Skeptics in the Pub
Encyclopedia
Skeptics in the Pub is an informal social event designed to promote fellowship and social networking among skeptics, critical-thinkers, and other like-minded individuals. It provides an opportunity for skeptics and rationalists
to talk, share ideas in a casual, relaxed atmosphere, and discuss whatever topical issues come to mind, as well as having fun while promoting skepticism, science, and rationality.
The usual format is that a speaker is invited to give a talk on a specific topic, which is followed by a question-and-answer session. Other meet-ups are informal socials, with no fixed agenda.
The groups usually meet once a month with the venue being a local pub. There are now as many as 50 different "SitP" groups running around the world.
Scott Campbell based the idea around Philosophy in the Pub and Science in the Pub, two groups which had been running in Australia for some time.
The inaugural speaker was the editor and founder of The Skeptic magazine, Wendy M. Grossman in February 1999.
Campbell ran the London group for three years while on a teaching sabbatical in London, and was succeeded after his return to Australia by two sci-fi fans and skeptics, Robert Newman and Marc LaChappelle, then from 2003 - 2008 by Nick Pullar, who has made a television
appearance as "Convener of Skeptics in the Pub" on the infamous BBC spoof show Shirley Ghostman.
The London group is now organised and chaired by Sid Rodrigues, who has co-organised events in several other cities around the world. This group has conducted experiments on the paranormal
as part of James Randi
's million-dollar challenge and co-organised An Evening with James Randi & Friends.
The ease of use of the internet via social networking sites and content management systems has led to over fifty active satellite chapters around the world, including over forty in the USA, and about fifteen in the UK.
Skeptics in the Pub would later serve as the template for other skeptical, rationalist, and atheist meet-ups around the globe, including The James Randi Educational Foundation's "The Amazing Meeting", Drinking Skeptically, The Brights
, and the British Humanist
Association social gatherings.
In 2010 and 2011, Edinburgh Skeptics extended the Skeptics in the Pub concept over the whole Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, under the banner Skeptics on the Fringe and At the Fringe of Reason. The Merseyside Skeptics Society and Greater Manchester Skeptics (forming North West Skeptical Events Ltd) hosted a two-day conference, QED, in February 2011. Glasgow Skeptics has also hosted two one-day conferences, as of July 2011.
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
to talk, share ideas in a casual, relaxed atmosphere, and discuss whatever topical issues come to mind, as well as having fun while promoting skepticism, science, and rationality.
The usual format is that a speaker is invited to give a talk on a specific topic, which is followed by a question-and-answer session. Other meet-ups are informal socials, with no fixed agenda.
The groups usually meet once a month with the venue being a local pub. There are now as many as 50 different "SitP" groups running around the world.
History
The group's earliest and longest-running event is the award winning London meeting, established by Dr. Scott Campbell in 1999. This group claims to be the "World's largest regular pub meeting", with around two hundred people in attendance at each meeting.Scott Campbell based the idea around Philosophy in the Pub and Science in the Pub, two groups which had been running in Australia for some time.
The inaugural speaker was the editor and founder of The Skeptic magazine, Wendy M. Grossman in February 1999.
Campbell ran the London group for three years while on a teaching sabbatical in London, and was succeeded after his return to Australia by two sci-fi fans and skeptics, Robert Newman and Marc LaChappelle, then from 2003 - 2008 by Nick Pullar, who has made a television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
appearance as "Convener of Skeptics in the Pub" on the infamous BBC spoof show Shirley Ghostman.
The London group is now organised and chaired by Sid Rodrigues, who has co-organised events in several other cities around the world. This group has conducted experiments on the paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
as part of James Randi
James Randi
James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...
's million-dollar challenge and co-organised An Evening with James Randi & Friends.
The ease of use of the internet via social networking sites and content management systems has led to over fifty active satellite chapters around the world, including over forty in the USA, and about fifteen in the UK.
Skeptics in the Pub would later serve as the template for other skeptical, rationalist, and atheist meet-ups around the globe, including The James Randi Educational Foundation's "The Amazing Meeting", Drinking Skeptically, The Brights
Brights movement
The Brights movement is a social movement that aims to promote public understanding and acknowledgment of the naturalistic worldview, including equal civil rights and acceptance for people who hold a naturalistic worldview. It was co-founded by Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell in 2003...
, and the British Humanist
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....
Association social gatherings.
In 2010 and 2011, Edinburgh Skeptics extended the Skeptics in the Pub concept over the whole Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, under the banner Skeptics on the Fringe and At the Fringe of Reason. The Merseyside Skeptics Society and Greater Manchester Skeptics (forming North West Skeptical Events Ltd) hosted a two-day conference, QED, in February 2011. Glasgow Skeptics has also hosted two one-day conferences, as of July 2011.
Notable guests
Over the past ten years, the London event has featured lectures by well-known scientists and skeptics. Rarely the guests are proponents of fringe or pseudoscientific views. Notable guests include:- Simon SinghSimon SinghSimon Lehna Singh, MBE is a British author who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner....
(No longer being sued by the British Chiropractic AssociationBritish Chiropractic AssociationThe British Chiropractic Association was founded in 1925 and represents over 50% of UK chiropractors. It is the largest and longest established association for chiropractors in the United Kingdom...
for criticising their activities in a column in The Guardian.) - Victor Stenger (Author of God: The Failed HypothesisGod: The Failed HypothesisGod: The Failed Hypothesis is a 2007 New York Times bestseller by scientist Victor J. Stenger who argues that there is no evidence for the existence of a deity and that God's existence, while not impossible, is improbable....
) - Jon RonsonJon RonsonJon Ronson is a Welsh journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio presenter and nonfiction author, whose works include The Men Who Stare At Goats. His journalism and columns have appeared in British publications including The Guardian newspaper, City Life and Time Out magazine...
(Documentary film-maker and author of The Men Who Stare at Goats) - Phil Plait (Past-President of the James Randi Educational Foundation, author and blogger)
- David ColquhounDavid ColquhounDavid Colquhoun, FRS is a British pharmacologist at University College London . He has contributed to the general theory of receptor and synaptic mechanisms of single ion channel function. He previously held the A.J. Clark chair of Pharmacology at UCL, and was the Hon. Director of the Wellcome...
(Past holder of the A.J. Clark chair of Pharmacology at University College London and science/political blogger) - Richard J. EvansRichard J. EvansRichard John Evans is a British academic and historian, prominently known for his history of Germany.-Life:Evans was born in London, of Welsh parentage, and is now Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and President of Wolfson College...
(Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University and an expert witness at the Irving v. Lipstadt libel case) - S. Fred Singer (atmospheric physicist and famous AGWGlobal warmingGlobal warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
skeptic) - Ben GoldacreBen GoldacreBen Michael Goldacre born 1974 is a British science writer, doctor and psychiatrist. He is the author of The Guardian newspaper's weekly Bad Science column and a book of the same title, published by Fourth Estate in September 2008....
(medical doctor and journalist, and the author of The Guardian newspaper's weekly Bad Science column)
UK
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