Schedule | CSIcon: The conference dedicated to science and reason.

Breakout Panels

There's something for everyone in these shorter and more intimate meetings.

Friday, October 28, 11:00—12:30 B in the Third Floor D&E Rooms

Feeling the Future

Featuring: Ray Hyman, James Alcock, with Scott O. Lilienfeld.

Friday, October 28, 11:00—12:30 A in the Third Floor D&E Rooms

Public Policy

Chris Mooney: the Science of Denial

We all know that people deny science and the facts constantly—on science-based issues like climate change and evolution, but also on resolvable issues in politics: where was the president born? Does the health care reform create death panels? Did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction? Moreover, we know that when faced with the facts, people don't change their minds or let go of false ideas—quite the contrary, they often believe them more strongly than before. Such facts are rightly disturbing to scientists and skeptics, but there's a reason why they occur—and indeed, thanks to new advances in psychology and neuroscience, they can be scientifically explained. The implications for communication, and for persuasion, are profound. In this talk, Chris Mooney explores the science of why people deny science—and what science itself says about what we can do about it.

Ron Lindsay: Food Fears -- The Need for Appropriate Risk Assessment

Myths about the dangers of genetically modified plants affect not only public perception but public policy. Moreover, the model for risk assessment used by opponents of genetic modification, the Precautionary Principle, is deeply flawed. In his presentation, Ron Lindsay will not only critique myths about food production, but will defy death by consuming genetically modified food on stage.

Featuring: Chris Mooney, Ron Lindsay, with Kendrick Frazier.

Friday, October 28, 4:15—5:45 B in the Third Floor D&E Rooms

Superstitions and Hauntings

Stuart Vyse: Why Do People Believe These Things?

Why does a species of such great intelligence and achievement so often fall for implausible paranormal beliefs and superstitions? Why is there so little evidence of progress towards greater reason and scientific thinking? Stuart Vyse will review the latest findings in the psychology of belief in an effort to provide an explanation for this great paradox of modern life.

Joe Nickell: Louisiana Folklore and Fakelore

Joe Nickell tracks such fabled entities as ghosts, voodoo loas, the loup-garou (or Cajun werewolf), the Honey Island Swamp Monster, and the Big Easy’s vampire Lestat and friends. Investigating in the field, Nickell separates the genuine folk traditions from the fake.

Featuring: Stuart Vyse, Joe Nickell, with Amardeo Sarma.

Friday, October 28, 4:15—5:45 A in the Third Floor D&E Rooms

Creation and Evolution

David Thomas: Something Rotten in Denmark: How Hamlet's “Weasel” Reveals the Vacuousness of Intelligent design

Thomas will discuss the “War of the Weasels,” in which the creationist assault on evolutionary approaches to computing (“genetic algorithms”) was proven to be completely without merit in a public competition. He will also talk about recent efforts to pass creationism-friendly legislation in New Mexico.

Eugenie C. Scott: Creationism and Evolution: News from the Front

The creationism and evolution controversy continues almost unabated by the legal setbacks suffered both by the creation science and intelligent design movements. Although legal decisions have prevented de jure teaching of creationism, de facto teaching of creationism continues as teachers are reluctant to teach evolution without “balance,” and because recent creationist strategies attempting to avoid Establishment Clause constraints have not yet been tested in the courts.

Barbara Forrest: Back to the Future: the Louisiana Science Education Act of 2008

The Louisiana Science Education Act that was passed in 2008 is the product of an alliance between the Discovery Institute, a creationist think tank in Seattle, and the Louisiana Family Forum, the Louisiana arm of Focus on the Family. Governor Bobby Jindal, a close ally of the Louisiana Family Forum, served as the lynchpin of the LFF's plan to promote a version of the Discovery Institute's model legislative statute on “academic freedom.” This model bill is really a creationist Trojan horse, and it is now the law in Louisiana.

Featuring: Eugenie C. Scott, Barbara Forrest, with Dave Thomas.

Saturday, October 29, 11:00—12:30 B in the Third Floor D&E Rooms

Skepticism and the Media: Win Over an Unlikely Audience by Telling a Better Story

Sandra Blakeslee: Journalists are from Venus, Skeptics from Mars

What you need to know about how journalists work in today's 24-hour news cycle—and how to get your story across without having it mangled (well, almost).

Indre Viskontas: Battling Bias: convincing audiences to think more critically

Are scientists doomed to the periphery of mainstream television? How can we capture a large audience without sacrificing our principles? Indre discusses how we might combine neuroscience and art to create successful television programs in the age of new media.

William B Davis

How can you be a skeptic in a show about alien abduction, past lives, astrology and other weird things? Davis will speak of his crazy ride on the hit TV series, The X-Files, leading him to CSICOP, the Discovery Channel where he hosted a program called Critical Eye, and adventures in wonderland including his debate with the the notorious John Mack, author of Abduction. He will read from his forthcoming memoir, Where There’s Smoke…, describing his crisis of conscience posed by Richard Dawkins.

Featuring: Sandra Blakeslee, Indre Viskontas, William B Davis, with Michelle Blackley.

Saturday, October 29, 11:00—12:30 A in the Third Floor D&E Rooms

UFO Claims

James McGaha: Woodbridge-Rendlesham Lights: the Best-Documented UFO in USAF History!

McGaha will relate how lights in the sky, just off a USAF base in England, became one of the most famous UFO tales in history. The facts have been left behind in a fabricated story beyond credulity. Find out the real story.