Teaching Freethought: How to Create a Skeptical Kid

Okay, shameless plug time 🙂

On Sunday, May 16th, I will be speaking to the Center For Inquiry Chicago on the topic of freethought, skepticism, and education.  Basically, I’ll be talking about my experiences as a science teacher & skeptic and how to promote critical thinking among high school & college students…

Sunday, May 16th 1-4pm

Location: Our usual place: Room 613 (behind elevators), University Center East building, 750 S. Halsted (UIC campus), Chicago

Teaching Freethought: How to Create a Skeptical Kid! – with Matt Lowry, high school teacher and skeptic at large

Matt spends a lot of his in-class time teaching the art of meaningful skepticism to high schoolers.  He will give us some insight into his method of doing this!  He will also share his view of the many challenges that both science teachers and their students face when confronted with religious objections to the pursuit of scientific objectives.

Today’s presentation will be a stimulating follow-on to our recent day-long conference, “Dangerous Nonsense: Exploring the Gulf Between Science and its Impostors!”

Matt Lowry is a familiar face to many CFIers in Chicago. He is a high school physics teacher in the north suburbs, a part-time physics and astronomy college professor, and emphasizes critical thinking among his students at every opportunity. When away from the classroom, he also serves as the president of the North Shore Illinois chapter of Americans United for the Separation of Church & State, the leader of an online pro-science group titled Darwin’s Bulldogs, and the leader of the Vernon Hills Freethinkers meetup group.

A self-described skeptic, he believes in Carl Sagan’s adage that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence!”  He blogs at: https://skepticalteacher.wordpress.com/

Please come to this most interesting AFTERNOON meeting!  We provide the hot coffee, and we very much appreciate pastry and snack donations.

Non-CFI Members will be asked for a modest contribution.

Questions? Just call our (part time) office phone: 312-226-0420

Women Thinking Free Foundation Kickoff Event!

There’s a groovy new skeptical group in the Chicago region called the Women Thinking Free Foundation (or WTFF) which has the following mission: Our goal as an organization is to bring science, skepticism and critical thinking to the women of the Midwest. We’re planning some great events, campaigns and outreach programs to help provide women with the tools to fight pseudoscience.

Our first event is to host skeptical activist Jen McCreight, the author of the Blag Hag blog and creator of Boobquake…

Saturday, May 22 @ 7pm

Galway Arms – upstairs banquet room

2442 N Clark St

Chicago, IL

No ticket will be issued, names will be added to the guest list.

Limited metered parking available, $13 unlimited parking available in the Children’s Memorial Hospital Parking Garage at 2515 N Clark.

Tickets will be available at the door, as space permits, and may be purchased with cash or credit.

Questions? Please contact Elyse Anders – elyse@womenthinkingfree.org

85th Anniversary of the Scopes “Monkey” Trial

As a reference to the long & twisting history of the evolution/creationism conflict in the United States, I just wanted to point out that today is the 85th anniversary of the infamous Scopes “Monkey” Trial. This trial was an American legal case that tested the Butler Act which made it unlawful to teach any thoughts on the origin of man other than the Biblical account of man’s origin – in other words, it was illegal to teach evolution.  John T. Scopes had the audacity to actually teach his students science (the horror!), and he was fined and put on trial for doing so…

Ah, how far we’ve come in 85 years.  Not only is evolution now recognized as the unifying principle in biology – as well as being confirmed & connected via geology, archaeology, anthropology, chemistry, physics, and cosmology – but across the world the notion of creationism is widely recognized by educated & thinking people as thinly-veiled religiously motivated pseudoscience.

However, despite this progress, the forces of ignorance and anti-science continue their crusade to hold us back.  While their attempts to force creationism in its varied forms – from Young Earth Creationism to so-called “Intelligent” Design – into science classes have been thwarted time and again, they still fight against the teaching of evolutionary science at every turn.  They can’t make it illegal, but they can (and do) pressure teachers, principals, and school boards to dumb down, or even delete completely, the teaching of evolution in schools.

But we’ll fight on.  We have to.  If you’re interested in joining the fight on the side of science & reason, I suggest you get in touch with the National Center for Science Education.