Jerry Coyne wuz here

Last night at the OISE auditorium downtown, Jerry Coyne, the distinguished professor of evolutionary biology from the University of Chicago, gave a talk on his latest book, Faith Vs. Fact: Why Religion and Science are Incompatible. And there are purdy pictures:

I finished the book the night before the talk and must say I enjoyed it very much. While parts of it (at least to my liberal Canadian eyes) have a distinct "well duh" aspect to them, it was still wonderful to read such a complete across-the-board support of reason and science when many thinkers seem to feel the need to hedge, waffle and pay lip service to "other ways of finding truth".

My only regret is that I didn't get my copy of the book signed. But that's probably for the best since I've been trying to cut down on the number of physical books I buy and if I got Professor Coyne to sign the screen of my iPad, it would make checking email that much more difficult.

CFI Canada Winter Solstice Celebration (Part 1)

Last night on Magic Tonight, we hosted a special fundraiser for CFI Canada. We celebrated the Winter Solstice with a special performance by Michael Close, and a podcast taping with David Peck. Thanks to the Centre for Inquiry for rounding up such a wonderful group of people. We set the record for the largest audience we've ever had at the show!

Photos by David Peck. More pictures coming shortly.

For more information and tickets visit www.magictonight.ca. Use the code cficanada on checkout for a special discount and a portion of your ticket will go to support the Centre for Inquiry Canada and its endeavours.

Heathen's Greetings

Michael Close

In just over two weeks, on Magic Tonight, we'll be hosting a special fundraisers for the Centre for Inquiry (www.cficanada.ca). All proceeds from the show will go to support CFI Canada. I'll be performing on the show along with special guest, Michael Close. After the show we'll be doing a live taping of David Peck'sFace2Face Podcast where we'll be discussing the role of magic on a modern secular society.

David Peck

Where: Izakaya Showroom - 292 College Street @ Spadina When: Sunday, December 21, 2014 - 5:00 PM - 10:00 PM Tickets: www.abracadabaret.com/cfi

Discounted tickets are available for Members of CFI Canada.

Join us for an evening of fun, friends and food. The only spirits present will be alcoholic. We'll celebrate reason (by throwing it out the window for the night and do some amazing magic and other strange things.)

Tickets include the show, dinner and the podcast taping. They can be purchased at www.abracadabaret.com/cfi

James Alan

Michael Close (www.MichaelClose.com) originally from Indiana, is one of the most respected creators and publishers of magic in the world. He is currently the Editor in Chief of MUM, the journal of the Society of American Magicians. He is also the author of That Reminds Me, with a foreword by Penn Jillette.

David Peck (www.davidpecklive.com) is the Executive Director of SoChange, a non profit organization that helps build capacity for organizations in the developing world. Among its programs is the Mosquitoes Suck Tour, a comedy and magic show that promotes social justice and education for high school students about malaria and mosquitoes in Africa.

Magic Tonight Square

Reason's Greetings

This Friday, I'll be performing at the Centre for Inquiry's Winter Solstice Party.

Friday, December 20, 2013 Tota Lounge - 592 Queen Street West Doors open at 7:00 Tickets $10 - online

CFI  works to combat the harm of superstition, pseudoscience and religion by advancing the values of reason, science and secularism through education, activism and community. So join us for a special secular soiree and help us celebrate reason this season.

The Greatest Compliment to a Profession

Earlier this week, I received an invitation from the Centre for Inquiry to attend a special brunch with Professors Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss. To say I couldn't register fast enough was an understatement. For a bit of background, I discovered Richard Dawkins' work when he was mentioned in The Salmon of Doubtwhich was compiled by Stephen Fry from the contents of Douglas Adams' many Mac computers after his untimely death in 2001. Douglas Adams was the beginning for my love of all things British, but certainly not the end. In high school, I was also deeply interested in the writings of Richard Feynman, and came across Lawrence Krauss when he wrote a biography of Feynman in 2011.

At the meeting, I was thrilled  to get my copy of The Selfish Gene signed (I had the issue of Playboy[1] Dawkins appeared in in my bag, but chickened out) and I also got to perform for him very briefly.

During the question and answer period, I asked him something which interested me as a magician about the evolutionary nature of curiosity. Of course he did what all public intellectuals do and ignored my question and spoke about whatever he felt like at the moment. But not without throwing in something deeply flattering and interesting:

He said that magic (or conjuring as he preferred to call it) had deep philosophical implications because it awakened us to the fact that we are very easy to deceive. If we see something which is contrary to the way we understand the world to work, we should be very suspicious and avoid jumping to conclusions. He was referring, of course, to the tendency the species has to invoke supernatural agents and mystical forces when boring and natural explanations will suffice.

As a magician, I have been wrestling with this for a few years. On the one hand, I love science and want to encourage curiosity and rational inquiry wherever I can. On the other hand, I would prefer it if my audiences did not look to Google to try and find explanations for how my tricks work.

With this bit of insight from Dawkins, I'm hoping that I can find a better way to balance the two than I have been. Unfortunately, it's difficult to create a strong feeling of magic while simultaneously reminding people that you don't have supernatural powers and that deep down you're a lying cheating bastard.

Hope I can find a way.

[1] Always the teacher! Thanks to Dawkins, I had to learn at the age of 27, not only how to purchase pornography in print, but pornography with women in it... much harder than I thought.