Reason to Believe

[cbish]

And we often wonder why scientific illiteracy exists.

I just returned from the NSTA (National Science Teacher) convention in Seattle where these people had a booth.

http://www.reasons.org/index.shtml

There tactic was pretty subtle. They had a bunch of current scientific books like Eligant Universe etc. to get your attention to stop by, then flood you with a bunch of pamphlets. I find this tactic commonplace--surround the pseudoscience/nonscience with real science.

On the first day, it was pretty confrontational. By the second day, they were the loneliest booth there. If nothing else, it's good comedy.

 

[Eos of the Eons]

LOL! I can't believe they had the nerve to put a booth up and ambush people THERE of all places. Yeah, well, I do believe they had the nerve. Those people seem to feel very empowered lately.

Hey, any really memorable confrontations you can treat us to?

 

[Bruce]

Hypocrites! You are both hypocrites!

Go to the bookstore and ask for one of James Randi's books. Where do they send you? They send you to the psychic and paranormal section. Randi's Flim-Flam book will be nestled snugly between Energy From Crystals and Ghost, Ghouls, and Spirits.

If skeptics can try to sneak skepticism into the paranormal crowd, then the woo-woo's can try to sneak ignorance into the science crowd. It's only fair.

 

[Eos of the Eons]

I won't even dignify that with an ....

Oh never mind!

 

[cbish]

Eos wrote:

Hey, any really memorable confrontations you can treat us to?

Well, that's what caught my attention. When I approached the booth, they had some books up top. I saw Brian Greene's, The Elegant Universe there so I started to mill around. As I was doing this, next to me was a man who appeared to be in a heated discussion with the vendor. Just short of shouting, they were getting into it. Then I looked at the pamphlets on the table and the logo on the vendors shirt and I figured it out.

I thought about going back the next day and sparring with them but decided it was pointless. I've found this type of discussion usually leads to them making some outrageous point of circular logic that I can't respond. I don't think that quickly.

In browsing the website (not that I spent alot of time there) it seems to me that it is a typical fundamentalist website. There mission statement claims that science and religion can be compatable. However, if you thumb through their articles, they're about how science is wrong or flawed. Typical!