Richmond Area Free Thinkers Society

Back from vacation!

We’ve taken the past few months off since schedule availability was so sparse, but with fall approaching, let’s get back into the swing of things!

If you check out the calendar on the left, you’ll see that a meeting date has been selected for all remaining months in 2008. (You can click on those dates in the calendar to see more details about the meeting for that day) The dates are:

• August 16
• September 13
• October 11
• November 15
• December 13

Locations are to be decided, and all times are set to “11 am to 1 pm” unless someone chooses otherwise. That always seemed to be the best consistent attendance. It, as well as the location, is negotiable to maximize attendance.

Our next meeting, August 16, will be at Fifth Street Bagel, 11a-1p. Be there!

Ever hear of a Rorschach test? Developed by Hermann Rorschach in the 1920’s, the inkblot is a commonly used tool for forensic assessment by Psychologists. While it is commonly thought that a Rorschach analysis is done by interpreting and psychoanalyzing what the patient sees in the inkblot (”Since you saw your dead mother, that means you have unresolved maternal issues”), they are more commonly analyzed with the Exner method: the responses of the patient are compared to a large statistical body of responses and a profile is created based on which personality types most fit the response. (”45% of the people that saw a crow also suffer from clinical depression. 60% of people who saw a bicycle are schizophrenics.” etc.) The interpretation is correlative, rather than directly interpretive.

Rorschach’s function based on some trickery of our brains known as pareidolia.Pareidolia is essentially when we perceive a random or vague visual/audio stimulus as being significant, when in fact it is not. (Read More »)

SERIES PREMIERE!
EVOLVE:
EYES

Eyes are one of evolution’s most useful and prevalent inventions, equipping approximately 95 percent of living species. They exist in many different forms across nature, having evolved convergently across different species. Learn how the ancestors of jellyfish may have been the first to evolve light-sensitive cells. In the pre-Cambrian era, insects, in particular the dragonfly, would take the compound eye to new heights. Find out how dinosaurs adapted their eyes to become such successful hunters of prey. And while dinosaurs remained at the top of the food chain for 150 million years, tiny early mammals developed night vision to populate the night as a survival technique. Finally, learn how primates underwent several adaptations to their eyes to better exploit their new habitat, and how the ability to see colors helped them find food.
(Read More »)

We Americans are blessed in that we are participants in the greatest experiment in democratic living ever to exist on planet earth.  Citizenship in this marvelous venture comes with a cost.  That cost is that we are periodically obligated to take part in our democracy by voting.  Beyond simply voting, however, we have a duty to think critically about the issues on which we vote.  In our world of instant communication, where media are motivated by the bottom line rather than objectivity, and where political candidates are managed by experts with Machiavellian motivations, critical thinking is no easy task.

Critical thinking is the process of analyzing claims while maintaining intellectual humility and fair-mindedness.  This can be done in three steps:

Step one

Make sure the claim is clear and unambiguous.  One of the tricks of propagandists and political persuaders is to design a claim which cannot be pinned down.  When this happens, critical thinkers must determine just what claim is being made.  Exactly what is the candidate claiming?  Without a specific claim, no critical analysis can be made. (Read More »)

After a joke that went through the list, I decided to have some fun in Photoshop with a picture of a member. Click it to see a larger version. Is it a miracle? No, it’s 10 minutes with a $1200 computer program.

The website launch is pending, but will be very soon! We’re currently adding, proofreading, and revising content. Please do not distribute this URL until we officially launch (you’ll know, because this post will be replaced by something to the effect of “Website launched!” ). If you are interested in being an editor to help us proofread and whatnot, please comment below and be sure to use an email address where you can be contacted!