What we're about
Upcoming events (4+)
Despite the scientific consensus, there are substantial obstacles to the acceptance of anthropogenic climate change among the American public and to the incorporation of climate change in U.S. public science education. In his talk, Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education will address the question, To what extent do religious views, in particular evangelical Christianity, present such obstacles, as they clearly have in the case of evolution? A spate of notorious incidents and dismaying statistics suggests that there’s a robust connection between evangelicalism and climate change denial. But a close analysis of recent history and survey data reveals that the connection is contingent and conditional, suggesting the possibility of its dissolution: it may not be necessary to wait for a cold day in Hell.
Glenn Branch is deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, a nonprofit organization that defends the integrity of science education against ideological interference. He was elected as a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry in 2022. He was the co-editor, with Eugenie C. Scott, of Not in Our Classrooms: Why Intelligent Design is Wrong for Our Schools, and author or coauthor of numerous articles on climate education and evolution education, and obstacles to them, in such publications as Scientific American, The American Biology Teacher, and the Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics. He was awarded the Evolution Education Award for 2020 by the National Association of Biology Teachers.
This event is cosponsored by Atheists United.
We ask that all attendees be vaccinated.
Admission: $10, or FREE for CFI or AU Members*
*CFI Membership is $60/year. Find out more and join here: https://cfiwest.org/donate/
- Atheists U.
- CFI W.
- Alice P.
- 3 attendees
Center for Inquiry West
In their bestselling book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway revealed the origins of climate change denial. Now, they unfold the truth about another disastrous dogma: the “magic of the marketplace.”
In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with “big government” and up with unfettered markets. With startling archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. They detail the ploys that turned hardline economists Friedrich von Hayek and Milton Friedman into household names; recount the libertarian roots of the Little House on the Prairie books; and tune into the General Electric-sponsored TV show that beamed free-market doctrine to millions and launched Ronald Reagan’s political career.
By the 1970s, this propaganda was succeeding. Free market ideology would define the next half-century across Republican and Democratic administrations, giving us a housing crisis, the opioid scourge, climate destruction, and a baleful response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Only by understanding this history can we imagine a future where markets will serve, not stifle, democracy.
Naomi Oreskes is Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. Her opinion pieces have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and many other outlets. Her TED talk, “Why We Should Trust Scientists,” was viewed more than a million times.
Erik Conway is a historian of science and technology and works for the California Institute of Technology. He is the author of seven books and dozens of articles and essays.
We ask that all attendees be vaccinated.
Admission: $10, or FREE for CFI Members*
*Membership is $60/year. Find out more and join here: https://cfiwest.org/donate/
- CFI W.
- Dave B.
- Alice P.
- 3 attendees
Past events (1,125)
- James U.
- Sherri A.
- 2 attendees
