Yes it’s the next Skeptic Vodcast, this week featuring part 1 of my interview with Skepchick Rebecca Watson. There’s also another Super Speedy Science and Scepticism book review, this week it’s Jon Ronson’s ‘Out of the Ordinary’.
This is your final reminder that Susan Blackmore is kicking off the APRU’s Invited Speaker Series today at 6.10 pm in Room 256, Richard Hoggart Building, Goldsmiths, University of London, New Cross, London SE14 6NW (for maps, directions, etc., visit the College web site: www.goldsmiths.ac.uk NB: if you do not know your way around Goldsmiths, allow enough time to find the room. Note that it is NOT the room we used last year!)
The title of Susan’s talk is “Is God a Dangerous Meme?” and here is her abstract:
God is certainly a meme; an idea (or set of loosely related ideas) that is copied from person to person, and shows a fascinating variety of survival tricks. Not only does the God meme satisfy minds that were not evolved to accurately assess the origins of the universe or the likelihood of life after death, but wraps itself up in religious memeplexes that use threats and promises to ensure their own propagation. But is it dangerous? Taking a memetic perspective we can ask how religious memes manage to infect so many people and how this infection affects individuals, societies, or indeed the whole planet.
Biography
Sue Blackmore is a freelance writer, lecturer and broadcaster, and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She has a degree in psychology and physiology from Oxford University (1973) and a PhD in parapsychology from the University of Surrey (1980). Her research interests include memes, evolutionary theory, consciousness, and meditation. She practices Zen and campaigns for drug legalization. Sue Blackmore no longer works on the paranormal
Dr Sam Parnia’s talk on 23/02/2010 entitled “Near Death Experiences During Cardiac Arrest” will be live streamed via The Skeptic. The stream will be available shortly before the event.
Dany | Tuesday, 1 December, 2009
