad information, and Professor Schneider argued against that notion. Professor Schneider challenged some of our assumptions, which is something that, as skeptics, we should be doing every day.
… continue reading this entry.
By AJ Mell, on September 16, 2009, at 7:03 am  NECSS Panel: Why is it so difficult to be a skeptic? (photo by Larry Auerbach) When this blog was launched on an unsuspecting world, I immediately posted an announcement heralding its arrival to my Facebook wall, as well as a general e-mail to all my friends and family members who haven’t yet swallowed the social media kool-aid. Little did I anticipate the awesome wave of apathy that this news flash would generate.
I wasn’t expecting that everyone would go so far as to read the thing, but I did expect more in the way of congratulations, curiosity, or clicks of the “Like” button. What did I get? Crickets.
I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. Nowadays I’m reluctant to tell people of my involvement in the skeptical movement, because the reaction is never particularly heartening. At best, they tend to look at me … well … skeptically. … continue reading this entry.
By Page, on September 15, 2009, at 7:03 am NECSS, The Northeast Conference on Science & Skepticism, was my first skeptical meeting. And since I was helping out behind the scenes, I may have a slightly biased view of the event. But I actually came away with a very different impression than that of my fellow blogger, The Quixotic Man (TQM). And since I have the floor today, I figured I would talk about it here instead of adding a comment on his post from yesterday.
 Rachael Dunlop and John Snyder as part of the Skepticism & Media Panel at NECSS 2009 (photo by Mark Bellncula) NB: This isn’t the first time, and it certainly won’t be the last time, that TQM and I do not see eye to eye, and that is why it is so much fun to work with him!
I agree with TQM that Paul Offit gave a terrific, informational, and thorough talk on the status of the anti-vaccination movement, which is a very dangerous public health concern. It is true that the bogus claims of the anti-vaxers have been criticized, debunked, chewed up and spit back out by scientific research, medical professionals, and the skeptical community. However, I do not think it is necessarily true that everyone in the audience on Saturday were as well informed on the topic as TQM. The very reason I became interested in skeptical blogging is because I knew it would force me to look deeper into issues that I knew only a little bit about, which is time consuming to say the least. As he said, TQM only became familiar with the topic of the anti-vax claims because he needed to research the issue for his posts at the HuffPo. … continue reading this entry.
By The Quixotic Man, on September 14, 2009, at 7:03 am  Dr. Paul Offit - Pro-Vaccine Luminary (photo by Mark Bellncula) In case you just stumbled upon this blog and have not checked out the website for the New York City Skeptics in the past several months, this past Saturday we held the first ever Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism, the NECSS. I highly doubt this will be the only post on the blog this week mentioning it, all of us spent an entire day listening to lectures on skepticism, words can’t help but start percolating.
The conference was a huge success. We packed a 400 seat auditorium, and were having to turn people away at the door. If you missed it, we’re going to do it again next year, and you have to come. But anyway, I should move on to something with substance.
Paul Offit is a man I have a great amount of respect for. I don’t know how much you folks out there have stuck your toes into the waters of anti-vaccination lunacy, but Offit is a man who’s gotten out there and really stirred up the pot. They hate him. Really. I had never actually heard of him until I wrote up a post on anti-vaccinationist nonsense the Huffington Post, and all of a sudden, I was inundated with accusations of being a follower of “Paul Profit;” apparently the only attack they can think of is to claim his doctoring is just for the money. I say this to soften the fact that I’m about to make a slight criticism of Dr. Offit. Yes. I’m getting behind him to stab him in the back. But just a little. I think his lecture was the weakest of the talks we had. It’s not that it wasn’t interesting, and it’s not that I didn’t agree with every single point he had, it was the fact that I feel it was for the wrong audience. … continue reading this entry.
By New York City Skeptics, on August 29, 2009, at 12:08 pm
The Village Voice covers Paul Grosswald’s recent NYC Skeptics Public Lecture on “Cults & Coercion”
Professor Richard Wiseman will be at NECSS! Professor Wiseman will join the “Why is it so tough to be a skeptic?” panel and be the special guest on the live Skeptics Guide to the Universe taping.
The NECSS schedule has been released, and [...]
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