Alice will be hosting our third Atheist Book Club discussion, which will be for Randy Olson's "Don't Be Such a Scientist: Talking Substance in an Age of Style". This book is a tie-in with the September 10 event at Exploration Place, where Olson will be giving a keynote speech. He is a biologist, turned filmmaker and author, who filmed "Flock of Dodos", which is our August movie selection. In his book, Olson takes a look at the difficulties of communicating substantive and accurate science to a broad audience. The book is a quick read, targeted primarily at scientists, but we will use it as a jumping off point for discussing our own participation in scientific and freethought communication.

Bring your copy and/or notes, and come prepared to discuss whatever you found were the highlights and lowlights of the book. Be sure to have the book read ahead of time. You're welcome to attend, even if you haven't read it, but, for practical reasons, participation in the primary discussion will be limited to those who have read it. (This is a book club, after all.) After that, the floor will be open to all. Here are some of the questions we will cover:

• What is your impression of the way scientists communicate with you? Is the situation as bad as Olson makes it out to be?
  
• Could a sense of awe at the workings of the natural world substitute for Olson’s emphasis on presentation style in the effective communication of scientific ideas to a broad audience?
  
• Can the negative process of weeding out failed hypotheses be presented as a positive and interesting process of solving mysteries?
  
• Do you ever try to communicate scientific or freethought ideas to non-skeptics and non-freethinkers? Why or why not?
  
• Are we unlikeable, angry, arrogant curmudgeons? Do we "rise above"?
  

Alice will be hosting our monthly book club meetups starting this month. No meal will be involved, but there will be some light snacks available.

- Matt a.k.a. Stacey