Says who? Members of the Winnipeg Skeptics rely on reason to separate the real meat from the baloney
By Carolin Vesely
Winnipeg Free Press
Posted: 30/11/2010
During a phone interview last week, Sylvia Browne told the Free Press that on top of her lecture, she'll be able to deliver psychic messages to as many as 300 audience members whe she appears at Pantages Playhouse Theatre on Thursday night.
Gem Newman has his doubts -- which is why he plans to be at the theatre well before the crowds start pouring in.
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The 26-year-old computer scientist is founder of the Winnipeg Skeptics, a group for people interested in the "investigation and critical examination of extraordinary claims."
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Newman says
he and his cohorts plan to show up outside Pantages before the show simply to offer some food for critical thought to ticket holders who paid up to $96 to hear the self-proclaimed psychic and medium lecture about the afterlife and relay messages from dead relatives and spirit guides.
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Newman, who is wearing a T-shirt that reads (once you solve the mathematical equation) “Nerds Forever,” stresses that
the Sylvia Browne Awareness Campaign is not a protest and skeptics will not be getting in people’s faces
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"There's a startling amount of balderdash, hogwash and nonsense out there. If you've been yearning for someplace to talk to other rational, thinking beings about the pseudoscience that drives you bonkers, look no further," Newman writes by way of greeting at
www.winnipegskeptics.wordpress.com
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"It's a process, not a position. We're not dedicated to any conclusion, we're dedicated to the process of skepticism," says Newman, who credits Carl Sagan's writings for helping an "annoying, know-it-all kid" who just parroted facts evolve into an open-minded skeptic whose greatest pleasure is figuring things out.
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To learn more about the Winnipeg Skeptics, check out their Meetup group at
www.meetup.com/WinnipegSkeptics or find them on Facebook. Newman also writes a blog at startleddisbelief.blogspot.com.
