JOIN US AND HELP US CELEBRATE THE SKEPTICS SOCIETY'S
5TH ANNIVERSARY
WITH MAGIC, ENTERTAINMENT, AND LECTURES FROM AN ALL-STAR LINE UP

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THE
SCIENCE GAP

BRIDGING THE GULF BETWEEN SCIENCE AND
THE MEDIA, THE HUMANITIES, AND SOME OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

THE SKEPTICS SOCIETY
CONFERENCE
FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY
MAY 23 & 24,1997

SKEPTICS SOCIETY 1997 CONFERENCE

MAY 23-FRIDAY NIGHT AT PASADENA'S HILTON HOTEL
7:00-9:00: SOCIAL EVENING & MAGIC SHOW with the Award Winning Close-up Magician STEVEN VALENTI.
Meet with our renowned scientists and speakers in a casual setting. Socialize with fellow skeptics, humanists, and science enthusiasts. Meet Skeptics Society staff, Skeptic writers and board members.

MAY 24-MORNING SESSION CALTECH'S BAXTER LECTURE HALL
8:00-8:45: Registration and coffee and donuts.
8:45-9:30: FRANK MIELE. Pilate's Unanswered Question: An Introduction to the Skeptics Society 1997 Conference.
9:30-11:00: VINCE SARICH. What Went Wrong in Anthropology?
(Break)
11:15-12:30: MICHAEL SHERMER. Why People Believe Weird Things: How to Bridge the Science Gap.
12:30-1:15: Lunch (Catered by Burger Continental outside Baxter Lecture Hall-$6.00 each)

MAY 24-AFTERNOON SESSION CALTECH'S BAXTER LECTURE HALL
1:15-2:15: JAMES "THE AMAZING" RANDI. The $1,000,000 Psychic Challenge.
2:15-3:45: CAROL TAVRIS. The Psychology Wars: Social Science or Social Science Fiction?
(Break)
4:00-5:30: FRANK SULLOWAY. The Problem With History Today.
5:30-6:00: Q & A and Panel Discussion with Audience
6:00-7:00: Dinner (Catered by Burger Continental outside Baxter Lecture Hall-$6.00 each)

MAY 24-EVENING KEYNOTE ADDRESS CALTECH'S BAXTER LECTURE HALL
7:00-7:30: SKEPTICS SOCIETY AWARDS CEREMONY.

7:30-9:00: JARED DIAMOND. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies: A Scientific History.

1997 KEYNOTE SPEAKER
JARED DIAMOND
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies.
A Scientific History

Why did human history unfold differently on different continents over the past 13,000 years? Why did Europeans conquer and colonize Native Americans and Australian Aborigines, rather than Native Americans and Australian Aborigines conquering Europeans? Dr. Diamond integrates such sciences as biology, zoology, biogeography, botany, linguistics, archeology, and genetics to answer one of the most perplexing questions of history, society, and culture.

Dr. Jared Diamond is Professor of Physiology at the UCLA medical School. He is the author of the best-selling The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal, which won the L.A. Times Book Prize for the best science book of 1992. He is a regular contributor to Discover magazine and Natural History magazine, and his essays have become well-known throughout the world for their wit and clarity. His latest book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, integrates numerous sciences to answer one of the biggest and most perplexing questions in history. It promises to be one of the most important and controversial books of 1997.


VINCENT SARICH
What Went Wrong With Anthropology?

Anthropologists used to travel around the world collecting data and conducting field work on various peoples, looking for universal similarities and differences in thought, behavior, and culture. Not so today. Instead literary critics and social theorists have taken over the profession, abandoning previously rigorous methods of science in favor of literary deconstructionism and social activism. Controversial anthropologist Dr. Vincent Sarich provides his eyewitness account of how this shift took place at U.C. Berkeley, and reflects on how anthropology has changed and where it should be going. Vincent Sarich recently retired after 30 years in the Department of Anthropology at U.C. Berkeley. In addition to successfully debating creationists, he is best known for his revolutionary work in molecular dating in which he discovered that we shared a common ancestor with our closest living relatives the African apes no more than about 5 million years ago. His current research centers on the controversial subjects of race, language prehistory and the evolution of morality.

CAROL TAVRIS
The Psychology Wars: Social Science or Social Science Fiction?

Renowned social psychologist Dr. Carol Tavris discusses the "scientist-therapist gap" in psychology. A growing chasm in the methods, assumptions, and goals of scientifically vs. clinically trained psychologists has led to such pseudoscience in psychology as unvalidated therapies, facilitated communication, fad diagnoses such as multiple personality disorder, and claims of Satanic abuse, and also to the battle of the "experts" in the courtroom, where clinical opinion is often taken as seriously as empirical evidence. Tavris is a social psychologist, lecturer, and writer whose work has been devoted to the promotion of scientific and critical thinking in psychology. She is the author of the highly acclaimed The Mismeasure of Women and of Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion, and the co-author with Carole Wade of two leading textbooks: Psychology, the first text organized on the principles of critical thinking, and of Psychology in Perspective which candidly assess the reasons for the growing scientist-therapist conflict in psychology and its consequences.

FRANK SULLOWAY
The Problem With History Today.

Historians have long offered theories about events such as the Protestant Reformation, the French Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, and the Darwinian Revolution. Despite the fact than in almost all other sciences rigorous standards of testing hypotheses are required in order for a theory to be accepted, historians almost never test their ideas. Instead they practice history by anecdote and hope that readers don't ask too many questions. Dr. Sulloway shows how history can become a science. Sulloway is a Research Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society. He has a Ph.D. in the history of science from Harvard and is a winner of the famed MacArthur "genius" fellowship. His book Freud: Biologist of the Mind provided a radical reanalysis of the origins and validity of Freud's theories, and his latest book, Born to Rebel, in which he uses sophisticated statistical models to test psychological theories of history, has stirred controversy throughout the social sciences.

MICHAEL SHERMER
Why People Believe Weird Things: How to Bridge the Science Gap.

As public and media understanding of complex science deteriorates, a widening rift is also developing between science and many of the humanities and social sciences. There is a gap between what science is and what people think it is, and there is a reluctance to apply science in many disciplines that could benefit from it. Dr. Shermer will report on his experiences with the media from his nationwide book tour for Why People Believe Weird Things, as he considers how this "Science Gap" developed and how and why it must be bridged. Shermer is the Publisher of Skeptic magazine, Director of the Skeptics Society, and is the author of Teach Your Child Science, Teach Your Child Math, and Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? He has also written extensively on applying scientific models to human history and is expanding his doctoral dissertation on Alfred Russel Wallace.

FRANK MIELE
Pilate's Unanswered Question: An Introduction to the Skeptics Society 1997 Conference.

Jesus said, "Everyone that is of the truth, hears My voice." Pilate asked, "What is truth?" Jesus offered no reply. For most of our evolutionary history, truth was defined in terms of religious beliefs and literary/mythic traditions. Science has challenged this system, but recently literary theorists have argued that science is only a style of literary construction. Frank Miele takes up Pontius Pilate's aegis and highlights the key arguments to be examined during the conference. Frank Miele is a freelance writer and a frequent host and moderator of Skeptics Society lectures and conferences. He is Senior Editor of Skeptic magazine. His first article on Holocaust revisionism won the Society's Spinoza Award, and his introduction to the Evolutionary Psychology issue is used as assigned reading in college courses. His interviews are a regular feature in Skeptic and include Charles Murray, Richard Dawkins, Robert Sternberg, Garrett Hardin, and Jerry Brown.

"THE AMAZING" JAMES RANDI
The $1,000,000 Psychic Challenge.

James Randi has raised over one million dollars in pledges for his psychic challenge through his recently founded James Randi Educational Foundation. Find out who accepted the challenge and who did not, and be entertained, amused, and inspired as the ever-popular Randi recounts his other amazing adventures of 1996. James "The Amazing" Randi is known to all as one of the founders of the modern skeptical movement and its spiritual leader. He is an author, lecturer, magician, and winner of the MacArthur "genius" award for his work in debunking psychics and faith healers. His books include Flim-Flam!, The Faith Healers, The Mask of Nostradamus, The Truth About Uri Geller, Conjuring, and An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult & Supernatural. He writes a regular column for Skeptic and is the Director of the James Randi Educational Foundation.

QUESTIONS about the conference? Phone the Skeptics Society at 818/794-3119. Fax: 818/794-1301. P.O. Box 338, Altadena, CA 91001. E-mail: skepticmag@aol.com

Out of Town Guests May Stay at:
Pasadena Hilton Hotel, 150 S. Los Robles, Pasadena, CA 91101. (Site of the Friday Night event) Ask for the "Caltech rate"-$99.00. Phone: 1-800/445-8667, or 818/577-1000. Fax: 818/584-3148. There is shuttle service to the campus and walking distance to Caltech is 1 kilometer.

If you are watching your budget you can stay at:
Vagabond Motel 2863 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107. Phone 818/449-3170; $30-$50. No shuttle service.

Transportation from LAX
Direct to the Pasadena Hilton. Airport bus: $12.00 one way, $20.00 round trip. Pick up at any Ground Transportation Booth outside terminal baggage areas. Look for Red Bus Stop signs and "Pasadena" bus. Hourly from 6:15 am to 11:15 pm.

Freeways to Pasadena
BAXTER LECTURE HALL IS LOCATED ON THE CALTECH CAMPUS IN PASADENA-Directions: 210-fwy to Pasadena, exit south on Lake, left on Del Mar, right on Michigan, parking lots one block south, on both left and right. From L.A.: 110-fwy to end, N to right on Del Mar

For further information contact: Skeptics Society, Box 338, Altadena, CA 91001; phone: 818/794-3119; fax: 818/794-1301; e-mail: skepticmag@aol.com

Walk east onto campus from the parking area on Wilson to the distinctive round building. Face south. Baxter Hall will be in front of you to your left. Baxter lecture hall is on the 2nd. floor.

Conference Special Membership Discount

If you attend the conference you may join the Skeptics Society or renew your membership for the discounted special rate of $25.00 (reg. $35.00).

One price includes all lectures, entertainment, and activities except for drinks at the Friday night event (there will be a no-host bar), and lunch and dinner on Saturday (on-site meals from last year's popular caterer, Burger Continental, for only $6.00 each).

______Skeptics Society Members and Guests: $75.00 each.

______Nonmembers and Guests: $85.00 each.

______Conference Discount Membership Rate NEW or RENEWAL: $25.00

Your conference badge will be mailed to you. Your badge will admit you to the conference.

___ Check here if you plan to attend the Friday night event.

TOTAL ENCLOSED_______

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Charge it! FAX your credit card order to 818/794-1301 or place a credit card phone order at 818/794-3119. To order by mail send a check made out to Skeptics Society, or your credit card number to: Skeptics Society, P.O. Box 338, Altadena, CA 91001. You can also e-mail your credit card number & order to: skepticmag@aol.com