Jessica Ahlquist at Skepticon 5

This is Jessica Ahlquist at Skepticon 5 in Springfield, MO, a couple of weeks ago. The video is poor - it was captured by a member of the audience - but the audio is fine. (I'll replace this video clip later, if a better copy is posted.)  Edit: I did replace the video clip. This one is much better.

I've blogged about Jessica before, so you might check that if you're not already familiar with her story. (In fact, my brother gave me one of those "Evil Little Thing" t-shirts.)

But listening to her talk, I can't help but remark at how sane she seems. I mean, she's smart, she's articulate, she's wonderfully nice,... but above all, her head really seems to be on straight, don't you think?

Apparently, she wants to continue as an activist, and it's really hard to imagine that she won't be a huge success at it.

Here's another video clip she posted herself, last January, just answering questions from people. America will be in good shape, if we've got many young people like that.

Rebecca Watson at Skepticon 5: How girls evolved to shop

Rebecca Watson is a great speaker, perceptive and very funny. But she takes a lot of crap from misogynists online. You should see some of the comments she gets.

And yes, some of them are apparently from atheists (men, naturally - usually those loony "men's rights" activists). Well, being an atheist doesn't make you rational. (It's the other way around. Being rational tends to make you an atheist - if you can struggle past your upbringing, at least.)

If you check out the other videos from Skepticon 5, they hardly have any negative ratings at all. But more than a third of the ratings on this talk are negative, and the comments seem to be more negative even than that.

Now, you can dislike a video for many reasons. I have no problem with that. Still, what's really to dislike about this one? And this is absolutely typical of any video clip featuring Rebecca Watson. Her detractors really seem to search them out.

And with some of those,... well, the comments are really bad. Her atheism is OK, apparently, but her feminism seems to enrage some men (boys?).

Weird, isn't it? But if you expect the world to be black and white, you'll be very disappointed. Atheists can be just as irrational as anyone else. (But note that not all misogynists are atheists, and those atheists who're also misogynists are a small minority.)

Anyway, that said, I'm not posting this to support Rebecca Watson. I'm posting it because it's an excellent talk - perceptive, eloquent, and quite funny. But maybe you can understand why the haters hate. She's very good at ridiculing the ridiculous.

The straw Vulcan

I liked the question at the end of this. Did this kind of thinking create straw Vulcans on TV and in the movies? Or are straw Vulcans what made people think that this is what rationality really is?

This is the third presentation I've posted (see also here and here) from Skepticon IV, which was held at Missouri State University last month, and they've all been great. In fact, I created a new Skepticon tag for such posts, since I'm clearly going to have to watch more of these presentations.

I'm not sure how many of them I'll post - especially those from previous Skepticons - since they're longer than most of the clips I like to embed here. But I've been really impressed by what I've seen so far, from Rebecca Watson, Greta Christina, and now Julia Galef.

Why are you atheists so angry?

Now you know why I'm so angry, huh? Now you know why I get angry, anyway. I'm serious. I do get angry, and Greta Christina touches on some of the reasons why.

This was her talk at Skepticon IV at Missouri State University last month. A week ago, I posted Rebecca Watson's excellent speech at the convention, but I haven't had time to check out all of the other presentations (available here on Hambone Production's YouTube channel).

Well, there's just never enough time for everything, is there? Luckily, my brother sent me this link. Thank-you. I really appreciate that. This is a great talk, with a lot to think about.

I can't repeat everything she said, but I particularly liked her contrast between religion and politics, how politics, even at its worst, still has a reality check.

That's a very good point. Political ideologies, as bad as they can be, still make their promises for this world. When they don't work, that's a reality check. But religions make promises that only take effect, supposedly, after you die. No reality check there!

Well, as I say, there's a lot to think about here. It's really an exceptional talk. If Watson's talk and this one are representative of the whole conference, I really do need to find time to watch them all,... sometime.

For now, I'll end with one of Christina's best - and most popular - remarks: "Atheists are not angry because there's something wrong with us. Atheists are angry because there's something right with us."

The religious right vs every woman on Earth

This was Rebecca Watson's talk at Skepticon 4 at Missouri State University last month. The whole thing is worth watching, but if you can't find the 40 minutes or so, you still might want to watch the first eight minutes.

That's because she follows up on her talk last year, also excellent, on "How to Ruin Christmas." In that one, she mentioned a movie, Christmas with a Capital C. Well, in the year since then, she not only watched the movie, but had a very interesting talk with the director and the screenwriter.

I think you'll be surprised to hear what she found out. It really is pretty funny.

The rest of the Skepticon 4 talks are also online, at Hambone Production's YouTube channel. Actually, talks from all of the Skepticons are there. And I'm sure they're all great, too. (That's the big problem with the internet, isn't it?)

Incidentally, in her talk about "How to Ruin Christmas" (which I've watched just now), Rebecca Watson notes the exact reason why I remember believing in Santa Claus, myself - and why I didn't believe in God. There was actually evidence for Santa Claus.

But I've talked about that before, and there's no sense getting into it again. I just thought her talk a year ago was really good, too.