Alpha Male

Another month, another full pub. I’ve given up counting numbers now – suffice to say, it was packed out – standing room only. This large and loud crowd had come along to listen to Simon Clare’s (@faithlesseye) thoughts on The Alpha Course and what it can teach the Atheist & Humanist ‘community’ about effective outreach.

A god of some sort was clearly worried about what he might have to say as various traffic jams and delays were slung in Simon’s path but he managed to make it even if he was a few minutes late.  But if you’re going to have to wait a bit then where better than a pub?

Simon started by taken us through a few Alpha Course stats;

• Set up in 1977
• 66,000 courses in 162 countries
• 75% of attendees in 18-35 age group
• Available in 85% of prisons
• Big growth in India – 2007: 100 courses  2012: 20,000 courses

The Alpha Course owes its recent expansion to Nicky Gumbel (left), Vicar of the Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) Church who took the original Alpha Course materials and reshaped them into the highly successful project it currently is. Which. I suppose makes him the ‘Alpha Papa’.  Rev. Gumbel is a very well connected Eton educated ex-Barrister who, it is claimed, had a role in ensuring that the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was ordained into the clergy in the first place. According to Simon, the Alpha Course is “a central part of the Church of England’s struggle to survive.”

Simon found his local Alpha Course leaders friendly and approachable, unlike many of the Humanist groups he’s attended, with food offered, nice lighting and a general air of relaxed inclusion. At the start, at least.  As the course went on Simon was concerned that none of his well thought out questions were answered and became aware that this wasn’t really the point of the course. Despite the fact that Alpha Course adverts often attract punters by offering answers to life’s big questions.  He was also concerned that some of the material was just not being truthful such as a video (see below) about the high-wire walker Blondin taking his Mother across Niagara Falls in a wheelbarrow. In reality, this never happened as she had died many years before.

Simon attended a ‘Holy Spirit Weekend’ where people were subtly urged to let themselves be filled with the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues. Simon showed us the script for this particular part of the course. These clearly showed that if the course leaders didn’t have an example of speaking in tongues to call upon they could use the one in the script but pretend it was their own personal experience.

Despite all this, Simon thinks he’s a better person for taking the course as he learnt things and met nice people.  He also came thinking that the Alpha Course approach could work for the Atheist/Humanist community.  Simon thinks that this those of us who consider ourselves part of such a community should be friendlier, more welcoming and stop finding excuses for not doing things rather than reasons for actively reaching out to those who might have no understanding of what Humanism really is.  

Simon himself has given Atheist street preaching a go and is involved in the Brighton branch of The Sunday Assembly. He’s also helping to write a course on Humanism that is less academically based and more rooted in the everyday than much Humanist material usually is.

There was plenty of interaction from the audience throughout the talk. It was great to see some Christians pointing out where they thought Simon was mistaken and explaining how they had taken the Alpha Course material and reshaped it themselves to better suit their approach.  Plenty of robust conversation, laughter and applause.  Simon has a great, relaxed speaking style which puts the audience at ease but also maintains their interest. Highly recommended to other Skeptics groups.

NEXT MONTH: We welcome Graham Smith, CEO of Republic, the campaign for a democratic alternative to the Monarchy.  He’ll be talking to us about the power and secrecy of the monarchy and what can be done about it.  It’s bound to be another well attended event so if you want to seat then best get there for 7pm. Full details HERE.

Arrested Development

This month we were lucky enough to host Skeptics In The Pub veteran Stevyn Colgan as he gave his 'Skeptical Bobby' talk for the 50th time.

Stevyn took us on a journey from his school days of confrontation with Mr Tuttle over a picture of a Brontosaurus that was clearly a Brachiosaurus, to his service in the Metropolitan Police's 'Problem Solving Unit' and, latterly, his time at BBC TV's 'Q.I' and it's Radio 4 sister show 'The Museum Of Curiosity.'

The bulk of the talk concentrated on how prevention of a problem is far better than a cure.  Stevyn spoke of his frustration as a Police Cadet that the emphasis in training was on how to catch criminals and process them through the justice system.  This seemed odd as the first of the 'Peelian Principles' upon which the police force was set up states;

'The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.'

However, it seems far easier for the police to measure (and politicians and public alike to understand) arrests and convictions rather than the more difficult task of ascertaining the efficacy of crime prevention.  Arrest and convictions statistics might look good but they do not prove that the police force is doing an effective job.  Indeed, another of the 'Peelian Principles' makes this clear;

'The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder; not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.'

Still, Stevyn was unbowed by the line taken by his colleagues and was determined to adopt a curative approach.  An approach no doubt helped by the fact that he did not fear being sacked as he'd only joined the police force as a drunken £50 bet with his father - also a policeman.

Stevyn took great inspiration from the work of Herman Goldstein and his idea of 'Problem Oriented Policing.'

Various issues tackled by Stevyn and his team included;

• Hiring a young Italian magician dressed as Harry Potter to alert unsuspecting shoppers to a card trick scam.
• Diagonal hoarding to prevent fly-posting (and if that didn't work sticking 'Cancelled' notices on top of the fly-posters.)
• Gum targets to cut down on chewing gum on pavements.
• Lollipops for departing clubbers to keep late night noise down.
• See through shop shutters to deter graffiti and also deterring burglars who would normally be shielded from view by normal shutters.
• Organising a Dog Show on a tough inner city estate to get little old ladies with the Yorkshire Terriers and youths with their Pit Bulls taking to each other an promoting community cohesion.

The central thread throughout the evening was that things are better if people talk and listen to each other,  work as a community and seek to find what they have in common to solve their problems.  The solutions needed are often not grand initiatives but thoughtful, localised smaller scale actions.

NEXT MONTH: Simon Clare joins us to explain what taking The Alpha Course as an Atheist taught him about organised religion and what non-believers can learn from it.  Thursday 20th February - 7pm - The White Horse - Full details HERE.

Cruise Controlled?

After having to postpone last month BBC Journalist John Sweeney joined us at The White Horse for what turned out to be a devastating denunciation of Scientology mixed with a boozy swear word scripted pantomime.

 

John proved that his in-your-face style of reporting isn't just for the TV screen by telling the audience that Bedford felt like the North Korean capital Pyongyang in that "it has a sense of itself, but is not just quite right."

 

John made it clear that any views he expressed during the talk were his alone and nothing to do with the BBC or the Director General ("whoever that may be this week") and that to avoid any litigious 

Scientologist lawyers we should point and shout "Bigot! Bigot! Bigot!" at him.  This humble blogger did so and if you point and shout "Bigot!" at your screen whilst reading this entry then we should all be safe from any legal entanglements.

 

With audience members taking on the parts of, amongst others, John Travolta, Tom Cruise and L. Ron Hubbard and repeating some of their more seemingly outlandish statements on the subject of Scientology it would have been easy to feel that this was just an evening of easy ridicule.  However, John's central message is that Scientology is a dishonest money making scheme that divides families and displays all the characteristics of a cult rather than a legitimate religion.

 

He maintains that he defends people's right to believe in anything they wish. But, unlike established religions, Scientology isn't up front about the basic tenets of its 'faith'.  Whether you believe it or not Christianity is quite clear that they believe 

Jesus was the son of god who died for our sins, then rose again.  

Islam is clear that Muhammad is the last prophet of god and Allah is that god.  However, with Scientology you have to spend a great deal of time and money to actually discover that the basic belief of Scientology is that you are actually possessed by the spirits of dead aliens that were murdered with H-bombs by an evil intergalactic overlord.  

 

There were plenty of fans of John's work in the audience who were vocal in their appreciation his talk.  But also plenty of people who felt that they wanted more history of how Scientology came into being and how exactly any criticisms of these beliefs cannot be levelled equally at other religions.   However, the focus of John's talk wasn't about the weird belief system of Scientology but instead the way that it operates a regime of secrecy and intimidation.  

Hence, the title of the book that accompanies the talk - 'The Church of Fear'. 

Whatever your opinion of the talk, it was certainly a lively, combative night of robust conversation and debate.

 

NEXT TIME: No Skeptics In the Pub event in December.  But please join us again on Thursday 16th January when Stevyn Colgan (from the BBC show 'Q.I.') will be talking to us about  grass-roots skepticism and why we should be critical thinkers in every aspect of our lives.  Full details HERE.  

Pregnant Pause?

Our latest meeting saw the first birthday of Bedford Skeptics In the Pub. Something to be celebrated, no doubt. Skeptically, of course.

And births, or rather several billion of them, and the consequences of such procreation was the subject of our latest talk when John Davies of the charity Population Matters spoke to us.

Population Matters are convinced that unless we all address the issue of population growth then any other measures taken to alleviate environmental problems and global poverty will flounder.  John cited a 2011 YouGov poll which found that 80% of the public believed that both the global and UK population was too high.

Yet time and again, according to Population Matters, the discussion of what might be done to limit population is sidelined by a political elite not interested or too scared to confront the issue. Even when the matter does get raised within the debate on the future of the planet the subject of population is not given equal space on the agenda.  Subjects such as global warming dominate the conversation when, according to Population Matters, the amounts of greenhouses gases created by the vast human population are central to the problem in the first place.

John referred to statistics that showed £4-£6 invested in family planning can abate a tonne of carbon emissions.  According to this data this is almost four times more cost effective than tree planting, five times more than solar power and six times more than hybrid technology. Population Matters calls for a series of actions ranging from balanced migration flows (that is, no more in that out) to the end of state subsidies for large families (except in cases of proven need).  You can read all their goals HERE.

After the usual half time emptying of bladders and re-filling of glasses we screened a TED talk by Hans Rosling on whether some religions have a higher birth rate than others.  It's an excellent and enlightening talk and well worth 13 minutes of your time.

The discussion session after the film was a lively, some might say, sparky affair.  Many in the audience felt that population growth had slowed and that the scientific consensus pointed to a levelling off of human numbers. Furthermore, that population growth in developing countries is a symptom of poverty and inequality rather than its cause.  The debate seemed to return to the central idea that without a fairer distribution of wealth and resources the problems of population numbers will remain.

Whilst it wasn't mentioned overtly on the night was the idea of 'Contraction & Convergence' (see video above) which could provide a scientific formula for both reducing greenhouse gases to a sustainable level and lead to greater financial equality between nations.  A levelling out of global inequality would seem to offer the best route to solve so many of the interlinked issues of climate change, poverty and localised over population.  

To many the practical application of the 'Contraction & Convergence' approach is unacceptable and unworkable in the current social and political climate. But, in the end, we may have to make this choice whilst the choice is still ours to make.


NEXT MONTH: After an unavoidable postponement BBC Journalist John Sweeney will be explaining to us why he believes that Scientology is, in fact, a Church of Fear - 7pm Thursday November 21st at The White Horse. You are advised to get there early to nab a seat if the turn out for Robert Llewellyn was anything to go by.  Full details HERE

Battery Powered Cars: A Hard Cell?

About a year or so ago as the founders of Bedford Skeptics In The Pub were making plans for our first event we hoped that we might be able to attract 20 to 30 people on a regular basis. So it was with quiet satisfaction that 11 months on we found ourselves, and about 110 others, crammed in to The White Horse to hear what Robert Llywellyn had to say about electric vehicles and how how he feels they are inevitably the future of transport.

Robert talked us through a brief history of electric vehicles. As early as 1908 Manhattan had 600 electric taxis and Thomas Edison was a driving force, no pun intended, behind the technology.  However, as time went on and the invention of the starter motor made petrol cars less hazardous to get started, electric vehicles started to lose market share.  Electric vehicle sales peaked in the US in 1912.  Improved road infrastructure made longer journeys possible and electric cars did not have the required range.  They also suffered from lower top speeds making any journeys longer than petrol driven cars.  In addition to this, the discovery of large reserves of petroleum in Texas and California meant that fuel costs fell dramatically. Furthermore, as the mass production of petrol vehicles brought their prices down, the cost of buying electric vehicles was rising.

Electric vehicles were still around as anyone hearing the buzz of a local milk float on an early morning when the majority of milk was still home delivered can attest.  Fork lift trucks were also in most warehouses and factories and still are.  Plus there are three electric vehicles parked on the moon in the shape of the Lunar Rovers.  But the internal combustion engine was king.

Robert explained that the current interest in electric vehicles has its roots in the horrific air pollution suffered by Los Angeles in the 1970s and 80s.  The Californian Air Resources Board (CARB) created legislation which forced motor manufacturers to build zero emission vehicles.  Whilst the management of the car makers grudgingly did this to comply with the law the actual engineers working on the projects were excited by the concept and a new era of electric vehicle technology was born even if actual take up of the vehicles was still low.  In fact, Robert claimed that a possible new era of electric transportation was stymied by the motor vehicles manufacturers and 'Big Oil', he recommended the film 'Who Killed the Electric Car?' to us all.

But Robert's talk wasn't all doom and gloom. He had the audience in stitches with tales of the different approach taken by the US producers when his UK show 'Scrapheap Challenge' made its way across to the States with the new name 'Junkyard Wars'. He also testified to how painful it is to have a tomato shot at your buttock from an electric gun.

Robert addressed the common fears that people have about electric cars, such as low range and no engine noise.  Plus the fact that critics claim that whilst the vehicles are claimed to be emission free the emissions simply come from a power station chimney than the car's own exhaust pipe.

There were doubters in the audience, including a man who owned a Prius hybrid car who remarked that his experience of its fuel efficiency was less than spectacular.  That said, there were several committed electric car owners who waxed lyrical about both the financial and environmental benefits of the cars as well as the better driving experience.

During the intermission Robert showed the assembled crowd his Nissan Leaf parked outside which itself was charging via an extension cable into a plug by the side of the stage.  Whilst across the road cars pulled in to fill up at the local BP petrol station.

As well as the audience there were local journalists and TV crews there to record the evening so keep an eye out for any reports in the press, such as this from the Bedfordshire on Sunday Team.  Our friends at TV Bedfordshire should have a report on their site soon too.

Robert proved to be an engaging and energetic guest with a fabulous array of vocal sound effects and impressions with which he enlivened the evening. 

Speaking to Robert I hear that a nationwide tour is being planned so if you missed him here then you may get another chance soon.



NEXT MONTH: Another top-notch guest when BBC Journalist John Sweeney will be explaining to us why he believes that Scientology is, in fact, a Church of Fear - 7pm Thursday October 17th at The White Horse. You are advised to get there early to nab a seat if this month's turn out is anything to go by.  Full details HERE.

Apocalypse Not Quite Yet

Bedford Skeptics In The Pub (a.k.a. Bedford SITP) has been going for almost a year now.  We've examined many pressing issues such as climate change, the state of the education system, the legalisation of prostitution and global corruption amongst other things.  Now to the casual observer, given those subject matters, a night in the boozer with Bedford SITP might well seem a pretty doomed laden affair where pints are downed as a means of escape from the terrible awfulness of it all.

In fact, it is quite the opposite. Those attending Bedford SITP are actually keen to learn new things, hear others point of views and examine the evidence placed before them.  These hardly seem the character traits of people who have given up hoping for a better future and don't think that there's any chance of achieving it.

So it would seem that this month's guest, Mark Stevenson and Bedford SITP are natural bedfellows, in the figurative sense, that is.  Mark has seen the future and whilst it might not be 'so bright he's gotta wear shades' (to misquote the Timbuk 3 hit from 1986), he contends that it certainly isn't as awful as we have often been led to imagine.  He reached this conclusion after setting out on what he called a 'World Tour of the Future' examining how technological advances were changing the world around us right now, even though we might not be fully aware of it.  The surprising thing for Mark was the level of optimism that he found on his journey (especially in Spain and New Zealand, it would seem.)  One of the outcomes of his exploration of the future was the book 'An Optimist's Tour Of The Future'.

However, Mark explained that the term 'optimism' is often associated with wishful thinking and soft headed idiocy.  Especially, in a nation such as the UK where, at times, it would seem that we are hard-wired for cynicism.  Mark was keen to explain that the 'optimism' that he advocates is the 'optimism of ambition'. That is, that we should set our sights high and not give in to easy and comforting cynicism.  In fact, to Mark, cynicism is like smoking, "It might look good but but it harms you and those around you."

Mark showed us some truly amazing examples of technological advances which will change humanity, such as the plummeting price of human genome sequencing costs which will enable the development of highly effective diagnostic tools and treatments based on an individual's own genetic make-up.

There was also a discussion of 3D printers and the possible knock on effects to all our lives from being able to print out everything from toys for the kids to your own personalised drugs and even body parts.  As one of the pub-based audience commented, if this means being able to print a new liver it might not be a bad thing.

Mark also sees the growth of renewable energy as unstoppable despite the fossil fuel industries vested interests best attempts to thwart it.  With the availability of cheap, plentiful and sustainable energy comes a paradigm shift in global politics.

Speaking to audience members during and after the event, what came across from Mark, aside from all the technological advances he described, was the desire to instill hope for the future. But not just a nice, warm feeling but a stance of active optimist, that is, a belief in possibilities leading to real world actions.  Mark suggested that we "Be defined not by what we own but but what we create." Mark is one of the founders of The League Of Pragmatic Optimists (LOPO) which is attempting to do just that.

Mark is currently working on a new book on Democracy and we hope that he'll return to Bedford SITP to talk to us about the issues it raises. Indeed, we've already had several people asking for such an evening.

NEXT MONTH: Thursday 19th September - 7 for 7:30pm - The White Horse - Robert Llewellyn (a.k.a 'Kryten' from 'Red Dwarf') will be attempting to convince us that electric vehicles are the future of transport. We're hoping for another big turnout so if you want a good seat I would suggest you get to The White Horse a bit earlier than usual.  Why not treat yourself to dinner before the show starts? Full details HERE.

Physiognomy – A Mug’s Game?

This month we welcomed Kathryn Ford who had travelled all the way down from Liverpool to talk to us about Physiognomy.  Physiognomy is the practice of believing that you can judge someone's character traits from their appearance.  Kathryn explained that this idea goes right back to ancient Greece.  The term 'physiognomy' comes from the Greek 'physis' meaning 'nature' and 'gnomon' meaning 'judge' or 'interpreter'.  Over 2,500 years ago Greek thinkers such as Zopyrus and later Aristotle believed that appearance was a good judge of character.  Pythagoras actually rejected a prospective follower, Cylon, as he judged that his appearance pointed towards bad character traits.

By the Middle Ages, Physiognomy was well established, widely accepted and taught in universities until Henry VIII outlawed it in 1531. He also banned palm reading at the same time. Leonardo Da Vinci was sceptical of physiognomy writing that ''I do not concern myself with false physiognomy...there is no truth in them and this can be proven because these chimeras have no scientific foundation”. 

The practice seems to have gone into decline until the 1770s when Swiss pastor Johann Kaspar Lavater's essays were translated into English and French. The popularity of Physiognomy grew in the 18th and 19th centuries and English authors such as Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Charlotte Bronte used detailed physiognomic descriptions of their characters.  Kathryn focussed on Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture Of Dorian Gray' and how as the novel's anti-hero committed foul deeds his portrait was corrupted, it's hideous visage accurately reflecting Dorian's true character.

However, Physiognomy suffered by being linked with Phrenology - the idea that lumps and bumps on the head and skull could help to determine character and intelligence and both are now generally discredited and viewed, at best, a pseudo-science and, at worst, as outright quackery. However, some South Koreans certainly still believe in the validity of the physiognomy as you can see from the face map of North Korean Leader Kim Jong-Un that they’ve compiled.

Research in recent decades has focussed on our reactions to others features and what we feel those features might uncover about another person’s personality.  Kathryn talked us through numerous pieces of research that all pointed in various degrees to the conclusion that whether or not someone's facial features does or does not determine their character, we think it does and make snap decisions based on this.  Furthermore, these snap decisions can condition the response we get from the other person thus our idea of their character can become a self fulfilling prophecy.

These sorts of studies have been prompting a bout of fresh interest in the subject area with articles appearing in respected publications such as The Economist.  The Economist article describes a study that claims having sex with an attractive man provokes more orgasms and therefore a higher chance of getting pregnant. Therefore, it’s more likely that attractive DNA will be passed on to the next generation. 

Kathryn cited studies that showed that people deemed more ‘attractive’ receive less harsh sentences when convicted of certain crimes such as robbery.  However, ‘attractive’ people received tougher penalties for crimes where their good looks/charm were deemed to have been used as a weapon – such as for fraudsters and con-artists.

Indeed, the perceived good looks or fresh faced youth of the alleged Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have prompted some people to question whether be could be responsible for such a crime.

It would seem that although Justice is claimed to be blind the blindfold needs to be made of thicker material.

Kathryn also showed us how ‘Composite Faces’ can be created to aid research (or just for fun – try some here – www.faceresearch.org). 

So whilst it would seem that we do judge a person’s character by their looks is there actually any truth to it?   An article in New Scientist suggests there is.  It references studies that point to an evolutionary basis to our ‘snap judgements’ and that these judgements may contain a kernel of truth. Uncomfortable listening for those of us who like to believe we’re rational human beings. But the instinctive wiring of the ‘primitive’ brain still remains, it would seem.  Perhaps the best approach is to be aware of the ‘unconscious bias’ we carry around with us and do our best to inform ourselves and try to ensure that it is taken into account when decisions are being made.

Kathryn’s talk was very thought provoking and warmly received by the audience, many of whom stayed to talk with her at the end of the evening.  Bedford Skeptics highly recommend her to other groups. She’s already given 5 Skeptics talks this month and another 3 are lined up for August so if you missed her last night you can follow her on Twitter @KatLikesJam to see where she’s appearing next.

Next Month:  Sometimes it can seem that Skeptics In The Pub subject matter (climate change, corruption, dodgy belief systems etc.) is overly pessimistic. Well, fear not, next month Mark Stevenson will be at The White Horse explaining that it’s not all doom and gloom! He’ll be treating us to 'An Optimist's Tour Of The Future' on Thursday 15th August at 7pm. 

Full details HERE.