Meetup #4 and Meetup #3 Recap...

Meetup #3 - Ghosts and the Paranormal was well-attended and managed to stay on topic for almost 45 minutes! We're getting there.

Also yesterday a Skeptical Heathens hike in an undisclosed location on the Olympic Peninsula was awesome and we really do need to arrange more of those in the future. Here's a crappy cell-phone photo of our destination.

 If you look carefully you can see there are some areas of the photo that are in focus.

I'm going to be posting links to this blog on the events page on both the Facebook Group and Meetup Group pages and all information will be posted here from now on. This is the PLACE TO BE to find info on the next meetup.

Skeptic Rick has graciously offered to take the reins for Meetup #4 on September 15th at Hales Ales in Silverdale. Please RSVP either on the Facebook Group or the Meetup Group so I can get a proper reservation....See you there - Take it away...RICK!
Amber

Meetup #4 prep for discussion....

Basically the discussion boils down to: do you, as a skeptic, employ harsh criticism and ridicule against your enemy to jolt them away from their stupid ways, or do you use soft spoken, kind, respectful language in a friendly debate to ease the person away from their silly beliefs? Are you a dick, or an accomodationist?

Phil Plait's speech at TAM8, although it didn't start the whole discussion, it certainly put a fire under it:
http://blogs.discover...

Phil Plait is criticised for not really using any real data or evidence to prove that "being a dick" is bad for a skeptic, but it seems to make sense that not being a dick would be better and nicer and make us (the skeptics) out to be the good guys. On the other hand, it also seems to make sense that you can't ONLY be nice and kind to people who are doing things that could potentially kill you or your kids (antivaxxers come to mind...).

He wrote some blog updates, part 2 and 3:
http://blogs.discover...
http://blogs.discover...

Here are the two main criticisms, 2 from PZ Myers and 1 brief comment from Richard Dawkins:
http://scienceblogs.c...
http://scienceblogs.c...
http://whyevolutionis...

There are plenty of links in there too for additional reading. And in case you don't regularly read either Plait's or Myers' blogs, here are the links for those as well:
Phil Plait's blog: http://blogs.discover...
PZ Myers' blog: http://scienceblogs.c...