TIES Reaches the Fifty-State Milestone

The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES) is celebrating a major milestone, as Hawaii becomes not just the fiftieth state in the Union, but the fiftieth state to host a TIES workshop!

Launched in 2015 by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science, now part of the Center for Inquiry (CFI), TIES gives middle school teachers the tools they need to effectively teach evolution and answer its critics through in-person workshops, online seminars, and a growing library of free educational resources.

With a workshop to be held on November 2 for the Hawaii Science Teachers Association Conference at McKinley High School in Honolulu, presented by TIES associate Kenny Coogan, the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science will have reached all fifty states.

CSICon 2019: One Week to Go!

This is it, folks. The proverbial last minute. One week from now, the Flamingo Resort in Las Vegas will host skeptics from across the country and around the world for the year’s premier skeptics’ conference, CSICon 2019.

If you haven’t registered yet, this is your last chance to make sure you get to see an incredible roster of special guest speakers that includes scientists, activists, authors, and entertainers such as John de Lancie, Julia Sweeney, Brian Greene, Richard Dawkins, Britt Marie Hermes, Dr. Jen Gunter, and Michael Mann with performances by illusionist Banachek, comedian Leighann Lord, and Piff the Magic Dragon.

Listen to CFI’s own Martina Fern talk all about the event on the Phil Ferguson Show, and if you still don’t believe us, you can fact-check us with Snopes founder and CSICon speaker David Mikkelson, who spoke to Susan Gerbic for Skeptical Inquirer online.

Plus, hands-on workshops, a dance party, author book signings, and all that the city of illusions has to offer.

But you must sign up now! Don’t let the week fly by. Get registered and get down to CSICon!

And we’ll see you in Vegas!

Richard Dawkins U.S. Tour Starts in Just a Few Days!

Richard Dawkins’s U.S. tour kicks off this Sunday in Boston! On the heels of the U.S. release this week of his new bestselling book, Outgrowing God, the world’s foremost expert on evolution and atheism is coming to four cities to engage with some of the most fascinating and challenging topics of our time, joined on stage by luminaries in their respective fields.

There’s still time to get tickets!

Boston, October 13: Dawkins comes to the Somerville Theatre joined by M.I.T. physicist and cosmologist Max Tegmark, author of Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

Phoenix, October 16: Actress, activist, outspoken atheist, and UN Human Rights Champion Amber Heard (Aquaman, Justice League, Friday Night Lights) will join Dawkins at the Mesa Arts Center near Phoenix.

Los Angeles, October 20: Dawkins is joined by writer and producer Ann Druyan, cocreator of Cosmos with her late husband Carl Sagan, as well as its sequel series, in a conversation moderated by Skeptical Inquirer editor Kendrick Frazier.

San Mateo (CA), October 26: Neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky, author of Behave: The Biology of Humans At Our Best and Worst, joins Dawkins at the San Mateo Performing Arts Center.

For events in Boston, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, CFI members at the Planet Level or above get 10 percent off their ticket purchase!

An Evening With Sasha Sagan in New York: Small Creatures Such as We

On November 17 in New York City, Sasha Sagan will take her audience on a captivating exploration of Earth’s marvels, enjoyed through a secular lens.

Based on her first book, For Small Creatures Such as We, Sasha offers an intimate glimpse into the moments that have shaped her—both public and private, the natural phenomena behind humanity’s most treasured occasions —from births to deaths, holidays to weddings, and how she honors the joy and significance of each experience without relying on religious frameworks.

Sasha was raised by secular parents, famed astronomer Carl Sagan and writer and producer Ann Druyan. They taught her that the natural world and vast cosmos are full of profound beauty, that science reveals truths more wondrous than any myth or fable.

Now, Sasha is ready to share her deep-rooted revelations with the rest of the world.

So come along, and experience Sasha’s moving tribute to her father, her newborn daughter and the natural world–a celebration of life itself, in one truly memorable evening.

Action Alert: The Scientific Integrity Act

A New York University report concluded that the Trump administration has been deliberately attacking the integrity of science in government to undermine the value of objective fact itself. This is a danger to our democracy and our planet. That’s why we’re asking you to help build support in Congress for the Scientific Integrity Act, a bill intended to protect scientists and their work from political corruption. The Scientific Integrity Act makes it a crime to suppress, censor, or alter scientific findings that are used to inform public policy, and it protects scientists who blow the whistle on political censorship.

Action Alert: Support Flu Vaccinations

The flu is serious business. Influenza causes tens of thousands of deaths every year, but it’s just one of many illnesses that can be prevented with vaccines. That’s why we can’t allow antiscientific misinformation to undermine vaccination rates and put people at risk.

We want you to help support the Vaccine Awareness Campaign to Champion Immunization Nationally and Enhance Safety (VACCINES) Act, which provides the Department of Health and Human Services with tools to strengthen vaccination rates through a better understanding of how and why some Americans decline to vaccinate and by educating the public about vaccine science.

Photo by denis_vermenko via Adobe Stock.

CFI’s Lemieux Trains Secular Citizen Lobbyists

Last month, CFI Director of Government Affairs Jason Lemieux was a featured speaker at the annual lobby day for the Secular Coalition for America. (The Center for Inquiry is one of the SCA’s nineteen member organizations.) Drawing on both his advocacy expertise and his years of Capitol Hill experience as a congressional staffer, most recently with Sen. Cory Booker, Jason delivered a presentation on “How to Talk to Congress,” teaching the approximately ninety attendees about Congress’s “idiosyncratic culture” and guiding them through mock-meetings with lawmakers.

“There were some newcomers who were apprehensive about meeting with a congressional staffer for the first time,” writes Jason in his report on the CFI blog. “I accompanied a few of them to meetings with members of Congress’s Maryland delegation. They did great! It was gratifying to help people make their voices heard in Congress where all too often, the concerns of regular constituents take a backseat to powerful special interests.”

CFI Kenya: The Power of a Library

CFI Kenya, one of the Center for Inquiry’s international branches, is a source of incredible pride and inspiration, running initiatives such as the Humanist Orphans program, a campus outreach office at Maseno University in Kisimu, and the Ron Lindsay Library, named for CFI’s former president and CEO. In a report from CFI Kenya’s newsletter, The Humanist Kenya, we learn more about the group’s library programs and how they promote critical thinking and humanism in places where books and computers are often luxuries.

“The library is stocked with books of all kinds, including humanist books,” writes CFI Kenya’s George Ongere. “Our vision is to offer books that open the minds of the villagers, helping them to be critical and rational thinkers.”

The Pitfalls of the Prison System on Point of Inquiry

How humane are prisons in the United States? And what is their purpose—to punish or to rehabilitate?

On the latest episode of CFI’s podcast Point of Inquiry, Jim Underdown presents the first of a two-part series that dives into the prison system, getting inside perspectives into how it disproportionately impacts communities of color, as well as how to make things better. Underdown’s guest this week is atheist activist, comedian, politician, former marine, and former prison security guard Steve Hill.

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