This Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in Caltech's Baxter Lecture Hall in Pasadena, California, Dr. Robert Pennock, a philosopher of science from Michigan State University and the author of the highly acclaimed (and Pulitizer Prize finalist) THE TOWER OF BABEL (copies will be available for purchase and signing), will be lecturing on the New Creationism--intelligent design, irreducible complexity, and all the new arguments that have mutated in the 1990s into this new and more sophisticated branch of the social movement. Pennock goes out of his way to be fair and reasonable in analyzing their arguments and giving a thorough overview of the people and the movement. Thus, creationists are certainly invited to attend (as they, along with anyone else we analyze at the Skeptics Society, always are at our events). There is a $5.00 donation at the door for members, $8.00 nonmembers (same prices as we have had since we began in 1992).
On Monday night, December 11, I'll be on ABC's Politically Incorrect show that comes on after Nightline in most markets. The subject is Jesus (it's their Xmas show) and they want a skeptical perspective. I am going to argue that outside of the New Testament there are almost no historical references to Jesus (e.g., in A.D. 120 the Roman historian Tacitus makes reference to "Christus" being persecuted by Pontius Pilate, but this could be anyone claiming to be the Messiah, and there were several who made such claims, such as Apollonius of Tyana), so it is entirely possible no such person even lived; but, giving believers the benefit of the doubt, assuming someone named Jesus lived, I shall argue (as I do in my book HOW WE BELIEVE) that he filled the "Messiah Myth" figure of redemption from oppression (Jews oppressed by the Roman government) and that the rest can be explained by principles from social psychology and sociology (group mind, mass hysteria, the psychology of cults becoming religions over time, etc.--Do you know the difference between a religion and a cult? About a hundred years--think Joseph Smith and the Mormons, who are already there, and L. Ron Hubbard and the Scientologists, who are half way there). The other guests include Saturday Night Live commedians Victoria Jackson and Julia Sweeney, and Christian singer Eron Nevel (sp?). Apparently Jackson is a Bible-totting hard-core believer, as is Nevel, whereas Sweeney, I'm told by the producers, is a big fan of Skeptic magazine and my books. So, it should be a reasonably balanced show and, hopefully, a lot of fun! Tune in.
1. I was going to write a review for you on the new DVD Cosmos by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan but ran out of time yesterday and forgot to delete that reference in the Subject heading. Sorry for the confusion. The new Cosmos is brilliantly remastered, especially on DVD and, amazingly, is still rather current. But more on that in a day or two. In the meantime, go to carlsagan.com to order and read more about it. They also have the remastered series on VHS tapes. It is simply stunning. PBS stations are airing a "best of" Cosmos around the country. Check your local listings. In L.A. it airs Monday night, the 11th. More later.
2. Many of you pointed out that the "Emmy" award is most likely trademarked and thus unusable for our Jr. Skeptic award name. We're looking into this further. Since it is inspired by Emily Rosa, maybe we'll just call it the "Emily" award. More later.