The Ethics of Skepticism

Epistemological responsibility is the moral imperative to only believe what is true. Our featured speaker, Scott Jeffries, will argue that having a high regard for evidence should be considered an essential component to living a moral life. If your beliefs are based on willful ignorance such as denying the benefits of vaccination, holding an uninformed political view, or neglecting to question a long-standing tradition, then your personal beliefs are irresponsible regardless of whether or not they're explicitly being acted upon... And that irresponsibility will always influence others and move society in the wrong direction.

Scott Jeffries is a baptized Anglican, practicing skeptic, and popular science addict. He co-founded the (still active) Freethinkers, Skeptics, and Atheists @ York student club and currently moderates a monthly Meetup group called Toronto's Cafe Skeptique with over fifty active members. In his professional life, Scott works as a media & data director for a marketing agency specialized in helping nonprofits.

Our musical guests will be Nathan Smith and Emilyn Stam. They are multi-instrumentalists drawn together by their shared love of québecois fiddle and piano music. Traditions swirl and intermingle in their music. Their combined influences and pursuits include bluegrass, old-time, Scandinavian, and Western European traditional music. Both are prolific tune composers with a flair for combining a creative spark with the timeless vitality of traditional songs and tunes.

Originally from Smithers, BC, Emilyn has toured and recorded extensively in North America and Europe with The Lemon Bucket Orkestra, accordionist Filipo Gambetta, and clarinettist John Williams, among others. www.emilynstam.com

A North Bay native, Nathan plays and sings with his bluegrass band The Barrel Boys in addition to appearing with The Double Cuts, Ivan Rosenberg, and The O’Pears. www.nathansmithmusic.net

Every week we gather to be inspired, entertained, motivated and build our secular community in Downtown Toronto. Our core values are: People are more important than beliefs. Reality is known through reason. Meaning comes from making a difference. Human hands solve human problems. Be accepting and be accepted. Check in closer to the date of this event for more specific details of our program. Typically, we have a featured speaker and live music! Check out our website: www.torontooasis.org.