This Sunday begins our Fall lecture series at Caltech. For those of you not in the Southern California area I will be on a book tour in October (I'll post the cities in a couple of weeks with details) and will be presenting the first lecture below on the road. Some of you might be interested in coming to Pasadena in December for our big end of the world conference. It could very well be our final lecture ever....
P.S. It's probably too late for most of you by the time you get this e-mail, but I'll be on CNN's TALKBACK LIVE show today (Tuesday 9/21) from 3-4pm EST. Subject: Do all these earthquakes and floods and other natural disasters mean the end of the world is coming? If you can't watch it and are unsure of the answer, here it is: NO!
The Skeptics Society Presents
Dr. Michael Shermer On
WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE IN GOD
An Empirical Study on a Deep Question
The first public presentation of the data from a two-year study on why people believe in God, from Dr. Shermer's new book HOW WE BELIEVE: The Search for God in an Age of Science. Lecture and Signing.
The intellectual and spiritual quest to understand the universe and our place in it is at the core of religion and the belief in God. At the beginning of the 20th century social scientists predicted that belief in God would decrease by the end of the century because of the secularization of society. In fact, the opposite has occurred. Never in history have so many, and such a high percentage of the population, believed in God. To find out why, social scientist Dr. Michael Shermer has undertaken a monumental study of religion and the belief in God that includes the results of an exhaustive empirical study that asked 10,000 Americas why they believe. Among the startling findings is the fact that the number one reason people give for why they believe in God is the good design, natural beauty, and complexity of the world that compels most people to think that it could not have come about without an intelligent designer. This is, Shermer explains, because we live in the age of science where we all feel the need to "prove" our beliefs, even those that are inherently unprovable, which he argues is the whole point of having faith.
Michael Shermer is the publisher of Skeptic magazine and the director of the Skeptics Society. In addition to his new book, How We Believe, he is the author of Why People Believe Weird Things (W. H. Freeman) that was widely and positively reviewed and was on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list as well as nominated as one of the top 100 notable books of 1997. Dr. Shermer is also the host of Science Talk on Wednesdays from 6-7pm on KPCC, 89.3FM, the NPR affiliate for Southern California. According to Stephen Jay Gould: "Michael Shermer, as head of one of America's leading skeptic organizations, and as a powerful activist and essayist in the service of this operational form of reason, is an important figure in American public life."
2:00pm, Sunday, September 26, 1999
Baxter Lecture Hall, California Institute of Technology
Donation at the door: $5.00 members, $8.00 nonmembers. Parking free on the Caltech campus.
BOO!
In celebration of Halloween the Skeptics Society presents
THE CULTURE OF FEAR
Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things
Dr. Barry Glassner
Professor of Sociology, University of Southern California
Author, The Culture of Fear. Lecture and Signing.
Crime, drugs, minorities, teen moms, killer kids, mutant microbes, plane crashes, road rage. We are surrounded by threats to our well being. Or are we? In this eye-opening examination of a pathology that has swept the country, noted sociologist Barry Glassner reveals why Americans are burdened with overblown fears. He exposes the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our anxieties: politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime and drug use even as both are declining; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; TV newsmagazines that monger a new scare every week to garner ratings. Dr. Glassner thoroughly debunks many of the predominant scares of our age in this stimulating lecture.
Dr. Barry Glassner is Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California. He is the author of seven books, including Career Crash and Bodies. His skeptical observations of all manner of social and psychological phenomenon have appeared in magazines and newspapers including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Chicago Tribune.
2:00pm, Sunday, October 31, 1999
Baxter Lecture Hall, California Institute of Technology
Donation at the door: $5.00 members, $8.00 nonmembers. Parking free on the Caltech campus.
The Skeptics Society invites you to an afternoon in
Heaven
The Search for a Higher Plane From Dante to Cyberspace
Margaret Wertheim
Author, The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: A History of Space From Dante to the Internet
Lecture and Signing
In the Christian West, humans have always dreamt of a higher plane; of a perfect world that exists outside the physical realm where the pain and tribulations of daily life are erased by a brilliant utopian vision. This "higher" space is commonly known as Heaven. But with the rise of modern science, the concept of Heaven as a space apart from physical reality has frayed over the past 400 years as scientific discoveries have brought the heavens closer and closer. In the medieval era, Heaven could be conceived as a real place "beyond" the stars, but the findings of scientists have shown that the space of the physical universe is infinite and expanding, making the idea of an immaterial Heaven extremely problematic. In its stead, then, we have replaced Heaven with other "spaces," including the latest version in the Internet's cyberspace where many people are hoping this immaterial space will be a new home for the "spirit" or "soul," where one might even download one's mind into digital eternity, in a sci-fi fantasy of digital resurrection. Wertheim explores these and other fascinating ideas from her latest book.
Margaret Wertheim is a science writer and commentator whose articles have been published in magazines and newspapers around the world, including the New York Times, The Sciences, and New Scientist. She was the writer/presenter of the highly acclaimed PBS documentary Faith and Reason, and is the author of Pythagoras' Trousers, a history of the relationship between physics and religion in Western culture. She is a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History and lectures at universities and colleges around the country as one of the world's leading authorities on the science-religion debate.
2:00pm, Sunday, November 21, 1999
Baxter Lecture Hall, California Institute of Technology
Donation at the door: $5.00 members, $8.00 nonmembers. Parking free on the Caltech campus.
The Skeptics Society Presents its Final Lecture of the Millennium (or is it?):
Apocalypse When?
A Half-Day Symposium on Y2K, the Millennium, and the End of the World
By now everyone has heard the debate about when the millennium really ends--December 31, 1999 or 2000 (technically it's the latter because the first century only had 99 years so 100, 200 ... 2000 are the official ending years of each century, and 1000 and 2000 are the official ending years of each millennium). But everyone is gearing up for 1999 as the final year of the century and millennium, with planned events ranging from $2000 a night rooms in Las Vegas hotels over the final weekend (three-night minimum), to militia/end-times groups holed up in bomb shelters armed to the teeth awaiting the apocalyptic end of the world.
What will actually happen? Skeptics know that no biblical disaster will befall the planet, but what about Y2K? Are Americans as prepared as we should be? What about foreign countries who have no Y2K compliance codes in place? Even if computers don't bomb, will their owners explode in a mass hysteria of runs on banks and supermarkets? Will gun-toting extremists fire on a neighbor coming to borrow a cup of sugar? Will religious fanatics hasten the apocalypse through terrorist bombings here and abroad in volatile areas like Israel? What should each of us do in preparation? Should we stockpile cash, food, and water (if, for no other reason, because everyone else is doing it and we don't want to be left empty handed)?
To answer these questions, and more, we've assembled a panel of experts to give us the inside track on what is going on in the world of millennial, cult, and Y2K studies, and to offer their thoughts on the meaning of the millennium.
Dr. Stephen O'Leary
Professor, University of Southern California, Co-Founder, Center for Millennial Studies, Author of Arguing the Apocalypse Millennial Cults, Apocalyptic Fears, and Extremist Reactions to Y2K
Stephen O'Leary, one of the world's leading experts on apocalyptic and millennial groups, will present his 20 years of research, including his latest project of surveying thousands of millennial web cites.
Jon W. Fullinwider
Chief Information Officer, Los Angeles County, Y2K Compliance Expert Preparing for Y2K: What Has Been Done, What You Should Do
Jon Fullinwider, the Y2K compliance expert for Los Angeles County, will present what we know and do not know about what might or might not happen when the clock rolls over at midnight, December 31, and what his office is advising people to do for proper preparation.
Alex Heard
Editor, Wired Magazine, Author, Apocalypse Pretty Soon
Travels in End-Time America: The Lighter Side of the Millennium
Alex Heard, an award-winning writer for Wired, Outside, Slate, the New Republic, and the New York Times Magazine, will present the lighter side of the groups he personally met and interviewed in his research for his book on the apocalypse.
Closing remarks and reflections on the Millennium by
Dr. Michael Shermer
Director, Skeptics Society, Author, How We Believe, Why People Believe Weird Things
The Fire That Will Cleanse: The Apocalypse as a Destruction-Redemption Myth
Michael Shermer will offer some brief comments on what really happened in the year 1000, what might happen in 2000, and how the apocalypse fits into the larger pantheon of myths and stories about destruction and redemption.
Panel Discussion and Audience Q & A
Sunday, 1-5pm, December 12, 1999
Baxter Lecture Hall, California Institute of Technology
Donation at the door: $10.00 members, $15.00 nonmembers. Parking free on the Caltech campus.