Last weekend, I attended the sixth annual Skepticon. Loads of fun! PZ Myers gave a talk ripping creationist claims about the Cambrian explosion to shreds (incidentally, our own Smilodon’s Retreat has been blogging about the same issue, as here, here and here).
David Fitzgerald hosted an event where we watched the documentary (available on youtube here) “Sophia investigates the Good News Club” which is all about a fundamentalist group that infiltrates public schools to push its beliefs on kids (apparently children are a better group for conversion, since they haven’t developed the critical reasoning abilities that would make them able to see the craziness of Christian fundamentalism). Most surprising to me was that even many Baptists and theologians have spoken out against this group.
I was given a copy of Ray Comfort’s latest propaganda against science, “God Vs. Evolution,” which I might blog about. The conversations I had with the evangelists at Skepticon were pretty revealing: as usual, the ones I talked to had never read even a single book about the evidence for evolution, and one even said he didn’t want to “take anyone’s word” for the evidence, as if believing what tens of thousands of biologists tell us is equivalent to believing what a handful of provably dishonest preachers like Ray Comfort. I only wish they’d apply their own method of “not taking anyone’s word” for it when it comes to what the Bible says! I may write a blog post refuting “God Vs. Evolution” though I fear it might be a waste of time: the only people who will read it will be those who already know that it is full of baloney.
David Fitzgerald gave a hilarious talk on the morality of the Bible, and I’ll be sure to post the link to that video whenever it comes out (probably in December or January). In the meantime, check out the videos from previous Skepticons at Hambone’s youtube channel.
