Dear listeners: on September 7, 14, 21 and 28 we will be airing encore presentation episodes on WRFI and on GCR. New Skeptical Sundays will resume on October 5. To hear the latest Freethought Radio from the FFRF, please go to
New shows appear on Mondays as podcasts at this link.
Thank you for your interest and stay skeptical!
On this week’s Skeptical Sunday: superstition in Africa and one man trying to do something about it. Award-winning human rights activist Leo Igwe describes how witchcraft accusations are used to prey upon the most vulnerable in African societies on the Reasonable Doubts podcast. Igwe recounts how the study of philosophy emboldened him to speak out against the dangers of superstitious and magical thinking in his home country of Nigeria. Then on the “God thinks like you” segment of Reasonable Doubts, Doctor Professor Luke Galen explains how witch-hunts often begin because of the natural envy felt by members of small communities towards their more successful peers and discusses a related superstition, fear of “the evil eye.” Galen explains how ‘moral typecasting theory’ might help explain why the human mind is so prone to seeing supernatural agency in both tragic and uplifting events that have strong moral importance. But first, on Freethought Radio, we’ll hear about Dan Barker’s appearance on the Nancy Grace Show and the Vatican’s coddling of a pedophilic priest, then Dan Barker and Anniel Laurie Gaylor honor the birthdays of freethinking baseball great Ted Williams and early feminist activist Frances Wright. They then talk with Matthew Stewart, author of the new book: Nature’s God: The Heretical Origins of the American Republic.
[audio http://dl.dropbox.com/s/b3cauqfkm521cwu/SkepSun_08_31_2014.mp3]
Leo Igwe on the harm done by magical thinking in Africa and Luke Galen on the psychology of witch hunting
On Freethought Radio, Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor celebrate Women’s Equality Day, and observe the 100th anniversary of the predecessor of Broadway’s “Book of Mormon,” a musical entitled the “The Girl from Utah,” that included the first hit by freethinker Jerome Kern, then we’ll hear the audio from 20 short videos from FFRF’s new “Out of the Closet” Freethinker video campaign. After Freethought Radio we’ll hear the late Christopher Hitchen’s response to someone who asks him why, if he doesn’t believe in a god, does he spend so much of his time arguing against the belief. We’ll hear Carl Sagan, reading an excerpt of his book, Pale Blue Dot, that is used in a new tribute video entitled “A Universe not made for Us.” We’ll hear Dr. Steven Novella reviewing a recent study looking at the association of strokes with chiropractic cervical manipulations from last weeks Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast. Then finally, Daniel Fincke is a professor who has moved out of the university setting to teach philosophy online using interactive video conferencing technology (Google Hangouts) to offer affordable, private philosophy classes to people around the world. He joins the hosts of Atheist Talk, a radio show and podcast produced by Minnesota Atheists and talks about his personal journey from faith to a naturalistic worldview and how he’s pioneering this new model of instruction.
Dr. Dan Fincke, atheist & proponent of philosophy for everyone, online.
On Freethought Radio, Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor talk about the latest developments with the Kountze, Texas bible-banner cheerleaders, and the FFRF state/church victory over a restaurant offering a discount for prayer and celebrate the birthday of freethinking composer Claude Debussy. Their guest this week is FFRF attorney Sam Grover, who will explain how he convinced the Navy to remove Christian bibles from Naval accommodations.World War I began a century ago, this year: a conflict which cost more than 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians their lives, and shaped the the world we know today. How did reasonable people let “The Great War” begin, and what can reasonable people today learn from it? Christopher Capozzola is an MIT professor in political and legal history, war, and the military, and author of Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen. Josh Zepps talks with Dr. Cappazola about how day-to-day rationality can spiral off into madness. Then, we’ll hear from an Ithacan on a subject much on people’s minds in these parts: hydrofracking. Cornell University engineering professor Anthony Ingraffea is Chris Mooney’s guest on the latest installment of the Inquiring Minds podcast and he explains how new data make hydrofracking shale look more dangerous, not less. The problem, Ingraffea says, is not just groundwater contamination, but also earthquake generation and the accidental emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
[audio http://dl.dropbox.com/s/sdrte10tqr7boc7/SkepSun_08_17_2014.mp3 ]
Cornell Professor Anthony Ingraffea and the science of fracking
On this week’s Skeptical Sunday we celebrate the birthday of Robert Green Ingersoll, Freethought author, reform advocate, politician and orator born in Dresden, NY on the western shore of Seneca Lake on August 11, 1833. We’ll hear his complete lecture from 1884 entitled “Which Way?” in the second hour of the show. Also celebrating the birthday of the “Great Agnostic” are Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor on Freethought Radio. Additionally, they’ll correct right-wing media that are mischaracterizing FFRF’s recent IRS victory over politicking pastors. They talk with Roane County (Tennessee) Commissioner Steve Kelley, an atheist, about why he voted against “In God We Trust” being installed at the county offices and courthouse. In between we’ll have a look at chelation therapy. It’s a legitimate treatment for heavy metal poisoning, but some claim it’s effective against cardiovascular disease, autism, and many other diseases and conditions. The Skeptic Rogues of the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe have a look on the Skeptic’s Guide 5×5.
A celebration of Robert Green Ingersoll takes place Saturday August 16 in Amherst, NY. For more information go to http://www.secularhumanism.org/ingersollcon/.
Also see these link for the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum: http://www.rgimuseum.org/
and the Freethought Trail: http://www.freethought-trail.org/
Robert Green Ingersoll born in Dresden, NY, August 11, 1833
Atheism, albinism and artificial intelligence. What do they have in common? They’re all subjects of this weeks show. On Freethought Radio we’ll hear how the religious right and FOX News are upset about the FFRF’s IRS church-electioneering victory, we’ll hear Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg talking about the Hobby Lobby decision, and we’ll celebrate the birthdays of freethinkers James Baldwin and Rupert Brooke. Then Annie Laurie and Dan talk with author and professor Anthony Pinn about his new memoir,Writing God’s Obituary: How a Good Methodist Became a Better Atheist. Then, what do you know or think you know about albinism? Horrifically, people with albinism are still murdered for their body parts in some parts of Africa, but even in the developed world certain myths about albinos live on. Brian Dunning has a look at facts and the fictions associated with albinism on Skeptoid. Did you know that an artificial intelligence named “Eugene Goostman” recently passed the Turing Test, the gold standard criterion for whether an AI is conscious? At least, that’s what many media outlets reported. In this episode of Rationally Speaking, Julia Galef and Massimo Pigliucci take a critical look at Eugene and at the Turing test in general as a standard for consciousness. In the process they debate what it would mean for an AI to be conscious, and how we could ever tell.
Alan Turing, of the “Turing test.”
Skeptical Sunday 