SFU Skeptics

We are Simon Fraser University’s secular/naturalist student group. Our group exists to:

• Promote scientific thinking and reason in all aspects of human experience.
• Advocate for and provide outreach to non-religious students of all descriptions.
• Partner with religious student groups to foster honest and productive dialogue.
• Investigate paranormal claims scientifically and compassionately.
• Raise awareness of paranormal and pseudoscientific fraud.
• Advocate for good science and critical thinking in public policy.

If you’re interested in ANY of the above we need to hear from you. You don’t need to be an angry militant atheist or a hardcore debunker (we hate that word). You don’t need to be anything other than an SFU student or faculty member who is concerned about the issues listed above, or just wants a place to hang out with cool people who happen to be atheist/humanist/generally godless.

The BC Humanist Association registered a marching group in the Vancouver Pride Parade and invited all local humanists, atheists and skeptics to march with them. A number of members of the SFU Skeptics showed up and brought out our banner.

George was interviewed for the third time by CJSF (first and second time), although I’m not sure if/when this will be going to air.

Here’s a video of some of the fun:

And finally, our biggest fan in the audience:

For more on skeptics in the Pride Parade read reviews at Terahertz, Crommunist Manifesto and Intellectual Waste.

I hope to see you all out there next year!

SFU Skeptics president George Parker was on CJSF radio again last Wednesday to talk (again) about vandalism occurring to our “There’s Probably No God…” banner. This time, someone painted a splotch over the display case where it was hanging to cover the “No God” part of the sign.

The SFSS is getting the case cleaned while the banner is in storage (it did appear in the Pride Parade though).

The Peak briefly covered the story here with quotes from Vice-President Jakob Liljenwall.

Here’s the audio:

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Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you know about some upcoming events being held around town that you should check out:

This Sunday, July 25 at 9:30am at the Oakridge Seniors Centre (at the back of Oakridge Mall, Vancouver), the BC Humanists are hosting a memorial for Zoltan Weiss, a humanist who died recently in New Westminster and left most of his estate to Humanist Canada. Not too many humanists knew him around here, so a humanist officiant is flying in from Ottawa to perform the ceremony. If you’ve ever wondered what a humanist ceremony was like or have questions for the officiant, feel free to come by.

For anyone in Richmond, there’s a Skeptics in the Pub being held on Monday, July 26 at Legends Pub.

On July 30, atheist blogger and biologist PZ Myers is speaking for CFI Vancouver at UBC. See CFI’s website for more details. Tickets are $10 for the general public, $7 for students and free for CFI Members (only $20 for students). There will be a ticketed reception after if you want to go drink with PZ Myers (well worth it). Dr. Myers will be speaking on “Atheism in the Scientific Battleground.”

On August 1 the BC Humanists will be marching in the Vancouver Pride Parade and are inviting any and all freethinkers in the lower mainland to join their troupe. More information is available on the Facebook event, or email me.

On the weekend of August 7-8, a bunch of skeptics from the Skeptics in the Pub group are planning a trip to Victoria. Meet some Island Skeptics and maybe even Junior Skeptic editor Daniel Loxton. For more information check out the Facebook event.

On August 13, CFI is presenting Dr. Christopher DiCarlo, a professor of bioethics and 2008 Humanist Canada Humanist of the Year. Dr. DiCarlo will be giving a talk entitled “We Are All African.” More information and tickets to come at the CFI website.

On August 14, CFI is launching a book club at The Grind Cafe on Main Street. The first book will be Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel. For more information see CFI’s website.

Check out CFI for more local upcoming events. Hopefully we’ll get another couple meetings in soon.

Ian Bushfield, Treasurer

MORE IMPORTANT NEWS:

Now that 6 of us are trained for Free Geek, today I phoned them to book our Friday volunteer hours. Unfortunately, hey are completely booked this Friday! So I booked the hours for NEXT Friday, which is definitely happening. Hope that works for all of you.

On the bright side, those of you who would like to participate but who were not able to attend the events this week can now participate next week! If you have never received a Free Geek orientation, they will be giving the one-hour seminar next week on Wednesday at 4:00 pm, allowing you to participate when we volunteer on Friday July 2.

Just to make this clear: We are still volunteering, but now it’s on Friday 2 July at 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm instead of this week.

Thanks,

George

Although we asked them several times and more than a week in advance, the folks at Free Geek told us that we could just drop in and they would give us our orientation on Friday.

Today when I phoned them they told me that they will not orient us on Friday, and that we will thus have to go …in for orientation on Wednesday (Tomorrow)! I apologise for the short notice, but it really wasn’t our fault.

So, here’s the deal:
- 4:00 pm, Free Geek, 1820 Pandora Street #2b
- Get your orientation if you want to participate. I’ll be there getting mine.
- If you’ve already been oriented, you don’t have to be there on Wednesday.

Once again, sorry.
George

I just got an email announcing a new meetup that’s starting Monday at the Railway Club (Seymour and Dunsmuir St. downtown). It’s organized by UBC’s National Core for Neuroethics and is called Café Neuroéthique. Here’s some info:

VANCOUVER CAFÉ NEUROÉTHIQUE
Do you ever wonder what your brain might reveal about you? Are you excited by news stories that claim scientists have found love, prejudice, or faith in a particular part of the brain? Or do you worry about how information from brain scans might be used in court, in business, or in health insurance?
If so, Café Neuroéthique is for you! As neuroscience provides ever more information about the neural bases of disease, development, thought, personality, and behaviour, it also raises questions about how this information should be used. At Café Neuroéthique, we explore these questions through informal discussions, presentations, and arts events. You might meet a physician, ethicist, or philosopher over a drink, or hear a scientist talking about their cutting edge research – but you don’t need to know anything about the brain to come along. The format is relaxed, and you’re welcome to contribute, ask questions, or just sit back and listen.
Café Neuroéthique is based in Vancouver, at the University of British Columbia’s National Core for Neuroethicsin Canada. The Core’s objective is to align innovations in the brain sciences with societal, cultural and individual human values through high impact research, education and outreach.
To RSVP for an event, or to receive notification of upcoming events, send an e-mail with your name and e-mail address to Dr Louise Whiteley – lewhiteley@gmail.com. We also have a facebook group.

And their first event:

CAFÉ NEUROÉTHIQUE PRESENTS:
Interior Traces Film Screening
Monday 21st June, 6.30-8.30pm
Michael is in prison for murder, and thinks a brain scan will help him ‘prove’ his innocence… But is the science ready? And is Michael treated differently because he’s been diagnosed as a psychopath?
Interior Traces is a new multimedia drama exploring how different ways of seeing the brain might change how we see ourselves. Come and find out what happens to Michael at this inaugural Café Neuroéthique event, and join in a discussion about the ethics of his story with psychiatrists, Emily Borgelt from UBC’s National Core for Neuroethics, and Dr Louise Whiteley, who is one of the writers of the play.
The event is free, and drinks will be available for purchase from the delightful Railway Club bar – find us in the back room (and on facebook!)
The Railway Club, 579 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver, BC V6B 1Y4, Canada

So check them out on Facebook and join up with them if you like stimulating discussions about the brain.

First of all, I’d like to apologise for any distress we caused you or anyone else. The event did not go as we planned, and there were a number of problems preventing us from communicating our message.

The event was intended to be primarily about censorship, and we even had books and information on the table about the history of censorship. Our biggest problem was that a lot of individuals who were not affiliated with the club expressed hateful and even racist points of view, and there was little we could be to stop them, particularly since there was so much going on that we had to deal with. For example, the SFU Skeptics did not put up any advertisements, but someone else put up a number of posters around campus without our endorsement. Many of these posters were racist, and we would never have put them up.

Even at the table, there were only ever two or three club members. From what I saw, there were a significant number of individuals not associated with the club who believed they were supporting us, but who were actually quite hateful and irrational. Any of the posters making absurd or derogatory claims about Muslims would have been drawn by them, not us. We are very upset that such views would be associated with us. We do not share their attitudes or opinions, and we are very upset that they believed we agreed with them.

I want to make things perfectly clear: We do not hate Muslims. We do not hate anyone. The event was supposed to be about freedom of expression, not about Muslims as a cultural group. Although we may disagree with Muslims about a number of things, we have tried to keep our disagreement civil and focused on ideas rather than people. To a great extent we have failed, and we are very sorry. We disown and disavow all portrayals of a derogatory nature. What we intended to draw were stick figures.

At most, the event was intended to criticise Islam as an ideology, not as an ethnic group. Just as we are free to criticise liberalism, socialism, postmodernism, and even religions like Christianity and Buddhism, we are free to criticise the ideology of Islam. However, derogatory portrayals of Muslims as individuals are completely inappropriate and pointless. We are very sorry that such portrayals would be associated with us. As I have said, although it would not have been club members who created them, we disown those images and apologise.

As for the taking of Qu’ran verses out of context, no SFU Skeptic would have said “Muslims are allowed to kill non-Muslims”. That interpretation of the Qu’ran is overly simplistic and entirely absurd. Whoever said it is a fool, and the SFU Skeptics do not endorse that point of view. We apologise and I apologise that we our event provided an opportunity for hatred to be expressed. It will not happen again. I am personally outraged and entirely surprised that any threatening or intimidating remarks would be exchanged at SFU, since I had no idea that discrimination took place here. Of course such remarks would not have come from the SFU Skeptics, and are completely unacceptable as far as we are concerned. The throwing around of threats is precisely what the event was intended to oppose.

If you would like to speak with us face-to-face, please contact me. I would be happy to come to one of your meetings to give an apology and to answer any questions.

Once again my sincerest apologies,
George Parker
President, SFU Skeptics.

Hello everyone!

Clubs Days will be tomorrow (Tuesday) and Wednesday from 10 am until approximately 4:00 pm, although things may wrap up sooner than that, and usually have.

If you are interested in helping us staff the table for any amount of time, please respond with your availability, and later tonight I will send out a rough schedule of who will be at the table when. That said, everyone is welcome at the table whenever, and we will always be pleased to see you!

Since Thursday is International Draw Muhammad Day, we will have a table in the AQ (the South side) with sketched pictures of Muhammad, as well as a collection of books banned in various countries. We’ll be talking to people about censorship. Feel free to bring your own pictures of Muhammad, although racist images are not encouraged.

That looks like everything.

Thanks,

George

We’ll be meeting this week at 5:00 pm, Friday, at the Mountain Shadow Pub, not the Highland Pub.

The address is 7174 Barnet Road, Burnaby.

We will be discussing next week’s Clubs Day.

George

Our president, George Parker, and vice-president, Jakob Liljenwall, appeared in an interview in Agnostic Radio recently. Listen to them discuss the club and the National Day of Prayer

Their interview starts at about the 3 minute mark.

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