Announcing the New Season of Lectures at Caltech
Mark your calendar! The Skeptics Society is pleased to announce its new season of the Skeptics Distinguished Lecture Series at Caltech. This continues the seventeen-year-long series, presenting over 225 lectures by some of the most distinguished experts in the world. Unless otherwise stated, all lectures take place in Baxter Lecture Hall, Caltech, Pasadena, CA. Book signings will follow all lectures.
Ticket Information
Tickets are first come first served at the door (unless otherwise noted below). Seating is limited. $8. for Skeptics Society members and the JPL/Caltech community, $10. for nonmembers. Your admission fee is a donation that pays for our lecture expenses.
36 Arguments for
the Existence of God:
A Work of Fiction
with Dr. Rebecca Goldstein
Sunday, January 31, 2010 at 2 pm
MACARTHUR “GENIUS” FELLOW Rebecca Goldstein (Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton and author of The Mind-Body Problem, Properties of Light, and studies of Kurt Gödel and Baruch Spinoza) reads from her new novel and speaks about how she uses her characters to explore the tension between belief and skepticism. These positions cannot be understood through rational argument alone—they also must be explored from the point of view of individual people caught in the raptures and torments of religious experience in all their variety. 36 Arguments for the Existence of God plunges into the great debate of our day: the clash between faith and reason. World events are being shaped by fervent believers at home and abroad, while a new atheism is asserting itself in the public sphere. On purely intellectual grounds the skeptics would seem to have everything on their side. Yet people refuse to accept their seemingly irrefutable arguments and continue to embrace faith in God as their source of meaning, purpose, and comfort. Why? Goldstein gives us her answer through fiction and philosophy.
Natural Experiments
of History
with Dr. Jared Diamond
Beckman Auditorium
Sunday, February 28, 2010 at 2 pm
Come early for our $5–$10 book sale!
SOME CENTRAL QUESTIONS in the natural and social sciences can’t be answered by controlled laboratory experiments, often considered to be the hallmark of the scientific method. This impossibility holds for any science concerned with the past. In addition, many manipulative experiments, while possible, would be considered immoral or illegal. One has to devise other methods of observing, describing, and explaining the world.
READ about this lecture…
Special Pricing for Diamond’s lecture
$12 Skeptics Society members/Caltech/JPL community; $18 everyone else. Tickets may be purchased in advance through the Caltech ticket office at 626-395-4652 or at the door. Ordering ahead of time is recommended. The Caltech ticket office asks that you do not leave a message. Instead call between 12:00 and 5:00 Monday through Friday.
Does God have a Future?
A Great Debate Filmed by ABC’s Nightline
Deepak Chopra & Jean Houston v. Michael Shermer & Sam Harris
Beckman Auditorium
Sunday, March 14, 2010 at 2 pm
This is a free event that you absolutely will not want to miss! Since we expect to fill the hall, you must reserve tickets in advance to attend (maximum of 10) through the Caltech ticket office at 626-395-4652. The Caltech ticket office asks that you do not leave a message. Instead call between 12:00 and 5:00 Monday through Friday. If you are too late to reserve a ticket you can come the day of the event in case there are cancellations or no-shows.
This debate will be filmed and appear in a 30-minute edited version on ABC Nightline approximately two weeks after the event. A complete version of the debate will also be available on the show’s website around the same time.
This event is now SOLD OUT. You can still come on the day of the event in case there are cancellations or no-shows. There is a possibility that the lecture will be broadcast over speakers outside the venue. So, you can listen from outside if you cannot get into the lecture. READ about the speakers…
The Drunkard’s Walk:
How Randomness Rules Our Lives
with Dr. Leonard Mlodinow
Sunday, March 21, 2010 at 2 pm
A DRUNKARD’S WALK is a type of random statistical distribution with important applications in scientific studies ranging from biology to astronomy. Mlodinow, a visiting lecturer at Caltech and coauthor with Stephen Hawking of A Briefer History of Time, takes us on a walk through the hills and valleys of randomness and how it directs our lives more than we realize. READ about this lecture…
On Fact & Fraud:
Cautionary Tales from
the Front Lines of Science
with Dr. David Goodstein
Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 2 pm
FRAUD IN SCIENCE is not as easy to identify as one might think. When accusations of scientific misconduct occur, truth can often be elusive, and the cause of a scientist’s ethical misstep isn’t always clear. In his lecture based on his new book, On Fact and Fraud, Caltech physicist David Goodstein looks at actual cases in which fraud was committed or alleged, explaining what constitutes scientific misconduct and what doesn’t, and outlines some ethical foundations needed to discern and avoid fraud wherever it may arise. READ about this lecture…
How the Economy Works:
Confidence, Crashes
& Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
with Dr. Roger E. A. Farmer
Sunday, May 2, 2010 at 2 pm
In this lecture based on his new book, How the Economy Works, one of our leading economists, the UCLA professor Roger Farmer, provides a jargon-free exploration of the current crisis, offering a powerful argument for how economics must change to get us out of it. READ about this lecture…
Adventures Among the Ants:
A Global Safari with
a Cast of Trillions
with Dr. Mark Moffett
Sunday, May 23, 2010 at 2 pm
INTREPID INTERNATIONAL EXPLORER, biologist, and National Geographic photographer Mark W. Moffett, “the Indiana Jones of entomology,” takes us around the globe on a strange and colorful journey in search of the hidden world of ants. In tales from Nigeria, Indonesia, the Amazon, Australia, California, and elsewhere, Moffett recounts his entomological exploits and provides fascinating details on how ants live and how they dominate their ecosystems through strikingly human behaviors, yet at a different scale and a faster tempo. READ about this lecture…
Death, Sex & Evolution
with Dr. John Long
Sunday, June 13, 2010 at 2 pm
IN THIS RIVETING STORY about his remarkable discoveries from the Gogo fossil site in the Kimberly district of Western Australia, the Australian paleontologist John Long, now Vice President of Research and Collections at the Natural History Museum of L.A. County, takes us beyond just reconstructing animal morphology and into the realm of restoring ancient behavior. READ about this lecture…
