4 May 2009 - 19:16Missoula School board election- MSS dips into political waters

Ok, we at the Missoula Skeptical Society try to remain apolitical as much as possible. However, the upcoming Missoula School Board election features potentially dangerous candidate to science education in Missoula, Chris Jones. While Mr. Jones’s unsupportive stance on same-sex marriages is the main issue over at the Missoula Independent, the wording of his recent Q&A in the Missoulian raises concerns to us skeptics.

He states:

I believe that academic freedom is essential to an excellent education. Without freedom, the potential for indoctrination, not education, is possible. From the position as a member of the board of trustees it is imperative that the school board policies are followed to the “intent of the policy.” Any controversial issues within the school setting must be handled within the policy guidelines that the controversy falls within for “fair and balanced.”

Now thoes familiar with the Intelligent Design/Creationist propaganda will note that they are now pushing their agenda under the guise of “Academic freedom.”In combination with his avowed beliefs, these words in his response raises a red flag. Does Missoula really need a creationist on its school board? Research the candidates, and vote May 5th.

No Comments | Tags: Creationism/ intelligent design

13 April 2009 - 19:06The poison seeds anti-vaccination movement have began to sprout in Montana, and the sprouts are equally toxic as the seeds.

More whooping cough outbreaks in western Montana, this time in Ravalli county. Pertussis can cause brain damage and seizures on top of the miserable cough. This is yet another ugly disease that became nearly an afterthought once an effective vaccine was developed, now the well-meaning yet scientifically ignorant parents who chose not to vaccinate are causing a resurgence. Please skeptics, the anti-vaccination movement is perhaps the greatest public health threat of the next generation, if you know parents on the fence or don’t vaccinate, please speak to them, or send them to science based web-resources. Or send them to me, and I’ll directly field their questions. missoulaskeptic@gmail.com

Thanks to Jon at Missoula Area Secular Society for catching the article.

No Comments | Tags: Autism and vaccines

3 February 2009 - 20:31Missoula Skeptics in the News!

 

The Missoula skeptics have been interviewed for a piece in the Silver State Post/ Philipsburg Mail Newspapers. Author Kate Schwab did her readers a favor not only with a well written article, but also by covering the critics of “psychics.” More than what most other papers do. Thanks Kate! Unfortunately these papers do not have an online edition, so I will post the entire article here!


Pet communication claim raises eyebrows

By Kate Schwab

Reporter

 

While animal communication continues to gain prominence in western Montana, both the spiritual and scientific sides of the communicators’ efforts remain controversial.

Kathleen “Keek” Mensing, a practicing animal communicator from Missoula, plans to hold adult education lectures in Deer Lodge on Feb. 6, 7 and 14. She will also cohost a book signing at Browsing Bison Books on Feb. 13 from 2:30-5 p.m. (See related story, p. 9.) Mensing will be promoting her self-published compilation of animal communication stories, “The Way I Hear Them.”

In an interview Monday, Mensing acknowledged her religious and scientific detractors but said her psychic work enables her to do good.

All I know is that the work I do changes lives for the better,” she said, citing multiple instances where she believes tapping into her own intuition helped her detect cancer and prevent suicides and gas poisoning. “If that’s the work of the devil, then boy, I don’t understand. I’m not out to proselytize. Those people who believe what I’m doing is wrong, they obviously don’t need my services.”

Respect for animals, and human attempts to communicate with them psychically, are common in New Age philosophy and in Eastern and pagan religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, shamanism and Wicca.

Islamic tradition also references saints who talk with animals. Muslim prophets commanded their followers to be “kind to the creatures of God.” Numerous verses in the Qur’an hold that God reveals things to animals, and they respond with adoration and worship.

Tom Wilson, religious activities coordinator for Montana State Prison and pastor of Vineyard Christian Fellowship, confirmed Mensing was a regular volunteer at the prison. He also confirmed that some religious circles frown on animal communication.

From a conservative, evangelical point of view, that’s an occult practice,” Wilson explained. Because they acknowledge a spirit world, some Christians believe animal communicators are indeed communicating, not with the animal itself, but with a demonic spiritual entity, Wilson noted.

Proponents of animal communication are quick to point out that the Bible’s Old and New Testaments are filled with references to the idea that God created and cares about animals, and that God uses animals to instruct people. The Web site http://www.dogshavesouls.com, for example, cites Ecclesiastes 3:19-21: “All have the same breath, man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust and to dust all return. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

Rev. Phil Maxwell, president of the Deer Lodge Ministerial Association, was unavailable for comment.

Jeff S. Piotrowski, PhD., a postdoctoral associate for the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Montana-Missoula, responded to a message through the Missoula Skeptical Society, which recently criticized Mensing in a series of Internet postings.

Basically, to provide evidence of psychic ability, from a biological and physical perspective one would have to provide evidence of a mechanism for information transfer from one mind to another,” Piotrowski explained via e-mail Monday. “Specifically, is there a cell or cellular pathway that can receive a transmission from outside the body not mediated by our normal senses? There has never been a description of such. Even the most recent functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) studies have not found any evidence of psychic powers. To date, there is not even a plausible biological mechanism for what psychics claim they can do.”

Mensing said she believed the error was in the testing, not the psychics themselves. Creating a test, she added, is difficult due to the scientific community’s dismissal of psychics’ results.

What they call ‘anecdotal’ is, 80 percent of the time, the animals I’ve talked to change,” Mensing said.

Piotrowski said he was open to the possibility of psychic experience but added that scientific analysis of psychic claims has yielded little despite decades of attempted study. Some studies in the 1980s cited certain psychics who tended to score a little higher than 10 percent above chance, but those studies were later discredited because they used a “flawed methodology, ”Piotrowski explained.

In the 1970s, James Randi, a former magician turned skeptic, began offering a $10,000 cash prize to any psychic claimant who would work with him to test their gifting scientifically. The money has never been paid. It now stands at about $1.1 million.

Despite his skepticism, Piotrowski said he would like legitimate psychic phenomena to exist.

It would be the coolest thing in the world,” he said. “Trust me, I want that to be a possibility because that would be so awesome.”

Mensing herself admits that the actual way her technique might work is a mystery even to her. Even the best psychics, she says, are accurate only about 80 percent of the time, a statistic echoed by renowned interspecies communication leader Penelope Smith.

That inability to provide consistently correct results bothers Piotrowski. He believes Mensing, and others who claim psychic talents, operates on guesswork.

What Kathy does is basically cold readings,” Piotrowski explained. “She leads owners with questions or statements that have a high probability of being right (e.g. ‘I see a black dog with curly hair’). The owners ignore her misses and embrace the hits. This is called confirmational bias, and is how ‘psychics’ dupe folks and make a living. Kathy’s ‘abilities’ are easily explained as simple mentalism tricks, cold readings, probability, and the client’s willingness to believe against all evidence.

Kathy knows, and admits her powers are not reliable…. She admits she cannot pass the James Randi $1.1 million psychic challenge to prove her skills. Yet she charges people for parlor tricks, plays the odds of animal behavior, and when randomly something works for her, she writes a book about it.”

Butte resident Lyn Benedict, who has been a professional animal communicator since 1998, said approaching animal communication in a negative way may affect the results, causing an unsatisfactory experience for both client and communicator.

People who bring negativity in the first place, who want to test it and aren’t sure, I wouldn’t recommend that they try it,” Benedict said. “I’m here to help those people who really feel this is going to work for them.” She compared finding a talented communicator to obtaining a doctor’s opinion. “If you don’t click with a communicator, I always suggest you work with someone else.”

In the meantime, Mensing doesn’t anticipate slowing down. After her signing in Deer Lodge, she’s headed on a six-month, cross-country tour. She’ll be teaching classes in Switzerland in May. And she’s working on her next book: “The Man Left, the Dog Died, and I Woke Up Psychic.”

In response to Kathy’s quote “Creating a test, she added, is difficult due to the scientific community’s dismissal of psychics’ results.” I have to remind her that if results exists (that can be dismissed) then a test has already been designed, used, and does not support psychic claims (thusly the claims can be dismissed). I think I need to have a Scientific Method 101 post.

1 Comment | Tags: psychics

16 January 2009 - 9:09Missoula skeptics meet Keek the pet psychic

The good news: Local skeptics who came to the pet psychic talk are full of well spoken awesomeness.

The bad news: The pet psychic has a posse, and its growing.

     This past Thursday witnessed a big turn out for a book reading and Q&A session by Missoula’s home grown woo-star, Keek the pet psychic. The talk began with an introduction, and explanation of what she does psychically, and a few anecdotes of pets that tugged at the ol’ heart strings. Apparently the Missoulian and Independent articles have thrust Keek into pet psychic stardom (mo’ money, mo’ money)

     The Q&A session following the talk was very revealing, and in my opinion Keek is not deluded into believing her powers are real, but she is a business person who really knows how to sell herself as an animal psychic to the broadest audience and take the fewest risks of exposure. She did not try to explain with any science how her powers work, and eventually said psychic power was really just intuition that anyone could do. Then why attribute it to the paranormal Keek? Questions from skeptics received hushed “shut ups” from the audience of mostly true believers, but some of the most telling points were:

  • She admits she could not pass the JREF $1.1 million dollar challenge as it is too rigorous, and she is not interested at all in taking it.

  • She admits her powers are not reliable enough to pursue someone legally in pet abuse cases.

  • She says her “evidence” is just anecdotes and nothing more.

 

     So basically she weaseled out of all accountability of her claims. I mean if a dog can’t tell you who’s beating them, what can they say? Why does she say she has a paranormal power? Because people eat this hokum up. Most of the questions from the audience were essentially “Why are you so great, and how can I be more like you?” Uncritical to say the least. Her recent press has catapulted her into the spotlight and she embraces the chance to make some cash off the throngs of believers. She states that if you don’t believe, you don’t need her services. This is a wonderful way to winnow her target market and ensure repeat customers.

     At least some rational people showed up to keep a modicum of logic in the discussion. Kudos to Tom and Joe who both asked very thoughtful questions, there was some other skeptic there in a Missoula Humane society hoodie who came off as a bit bombastic with his questions, but a skeptical bombast is A-OK in my book ;)

1 Comment | Tags: Uncategorized

9 January 2009 - 9:29I predict…The Missoula Independent is slipping.

I am so glad that in a time of real animal issues (traps, puppy mills, funding for shelters, wildlife corridors, etc.) the Independent decided to give front page and a supportive spread to a scam artist of pet owners. The article on Kathy Mensing “Animal psychic” was a uncritical, tedious, exercise in unscientific, newage “feel-goodery”. There has never been reproducible evidence of psychic ability, nor even a plausible biological or physical mechanism for what psychics say they can do. If there was then James Randi has $1 million for the person and the scientific community would beat a path to the person’s door. I’m going to go ahead and scoff in advance for any replies to this that invoke the word quantum, and suggest they actually read up on quantum physics, string conjecture, or whatever the latest misunderstood physics concept is that they grasp onto before crafting a reply.

 I have a deep concern for animal welfare, our family gives to many animal welfare organizations. These are groups that do a real service to animals in need. Why couldn’t the Independent cover the activities of legitimate animal welfare organizations rather than the quaint anecdotes of confirmation bias and arguments from antiquity of a lady who just does some cold readings to tell the owner that their cat with a broken limb is depressed. Does Kathy Mensing actually charge money for her service of making stuff up? Sure a reassuring voice and the warmth of a caring human who also obviously cares for your pet’s well-being is valuable, but to attach the added layer of paranormal mumbo-jumbo is deceptive, and to charge money for psychic services? Criminal.

 

UPDATE: Skeptics, lets go to this lady’s talk,  maybe ask a few questions.

 

1 Comment | Tags: psychics

31 December 2008 - 15:59Missoula Skeptics in the pub round 2

Woohoo
Thanks for all who turned out for the first ever Missoula Skeptics in the pub. We’re doing it again. Thursday Jan 8 we’ll meet at the James bar at 6pm to have a few drinks and talk of the skeptical life, plan for Darwin day, and get some feed back on a pro-vaccination round table discussion I am planning to combat the growing misinformation put out by anti-vaccination groups in our fair city. We even made the Skepchick events calendar! And I was told by the person in charge, we’re the first from Montana!

Date:

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Time:

6:00pm - 9:00pm

Location:

James Bar, Missoula

Street:

127 West Alder

City/Town:

Missoula, MT

No Comments | Tags: Uncategorized

22 December 2008 - 8:55Missoula Secular Society in the news!

 

I unfortunately missed the snow sculpting hosted by the Missoula Secular Society as I was prepping a solstice party, but KPAX and the Missoulian did not! Jon and Dan did a wonderful job in conveying what the secular/ skeptical movement is all about.

ALSO- Don’t forget to listen to the new “This American Life” with a wonderful story about the consequences of not vaccinating your child, aptly titled “Ruining it for the rest of us”

No Comments | Tags: Uncategorized

18 November 2008 - 15:36The Missoula Skeptical Society- Test your skeptical skill challenge #1

Recently this gem appeared in the Missoulian. Why is this article worthless? I’ll let you count the ways. Perhaps its not.

I’ll give you 2 freebies:

1. the author offers zero citation

2. Ben Stein’s movie was in no way excellent

1 Comment | Tags: Global warming deniers

19 August 2008 - 14:23Over 50% of American adults trust divine intervention over modern medicine

Much thanks to JMapleseed for catching this article!

In a recent, more than sobering Missoulian article (from the AP), a recent survey states:

More than half of randomly surveyed adults (57 percent) said God’s intervention could save a family member even if physicians declared treatment would be futile. And nearly three-quarters said patients have a right to demand such treatment.

*

When asked to imagine their own relatives being gravely ill or injured, nearly 20 percent of doctors and other medical workers said God could reverse a hopeless outcome.

Amazing, how many more Madeline Neumanns will it take? More surprising is that 20% of medical workers believe the same. So hopefully they don’t turn to faith when a procedure turns difficult.

Am I the only one enraged? Kudos for the Missoulian for posting an article critical of these beliefs. And they even published a sensible piece on childhood immunizations, refreshing in this age of ignorant, charlatans.

10 Comments | Tags: Uncategorized

19 August 2008 - 11:30OMG We’re on teh Facebook

Stop by and say hello

No Comments | Tags: Uncategorized