Just got the buzz from the New York City Skeptics, about their anniversary!
Join New York City Skeptics as we celebrate our first anniversary with a special lecture by James “The Amazing” Randi.
James Randi: I Doubt That!
Date: Friday October 10, 2008
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: Caspary Auditorium @ Rockefeller University – 1230 York Avenue (66th St.) New York City (See map via Google here)
Admission is free and open to the public
In recent years, the skeptical movement has emerged and flourished, attracting major academics, authors, and media agencies. At the same time, the media itself has been essentially responsible for promoting what we refer to as the “woo-woo” element – everything from astrology to talking-to-the-dead have been prominently featured in newspapers, books, and on television, to the detriment of the public. This retreat from reality and rationality has brought government, academic, and cultural agencies to recognize the hunger of the public for nonsense, and the fact that ignoring that need can cost them money and acceptance. Even PBS features quacks and charlatans in its fund-raising campaigns. Hospitals and pharmaceutical vendors accept all sorts of pseudoscientific treatments as valid. And no politician dares fail to invoke supernatural forces in closing an appeal for support.
This is the situation with which the skeptical movement is faced…
By the way, there’ll be a special feature on an future Skeptic Zone from my filming of the ‘Drinking Skeptically’ pub nights that they hold regularly in New York – take this chance to start celebrating with them in person, they are a fantastically fun gang!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Hooray!!! James Randi is so great– he seems utterly tireless in his commitment to educating people, travelling, putting his skeptical presence out there. It was (dare I say it) AMAZING to see him at DragonCon! I’m glad the skeptical community of the nation is finally making inroads into the Deep South (U.S.)– we’ve got a long way to go!
Seeing him is bittersweet for me, in a way, because in him I see what my own father might have become, had he fallen in with the skeptics instead of the woomeisters. (My father is a magician, too!) …Hey, maybe I should blog about it! *lol*
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