Howdy! I'm Chelsea... I'm married to my best friend (he's also the person who introduced me to the concept of community skepticism) and we're expecting a little skepling girl in mid-January. I'm still doing the whole college thing because, frankly, I was lazy and let it slide for a while. Now I'm playing catch up.
You can find me on such sites as: Twitter (FooFoo_McKinley), Skepchick, and Suburban Panic! I'm here because I feel strongly about the concept of Grassroots Skeptics: broadening the horizons of the skeptical community, bringing more people together, teaching the world to think rationally... I'll be moderating on the GRSkeptics forums, so come by and say hello! I'm looking forward to communicating with all of you. :)
Hi! My name is K.O. Myers. Grassroots Skeptics was my (possibly insane) idea. I was casting around for a way to help skepticism make the transition from a community to a social movement, and this is what I came up with.
I'm a proud husband, and the new father of a beautiful little girl. I recently graduated from law school, and I'm looking for a job while waiting for the results of my bar exam.
I am not related in any way to P.Z. Myers, and the fact that I've been called by my initials all my life is a complete coincidence. In fact, I have lots of fun childhood trauma stories about it, if you're bored.
Evening. Or morning. Whatever time it is where you are. I'm Akusai, a skeptical blogger who has become more and more of an activist skeptic over the last year or so. I write the low-on-the-totem-pole blog Action Skeptics (http://actionskeptics.blogspot.com), Tweet occasionally (ActionSkeptic) and do a few other skeptical things under my real name. I graduated from Purdue University a few years back with a degree in Philosophy, and am currently re-enrolled working on another degree in anthropology.
What I'd like to see out of a site like Grassroots Skeptics is simply what it is: a center for organization. As a budding activist skeptic, it's hard to get the word out on some of my projects, and Grassroots Skeptics is a fantastic idea to help out folks like me who don't have as much blog traffic or word-of-mouth as others. I see it, basically, as a staging area; a common place from which to announce and publicize (and organize, to some degree) grassroots skeptical events. I think it's a great idea and I hope it takes off like a rocket.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I'm organizing a large battery of skeptical events for Gen Con Indy 2010 next August. Gen Con is an all-purpose gaming/sci-fi/fantasy/comic con in the vein of Dragon*Con and such, and some friends and I did a panel discussion on general skepticism this year and it went really well. We're looking to have a solid group of events for next year in the hopes of eventually justifying a skeptical "track" like at Dragon*Con. Anyone that has anything to contribute can feel free to e-mail me at o[dot]kakodaimon[at]gmail[dot]com. Thanks!
Greetings All! My name is Joel Wheeler, though I tend to go by the online moniker of Platinumwolf. I'm working on a website/forum for Skepticism in Oregon (and surrounding areas). If anyone is interested, check out www.oregonskeptics.com
Now that the shameless site promotion is out of the way, I'm a college student at Oregon State University (Go Beavers!) -- studying mechanical engineering, work full-time as a maintenance planner at a "sustainable" farm outside of Corvallis, and a married father of three. I also spent six years in the Navy. I've consciously been a skeptic for the last four years or so, and the more I learn about how things are going, the more outspoken I've become. I'm a huge fan of anything having to do with space exploration, and commercial space ventures in particular.
I am Patrick Jerome, Sultan of Skeptics for the fledgling Jackson Skeptical Society in Jackson Mississippi. We're a small, disorganized bunch led by a large, disorganized man.
I look the part of an old testament prophet, and totally enjoy the fact that crazy people tend to want to talk to me about their crazy. I spent some serious time on the "dark side" soaking up lots and lots of woo, and one day it just all fell apart on me.
My degrees in biology and political science aren't as useful as I'd hoped, and I'm picking up lots of odd jobs to pay the man. It's a great way to come face-to-face with the other side of the "on the fence" people who give science and reason the "eh, I don't know..." response, as well as raving froth-at-the-mouth True Believers.
Since starting the JSS I've found that this is a somewhat rational town. Maybe it has something to do with all the hospitals and geologists. Man, those guys don't like creationists. (Neither do I).
But I blog a bit, http://jacksonskepticalsociety.com, and keep the JSS going. If you're in Mississippi, check us out!
I'm a skeptic in Atlanta, was at Dragon*Con, and am totally fired up! Whoot! I have a skeptical/atheist blog at Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes (hjhop.blogspot.com). I have a PhD in English and teach writing.
I'm Siobhan and I live in Vermont. I've been with my husband for 21 years this December, we've been married for 19 of those years this September. When we met he was agnostic and I was a born again Christian. Through patient discussion and education I came out the other side of that, and now I am agnostic. We have no children (by choice), and we have built out dream house in Central Vermont. We've been living on our six acres of forest for nearly five years now, and we love the house. We travel as much as we can, and have a week long trip to DC planned for December.
I'm a web applications and database developer, and I am very satisfied with my work. I only started learning skepticism and reasoning and logical thinking after meeting my husband. Prior to that, I was very much a "seat of my pants" sort of person to whom life happened, rather than someone who worked out why thing were happening the way they were, and figured out better ways of getting the outcomes I preferred. It's been a long road of self examination and learning about both myself and the others around me. I enjoy getting to know people, and I hope to find a community of folks who are like-minded that I can speak with regularly.
Hello. I'm Walt from NJ. I'm 36 and Skepticism has come through my interests in History and Science all triggered by realizing that I was an atheist about 5 years ago (I know that atheism is not a required skeptic trait, but it is how I got here). After listening to and watching Penn Jillette (His short-lived radio show with Micheal Goudeau and BullShit) I became interested in the skeptic movement. I am constantly reading - mostly American History and Science books - trying to get as much info into my tiny little brain as possible. I got my wife thinking on the skeptical side, though she still refers to any skeptic meeting as a "nerd-fest" (in a loving way).
Professionally I am a Compliance Technical Writer (BA in English) with a major bank that has eaten billions of US taxpayer's dollars to keep us afloat (thanks all!). Fun includes building homemade Halloween props (best holiday of all), working on the house, playing with my 3 dogs (Lucy - Shi-tzu, Dale - Boxer, Guinness - Pug), and working the inspiration for my username, my 1963 Studebaker Avanti.
Hi everyone. I'm Sharon in Central Pennsylvania. I'm 39, a geologist, married, mother of two daughters. I've been involved in the skeptical community since about 2000 and interested in critical thinking before that. Always been interested in monsters, ghosts and general paranormal stuff since I could read. I discovered the other viewpoint after college.
I run the Drinking Skeptically in Harrisburg area and network through facebook and twitter ("Idoubtit").
I'm currently in the middle of the University at Buffalo's Science and the Public Masters program in education. It's excellent. My goal, after my thesis is finished, is to start a local skeptics group. I am currently sending out feelers of interest to nearby like-minded folks. Another skeptical friend has also suggested we work to organize a Skepticamp some day too. I have lots of ideas and not enough time to do them all. Hope to learn to how to manage some of them.
Hello fellow skeptics. I'm Phillip from Alabama. I am 30, a professor of economics, have a PhD in economics from Mississippi State University. Personally, I became a skeptic after I started graduate school, and my roommate basically berated me with every conspiracy theory ever created. (My all time favorite, is the "Who Killed the Electric Car?") One day I had had enough and asked my roommate to prove one of his theories. When he could not even rationalize a coherent response, I began to research every one of his crazy theories, and I have never stopped looking for rational/scientific explanations for what I see and what I am told.
I look forward to intriguing discussions with fellow skeptics.
Hey folks. I'm Bart from Conway, Arkansas. I'm 37, a web developer/photographer. I think I've always been a skeptic about most things, in the last two years though, religion has come under my skeptical eye. I've also woken up to how dangerous some woo-woo actually is in our society (anti-vaxxers, CAM, etc). I've tried to start a Central Arkansas Skeptical Society (we have a facebook page and had 1 drinking skeptically event), but just haven't had the time to throw myself fully into it. Since I'm a web developer I would be willing to help out in the skeptical community setting up websites etc.
I really enjoy philosophy and science and anytime I get to hang out with really smart people and discuss things like that, I'm happy.
I have a blog I never update at http://reasonableskepticism.wordpress.com
You can find me on twitter and facebook at http://twitter.com/echobucket http://facebook.com/echobucket
My name is Randall "Doc" Fleck and you'll find out soon enough that I'm loaded with opinions. I'm from NW Arkansas where were experiencing a welcomed degree of growth in the two groups located here, Fayetteville and Rogers. I'll post links to them both in time... but first of all, I'd like to just lay back and get to know the lay of the land. I'm happy to be here.
I'm Nicole, 25 and living in Charlottesville, Virginia, though originally from NY. Working on a PhD in astronomy at UVa on radio astronomy instrumentation. I also like doing astronomy and science outreach. I came to skepticism as a world-view after reading Carl Sagan's "Demon-Haunted World" a few years ago, and to organized skepticism after poking around on Phil Plait's blog and landing on the podcast Skepticality. I helped promote and internetify our local skeptics ground when it was founded a little over a year ago, but since then I've been so wrapped up in work as to not give it the attention that I'd like to. Hoping to change that after a very inspiring Skeptrack at Dradon*Con! My boyfriend is a skeptic at heart (at head?) but isn't so much into the writings and podcasts and meetings, but he happily comes along and had a great time in Atlanta. He lives in Philly, so maybe we should get the Philly Skeptics to kidnap him and drag him out to a meeting? ;-)
Blog over at One Astronomer's Noise: http://astronoise.wordpress.com and I'm on Twitter and Facebook and all that.
P.S. K.O., are you the one that designed the Dalek "I want to believe" t-shirt?
Hi, my name is Ben, and I'm a sceptic, and a subdued optimist.
I believe we are all at war, against the tyranny of money, the oppression of religion, and the prison of ignorance.
I'm soon going to be opening a business (I need to make a living), that will help people to stand up and fight against the above. And so I read widely, argue heatedly and think alot - all to keep my intellectual blade keen and true.
I'm a Brit, and proud of the true word - SCEPTIC - with a 'C' because I'm British and speak the Queen's English. :-)
my name is kim, (aka kim2.0) from columbus, ohio, and i am a recent-ish addition to the skeptic community. i really have found my 'home' in this movement, and am so happy to be a critical thinker! (much better than the catholicism and woo i spent my early life immersed in- one day my faith started to collapse, and then it was only a matter of time before i realized it's all BS! lol)
i am a graphic designer and photographer by 'day' and also blog on http://negativentropy.blogspot.com
CORI (central ohioans for rational inquiry) is our local meetup group, check us out we're awesome! ;)
Hey guys and gals, I'm Russ and many of you will come to be extremely annoyed by my tendency to savor debate far more than outcome. There are few broad opinions which I hold strongly, so I'm often accused of being wishy-washy, but the truth is that most opinions in life are in regards to very personal matters. To me, that requires a thoughtful approach to making a reasoned decision, but doesn't dictate that any particular conclusion is paramount.
Some background information: I'm 24 and just recently graduated from Drexel Law with K.O. as my esteemed classmate. As you've noticed, I talk(/ type) too much. I apologize in advance. I don't prefer to think of my approach to life as "skepticism", given that I feel rationality simply ought to be a standard, rather than a specified approach. However, 24 years of life has taught me that skepticism may truly be a minority.
I work for a law firm in Philadelphia and am (im)patiently awaiting my BAR exam results. In my spare time I prefer playing any and all sports, as well as quizzo at various Philadelphia bars.
I'm Pat, a 49-year-old technical writer, husband, and father of two college-aged offspring. I do community theatre (both backstage tech work and acting) and volunteer for an animal rescue group, providing foster care for pet rats while we find adopters for them.
I'm Matt, a 42 year old web and graphic designer, husband and father of a 5 year old kindergartner. I'm working organizing a Camp Quest here in Denver, CO for next summer.
I am Tim and I run a skeptical newsletter about UFOs called SUNlite. You can download the latest issue (and all past issues) at my website (http://home.comcast.net/~tprinty/UFO/SUNlite.htm). I am always looking for articles and writers for the newsletter. Let me know if you are interested.
I am a 47 year old ignostic male with a background in nuclear physics, computing technology, am a semi-professional musician, have an interest in astronomy, space flight, anthropology, all things feline, and flouting the laws of men (those last 2 kind of go hand-in-hand). I dream of being a professional comedian, a dream that dies a little more with every joke I tell. Wait for it, wait for it... Okay, if you don't get it, you're not a Kurt Vonnegut Jr. fan. I have only recently begun to think of skepticism as a process and am pretty much a novice at it (thanks, btw, if there are any of you here, to the members of Cectic, who got me started before Rudis' website went inactive, and put up with my lengthy verbage and incredible run-on sentances that never seem to end...). I am here because 1) Phil Plait pointed me here by way of the link on his website (how do I add links here?), 2) I think my successful science background suggests that I'll be good at this, and 3) united we stand. Gosh, now that I think of it, there are a whole lot more reasons for being here. Chances are, most of you are here for the same reasons, so I'll spare you telling you what you probably already can guess. In any case, I look forward to learning to be a better skeptic with all of you and getting more in touch with the skeptics of the world.
I love truth, thinking, making music, drinking (not to excess...well, not entirely to excess), and people who share those interests.
I was born in Alabama, worked for ten years in Mississippi, and currently reside in Tennessee. I know, I know, I'm just stubborn that way. I probably listen to far too many podcasts, but those podcasts led me here, so it can't all be time wasted.
Living in the South, I've learned to keep my mouth shut. I'm not dishonest. If anyone asks me about my beliefs, I will gladly tell them. At the same time, I'm not particularly keen about wearing t-shirts that proclaim my lack of belief (my skin not being impervious to pointy sticks and all). Recently, however, I've longed for similar minds. I've also come to realize that I have not been part of the solution. Therefore, I have been the problem. I'm looking to change that.
When I heard about this website, I felt compelled to visit. I'm glad I did. Any opportunity that is available for me to improve my critical thinking skills and learn about any topic is an opportunity I intend to take.
I'm a married father of two youngsters in Long Island, N.Y. I'm glad to find a community of people who not only are of like minds but seem to be actively working to have an impact on the rest of them. I've been on other forums like JREF and SGU but this one seems more focused on action than chatter, thus here I am.
I want to thank K.O. for starting this, I think it is a great idea! My name is Laurie and I am a counselor at Camp Inquiry (run by CFI) and I also blog. I've always been a skeptic, but I didn't know the word for it until Phil Plait explained it to me on his old, original Bad Astronomy website, probably about 10 years ago. I just recently wrote a post about how to get involved in the skeptical movement: http://www.rationalmoms.com/2009/09/11/im-not-a-skeptical-celebrity-how-can-i-be-involved/
At the risk of sounding redundant, I'd also like to extend my hearty gratitude to Mr. Myers for his conception and execution of this project. I think it's high time that we skeptics make the transition from rationally-minded hobbyists to cohesive group capable of advocating for itself effectively in a climate of frightening anti-intellectualism.
As for me, I'm a senior English major at Missouri State University in Springfield, MO. Though our university is situated in one of the most nightmarishly religious cities in the United States, we are blessed to have one of an increasing number of active, skeptically-oriented campus organizations in the country, the MSU Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (Sauce be upon Him). Whenever the gay-bashing fundagelical street-preachers show up on the concrete stage between the student union and the bookstore, (and they do, on a weekly basis), we mobilize. The Church of the FSM is there with our pirate hats and our devastating rebuttals of flood geology. Whenever the Springfield News-Leader publishes a homophobic screed in its op-ed section, our brilliant "Captain" takes notice, and unleashes an evidence-packed response possessed of such eloquence that our local rag has no choice but to print. The friends I've made at university have taught me to celebrate my skepticism and love learning.
Um, gosh, I'd really like to write more but I've got a meeting to dash to, so I'll end by saying that I look forward to meeting, learning from, and collaborating with all of you. Peace, folks,
My name is Joel Trentadue and I'm the founder and President of the UW-Wisconsin Parkside Skeptical Society. I'm 22, a biology major and an active skeptic.
I went to a Drinking Skepchickly in Chicago with Elise, and I enjoyed being around other skeptics so much that I had to start my own organization.
We're not affiliated with the SSA for political reasons so we've decided to build from the ground up. I'm here to bounce ideas off other skeptics and contribute what I learn as this club evolves with the hope of making it easier on the next person.
I'm a born and bred Pennsylvanian, which if you don't know, implies a childhood filled with hunting, mindless materialistism, doing what you're told, and before all else believing in God and the inherent evils of science and reason.
I was raised Pentecostal ("spirit-filled" Evangelical) and converted to Catholicism in college for reasons that, looking back, make very little sense. For the two years afterward I put myself on the fast track to priesthood, again, for reasons that now don't make a lot of sense.
At the end of those two years, I happened to start evaluating my decisions sensibly. Not for any gloriously dramatic reason - I just started using my brain. I quickly discovered that I was not going in the right direction about anything philosophically, which then led me to doubt the great array of so-called "truths" I had been raised to accept.
In the three years since this discovery began, I have become something of a staunch advocate for skepticism, a die-hard evolutionist and a practical atheist, with my eyes and ears always open to the fantastic realities of science and logical comprehension.
Pursuing this new "calling," as it were, it's great to have a site like this, where skeptics can come together to the ends of promoting understanding and change. I hope to find it fulfilling.
Hi; I am the founder Minot Skeptical Society. We have been active for over one year. We have a blog site, just google Minot Skeptical Society. We have P.Z. Myers coming October 5 to speak on Evolutionary Denialism, in co-sponsorship with Northwest Art Center, at the Alshier Theater at Minot State Univesity at 7 pm. I am a family physician and associate Professor of Family Medicine at the Center for Family Medicine, University of North Dakota, Minot North Dakota. We have professors from Minot State University, local physicians, students, residents, and just plain folks part of our group. We try to have monthly meetings with subjects ranging from vaccines, alternative medicine, global warming, current economic crisis to religion. Our rule is you can passionately present your opinion or arguments as you want, but we must be able to go out afterwards and have a drink together. We publish in the local paper and try and expose poor arguments, myths and just plain woo. We have sold t-shirts and cups to try and raise money to pay for expenses for speakers. We are new at this and still learning. We would like to network with other skeptics out there. I started this group because me and others in this heavily religious, republican stronghold were tired of the baloney out there. We desperately needed reason and critical thought. I am the Skeptical DoDo on our blog. Peace!
Howdy! I'm GodOfPie (Jim) the founder of Forsyth Area Critical Thinkers (FACT) and we are located in central North Carolina, specifically, Winston Salem. We just celebrated our 1 year anniversary. Woo-Hoo0! We are just trying to bring a little rational thought to central NC. If you would like to know more about FACT, please go here. www.meet.com/fact
I just wanted to take a minute to say hello to everyone who's taken the time to write an introduction. I'm sorry I haven't had time to greet you all individually, but we've got a lot going on behind the scenes, and Grassroots Skeptics isn't my day job. =)
So welcome. I hope you'll take a spin around and let us know what you think.