Alpha Skeptic

A Blog Post by Patrick Redmond

A friend invited me to attend the Alpha Course talk he was giving. I’d originally met him after downloading a podcast of a sermon he’d given on why it was more logical to believe in God that not to. I’d sent him a three page response outlining what I thought of his arguments and why. He in turn asked me out for a beer. Damn, somebody must’ve tipped him off as to my weak spot. We met and had a surprisingly enjoyable evening of drink and argument.

Despite being what you might call a solid atheist I tend to avoid starting religious arguments with people that believe. There is often that uncomfortable point when the person tells you that it is only because of their faith that they got over some traumatic event in their life, that without God they would not be there now and that without their friends in the church they would be lost. For all that I believe it I find that saying something along the lines of “oh, but a rational outlook on life free from superstition can be

Humanist Heritage

Hamish MacPherson of www.humanistheritage.org.uk

We often hear how Britain has a Christian heritage. That is certainly true and whether we are Christian or not I think it's important to understand and appreciate that history. But we also have a long tradition of non-religious thinking.  Many people in the United Kingdom and Ireland have made great contributions - as humanists, freethinkers, sceptics and secularists - to the arts, science, philosophy and fighting for democracy, equality and freedom.

That is why I wanted to create http://www.humanistheritage.org.uk/ - a website for people to explore the vital contribution of those people to our collective heritage. Whether it’s mathematician Alan Turing who spent his genius working for Britain during the Second World War despite a lifetime of persecution, or novellist Joseph Conrad (who wrote “Scepticism is the tonic of mind, the tonic of life, the agent of truth. It is the way of art and salvation.)”

With the support of the British Humanist Association (BHA) and a number of knowledgeable volunteers we've tried to

Princess

A blog post by Tulpesh Patel

I started writing a review of “Princess”, a biography of a Saudi princess written by Jean Sasson, but, as the Lord does indeed move in mysterious ways, something happened at work very shortly after that prompted me to also turn this into a blog post.

First the book. Princess recounts the life of Saudi Princess, Sultana, from childhood in the 60s to her own motherhood in the 90s. It was lent to my wife by a friend, I casually started reading the blurb and found it so engrossing I was a couple of hundred pages in before I realised the time. This book is one of the most brutal things I’ve ever read and I can say with complete sincerity, unputdownable.
Sultana tells of ritual and absolute oppression by the men of the household and wider society. The men hold untold wealth and absolute power, able to deny or cover up their own offence or justify any/all behaviour as that sanctioned or encouraged by their faith or tradition. The women are denied education (save for reciting the Koran); forced

Fluence and the Machine

A blog post by James Cole aka @jdc325

At the recent talk by Andy Lewis at Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub, I saw a demonstration of an odd machine.

Here's a picture of Andy's magneto-electric therapy machine:

While looking for more information on this odd machine, I found

Skeptics on the Fringe

A post by Patrick Redmond

In case you were unaware we are less than two weeks away from one of the most ambitious skeptical projects you will probably ever come across. Edinburgh Skeptics on the Fringe goes live from Saturday August 7^th all the way to August 28^th. Be assured that this is an incredibly impressive undertaking with three entertaining and educational strands and the promise of even more.


Here’s my promotional bit:

The Fringe of Reason is 6.00pm every

Why England Lose by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski (Reprinted as Soccernomics) - A Book Review and More

A Blog Post by @christheneck

Many years ago I came up with something I call “pessimistic optimism”. I hope for one particular result or another, but presume that it won't happen. If the result happens I'm happy; if not I was right. I can't lose. I'm told this is an unhealthy way to think however as a lifelong Aston Villa fan it has served me very well.

Although I would have liked England to win the 2010 World Cup my suspicions that the hype surrounding England's qualification had little solid foundation were confirmed firstly by this book and of course secondly by the results. England lost. (I guess that means I won, doesn't it?).

I first came across this book, written by an economist and a sports journalist, when it was featured on Tim Harford's BBC Radio 4 programme, More or Less . It intrigued me. So many reasons why decisions are made in football have been beyond me and I wanted some answers. Why does no-one care about the F.A. Cup any more? Why does the referee keep playing until Manchester United score? Why is someone who scores in a World Cup suddenly more valuable? And why Emile Heskey?

These questions along with many more are answered in full, predominantly with background and source based and statistical evidence with credible (and credited) origins. All except the Heskey one – no-one knows. Pre-tournament I tried to counter the “Play Heskey because, although he doesn't score, Rooney plays better” argument with the fatuous example of “Play someone who can't stop a shot/cut off a pass/mark a striker next to Terry so he plays better” and then Upson came along and Terry fell apart too. I digress.

There are many fun parts to the book. There is an explanation of how Chelsea could have won the 2008 European Cup Final penalty shoot out against Manchester United in Moscow if only Nicolas Anelka had listened to his economist. You will find which is the most football mad country in the world, why the best investment a club makes could be buying a box of Rice Krispies and why Alex Ferguson probably doesn't matter.

The authors deconstruct the myths of football as big business, the benefits of high priced players, the necessity of a manager getting anywhere near the bank book, and the idea that the dominance of the big 4 (or is it now 3) is a “bad” thing. From a skeptical point of view it is amusing to see so may questions of “Why is it done like this?” answered with “Because that's the way we've always done it.”

More serious issues are covered regarding the battle against racism toward black players in this country and when monetary equality was finally reached (a lot later than you may think) and which sections of society are currently still excluded, whether footballing successes or failures affect suicide rates and whether the shared happiness of a nation hosting a tournament can make up for the horrendous costs of hosting one.

Amongst these many other things it shows, in detail, that the results England achieved in South Africa were not poor but all too predictable and that the new resurgence under Fabio Capello was nothing of the sort. See Tim Harford's short blog on this.

I would recommend this book as both informative, readable and fun but with the following reservation. As in many things skeptical it will be difficult, nigh impossible, to discuss its contents with anyone down the pub who knows anything about football. They won't believe a word of it.

Chris Richardson is a skeptic, atheist, musician, cook, gardener, and sci-fi and comedy nerd who lives in Staffordshire.

Book Swap Proposal and Quirkology Review

A blog post by Tulpesh Patel

I’m a hoarder at the best of times, but I’m even more precious when it comes to books. It’s always been a dream to have my own personal library, big enough that I would need a ladder to climb the shelves. As time’s gone on, The Origin of Species aside, I’ve realized that there are just too many books in the world to spend time reading any of them twice. I’m slowly coming to realize that reading, thinking about and discussing books is more important than having colorful stacks of paper on a shelf. To that end, I’ve become a huge fan of book swapping schemes and I think it would be a great idea to get something like that going for everyone involved in the Birmingham SITP.

For those new to it, book swapping is quite simply a way to share books that you’ve read and pick up one’s you haven’t for free. They usually centre around a communal box or shelf, but they can be set up anywhere where there is a pool of people who enjoy reading. It was “Book Crossing”: that first got me interested in freecycling books and since then I’ve been a regular contributor and beneficiary of the book swap scheme at my “local train station”: (I must have swapped over 20 books over the last year or so), and I’ve campaigned unsuccessfully (and I admit only intermittently) for a book swap to be started at Aston - the box posing a fire hazard and it not being ‘in keeping with the university aesthetic’ are two of my favorite reasons to be rebuffed so far.

With public book swap schemes you’re relying on the kindness of strangers and the hope that people don’t just use it to dump their old Jackie Collins’, although one man’s trashy romance novel is of course another’s literary getaway. Hosting a Birmingham SITPbookswap will be a chance to swap books of a scientific/skeptical bent. Of course, because the scheme won’t be public in the same way as at a train station, the swaps needn’t be permanent, and people can arrange between themselves to lend books out and get them back as they wish.

Given that the regular monthly meetings are already packed with great speakers, it might be an idea to hold a separate event which would make things closer to a traditional book club. It might also be an idea to post reviews of books that people have read, so that even if you don’t have the book to swap and can’t make the meetings, people can still read recommendations and participate in the scheme more generally. I’d like to kickstart things with a quick review of Richard Wiseman’s “Quirkology”: http://www.quirkology.com/UK/index.shtml, which loosely ties in with the talk (‘The psychology of anomalous experiences’ with Professor Chris French on July 14) and is a book I’m happy to donate to a new home.

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Quirkology by Richard Wiseman

Quirkology is in a way the perfect book swap book as it’s really interesting but I’m unlikely to want to read it again anytime soon. It’s one of the better collections of pop-psychology books stuffing shelves (or Amazon warehouses) at the moment, largely down to Richard Wiseman's obvious love of the work and direct involvement in some of the studies.

There are a number of retreads of studies that you'll have come across if you've read any other pop-psychology (Milgram etc.) but it's a great gateway to some of the methods and fallacies in psychological research, written in an easy, accessible style. ‘Believing six impossible things before breakfast’ is a great, if slightly disconcerting, chapter on the psychology of superstition. The search for the world's funniest joke is probably the highlight and the worldwide eradication of FTSE-itis is very clever, taking full self-knowing advantage of the psychology that fills some of the book.

It’s a good book to dip in an out of, written by a psychologist who’s doing a lot to make science and psychology fun and engaging.

Tulpesh Patel is a Neurosciences PhD student at Aston University working in collaboration with the Birmingham Children's Hospital. He is also founder and Chair of the Aston Humanist Society.