Tomfoolery Blog

Archive for the ‘creationism’ Category

It’s been shrouded in mystery for some time, but the QED conference, a joint venture of the Merseyside Skeptics Society and the Greater Manchester Skeptic Society, has made itself fully public. The first of th speakers have been announced, and oh boy, is it exciting!

I’m most looking forward to the visit of Eugenie C Scott. In case you need telling, she is the Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) over in the States, the author of this fantastic introduction to the evolution/creationism “controversy”, and she has been at the forefront of the science versus religion battle for decades. She is an excellent speaker, and many videos of her talks are available on youtube.

Also announced are Jon Ronson, the man behind “The Men Who Stare At Goats” (and not responsible for the propagation of the dreadful song “Valerie”), science documentary maker Jim Al-Khalili, psychology Professor Bruce Hood, and “Science of Scams” co-host Kat Akingbade. The event will be compared by George Hrab.

The QED conference (which I’m already nicknaming “Smugfest”) will run from February 5th-6th at the Manchester Ramada Piccadilly. Tickets are only £99, or just £75 for students. Less than half the price of TAM London tickets, and no comic books in sight!

I’m so excited by this, if I wasn’t at work I’d be doing a little leprechaun dance!

Given its very public nature, Youtube has become something of a hotbed for both creationists and scientists to portray their views on evolution. One of my favourite youtube-ers goes by the handle of AronRa. His videos are clear, concise, very well thought out and fantastically delivered. He’s also got one of those voices which would sound good reading the phone book (for comparison, I would put Stephen Fry in that category).

For me, AronRa’s series ‘The Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism’ is compulsive viewing. Here is episode 1, ‘Evolution = Atheism’. Enjoy!