Skeptics in the Pub
Encyclopedia
Skeptics in the Pub is an informal social event designed to promote fellowship and social networking among skeptics, critical-thinkers, and other like-minded individuals. It provides an opportunity for skeptics and rationalists
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...

 to talk, share ideas in a casual, relaxed atmosphere, and discuss whatever topical issues come to mind, as well as having fun while promoting skepticism, science, and rationality.

The usual format is that a speaker is invited to give a talk on a specific topic, which is followed by a question-and-answer session. Other meet-ups are informal socials, with no fixed agenda.
The groups usually meet once a month with the venue being a local pub. There are now as many as 50 different "SitP" groups running around the world.

History

The group's earliest and longest-running event is the award winning London meeting, established by Dr. Scott Campbell in 1999. This group claims to be the "World's largest regular pub meeting", with around two hundred people in attendance at each meeting.
Scott Campbell based the idea around Philosophy in the Pub and Science in the Pub, two groups which had been running in Australia for some time.
The inaugural speaker was the editor and founder of The Skeptic magazine, Wendy M. Grossman in February 1999.

Campbell ran the London group for three years while on a teaching sabbatical in London, and was succeeded after his return to Australia by two sci-fi fans and skeptics, Robert Newman and Marc LaChappelle, then from 2003 - 2008 by Nick Pullar, who has made a television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 appearance as "Convener of Skeptics in the Pub" on the infamous BBC spoof show Shirley Ghostman.
The London group is now organised and chaired by Sid Rodrigues, who has co-organised events in several other cities around the world. This group has conducted experiments on the paranormal
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...

 as part of James Randi
James Randi
James Randi is a Canadian-American stage magician and scientific skeptic best known as a challenger of paranormal claims and pseudoscience. Randi is the founder of the James Randi Educational Foundation...

's million-dollar challenge and co-organised An Evening with James Randi & Friends.

The ease of use of the internet via social networking sites and content management systems has led to over fifty active satellite chapters around the world, including over forty in the USA, and about fifteen in the UK.

Skeptics in the Pub would later serve as the template for other skeptical, rationalist, and atheist meet-ups around the globe, including The James Randi Educational Foundation's "The Amazing Meeting", Drinking Skeptically, The Brights
Brights movement
The Brights movement is a social movement that aims to promote public understanding and acknowledgment of the naturalistic worldview, including equal civil rights and acceptance for people who hold a naturalistic worldview. It was co-founded by Paul Geisert and Mynga Futrell in 2003...

, and the British Humanist
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....

 Association social gatherings.

In 2010 and 2011, Edinburgh Skeptics extended the Skeptics in the Pub concept over the whole Edinburgh International Fringe Festival, under the banner Skeptics on the Fringe and At the Fringe of Reason. The Merseyside Skeptics Society and Greater Manchester Skeptics (forming North West Skeptical Events Ltd) hosted a two-day conference, QED, in February 2011. Glasgow Skeptics has also hosted two one-day conferences, as of July 2011.

Notable guests

Over the past ten years, the London event has featured lectures by well-known scientists and skeptics. Rarely the guests are proponents of fringe or pseudoscientific views. Notable guests include:
  • Simon Singh
    Simon Singh
    Simon Lehna Singh, MBE is a British author who has specialised in writing about mathematical and scientific topics in an accessible manner....

     (No longer being sued by the British Chiropractic Association
    British Chiropractic Association
    The British Chiropractic Association was founded in 1925 and represents over 50% of UK chiropractors. It is the largest and longest established association for chiropractors in the United Kingdom...

     for criticising their activities in a column in The Guardian.)
  • Victor Stenger (Author of God: The Failed Hypothesis
    God: The Failed Hypothesis
    God: The Failed Hypothesis is a 2007 New York Times bestseller by scientist Victor J. Stenger who argues that there is no evidence for the existence of a deity and that God's existence, while not impossible, is improbable....

    )
  • Jon Ronson
    Jon Ronson
    Jon Ronson is a Welsh journalist, documentary filmmaker, radio presenter and nonfiction author, whose works include The Men Who Stare At Goats. His journalism and columns have appeared in British publications including The Guardian newspaper, City Life and Time Out magazine...

     (Documentary film-maker and author of The Men Who Stare at Goats)
  • Phil Plait (Past-President of the James Randi Educational Foundation, author and blogger)
  • David Colquhoun
    David Colquhoun
    David Colquhoun, FRS is a British pharmacologist at University College London . He has contributed to the general theory of receptor and synaptic mechanisms of single ion channel function. He previously held the A.J. Clark chair of Pharmacology at UCL, and was the Hon. Director of the Wellcome...

     (Past holder of the A.J. Clark chair of Pharmacology at University College London and science/political blogger)
  • Richard J. Evans
    Richard J. Evans
    Richard John Evans is a British academic and historian, prominently known for his history of Germany.-Life:Evans was born in London, of Welsh parentage, and is now Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and President of Wolfson College...

     (Professor of Modern History at Cambridge University and an expert witness at the Irving v. Lipstadt libel case)
  • S. Fred Singer (atmospheric physicist and famous AGW
    Global warming
    Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...

     skeptic)
  • Ben Goldacre
    Ben Goldacre
    Ben Michael Goldacre born 1974 is a British science writer, doctor and psychiatrist. He is the author of The Guardian newspaper's weekly Bad Science column and a book of the same title, published by Fourth Estate in September 2008....

     (medical doctor and journalist, and the author of The Guardian newspaper's weekly Bad Science column)

UK

  • Aberdeen
    Aberdeen
    Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....

  • Aberystwyth
    Aberystwyth
    Aberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. Often colloquially known as Aber, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol....

  • Bangor
    Bangor
    - United Kingdom :* Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland** Bangor ** Bangor , until 1800* Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales, after which most of the ex-colonial Bangors are named....

  • Bath
  • Belfast
    Belfast
    Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

  • Birmingham
    Birmingham
    Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

  • Brighton
    Brighton
    Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...

  • Bristol
    Bristol
    Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

  • Cambridge
    Cambridge
    The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

  • Cardiff
    Cardiff
    Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

  • Cheltenham
    Cheltenham
    Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...

  • Coventry
    Coventry
    Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

  • Edinburgh
    Edinburgh
    Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

  • Glasgow
    Glasgow
    Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

  • Greater Manchester
    Greater Manchester
    Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...

  • Guildford
    Guildford
    Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

  • Ipswich
    Ipswich
    Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...

  • Lancaster
    Lancaster, Lancashire
    Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including...

  • Leeds
    Leeds
    Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

  • Leicester
    Leicester
    Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...

  • Lewes
    Lewes
    Lewes is the county town of East Sussex, England and historically of all of Sussex. It is a civil parish and is the centre of the Lewes local government district. The settlement has a history as a bridging point and as a market town, and today as a communications hub and tourist-oriented town...

  • Liverpool
    Liverpool
    Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

  • London
    London
    London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

  • Milton Keynes
    Milton Keynes
    Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...

  • Newcastle
    Newcastle upon Tyne
    Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...

  • Nottingham
    Nottingham
    Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

  • Oxford
    Oxford
    The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

  • Plymouth
    Plymouth
    Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

  • Portsmouth
    Portsmouth
    Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

  • Reading
    Reading, Berkshire
    Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....

  • Sheffield
    Sheffield
    Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

  • Swansea
    Swansea
    Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...

  • Westminster
    Westminster
    Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...

  • Winchester
    Winchester
    Winchester is a historic cathedral city and former capital city of England. It is the county town of Hampshire, in South East England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government district, and is located at the western end of the South Downs, along the course of...


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