Past Events

The 10:23 Campaign

Homeopathy: There's Nothing in it!

At 10:23am on January 30th, more than three hundred homeopathy sceptics nationwide will be taking part in a mass homeopathic 'overdose' in protest at Boots' continued endorsement and sale of homeopathic remedies, and to raise public awareness about the fact that homeopathic remedies have nothing in them.

Sceptics and consumer rights activists will publicly swallow an entire bottle of homeopathic 'pillules' to demonstrate that these 'remedies', prepared according to a long-discredited 18th century ritual, are nothing but sugar pills.

The protest will raise public awareness about the reality of homeopathy, and put further pressure on Boots to live up to its responsibilites as the 'scientist on the high street' and stop selling treatments which do not work.

If you want to get involved with the event, please contact Contact: carmenegoskeptic@gmail.com

National press enquiries should be directed to Martin Robbins (press@1023.org.uk)

You will need to buy your own Boots homeopathic remedy. Unfortunately, these are not suitable for vegans; and I must insist that if you are diabetic, you need to take extreme care if you wish to participate. These are sugar pills, and I do not want anything untoward to happen on the day.

Boots are currently selling their homeopathic remedies on a 3 for 2 offer, so it might be a good idea to pally up and split the difference. You may also wish to purchase a bottle of water.

If you keep your receipt Boots have a refund policy. They will only except 'medicines' if they are faulty. If you have any problems at your local store the Customer Care number is: 08450 70 80 90.

If you're unable to participate by necking a bunch of sucrose/lactose pills, feel free to come along anyway, as it looks set to be jolly good fun. It's also a great way to meet some of the people who attend Skeptics in the Pub events in London and Westminster, so if you've ever thought about coming along but were worried you wouldn't know anyone, Saturday 30th would be a great place to get started!

This protest will be short and sweet and hopefully very, very fun. Afterwards, we will be attending Trick or Treatment in Conway Hall. If you haven't already reserved a ticket and if there are still spaces, here's a link: http://www.cfilondon.org/2009/12/04/trick-or-treatment-alternative-medicine-on-trial/

The Science of Scams

Kat Akingbade is co-presenter (with Derren Brown) of Channel 4's online show "Science of Scams" and she will talk about the making of the series and her other science and tv projects.

Kat Akingbade was born in London and worked as an investigative researcher for The World Health Organization and undertaken research in biological anthropology at Oxford. She has carried her scientific background over into her writing and broadcasting work, and is currently completing her first novel - a crime thriller with a forensic bent. After taking a BSc in Clinical Sciences at Kings College London, her broadcasting career was kick started by receiving an Arts Council of England Bursary in 2006, and she has split her time between writing and developing television shows since.

During her Broadcasting career, Kat has reported for the BBC World Service and worked on BBC Panorama, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Oxford and the BBC Radio World Science Unit.

http://www.scienceofscams.com

You can follow her on Twitter here: http://twitter.com/KatAkingbade1

This event has been transferred from the previously advertised Birmingham SitP due to Kat's work commitments.

*To sign up for a place at this event, please follow the link and register here.

The form will be closed at 3pm of the event date (or when we get fully-booked). So please book early to avoid disappointment.

Places are limited to 250 (The maximum the pub's fire regulations allow them to hold in the room).

Your name and email address are only used for the purposes of securing your reservation and are deleted once the event has ended. They will never be shared with third parties.

The Skeptic's Guide to Christmas

Journalist and comedy writer Ariane Sherine talks about creating the global Atheist Bus Campaign and how it started with just 700 words on The Guardian’s website.

She’ll also talk about editing the new charity book The Atheist’s Guide To Christmas, which features 42 of the world’s most entertaining atheists and skeptics, including Richard Dawkins, Charlie Brooker and Derren Brown.

Ariane Sherine is a television comedy writer, journalist and the creator of the Atheist Bus Campaign. She writes regularly for The Guardian’s Comment & Debate section, and has also contributed to The Independent, The Sunday Times, New Statesman and the NME, as well as writing for television shows including My Family (BBC1) and Countdown (Channel 4).

Ariane won a Special Award from the National Secular Society for the Atheist Bus Campaign, and was also a nominee for Secularist of the Year 2009. She was asked to give the first humanist equivalent of Thought For The Day on Radio 4 in January 2009.

http://arianesherine.com

*To sign up for a place at this event, please enter your name and email address on the events page here.

The form will be closed at 3pm of the event date. So please book early to avoid disappointment.

Please try and arrive at least 20 minutes before the start as the venue has limited seating.

Skeptics in the Pub Quiz

This is the previously postponed TAM London Fringe event.

Join your quiz-mistress Rebecca Watson as we delve into science, history, movies, music and skepticism and win some fun prizes!

Entry is £2 per person and teams should be no larger than 6 people

All proceeds will go to the James Randi Educational Foundation.

You can book your places here.

Boffins and geeks, madmen and freaks: why are scientists still such a PR disaster?

Why are scientists still such a PR disaster?

Scientists as a group call up very specific images in the public imagination, typically not very flattering ones. This distorted view is reflected in depictions of scientists in fiction, but also tends to spill over into how they are portrayed in more factual accounts, such as documentaries and in the news media. In a world growing increasingly reliant on the latest scientific, medical and technological advances, possibly for its very survival, the expert accounts of scientists are nevertheless often simply disbelieved, which could be due in part to the unease and distrust that the prevailing stereotypes engender. The meme of scientists as out-of-touch/cold/arrogant/mad meddlers has ancient roots and has evolved in interesting ways to the present day. But whose fault is all this – are scientists themselves partially to blame? If people knew the truth about what modern scientists are really like and really do, would science as a whole be a more sympathetic, persuasive profession? And if so, how we can turn it around – and is it even possible? 

Jennifer Rohn is a biologist at the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology at University College London and is a part-time novelist, science communicator and the Editor of LabLit. A lapsed American, Jenny appears occasionally on TV, radio, documentaries, podcasts, live panels and in print as a science/lit/art/culture pundit, and blogs about the scientific lifestyle at Mind the Gap on Nature Network. She is the author of a novel about scientists, Experimental Heart, and her writing has appeared in magazines such as Nature, Science Online, The Scientist, Chemistry & Industry, Bioessays, and The Biochemist.

Image from WhyScience.co.uk

*To sign up for a place at this event, please follow the link and register here.

The form will be closed at 3pm of the event date. So please book early to avoid disappointment.

Places are limited to 250 (The maximum the pub's fire regulations allow them to hold in the room).

Your name and email address are only used for the purposes of securing your reservation and are deleted once the event has ended. They will never be shared with third parties.

Voodoo Histories - The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History

David Debunks Bad History

Conspiracy theories abound and are the product of the educated classes. Even the most ridiculous forgery – the anti- Semitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion – was reproduced and believed by scholars and businessmen from Henry Ford in the 1920s to the Hamas leader and pediatrician Abdel-aziz Rantisi, in the early 21st century.

The development of so-called “revisionist history” from theories accusing President Roosevelt of foreknowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor (one of whose advocates has been the novelist Gore Vidal) to Holocaust denial. David will examine the need, when iconic figures such as Kennedy, Monroe or Princess Diana are killed, to construct an overarching explanation that mitigates the pain and anxiety of their loss. It shows what happens when, as in the case of Diana, conspiracy theories actually make it as far as a court of law.

David Aaronovitch is an award-winning journalist, who has worked in radio, television and newspapers in the United Kingdom since the early 1980s. He lives in Hampstead, north London, with his wife and three daughters. His first book, Paddling to Jerusalem, won the Madoc prize for travel literature in 2001.

He started his media career in television, working as a producer on ITV's Weekend World, and The BBC's On The Record. He has previously written for The Guardian, The Observer and The Independent, winning numerous accolades, including Columnist of the Year 2003 and the Orwell prize for journalism in 2001. As a broadcaster he has appearanced on the satirical TV current affairs programme Have I Got News For You and made radio broadcasts on historical topics. David is currently a regular columnist for The Times. David's latest book is Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History.

*To sign up for a place at this event, please follow the link below (You can add up to 4 reservations with the same email address).

Places are limited to 250.

This Event is Fully Booked

Your name and email address are only used for the purposes of securing your reservation and are deleted once the event has ended. They will never be shared with third parties.

Regenerative Medicine against Ageing: Can it be Comprehensive Enough?

The relevance of nearly all biogerontology research to combating ageing is restricted to the potential for slowing down the accumulation of molecular and cellular damage that eventually leads to age-related ill-health. Meanwhile, regenerative medicine has been progressing rapidly and is nearing clinical applicability to a wide range of specific conditions.

I argue that we are approaching the point where regenerative medicine can be used against ageing. This would entail not retarding but actually reversing the accumulation of damage. If successful, this would obviously be a far more valuable technology than mere slowing of ageing. However, in order to be successful it must be comprehensive, and some aspects of aging may seem impossible to address in this way. I shall survey the main examples and argue that the ones which contribute to age-related ill-health are, in fact, realistic targets of regenerative interventions.

Dr. Aubrey de Grey is a biomedical gerontologist based in Cambridge, UK, and is the Chief Science Officer of SENS Foundation, a non-profit charity dedicated to combating the ageing process. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Rejuvenation Research, the world’s highest-impact peer-reviewed journal focused on intervention in ageing. His research interests encompass the causes of all the accumulating and eventually pathogenic molceular and cellular side-effects of metabolism (“damage”) that constitute mammalian aging and the design of interventions to repair and/or obviate that damage. He has developed a possibly comprehensive plan for such repair, termed Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS), which breaks aging down into seven major classes of damage and identifies detailed approaches to addressing each one. A key aspect of SENS is that it can potentially extend healthy lifespan without limit, even though these repair processes will probably never be perfect, as the repair only needs to approach perfection rapidly enough to keep the overall level of damage below pathogenic levels. Dr. de Grey has termed this required rate of improvement of repair therapies “longevity escape velocity”.

Places are limited.

*To sign up for a place at this event, please follow the link below (You can add up to 4 reservations with the same email address).

Please register for this event here

Your name and email address are only used for the purposes of securing your reservation and are deleted once the event has ended. They will never be shared to third parties.

Taking Offence

Paul Sims and Caspar Melville talk about offence, free speech and other scrapes based on experiences they’ve had at the New Humanist.

Caspar’s just written a book about the issue too (http://bit.ly/bByn7) and they both have had various mini-controversies related to the magazine. A good example was when some people took offence to a cover featuring Richard Dawkins: http://blog.newhumanist.org.uk/2007/11/new-humanist-cartoon-controversy.html.

From plays to cartoons, books to Teddy Bears-interest groups, often using the language of human rights, are claiming that they are offended and attempting to ban, gag, even kill, those deemed to be the offenders. Intellectual heavyweights throughout the Anglo-American world of letters have charged to the defence of free expression. There have been many highly charged incidents, in particular around Islam, offering opportunities for an orgy of media self-congratulation about the superiority of secular democracy and the vital role of the press in supporting freedom. Using his experience as editor of "New Humanist" (itself accused of 'offensiveness'), Paul Sims and Caspar Melville try to disentangle the varieties of offence, to trace the origins of our current situation to the failed identity politics of the 1970s and the new language of human rights, and to distinguish between the duty to offend and the temptations of cultural chauvinism.

Paul Sims is New Humanist's News Editor. He graduated from Oxford University, where he studied Modern History, in 2006, before moving to London to join New Humanist in 2007.

Caspar Melville is editor of New Humanist. He formerly worked for openDemocracy. His writing has appeared in The LA Times, Toronto Star, Sunday Telegraph, Village Voice and loads of obscure music magazines. He has a PhD in media from Goldsmith's College, London.

*To sign up for a place at this event, please follow the link below (You can add up to 4 reservations with the same email address).

Places are limited to 250.

Register here

Your name and email address are only used for the purposes of securing your reservation and are deleted once the event has ended. They will never be shared with third parties.

SuperSense: From Superstition to Religion

The majority of the world's population is religious or believes in supernatural phenomena. In the United States, nine out of every ten adults believe in God, and a recent Gallup poll found that about three out of four Americans believe in some form of telepathy, déjà vu, ghosts, or past lives.
Where does such supernatural thinking come from? Are we indoctrinated by our parents, churches, and media, or do such beliefs originate somewhere else?
Bruce M. Hood reveals the science behind our beliefs in the supernatural.

Professor Bruce Hood is Director of the Bristol Cognitive Development Centre at the University of Bristol. He has been a research fellow at Cambridge University and University College London, a visiting scientist at MIT and a faculty professor at Harvard. Bruce has been awarded an Alfred Sloan Fellowship in neuroscience, the Young Investigator Award from the International Society of Infancy Researchers, the Robert Fantz memorial award and was recently voted a Fellow of the society of American Psychological Science.
Although he does not believe in supernatural powers, Bruce generally enjoys hearing about them as well as all the strange beliefs surrounding them.

Trick or Treatment? : Alternative Medicine on Trial

Edzard Ernst's team of 10-15 researchers have tried for the last 15 years to critically evaluate “alternative medicine”. Much of the resulting evidence has now been summarised in the book ‘Trick or Treatment’ by Simon Singh and myself. As it turns out, alternative medicine is more “trick” than “treatment”. In my talk, I will report about some of the often amazing milestones on my long journey toward the truth.

Professor Edzard Ernst is the first Chair in Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter. He is founder/Editor-in-Chief of two medical journals (FACT (‘Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies’) and ‘Perfusion’). His work has been awarded with 13 scientific prizes/awards and two Visiting Professorships. He served on the ‘Medicines Commission’ of the British ‘Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency’ (1994 – 2005) and on the ‘Scientific Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products’ of the ‘Irish Medicines Board’.
Edzard has published over 1000 papers in the peer-reviewed literature, has written 39 books (translated into 5 languages), dozens of chapters and has given about five hundred invited international lectures.

Don't get fooled again: Sceptics & Politics

Given the disasters, human and financial, that can result when governments lose their grip on reality, it's arguably in politics that skepticism matters most. Yet from Thabo Mbeki's disastrous dalliance with AIDS denial in South Africa, to the delusions that led to the Iraq war, our politicians often seem perilously credulous. In "Don't Get Fooled Again", Richard Wilson looks at why it is that intelligent, educated people end up time and again falling for ideas that turn out to be nonsense, and makes the case for skeptics to be actively engaged with the political process.

Richard Wilson lives in London, has a degree in philosophy, and works for a human rights organisation. His first book, "Titanic Express", recounts his search for the truth about the death of his sister, an aid worker killed in Burundi in 2000. While researching the book he was asked "but do you really think there is such a thing as the truth about what happened?"

richardwilsonauthor.wordpress.com

Confessions of an Ex-Creationist

Matt Parker will be candidly discussing what Creationists believe, why some normal people are convinced by them and how he feels about all of this - specifically in the context of being a Maths and Science teacher.

Matt grew up in a conservative Christian family and attended a church where the Bible was taken as the literal word of God, even in the matters regarding the creation of the Universe. A series of events at school and university have since turned him into the jaded sceptic he is today but it has left him with a unique insight into Creationism culture.

Matt Parker is best described as a Stand-up Mathematician who does everything in his power to make more people excited about Mathematics.
When he’s not doing his Maths routine around the country, Matt finds time to be a ‘normal’ teacher in a London secondary school, educating young people in the way of Maths and Physics. His favourite number is currently 496.

Bad News: What's Wrong with the Media

Award-winning journalist Nick Davies takes the lid off newspapers and broadcasters, exposing the mechanics of falsehood, distortion and propaganda; naming names and telling the stories behind stories.

Nick Davies has been named Journalist of the Year, Reporter of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year for his investigations into crime, drugs, poverty and other social issues. He writes regularly for The Guardian and also makes TV documentaries; he was formerly an on-screen reporter for World In Action. His five books includes his most recent addition, Flat Earth News (about falsehood and distortion in the media).

Women's Intuition and Other Fairytales

As Oprah has proven many times over, there's a lot of money to be made by appealing to the more gullible among female consumers. Rebecca will give an overview of the most popular brands of pseudoscience marketed specifically to women, from the Law of Attraction to magical cosmetics to the dangers of anti-vaccination myths.
 
Rebecca Watson is leading a team of skeptical female activists at Skepchick.org, co-hosting the weekly podcast The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, producing pin-up calendars, and attending rock shows. Her pilot radio show Curiosity, Aroused was a winner of the 2007 Public Radio Talent Quest and has been aired on ten public radio stations in the US. There is currently an asteroid orbiting the sun with her name on it. She does nothing in moderation and hopes it shows. She currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

Skeptics versus Believers

A Christmas Special

UFOs and alien abductions: Serious defence and national security issues at stake, or intriguing phenomena with their roots in psychology and belief?

Professor Chris French and Nick Pope square up to each other in a head-to-head debate with a difference. Because we like to be a little bit controversial (and we thought it would be fun), we have them swap roles and argue each other's case. Will Chris French convince you that ET really is visiting us on a regular basis? Or will Nick Pope persuade you that psychological factors can account for such claims?

Come along and cast your vote!

Beasts on the Loose

Neil Arnold takes a look at Big Cat sightings in the UK

Sightings of large cats date back several centuries, proving that the so called 'big cat' situation is not a modern enigma. Neil Arnold looks at the history and evidence of sightings around the South East.

For more than seventeen years Neil Arnold has tracked, monitored and collated evidence of felids such as Puma, Leopard and Lynx in the wilds. His blog is the only investigation into sightings and evidence of large, exotic cats roaming Kent, Sussex and London.
He is the author of "Monster! - The A-Z of Zooform Phenomena"

Notes of a Fringe Watcher

A SitP Special

Jon Ronson is a writer and documentary film maker. His books, Them: Adventures With Extremists and The Men Who Stare At Goats were international bestsellers. The Men Who Stare at Goats is currently in film production, starring Ewan McGregor, Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges.

Jon will talk about his adventures with US psychic, Sylvia Browne, UFO abduction investigations with Robbie Williams, among other recent projects.

He'll be bringing a few of his book along, so bring some extra cash if you fancy a signed copy.

Why Don’t Creationists Just Shut Up?

Paul Taylor gives "Answers in Genesis"

Why do creationists believe what they believe? Is it, to quote Richard Dawkins, just “blind faith in the absence, or even in the teeth, of evidence”? The illustrated talk will argue that even those who don’t accept their conclusions should recognise that there is a solid logic to a young earth creationist position.

Paul Taylor joined the staff of AiG (UK/Europe) in August 2005 as a writer and speaker. He is now our Head of Media and Publications. Paul is a regular contributor to the AiG website and Answers Magazine and is busy writing numerous articles, many of which are published in various Christian magazines. He has also taken over the role of editor for our Answers Update.

Bad Science

Dr Ben Goldacre talks about Bad Science. His book "Bad Science" is published in September by 4th Estate. It will cause amusing squabbles with people who do not like to discuss evidence.

Ben Goldacre is a writer, broadcaster and medical doctor from the UK who is best known for the "Bad Science" column in the Guardian newspaper. Examining claims of scaremongering journalists, quack health products, pseudoscientific cosmetics adverts, and evil multinational pharmaceutical corporations, as well as wider themes such as the medicalisation of everyday life and the psychology of irrational beliefs. He has a background in medicine and academia and trained in Oxford and London. He works full time for the NHS.

The Truth About Mars

Websites, the blogsphere, controversial books and the tabloid media love Mars.

They tell of the "Face on Mars", Cydonia, anomalistic rock formations, spacecraft conspiracies and a coverup to hide 'the truth' about Mars. With half a dozen spacecraft on or around Mars, data is streaming back at an unprecedented rate, adding new layers of detail to our understanding of the Red Planet.

Doug Ellison takes you on a tour of the more popular conspiracies and fringe theories, and presents the raw data that tells us the 'Truth about Mars'.

A World Religious Revival: Fact or Fiction?

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.
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.

Global Warming: Science, Economics, and some Moral Issues

What Al Gore Never Told You

The science is settled: Evidence clearly demonstrates that carbon dioxide contributes insignificantly to Global Warming and is therefore not a 'pollutant.' This fact has not yet been widely recognized, and irrational Global Warming fears continue to distort energy policies and foreign policy. All efforts to curtail CO2 emissions, whether global, federal, or at the state level, are pointless -- and in any case, ineffective and very costly. On the whole, a warmer climate is beneficial. Fred will comment on the vast number of implications.

S. Fred Singer is an atmospheric physicist and Professor Emeritus of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia and former director of the US Weather Satellite Service. His most recent book "Unstoppable Global Warming – Every 1500 Years" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007) presents the evidence for natural climate cycles of warming and cooling. He is the organizer of NIPCC (Non-governmental International Panel on Climate Change) and editor of the NIPCC Report "Nature, Not Human Activity, Controls the Climate" [2008], which responds to the claims of the UN-IPCC. As a reviewer of IPCC reports, he shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.

How not to Investigate the Paranormal

The title says it all. Steve and Ciarán amuse with their horror stories from the world of paranormal investigation. They discuss equipment faux-pas, television investigations and unusual cases. As well as discussing ethics, and presenting the most extreme unethical stories, Steve and Ciarán candidly discuss hilarious cases brought to their attention and their most embarrassing moments investigating in the dark!

Ciarán is currently employed as a Research Associate at University of Paris specialising in Parapsychology and Investigative Psychology. He is also an associate of the Centre for Critical Incident Research at Liverpool University. He regularly provides a sceptical voice to various ‘paranormal’ shows (e.g. Living TV’s 'Most Haunted', and 'Jane Goldman Investigates') as well as numerous documentaries on the subject. A psychologist operating on science’s fringe, he's been involved in many unusual projects: the physiological effects of infrasound, ghost investigation of Hampton Court, an exorcism ‘training day’ and lie detecting for the movie ‘Spy Game’.

Steve is co-founder of Para.Science, an investigative group based in the North West of England. Steve has appeared on several documentaries focused on ghosts. His investigations and knowledge of all manner of ghostly things have been featured on National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel and the BBC. He even surfaced briefly on Living TV’s Most Haunted. He is currently studying for a PhD at Liverpool Hope University covering infrasound and haunting experiences.

Holocaust Denial and Freedom of Speech

Conspiracy theories about recent and even more distant historical events have become ever more widespread, especially with the growth of the Internet. One such theory, generally known as "Holocaust denial", claims that professional historians, the mass media, and governments have conspired to suppress the truth about the Nazi extermination of the Jews during the Second World War - which is that it never happened.  

How has this theory come about? Who supports it , and why? How do its proponents deal with their critics? What, if anything, could or should be done to combat Holocaust denial? This talk draws on the speaker's experiences as an expert witness in a High Court libel case to suggest some answers.

Richard J. Evans is Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University. His books include "The Coming of the Third Reich" and "The Third Reich in Power", both published by Penguin. He has taught in adult education at Birkbeck, and at Gresham College, and contributes occasionally to radio and television, most recently to Radio 4's "In Our Time" and Channel 5 televsion's "Hitler Speaks". He lives with his family near Cambridge and in his spare time enjoys playing the piano and taking his dog for long walks in the Cambridgeshire countryside.

Chiropractic - A 113 year struggle from pseudoscience to legitimacy

In the US, Chiropractic is the second largest of the health-care professions with close to 50,000 practitioners (Doctors of Chiropractic, or D.C.). Significant numbers of chiropractors also exist in the UK and Europe as well as Australia.  

Mahlon will examine the origins of Chiropractic (a healer in 1895), the questionable diagnostic and treatments used, reasons for their success, and public attitudes toward (and satisfaction with) chiropractic as compared to traditional medicine. 

Mahlon Wagner (Professor Emeritus of Psychology - State University of New York) taught experimental psychology, statistics, research design, history of psychology and parapsychology for 30 years at Oswego. During that time he became intimately involved in "critical thinking" and wrote several articles on attitudes toward the "lunar influences on behaviour" and "attitudes of college professors toward parapsychology."  

He has been a member of the GWUP (German Skeptics Group) since 1989 and have been a visiting professor at the Universitiy of the Saarland in Saarbruecken and the Justus-Liebig University, Giessen in Germany.

The Moon Hoax Hoax & Bad Astronomy

Do you think NASA faked the Apollo Moon landings? Do you wonder if there are aliens on Mars, building giant structures? Or that they may even be here, on Earth, abducting people and performing bizarre experiments? Phil Plait will look at the world of conspiracies, scare stories and myths surrounding astronomy.

Phil Plait is an internationally renowned astronomer, author, and lecturer. His numerous appearances on radio, television, podcasts, and live in front of audiences have made him a celebrity in science circles, and put him in demand as an expert on astronomical matters. He has been interviewed on literally hundreds of national and local radio and TV stations about astronomical topics ranging from lunar eclipses to the fate of the Universe. His stock-in-trade is dealing with myths, misconceptions and plain old mistakes people make about astronomy. His website, Bad Astronomy, is a virtual encyclopaedia of astronomical errors, and his blog is one of the most popular science blogs on the web, with thousands of fans eagerly reading it every day. His writing has appeared in dozens of magazines, and his first book, Bad Astronomy, was a trade science hit.

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 denal 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.

Science and the Media - Can we trust TV?

TV producers have to entertain, inform and grab large audiences in an increasingly competitive media market. How do they balance accuracy with excitement? Simon Singh discusses various science documentaries and gives his opinion on where things went right, and where they went horribly wrong.

After completing a PhD in particle physics, Simon Singh joined the BBC and worked as a director and producer on programmes such as Tomorrow's World and Horizon (NOVA in the US). He has also presented programmes on Radio 4, BBC4 and Channel 4. He is best known as the author of Fermat's Last Theorem, The Code Book and Big Bang. His next book is published in April - Trick or Treatment? Alternative Medicine on Trial.

Regulating Alternative Medicine

Are the Quacks Ducking the Issues?

2008 is going to see a big battle between various groups as to who gets to pretend to regulate alternative therapists. The Government, through Prince Charles' Foundation for Integrated Health, is setting up The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council, a voluntary federal register. The problem is, no one appears to want to join. Various homoeopaths' Membership Groups are setting up their own 'Single Registers'. More fundamentally, no group looking at this issue appears to want to tackle the inconvenient problem that most alternative therapies do no work and their practitioners hold strange and sometimes dangerous beliefs. Two sceptical bloggers will explore the issues.

David Colquhoun is a pharmacologist at University College London who writes the Improbable Science blog and website at DCScience and Andy Lewis is the creator and writer of The Quackometer blog.

Confessions of a Spiritual Junkie

A Psychologist's Search for Enlightenment

What do the Loch Ness Monster, Noel Edmonds, magic-eye pictures, butterflies, forgiveness, and the number 42 all have in common? Could it be they all have something to do with the meaning of life? Or are they simply the not so random thoughts of a man going through a mid-life crisis? Join psychologist Matthew Smith on his search for spiritual enlightenment and the meaning of life. (Although my money is on the mid-life crisis...)

Dr Matthew Smith joined Liverpool Hope University in 1999 and has recently conducted research on replication issues in parapsychology and psychological variables associated with paranormal belief. Dr Smith was awarded his PhD on the psychology and parapsychology of luck from the University of Hertfordshire in 1998 under the guidance of Prof. Richard Wiseman. Matthew was awarded the Gertrude Schmeidler Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Parapsychology by the Parapsychological Association. Dr Smith's current research, funded by the Bial Foundation, is examining the role of experimenter variables in ganzfeld-ESP research. Matthew has also received funding from the Perrott-Warrick Fund, the Parapsychology Foundation, and the Society for Psychical Research. Matthew has made several television appearances as a Resident Parapsychologist for Living TV's Most Haunted.

The British X-Files

Nick Pope will discuss the Ministry of Defence's policy on UFOs, explain how investigations are undertaken and discuss some of the UK's best known UFO sightings. He'll give some new insights into Britain's most famous UFO incident, in Rendlesham Forest, and will discuss his investigation into a case from 1993 which involved liaison with the US Embassy and led to the Assistant Chief of the Air Staff being briefed. Nick will also discuss the MoD's remote viewing study and their involvement in the crop circle mystery. Finally, Nick will talk about the Freedom of Information Act, the release of MoD files on UFOs, and all the latest UFO-related news.

Nick Pope used to work at the Ministry of Defence, where from 1991 to 1994 he was posted to a division where his duties included investigating UFOs. Initially sceptical, his official research and investigation convinced him that the UFO phenomenon raised important defence, national security and flight safety issues. He was particularly interested in cases where the witnesses were pilots or where UFOs were tracked on radar. Nick is now recognised as a leading authority on UFOs and the unexplained.

How to be an Agnostic and Why it Matters

The broadside against religion launched by a new generation of evangelical atheists has generated much heat but little light. Locked in battle against their Christian opponents the argument goes nowhere fast, and in an age of extremism, nurtures the dangerous vice of intolerance. To put it another way, the contemporary lust for certainty is demeaning of any real spiritual or humanist quest. It loses sight of the key to wisdom - as Socrates, the great theologians and the best scientists knew it - namely, a deepening understanding of the limits of our knowledge. This talk, which it is hoped will prompt a fulsome discussion, will ask how to be an agnostic and why it matters.

Mark Vernon was an Anglican priest, left a conviction atheist, but now finds himself to be a committed and increasingly passionate agnostic. His book, After Atheism: Science, Religion and the Meaning of Life, is part personal story, part philosophical search. Mark is a journalist as well as writer, an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck College, and also author of The Philosophy of Friendship and What Not To Say. For more info and a good read see www.markvernon.com.

Many Happy Returns?

Investigating reincarnation claims in the Lebanon

The arguments put forward in support of reincarnation are critically evaluated with particular emphasis on the version of reincarnation held by the Druse. The Druse are members of a religious sect founded in 1042, who live mainly in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel. A number of cases from an investigation in 1998 in Lebanon will be presented and evaluated.

The Relevance of Spiritualism in Society Today

The talk will examine the brief history of the Spiritualist movement and the growth of it as a mainstream faith in Britain. Phenomena inexorably linked with Spiritualism, such as materialisations, apports and the spirit trumpet will be discussed, along with the functions of the Spiritualist church. The industry behind the movement will also be examined, and the 'need' to believe in the unbelievable.

Emma-Louise is a researcher of psychic phenomena and the Spiritualist faith. Articles published this year have included "Fifteen Minutes of Fame: Psychics and the Media", "The Psychic Industry: Supply and Demand" and "Psychics on eBay" (for the forthcoming addition of The Skeptic). She runs the sceptical website A Matter of Life and Death, which is a resource dedicated to examining and explaining the paranormal.

How not to Investigate the Paranormal

Prof Wiseman gives a whistlestop tour of psychical investigations at Hampton Court, Edinburgh and research in testing mediums under controlled conditions.

Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as a professional magician and currently holds Britain's only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. He frequently appears on the media, and has written over 60 academic articles and several books, including The Luck Factor.

God: The Failed Hypothesis

In my 2003 book "Has Science Found God?" I provided a critique of contemporary claims that science supports the existence of God and found them inadequate.I will go much further and argue that science makes a strong case against the existence a God with the traditional attributes of the Judaic-Christian-Islamic God. My argument is not based simply on the gross absence of evidence for this God. Not only is there no evidence for God, I  argue that the evidence we have can be used to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that this God does not exist. Not only does the universe show no evidence of its existence, it looks exactly as it would be expected to look if there is no God.

Victor J. Stenger is emeritus professor of physics at the University of Hawaii and adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of Colorado. He is a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a research fellow of the Center for Inquiry. He has also held visiting positions on the faculties of the University of Heidelberg, Oxford University and has been a visiting researcher at the Rutherford Laboratory, the National Nuclear Physics Laboratory in Frascati and the University of Florence.

Need to Know: UFOs, the Military and Intelligence

Timothy Good is widely regarded as one of the world's leading experts on UFOs and alien phenomena. He has lectured at the Royal Canadian Military Institute, the Royal Naval Air Station Portland, and has been invited for discussions at the Pentagon's Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office and at the headquarters of the French Air Force. He has also acted as consultant for several US Congress investigations.

Being sceptical of scepticism: Ways of being wrong

John Stuart Mill once said, "In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny." He was wrong in what he affirmed, but right in what he denied, namely that people are usually wholly right or wrong. To undertake a sensitive critique of any belief, it is important to be very clear not just about the literal content of the belief in question, but what lies behind it and motivates it. Although some beliefs are just irredeemably batty, many wrong beliefs mask valuable truths. A scepticism which fails to save these from the wreckage of critique is an impoverished one. In my talk, I will attempt to outline some of the ways in which scepticism can fail to see the coal for the dirt.

Julian Baggini is a philosopher, writer and journalist. He was awarded a PhD from University College London for his thesis on the philosophy of personal identity in 1996. He then went on to found The Philosophers' Magazine with Jeremy Stangroom, supporting himself with jobs that included teaching and, increasingly, journalism and writing.
He has authored, co-authored and co-edited several books. Among the most significant of these was his first major trade book, Making Sense: Philosophy Behind the Headines and the textbook he co-authored with Peter S. Fosl, The Philosophers' Toolkit, which went through several reprints in its first year. The Pig that Wants to be Eaten became a popular science best seller and his latest book is Welcome to Everytown, which charts six months in a "typical" English town.
Julian is increasingly in demand as a journalist and commentator, writing for The Guardian, for BBC News Online, Prospect, Times Education Supplement, the Observer and New Humanist, among others. He makes regular appearances on national radio and television.

Suggestion, the Paranormal and Unusual Claims

The presentation concerns suggestion and suggestibility and their relation to certain unusual and paranormal claims. I shall say a little about the nature of hypnosis but will concentrate mainly on ideomotor suggestion. There will be live demonstrations and plenty of opportunity for audience participation. 

Mike Heap is a clinical and forensic psychologist in Sheffield. He has a part-time contract with Wathwood Hospital, a medium secure unit in Rotherham and the rest of the time prepares psychological reports for the Civil and Criminal Courts. He has a special interest in hypnosis and has authored and edited a number of books on the subject. He is a founding member of the Association for Skeptical Enquiry and is its current chairman and editor of the Newsletter and the Skeptical Intelligencer. He also writes a regular column for The Skeptic magazine . For copies of various writings visit his website, www.mheap.com.

Five years of My Skeptics in the Pub

Nick Pullar has run Skeptics in the Pub for the past five years. Today is his last meeting. Join him as he looks back on his time running Skeptics in the Pub, and why it's great to be a skeptic.

Nick Pullar has lived in London for the past five and a half years. He has worked as an IT Manager, but is now leaving the UK to live in Hungary with his family. Because of the poor customer service culture in the UK, he plans to run a customer services consultancy and website from Hungary.

Hidden Enemies

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Britain experienced a widely-publicised panic about what was called satanic abuse. This term referred to the belief that groups of satan-worshippers were sexually abusing children in rituals that included human sacrifice, cannibalism, incest and other extreme and orgiastic behaviour. The lecture will consider the origins of the scare, the implications of the way it was promoted and then try to draw some generalised lessons from it. In particular it will argue that such scares are encouraged by an intellectual climate where belief and experience count for more than evidence and reasoning.

Jean  La Fontaine  was born and went to school in Kenya, but received a B.A. and Ph D. from Cambridge. Her first research was in Uganda, followed later by research in Kinshasa, capital of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and then in Britain.

After ten years being a diplomat's wife, she taught anthropology in London University, retiring early to work free-lance.  Subsequent research included a study of incest and a Government funded investigation of allegations concerning allegations of devil worship in England.

Jean is the author of several books: City Politics - Leopoldville 1962-1963; Initiation; What is Social Anthropology? Child Sexual Abuse; Speak of the Devil - Tales of Ritual Abuse in Contemporary England.

Clarion: A call to rational arms

Are things really as bad as they seem? Is science, as Carl Sagan put it really "A candle in the dark"? With brother stabbing brother in the "rationalist camp", are the hordes of irrationailty, superstition and dogmatic religion triumphant? Perhaps it was ever thus. Is the battle against irrationality taken up by people like James Randi, Richard Dawkins, and other uncountable luminaries, unwinnable? Is it even a battle worth fighting? If so, how should we fight it? Is it even, in fact, analogous to a battle at all? This talk doesn't seek to conclusively answer all these questions (and many more), merely to put forward a series of possible answers for discussion.

Louis is a research scientist currently working for a leading pharmaceutical company in Kent. Louis has a BSc(Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Leicester. After his first degree he spent five years in the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of research roles before moving to the University of Nottingham to undertake research for his PhD in synthetic chemistry. Louis is a lifelong skeptic and atheist. He has been captivated by all science from an early age and, myriad adventures along the way aside, now gets paid to do what he loves, if only between meetings.

Thanks for the Memories!

Thirty years of research has shown that memory is not the reliable store that was once thought. Memory is in fact a constructive process, vulnerable to all kinds of misinformation, suggestion and individual biases. For three years I have been investigating a variety of different phenomena of memory for both normal and ostensibly paranormal events. My research focuses on the unreliable nature of eyewitness testimony and explores how far individual differences might render someone more susceptible to distortions of memory and in particular how belief in, and experience of the paranormal impact on both perception and memory.

Dr Krissy Wilson has just completed her PhD at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her main areas of interest are the psychology of belief, the unreliable nature of eyewitness testimony, false memories and the impact of belief. She has recently published articles in Personality and Individual Differences, The European Journal of Parapsychology and The British Journal of Psychology. She has also written a recent review of the medium Sharon O'Neill for The Skeptic. Krissy regularly appears on TV and on radio discussing a variety of paranormal subjects and has recently co-presented Believe it or not! for ITV West Country. However, her main claim to fame is that she once played a prostitute on The Bill!

Sense About Science

I founded SAS four years ago to try to reverse the current mood of suspicion towards science. There is a strong Back to Nature fashion- e.g. alternative medicine, organic farming, opposition to GM and invocation of the precautionary principle. I would add, a new wave of religiosity, including the government's disastrous decision to promote faith schools, but SAS has not taken on religion.

Our main aim - very successful - was to mobilise scientists to take a more active part in public debate. We now have a list of some 1,000 scientists who are willing to take part in public debate. We have also established good relations with science journalists and have set up an enthusiastic group of young scientists 'Voice of Young Science'.

One approach has been establish expert panels on special subjects, who produce statements on public misconceptions: Sense about chemicals, radiation, homeopathy, organic farming and (coming soon) the weather. A major effort has been producing a paper on the importance of peer review ('Who can you believe'), which has so far had requests for over 60,000 copies.

I regard the struggle to promote Enlightenment values against the current reaction as part of the struggle for a more civilised society, which depends on the gradual erosion of superstition and ignorance by reason and the evidence-based approach.

Dick Taverne is a former barrister (QC), was an MP and Minister (Financial Secretary, Treasury), launched the Institute for Fiscal Studies in 1971 and founded Sense About Science in 2002, to promote good science and the evidence-based approach to public debate about scientific issues. He wrote The March of Unreason published last year and recently received the Science Writers' Award of 'Parliamentary Science Communicator of the Year'. He was made a peer in 1996.

Out of the Ordinary

Jon Ronson's subjects have included people who believe that goats can be killed by the power of a really hard stare, and people who believe that the world is ruled by twelve-foot lizard-men. In Out of the Ordinary, a collection of his journalism from the Guardian - many pieces expanded and updated - he turns his attention to irrational beliefs much closer to home, investigating the ways in which we sometimes manage to convince ourselves that all manner of lunacy makes perfect sense - mainstream, domestic, ordinary insanity. Whether he finds himself promising his son that he will be at his side for ever, dressed in a Santa costume, or trying to understand why hundreds of apparently normal people would suddenly start speaking in tongues in a Scout hut in Kidderminster, he demonstrates repeatedly how we all succumb to deeply irrational beliefs that grow to inform our everyday existence. Out of the Ordinary is Jon Ronson at his inimitable best: hilarious, thought-provoking and with an unerring eye for human frailty - not least his own.

Jon Ronson is an award-winning writer and documentary maker. He is the author of the top-ten-bestselling Them: Adventures with Extremists and The Men Who Stare at Goats. His documentaries include the acclaimed series The Secret Rulers of the World, which accompanied Them and, most recently, The Crazy Rulers of the World which ran alongside Goats. Jon lives in London with his wife and son.

The Media & the Paranormal

Richard will chat about television and the paranormal, the need for positive skepticism, religious belief, magic, and the science of speed dating.

Psychologist Professor Richard Wiseman started his working life as a professional magician and currently holds Britain's only Professorship in the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire. He frequently appears on the media, and has written over 60 academic articles and several books, including The Luck Factor.

Six Years of Weird Science at the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit

The Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit was founded in 2000. This talk will provide an overview of the research carried out over the last years as well as ongoing and forthcoming projects.

Chris French is a Professor of Psychology at Goldsmiths College, University of London and Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit within the Department of Psychology. He is also co-editor of the Skeptic. He frequently appears on the media and is the author of over 80 publications in various areas of psychology. His primary current research interest is the psychology of paranormal belief and ostensibly paranormal experiences.

Scientology: It's Possibly Much Worse Than You Think

A lot of people I talk to know there's something dodgy about Scientology, but their knowledge about it is vague: they only know it's "bizarre" and has something to do with UFOs. This is unfair to the Scientologists but also underestimates their potential harm by writing them off as merely silly. I will focus on specific allegations about Scientology theory and practice and show the leaked internal documents that back the allegations up.

Scientology covers a lot of topics that skeptics are concerned about: pseudoscience, psychic powers, pseudohistory, bogus medical practice, mega-doses of vitamins, truth-relativism, therapeutic touch so I will show how Scientology practices and institutionalises each of these.

I realise that "anti-cult activists" have a bad reputation with some of the skeptical community, with some people saying the "anti-cult" is itself a cult. I'm happy to address this, or to go in pretty much whatever direction the audience want on the night once I've made my initial presentation!

Martin Poulter used to be a regular at SitP when Scott Campbell ran it (and his excuse for not coming now is that he lives in Bristol!) and he's been reading the Skeptical Inquirer all his adult life. He has a PhD in the Philosophy of Science, after doing a first degree in Psychology and Philosophy at Oxford.

Since Feb 1995, he's been an activist against Scientology, including some media appearances and quotations, because of its attacks on the internet. Martin started the first UK-based critical web site about Scientology.

Martin has had two threats of legal action, a "death stare" and numerous threats from the Scientologists in response to his activities.

An Expert Witness for the Defence

Steve Fuller will describe his experiences at the Pennsylvania trial on intelligent design vs. evolution, where he was an expert witness for the Creationist school board.

Steve Fuller is Professor of Sociology at the University of Warwick. He is the author of twelve books, including two popular works, "Kuhn vs Popper" and "The Intellectual". He has addressed many academic and popular audiences around the world. He is interested in how knowledge is authorized in modern democracies, especially as it relates to the public understanding of science. Recently Fuller served as an expert witness at the Pennsylvania trial on intelligent design vs. evolution.

Bad History?

The Financial Times called history "the new sex" in 2004. History television and popular history books have boomed in recent years, showing a hearty appetite on the part of non-specialists for tales of the past.

There is, however, a darker side to this popularity. One British writer has recently been jailed for what he has written. Two authors have sued the author of  The DaVinci Code for using the ideas they presented as historical fact.

Are consumers of popular history buying a product that does what it says on the tin? Or are they being manipulated by authors and producers who make things up and present them as fact? Is there such a thing as bad history?

Dr Lynette Davidson was a university administrator in Canada before she figured out that the university would never put her in charge of anything without a doctorate. Several years and two more degrees later, she still does a great deal of administration. She did her graduate work in modern British history at Oxford. She works as a college history lecturer and as an historical consultant for television, and she lives in Surrey with her partner and two daughters. She is an erratic golfer and a connoisseur of inexpensive wine.

Psychical research in the 21st Century

The great challenge of psychical research is that some of the phenomena it investigates seem to involve a direct interaction between mind and the physical world. Any theoretical framework for the subject therefore requires some sort of extension of physics. This is the remit of what is sometimes termed 'paraphysics', in contrast to 'parapsychology', which is more concerned with the psychological aspects of the paranormal. Both fields are controversial but their status is very different. Whereas parapsychology has now attained a fair degree of academic respectability in the UK (with some 60 PhDs and 17 permanent academic appointments in university psychology departments), the study of paraphysics is still academically taboo (with no PhDs from UK physics departments). Clearly psychical research will only have come of age when paraphysics enjoys the same academic respectability as parapsychology, so this raises the issue of whether physics (either in its present or some future form) will ever be able to accommodate psi. As a first step towards this goal, one must decide which phenomena need to be explained and which should be weeded out as pseudo-paranormal, so I will present a physicist's classification of psychic phenomena which is useful in this respect. I will then argue that physics can be extended to describe psi but that it will need a different paradigm from the one that currently prevails. Invoking a new paradigm is not too outrageous since physics regularly undergoes paradigm shifts and I will present my own view as to the form the new paradigm might take.

Bernard Carr is Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy at Queen Mary, University of London. He recently completed a 4-year stint as President of the Society for Psychical Research and has a long-standing interest in the subject. He is particularly intrigued in whether physics can be extended to incorporate mind and paranormal phenomena.

Applying Science to the Paranormal: The Case of Psychic Detectives

Some people absolutely believe in psychics, while others dismiss them as ridiculous. Yet basically these are empirical, testable claims: Either psychics have the powers they claim, or they do not. These are not matters of opinion or belief, but of fact and evidence. Success or failure of psychic powers is especially clear in the case of psychic detectives.

Benjamin Radford is an investigator and managing editor of two science magazines, The Skeptical Inquirer and the Spanish-language Pensar. He has written over 300 articles on various topics, including urban legends, mass hysteria, mysterious creatures, and media criticism. He is author of three books: Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking (co-authored with Bob Bartholomew); Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us; and Lake Monster Mysteries (co-authored with Joe Nickell). Radford has appeared on numerous programs including on The Discovery Channel, CNN, National Geographic Television, the Learning Channel, and MTV.

What's the point of skepticism today?

Skepticism is a necessary but not sufficient outlook for progress. Placing rational debate back at the centre of society is crucial if we are to make sense of the world, but it could collapse into pedantry without a sense of purpose. I think that purpose must be to re-establish faith in humanity, against doomsayers who say that humans are feeble to cope with change, and those who go further and believe that humans are actually the biggest problem the world faces.

Rob Lyons is a journalist/website producer for the spiked website. However, an increasingly important part of what he does is looking at science and health stories, particularly unwarranted panics. This can be seen in his main spiked entries of "Don't Panic", which looks at these scare stories and aims to bring a sense of much needed perspective. His longer articles can be found on his blog, Precautionary Tales.

The Noahic Flood: Why Creationists Need it, and How They "Prove" it Happened

While creationist assumptions and explanations of the flood are the centerpiece of this talk, Matt will also touch on other issues, such as ark impossibilities and science vs. religion. Matt hopes to generate lively discussion and stimulate rational thinking about an irrational subject.

Matt currently works in London managing scientific research projects. Before moving to the UK in 2004, he was a chemistry professor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He received his PhD in chemistry from Montana State University in 1997. He admits to having no special expertise on his speech topic, but that has never stopped him from talking in the past.

Incitement to Religious Hatred: should it be a crime?

The government is proposing to criminalise those who incite religious hatred. There are mixed views on this, even amongst skeptics and secularists. On one hand, this can be seen as an assault on free speech and open debate. On the other hand, religious hatred can spill over into violence and cruelty, and it is difficult to see why anyone should be permitted to incite such hatred. David will first explain the background to the proposed new offence and how similar laws work (or don't work) in other countries. He will then, as impartially as possible, set out the arguments both for and against it being a crime to incite religious hatred.

David is a city lawyer working in 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 and forthcoming editions of Law and the Media.

Misuses of Science

Science is perhaps the most important human endeavour. After beer, sex and rugby union. Throughout history humankind has sought to understand the very mechanisms of the universe, and has had some modest success. We now have twenty TV channels of gardening and home improvement. Despite the best attempts of modern anti-intellectualism and born again Bronze Age fundamentalism, science still has a certain social cachet. People have sought to borrow the trappings and language of science to cash in on this.

Tonight we'll see fraud, lies, moronic misunderstandings, and refusal to accept reality. And that'll just be from the speaker.

Louis is a research scientist currently working for a leading pharmaceutical company in Kent. Louis has a BSc (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Leicester. After his first degree he spent five years in the pharmaceutical industry in a variety of research roles before moving to the University of Nottingham to undertake research for his PhD in synthetic chemistry. Louis is a lifelong skeptic and atheist. He has been captivated by all science from an early age and, myriad adventures along the way aside, now gets paid to do what he loves, if only between meetings.

The Scope of Skepticism

Skepticism may be defined, I suggest, as a belief in the importance of scientific inquiry and critical thinking, in particular, towards empirically ill-founded or unwarranted claims. So, what is the proper subject-matter of skeptical critique? A survey of the skeptical literature reveals a host of academically disreputable (and predominantly, quasi-spiritual) topics: the paranormal, astrology, creation science, crypto-zoology, fringe-archaeology, alternative medicine, UFOs, conspiracy theories. Yet it seems to me that many other popular beliefs are at least equally in need of skeptical scrutiny - promulgated, for instance, by influential economists, politicians, media moguls, pressure-groups, think-tanks, corporate advertising and PR executives. In this talk, I will comment on some examples of might be called 'Establishment pseudoscience' - and present a case for a broadening of the skeptical agenda to include them.

 While studying psychology at Durham University I took a special interest in cognitive biases, misconceptions, prejudice and stereotypes. I wrote a dissertation suggesting that if we could only educate people effectively about how these processes work, they might be less likely to succumb to beguiling delusions. My ambition at the time was to carry out further research, developing and testing a method of what I called 'a training in uncommon sense.' My career, alas, took an altogether different direction: I now work as technical director of a publishing company, depending for my income on my company's promotion of beguiling delusions (known in the trade as 'advertisements'). My original interest, however, remains.

The History of The Skeptic

Founder of The Skeptic talks about the history of the UK magazine.

Wendy M. Grossman is a journalist, blogger, and folksinger. In 1987, she founded the magazine The Skeptic in the United Kingdom and edited it for two years, resuming the editorship in 1999-2001. As founder and editor, she has appeared on numerous UK TV and radio programmes.

Her credits since 1990 include work for Scientific American, The Guardian, and the Daily Telegraph, as well as New Scientist, Wired and Wired News, and The Inquirer for which she wrote a regular weekly net.wars column. That column continues in NewsWireless every Friday. She was a columnist for Internet Today from July 1996 until it closed in April 1997, and together with Dominic Young ran the Fleet Street Forum on CompuServe UK in the mid 1990s.

She edited an anthology of interviews with leading computer industry figures taken from the pages of the British computer magazine Personal Computer World. Entitled Remembering the Future, it was published in January 1997 by Springer Verlag. Her 1998 book net.wars was one of the first to have its full text published on the Web. She was a member of the external advisory board of the Intellectual Property and Law Centre at Edinburgh University (the board was disbanded after the centre became established). She was president of the Cornell Folk Song Club, the oldest university-affiliated, student-run folk song club in the US, from 1973 to 1975.

She sits on the executive committee of the Association of British Science Writers and the Advisory Councils of the Open Rights Group and Privacy International.

A Skeptical Primer

Nick will give an overview of what skepticism is, with examples drawn from his Skeptical career.

Nick Pullar holds an MA degree in Philosophy from Auckland University. He has a long and varied career in Skeptical and atheist activism. He is currently convener of Skeptics in the Pub and works as an IT Manager in North London.

Frontal Brain Damage and the Human Soul

Damage to the front of the brain will produce profound changes to our ability to relate to others and to make moral judgements. Our ability to behave morally depends upon the physical integrity of our brains. The concept of the 'soul', that something about us survives after our death, is an essentially moral concept. Neuroscience tells us that all thoughts and feelings are a complex and dynamic pattern of electro-chemical communications between brain cells. The soul is rendered absurd by this understanding and without a soul all the great religions - both as systems of moral guidance and of explanation - fail.

Henry Marsh MA, MB, BS, FRCS, is the senior consultant neurosurgeon at St. George's Hospital in London. He obtained a First in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University before studying medicine and taking up Neurosurgery. He recently starred in the BBC programme 'Your Life in Their Hands' where he was shown removing a brain tumour from a patient under local anaesthetic. He believes that hospitals have much in common with prisons, that all religions are rendered largely obsolete by a proper understanding of the brain, that 'alternative' medicine is entirely based on the placebo effect and spends his spare time either making furniture or practising neurosurgery in Ukraine where he modestly claims to be quite famous.

The March of Unreason

In the last few years Dick Taverne's main preoccupation has been the growing suspicion of science and the fashion for modern myths and superstitions, as manifested in the popularity of alternative medicine, organic farming, blind hostility to GM crops and a near hysterical preoccupation with safety. He argues that this irrational trend undermines democracy and a civilised society. It has led him to found a charity, Sense About Science, which promotes the evidence-based approach, and write a book, published last month, The March of Unreason.

He will talk about the main themes of his book.

Dick Taverne is a former MP and Treasury Minister, who now sits in the Lords as a somewhat maverick Liberal Democrat.

A Sceptic's Guide to Alternative Health

The market in alternative health remedies is worth millions of pounds every year. Many people are led to distrust conventional medicines that are tested for safety and effectiveness, and to stake their health on totally unproven treatments.

What is it that gives alternative medicine - from homoeopathy to crystal healing - its broad appeal? Is it partly because people are misinformed by press reports about these 'therapies'? Former alternative health journalist Clare Bowerman talks about the driving factors in magazine and newspaper journalism that favour complementary and alternative medicines over their proven conventional counterparts, drawing on her personal experience in the industry.

Clare is a writer and editor who lives in London. After studying for a German and French degree at Cambridge University, she moved into science, starting her career on an alternative health title. She then moved into evidence-based medical journalism and other science writing. She currently works in communications for UCL.

Blame Islam

I will put forward the proposition that a lot of the blame for Terrorism and Wars in the world today is directly attributable to the doctrines and beliefs of Islam, and that it is only by directly challenging and refuting the core beliefs of Islam that the world can be made a better place.

I will give a brief examination of Islam and its beliefs, and show why I believe that the religion itself must bare the lion's share of the blame for a lot of the trouble in the world.

I will then put forward some practical ideas as to what can be done about this, and examine some of the difficulties that may be encountered by people challenging Islam.

I would welcome and encourage other contributions, thoughts, and suggestions from the floor, and look forward to an interesting and serious discussion on this subject.

The author of this talk wishes to remain anonymous, as he does not wish a Fatwa on himself.

Ghosthunters and Me

Paul has been fascinated by ghosts since he was young, and his interest nurtured after he met several ghost "hunting" groups whilst doing his PhD. However, he has been increasingly sceptical of the subject - not of ghosts, which he regards as worthy of study, but of the pathetic antics of the amateur researchers. He will discuss some of the cases he has been on, and in his view, the future of ghost research.

Paul has a PhD in Nuclear Physics from the University of York. His hobbies include researching the Titanic disaster, the JFK assassination, ghosts and lurking on the badpsychics.co.uk website. He has somewhat of an addiction to live music and karaoke (but you won't find him on stage). His website is www.paullee.com.

Creation and the 2nd Law-Exposing Misconceptions

Creation supporters often bring up the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics to bolster their arguments against evolution. You know they are mistaken and you would like to refute them, but maybe it's been a few years (or longer) since you took that thermodynamics class.

This talk defines the 2nd Law and applies it to creationist literature, showing precisely how their arguments are flawed. After hearing this talk, you will have the facts necessary to prevail against creationists any time they try to bring up the 2nd Law.

Matt moved to the UK six months ago from Colorado where he was a College Professor. He received his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Montana State University in 1997.

He has been interested in skeptical issues for the last 20 years and has given this presentation at various skeptical gatherings, including The Amazing Meeting 2 in January 2004. His hobbies include history, physical fitness, and computer games.

Incitement To Religious Hatred Law

This is the criminalisation of inciting hatred in others defined by reference to their religion or belief, see Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill Schedule 10.

The National Secular Society vigorously opposes the introduction of this law because: (a) it is unnecessary because existing laws, such as incitement to violence, are adequate and (b) that the law would be used to stifle free expression on religious matters (and exacerbate further the growing tide of self-censorship).

Furthermore, similar provisions were rejected immediately post September 11, 2001.

Keith was the keynote speaker at the 2002 National Convention of American Atheists and has spoken at seminars in the European Parliament on secularist matters. Keith also effected a positive change to the anti-discrimination Employment Directive in the EU Parliament.

Prior to joining the National Secular Society, Keith was Finance Director in national companies in the wholesale and retail food distribution, financial services and insurance sectors.

He joined the National Secular Society in 1996 as Executive Director. In this role he has given evidence in person to Royal Commission on House of Lords Reform (1999) Religious Offences Committee (2002) and Education Select Committee (2004).

Challenges in Behavioural Research: Astrology meets Meta-Analysis

A review of 25 years of scientific tests of astrology illustrated by more than 30 overheads (about 100 images). Includes an explanation of effect size and meta-analysis, and the meta-analyses of more than 300 empirical studies into astrology.

Since 1974 Dr Geoffrey Dean has authored or co-authored many critical articles, debates, studies, and prize competitions for research into astrology. He has practised as an astrologer and is a CSICOP Fellow.

Hallowe'en Special: the Lawyers and the Witches

This talk explores the ways in which legal processes in England have dealt with apparently irrational beliefs, either when they have constituted substantive offences (eg witchcraft, blasphemy etc), or when such beliefs have had to be considered forensically as part of otherwise normal proceedings (eg child custody cases involving allegations of ritual abuse).

David read Modern History at Oxford University and Law at Birmingham University. After a period as a history lecturer, David was called to the Bar in 1999 and transferred to being a solicitor in 2001. He is the author of the chapters on blasphemy and other restrictions that criminal law places on free speech in the fourth edition of Crone's Law and the Media.

Cretinism vs Evilution

The weird and wonderful world of creationism - exposed by Nikolai Segura - physicist and resident expert on the creationists. Scare tactics, propaganda, misquotes, lies and spies - all this and much more as the tactics of leading creationists are explained in gory detail.

Gasp at the scientific inaccuracy - gawp at the epistemological naivety - go faint at the deception and twisting of the truth! Then feel the relief as you're delivered a healthy dose of scientific rationalism, evidence and sanity. And don't forget, if the presentation's crap, you still get grub and booze.

Nikolai is a regular at Skeptics in the Pub - and an ardent anti-creationist. He studied physics at Imperial College London, before going on to sell his soul in return for a job in sales. As a skeptic, Nikolai doesn't believe he has a soul, and therefore insists he got a bargain.

Nikolai has been researching creationist tactics and arguments for several years, and posts regularly on creationist and evolutionist forums on the web.

The Path to Enlightenment

Mark will be talking about the Path to Enlightenment as taught by The Aetherius Society. The Aetherius Society was founded in 1954 by an Englishman named George King who claimed contact with advanced intelligences from other planets within this Solar System.

Mark will discuss the value of material proof as compared to inner realisation and personal experience, and how this relates to the meaning of life and the path to enlightenment.

Mark is a member and full-time employee of The Aetherius Society. He holds a wide variety of strongly-held views relating to religion, spirituality, the paranormal, life after death and UFOs. He does not consider himself enlightened.

Vitamin C - The Cure All

Vitamin C, when taken in high enough doses, can counter the effects of viruses, bacteria, radiation poisoning and most toxins.

Please note the words 'high enough doses' imply between 15 and 200 grams (not milligrams) per day. The way to calculate the dose is to increase it until the patient starts to get diarrhoea, and then decrease it slightly. One of the most important claims of the proponents is that studies that refute this do not use a high enough dose rate (usually not more than one or two grams a day).

Mike Young will present the evidence and contend that the potential benefits of Vitamin C are not being examined for sociological and economic reasons, and due to poor scientific thinking, rather than because of lack of evidence.

Please have a look at the further details page before you come.

Michael Young is a defence analyst working for the Centre for Operational Research and Defence Analysis (CORDA).

He has a keen interest in history and the theory of warfare. His work involves calculating defence needs, costs and effectiveness, and in building and playing wargames of potential future conflicts.

Michael is also interested in examining nutrition and health claims. Michael appeared as part of the on the TV series "How to build a human" where he talked about the practice of life-extension by calorie restriction.

Thinking about Creationism: A practical application of the 'Baloney Detector'

Creationism is one of the delusions which has most potential to cause global catastrophe with both Tony Blair and George W. Bush, at least passively, believing it. Norman does not claim to be an expert but he can offer an insight from both sides of the religious divide along with some experience of email discussion with a Creationist Evangelist and some of the more recent approaches to peddling nonsense from the Young Earth Creationists.

Norman Hansen trained as a physicist and then went into Operational Research spending twenty years solving non-linear maths problems for a large food industry company. While an undergraduate he became a born-again evangelical Christian who would have
described himself as an Old Earth Theistic Evolutionist. Norman was a lay member of the staff of the organisation that publishes Hugh Ross's books. Through a confrontation with Creationism he realised that the only rational position was to declare himself an Atheist.

How should Skepticism approach Religion?

There seem to be two schools of thought. One, expounded by the late Stephen Jay Gould, that religion and skepticism (or science) are two completely separate domains, "non-overlapping magisteria". Many skeptics are also members of religions. They are very happy to criticise ghosts, but think their religious views are held by faith, they are not subject to the same skeptical analysis.

The other view is promoted by James Randi and Richard Dawkins, among others, is that in so far as religions make claims that are testable, they should be subject to the same sorts of scrutiny that we would give to the reports of spoon bending, or mediumship.

Please come along and I hope we will have a very lively discussion. There's been a recent Skeptical Inquirer issue on this very subject, so we'll be able to catch up on the latest thoughts of the international skeptical community.

In addition, I have attended a British Humanist Association seminar on the draft National Curriculum on Religious Education. We might like to discuss that.

The Science of Fooling Scientists: The History of Psychic Charlatanry in the Sciences

Exactly how do occultists fool scientists? DJ will perform his award-winning demonstrations of seeming "psychic abilities," while showing how easy it is for even the most ardent scientific thinker to be duped. With a witty style that astonishes audiences with inconceivable results, DJ "shakes people's understanding of reality," while showing that deception is more pervasive in society than you may think.

Come watch him demonstrate and detail the case histories of the scams that have fooled even Nobel Prize winners. He'll use your rational strengths to destabilize your skepticism.

Not you? Prepare to be surprised. You'll see a performance you won't soon forget, one that promotes critical thinking and the scientific outlook.

DJ Grothe, magician and mentalist from The Center for Inquiry. As a Program Director for the Center for Inquiry, DJ Grothe serves as director of the CFI-On Campus, a secular, pro-science alternative to organizations such as Campus Crusade for Christ and fringe-science and paranormal movements at colleges and universities. Mr. Grothe has travelled and lectured widely throughout North America, speaking on secular ethics, religious-political extremism, church-state separation, the paranormal and science advocacy. His writings have been published in newspapers throughout the United States, and he has spoken on numerous radio and television programs. He is currently finishing a book on the need for public argument in a secular democracy.

Before completing graduate studies in philosophy and intellectual history at Washington University at St. Louis, DJ worked as a corporate magical entertainer and public speaker for companies such as IBM, Southwestern Bell, Estee-Lauder and Ralston Purina.

The State of the Skeptical Community in the US

David will be telling us about the rise of the religious right in the US

Dr David Koepsell is the Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism.

Evidence for and Against the Paranormal

Prof Donald J. West will be discussing the evidence for and against the paranormal as he sees it.

Prof. Emeritus D. J. West is a criminologist and psychiatrist, sometime President of the Society for Psychical Research in London, and long time contributor to their publications concerning experimental ESP and population surveys of apparitional experiences.

[Photo taken by Nancy Zingrone]

Skepticism and the Counter Culture

Richard has observed how many people in the arts scene have an attachment to quackery of various sorts, and his does his bit to foster critical thinking.

Come along and listen to Richard describe a world that may not be familiar to you, and listen to his plea to Counter Culture and Skepticism to recognise their commonalities.

Richard Sanderson is a stout warrior in Skepticism's defence. He comes from the world of music, where he has great talent. He has run a band, a club and a radio show (which he interviewed James Randi) on Resonance FM!

I, Caravaggio

Alberto Bon will be performing a work of his own devising which will illuminate the life and work of Caravaggio, an Italian artist and Renaissance man, who lived in the Sixteenth Century.

There will be plenty of time for discussion and informal chit chat after the performance.

Alberto Bon is an actor and cartoonist.

What makes skeptics shy away from paranormal evidence?

Montague Keen will give an over-view of research into the paranormal over the last 100 years, and will ask why skeptics decide not to believe.

Montague Keen is a psychic researcher, journalist, agricultural administrator, magazine editor and farmer. A member of the Council of the Society for Psychical Research for 55 years, chairman of its Image and Publicity Committee and secretary of its Survival Research Committee, he was principal investigator of the Scole Group of physical mediums, and author of the Scole Report, published in the Proceedings of the SPR (Vol 54 Pt 220) in 1999 with his co-investigators Professors Arthur Ellison and David Fontana.

It Must be True, I Read it on the Internet

Robert Newman will go through a (world-wide) web of logical fallacies and nutty ideas on the internet. It will be a short course on rebutting people who say; "I read it on the Interent so it must be true".

Your homework is to read as much as possible at http://www.zetatalk.com.

Robert Newman is a past organiser of Skeptics in the Pub.

The Seventh Sense: Recent Experimental Evidence

Dr Rupert Sheldrake will discuss current research and evidence into the seventh sense.

Dr Rupert Sheldrake is the author of books including Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home (1999) and The Sense Of Being Stared At (2003). His website is www.sheldrake.org

Confessions of a Creationist - Why I agree with Richard Dawkins

Rev Brian Austin is a Creationist who thinks Richard Dawkins is right?!

Come and watch Brian  justify and reconcile his views in "the lion's den".

Horizon Homeopathy Trials

Nathan was responsible for BBC Horizon's documentary on the homoepathy trials that James Randi appeared in, last year

Nathan will be coming along to tell us about the genesis of the idea and how the production went.
Of course, some people have cast doubt on the veracity of the experiment, so Nathan will also answer those challenges.

Nathan Williams is a science producer for the BBC.

Errors in Science and Medical Journalism

Barry Blatt is really annoyed at how journalists routinely misuse science in their reporting. He will tell you how to spot the errors and how you can avoid being duped in the future.

Barry Blatt is a science journalist and lecturer at Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds.

The Amaz!ng Meeting

Sid Rodrigues will tell us about "The Amazing Meeting" hosted by the James Randi Educational Foundation, that he attended in February.
This meeting had skeptics from all over the world attend.

Sid will be at the Old King's Head to TELL ALL!

What do twin and family studies tell us about human genetic inheritance?

Toby will be telling us about how twin studies can help determine the roles played by "nature" and "nurture" in our development and will debunk eugenics myths by the bucket load en route.

Dr Toby Andrew who is a genetic statistician at the Twin and Genetic Epidemiology Research Unit at St. Thomas' Hospital. Passionate about good science, some of his writings can be found in The Independent, Living Marxism and Spiked.

Sex Abuse Accusations and Shattered Lives

Mark is the author of "Victims of Memory", which covers the recovered memory/child abuse hysteria in recent years.

Mark will be telling us about how and why he came to write the book and what his conclusions are about recovered memory.

Mark Prendergrast is an investigative journalist, who is interested in many things other than recovered memory! 

An American Psychologist in London

Bob will tell us about his journey to skepticism and how he came to teach critical thinking at College.

Bob is an engaging speaker who will be able to give a good overview of the state of skepticism in the US today.

Dr Bob Keefer is Associate Professor of Psychology at Mount St. Mary's University, Maryland.

The Angels of Mons and Elsewhere

Scott Wood will give the account of "The Angels of Mons", and delve into the folklore and myths surrounding this story.

If you haven't heard of the Angels of Mons, a short introduction is available here: http://www.firstworldwar.com/atoz/angelsofmons.htm. I'm sure Scott will be able to provide us with an enjoyable lecture about the Angels, or whatever they were!

The Skeptical Pagan

Steve Wilson is a "Skeptical Pagan". I have no idea what he's going to say, but I can assure you it will be rousing, and I'm sure the subsequent debate will be lively indeed!

Steve Wilson is an author, broadcaster, journalist, Magician, Druid, Pagan, Isian, Thelemite, MC of Secret Chiefs (Talking Stick as was), Tarot and Rune reader and lecturer. Occasionally he also manages a day job. His own books are Robin Hood, Spirit of the Forest (1992) and Chaos Ritual (1993). He is one of the 32 Archpriest Hierophants who run the Fellowship of Isis and a founder of both the IOU Chaos Magic group and the Lovecraftian WID. He has appeared on most major UK TV and Radio channels as well as writing for both The Guardian and The Independent. He frequently takes his lectures to Fan Conventions, Schools, and anyone else who will listen. He also acts as Regional Co-ordinator for the Pagan Federation in South East London. His blog can be found here: sethur.livejournal.com

C. G. Jung's Complicity with Nazism

David Murray will be giving us his take on "Everything your ego wanted to know about Jung, but your personal unconsciousness was afraid to find out!"

Read David's review of Ronald Hayman's, A Life of Jung if you want to bone-up before the talk.

Expect a devastating critique of Jung, the Nazis and New Ageism!

David Murray is a part time market researcher, free-lance portrait photographer and a photographic artist. He is currently writing an introduction to Marx, and a critique of Carl Jung.

Natural, Holistic, Traditional and Gentle - But does it work?

Lee will be giving a scientific and marketing tour of natural and holistic medicines.

Lee Traynor is a big force within the German Skeptics, operating a number of web sites dedicated to skeptical and critical thinking including: www.skeptic.de www.e-skeptic.de and www.jr-skeptic.de.

He is currently a lecturer in English at the University of Hannover, Germany.

Practical Skepticism

I have decided that I myself should talk to you this month. I'm going to talk about "Practical Skepticism", or what we as individuals or groups can do to combat the poor thinking and fraud that we find in our communities.

Because this is a talk on *practical* skepticism, I would like you to put your own thinking caps on and come to the meeting with some good ideas of your own about what we can do. Hopefully we can share knowledge, and all go away a little more empowered to actually encourage skepticism in the worlds we all inhabit everyday.

The Apollo Moon Landings were a Hoax? - A Debate

Marcus Allen will put forward the argument that the evidence for the Apollo missions to the moon were faked, for political motivations.

Dr Robert Massey will put forward evidence that the "Hoax" hypothesis is nonsense.

Marcus Allen is the British distributor and publisher of Nexus magazine, about conspiracy theories and paranormal claims. He says his publication offers "news and information that is overlooked, unreported or ignored by the mainstream media." He worked as a photographer in the 1960s, and is a proponent of the idea that NASA faked the Apollo Moon landings.

Dr Robert Massey, the Astronomy Information Officer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich

A Critical Look at Paranormal Perception

A Critical Look at Paranormal Perception

The concept of extrasensory perception (ESP) implies that not all perception is dependent upon known physical sensory systems. General ESP is typically sub-divided into three types: (i) telepathy (i.e., alleged direct transference of thoughts), (ii) clairvoyance (i.e., alleged awareness of remote objects or events other than by use of the known sensory channels), and (iii) precognition (i.e., alleged knowledge of events before they occur, other than as a result of inference).  Examples of ‘pathological science,’ in which eminent scientists have been led astray by such biases, will be provided (e.g., the ‘canals’ on Mars and the discovery of N-rays).

Chris French is a Professor of Psychology and Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths College, University of London (http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/apru).
He has published over 80 articles and chapters covering a wide range of topics within psychology, including publications in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, The Lancet, Emotion, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, and the British Journal of Psychology. In addition to academic activities, such as conference presentations and invited talks in other departments, he frequently appears on radio and television, casting a sceptical eye over paranormal claims.

Antiquity of Man: A Skeptic's View of Hindu Creationism

A Skeptic's View of Hindu Creationism

The rise of religious fundamentalism in India is bringing to the fore a new version of creationism in the West: Hindu creationism as advanced by its most prominent proponents Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson, who are the authors of one of the most prominent anti-palaeoanthropological works in recent years is "Forbidden Archeology", and its shortened version "The Hidden History of the Human Race". "Forbidden Archeology" and "The Hidden History of the Human Race", since 1993, grossed sales figures of 200 000 – 300 000 and their influence around the world in pseudoarchaeological circles is immense. The aim of the presentation is to provide an in-depth critique of Cremo and Thompson's work, and to examine creationism from the perspective of palaeoanthropology and archaeology: our relationship with archaic hominins and chimpanzees through examination of targeted skeletal remains and archaeological sites.

Mike Brass is an archaeologist and author of The Antiquity of Man website.

The Theosophical View of Nature

The Theosophical View of Nature

Colin Price served as National President of the Theosophical Society in England from 1999-2008. He is Treasurer of the European School of Theosophy and is a regular lecturer at theosophical events both in England and abroad.

Alternative History and the Ma'atians From Cyberspace

Weighing the Evidence for Alternative History

John Wall is an Independent Scholar in archaeology and history. He's an electrical engineer by trade and contributes to The Hall of Ma'at.

A summary of the night can be found at The Skeptic Magazine's website.

Conspiracy Theories

Steve Clarke is a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University.

A Sound Approach to Ghost Hunting

Dr Vic Tandy discusses the research into infra-sound in reports of potential hauntings.

Satanic Abuse Obsession

Satanic Abuse Obsession

What Makes An Unsolved Mystery?

What Makes An Unsolved Mystery?

Psychology of Paranormal Belief

Psychology of Paranormal Belief

Alternative Medicine

Alternative Medicine

Thurstan Brewin is a clinical onconlogist and past Chairman of Healthwatch

Who wouldn't be a skeptic?

Who wouldn't be a skeptic?

Robert Rankin is an author and novelist.

Memes - Is Religion a Mind Virus?

Is Religion a Mind Virus?

How Can You Be Sure?

How Can You Be Sure?

The talk this month is entitled "How Can You Be Sure?" and will be given
by Dr Julian Baggini, editor of the 'Philosopher's Magazine'.

Skeptics generally feel confident in rejecting belief in things like the
paranormal, UFOs astrology etc. But how can we really be sure what
constitutes valid grounds for belief in anything? Julian will explore
the basis of belief and the limits of justification in considering what
kinds of proof and justifications are adequate for a belief to be held.
There will plenty of time for discussion.

Tackling Creationists

Tackling Creationists

Michael E. Howgate is the zoologist who founded the Association for the Protection of Evolution, (APE or APEmen).

Mike will be able to dispel any suppressed concerns anyone might have that the world really was created in 4004 BC!

UFOs

John talks about the existence and investigations into UFOs.

John Rimmer is a past Editor of Magonia Magazine.

Australian Skepticism

Australian Skepticism

Barry Williams is executive officer of the Australian Skeptics. He has been a member of the Australian Skeptics for 27 years, and has edited the Skeptic Journal for 17 years.

Slight of Mind: Thinking critically about the paranormal

Slight of Mind: Thinking critically about the paranormal

A lecture on supposed paranormal/psychic claims from a distinctly skeptical point of view.

Illustrated throughout with various psychic effects the lecture is structured to be entertaining whilst encouraging and promoting the use of critical thinking skills.

Tony is a founding member of the Association for Skeptical Enquiry (ASKE). He previously edited their newsletter and now manage their website (www.aske.org.uk).

Skeptics and the Media

Skeptics and the Media

General Skepticism

General Skepticism

General Skepticism

General Skepticism

Alternative Medicine

Alternative Medicine

My Life as A Skeptic

My Life as A Skeptic