13th European Skeptics Congress

Myksyk

Mods ... hope this is an appropriate thread here. I post it on the basis that almost half the speakers at this Congress are Psychologists (Forensic, Clinical, Experimental, Health) and thus may be of interest to posters here. There are also excellent speakers from related fields such as medicine, evolutionary biology, genetics and philosophy.

The 13th European Skeptics Congress is being hosted by the Irish Skeptics Society in Dublin in September this year.

You can register for the Congress on our site and see all the details of the weekend including a list of the speakers.

We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Valmont

I'm curious as to what a skeptic congress is about, do you just talk about current trends in science etc... that you are all skeptical about?

EDIT>
I read the information on your link, seems interesting enough. I never would have thought homeopathy a problem per se?

Myksyk

Hi Valmont. Yeah, the link is a better explanation than I could muster. Homoeopathy? That's probably a long debate not really relevant to this forum and has been discussed in detail on other forums. I'd suggest a trawl of the skeptical/scientific literature in that regard to view some of the arguments involved. It's pretty interesting and although you may not end up agreeing you'll be more informed on the debate perhaps.

In the broader scheme of things, my own position is that there are actually pretty important issues about anti-intellectualism and/or anti-science approaches to any number of topics which have serious implications for health, education, politics, social policy etc and what we fund, what we teach, what we believe. Examples range from claims made by religious fundamentalists about evolutionary biology and the subsequent implications for education policy and church/state divide (very hot topic in the States at present) to the funding of alternative health practices in the absence of or regardless of scientific findings. They may also include potentially dangerous claims made by the likes of historical revisionists/holocaust deniers to the less serious (although still potentially harmful) claims made by spiritualists and psychics etc. It's a wide playing field and only some part of the play may interest you or others but it is fascinating and worth spending some time and intellectual energy on ... at least I think so!!

Valmont

It's an interesting area, I'll make sure to read up a bit more. As a psychology student, I'm becoming privy to the fallibility of 'spiritual' and 'psychic' healing methods etc...

Myksyk

Update ...

Preparations for the 13th ECSO congress to be hosted by the Irish Skeptics Society are well under way and we are looking forward to a stimulating event from Friday Sept 7th to Sunday Sept 9th next.

The conference theme is “The assault on science: constructing a response” and we are delighted to have gathered together such an impressive lineup of national and international speakers. As well as presentations from ten invited speakers there will be a range of free papers that have been selected by the conference committee.

We were all deeply shocked and saddened by the recent sudden death of one of our keynote speakers, Barry Beyerstein. We are pleased however to announce that Barry’s wife Suzi and daughter Lindsay will attend the congress. Lindsay will present a paper on behalf of her Dad that will consider the distinctions between science and pseudoscience, a topic which greatly interested Barry and on which he intended to speak.

Dr Ben Goldacre, well known writer of the Bad Science column in the Guardian newspaper, is among the invited speakers and will receive the Robert P. Balles prize from the USA based Committee for Skeptical Inquiry at the congress.

Another invited speaker, Professor Vic Stenger, will present two papers. One will address the misrepresentation of quantum mechanics by alternative practitioners and “gurus” such as Deepak Chopra while the other will be based on his latest book “God: The Failed Hypothesis: how science shows that God does not exist” which was recently in the New York Times bestseller list.

Among the Irish presenters we are proud to have Professors John Crown and David McConnell and Dr Brian Hughes. They will consider challenges within medicine, genetics and health psychology respectively.

Professor Willem Betz from the University of Brussels will address the issue of CAM (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) propaganda with particular reference to attempts to influence the European Parliament and the World Health Organisation.

This is but a small sample of what to expect and a detailed programme with titles and abstracts will be published shortly.

We want this to be a successful and invigorating congress and look forward to lively presentations and debate. We will host an opening reception on the Friday evening and the congress dinner on Saturday evening. This is a great opportunity to hear and to meet prominent scientists and skeptics from across Europe and further afield and we would urge you to register as soon as possible to contribute, through your presence, to what is sure to be a memorable occasion.

Myksyk

Hi again guys. The full programme for the Congress is now up on our website. You won't often get such a diverse and erudite group of professionals (biologists, psychologists, geneticists, philosophers, ethicists, physicists, physicians) coming together to discuss science. We'd love to see you there so I encourage you to register and come along ... or let someone you know know about the weekend.