– Date – March 18, 2014
– Send your cool ‘SCIENCE!’ shout-outs to
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– Theme song by Steve Seamans of the Daisy Dillman Band. Get the song HERE.
– Thank you to everyone who has been purchasing books, Skepticality stuff, or using our Amazon link to help us!
– Check out the new Cosmos!
– Hear Skepticality episodes with Ann Druyan and Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
Skepticism Skepticism, Past and Future [1:25]
– The Aztec, New Mexico UFO hoax of March 1948 was perpetrated by two scammers attempting to sell a divination device as stolen alien technology.
– It was picked up in some press accounts, which were eventually echoed in the Guy Hottel FBI memo of March 22, 1950.
– Jose Escamilla claims to have first photographed the blurry flying bugs he claims are paranormal “rods” on March 19, 1994, 20 years ago this week.
– The Pons & Fleischmann cold fusion press conference was March 23, 1989, 25 years ago this week.
– The Skepticism Convention Guide currently lists over 250 past events and 30 upcoming events relating to skepticism, worldwide.
– The skepticism coverage on Lanyrd contains over one thousand items including over 500 videos, 350 write-ups, 170 photo galleries and more. Use the buttons and links down the right side of the page to filter the results.
– Get updates from the guide on Twitter at @SkepConGuide and there is a Facebook page and a Google Plus page Please follow, circle, like and +1 as much as possible – it helps make it visible to other skeptics.
– Skeptic History facts are posted daily on social media find out where on this page at Tim’s blog.
Wikipedia [9:25]
– Susan Gerbic
– Cosmos.
– The Skeptic Wikipedia Project.
Skeptical Humanities [14:00]
– Sir Francis Drake.
– Skeptical Humanities.
The Odds Must Be Crazy [20:00]
– The Odds Must Be Crazy.
– This week’s featured story is, “Amazing Find Inside of Used Bible“.
– Story was submitted by Skepticality listener, Emery Emery.
– Visit the story link for a more detailed analysis and to add your comments.
– Additional thoughts and considerations provided by Barbara Drescher.
– Our theme music comes to us courtesy of Brian Keith Dalton, AKA Mr. Deity.
– Please visit The Independent Investigations Group Los Angeles.
– The Odds Must Be Crazy can be found on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
– Wendy Hughes is on Twitter.
– John Rael is on Twitter.
– Edward Clint is on Twitter.
– Barbara Drescher is on Twitter.
– Brian Keith Dalton is on Twitter.
– Thanks to our friends Emery Emery, Heather Henderson and Blythe Renay for hospitality and support for the production of the segment. Visit them at http://skepticallyyours.net/.
Interview: Dale McGowan [25:15]
– Dale McGowan is the Executive Director of the Foundation Beyond Belief.
– Foundation Beyond Belief is a membership foundation which distributes donations to vetted charities which promote humanist, secular, skeptic and science minded efforts.
– Was a professor in Minnesota at a Catholic College before becoming a full time writer.
– The Pathfinders Project is a new group which is a global humanist corps.
– Things like building latrines in Haiti are issues which make a huge difference.
– They have some work ongoing in places like Uganda, which has big issues at the leadership level.
– The Foundation has a dedicated group of people who make sure all the charities which they work with are actually living up to their stated goals.
– Some charities actually will refuse money from the foundation because they are Humanist, or not religious based.
– 100% of the money donated actually goes to the stated charities goes directly to the charities.
– If you are interested in helping and getting involved in one of thier volenteer groups you can go to their website and write them an e-mail.
Interview: Karen Stollznow [25:15]
– She recently moved to Denver.
– Has written, Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic, Haunting America, and currently ‘God Bless America‘.
– Being from Australia where they recently had a ‘out’ Atheist prime minister she found the religious nature of the USA a bit strange.
– Mormonism is often called one of the ‘All American’ religions.
– It is a varied and deeply divided religion, especially in regards to the practice of polygamy.
– A shocking bit of information is that there is a lot of Mormon based human trafficking from Canada to satisfy some of their fundamentalist sects.
– Warren Jeffs had many… many… wives.
– Due to some of the in-breeding within some groups there is a high instance of particular diseases.
– Amish and Mennonites are Anabaptists, who do not get baptized until you choose to become part of their religion.
– There are many different sects within the Amish and Mennonite society.
– Even though those within the Mennonite sect are less ‘strict’, they still dress very conservative.
– Many Amish who drive horse and buggy will not place reflectors or warning systems on their buggies for night driving, which leads to quite a few accidents.
– The Amish have their own language, Pennsylvania Dutch which is a very interesting and intriguing language.
– There has been a glut of Amish based reality television in the past few years.
– Rumspringa is the ‘popular’ time when the kids go out to find out if they want to be part of the religion or not.
– Pentecostal and Charismatics have many practices like speaking in tongues, believing riches fall from the sky, and others…
– The Pentecostal/Charismatics make up about 25% of the Christian population in America.
– Some of the Charismatics have gone as far as attempting to make people believe that the fillings in their teeth have been turned to gold by the holy spirit.
– ‘Prosperity Gospel‘ preachers get their followers to hand over/donate much of their money to appease God.
– Prosperity leaders tend to go after older citizens and attempt to get them to donate much of their money and savings.
Rev.com text transcription! [31:45]
– You can download the text transcription of Episode 226 here.
– Thanks to Margo Edwards and Rev.com for the very fast transcription!
Outro Music [31:45]
– Outro music donated by Trent Brusky of Dropfox.
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