For those of you traveling to the Southern California area in the next six months, and/or for those of you who would like to attend out annual conference, please note the following dates and lecture/conference subject.
Please note the dates, speakers, and subject of our upcoming conference. It is really going to be a very special event this year. I hope you can make it. We have exactly 300 seats to fill and it will sell out (the last two years have been sell outs). We will be sending out an official registration flyer to everyone on our mailing list, plus I will post a more detailed description of the conference later this week, but if you are anxious to register, you can e- mail, phone (626/794-3119), fax (626/794-1301), or mail (P.O. Box 338, Altadena, CA 91001--make checks payable to Skeptics Society) in your registration fee (check or Visa or Mastercard). The price of the conference is an unbelievably low price of only $85.00 for Skeptics Society members and guests, $110.00 for nonmembers and guests, and you can sign up to be a member for only $25.00 (includes subscription to Skeptic magazine).
Sex. Violence. Scandal. These are words we rarely associate with the sacred text of the Bible. Yet in this brilliant lecture Jonathan Kirsch recounts shocking tales that have been suppressed by religious authorities throughout history. And he goes further in his analysis of the life of Moses. Did Moses really free his people from Egyptian enslavement or is this part of religious- origin myth-making? Why are there no Egyptian records of a slave revolt or of plagues or the massacre of first-born children? Indeed, did Moses even exist?
Jonathan Kirsch, a book columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the author of the critically acclaimed The Harlot by the Side of the Road and, more recently, Moses: A Life, writes and lectures widely on biblical, literary, and legal topics. He can be heard Monday nights from 6:00-7:00pm on KPCC, 89.3FM.
When scientists construct models to explain the phenomena and laws of nature, do those models actually simulate what's really out there in the world, or do they only synthesize the way we think the world is? And how does our cultural upbringing affect the way we think about the world? Against this backdrop Dr. Rothman considers such deeply meaningful questions as: Is the Universe Knowable? Is the World Symmetrical? Are Doubt and Certainty Complementary? Can We Learn Anything From Parallels Between Physics and Eastern Philosophy?
Dr. Tony Rothman, Professor of Physics at Illinois Wesleyan University, has written fiction, as well as several bestselling books, including A Physicist on Madison Avenue (nominated for the Pulitzer Prize), Frontiers of Modern Physics, The World is Round, and Instant Physics. His latest book, Doubt and Certainty, will be available for purchase and signing.
As all biblical scholars know, the Bible was written by a number of authors over a long time span, and later edited into the work of which we are all familiar. But now the renowned biblical sleuth and scholar, Richard Elliott Friedman, reveals for the fist time his most startling and revolutionary discovery: embedded within the Bible is a continuous narrative that had been sliced apart by ancient editors who interlaced it with other stories, laws, and poetry. Using a creative blend of scholarship and detective work, Dr. Friedman has joined together this story from the dawn of written history, what he calls the first prose masterpiece.
Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman is Professor of Hebrew and Comparative Literature and holds the Katzin Chair at the University of California, San Diego. He received his doctorate at Harvard and was a visiting scholar at Oxford and Cambridge. He is the author of The Hidden Face of God and the bestselling Who Wrote the Bible?
In Guns, Germs, and Steel Dr. Jared Diamond explored the evolutionary and historical fates of human societies to answer the question: Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? Now he considers the implications of his research for how human groups should be arranged, and what the future may hold for societies based on our evolutionary and cultural histories.
Dr. Jared Diamond is Professor of Physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine, a regular columnist for Discover and Natural History magazines, and the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize. His bestselling book, The Third Chimpanzee, won the Los Angeles Times prize for the best science book of the 1993. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and received a prestigious MacArthur Foundation fellowship.
Ever since Richard Dawkins introduced the term "memes" to describe idea replicators in culture, scientists have considered how memes propagate like genes. In this pathbreaking lecture based on her new book, Dr. Blackmore presents a theory of memetics to address this problem: Imagine a world full of brains, and far more memes than can possibly find homes. Which memes are more likely to find a safe home and get passed on again? Without a theory of evolution by memetic selection, says Dr. Blackmore, nothing in the world of the mind makes much sense.
Dr. Susan Blackmore is Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of the West of England. She is the author of The Adventures of a Parapsychologist, about her experiences in her scientific investigations of the paranormal, as well as Beyond the Body and Dying to Live, about out-of-body and near-death experiences. Her latest book, The Meme Machine, will be available for purchase and signing.
Plus: James "The Amazing" Randi and
Richard Milnar: "Charles Darwin--Live and in Concert"
Friday and Saturday
May 21-22, 1999
Speakers include: Dr. Niles Eldredge, Dr. Michael Ruse, Dr. Jack Horner, Dr. Eugenie Scott, Dr. Michael Shermer Plus: James "The Amazing" Randi Evening entertainment: Richard Milnar, "Charles Darwin: Live & in Concert" See separate flyer to register for the conference, or call 626/794-3119, fax 626/794-1301, e-mail skepticmag@aol.com, or register on our web page: www.skeptic.com (will be set up by Feb. 1). Price: $85.00 Skeptics Society members and guests; $110.00 nonmembers and guests (you can join the Skeptics Society for only $25.00--includes subscription to Skeptic magazine).
Sunday, June 13, 2:00 pm, Baxter Lecture Hall, Caltech
THE MUMMIES OF URUMCHI
The Mystery of Causians Living in Asia 4,000 Years Ago
Dr. Elizabeth Wayland Barber
In the wind-swept region of Western China a mysterious collection of 4,000-year-old mummies were discovered and found to be not Asian but Caucasoid=--tall and large-nosed and blond with thick beards and round eyes (probably blue). What were these blond Caucasians doing in the heart of Asia? Where did they come from and what language did they speak? Might they be related to a "lost tribe" of Indo-Europeans known from later inscriptions? As a consultanting scientist on the project, Dr. Barber gives her insights into this ancient, exotic, and nearly forgotten world.
Elizabeth Wayland Barber is the author of Prehistoric Textiles, Archaeological Decipherment, and the highly acclaimed Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years. Her latest book, The Mummies of Urumchi, will be available for purchase and signing. She teaches at Occidental College.