This years event will have many familiar faces from past TAM’s such as Phil Plait, Penn Jillette, Teller, Adam Savage, Michael Shermer, and the Amazing One himself, James Randi. This years key note speaker is Sir Richard Dawkins (I knighted him) and he is backed up by many new faces like CFI founder Paul Kurtz, Daily Show writer David Javerbaum, Author Carol Tavris, Paranormal Investigator Joe Nickell,  enemy to all British chiropractors Simon Singh, and many more.

The first TAM was held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida but they have been held in Las Vegas every year after that. The JREF branched out with more then one TAM a year in 2008 and hosted its first ever TAM outside of the United States last year in London, England, which sold out within hours of registration opening. This year, in addition to TAM 8 in Las Vegas and the second TAM London, there will also be TAM Australia which will be in Sydney.

For more information about The Amazing Meeting 8 visit the official website here: http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/amazing-meeting.html

Sacramento Area Skeptics December Newsletter

Some movies have been filmed in such a way that it gives off the impression that it was real, such as “The Blair Witch Project” or the much more recent “Paranormal Activity”. Making it seem as if it had been filmed mainly on hand held cameras by the characters themselves, giving the sense that it may have actually taken place.  “Paranormal Activity” even went as far as having no introductory or closing credits just a note (SPOILER ALERT) dedicating the movie to the two main characters. Aside from the occasional rumors that these movies may have been real, any research or a quick run to the internet movie database will show a list of actors and production crews involved. Other movies however, have chosen to advertise there films as actually based on true events.

I am bringing this up in light of the new movie “The Fourth Kind” which comes out today. It’s viral advertising campaign has pitched it as “based on actual case studies” of alien abductions. In introducing the film, actress Milla Jovovich, tells us that “every scene in this movie is supported by archived footage”. The title harks back to a scale created by Ufologist J. Allen Hynek which breaks down the levels and types of encounters someone can have with extraterrestrials. The third kind is seeing actual ET’s (Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”) with the fourth kind being abduction. The movie is supposed to retell the story of a psychologist’s sleep study of traumatized citizens in the remote town Nome, Alaska. After interviewing her patients she came to believe that they were being abducted by aliens. This as well as the fact that Nome has a history of its residents going missing adds to the mystery behind the story.

So what are the facts behind the claims this movie is making? As for the 20 or so missing people since the 1960’s, the FBI came to conclude that a large number of these cases had to do with the high level of alcohol consumption in the town of Nome mixed with the harsh winter climate, the report continued that there was also no evidence of foul play for many of these cases. Despite this report rumors are abound in and around the town that many of these missing cases had been something other than clumsy drunks; however, allegations that these could be due to alien abductions seem to be a new one for many of the citizens. The movie also includes archived documentary footage which it claims to be real, with no actor credits for those in the footage, but many have noticed that the acting in these segments are unimaginably bad, and Roger Ebert hints that this would be against doctor-patient confidentiality, and of all the people to release them to, why a horror film?

What about the psychologist’s sleep studies and her alien abduction claims? Well, there is a problem with that too, no one is aware of the alleged psychologist and no one has heard of her studies, including the Alaskan licensing board and the Alaskan psychologists association. If you try to find evidence that this psychologist ever existed you will be hard pressed to find anything. Reporter, Kyle Hopkins, back in September noticed that the only thing he could find were:

“…a convincingly boring Web site called the “Alaska Psychiatry Journal” — complete with a biography of a psychologist by that name who researched sleep behavior in Nome. Except the site is suspiciously vacant, mostly a collection of articles on sleep studies with no home page or contact information.”

Another site, www.alaskanewsarchive.com, features a story from the Nome Nugget about Tyler moving to Nome for research. The problem? The story is credited to Nugget editor and publisher Nancy McGuire, who says it’s baloney and she never wrote it.

Hopkins later found that the Alaska Psychiatry Journal has never existed and both of the above domain names had been created in August of 2009, which coincidentally corresponds with when the movie started its advertising campaign. Since Hopkins post, both websites have now been removed. Past paranormal horror films that have advertised that they were based on true stories include the “Amityville Horror” and “A Haunting in Connecticut” which will undoubtedly get under a skeptics skin; however, this film would appear to have taken it to the next level, forging archival footage, websites, authors, and even academic journals in an attempt to deceive their potential audience.

There is another movie inspired by actual events that came out today, “Men Who Stare at Goats”, except this one skeptics can get behind. Adapted from the book of the same name written by Jon Ronson. “Men Who Stare at Goats” follows a reporter (based on Ronson) who by happenstance runs into a retired psychic soldier who is reinstated after the September 11th terrorist attacks. It takes a humorous look into the secret United States Army program, researching the potential military applications of psychic phenomena. A giant waste of time and money but a great story to be told.

Recommended reading and related links:

Alaskan reporter Kyle Hopkins researches the claims made by “The Fourth Kind”

Roger Ebert Reviews “The Fourth Kind”

Roger Ebert Reviews “Men Who Stare at Goats” *Note the shout out to Skeptic Magazine

Skepticality interview with “Men Who Stare at Goats” author Jon Ronson

The differences between skeptics and atheists have come front and center recently after Bill Maher was announced to receive the Richard Dawkins Award by the Atheist Alliance International. Maher hit it off with the atheist community after his movie Religulous came out, which culminated in being awarded the prize at the AAI convention in Burbank, California this last weekend. An atheist organization giving an atheist a prize is not of concern to skeptics; however, when the criteria for the award states:

“The Richard Dawkins Award will be given every year to honor an outstanding atheist whose contributions raise public awareness of the nontheist life stance; who through writings, media, the arts, film, and/or the stage advocates increased scientific knowledge; who through work or by example teaches acceptance of the nontheist philosophy; and whose public posture mirrors the uncompromising nontheist life stance of Dr. Richard Dawkins”.

Skeptics should cringe. Bill Maher has a long history of promoting anti-science. He is an anit-vaccine, germ theory denialist, who openly shares his delusion that western medicine is a conspiracy theory to make money and keep everyone sick. To any critical thinking skeptic Bill Maher is an Enemy of Reason.

Atheism is the lack of belief in a god, it says nothing about what someone actually does believe in. Sam Harris himself stated at the 2007 AAI convention that atheism is not a worldview or a philosophy. It is not incompatible to identify oneself as an atheist and someone who believes in astrology, psychics, or alternative medicine. Sasha Pixlee likes to say that people become atheists one of two ways, by thinking critically about the subject and the world around them, or because they are mad at their parents. There have been several movements attempting to unite those with purely naturalistic worldviews, these include Freethinkers, Secular Humanists, or the Sacramento based Brights; however, even with the popularity of some of these the nomenclature “atheist” is still favored.

Also Check out:

For more information on Bill Maher’s anti-science visit Orac’s blog Respectful Insolence.

Why I am Not an Atheist by Robert T. Carroll

What do I do Next Edited by Daniel Laxton