Stephen Law

To subscribe to email updates about the Centre For Inquiry UK events I am arranging, please email me the phrase "subscribe cfi". You can unsubscribe any time. The next event is this pretty amazing one on ghosts, spirits, etc, btw. Sat 14th Jan. Magicians are involved so it will be entertaining as well as educational. To subscribe to email updates about Heythrop and other conferences and events of interest to pupils doing A Level RS and/or Philosophy , please email me the phrase "subscribe Heythrop". use the email address s.law AT heythrop.ac.uk (but fixing this anti-spam version, of course!) The next Heythrop Conference is this one on Sat 21st Jan 2012 with Keith Ward, Richard Harries, John Cottingham and myself. It's free but you need to book.

Ben Goldacre speaking this afternoon for CFI at Oxford Literary Festical to an audience of 500. Any suggestions for next year?

CFI World Congress report here . Swift said some nice things about me on the James Randi website.

Here in Washington at the CFI World Congress. The next one, in two years time, might well be in London. Many interesting talks, particularly from a panel of Muslims. Here's one set of statistics I took from scientist Lawrence Krauss. He searched the 10 million peer reviewed science papers published over last 12 years. 115 were on "intelligent design"; however most were on engineering. Only 11 actually on ID. Of those, 8 were critical of the science behind ID and the other 3 were conference proceedings. In other words, there was not one peer reviewed article supporting ID. There is, in short, no "scientific controversy" about ID. The idea that we should be "fair" and "open-minded" by "teaching the scientific controversy" in classrooms is just bullshit. Of course, Krauss knows the ID brigade say that the journals are biased against them. So he looked at books. There were 150 books on amazon on ID. But there were 165 on alien abduction...

You can go to an on-line store here . We are not making any profit on these - but if you want to donate a couple of quid, go to www.cfiuk.org and hit the "Support CFI UK" button. The Sagan picture shirts are on white or light colour only. Otherwise choose any colour you want. Hit the shirt to get the colour options. I might pull the picture shirts shortly, depending on copyright issues, so if you want one get in right now! These T-shirts are all Carl Sagan themed. Later, if I feel inspired, I may do e.g. a twee "Russell's Teapot" and an all-action "Bullshit Force!" (perhaps based on the A-Team, only with Russell, Sagan, Dawkins, and Randi as Mr T) version.

The cfi London website is now fully functional. Comments please... Go here . Many thanks to David McKeegan for doing an excellent job. Use www.cfilondon.org or www.cfiuk.org. Do not use www.cfilondon.org.uk or www.cfiuk.org.uk as they take you to the US site which we are not now using.

If anyone with web design skills feels able to help Centre for Inquiry here in the UK set up our website, either voluntarily or for modest fee, do please get in touch. We need something slick and stylish, and I can't do it (as you can see!) Thanks Stephen (Provost, CFI UK)

Can anyone recommend really good science speakers - preferably with great powerpoints and even some interactive stuff? UK based. It's for CFI events.

I am currently staying in Buffalo, NY, as a guest of Paul Kurtz and the Centre for Inquiry (transnational). We are sorting out how CFI London will proceed. I am interested in what kind of talks and events people would like to see put on, If you've got suggestions let me know... POST SCRIPT: Here are ideas I am currently playing with. Comments please. 1. LEAD EVENT: PUBLIC DEBATE: THE NEW ATHEISM. Perhaps with a certain well-known atheist and his nemesis. Not mentioning any names.... 2. Course: Exploring the paranormal. 2hrs for one evening per week, over 5 weeks. Possible charge of £20. With leading parapsychologists. 3. Course: The Omega Course. (or Alpha plus course). an alternative to the Church of England's cultish Alpha Course. 3a. Course or event on how cults work. 4. EVENT: Psychic powers. Come along and see fantastic demonstrations of psychic ability! (Some of you may remember I did this for the launch of THINK with Tony Youens, and it was a lot of fun. Got lots of punt...

I have been asked to head up the new Centre for Inquiry in London (in effect, in charge of all academic programmes), and I have agreed. Will be planning various talks and events once we get it going. Should be a lot of fun, I hope. I'll be soliciting suggestions.... You will have the option of joining the mailing list and/or becoming a "friend" for a modest sum (about £30 I think). Website here . I do not yet have an appropriate title. I was thinking "Grand Poo-Bah Extraordinaire" or "Supreme Authority". You may have suggestions..... Incidentally, one of the reasons I am very pleased to be associated with CFI is that a founder was the late, great, Carl Sagan, whom I idolized as a kid (remember "Cosmos"?). I hope we can put on some really interesting events that avoid just preaching to the choir.