Praying to Pesci - The Better Superstition

Blogs

Atheist for Jesus
posted on 08/27/2010

Memo to the Self-Help Crowd
posted on 08/11/2010

Anne Rice - The Wanderer
posted on 08/04/2010

The CEO (Chief Exorcism Officer)
posted on 07/26/2010

Scenes From My First Skeptic Meeting
posted on 07/24/2010

The Flock Joins the Gulf Effort
posted on 07/17/2010

Praying For Hitchens
posted on 07/13/2010

Comments

Anne Rice - The Wanderer
08/04/2010 by Pesci

The CEO (Chief Exorcism Officer)
08/04/2010 by Pesci

The CEO (Chief Exorcism Officer)
08/01/2010 by Chris

Scenes From My First Skeptic Meeting
07/25/2010 by Pesci

Scenes From My First Skeptic Meeting
07/24/2010 by Chris

Scenes From My First Skeptic Meeting
07/24/2010 by Pesci

Scenes From My First Skeptic Meeting

Created on Saturday, July 24, 2010

Home Blog 2010 July

Last night I attended both my first lecture at the world-renowned Center For Inquiry (if you're reading this, I'm available for volunteer work!) and my first group meeting with a new Buffalo-area skeptics group, Drinking Skeptically. The lecture was given by author Ibn Warraq on secularism in the Muslim world (it was quite interesting). While I looked forward to the lecture, I was really looking forward to the group meeting afterwards.

Once again, I'll save some of you that know me the trouble of leaving the following comment: "he would have attended the event if the group was just called 'Drinking'". Ok, true enough - adding "skeptical" on the end of it is just the gravy on the turkey. Throw in a fat man and a tree and you'd have Christmas.

Um... moving along....

As I've said in recent blogs on my personal site (muchgooder.com), I had really been searching for an outlet for these kinds of discussions. I think people were tired of hearing examples of how psychics are scam artists and prayer is useless. It was time to go be amongst my own people, if you will. I was curious to see if other people had the same kinds of experiences and thoughts. And as much as it is to quote lines from Caddyshack and Airplane (side note: what is more fun than asking unsuspecting strangers if they watch Gladiator movies?) after our ballgames at the bar, it was just nice to talk to some grownups.

The first thing I noticed is how comfortable I felt in the group. It was like that stupid Blind Melon video where the awkward little girl in the bee costome didn't feel at home until she found her bee colony. It isn't so much that I feel out of place anywhere (I never do), it was just nice to be in a place where you more or less no who you are with before you meet them. The term free thinker really does say so much. It says that you are seeking truths and that you are not bound by dogmatic ideas or other limiting factors. It (usually) means that you are interested in promoting humanity and giving the most liberties to the most people. And quite simply, it means that you've looked yourself in the mirror and you've done some thinking. Not unlike the difference between atheism and agnosticism, it means that you've done the work and are interested in doing even more work. The horses are out of the barn and they aren't going back in.

One of the main things that I thought I would be most interested in hearing is how others came to find skepticism. I know I've said this in other blogs but one of the things that I find so telling about skeptics is that they found it on their own. Nobody converts someone to skepticism. And the stories did not disappoint. Some people found it as a child, others (like me) just slowly started to pay attention to the world and realized that so many things didn't add up. We did have an interesting side discussion about how skepticism "feels". I believe that it gives me a real sense of liberation and clarity. Not that I was "stuck" before, but that the world seems so much... clearer. I don't know about you but I am often referred to as "the serious guy" or "the guy that is against everything" by people that do not understand skepticism. I wear it as a badge of honor as I really think it means "someone that cares about it and wants to do the work".

I was a little curious to see if most people in the group were atheists or not. It doesn't matter at all to me and it didn't seem to matter at all to anyone else either. I think most skeptics really couldn't care less if you are religious or not - you either "get" the idea of being a skeptic or you do not. We did spend quite a bit of time talking about the various religions that we had growing up. I think one thing that believers have wrong is that non-believers had a bad religious experience and therefore hate god. Last night proved again and again that this is not true. It seemed that most people had the same experience - they were brainwashed as a child and then slowly started to realize the absurdity of the statements made by the man speaking to the flock. Before I forget, it was interesting to hear Mr. Warraq tell of the large sections of the muslim world that act just like large sections of the Christian world - people loosely identifying themselves with a religion but in practice but not being the kinds of fundamentalists that are causing so many problems in the world today. It seemed that they - like us - found out the "joys" of cafeteria-style religion.

We then moved on to ghosts and UFO's. It was in these topics where there was probably the most differences in opinion between the various group members. This is where skepticism gets really interesting. I am of the mindset that unless I have proof that something exists, I won't pay it any mind. Would I fall over in my beer if an alien walked through the door? No, not at all. Would my heart stop if long-departed Aunty Sally told me that the curtains were ugly? Probably more so (unless it was conveyed through Sylvia Browne - I could hear her saying "a non-descript older woman is trying to give me a very generic message to give to you"). There were some believers of both in the group and that is fine. After all, there are a lot of unexplained things that have happened that make people think that these things might exist. I am personally of the mindset that unexplained is just that and not a drop more. See my thoughts on ghosts here and my blog on the Ghost Hunters here (it is somehow at the top of the google search "Debunking Ghost Hunters").

It has been said that when predominantly male gatherings take place, all of the initial conversation is really just filler until they get around to politics or sex (I would add sports on to that list but that's just me). The conversation in the various groups did drift into politics at different times. While I loathe the idea of political parties I can talk politics all night with a willing party. For me, these brief ventures were the least interesting part of the evening.

All in all it was a great evening (although I can't believe how empty Bobby McGees was - I'm surprised they weren't trying to sell us furniture as we walked out the door) and I look forward to participating in the next event.

Some of you had asked about some of the materials that I referenced last night - I've included them below. Also, you can join the Praying to Pesci facebook group here.

George Carlin. I am not one to read autobiographies but I HIGHLY recommend his recent book. There were few better advocates for free speech and rational thought than George.

Penn and Teller's Bullshit, Episode 1 - Talking to the Dead. Joe Nickel is interviewed in this brilliant episode. Click here and it will open in a new window.

Religulous - Bill Maher's hysterical documentary

Christopher Hitchens - Letters to a Young Contrarian. The definitive book on how to hold your ground when you are in the minority and what the costs associated with that position may be.

Dan Barker - godless. Barker was an evangelical preacher that was transformed into a non-theist when he could no longer deny science and rational thought. The book is at times hearbreaking, informative (it offers a few fantastic chapters on the fallacy of the Bible) and inspiring.

James Randi exposes several fakes

The CEO (Chief Exorcism Officer)

Add Comment
Name:
Comments:

Praying to Pesci - The Better Superstition

Blogs

Comments

Scenes From My First Skeptic Meeting

Add Comment