Well… my interview with the mercury went hardcopy. Suffice to say I’m not 100% happy about the total lack of information about my group/CFI/our events/our goals. She totally focused on me and what I believe - which isn’t so hot. Anywhere, here’s the article:
March 24, 2008
The biggest misconception about skeptics is that they are against religion, paranormal claims and alternative medicine, says the president of a local freethinker group.
Skeptics want to investigate those matters and decide whether they are supported by facts.
Katie Kish, president of the Guelph Skeptics, said “credible evidence” means she’ll change her opinions.
“I’m not stuck in my ways,” she said.
The skeptic group promotes critical thinking and secularism, she said.
This past week the Guelph Skeptics hosted a guest speaker on facts behind the theory of evolution.
About 60 people usually turn out for lectures hosted by the local skeptics, 10 people participate in their weekly discussions and 250 people are on the on their e-mail list. Guelph Skeptics is a social club run by students at the University of Guelph, but open to the community.
Despite the support, the group also encounters backlash, Kish said.
“We get a lot of negative feedback. But I think any group does. What we’re trying to do is bring in those who view us negatively and ask them to communicate with us — so that we can either try to understand each other or open up a discussion that is valuable to both of us,” she said.
After all, intellectual discussion is the group’s focus, Kish said.
The approach sits well with some Christians on campus.
“University is meant to be a place where ideas are discussed. As a Christian . . . some ideas might not be what I would agree with, but I’d go listen,” said Graham Watt, director of an inter-denominational Christian organization at the University of Guelph, called Campus for Christ.
Discussion of spiritual ideas should be encouraged through respectful dialogue, he said.
For some people, it is possible to be skeptical and religious at the same time, Kish said.
In her own embrace of skepticism, however, she went from Christian to secular humanist.
That is someone who believes in “finding the good in people and looking beyond supernatural powers to find beauty in the world,” she said. “I believe in using science to look at the world and to examine life critically”
It could have been much worse.
Interesting post.
Well, a lot of alternative medicine comes from nature, so why would religious types have objection to it. On the other hand no one is sponsoring mega bucks to run clinical trials so we cannot get the whole scientific trials going. at the same time there is some govt. funding. Check out http://www.rvita.com/home.html this site that I founded combines scientific trial data on various alternative therapies and user feedback.