Atheist Meditations

Over the course of the weekend I've been passing the time as I re-organize my workspace up here by listening to some of the many archived podcasts available at the Skeptic.com website. Under the name Skepticality, co-hosts Derek and Swoopy have interviewed a great many of the big guns in the modern skeptic movement. Sometimes these programs are highly stimulating, other times the full hour of conversation seems to drag just a little.

Last night I finally caught up with one of their most recent interviews, released on October 16.

Daniel Loxton begins the podcast with a reading of his essay, Where Do We Go From Here?, in which he draws from some surprising resources of pop culture (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the spin-off Angel) to make an appeal for the morality of skepticism.

I found his presentation to be both informative and inspirational.

Mr. Loxton describes the sense of burnout that plagues many of the old guard in the skeptical movement as well as really fleshing out just what it is that these individuals are actually doing. Following in the footsteps of Harry Houdini himself, guys like James Randi confront mediums and faith healers who are cynically profiting off of the grief and desperation of some of the less sophisticated amongst us. The motivation is not to 'ruin the fun' in someone's happy fantasy that aliens routinely visit the earth, it lies in protecting the public from charlatans who sell worthless (or even dangerous) goods and services without a scrap of oversight from either the government or the media.

His position spurred me to think about a lot of things, and has been my high point in philosophical stimulation in at least the last few weeks.

I recommend the audio media to everyone. A printed version has also been made available in pdf format. Kudos to Skepticality and all the sentient beings who still strive to extract something of the higher potential of human consciousness for our public sphere.

Labels: Generation Next, Skepticism, Spirituality