CORI’s letter to the editor in response to Dr. Phillip DeMio appears in today’s Dispatch.
The article was edited, which I expected, and the three references I sited were left out. Here is the original version:
Over the past week or so, many skeptics online have probably seen the Telegraph UK’s report on the new film Creation, which is a biographical account of Charles Darwin’s life and, specifically, his crisis of faith. The claim made by the Telegraph report, sourced from comments by the film’s producer, is that the film has no US distribution because of mainstream America’s religiously-based aversion to Darwin. Now, maybe it’s just because I’m a resolute film snob and know way too much useless information about the film industry – but I didn’t buy that as the real reason. And so I looked into it.
For those of you who have not noticed, there’s a new skeptical podcast in town. A couple other CORI members and I have launched CORICast, and you can get it at http://ohioskeptic.com/podcast, or subscribe via your favorite MP3 player at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/coricast. Please give us your feedback on CORICast either at the webste or email us at coricast@gmail.com. You can also follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/coricast.
Talk with you later!
-David.
*This is a post from a new blog made by Jeni, Kim C, and me. Please wander over and check us out at negativentropy.*
My husband and I packed up the kids a couple weeks ago and went to the Ohio State Fair. My favorite part of the fair–aside from the fried food and rides–is the marketplace building. They sell all sorts of wacky things, and I love walking up and down the aisles seeing all the weird stuff. This year I saw something particularly weird: a booth selling Ionic Foot Detox Baths.
This is a combination of two posts written by Jonathan Weyer, a SkeptiCamp 2009 presenter, for his blog The Thomas Society. With his permission, I’m reposting them here for the OhioSkeptic.com audience. Please visit Jonathan’s blog for more writing!
PZ Myers and the Love of the Natural World
So, I got to meet the (in)famous PZ Myers this weekend. As has been said on on numerous blogs, he is a much nicer guy in person than on his blog. I liked him.
As many of you know, I recently took a bit of a last-minute opportunity to dash off to Las Vegas and attend The Amazing Meeting 7, the annual conference of the James Randi Educational Foundation. Due to time restraints and other duties (like being a bridesmaid), I didn’t have the chance to engage much with the conference sessions and workshops. But I still took away from TAM a clearer understanding of something I think I’ve been trying to define here in central Ohio for the past year or so – namely, what exactly it means to be a skeptic community.
Much as I’d like the title here to refer to dancing at our last Drinking Skeptically event, we’re talking about ghosts, the people who experience them, and those who hunt them for a living. My own experience with ghost hunting on a personal level was rather unremarkable, or at least, the explanation proved to be. I was away at college, which was my first time living away from home. I thought it might be a fun idea to do some exploring at night around the campus area, and get the ‘lay of the land’ so to speak.
I decided on a likely site a short walk away from campus proper. The President’s house was being remodeled, and had basically been gutted for the purpose. Being either courageous or stupid, I wandered over to the construction site. The first thing I noticed was that I felt a little cold and unnerved, but I figured, “Hey, it’s a spooky looking place. Just got to shake off the nerves.” I walked up to where the front door was supposed to be, and, placing a hand on either side of the frame, leaned inside to begin surveying the room. (This will be important in a minute.)
What happened next is a bit blurry, of course, but as best as I can remember, I had the sensation of a hand, grabbing me by the chest, and shoving me backwards with an almost audible “Oooooouuuuuut!” The command seemed to come from inside my head, rather than to my ears. I didn’t pause to ask why, but had run halfway across campus before remembering to breathe. I spent almost the entire night, wide awake, both afraid to sleep and trying to figure out what happened. Read more
Whew. What a Saturday. 
I arrived at SkeptiCamp Ohio around 11:30 or so, with my daughter, ‘E’, in tow. She was going to attend the Camp Quest mini-session that day. We were obviously early, but Kim and Amanda were very welcoming and E immediately set about playing. I did check in on her once or twice during the day, and each time, she was having so much fun, that I ended up trying to leave her alone. I was hoping she would learn at least one new thing today as a result of Camp Quest. On the way back to the car we had this conversation:
E: We played dinosaurs outside today.
D: Ah, is that what you were doing out there… how did you play ‘dinosaur’?
E: Well we went through the bushes looking for things to eat. Some of us ate leaves and plants, and some of us ate meat.
D: (guessing where this was going). Ok. What do you call a dinosaur that eats plants? A Herbivore, or a Carnivore?
E: A Herbivore.
D: And if it eats meat?
E: A Carnivore! (Said with a kind of hungry growl).
Mission accomplished, there. Thanks to Amanda, August, and all the Camp Quest volunteers for not only helping to keep our kids safe and happy for the afternoon, but to help them grow just a little bit. Read more
Last night, I was talking with my wife, and she pointed out a bumper sticker that her father had just purchased. “See, they include science.”, she said, knowing that I am both an Atheist, and a cheerleader for science.
My initial reaction was pleased, then as I thought about it, I became a little irked. “The problem I have with that…”, I said, “…is that science is not a religion. It’s a totally separate thing, and shouldn’t be included in that list. I’ve seen that bumper sticker before, where the I was the Humanist symbol. That would make more sense. But to include science in a list of religions is wrong.” Read more
Last month I drove Michael Shermer down to the Creation Museum for a little visit. It was quite the interesting trip.
(Click above for more pictures!)
While down there, we recorded a short interview between him and Georgia Purdom, their PhD scientist. It’s really hard to sit there and film, and not say anything.
