With some of the religious opposing progress in the fields of abortion, assisted dying, stem-cell research and sex education; also promoting questionable practices such as religious surgery on children (male circumcision and female genital mutilation); and the NHS funding of religious hospital chaplains, there has never been a greater need for a clear secular voice in the field of medicine.The Secular Medical forum was formed in 2006 to provide this voice. Their main objective is to present a secular opinion on present-day medical and health care practices throughout the UK. They campaign to protect patients from the harm caused by the imposition of religious values and activities on people who do not share the same values and beliefs. 

As an antidote to your gnawing anxieties about global warming, why not consider the geological evidence that the planet is undergoing long term cycles of catastrophic cooling? We might be currently enjoying a warm global climate but this is typical of only about 5% of the last million years.  The geological evidence would suggest there is a high likelihood that our warm stage will eventually falter and a new period of global cooling and aridity will eventually take hold of the planet for tens of thousands of years, and it’s about due. Urban life is unlikely to survive this natural cycle, intensive agriculture will be impossible and evacuation of human populations latitudes about 45 degrees will have to occur. Worried? Then find out how to survive the next ice age and where in Brighton property prices might stay buoyant for as long as possible during the onset of the global big freeze.

2011 was a packed year for skeptics and skeptical issues, from Brian Deer's searching articles in the BMJ about the scale of Andrew Wakefield's MMR fraud, to the backlash against the Burzynski clinic's unproven cancer "cures" and their subsequent attempts to silence critics, the media furore over the alleged exposure of "psychic" Sally Morgan as a fraud, and the possible existence of neutrinos that travel faster than light. Skepticism has been on the rise both as a way of thinking and as a movement. Tim McGregor and Ben Hardwidge of Brighton Skeptics in the Pub will lead you through the last year with a skeptical look at the significant events of 2011 for those who favour an evidence-based approach to what's real.

Tim McGregor (linear particle accelerator software engineer) and Ben Hardwidge (tech journalist) have been running Skeptics in the Pub Brighton since February 2010. In this (FREE!) talk they'll be summarising the last year's top skeptical stories, in which many speakers previous speakers at SitP Brighton have been key figures.

£Free (advance booking recommended, by email to tim@brightonskeptics.org max 2 per email address)