September features the hugest month of great events yet for Reason Australia

In the lead up to our much anticipated official launch, Reason Australia are compiling a one-stop calendar of events nationwide that may be of interest to our members, supporters and friends.

If you are hosting or are aware of an event that is not yet featured on the Reason Australia events page, please contact our media and community relations manager via the following email address:

If you are holding or know of an event that is not yet featured on the Reason Australia events page, please contact our media and community relations manager via the following email address:

jayson.cooke@reasonaustralia.org

Please feel free to provide feedback via the above contact as well.

Jayson D Cooke

A BETTER LIFE FOR AFRICANS

Can science aid the battle against superstition?

Can rational thinking stop children being burnt as witches?

 Speaker: Leo Igwe

 Leo Igwe is the founder of the Nigerian Humanist Movement, the Nigerian Skeptics Society and former director of the Centre for Inquiry/Nigeria. He works for the International Humanist and Ethical Union as its director in West and Southern Africa. He also represents the IHEU at the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights in Banjul, Gambia. He has written numerous articles on human rights, humanism, scepticism and free thought in Africa.

Leo has been arrested and beaten by the Nigerian police and local gangs as a result of his campaigns against superstition, injustices and fanaticism. Recently he spent much of his time rescuing alleged witch children in the south of the country. He will talk about the consequences of challenging such beliefs. He will also discuss the role that scientific and critical thinking can play in improving the life of the average African and the future of the continent.

On 23 August Leo will visit the Gold Coast during a speaking tour sponsored by Australian Skeptics Inc. The Gold Coast event will be held at Gold Coast Little Theatre, 21a Scarborough Street, Southport starting at 7.30 pm.

After the presentation, supper will be served in the GCLT green room. This will be a great opportunity to ask Leo questions and share ideas with other members of the audience.

For catering purposes, bookings are essential.

Contact -

Lilian Derrick: phone 5593 2776 or email: lderrick@bigpond.net.au

Frank Culell: phone 5562 1869 or email: fmculell@bigpond.com

at

Gold Coast Little Theatre, 21a Scarborough St, Southport

Tuesday 23 August 2011 at 7.30 pm.

 

Everyone welcome. Donation of $5 includes supper after the presentation.

Bookings essential

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If everyone possessed a rapier wit and the open mindedness to accept when they are wrong, perhaps it wouldn’t be a problem, but it’s easy to see how mocking peoples ideas to their face may be perceived as bullying to an audience and frankly who likes a bully?

It’s easy to simply mock what we know to be as absurd ideas and I’ll be the first to admit I’ve done it many times over many years but I found I got frustrated at how ineffective it all seemed when it came to encouraging others to think critically for themselves.

Personally I try very hard to not just flat out laugh at ideas and beliefs I disagree with on the outset, as the believer and audience may not appreciate that I am merely laughing at the belief, rather than believer. On a good day I encourage them to talk about what they believe, why they believe it and how those beliefs came about. It usually doesn’t take long for the ridiculousness to become readily apparent, whether to the believer or an audience. Also pointed and informed questioning tends to help that process along. I try to explain exactly what I think is wrong with their reasoning and lay out why I disagree, rather than simply disagreeing, but we all can easily slip into emotive ridicule, particularly when we’ve encountered the belief 1000 times before and are incredibly confident it’s mental!

I’m not saying do what I do or you’re a (insert trivial generalisation), or even that I’m consistent with this approach, but I try and I aim to be despite falling short on the odd occasion. However when I conciously attempt to do this I feel better and the entire interaction seems to have a better chance of fulfilling my goal of encouraging & fostering critical thought.

Jayson D Cooke