February Discussion Dinner: Love, a Skeptical Inquiry

This month's meetup will take place a week earlier since the following week is Valentine's day. So what better topic to talk about than Love! This was the topic of the second episode of our Rationally Speaking Podcast (http://gskeptic.squarespace.com/show/rs02-love-a-skeptical-inquiry.html), introduced here (http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2009/12/podcast-teaser-love-skeptical-inquiry.html) by Julia Galef.

So, Will science ever really be able to explain love? Science has already found correlations between particular hormones and certain forms or stages of love. However, no matter how many correlations we find between brain activity and love, correlation does not imply causation. And what does it mean to explain love scientifically -- would that change our attitude towards it? We realize that raising this subject risks fueling the widespread and irritating misconception that “skeptic” = “cynical killjoy,” which is the last thing we want to do. As good skeptics though, what do we do when faced with a mysterious and unexplained phenomenon? We look for explanations!

Remember, seating is limited so RSVP soon. And, please, be courteous to those on the waiting list and change your RSVP to NO if you decide not to come.