- call to action: Help the Skeptics Society at No Cost to You!
- Skeptic magazine: subscribe & get Vol. 15, No. 1 as your first issue
- new product: Shermer’s Course: War: History, Causes & Solutions
- MichaelShermer.com: Religion: a Force for Good or Evil in the World?
- SkepticBlog: Onward Christian Soldiers!
HELP THE SKEPTICS SOCIETY
AT NO COST TO YOU!
The economy is hammering magazines and nonprofit organizations, and the Skeptics Society is not immune. Donations are very welcome, but we’d like to suggest a way you can help at zero cost to you.
Do you shop at Amazon.com? What if there were a way for the Skeptics Society to make a commission off every Amazon purchase you make — all without costing you a penny?
screenshot from Firefox browser
There is, and it’s easy. Just start your Amazon.com (US) shopping by clicking on this Skeptic Amazon link. Be sure to check out our affiliate links page where you’ll also find links for Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, and iTunes as well!
Bookmark the link
For those web savvy types who want to bookmark the Skeptic Amazon link, just right-click (or ctrl-click) the link and choose the “add bookmark” (or similarly worded option) from the menu.
It will only take seconds, but it will help us for years. Whenever you shop at Amazon, use this link, and nothing else will change for you: your prices for all Amazon products will remain exactly the same, yet you’ll provide essential financial support for the work of the nonprofit Skeptics Society.
Subscribe to Skeptic magazine
and get this as your first issue
Skeptic Volume 15, Number 1
In this issue: “The Greatest Story Ever Garbled”—a Christian Origins Conspiracy Theory; Everything I Needed to Know about Skepticism I Learned from Scooby-Doo; SkepDoc on Homeopathy; Placebos; Stage a UFO Hoax; Atheism a Stealth Religion?; Criminal Injustice; Testing Orgone Energy; Matt Ridley on Evolutionary Economics; Ape Language Controversy; Science of Love, and more…
Join Michael Shermer in the Classroom!
War: History, Causes & Solutions
A couple months ago, we brought out Michael Shermer’s college course on the History of Science. Now we are pleased to announce that Dr. Shermer’s course entitled “War: History, Causes, Solutions” is available for purchase in a handsome boxed set of audio CDs with MP3 files of 36 lectures (27 hours in total). That is only $2.75 per lecture, less than a Starbucks’ latté! Order your copy now, and if you don’t already own Dr. Shermer’s History of Science course you can purchase both courses together for an additional $51, for a total of $150 for both sets!
These CDs are designed to play on MP3 players, computers & newer automotive CD players. Over 25 hours of lectures are compressed into only three CDs.
Is Religion a Force for Good or Evil in the World?
Michael Shermer and Dinesh D’Souza go toe-to-toe on some of the greatest issues related to science and religion: is there evidence for God’s existence, what is the proper relationship between science and religion, and has religion been a force for good or evil in the world?
Stay up-to-date with new additions to MichaelShermer.com GET the RSS
Onward Christian Soldiers!
While you’re there be sure to read the blog posts of the other Skepticbloggers: Brian Dunning, Kirsten Sanford, Mark Edward, Phil Plait, Ryan Johnson, Steven Novella, and Yau-Man Chan.
Hi I only recently noticed Skeptics and am not particularly well read. I would like to know the structure of the Sceptics organisation as it seems their are a number of requests for support/money. This means that as a sceptical person I currently see this site as similar to many ‘religious’ groups in that you gather together a number of like minded people and get them to support the system, in this way those who run the system/religion take out living expenses or payment for work done for the society. The payout to members is in the form of belonging to a group.
Groups and religions et al are good for government because the group can be moved/influenced by its leadership so all governments have to do is influence/control the leaders. This is great for government because it means they can get support even from many who may not be in accord with them but go along with their group leadership. Skeptics is picking up the people with some intellect who do not identify with religion (seeing it for the distorted belief mechanism it is), by pursuing and rebutting theories put forward by those they see as trying to exert control over people with a belief problem. This is a good thing but comes back to my original question, is Skeptics a money/power making resource for Dr Shermer and or a number of unseen individuals? Even if Skeptics is non profit making what are the true views or direction of those behind it and where does it/they want to take its followers?
I have seen some posts about taking on groups by giving them bad ratings on the net etc.; this may not be a good strategy as like Skeptics, religions use the defence instinct inherent in groups (even small family groups) by pointing out a supposed threat, if there is no threat there is little left for religions to grab, they are pushed toward the positive -rejoice about the good stuff. Even when ‘they’ do this they are still influencing a group which can then be misled.
Conclusion
All groups that are not totally democratic and open with NO leaders are at risk of being manipulated. This post is not and attack or any form of accusation on or about any individual or group, simply observations by an individual. i.e. I have no desire to cause offence or be litigated against for asking/observing.
Not at all, Steve, it’s a common question. The Skeptics Society is a US 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization, which is legally able to accept donations and issue tax receipts. It is funded through direct sales of educational material, and also by private donations.
Comparisons to religious groups are, I think, a bit of a stretch for a science literacy organization. A better analogy would be PBS: we sometimes request donations to assist us in producing high-quality educational material with minimal advertising. In addition, public support allows us to fulfill our science outreach / public service mandate by making expert advice available to the media, pursuing investigative journalism, and doing consumer protection reporting on fringe science claims.
The practice of dropping in an affiliate link for sales not actually referred by Skeptic.com is deceptive — if I was Amazon I certainly would not consider this ethical. Surely there are less grey ways of keeping the organisation afloat?
Michael,
Thank you for raising this concern. We took it directly to Amazon.com and they said,
They also recommended,
So, we have set that up on our site as well.
You will find our new affiliate links page here:
http://www.skeptic.com/get_involved/affiliate_links.html
Much as I would have like to set up that suggestion regarding Amazon.com, I am pretty much a computer illiterate and don’t get the instructions above. Can there be more detailed instructions?
Just to make sure we are using the link correctly, could you publish the exact URL?
Thanks.
B. David
The exact URL is:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fgp%2Fhomepage.html&tag=skepticcom-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957But, it will redirect almost instantly to:http://www.amazon.com/gp/homepage.html
You don’t want to bookmark http://www.amazon.com/gp/homepage.html even though that’s where you end up. You always want to start from the link that has the Skeptic affiliate code in it. Even though it redirects, Amazon registers the affiliate code.UPDATE: June 26, 2009
To make it easier, I’ve created a shorter URL that visibly maintains our affiliate ID, so everyone can be sure they’ve either clicked or bookmarked our affiliate link successfully. The new URL for our Amazon.com link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect-home?tag=skepticcom-20&site=home
Our affiliate links page has been updated accordingly.
The Religion Commandments in the Constitution: A Primer
This book should be available through Skeptic.
Author Gene Garman seeks to promote an accurate understanding of the founding constitutional principles for the United States of America and addresses what the “Religious Right” distorts.
William, this is exactly what happened when I followed the instructions, but how do we KNOW that we have done this correctly and that the Skeptics Society will be credited?
I usually start with Amazon’s detailed search page. If I go there to look for titles and add them to my cart, can I then access my cart through the Skeptics Society/Amazon link to make my purchase and give the Skeptics Society credit, or if not, can I access the detailed search page directly through a different Skeptics Society/Amazon link?
Will we see a statement at any point that tells us how much our purchases are worth to the Skeptics Society?
Yrs,
CTew
As long as you start from our affiliate link, you can browse and purchase items at Amazon the way you normally would. Using our affiliate link won’t change your experience of shopping at Amazon. You won’t see how much your purchases are worth to the Skeptics Society. It’s a small percentage that varies based on the number of referrals, among other criteria. Detailed information about Amazon’s Affiliate Program is readily available on their website.
If you want to be sure you’ve bookmarked the correct URL to ensure that Skeptic gets a commission, simply manage or edit your bookmark and see if the bookmarked URL is the long URL I noted above rather than the short one. Don’t bookmark the short URL. Bookmark the long URL.
We’ve now created an affiliate links page to hold all our affiliate links. We’ve received several requests about affiliate links for Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca and Amazon.de and have already added those to the page.
I’ve bookmarked the Amazon.com link and will use it. However, I live in Canada and buy most of my books from Amazon.ca. Do you have a link to the Canadian site as well?
Yes, Jim, we’ve just added one. You’ll now find a button link to Amazon.ca (and Amazon.co.uk) on our affiliate links page: http://www.skeptic.com/get_involved/affiliate_links.html
As for the US Amazon.com, web-savvy users can right-click (or ctrl-click) those button links and choose “add bookmark” (or a similarly worded option) to set bookmarks to the Canadian and UK stores, and this will help the Skeptics Society on an ongoing basis.