I'm running out of cults to join
10th July 2023
We have some fun articles coming up in the next few weeks. Firstly, my time in the Church of Almighty God (Eastern Lightning) has come to an end, and not through my choosing. I’ll be writing one final article about the group, as well as publishing a piece from Wellington Skeptics in the Pub member Tim Atkin about how the church managed to spread so widely under strict communist rule in China. Dan Ryan talked with me the other day about some spammy Facebook ads he’s been getting recently for a hair analysis service, and as we looked into it at our regular Skeptical Activism meeting, we realised that not only could we have a little fun with this (I have a friend who works for Auckland Zoo who’s on board for some interesting testing), but also digging deeper we realised some interesting information about the people running the scam. More on that soon, hopefully!
This week, I start off by looking into Liz Gunn’s new political party - New Zealand Loyal. Bronwyn talks about the potential failings of the Sex.Life podcast, now that the first season’s done and dusted. We had an email from Max recently letting us know of a recent visit from a climate denier. Sadly I wasn’t able to make it to any of their talks, but I have looked into their background and - unsurprisingly - it doesn’t look very flash. Finally, I’ve written the first of a two part look into something I never thought I’d see - a nascent cult-like group that started in Auckland recently, which claimed to be all about rationalism, skepticism and science. I’ll publish part two soon, although some of you readers might already be familiar with the group, and may have seen it, and its events, being advertised online over the last few months.
