TAM 2010 Review - The brilliance and problems of diversity

It is difficult to imagine many conventions with such a smorgasbord of speakers, discussing everything from international copyright law to deprivation in the UK's midlands. Yet whilst the large variety of talks on offer at TAM showed the rich mix of freethinkers in the current climate, it also demonstrated that too much relativism is not good public relations.

To start, perversely, at the end, Alan Moore - while a hero to
comic book fans and a living legend in his own right - really seemed a tad out of kilter with the ideals of the event. Praising the non-literalism and scientific approach of Islam showed a sense of niavety and whilst I enjoyed the evocations and spirit of his Howl-like poem on his deprived Northamptonshire hometown, it was a hardly fitting way to end a flagship sceptics' conference.

In a different way, while it would have been fascinating to hear Melinda Gebbie questioned on pornography and censorship in relation to scepticism, discussing an intriguing (my finger was hovering over the add-to-basket button as I viewed Lost Girls on Amazon) yet irrelevant tome to the nature of TAM felt like a waste of precious elbow room to squeeze in talks.

However the fantastic call-to-arms by PZ Myers, delightfully countering Phil Plait's notorious TAM Vegas "Don't be a dick" speech, the political positivism of Evan Harris and the sheer delight of seeing Richard Dawkins do basically anything demonstrated what makes events like this so special.

And my concerns on diverse viewpoints are by no means to imply an exclusion at TAM of challenging opinions - critics from both sides of the fence on the way to conduct an argument theists, the doubts on new-media in a room full of podcasters and tweeters and to an extent Moore's qualms with the necessity of TAM are ruminations to make we are constantly and consistently self-critical.

But for me the resounding image of TAM 2010 will be not so much the "passing of the baton" between James Randi and Rhys Morgan (as Randi's grasp around the truncheon of reason is firm and unflinching and he's not going anywhere anytime soon) as the sight of witnessing two brilliant sceptics, one still a year away from his GCSE's, the other with a lifetime of mesmerising work behind him, mutually acknowledge each other. If age isn't meant to be a barrier to success in the 21st century, it was evident here. On a side note while "the 15-year-old" Rhys Morgan appears to be the pronoun of choice, it must be acknowledged that his tireless fight in Bleachgate was worthy of someone of any age.

(picture from the Guardian)

It's impossible to cover every demographic even with such a menagerie of personalities on display over this last weekend but TAM has demonstrated both its enduring skill for bringing such people together and its partial faults by leaving the door too wide open. Regardless though, it was absolutely* fantastic.

*absolute is used in its colloquial hyperbolic form - we know its impossible to prove this stuff!

The inevitable first post

I'm writing this hours after visiting TAM 2010 organised by the JREF at London's Hilton Metropole Hotel. This was a seminal moment for me, the first major event I have attended of this type since leaving religion at the beginning of 2009 and becoming from that a strong positive atheist.

This, at the time, was due to scepticism about the evidential irrationality in holding such beliefs and the problematic areas that these undoubtedly touch. However quickly I began to realise that the very tools that had helped me lose my religiosity could be applied to the wider world in countless aspects.

I quickly joined the London Atheist Meet-Up group where I met many kindred individuals (as much as we can expect the freethinking to be kindred) and attended various talks with lumanaries including a fascinating dialogue between Richard Dawkins and Brian Eno, a verbal dual between Dan Barker and a outspoken Muslim and the now famous Intelligence Squared debate pitting the intellectual heavyweights of Ann Widdecombe and Archbishop Onaiyekan against the shrinking violets of Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry.

But attending TAM was like lighting the blue touch paper for me - a warm, vibrant atmosphere with countless memorable speakers. It was amplified by the fact that the venue is a few minutes walk from my flat. The sceptical movement had literally pitched-up on my doorstep. Inspired the various call-to-arms type speeches (or at least call-to-new media outlets) I decided to lauch this blog into the blindingly diverse and mammoth blogosphere in the hope that I can develop it into something that hopefully contribute in some small way to the wonderful network of sceptics making a real difference online.