In this 100th episode of the Science Salon podcast Dr. Shermer gives a brief overview and history of the salon and how it evolved from the Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, which began in 1992, along with the founding of the Skeptics Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit science education organization, and it’s publication Skeptic magazine. Following this brief history Dr. Shermer answers questions sent to him on social media, on such topics as:
- ETIs and the chances we’ve been visited by aliens
- Generic Subjective Continuity, a secular version of reincarnation, and what happens after we die
- Trump-style propaganda and how to deal with it
- Should we separate artist from artwork, e.g., Michael Jackson’s music or Adolf Hitler’s paintings?
- Eliminative Materialism (a type of determinism) and its implication for moral progress
- How reliable are eyewitnesses, particularly those in the Bible, particularly with regard to stories about miracles?
- When did you first learn that we are made of stardust and how did this change your thinking?
- How much power do Christian Nationalists have in the U.S. today?
- Have you changed your mind about science, religion, health, and politics in the past ten years?
- Will we ever reach an end of scientific knowledge and understanding?
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This episode was released on January 21, 2020.
