In this week's newsletter, I've published the text from a couple of oral submissions the NZ Skeptics and the Society for Science Based Healthcare (SBH) recently presented to MPs. One interesting part of this was a question asked of SBH, which allowed Daniel Ryan to detail some of the harms that Natural Health Products have caused in New Zealand. I've included Dan's email, and the short but promising response he received. I've also written about my time after graduation from the Eastern Lightning online fellowship meetings and my entry into the Level 3 group, as well as my brief foray into its leadership.
Finally Bronwyn has written about Ray Comfort, the Kiwi evangelist that I'm sure a lot of New Zealanders will have heard of. I for one have read and watched quite a bit about his preaching (including through his movies and Way of the Master organisation), but never thought to look into how he got started on the evangelical circuit. His story is unbelievably fascinating - quite literally, as reading Bronwyn's documenting of Ray's claims makes me skeptical that he's always told the truth about his past. Something about it just doesn't feel right. I always find myself skeptical of people who have many “just so” stories where everything works out perfectly for them. Look out for part two of Bronwyn's delve into Ray's world soon.