As of today I have finally, at long last, locked down a date for Skepticon II (see videos of Skepticon I
here). It will be on Nov. 20-21 on the Missouri State campus - admission will be free!
Our current line up is
PZ Myers,
Richard Carrier,
Rebecca Watson (you can read my exchange with her
here),
Dan Barker, and
DJ Grothe. Local presenters will include Dr. Mark Richter and
myself. I also intend, over the next week, to go after
The Friendly Atheist,
Joe Nickell, and possibly
Massimo Pigliucci (who has already consented to come if I want him). If fund-raising goes better than I can imagine (and to quote perhaps the most famous of swashbucklers, "I can imagine quite a bit"), I'll even go after Phil Plait.
So, what can you do to help? First, send a friend request to
Skepticon on facebook and tell your friends to do likewise (repost this on your blog and rec this entry if you really want to go the extra mile
). Also, you can join the
Skepticon II cause on facebook. The
event page is now up on facebook too! Join up and invite your friends! Starting in late August, I am going to bust my ass to raise additional money for this event, and having as many people associated with both those pages as possible will help.
Also, do you have a skill you think could help us out? Let me know! I can't pay you, but there will be a banquet for the speakers and staff, and I could get you into that.
The event will likely be co-sponsored by the
CFI, and is already in affiliation with the
Secular Student Alliance (which is providing us with Dan Barker). Events like this are very rare in this part of the country, and this one only comes with a tremendous amount of elbow grease from a dedicated few. Help us get the word out.
PS...you can all now join the
MSU Chapter of the Church of the FSM on facebook (I just made it global). Come to the loving folds of His Noodley Appendages. We also have a web page on the way.
Comments (31)
what is skepticon
@bukeshow - i second that. :\
I will mark my calendar. I hope the weather is good.
@thekeyhole - @bukeshow - The Skepticon events began in Fall of 2008 when PZ Myers and Richard
Carrier came to the MSU campus. This Fall, Skepticon II will build on
the success of the first.
The
speakers will provide many of the reasons that belief in god is not
only indefensible, but harmful to society as a whole along with
suggestions on how to combat it. They will also rebut many of the
common arguments in defense of belief in god and faith.
JT
I'm there.
@Zerowing21 - Not trying to offend but why do you try to disprove God so tenaciously. I'm starting to wonder if it even matters to argue for either side. I don't think most christians will ever stop believing and I don;t think most atheists ever will believe. There will be converts but I don't think there will be many from both sides.
@bukeshow - On why I do what I do, click here. In short, it's not that I'm opposing god exclusively, but lazy-thinking and bad reasoning in general. I do this because there are severe consequences for both on a societal level. Religion/faith just happens to be the most productive engine of unreason.
On our ability/inability to change minds, click here and here.
JT
@Zerowing21 - how old are you? your pretty sharp.
@bukeshow - Why do you ask?
JT
@bukeshow - I apologize...the first link on our ability to change minds above is a bad link. Click here to go to the page I was trying to link.
JT
@Zerowing21 - I was just wondering if your still a student.
@bukeshow - I am. For another year.
JT
@Zerowing21 - gotcha
@bukeshow - :D
JT
@Zerowing21 - I have a question. If you have time. Do you think Darwin in his theories about evolution is kind of racist. I know Darwin himself wasn't racist but his theories classified humans into superior and inferior races. I have people telling me i'm wrong.
@bukeshow - Have you read Origin?
JT
@Zerowing21 - I have. Basically I had someone tell me that the christian god was racist. i explained tht god was more likely refering to interreligious marriage's not interracial marriage. You probably won't agree but I explained that racism was more likely caused by Darwinism and his classification of humans. I also asked them to read about the founder of Planned Parenhood Margarot Sanger if they really wanted some intresting facts about racism.
@bukeshow - This will be too complicated and time-consuming for me to get into here. If you'd like to bring it up during our forthcoming blogalog, we can tackle it then. :)
JT
@Zerowing21 - damn i thought you forgot. I feel like Neo in the matrix everytime I think about the blogalog. It is time consuming but i have somewhat of a valid point wouldn't you think?
@bukeshow - Nope. :D
JT
@GodlessLiberal - Sweet.
@Zerowing21 - lmao
From the format I'm seeing this will probably be a silly question, but what is the age range?
I try to expose my child to havens of rationality whenever possible and take every opportunity granted to meet fellow parents for advice and to share experiences. However, it looks as if this conference is lecture based (for adults). Is this accurate?@MRPG33 - It will be lecture-based, but kids are welcome.
We will be giving out inflatable pirate swords, and DJ Grothe, Joe Nickell, and myself have all done magic professionally, and I know that I'd be willing to spend some time entertaining the kids. :)
JT
@Zerowing21 - That would totally rock. He will just be 7 by then. It would be great to meet more parents (and kids) there. Thank you for clarifying.