Jay Diamond

¿Does Evidence Actually Change Minds?

Submitted by Jay Diamond Fri, 21-03-2025 : 20:02

¿Have you seen our latest BAS Skeptalk? It covers the most impactful research happening today in scientific skepticism and is a MUST WATCH for anyone interested in changing minds. I’ve been waiting for this talk for months and it did not disappoint. The talk is available here: https://bit.ly/BASpenn

A common skeptical goal to change minds to broaden a belief in science, evidence, and critical thinking. Sadly, we haven’t had much success in this (as proven by the current state of conspiratorial belief in society), we have much work to do here.

Right now, social media algorithms are pushing people to consume progressively mor

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Starting the Year with SkeptiCamps

Submitted by Jay Diamond Thu, 09-01-2025 : 04:53

As I’ve done for many years, I attended the Monterey County SkeptiCamp on the first weekend of the year. I find it to be a great opportunity to cleanse your skeptical palette and start a new year with new, rational ideas. Plus it’s a lot of fun.

A SkeptiCamp is a free, informal conference in which anyone, usually amateur skeptics, present on a subject in science and/or scientific skepticism. Speakers may want to explore a new topic, be deeply passionate experts, or just have a need to rant about irrationality in society. This year, subjects included a discussion of the social contagion around drones that is sweeping parts of the USA, medical claims around stem cells curing all disease, and rationally assessing risk with data.

A former teacher discussed creating constructiv

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Just One Drop of Pseudoscience

Submitted by Jay Diamond Thu, 10-05-2018 : 03:12

On Thursday, October 11, 2017, Dr. Eugenie Scott and I scoped out the pro-Homeopathy movie "Just One Drop" at the Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF). There was another showing on the following Saturday and one of our goals was to determine whether a public protest was warranted. We’d previously crafted and sent a letter (via both e-mail and snail mail) to the Executive Director of the film festival expressing our concern but did not receive a response.

Just One Drop: Poster for the pro-homeopathy Film "Just One Drop" Just One Drop: Poster for the pro-homeopathy Film "Just One Drop"The movie is what we expected, although better produced (it took 8 years to make). The narrative goes something like this:

Nobody knows how homeopathy works.

There are skeptics.

But it works, and we’ll prove this with some anecdotes.

It’s been around for a long time and many people us

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26 March – Skeptics in the Pub
3 April – Skeptical Inquirer Presents
10 April – SkepTalk
3-4 May – We Can Reason Conference

Skeptics in the Pub

WHAT: Virtual Skeptics in the Pub

This is a casual night of socializing with fellow skeptics and with others inhabiting our oblate spherical planet.

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

WHEN: Wednesday March 26, 7-9pm Pacific (GMT-8)

HOW: Online HERE. Passcode: 1023

Skeptical Inquirer Presents

Michael Mann

WHAT: Science under Siege

From pandemics to the climate crisis, humanity faces tougher challenges than ever before. But our efforts to effectively address these existential crises are frequently hampered by a common threat: politically and ideologically motivated opposition to science.
Michael Mann and public health scientist Peter Hotez will discuss their collaboration that examines the five main forces behind the modern-day anti-science movement: plutocrats, pros, petrostates, phonies, and the press. This presentation is both a call to arms and a roadmap for dismantling the forces of anti-science, empowering ourselves to promote scientific truth and, ultimately, averting disaster.

WHO:
Dr. Michael Mann is Presidential Distinguished Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. He is director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media (PCSSM).
Dr. Peter Jay Hotez is an American scientist, pediatrician, and advocate in the fields of global health, vaccinology, and neglected tropical disease control. He serves as founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine.

WHEN: Thursday, April 3 at 4:00 PM PT

HOW: Free. Register HERE

SkepTalk

Paul A. Lombardo

Apes, Men, and Morons: Eugenics, Evolution, and the Scopes Centennial

The “Monkey Trial” Centennial provides an opportunity to examine the widespread misunderstanding about how ideas of evolution and eugenics were implicated in the famous Scopes controversy. George William Hunter’s textbook Civic Biology was the focus of the case. It endorsed evolution, a theory “that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible” —content prohibited by a 1925 Tennessee law.

The Hunter text also contained a brief discussion of eugenics. In recent years an elaborate mythology has arisen suggesting that the case, and William Jennings Bryan’s advocacy at trial, represented a challenge to eugenics. That claim is not accurate. The teaching of eugenics in its many forms was supported not only by educators, but also by members of the clergy and politicians all across the United States. That support was evident before the Scopes case and continued for decades afterwards, persisting even in full awareness of the Nazi government program that sterilized almost ½ million Germans.

This talk will explain that while William Jennings Bryan rejected the monkey- to-man account of evolution and the cruelties he associated with Darwinian “natural selection,” he made no blanket condemnation of eugenics. To the contrary, Bryan and his wife readily allied themselves with several famous eugenicists and supported eugenic ideology when it coincided with the social policies they favored.

PRESENTER: Paul A. Lombardo is an American legal historian known for his work on the legacy of eugenics and sterilization in the United States. Lombardo’s foundational research corrected the historical record of the 1927 U.S. Supreme Court case of Buck v. Bell. He found Carrie Buck’s school grades^[1] and the grades of her child Vivian.^[2] He was the last person to interview her, and he discovered the pictures of all three generations of the Buck family.^[3] In 2002, he sponsored and paid for a memorial plaque that was installed in Buck’s hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia.

WHEN: Thursday 10 April 6:30 PM Pacific (GMT-8)

HOW: Click HERE

Western Canadian Reason Conference

Partial Speaker List

Seth Andrews
The Thinking Atheist

Forrest Valkai
Renegade Science Teacher on YouTube

Dr. Eugenie Scott
Asteroid ‘249540 Eugeniescott’ was named for her

Susan Gerbic
Head of The Gorilla Skeptics

Dr Rodney Schmaltz
Associate Professor and Author

Adrienne Hill – Host and Emcee

WHEN: May 2, 3, & 4

WHERE: Sandman Hotel, Calgary, Alberta

HOW:Tickets available HERE