Skeptics in the Pub Winchester hosts a guest speaker on the last Thursday of every month. Skeptics in the Pub exists to provide an opportunity for people who are interested in science, skepticism, rationalism and critical thinking to socialise and discuss matters of interest.
The meetings are open to all regardless of beliefs and each month’s talk will be followed up with a challenging Q&A session and social. Winchester SitP is part of a national and global network of SitP events and is organised by the Hampshire Skeptics Society.
The Hampshire Skeptics Society is a non-profit organisation for the promotion of science, reason and critical thinking, humanism and a secular life.
When?
Thursday, July 31 2014 at 7:30PM
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Where?
Winchester Discovery Centre
Winchester Discovery Centre
Jewry Street
Winchester
SO23 8SB
Who?
Jonny Scaramanga
What's the talk about?
Jonny Scaramanga attended a fundamentalist Christian school in the ’90s where he learned that the Loch Ness Monster disproved evolution, God disapproved of the NHS, and homosexuals were an abomination to God. He has since discovered that almost all he learned at school was wrong.
In his talk, Jonny will give an insight to what life is like in an Accelerated Christian Education school and about what students learn in these schools today. There are sixty of these fundamentalist institutions in the UK, which teach Young Earth Creationism as fact. The Bible is taught as an infallible authority, and alternative viewpoints are not discussed or even considered. Jonny also makes some suggestions about what we should do when the parent’s right to freedom of religion conflicts with the child’s right to a sound education.
Jonny is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Education, where he is researching student experiences in Britain’s 50 Accelerated Christian Education schools. He has written for the Guardian, the Times Education Supplement, New Humanist, and Liberal Conspiracy. His broadcast appearances include BBC Radio 4, BBC2, BBC local radio, and Channel 4′s 4Thought TV.
Jonny’s blog is Leaving Fundamentalism and you can follow him on Twitter @JonnyScaramanga.
Ongoing Adventures in the World of Pseudoscience
When?
Thursday, August 28 2014 at 7:30PM
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Where?
Winchester Discovery Centre
Winchester Discovery Centre
Jewry Street
Winchester
SO23 8SB
Who?
Michael Marshall
What's the talk about?
It’s easy to think of pseudoscience existing in a glass case at a museum – something to be examined and critiqued from a safe distance, but not something to touch and to play with. Using examples taken from his own personal experiences in skepticism, Michael Marshall will show what happens when you begin to crack the surface of the pseudosciences that surround us – revealing the surprising, sometimes-shocking and often-comic adventures that lie beneath.
Michael Marshall is the Vice President of the Merseyside Skeptics Society and Project Director of the Good Thinking Society. He regularly speaks with proponents of pseudoscience for the Be Reasonable podcast. His work with the MSS has seen him organising international homeopathy protests and co-founding the popular QED conference. He has written for the Guardian, The Times and New Scientist.