Michael Shermer Announces Skepticism 101
I am exceptionally proud to announce today the beta launching of Skepticism 101: The Skeptical Studies Curriculum Resource Center, where we provide skeptical resources, freely available to anyone, anywhere, anytime. Brought to you by the Skeptics Society and under the direction of Anondah Saide and William Bull, Skepticism 101 is a resource center for educators, teachers, administrators, students, and skeptics in all fields and walks of life to provide you with the resources you need to teach people how to think skeptically and critically about any and all claims.
We Are All Teachers. We Are All Educators.
Every time you talk to someone anywhere about anything you have an opportunity to teach skepticism and critical thinking, both of which are at the core of science. We want to change the world. Ideas and how to think about them is at the foundation of all change, especially beliefs. To that end we have launched Skepticism 101 and invite you to get involved by contributing any materials that you think might be relevant, interesting, and important to our cause of making the world a better place through reason and science. We are looking for suggested readings, course syllabi, PowerPoint presentations, student projects, papers, and videos that you have written and/or produced, and anything else you can think of that might be relevant. You can browse resources by topic (e.g. psychics), resource type (e.g. course syllabi), academic discipline (e.g. biology), or academic level (e.g. college).
Thank you to everyone who has contributed thus far—in both educational materials and financial support—and I invite you all to make a contribution in any way you can. Think of this as the launching of a Skeptical Library of Alexandria! To participate contact the Skepticism 101 Resource Center Director Anondah Saide: skepticism101@skeptic.com
In addition to those who contributed teaching materials we are especially grateful to our significant supporters in last year’s fundraising campaign on behalf of Skepticism 101: Bill Nye, Steven Ridley, Robert Engman, Richard Epstein, Jones Hamilton, James Alexander, Jean Bettanny, Arnold Lau, David Kaloyanides, Jeff Kodosky, Marvin Mueller, and Michael Roberts. Special thanks go to Tyson Jacobsen, who also attended Michael Shermer’s first official course in skepticism last fall, “Skepticism 101: How to Think Like a Scientist Without Being a Geek.”
I would like the Skeptics to address the most pressing issues such as debt. Please address the concepts of money and the historic differences in America in which money has been viewed.
There is no other issue which is more important to address and produce some objective assessments. Such as the mathematical law of exponential change.
Should a country control the issuance of its own money and how best might the base money supply be controlled.
Although these are political questions I think it is time to address political issues in as clear and objective manner as any other issue concerning human activities might be approached.
Interesting idea.
I’m concerned that jumping into such a politically charged issue while Skeptics 101 is trying to get its feet under itself might be premature. I’d say it needs to build some ‘street cred’ before tackling ‘hot button’ issues – regardless of which side it takes. Another topic that’s perhaps too hot to touch is abortion. Even discussing “What are the biological considerations of deciding when is a fetus a ‘person’?” is liable to draw venomous attacks no matter how sensitive – and objective – the treatment.
I started to look for the same information. So far, I have a sense that debt is the amount of money in circulation. Beyond that assertion, I too, want the objective truths about debt, money and poverty. How are they related to each other?. Is there a better way for civilization to account for our apparently universal need to own things?….especially money. Should there be a world wide currency, that is not based on winners and losers, but rather the equitable sharing of this global spacecraft’s resources? We all are looking for tough answers. We are not looking to be made comfortable.
What we have in the USA is called fiat currency – the treasury prints more paper dollars any time it’s ordered to (by the Federal Reserve) devaluing all existing money in circulation. And even though they can print more money any time they want, they still have us multi-trillions in debt. Books such as Ron Pauls “End the Fed” explain the entire corrupt system in detail.
I would be very disappointed if the former direction and format were downplayed or changed to an Economics 101 blog.
We need a central venue for resources combating the prevalence of Antiscence and Magickal thinking, which appears to be a losing battle at present.
Dr S.
I have a question for Dr Schermer and his dedicated staff – which relates to the Skepticism 101 resource:
Is there any possibility of a venue for *serious* popular science writers to submit drafts of texts for *serious* critiques? Since it would be to get feedback on works in progress, it would not be a public forum. The Skeptic could host it, but the labor comes from the community of members who read and provide feedback in exchange for receiving the same.
This workshop would be dual purpose: it would produce quality writings about science for Skepticism 101 and it would improve the quality and quantity of science writers.
Thank you so much for making the excellent Skepticism 101 resources available. Great food for the mind.