By : Robyn E Blumner
Hello!
Over the past couple weeks, we have seen clearly the devastating results of the denial and obfuscation of science, as climate change exacerbates disastrous wildfires on the West Coast, and COVID-19 deaths in the United States approach 200,000. In both cases, the acceptance of science and reality, much earlier on, could have prevented much needless suffering and destruction.
The proliferation of fake coronavirus cures makes clear that now is the time for the wholesale rejection of pseudoscientific medicine of all stripes, but unfortunately some megaretailers don’t agree. We have new developments this week on our ongoing legal battle with Walmart over their deceptive hawking of homeopathic fake medicine.
What a breath of fresh air it is to hear from someone like Dr. Seema Yasmin, the latest speaker for our Skeptical Inquirer Presents online series. This week we’ll get some refreshing doses of reality as she helps us navigate the tsunami of “viral B.S.” in health and medicine.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has suffered a defeat in her latest attempt to siphon public funds to private religious schools through COVID-19 relief measures, which is just one part of a battle we are deeply invested in winning. Meanwhile, parents who have turned to homeschooling during the pandemic are very often finding that the resources available to them are steeped in conservative Christian teachings. We have some answers to that too
We’ll also get a look at the historical factors that led Bangladesh to become a place where religious doubt can be met with state persecution or vigilante violence. We’re doing what we can to help secular dissidents who are fighting every day for their most fundamental human rights.
Amid all this confusion and crisis, science has just offered up a mind-blowing possibility: the planet Venus, the super-heated “morning star,” might actually harbor some form of life.Even more remarkably, it’s a possibility once posited by one great mind closely connected to our organization fifty-three years ago to this very day.
Robyn E. Blumner,
CEO and President, Center for Inquiry
Executive Director, Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science
