It looks like Vancouver, British Columbia will become the second city to host a SkeptiCamp, which will be the third to occur. (Previously, previously.) Historical Comments Reed (2008-03-26): We're quite pleased that the first skepticamp outside Colorado is even outside the borders of the US. We've gone international!Its organizer tells me that BC is a hotbed of crankery which should make for an eclectic event that will make Colorado's look tame by comparison. ...

Scott Hatfield looks at the backgrounds of “Expelled”’s producers. * Troy Britain and Jon Voisey recount the ever-changing stories of why P.Z. Myers was expelled from “Expelled." * Ed Brayton shows that “Expelled” co-writer and funder, software multimillionaire Walt Ruloff, lied about Myers’ expulsion. * P.Z. Myers responds to today’s press release from “Expelled”’s producers. And I’ve been continually updating my original post about P.Z. Myers being refused admittance to the screening of the film; you can find the above links there and many, many more.

Amanda Gefter, opinion editor at New Scientist Blogs, attended a screening of “Expelled” and has reported on the Q&A session with producer Mike Mathis that followed. She notes: He began calling on others in the crowd, who asked friendlier questions. But Maggie and I quickly realised that we’d seen some of these people before - earlier that evening, in fact, working at the movie’s registration table. These friendly audience members worked for the film? Had Mathis planted questioners?Another amusing bit: Another man in the front row wondered about the film’s premise that supporters of ID are being silenced. He pointed out that a recent trial about the teaching of intelligent design held in Dover, Pennsylvania, gave supporters of intelligent design all the time in the world to make their case, but most of the ’leading lights’ of ID didn’t even show up. When Mathis was responding, the guy asked another question, and the producer shot back, “How about you let me finish talking?” Then, a security guard for the film approached the calmly seated man and told him, “I may have to ask you to leave." “Does anyone else see how ironic this is?” the guy asked. “Shut up!” someone shouted from the back.And she ends with: I asked how ID explains the complexity, but he said, “I don’t have time for this,” and walked away. Throughout the entire experience, Maggie and I couldn’t help feeling that the polarised audience in the theater was a sort of microcosm of America, and let me tell you - it’s a scary place. I also couldn’t help thinking that the intelligent design folks aren’t being silenced, so much as they’re being silent. Because when it comes to actually explaining anything, they’ve got nothing to say. Read the whole thing.

Phoenix Skeptics Executive Director Michael Stackpole now has an asteroid named after him: On March 23, 2001, David Healy and Jeff Medkeff discovered an asteroid about a mile in diameter, in the asteroid belt on the Mars side of the solar system. It was designated 165612. Until today. Now that asteroid is officially known as Stackpole. The International Astronomical Union approved the designation on March 21. Also getting asteroids named after them: Rebecca Watson (Skepchick), Phil Plait (Bad Astronomy), and P.Z. Myers (Pharyngula). Very cool! UPDATE: And Mike Stackpole posts his reaction to learning the news.

I thought I’d try to come up with an argument for Nisbet’s general position (though I don’t support the claims that all publicity is good publicity or that particular people should shut up), and came up with this (posted as a comment on Nisbet’s blog): Suppose U.S. demographics on belief and nonbelief were reversed, so that atheists made up 80%+ and those who explicitly believed in God were about 4-5% of the population (with the difference filled by agnostics, closeted believers, etc.). Suppose further that demographics of believers in science were reversed–with most physicists and biologists being religious believers, who commonly said things like “the Big Bang shows evidence of a beginning of time, started by a creator God,” and “the intricate design of biology shows the hand of God." ...

Although the “Expelled” RSVP page mysteriously dropped all upcoming screenings after the media coverage of P.Z. Myers being barred from a screening in Minnesota, a few cities have appeared on the list again and Phoenix is one of them. This could be a chance to see the film without giving its dishonest producers any money–I’ve signed up. (Free is the only way I’ll bother to see this film.) The site now explains the cancelled screenings as follows: Due to unavoidable changes in the travel plans of the producers of “Expelled”, several of our screenings have been canceled or are being rescheduled to a new date or time.While that may be true, I wonder if it’s merely an excuse to drop all of the existing registrants and do more stringent screening of who is allowed to be admitted. ...

Via Chris Hallquist, an interesting paper by the atheist philosopher Simon Blackburn, titled “Religion and Respect” (24pp. PDF). Worth noting as an abbreviated summary of the paper is the H.L. Mencken quote referenced by a commenter on Hallquist’s post: “We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.” Geoff (2008-03-25): Hey Jim, you need to catch up on your stack of books! I'm sure that somewhere in there is Louise Antony's "Philosophers Without Gods", from which the Blackburn piece is taken. I blogged about it here last August. I really think that it belongs in the canon of "New Atheist" books, along with the works of Dennett, Dawkins, Grayling, Hitchens, Harris, Carrier et al. ...

Julia Sweeney writes at her blog: Ben Stein once did a Groundling show, an improv show, that I was a part of. I found him to be spectacularly ill-informed and narcissistic and weirdly devoted to his schtick and worst of all, hacky. He didn’t listen to his fellow performers and played everything outward to his friends in the audience who laughed (fake, forced) at every single thing he did. When he became known as a “thinker” – when his public persona became the “smart guy” I was astounded. So this type of film does not come as any surprise.(Hat tip to James Redekop on the SKEPTIC list.)

It was only a matter of time. Where John Todd, Mike Warnke, “Lauren Stratford,” and others found that they could get attention and money by claiming to be ex-Satanists/witches/Illuminati converted to Christian evangelists, we now see “ex-Islamic terrorists” turned born-again Christians and hitting the lecture circuit, and getting paid for appearances at the U.S. Air Force Academy, as the New York Times reports. The Times article ends with the most obvious question: Arab-American civil rights organizations question why, at a time when the United States government has vigorously moved to jail or at least deport anyone with a known terrorist connection, the three men, if they are telling the truth, are allowed to circulate freely. A spokesman for the F.B.I. said there were no warrants for their arrest.Of the three speakers, Zak Anani, Kamal Saleem, and Walid Shoebat, Anani is described as the most explicitly preaching born-again Christianity rather than providing information about Islamic terrorism. He also seems to be the one with the clearest record of making false claims about his own background: Anani, now an evangelical Christian, claims to be an expert on the topic because he killed 223 people in Allah’s name, “two-thirds of them by daggers.” He even claims to have killed a man for waking him up at 3 a.m. to pray. Anani, born in Lebanon, said he joined a militant Muslim group in the early 1970s at age 13, and made his first kill shortly after. … He said he was soon promoted to troop leader and formed his own regiment, but later met a Christian missionary and converted. ...

Jeffrey Shallit has written a multi-part summary of an event hosted by the University of Waterloo Debate Society on March 19 on “A Forensic Analysis of September 11, 2001: Questioning the Official Theory.” The event wasn’t a debate, however, it was a one-sided presentation by “9/11 Truth” movement members who formulate absurd conspiracy theories and fail to look at the actual evidence. Even the moderator taking questions and answers was a 9/11 Truther who did his best to avoid taking critical questions. Shallit’s posts: “An Evening with 9-11 Deniers” - Introduction and summary. “The Questionnaire at the 9/11 Denier Event” - The content of a questionnaire given out at the event, which participants were supposed to fill out at the beginning and again at the end. “An Open Letter to Richard Borshay Lee” - A letter from Shallit to the event moderator about his performance at the event. “A.K. Dewdney at the 9/11 Denier Event (Part 1)" - A detailed summary of Dewdney’s presentation at the event, part 1. “A.K. Dewdney at the 9/11 Denier Event (Part 2)" - Part 2. “Graeme MacQueen at the 9/11 Denier Event” - A summary of MacQueen’s presentation at the event. “The Question-and-Answer Period at the 9/11 Deniers Evening” - Summary of the Q&A. Of particular note among the comments at Shallit’s blog is a lengthy description of the details of the WTC collapses from Arthur Scheuerman, Retired FDNY Battalion Chief. ...