SC4AZ Activism: Beyond social support

Posted on June 24, 2014 by AZAtheist

Frequently, I talk about social support for the Arizona Freethinking Community but we also need  political advocacy. Last Sunday, Tory Anderson and Matt Schoenley from the Secular Coalition for Arizona gave a talk about their successes and challenges with the Arizona State Legislature to a small crowd gathered at the University of Arizona Medical Center in the DuVal Auditorium. She was there at the request of FreeThought Arizona. The SC4AZ (Secular Coalition for Arizona) is a 501c4 non-profit organization which means that they can legally lobby and promote candidates. At the meeting they passed out a “scorecard” that summarized the voting record of our current legislators and scored them on their performance in regards to secular policy decisions. Many of the legislators are religious but still vote in favor of secular public policies. However, there are many that do not and would impose laws on the general population based on their religious beliefs. Some would go as far as voting for blatantly discriminatory policies such as were contained in HB2153/SB1062. Both the State House and the State Senate passed these discriminatory bills but several of the legislators rethought their position and urged the governor to veto. Also, the fact that it could have cost Arizona another Super Bowl must have been a motivating factor causing the Governor to veto the bill.

The success of getting the Governor to veto the discriminatory HB2153/SB1062 bill is admittedly a shared success. Several organizations weighed in and pushed for the veto including the Business Community and the LGBT Community, among others. However, the defeat of HB2281, which would have saddled tax payers with $2.1M of more property taxes, belongs solely to SC4AZ. They went alone against the  bill that CAP wrote and supported.

There were other wins and some disappointments highlighted in Tory’s presentation. The overall message is that the SC4AZ is making a difference and CAP (Center for Arizona Policy) has taken notice. CAP’s power has been successfully challenged on numerous occasions and the result is that they no longer operate with the same impunity that they did when they killed the anti-bullying bill in 2012. More importantly, legislators have begun seeking help and advice from SC4AZ for proposed bills.

The idea of a coalition that acts on behalf of the Arizona FreeThinking community is a great one. Here in Tucson, we can concentrate on supporting the social support needs of our community comfortable in the knowledge that the SC4AZ is fighting for rational secular public policy in the state legislature. FreeThought Arizona and Tucson Atheists are local members.

SC4AZ is the first state chapter to be spun out of the SCA (Secular Coalition for America) located in Washington D.C. and often used as an example for other states to follow. You can find their webpage at www.secular.org. There you can download the 2014 Legislature Scorecard. You can also find a link that will help you find out who represents you in the Arizona Legislature. This information may be useful during the next election if you are interested in promoting rational secular public policy in Arizona.

Bottom line: Use the SC4AZ resources to find out who represents you and how they voted. Use them and support them!

Posted in Atheist Action, Secular Coalition for Arizona, Separation of Church and State | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Camp Quest Arizona 2014

Posted on June 16, 2014 by AZAtheist

I loved this camp!

The camp director just posted a picture of a couple of counselors dancing to the song YMCA. The picture was taken at the end of a very rewarding but tiring week at the Camp Quest Arizona 2014. This was the second year for the camp and 49 enthusiastic campers (49 varying from age 8 through 17) attended. The challenge here, on this blog, will be to capture the spirit (that’s right fellow Atheists I said “spirit”) of the experience in a short blog entry.

It was a great experience and there were many second timers. The staff was an eclectic collection of adults—from young to old(er) and the second year for many of them also. Half were “program staff” and the others were “cabin staff.” The program staff is responsible for the camp programs and the cabin staff is with the campers most of the time. As a program staff person, I was responsible for an elective event and a couple of Quest Zone activities. Everyone was a volunteer and everyone was busy providing a secular camp experience.

Camp Quest is much like any other week long, sleep away summer camp. We borrowed a 4H camp that is part of the University of Arizona. We had traditional camp activities such as fishing, archery, orienteering, and nature hikes along with the secular and scientific specific activities such as Socrate’s Café where the campers get a chance to discuss deeper philosophical subjects.

The cabins are separated by age and gender. Program staff members stay in the cabins also to help the cabin staff and fill in when necessary. There are week-long activities and some that only last an hour or so. Some activities are specific to the cabins. The campers are all members of teams that vary in age and gender. Most events are team events. However, there are a few activities that are elective and chosen individually by the campers according to their specific interests. I’ll say that there were plenty of “free time” opportunities but I’ll bet that most of the campers would say they could use more! The volunteers bring their own experience and interests and are responsible for the selection of some of the more unique activities. For example, I brought in activities associated with model aircraft, leather work, and (believe it or not) Karaoke.

Speaking of unique opportunities, many of the campers made monsters out of stuffed animals.

All 49 campers built a small wooden memory box. The pieces were pre-cut and when assembled the box was about 6″ by 9″ and 5″ tall with a lid and a bottom made out of plywood. There was a lot of work that went into the kitting of these boxes. Holes were predrilled and countersunk. All the hardware was available but there was a lot left to do by the campers. There were several hammers and three electric drills for the campers to use to drive the screws that held the main frame of the box together and attaching the two hinges. But the best part of the memory box activity was that once the boxes were complete and placed in their proper order, they revealed a special picture with meaning for science based campers…Ta Dah!

There is no way to completely describe Camp Quest AZ 2014 but I’m glad to have been a part of it and hope to be a part of it again next year. Camp Quest is now a feature of the Secular Community of Arizona and we owe a great deal of thanks to the volunteers that made it happen for the second time! Thank you John, Eugene, Chuwan, Jennifer, and Holly for all the hard work and making it happen again in Arizona!

I forgot to mention a very important member of the camp staff–the very awesome camp nurse. Nell was on duty 24 hours a day and cared for every scrape and illness (there were a few but not many). She also made sure that all campers took their medication. 1406 CQAZ Nell the nurse

 

Posted in American Atheists, Atheist Action, Religion, Skepticism | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

What the doctor means is…

Posted on May 29, 2014 by AZAtheist

The title of this article comes from an old skit made popular during the Viet Nam War. The audio skit was recorded in 1966. It involved an F-4 Phantom pilot the “Captain,” and a public affairs officer. After each question, the Captain would answer it from his point of view complete with the vernacular of his compatriots and the public affairs officer would translate the language for the war correspondent. For example, when the Captain was asked about his fighter jet, the F-4 Phantom, he answered, “It’s so f—ing maneuverable, you can fly up your own a—with it.” The public affairs officer then translates, “What the Captain means is that he has found the F-4C highly maneuverable at all altitudes and he considers it an excellent aircraft for all missions assigned.” In this case, the two messages are similar. In other words, the pilot (Captain) likes the maneuverability of the plane.

In a May 20th opinion piece in the Arizona Daily Star, Dr. Gil Shapiro received close to 60 comments—none of them were complementary. I completely understand the response. Perhaps, the good Doctor needed a public affairs guy. The FreeThought Arizona board often helps Dr. Shapiro by proof reading for grammar but not for content. Many of the commenters seemed to think that everyone in FreeThought Arizona agrees with the spirit of the op-ed. This is demonstratively NOT TRUE. Some of our members have been homeschooled and are homeschoolers themselves. So with that said…

What the doctor means is that there are subjects that most parents are not qualified to teach and those subjects should be left up to college educated people with a teacher’s certification. Schools can help children transition from depending on their parents to independent members of society but only if they are allowed to teach science, communications, mathematics, and history correctly.

I’m not certain we should double down on this issue. Many, not all, parents are simply unqualified to teach science and mathematics. Perhaps the op-ed piece would have been better received if it listed the requirements that must be achieved in order to become a public school teacher. In addition, children are being educated every hour that they’re awake and public school represents only a small part of that time. Thankfully, schools are specifically restricted from performing religious training; FreeThought Arizona and other active secular groups believe it’s our highest priority to ensure that it stays that way. Parents will always be able to educate on a wide variety of subjects that they are best qualified to teach including religion and cultural traditions. It will never be the government’s responsibility to fully educate everyone’s kids but the public schools currently represent a baseline education in science, communication, and logical thinking (mainly through mathematic principles). Public schools also provide us with a common experience and include uniquely American cultural traditions through teachings in history, civics, and social studies.

Gil’s article was a response to an earlier op-ed piece. The original piece was a criticism of the Arizona Legislature for not expanding the state’s ESA (Empowerment Scholarship Accounts) which is a voucher program that makes tax money available to parents directly so that they can then enroll their children in private schools. The authors of that opinion piece happen to members of the Diocese of Tucson School Board and represent private Catholic schools. Expanded ESA would increase the amount of tax money that can then flow into the Catholic schools of the region. It’s obvious that there was potential for bias in their point of view.

Opt out of public school if you feel that’s best but it’s not right to expect a voucher from the taxpayers to help you. Tax money collected for education is best used to improve the public schools in every neighborhood throughout the city, county, state, and country. However, please know that private schools’ requirements vary from state to state (click here for the requirements in AZ).

In Arizona under Accreditation, Registration, Licensing, and Approval private schools have:

  • No requirements for Accreditation.
  • No requirements for Registration.
  • No requirements for Licensing.
  • No requirements for Approval.
  • “Private school” is defined as “a nonpublic institution, other than the child’s home, where academic instruction is provided for at least the same number of days and hours each year as a public school.” Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. §15-802F.2.
  • “Nothing in this title shall be construed to provide the state board of education or the governing boards of school districts control or supervision over private schools.” Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. §15-161.

Teacher certification is not required to teach in a private school in Arizona. The subjects that must be taught are: reading, grammar, mathematics, social studies, and science but there is no state policy on testing. Therefore there is no guarantee that the education in these key subjects will meet any standard.

Compare these (non)requirements with certification requirements for teachers of public schools in Arizona.

Dr. Shapiro’s op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star garnered a lot of attention and received quite an emotional response. His intention was allow the next generation of citizens to obtain the best education possible but he came across as someone that favored the idea of taking control away from the parents. Arizona law states that all students in the state must receive education in certain subjects. What’s left is for us to do is set standards and decide together how best to ensure that those subjects are taught properly.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Atheist Etiquette and Invocations

Posted on May 21, 2014 by AZAtheist

In the American Atheists Magazine second quarter 2014 edition (available by subscription or at Barnes and Noble), there’s an article by Dale DeBakcsy called “Athe-quette.” It’s about etiquette for Atheists and describes common situations and the proper Atheist response to those situations. For example, what do you say to a store clerk who wishes you “Merry Christmas,” or what do you say to the door-to-door proselytizer? Freethinkers may have fundamental problems with rules of etiquette because they replace the thinking about any given situation and insert a learned, possibly rehearsed, almost dogmatic response. Each situation discussed in the American Atheist’s article deserves an entire blog entry and may receive one in the future, but here I’ll discuss the idea of etiquette and proper response to religious invocations.

It is a good idea to be always prepared like in the Boy Scout motto and I can agree partially with the idea of etiquette rules. They help us to be ready and confident. On the other hand, there is usually more than one way to do a thing. There may be only one basic table setting but there are many ways to react in a given social situation involving the mix of believers and non-believers. Flexibility is the key. The American Atheist magazine included alternate responses for the store clerk that tells you, “Merry Christmas.” Mr. DeBakcsy suggests simply responding with “Happy Holidays” is  fine. A better one would be, “Ah, and a happy season to you!” because it carries the message that you’ve acknowledged the spirit of the greeting while simultaneously offering a “whiff of secular suggestion,” but intent is so hard to convey. We’d all like to hope that every “Merry Christmas” we receive is a sincere expression of good will but that is not always the case. Sometimes responding with “Happy Holidays” or ANYTHING other than an acknowledgement of “Christmas” is met with poorly camouflaged hostility. Ideally, codes of etiquette would avoid such confrontations but they don’t always.

According to Wikipedia, there are three types of etiquette: Hygiene, courtesy, and cultural norms. Hygiene rules are necessary in our society to prevent disease transmission and should become second nature as they are drilled into our behavior from an early age. Courtesy rules ease social interactions and cultural norms help with group identity and status. The Atheist Etiquette rules fall into the areas of courtesy and social norms.

When people gather together, there is usually an invocation that calls for a blessing from a supreme being. Courtesy rules and cultural norms demand that all people attending stand, remove their hats, bow their heads, and remain silent during the invocation and allow the person to finish the invocation without interruption. This is a good time for us to play the game, “Heads up Atheists.” It’s a non-compliant way to pass the time even though these intrusions of religiosity usually last a couple of minutes at most. While the speaker is going on about his favorite deity and often editorializing, don’t bow your head and look at your feet. Instead, hold your head up and look for other Atheists in the room.

We should be participating and giving our own invocations from time to time. Protocol for giving invocations can be found on the internet. A Toastmasters group defines an invocation as a form of prayer intended to secure the blessings of a supreme being. The speaker is addressing a deity on behalf of the group. There is a four step formula: 1. Give recognition to the supreme creator, 2. Unify by stating the purpose of the gathering and making everyone feel welcome, 3. Give thanks to the organization, its purpose, and the people involved, and 4. Release—a statement of conclusion (Amen). Obviously, we’d leave off the first step but check out how our own Arizona state representative Juan Mendez covers the other three in this YouTube video clip.

Posted in American Atheists, Atheist Action | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Hello sir, this is Mike from Microsoft Technical Services

Posted on May 8, 2014 by AZAtheist

Instructions for avoiding tech support phone scams are provided by Microsoft but don’t you wish you could do more? For the last couple of days, I’ve been getting calls from Mike. In his heavy accent, he tells me that there have been multiple reports coming from my computer indicating that I have a problem. I say, “Really? My computer is sending you messages? I’m sitting right there, why doesn’t it tell me directly? Are you saying that my computer doesn’t trust me? What else is my computer saying to you? I assure you that whatever my computer told you is probably a lie. It’s probably upset because I just installed a new modem. I didn’t want to break them up. They have been together for so long but my internet provider told me that my computer would be happier if I found it a new modem. Mike do you think that’s it? Is my computer telling you stuff to get back at me? Mike…Are you there…” I wonder why he hung up.

Are there Christian Computer Scientists who rely on prayers instead of virus protection software?

Posted in Skepticism | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Prayer at local government meetings still a bad idea

Posted on May 6, 2014 by AZAtheist

As an Atheist in the progressively stunted state of Arizona, I feel the sting of the most recent Supreme Court ruling. It’s a big deal and religious representatives will probably use the ruling to justify other violations of church state separation. For example, they’ll probably use it to justify Christian Christmas displays. In their zeal to embrace the rightward shift that this ruling represents, they may assume that Christianity deserves a preeminent place in our society. They’d be wrong.

The ruling doesn’t eliminate the fundamental requirement that all citizens be represented and treated equally. While the Supreme Court has now decided that the sectarian prayers are not unconstitutional, that still doesn’t mean that they are a good idea. Of course, they didn’t say that they’re a bad idea either. I’m saying that.

In this country, we need religious neutrality and equal treatment under the law. The American Atheists put up a monument on state land in Florida last year next to a monument of the Ten Commandments. I believe that that too was a bad idea but it was made necessary by Bradford County’s refusal to keep their courthouse lawn free of religious artifacts. The best idea would be to keep the church and state separate and remove the Ten Commandments monument. There are churches everywhere and the religious community would not miss one religious statue. Instead, they opened up the door for others to clutter their courthouse lawn with trinkets containing religious and anti-religious sentiments. Since the City Council of Tucson has not taken steps to remove the monuments to the Virgin Mary on “A” mountain, look for other monuments to spring up further cluttering our natural desert.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, spoke for the majority opinion on the ruling. He said people that felt excluded or disrespected by religious prayers should simply ignore them. I don’t find that compelling. Judges in this country normally wear simple black robes but if I came before one who was dressed as a Franciscan Monk and my opponent in the matter prominently wore a crucifix, I don’t think I could ignore the situation. As a non-believer, I couldn’t ignore the feeling that I may not receive a fair treatment in such a court.

Speaking of religious bias, let’s not forget that the five justices that just voted to allow Christian sectarian prayer at a government meeting are all Catholic.

Posted in American Atheists, Atheist Action, Religion, Separation of Church and State | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Beware of the satirical sites on the Internet

Posted on May 4, 2014 by AZAtheist

On April 7th the National Report published an article that said Kansas was pushing through a law in the state legislature to ban the show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Of course, I didn’t see it right away but when I did hear of it, I was immediately outraged and somewhat depressed. I shouldn’t have been. The National Report
is one of the many satirical sites that have popped up on the internet. They’re not helping! Unless you consider that they may be making people more skeptical of what they read on the internet, they are doing more harm than good. The Onion has been around for years and they had the corner on satirical news for years. Their satire was so “over the top” in most cases that the satire was obvious. Most people know about The Onion and the mere mention of the source being The Onion telegraphs to the reader that what follows is clever satire. No need to look it up; it’s from The Onion, yo! However, The National Report: America’s #1 Independent News Team sounds legit and there is so much unbelievable real news that I could believe that Cliven Bundy is being considered as a GOP candidate for president in 2016! So now, I don’t know what to trust.

Perhaps that is a good thing, right? Maybe having so many satirical BS sites mixed in with the real BS sites will encourage Skepticism. There could be health benefits. Reading some these articles tends to increase my heart rate and after all, isn’t that what exercising is all about?

A quick search of the internet and it’s clear that are others that object to the increasing number of satirical “news” sites too. There is a twitter, “I hate satire sites. They serve no purpose. I don’t even like the Onion.” There is at least one right wing nut that believes that the increase in spoof sites is part of a government conspiracy to “work in the government’s interest by detracting from honest [sic] news.”

Other countries have them. Recently Muslims decided to sue a French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo for blasphemy. Please note that the paper’s premises were firebombed in 2011 after it published cartoons of Mohammed. While blasphemy isn’t a crime in France, apparently there are places that were annexed by Germany and returned to France that brought with them German legal code that bans “insulting religious communities.” But the joke’s on the Muslims because the code only recognizes “Catholicism, three forms of Protestantism, and Judaism” as religious communities.

Perhaps we all need to have one of those “yellow stickies” permanently affixed to the edge of our computer monitors with all of the satirical new sites listed. That way we can immediately know whether or not to take the latest FaceBook posting seriously. Here are a few of the sites:

The Onion

Private Eye

Indecision Forever

News Biscuit

The Spoof

Sports Pickle

Unconfirmed Sources

CAP News

DERF Magazine

NewsMutiny

But let’s not forget the Daily Currant and as mentioned The National Report.

A more complete listing can be found on Wikipedia.

 

 

Posted in Skepticism | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Our 9th American Atheist Convention

Posted on April 28, 2014 by AZAtheist

The conventions have been going on since 1970 and this was actually the 40th one. American Atheists normally have their conventions on Easter weekend. Why not? It’s not like Atheists haven anything else to do on that weekend and we can usually score good deals on conference room rentals. Although…is that really true? This year the convention was in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Hilton Salt Lake Center, fairly close to the temple at the center of town. However, there was a well attended Comic Convention at the Salt Palace Convention Center on the same weekend. I’m sure there were people from both conventions that wished that they could have attended the other one. In fact, I KNOW that there was at least one young lady in a local bar that would have rather been with the Atheists than the comic nerds (no offense intended). There will be another comic event at the Salt Palace in September but the Atheists won’t meet again until their next convention in Memphis, Tennessee on…you guessed it…Easter weekend. Perhaps the Atheists need to produce a comic book. There were over 100,000 comic book fans at the Salt Palace while attendance at the Atheist convention was a shade over 700.

In spite of the juxtaposition of events in the heart of Salt Lake City, the American Atheists convention was quite successful. Last year they met in Austin which is considered “Atheist friendly.” Salt Lake City was not as welcoming. For example, it was difficult to get local sign companies to take our billboards. However, there was a giant welcoming announcement posted in the SLC airport! One of the local sign media companies rejected the American Atheists billboard messages as “misleading, deceptive, and offensive.” What is “misleading, deceptive, and offensive” about a sign that says simply, “Utah’s families. All religious? Think again” with a picture of a rather typical looking family composed of a mother, father, and three kids? There is a thought that a billboard of cute kittens sponsored by the American Atheists would also have been rejected as “misleading, deceptive, and offensive.”

The Utah Atheists were welcoming, however. Dan Ellis and the Atheists of Utah were fine hosts. Just prior to the convention on April 6th, Dan and his group conducted a Mass LDS (Mormon) Church Resignation event. Over 24 attended and marched around the “Temple” before posting the letters of resignation. The Atheists of Utah Meetup.com group has over 850 members, fully 100 more than we have here in Tucson. So there are Atheists in Salt Lake City!

One of the main features of the annual convention is the “state of the organization” summary that is at the start of the main sessions. David Silverman has been doing a great job growing the organization and now we have a membership of over 7,000 which is up from about 2,000 when he took over. The organization is completely debt free and is purposely spending more than it is taking in. Of course, that can’t continue on forever because eventually the banked reserves will run out. The goal of American Atheists as outlined by Dave is to attack and normalize on the veracity, ubiquity, and privilege of the religious organizations in the United States. In other words, attack and verify the truth claims of the churches and in particular Christianity. We need to reduce the presence everywhere of religious influence. Finally, we must address the special privileges that are enjoyed by religious followers and organizations. All tax exempt organizations should be treated equally. Religious organizations should not be exempt from the IRS requirements that apply to other non-profits. Pastors should not get special breaks on their housing and the IRS should pursue violations in the churches with the same energy used to prosecute other violators. American Atheists are not asking for special privileges for non-believers, just equal ones. The American Atheists is not about making more Atheists but supporting, protecting, and building community for those who have come to Atheism on their own. The growth of the non-believers in this country, especially among the younger generations, is staggering and will pay big dividends in the future. Dave’s commitment to community and cooperation among the other secular and non-theist organizations is evident when looking at the attendance at the Godless March on Washington in 2002 and the Reason Rally in 2012. In just ten years attendance at a Washington D.C. event grew from 2500 in 2002 to over 30,000 in 2012. The Reason Rally showed the world that the various secular organizations could cooperate and come together to make a statement to the country that won’t soon be forgotten.

The speakers of the 2014 American Atheists convention came from a wide variety of backgrounds with diverse messages. This year there was a football punter (Chris Kluwe) and a winner from the Survivor television show (Denise Stapely). There were also speakers representing the LGBT and Black Atheists Communities. Speakers included popular podcasters and our very own Secular State Representative Juan Mendez. Several podcasts were performed live during the conference…and I had my first experience with gender neutral bathrooms at a national convention.

Aside from the formal presentations, there were plenty of diversions. There were VIP dinners, an award dinner, a comedy night, a new film screening, and a blasphemous costume event that ended with Karaoke. Salt Lake City isn’t the best city for pub crawls but a few of us broke away for some crowded bars and weak (3.2%) beer.

In short, I had a great time and I’m looking forward to the next one in Memphis.

 

 

 

Posted in American Atheists, Atheist Action | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Poem: The shame of religion

Posted on April 23, 2014 by AZAtheist

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is another poem from the Reverend Andy.

The shame of religion

What do we stand for, what do we seek?
Power and wealth to bring the world to its feet
When did we turn, what evil did bite us
True humanity, is not what we stand for.

We were born pure, and full of promise
Now a road of no hope we do travel
Religion programmed us and did it well
It showed us how to walk, the road to hell

Tell us of the human spirit, we asked
They replied with eyes that glowed with evil delight
Don’t think, don’t worry, just follow our plan
Only our god can lead you to the Promised Land

Years, later nothing is better
We worship in a world full of, hate, power and greed
To spend our time killing each other, at our own speed
My god is the one the only excuse we need.

Open your, hearts, open your minds
Awaken the true human spirit, and teach us to be kind
Light the torch of humanity, so that we all can see
And banish the darkness of religion, for all of eternity

Rev Andy

Posted in Guest Post, Poem, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Skeptic’s Look at a Skeptic Blog

Posted on April 16, 2014 by AZAtheist

Skeptic Word Cloud

This blog is also about Skepticism. My friend, Kitty, publishes a blog the Yankee Skeptic. She publishes guest posts on occasion. In fact, she’s published a couple of my blogs on her site. She’s such a nice lady and kind to a fault. Most recently she posted a blog entry from one of her friends, Jon Claflin: Guest Post – Is the Modern Skeptical Movement Actually Necessary? If you click on the highlighted text, you should be directed to the Yankee Skeptic and the entry posted on April 13, 2014.

The short answer to the question is “yes, the modern Skeptical movement IS actually necessary” but the author makes an attempt, albeit a very poor attempt, at showing that it isn’t. His article makes clear that the movement IS necessary. Jon doesn’t understand the mechanics of Skepticism. His article is full of weak support, faulty logic, and logical fallacies. It starts with a faulty premise and builds to an unsupported conclusion. He states that talks and lectures on Skepticism are a waste of time and resources that could be better used in doing the actual work of Skepticism. According to Jon Claflin, “That’s how it was done in the past.”

According Jon’s bio, which he included at the end of his article, he’s a 51 year old self-taught Skeptic with a GED certificate and no college. He is an experienced comedy writer and currently working for an insurance company. He’s a Blues guitarist, Agnostic, a husband, father, and grandfather. Why would I mention his bio? Every day we are faced with new information and part of the process of critical thinking is to consider the source particularly when we are evaluating opinion and Jon’s article is an opinion piece. Each bit of information in the bio helps me decide how much value I should assign to the opinion. Nowhere in his bio or in his blog post is there any indication that Jon has attended any of the “modern Skeptic” activities that he denigrates.

His article begins:

“Think back for a moment and consider the social and scientific climate in the 1940’s America. I think that it’s fair to say that during and since that time, many erroneous (unscientific) ideas and unscrupulous claims have been successfully tackled and (last I checked) science almost always prevails. The interesting thing is that a vast majority of these erroneous ideas were defeated without the aid of a ‘Skeptical movement.’ I find this fascinating and curious.”

Jon is 51 years old. He obviously has no personal experience with the social and scientific climate of the 1940’s America. I agree that many erroneous and unscientific ideas were beat by science. It’s obvious, however, that many of the erroneous and unscientific ideas survived the 40’s and subsequent decades and are here with us today. Science doesn’t always win. Homeopathy is still around and has been around for over 200 years. The Marks family and other charlatans have been scamming people out of money for decades. People believe in UFO’s, ghosts, Bigfoot, therapeutic touch, and worldwide flood stories undeterred by science and the efforts of the “working scientists.”

It’s clear that Jon doesn’t consider the positive aspects of the “modern Skeptical movement.” He specifically doesn’t appreciate the value of, “…boat cruises, political activists, glamorous dinner events, expensive hotel seminars, meet & greet events, paid lectures, pub meetings, and book tours.” Each and every one of these activities is useful and beneficial to promote skepticism. Boat Cruises allow very close interaction between amateur and professional Skeptics and they help fund organizations such as JREF (James Randi Education Foundation.) The JREF in turn provides resources for Skeptics and educational scholarships. The dinner events serve much the same purpose. They are fund raisers and a chance for interchanges of ideas. Seminars create an environment of camaraderie and allow educators, researchers, and those interested in improving their own critical thinking skills access to others working in a wide variety of disciplines. Lectures and book tours are the engine of the movement. Both get the information out directly to the public and people writing books need people to buy them.

Jon didn’t use a single specific example. An example to illustrate my point, the JREF was instrumental in exposing the fraud that contributed to the death of hundreds of people in the Middle East. The ADE 650 was being sold as a bomb detecting device in Iraq. It was no more than a modified novelty toy that was supposed to find golf balls. It didn’t work as a golf ball finder and it didn’t indicate where explosives were planted but the promoter sold them by the hundreds, made millions, and led to the injury and death of hundreds of civilians and soldiers. The JREF brought together the scientists that tested the device in the California Desert to the politically connected Skeptical communicators and played a key role in ending that fraud and saved hundreds of people. Fraud charges were brought against the promoters and they have been sentenced to prison terms. Unfortunately, a patent for the fraudulent devices was issued recently in Romania. The pseudoscience “rubber ducks” keep returning to the surface and we need every tool at our disposal to get the word out.

I’m not buying Jon’s argument. The Skeptical movement may have some problems but it isn’t hurting society and making it easier for the purveyors of pseudoscience. Program’s like the Myth Busters and Bill Nye the Science Guy are also part of the movement and they work across the board from the young to the old to make science and Skepticism fun and exciting. Penn and Teller’s BS program ran for 7 seasons and covered a lot of Skeptical ground. A program that runs that long shows the effort is being appreciated and that we’re better for the experience of being exposed to it.

There is a lot more that I can say but this blog entry is already long. The bottom line is that Jon Claflin is entitled to his opinion but if he wants others to share his opinions, he has to make a more compelling case. He should continue on his effort to learn about Skepticism and truly educate himself on the basic mechanics of the process. If he can’t do it alone, there are groups such as JREF, the Skeptics Society, and local Skeptics Meetup.com groups that can help.

Posted in Skepticism | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment