Reading Skeptics

is a place for atheists, agnostics (maybe), humanists, secularists, rationalists, freethinkers, clearthinkers, Brights, scientists, geeks, xkcd-ninjas and other skeptics/sceptics in the Reading area to meet, socialise and put the world to rights.

Pastafarians will be grudgingly tolerated as long as they get the drinks in.

When and where are we meeting?

When: On the third Tuesday of each month, 7:00-9:30pm. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday 17th August 2010. This will be in the middle of the summer holidays season so may be a little sparsely attended.

Where: At the Global Cafe at RISC, 35-39 London Street, Reading (Berkshire, UK) RG1 4PS (MultiMap).

Our last meeting on 15th June saw another good turnout and some lively discussions, some of it even on skeptical topics :-).

You can email us directly, and/or you can join our mailing list by filling in your details at this web page or by sending an email.

Why?

Because at a time when

religious fundamentalist dogma and snake-oil medicine masquerade as science,
serious science writers are assaulted with ruinous law suits from well-heeled organisations of those they criticise,
the government ignores its own scientific expert advisors and then sacks their leader for speaking out in protest,
children are brought up to accept as fact whatever they receive on handouts in school lessons or see on TV,
almost daily, somewhere in the world, young men and women strap explosives onto their bodies and kill themselves along with their 'enemies' of different religions, believing that they will be rewarded in a heavenly afterlife,

– those of us swimming against the tide of irrationality and inhumanity, our still-small voices crying out in the wilderness to our fellow humans, are by nature free-thinkers and non-conformists, do not go by any one label, speak with one voice, or even generally meet together.

This group gives us an opportunity to at least meet like-minded people for a few hours of an evening, once a month or so.

What is a Skeptic?

or even a sceptic!

Almost by definition someone who would question any attempt at definition such as this! But they may be people who think that:

just because big pharmaceutical companies abuse the scientific research process to get drugs of dubious efficacy and safety approved for sale doesn't make Homeopathy, Chiropractic, Acupuncture or any other 'complementary' or 'alternative' therapy effective,
just because alternative therapies may be snake-oil doesn't make all conventional medicine safe and effective,
just because UFOs are Unidentified doesn't make them alien spacecraft,
just because you can't disprove the existence of god(s) doesn't prove his/their existence.

But skeptics aren't cynics: indeed we may be better able to appreciate with awe and wonder the beauty of our world and everything in it, and the universe we are such a miniscule part of, than those who imagine that it was all made for us by some old guy with a beard up in the sky.

And a skeptic is likely to be a bit – well, sceptical – when someone calls themself a "climate change skeptic", an "HIV/AIDS skeptic" or a "Holocaust skeptic" since denialists — those who adopt entrenched positions contrary to well-established evidence — call themselves "skeptics" to convey an aura of open-mindedness and suggest that they are lone voices speaking out against Establishment Conspiracies.

When and where are we meeting?

Why?

What is a Skeptic?

or even a sceptic!

Links