Germany Hosts World Skeptics Congress
SkeptInq@aol.com
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 12:43:25 EDT
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Matthew Nisbet 716-636-1425 x219 (until 7/17)
<A HREF="http://www.csicop.org/">http://www.csicop.org/</A>
Amardeo Sarma
+49 6154 695021 (Germany)
<A HREF="http://www.gwup.org/">http://www.gwup.org/</A>
ARMAGEDDON AND THE
PROPHETS OF DOOMSDAY
CSICOP and GWUP Sponsor World Skeptics Congress
July 23-26, Heidelberg, Germany
Amherst, N.Y.— As the end of the millennium nears, science, superstition and
pseudoscience collide. From the Shroud of Turin to the outrageous claims of
post modernists, how do we evaluate and confront the sudden explosion in the
paranormal and pseudoscience? How should scientists respond to
misrepresentations of science in the media? What cultural misperceptions and
international trends in belief lurk around the corner? How should we evaluate
the latest claims of alternative medicine? What light can science shed on
ages old superstition?
Next week, internationally-known scientists, experts and academics will
gather at the World Skeptics Congress in Heidelberg, Germany. Among a global
who's who of researchers, experts and illuminati, topics featured will
include:
•Anti-Science and Post Modernists
Belgian physicist Jean Bricmont, co-author of The Intellectual Imposters,
headlines a panel of distinguished scientists and authors that includes French
astrophysicists Evry Schatzman and Lewis Vaughn. Chaired by philosopher Paul
Kurtz, they discuss the challenge to science by post modernists.
•Alternative Medicine In A Scientific World
From homeopathy to new age healing, Stanford professor Wallace Sampson,
Belgian researcher Willem Betz, Canadian psychologist Barry Beyerstein and
other leading experts evaluate and assess the latest claims of alternative
medicine.
•The False Memory Debate
Leading expert Elizabeth Loftus will keynote an address on the current state
of the recovered memory debate.
•Case Studies in The Paranormal
Leading paranormal investigator Joe Nickell examines miracle claims and the
Shroud of Turin, well-known British researcher Richard Wiseman summarizes his
work in parapsychology, and French skeptic Jean-Paul Krivine revisits the Mars
Effect.
•Global Warming: The Great Debate and What We Can Do
University of Washington researcher William Calvin and Trigen Energy CEO Tom
Casten debate the global warming controversy in science.
•Millenium Prophecies
Biblical Archeologist Gerald Larue, author James Lewis, and physicist Dave
Thomas discuss biblical portends, cult doomsday prophecies and The Bible Code.
•Natural Disasters: Comet Hale Bopp and Cosmic Impacts
Astronomer Alan Hale, Dutch astrophysicist Cornelis de Jager and others
assess the threat of natural disaster and predictions on the end of time.
"Scientists launched CSICOP twenty-two years ago, and the battle against the
paranormal and pseudoscience continues" declares CSICOP chair and
distinguished philosopher Paul Kurtz. "The World Skeptics Congress represents
a gathering of some of the world's brightest and most distinguished
scientists, academics and researchers—all concerned with stemming the
worldwide growth in magical thinking and paranormal belief. It is one of the
world's great meeting of the minds."
<A HREF="http://www.secularhumanism.org/home/kurtz/">
http://www.secularhumanism.org/home/kurtz/</A>
CSICOP co-sponsors the World Skeptics Congress with the German Society for
the Scientific Investigation of Para-Science (GWUP), publisher of the journal
SKEPTIKER. GWUP is one of 50 skeptics organizations in 32 countries
internationally. Attendees to the conference are expected from across Europe,
North America and Asia.
The first World Skeptics Congress in 1996 attracted global media coverage
that included the Australian Broadcasting Company, NHK-Japan, BBC Radio, a
live panel discussion on National Public Radio, Science et Vie, Newsweek, the
China Association News, the National Review, Scientific American, the Canadian
Broadcasting Company, and the New York Times.
—30—
CSICOP, publisher of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER magazine, is an independent nonprofit
scientific and educational organization founded in 1976 to encourage the
critical investigation of paranormal and fringe science claims from a
responsible scientific point of view. Distinguished fellows of CSICOP include
Nobel laureates Leon Lederman, Murray Gell-Mann, Francis Crick, Glenn Seaborg
and Steven Weinberg. Other distinguished fellows include Richard Dawkins,
Stephen Jay Gould, Jill Tarter, John Maddox and Leon Jaroff.
<A HREF="http://www.csicop.org/">http://www.csicop.org/</A>