Smoke & weird crackers

As I looked out at the Australian smoke filling our normally blue New Zealand skies, it made me angry. Angry to think that where there is smoke, there is fake news holding us back from taking action on the climate crisis. There are still many who don't think we need to change from our current course, and others who think our contribution wouldn't make a difference anyway. Still too often I hear arguments which are nothing more than false balance, the scientific consensus put aside because of some meme picked up on social media. I believe we can't afford to ignore the science and we must act. It's the right thing to do. We need to set an example, even if our contribution is small by individual or national standards.

So what can we do? If it's within our means, making choices around purchases, what we eat, how we get around, if and where we travel, and who we vote for. Of course, as a skeptic I strongly believe evidence-based effective measures should be taken, rather than ones that just feel right.

2019 was also a year where we launched the Force Field Film challenge, a competition for schools to make a video about herd immunity. We were excited about this project and did manage to raise $670 through a Givealittle campaign. However, with the measles outbreak hear in New Zealand and later in Samoa, the committee decided rather than using the funds for an awareness campaign, it would have a more immediate impact to directly donate the funds instead. We topped up the amount donated to $1000 and have given that to the Red Cross who had deployed nurses to Samoa during the epidemic. A huge thank you to those workers on the ground in Samoa.

Back in New Zealand, we were happy to receive coverage about our efforts to notify venues about tragedy vampire Jeanette Wilson shows. There was an excellent interview on RNZ of the woman herself which is hilarious. Unfortunately we were not able to convince any venues to turn down Jeanette, but we did get good exposure in the media which we hope will bring more people into our skeptical community.

Also, our bent spoon award to Downers for their decision to employ dowsers to look for water pipes under the ground made the news, which is great. I still find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that there are so many out there, in positions of power, who are willing to accept the idea that dowsing works. Another example of time plus woo equals acceptance and entrenchment.

On a personal level, my son who was aged 12 at the time was invited on a play date last year. His friend's mum texted me about the details and did not mention at the time that the play date, which was taking place on a Sunday morning, would be at their Catholic Church. I only found out about that after the fact when my son said he had to have some weird crackers & wine stuff.

I was not pleased. I decided to talk to his friend's mum about it. I explained we would rather not have our son involved in a religious ceremony without our knowledge and consent. What I did not say, was I wonder how they would have felt if we'd taken their son on a ‘play date' to an ex-Catholic support group, or a Satanist baptism ceremony? Of course, we wouldn't do that, because we think kids should go on play dates to hang out, not be told what to think about God by the grown-ups looking after them. The friend's mum replied, apologised and said she was expecting it to be more of a crafting (read Sunday school activities) type of deal, (rather than having communion type of gig). I was not impressed, but if my son wants to hang out with his friend again, I'm open to that.

I had a chat with my son to tell him that he's entitled to say “no thank you”, when asked to participate in religious ceremonies. He was pleased to realise he could opt out, but it shows that my non-religious open-minded young man is still vulnerable in that he didn't know it was ok to say no to adults in that kind of situation. The infuriating thing is he shouldn't have been put in that situation in the first place.

It may be a while until something similar happens again so I hope he's brave enough to say something when it does. In the meantime, I'll keep having our wee chats, and keep making time to listen when he needs to talk.

Stay skeptical!