There is a long story and a short story. The former is about a life spanning nearly three score years, during which I had experiences, accumulated knowledge and linked the facts I had absorbed to create ideas and convictions. That's normal and fairly ordinary.
The short story - which in my own experiential terms is dramatic and extraordinary - begins in the autumn of 2004, when I moved to my present home in Auchtertyre. A chance encounter with a local man of the cloth provided me with a massive wake-up call (considering the circumstances, dare I call it a Damascene Revelation?) that triggered the recognition that I lacked sufficient knowledge to hold my ground in a very important debate. The Reverend gentleman simply said (sheepishly dropping his gaze and severing eye-contact with me): "You appreciate, I don't believe in evolution." I had never heard such an preposterous declaration from a real person and this one was standing in my presence. I was shocked by his statement but also by the appalling inadequacy of my reply. I muttered something about Kettlewell's peppered moths and was told that his work had been 'discredited' (a favourite creationist's taunt that is partially correct and debatable, but more importantly, irrelevant). That was plagiarised nonsense, but my knowledge deficit at the time meant that I had no authoritative answer (I'm different now). I am an experienced biologist and to me evolution is obviously the explanation that unites all that I witness in the natural world.
The remedy was to learn all I could about evolution as well as accumulate the knowledge that would enable me to understand what motivates and informs those who hold a different (barmy) world view. One day, I predicted, I would meet the minister again and be able to hold my ground with the confidence of what I now know to be Critical Thinking. I waited for three years and then, as if miraculously, just when my mind was ripe and ready, it happened (below).
Another experience enabled me to take a calm, non-reactive attitude to all that life was to throw at me. Having experienced the breakdown of yet another relationship (I now have a pretty good idea, why) a life training programme found its way to my attention [click here and then LIFESTYLE and 1. MORE TO LIFE]. Being desperately unhappy and having nothing to lose, I gave it a try and, already being a seasoned sceptic, put it to the test. After three and half years it still makes common sense and my interaction with life has been, and continues to be, greatly improved.
The combination of knowledge, the capacity to use it and my understanding of the behaviour of my own reactive mind meant that when I did meet that minister again (15 November 2007, a date worth remembering) I could stand and face him and his ludicrous arguments with my intellectual feet planted firmly on a foundation of knowledge and authority, with no need to take on an adversarial or abrasive attitude. This time we really discussed evolution. Neither of us won or lost and this time the debate didn't instantly hit the buffers. It was constantly veering that way, but I had my hands securely on the controls. It worked that way because, no matter what the Rev. did or said, I took command of my reactivity and behaviour, whilst aware of how his mind might be reacting too. My reasoning did not get interrupted by irrelevant mind chatter, though I could tell that my adrenal glands had been told something interesting was going on. I allowed him to tell me his side of the argument and, importantly, said my piece to my satisfaction. I engaged in eye contact and stood square on but with arms relaxed by my side (or waving about expansively as when I'm making an enthusiastic point about the natural world about us), not folded so that they erected a defensive barrier between us. My self-confidence was maintained without the use of aggressive posturing which would surely have separated the two of us in a trice. That was a fine gift.
Here, if you wish to read it, is my account of that remarkable encounter.
Any road, that first encounter with a fundamentalist having started me reading about evolution, religion and critical thinking (all sides, not just what we agree about) I began to talk to friends who had similar interests and outlook and who could suggest further study. I also began to write. This was first driven by the slightly wonky, over excited and fortunately temporary conviction that I must immediately write the book that would inform non-biologists and biologists who, like myself knew little about it, about evolution and - I expect - would eventually save the world. That ideal soon ground to a halt as I realised that writing was better used to help me sort out my own thoughts first. The future will tell me whether or not and how the book might come into being ... or not. It looks like the next project proposal in that department is an 'Evolution Tool Kit' presented on this website, but that is once more an idea waiting to be realised ... or not. It depends what turns out to be best and I'll know that when the time is right. Meanwhile I can continue at ease to explore biology, religion and philosophy until I really know what I'm bleating on about.
It was evident that there are lots of people with knowledge and opinions uncollated and unrecorded. I wanted to hear and read what they had to say, so that our corporate wisdom might raise us in intellectual stature above the rantings of the, relatively ignorant, dogmatists. The tipping point was obtaining a set of DVDs from The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) of their January 2007 conference. Speakers include Michael Shermer, Eugenie Scott, Penn & Teller (they have a serious side), a notably rubicund Christopher Hitchens and critical thinking guru Robert Todd 'Bob' Caroll. James Randi is a magician and illusionist. I remember him being incarcerated in a 'coffin' constructed of ice for a stupidly long period and emerging unscathed, as well as occasional demonstrations of sleight of hand on TV. He next came to my attention as a myth and quack buster when he played a pivotal role in the BBC's
Horizon programme that effectively debunked homeopathy. He has $1 million waiting in a bank account for anybody who can demonstrate that a paranormal phenomenon is real, but it has remained unclaimed for many years. JREF is now well established as a world-wide organisation dedicated to ... Critical Thinking.
Bob Carroll's talk at the JREF conference jolted me out of self-defeating, destructive criticism into more creative critical thinking. Excellent books by Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World) and Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell) plus Michael Shermer's open letter to Dawkins et al., all of which I read recently, have been significant calming, mind-expanding parallel influences. [I have not, of course, mentioned the heaps of other influential books listed in my growing bibliography - see READING]
In the UK we have RichardDawkins.net and the British Humanist Association, both of which contribute much original material and link to an array of free thought organisations around the world. However, I wanted something for me, my friends and the Scottish Highlands (where free thought is, in places, less apparent than elsewhere in the UK) that could stand alone as well as contribute original ideas to the system, created independently by us according to our preferred guidelines and structure.
That is where we are now with BLUE-SKYE THINKERS. Welcome aboard.