Hi Everyone!

As I have since learned since I scheduled this meetup, it was right on top of the Atlanta Science Tavern's meeting about climate change.

Since we have a lot of members in both groups, I've moved our meeting to immediately follow theirs. And we are now in the BIG ROOM at Manuels - the same one we used for the Amateur Scientist podcast last month. The AST will finish by 9, so we'll start right on their heels at about 9:15 or so.

"Great," I can tell you're thinking. "What are we meeting about?"

Atlanta's own J. Paul Daigle is going to talk about skeptical promotion online, but from a different angle than you've probably heard before:

I am not Seth: Confessions of a Skeptical Asshole

For several years, I've pursued a skeptical career as a snarky, sarcastic, and dogged debater on several skeptical web sites. The response to this among skeptics has been almost universal rejection of any position that they don't already agree with, and even rejection of messages that they already do agree with. At the same time, I've observed the same phenomenon whenever skeptics are engaging with people of faith. There is an attitude that skeptics are only interested in disagreeing with people, that skeptics are arrogant, that skeptics don't listen and refuse to consider other interpretations of data.

For what it's worth, I'd like the Atlanta Skeptics to consider some conjectures from a skeptical asshole on how skepticism can create a more positive impression without compromise or accommodation.

See you then!

Christian