Current as of DECEMBER 20089 1 Distinguished Lecture Series at Caltech Topics 1. TOP PICKS 8. THE COSMOS: 2. PSEUDOSCIENCE SPACE ExPLORATION 3. PSyCHICS & MAGIC 9. THE COSMOS: 4. ENVIRONMENT & OUR ORIGINS—PHySICS GLOBAL WARMING 10. SCIENCE HISTORy, 5. EVOLUTION & SCIENCE PHILOSOPHy CREATIONISM & SCIENCE ETHICS 6. RELIGION: 11. SCIENCE & RELIGION BIBLE HISTORy/SCHOLARSHIP, 12. ExTREMISM, RELIGIOUS ANTHROPOLOGy, RACE ISSUES, CULTS RELIGIOUS PSyCHOLOGy 13. MATH & STATISTICS 7. THE NATURE OF HUMAN NATURE (THE SCIENCE OF WHO WE ARE) 14. SATIRE/SONGS Audio Cassette Tape: $9.95; DVD: $23.95; Audio CD $15.95 (available as indicated) To order call 626-794-3119 or go to skeptic.com and click on “shop skeptic” in menu bar and search by lecture number. SALE! VHS tapes Only $7.99 each while they last! We are closing out the VIDEO TAPE (VHS) versions of all of our lectures. Order now while we still have a wide selection in stock For some lectures there is neither a VHS or a DVD available. DVDs will eventually be produced. RICHARD DAWKINS-GOD DELUSION 1. Top picks av169C (audio cassette); av169DVD (DVD); av169CD (audio CD)-The God Delusion. Adirect no holds barred salvo against organized religion arguing that belief in “The God Hypothesis” is both intellec - RICHARD DAWKINS tually wrong, and a divisive and oppressive force that av036DVD (DVD); av036CD (audio CD); av036AT contributes to social backwardness and bigotry. (audio)--River Out of Eden: ADarwinian View of Entertaining and insightful. Life. Evolutionary reasoning from Evolutionary Biologist Richard Dawkins’ best-selling works. Point DANIEL DENNETT after point showing why creationism is simply and av157C (audio cassette); av157DVD (DVD); obviously wrong. Also, African Eve theory. av157CD ( audio CD)--Breaking the Spell: Religion As ANatural Phenomenon. Why do people believe in RICHARD DAWKINS God and what purpose does it serve? How does reli - av139DVD (DVD); av139AT (audio tape) av139CD gion shape our lives and our future. Is religion a blind (audio CD--The Ancestor’s Tale: APilgrimage to the evolutionary compulsion or a rational choice? How Dawn of Evolution Dawkins presents a comprehen - organized religion evolved from folk beliefs and why sive look at evolution, ranging from the latest devel - it is such a potent force today. Deftly and lucidly, he opments in the field to his own provocative views. contends that the “belief in belief” has fogged any View the connections between ourselves and all other attempt to rationally consider the existence of God life in a bracingly novel way. Afascinating history of and the relationship between divinity and human all living things. need. Current as of DECEMBER 2009 2 DANIEL DENNETT JARED DIAMOND av119VHS(video); av119C (audio cassette); av142C (cassette tape); av142DVD (DVD); av119DVD (DVD); av119CD (audio CD)-- Freedom av142CD (audio CD)--COLLAPSE! How Societies Evolves: Free Will, Determinism, and Evolution by Choose to Fail or Succeed Dr. Jared Diamond now renowned philosopher and public intellectual Dr. asks: “What causes the collapse of great civilizations, Daniel C. Dennett. Draws on evolutionary biology, and what can we learn from their fates?” he weaves an cognitive neuroscience, economics and philosophy, all-encompassing global thesis through a series of asci - demonstrates that free will exists in a deterministic nating historical-cultural narratives. From Polynesia to world for humans only, and that this gives us morali - ecologically robust areas like Montana, he traces the ty, meaning, and moral culpability. Asequel to his fundamental pattern of catastrophe: environmental bestseller Darwin’s Dangerous Idea. damage, climate change, rapid population growth, and unwise political choices—and offers solutions. Brilliant, illuminating, and immensely absorbing. JARED DIAMOND av015DVD (DVD); av015C (audio cassette)--The Great Leap Forward: The Evolution of Human STEPHEN JAyGOULD Creativity and Language by Dr. Jared Diamond. av095DVD (DVD); av095CD (audio CD)-Evolution Presents his controversial theory that it was language Revolution: Keynote Address by Gould. Festschrift that triggered the “Great Leap Forward” about 35,000 2000 for Stephen Jay Gould. Part III Gould is one of years ago that led to human culture & set us apart the best known and most highly decorated scientists of from Neanderthals. Abrilliant and masterful lecture our age. he delivers a remarkable lecture filled with by one of the greatest scientists of our generation. wit, charm, and historical anecdote, tracing the history of Western culture’s uneasy relationship with the shat - tering discoveries of science. Don’t miss this one! JARED DIAMOND av055DVD (DVD)-TAPE III-’97 • 1997 AWARDS. MICHIO KAKU JARED DIAMOND: Guns, Germs and Steel: A mas - av143C (audio cassette); av143DVD (DVD); terpiece! Why did Europeans conquer Native av143CD (2 audio CDs) PARALLEL WORLDS: Americans, Africans & Aborigines, rather than the The Science of Creation, Black Holes, Superstrings, reverse? Biology, zoology, biogeography, botany, lin - and Higher Dimensions Michio Kaku. professor of guistics, archeology, & genetics are used to answer Theoretical Physics at City University of New york one of the most perplexing questions of history. and bestselling author, presents a fascinating tour of (ALSO ON THIS TAPE: MICHAEL SHERMER: cosmology, including M-theory, inflationary universe How to Bridge the Science Gap. Shermer defined the theory, & parallel universes. Describes extraordinary “Science Gap” & regaled the audience with stories of advances that have transformed cosmology over the his media experiences.) last decade. JARED DIAMOND STEVEN PINKER av077DVD (DVD); av077C (audio cassette)--How to THE BLANK SLATE: TheModern Denial of Human be Rich and Sucessful: Lessons from History’s Nature av113C (audio cassette); av113DVD (DVD); Experiments in Organizing Human Groups Diamond av113CD (audio CD) Evolutionary psychologist and continues the discussion started in his Pulitzer Prize- linguistic theorist Dr. Steven Pinker argues for af new winning Guns, Germs, and Steel on the evolutionary scientific understanding of human nature. This bril - and historical fates of human societies, to consider liant reexamination of human nature, addresses the the current implications of his research for the fates of fear that a biological understanding of the mind will Microsoft, silicon valley, the European Union, be used to justify inequality, subvert social change, German Beer, and Japanese food. Another brilliant dissolve personal responsibility, and strip life of mean - lecture. ing and purpose. Pinker is at his best in this lecture. Current as of DECEMBER 2009 3 STEVEN PINKER Soviet Union, plus testing the claims of homeopathy, THE STUFF OF THOUGHT: Language as a and a special airing of Randi’s famous PBS Nova Window into Human Nature av178DVD (DVD): documentary. AClassic! av178CD (audio CD) By one of the most influential thinkers of our time—Dr. Steven Pinker—on what RICHARD WISEMAN language reveals about human nature. For example, av152C (audio cassette); av152DVD (DVD);--Luck, what swearing reveals about our emotions; what ESP, and Magic: How Science Tests the Unusual. By innuendo discloses about relationships; how our use magician, author, and psychologist Dr. Richard of prepositions and tenses taps into peculiarly human Wiseman. Great tape for students and groups. concepts of space and time; and how our nouns and Enlightening and entertaining! He focuses on his verbs speak to our notions of matter; and even what Luck Project (what traits make one person luckier baby names say about our relations to our children than others), the psychology of magic, and the relia - and society. bility of eyewitness testimony. Wiseman heads the psychology lab at the University of Hertford-shire, JAMES RANDI England and has done many TV programs. av001DVD (DVD); av001C (audio cassette)-- Pseudoscience and the Paranormal by James “The STUDy OF EVIL- ZIMBARDO Amazing” Randi. Inaugural Skeptics Society Lecture! av175DVD (DVD); av175CD (audio CD)- -The The irrepressible and always entertaining James Lucifer Effect : Understanding How Good People Randi details his travels in newly liberated eastern Turn Evil By Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who ran the Europe and Russia, and speculates on human nature, famous “Stanford Prison Experiment” in the late gullibility, and how to investigate the paranormal. 1960s, shows how ordinary people become perpetra - Plus, the Amazing one dazzles the audience with a tors of evil. He reviews the research on conformity, little magic, bending spoons & reading playing cards. obedience to authority, role-playing, dehumanization, deindividuation and moral disengagement, and asserts that situational power is stronger than we appreciate. JAMES RANDI Zimbardo applies his theories to understanding the av066DVD (DVD)-- James Randi’s Solved Inquisition, the massacre in Rwanda, the rape of Mysteries Workshop 1. Conference 1998, Part III Nanking, and the abuse and torture in Iraq’s infamous Randi Covers “psychics” and detecting their tactics. Abu Ghraib prison. He suggests that by awareness of Lots of visual demonstrations. Excellent! Randi at his the Lucifer Effect we may choose between inaction best. and the heroism of resisting evil. JAMES RANDI av067DVD (DVD)-- James Randi’s Solved EVOLUTION OF IDEA OF GOD Mysteries Workshop 2. Conference 1998, Part IVby RO BERT WRIGHT. THE EVOLUTION OF James “The Amazing” Randi. Randi demonstrates GOD. av203DVD (DVD) av203CD (audio CD)- - controlled scientific testing