Talks:
This was another great talk and a good start to the second day, with not too heavy content for those feeling a bit worse for wear! Carrie Poppy is an American actress and podcaster who has "converted" from a credulous life to that of a skeptic. She now makes a podcast called "Oh no! Ross and Carrie" in which her and co-host Ross Blocher investigate various paranormal, spiritual, conspiracy or potentially dubious claims, often by going undercover and getting involved themselves!
Anecdotes from a credulous life - Carrie tells us the entertaining story of how after moving into a new house she started to feel really depressed and stressed. She went to a spiritualist's shop and bought stress balls and the like to try and help. But they were no use. Looking up such things on the internet she began to a bit of research. Some claims that objects could be possessed by demonic spirits led her to throw out the stress balls and when things only got worse, she started to think that there was some sort of presence within her house itself. Things got so bad that she started to avoid entering certain rooms altogether. Desperately searching online for answers, someone eventually helped by asking if she'd checked the carbon monoxide levels in the house. So she called in the gas company and they found high levels of CO being emitted by a leaking boiler. Their advice was "You're lucky to be alive. Please move out until we can fix it."
This just goes to show how easy it is to be fooled by woo. Carrie went on to tell us how this affected her life and how she now always questions things. She described in the podcast how they have investigated various cults by posing as new recruits! They entered the Mormon Church, and the alien-worshipping cult of "Raelians" where they believe your DNA can be uploaded to the alien mother-ship! Yep, really! Taking an interest and involvement in these claims, and gaining first hand experience really gives them a good perspective to try and understand the thinking that leads to these beliefs.
Since listening to Carrie's talk I have subscribed to the Oh No! Ross and Carrie podcast and can say that so far it is excellent and highly recommended. They gave a humorous but informative view on consumer DNA genotyping and why it might be a good thing to have done, with an in-depth discussion of the various advantages and potential pitfalls. There is certainly very good camaraderie between the two of them!
9) The Ancient Guide to Modern Life (Natalie Haynes)
I really enjoyed this talk. Natalie Haynes (writer and comedian) started off with some remarkable self-deprecation about having to talk at the same time as Richard Dawkins was featuring in the other room, and how she was surprised anyone was staying here for her talk! It was a very dynamic unscripted performance - she was very energetic and fast-talking so I apologise here for being too slow to take down many of the details very accurately!
The model of the Greek Tragedies as a basis for the available pool of valid stories that could be told in our modern dramas was very interesting. I explains why there are a limited number of stories that we see repeated over and over again. "Oedipus-Enders" as she said, which raised a few chuckles. Some new ideas for stories simply don't work so it is better to just re-hash the same old ideas?
The issue of women's political power and liberation was raised, as applied to the time of the ancient Greeks. As women had no votes or many other rights, about the only thing they could validly do was stoically withhold sex from men. This caused many problems but was actually quite successful as it didn't take long for men to start granting concessions! Dare I say it...typically example of men's brains in their pants. I wonder if this tactic is something that could be considered again nowadays, or as I suspect have we moved too far for this to be a valid widely-applied solution? But could it be used in a local area or by specific populations in certain circumstances?
Satirical songs crafted after the death of a widely-despised political leader were discussed. The modern implication being the "Ding-Dong the witch is dead" song for now-deceased ex-PM Baroness Thatcher. But it turns out that this kind of social dissent is not without precedent or particularly extreme. The "Ding-Dong song" is a mild form of rebellion and there are previous historical examples e.g. Seneca wrote a protest song about the Roman Emperor Claudius where he doesn't become Godly after his demise but instead turns into a giant pumpkin!
The plight of non-believers is rationalised in a historical context by considering the case of Socrates, the ancient Greek philosopher. He was accused of the crime of "bringing in new gods and dismissing the old gods". He was eventually killed for "corrupting the young", a particularly nebulous crime as it could be defined as doing anything those in power didn't agree with. But theists tend to apply this dubious historical excuse to atheists nowadays!
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