Rationality and Skepticism, sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G

Mark Honeychurch - 25 November 2024

Last weekend we held our annual conference in Auckland - this time co-organised with the New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists (NZARH). We started off the weekend on Friday evening at Rationalist House, the NZARH’s building on Symonds street. The first event was a Skeptical quiz, hosted by me, as usual featuring some pretty tough questions:

For those who weren’t at the event, here are the questions from one of the 6 rounds. The round was called “Ternary”, and the answers to these 10 questions are the numbers from 1 to 10, with each of the numbers between 1 and 10 being the answer to one of the questions. So, the more questions you know the answers to, the fewer possible answers you have to pick from for the remaining questions.

• In astrology, how many “luminaries” are there?
• According to Dante, how many circles of hell are there?
• What is the upper limit of Fluoride in our water supply in New Zealand, in Parts Per Million?
• According to Hippocrates, how many humours or fluids are there in the human body that need to be kept in balance for good health?
• How many different trigrams, consisting of broken and unbroken lines, make up the Bagua, which is the basis of the I Ching?
• How many full weeks did anti-mandate protesters occupy the grounds of parliament in 2022?
• What is the highest numbered card in each of the four Minor Arcana (Wands, Swords, Cups and Pentacles) in a Tarot deck?
• In a set of Tarot cards, what number is given to the Chariot in the Major Arcana?
• On what day in December 1952 did students from Otago University tell media around the country that they had seen UFOs flying over New Zealand?
• The Wuxing Chinese philosophy contains how many essential elements?

At the end of the evening the winning team, scoring 36 out of 60, were given first dibs of choosing a book from those left to us by Jim Ring this year in his will.

We have donated Jim Ring’s books to the NZARH’s excellent library, and they have a team who have been busy on Tuesdays at Rationalist House integrating the new books into their existing collection. The NZARH say that Jim’s collection is one the best the Society has ever seen, and they’re all really enjoying going through the more than 30 boxes of books, cataloguing and sorting this treasure trove. Any books that the NZARH already own have been put aside for us, and these are the books that the winning quiz team got to choose from last weekend. After the team had their pick, we let the other attendees help themselves to the remaining books, although we still have a few dozen left over.

As for the rest of the weekend, you can hear all about it in Brad’s article below. We also have an article from Bronwyn, looking into lasers being used to “treat” Autism, the first part of Katrina’s look into NZ cryptids, and my review of the movie God’s Not Dead 3 - which ends with an unsolved mystery. And, in an instance of spooky “synchronicity”, the other day Facebook decided to try to advertise to me one of the nonsense companies Bronwyn’s written about this week.