BAH Fest

For the December 13, 2018 SkepTalk, BAS is inviting you to participate in a Bad Ad Hoc Hypothesis program where YOU will be the presenter. Pretty much all Ad Hoc hypotheses are bad, but the Bad Ad Hoc Hypothesis (or BAH) has become something of a term of art among science fans. Examples of BAH Fests can be found on YouTube, and you are encouraged to visit them.

An ad hoc hypothesis can refer to a number of applications. Commonly, it refers to the effort to “save” a theory or hypothesis from rejection by adding on a condition. So if you can’t see the fairies I claim live in the garden, I could hypothesize that they are sometimes invisible. The claims of individuals who fail to perform paranormal feats because of the presence of a skeptic is another example – the “Psi is shy” complaint. BAHs can also involve making up a theory after the data is collected, as in this BAH by Zach Weinersmith. The best BAHs, of course, must utilize actual science, even if it is in pursuit of a ridiculous premise.

For BAS’s BAH program, we will accept lots of BAH variants: making up a theory after the data are collected is fair game, as are special pleadings of various types. We ask you to submit to baskeptics@gmail.com a title for your talk and an abstract (of length between a few sentences to a paragraph), your name, and contact information. Powerpoint is optional; length is not. Keep your talk to 10 minutes. We will notify you if your abstract has been selected.

Deadline for titles and abstracts is ~~Monday, December 3 / Wednesday, December 5~~ Monday, December 10. We look forward to much inspiration for our holiday SkepTalk BAH Fest on December 13!

24 April- Virtual Skeptics in the Pub
9 May – SkepTalk: The Trollingers

Virtual Skeptics in the Pub

WHAT: Virtual Skeptics in the Pub

This is a casual night of socializing with fellow skeptics. If needed, we will have a number of breakout rooms for quieter conversations.

Please join us! This is a free event brought to you by Bay Area Skeptics. All are welcome.

WHEN: Wednesday 24 April 7-9pm Pacific (GMT-7)

HOW: Zoom. Join HERE. Passcode: 1023

May SkepTalk

Susan & William Trollinger

WHAT: From Creationism to QAnon: Answers in Genesis and the Culture War

Our book, Righting America at the Creation Museum, came out in 2016. In the intervening years, the creationist organization Answers in Genesis has opened Ark Encounter, remodeled the Creation Museum (in some places as a response to our book), opened a K-12 school, and dramatically expanded its online presence. At the same time, AiG has doubled down on the culture war rhetoric, dismissing climate change (or, as AiG CEO Ken Ham refers to it, “the climate cult”) as a hoax, rejecting the reality of a COVID-19 pandemic (in the process attacking vaccination mandates as oppressive), and working hard to appeal to QAnon devotees (to the point of opening the Ark to the filming of a QAnon video).

To expand on what we said in the “Introduction” to our book, all of us have a stake in understanding what is happening in the world of AiG – including the museum and the Ark – and its role in preparing and arming crusaders for the ongoing culture war that polarizes and poisons U.S. religion and politics. As bizarre as the world of AiG may seem to many Americans, what happens there matters to all of us.

WHO: Susan Trollinger is Professor of English at the University of Dayton. She earned her Ph.D. in Rhetoric from the University of Pittsburgh, and is the author of Selling the Amish: The Tourism of Nostalgia (Johns Hopkins, 2012).

William Trollinger is Professor of History and Religious Studies at the University of Dayton. He earned his Ph.D. in History from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, and is the author of God’s Empire: William Bell Riley and the Making of American Fundamentalism (2nd ed., Tennessee, 2025).

The Trollingers have co-written, among other publications:

Righting America at the Creation Museum (Johns Hopkins, 2016)

“Creationism,” Oxford Handbook of Christian Fundamentalism (Oxford, 2023)

“The Bible and Creationism,” Oxford Handbook of the Bible (Oxford, 2017)

and

“From Creationism to QAnon: The Culture War Conspiracism of Answers in Genesis,” which will appear in Isis in the summer of 2025, and from which this talk is taken.

WHEN: Tuesday 9 May @ 7:00 PM Pacific (GMT-7)

WHERE: Online. (Link to come)