New Mexicans for Science and Reason (also known by the abbreviation NMSR) is a science advocacy organization based in
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
. Founded by ''
Skeptical Inquirer
''Skeptical Inquirer'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''.
Mission statement and goals
Daniel Loxton, writing in ...
'' editor
Kendrick Frazier
Kendrick Crosby Frazier (March 19, 1942 – November 7, 2022) was an American science writer and longtime editor of ''Skeptical Inquirer'' magazine. He was also a former editor of '' Science News'', author or editor of ten books, and a Fellow of ...
on May 16, 1990. As of 1998 the President is physicist and mathematician
Dave Thomas Dave may refer to:
Film, television, and theater
* Dave (film), ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver
* Dave (musical), ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film
* Dave (TV channel), a digital ...
. Thomas was still the President in spring of 2018 In 1996 creationists on the New Mexico School Board tried to change science standards to water down instruction of evolution. NMSR was instrumental in having that decision reversed.
History
The organization was established in 1990 by
Kendrick Frazier
Kendrick Crosby Frazier (March 19, 1942 – November 7, 2022) was an American science writer and longtime editor of ''Skeptical Inquirer'' magazine. He was also a former editor of '' Science News'', author or editor of ten books, and a Fellow of ...
, the editor of ''
Skeptical Inquirer
''Skeptical Inquirer'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''.
Mission statement and goals
Daniel Loxton, writing in ...
''. The
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the US non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "prom ...
's (CSICOP) focus during that time was to start local skeptic groups. Frazier, as a resident of Albuquerque, felt that the area had a good mix of potential members. "We have a lot of bizarre claims," he said, "from UFOs in the south to New Age claims in Santa Fe".
At that time New Mexico was tied for second place in ''Skeptical Inquirer's'' state rankings of ''subscribers per capita'', behind first-place California and tied with Colorado, Washington, and Massachusetts in second.
The idea, according to Frazier was "to encourage critical thinking".
Frazier had his eye on John Geohegan as a possible president of the group but, when asked, Geohegan felt he was too busy to do so. Two years later, CSICOP's Executive Director
Barry Karr
Barry Karr is an American skeptic and paranormal researcher, currently the executive director of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. He has been consulted by the media on the paranormal. Karr has been involved in many investigations including f ...
sent letters to most of the SI subscribers in New Mexico asking them if they would like to start a new group in New Mexico. He enclosed a survey and Frazier eventually received thirty-seven back. A venue was reserved at the Museum of Natural History on May 16, 1990. Twenty-eight people attended that first meeting and Geohegan agreed to be chairman. The birth of the group's newsletter ''The Enchanted Skeptic'' was agreed upon and Pen La Farge became editor. The name of the group was selected the following month. Frazier suggested that the name should have the word ''science'' in it and "say what we are for, not what we are against".
NMSR was involved in attempts to restore evolution to the science standards of New Mexico schools in the 1990s.
To combat the campaign against evolution, a sister group was started called the ''Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education''. While there is still overlap between the members, the CESE and the NMSR are separate organizations. The CESE exists for serious activism and the NMSR is "where members go to play".
Creationism in school textbooks
In 1996 two
creationists
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism is 'th ...
on the New Mexico Board of Education "succeeded in replacing evolution and the age of the earth with 'various theories of origin' in the state science standards". This led NMSR and other residents to write letters to the ''
Albuquerque Journal
The ''Albuquerque Journal'' is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of New Mexico.
History
The ''Golden Gate'' newspaper was founded in June 1880. In the fall of 1880, the owner of the ''Golden Gate'' died and Journal Publishing Company was c ...
'' complaining about the lowering of science standards. Several members of the NMSR and CESE addressed the school board with their concerns. Dave Thomas from NMSR stated that if unscientific theories are allowed to be taught in public schools "pretty soon we'll have Holocaust deniers insisting there were no gas chambers".
Sandia National Labs
Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), also known as Sandia, is one of three research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Headquartered in Kirtland Air Force B ...
Physicist Marshall Berman challenged one of the seats held by a creationist school board member and won election to the board in 1998. A year into his tenure, he persuaded the board to vote 14-1 in favor of teaching evolution.
''Science Watch'' podcast
Formed in 2005, ''Science Watch'' was hosted by Dave Thomas and Kim Johnson and was a weekly podcast until 2010 when it discontinued recording.
Barbara Forrest
Barbara Carroll Forrest is a professor of philosophy at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. She is a critic of intelligent design and the Discovery Institute.
Biography
Forrest is a graduate of Hammond High School. She re ...
commended their efforts of providing good science to residents of Albuquerque. Forrest describes the podcast as "an example of the value of cultivating contacts with local media by providing them with information during flareups".
Value of pi story
The organization's official newsletter is ''NMSR Reports''. In April 1998, an article appeared in NMSR Reports stating that the state of
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
intended to change the definition of
pi to three, supposedly to bring it in line with the Christian Bible''
's'' statements on the matter. The article, which was satirical, was originally attributed to "April Holiday" of the , but was really written by NMSR board member
Mark Boslough
Mark Boslough is an American physicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, research professor at University of New Mexico, fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, and chair of the Asteroid Day Expert Panel. He is an expert in the study of ...
. In addition to its appearance in ''NMSR Reports'', the story was only posted in the
talk.origins
talk.origins (often capitalised to Talk.Origins or abbreviated as t.o.) is a Usenet#Moderated and unmoderated newsgroups, moderated Usenet discussion Internet forum, forum concerning the origins of life, and evolution. It remains a major venue fo ...
newsgroup on April 1, 1998, by Thomas who later that day confessed to the hoax. Several clues were included in the original post, including the author being named "April Holiday", and the article being posted on
April Fools' Day
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may ...
. A few weeks later Thomas checked back on talk.origins website and elsewhere on the Internet by searching for the phrase "Alabama Pi", to his surprise he received "hundreds of hits". In some cases the "Associmated Press" was dropped and attributed to other sources, some people realized it was a hoax, while others clearly did not.
Onyate man
On April 1, 1999, Stefan, who was studying at the
University of Heidelberg
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
, posted to a website about a fossil uncovered at a dig in New Mexico that he and other students were working on. Stefan stated that he was worried the website would not last long once word got out that "We found a fossil of a hominid, being eaten by an dinosaur." He posted photos and included an email address for serious researchers or the media to contact for copies of the photos. The cast and specimens were loaded into a truck and driven away, but not before those present were cautioned to not tell anyone because it would ruin their careers and no one would likely believe them anyway. He ends the website with this notice: "PLEASE TELL YOUR FRIENDS. DON'T LET THE SCIENTISTS KEEP THE TRUTH FROM THE WORLD!"
NMSR posted this website on an
Art Bell
Arthur William Bell III (June 17, 1945 – April 13, 2018) was an American broadcaster and author. He was the founder and the original host of the paranormal-themed radio program ''Coast to Coast AM'', which is syndicated on hundreds of ...
newsgroup alt.fan.art-bell as well as on alt.religion.christian. The group followed the progress of the story over the next few weeks and saw it get picked up by alt.atheism. The website attracted over 2,000 views over the month, and many groups realized that it was a hoax. Some people researched people and places mentioned in Stefan's article and realized that aspects of the story were not credible. NMSR posted details demonstrating that Onyate man was a hoax, showing more photos and explaining who was behind the hoax. The reason they created this specific hoax was because they had held a debate in January 1999 with creationist Paul Gammill. At that debate, it was noted that finding a dinosaur fossil with a hominid's fossils inside would be ideal evidence that hominids existed at the same time as dinosaurs. Ed Brayton, writing for
Patheos
Patheos is a non-denominational, non-partisan online media company providing information and commentary from various religious and nonreligious perspectives.
Upon its launch in May 2009, the website was primarily geared toward learning about re ...
, described the hoax. He stated this was "a story designed to feed into creationist beliefs and overcome whatever latent skepticism they might have about such a find. ... Within 24 hours,
Kent Hovind
Kent E. Hovind (born January 15, 1953) is an American Christian fundamentalism, Christian fundamentalist evangelist and tax protester. He is a controversial figure in the Young Earth creationism, Young Earth creationist movement whose ministry ...
was citing this in his revival meetings as proof that evolution was a lie."
Darwin Day
According to
KRQE
KRQE (channel 13) is a television station in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, affiliated with CBS and Fox. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister to Santa Fe–licensed ''de facto'' CW owned-and-operated station KWBQ (channel 19) an ...
News 13, The Humanist Society of New Mexico,
Freedom From Religion Foundation
The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization, which advocates for atheists, agnostics, and nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and challenges the legitimacy of many ...
and NMSR intended to host a
Darwin Day
Darwin Day is a celebration to commemorate the birthday of Charles Darwin on 12 February 1809. The day is used to highlight Darwin's contributions to science and to promote science in general. Darwin Day is celebrated around the world.
Histo ...
lecture series at the
New Mexico Museum of Natural History
The New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science is a natural history and science museum in Albuquerque, New Mexico near Old Town Albuquerque. The Museum was founded in 1986. It operates as a public revenue facility of the New Mexico Departmen ...
in February 2014. When a flyer was posted showing that the lectures were being co-sponsored by the publicly funded museum, two former engineers complained that creationists were not allowed their side of the story. NMSR responded that the wording on the flyer was a "misunderstanding".
KRQE
KRQE (channel 13) is a television station in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, affiliated with CBS and Fox. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister to Santa Fe–licensed ''de facto'' CW owned-and-operated station KWBQ (channel 19) an ...
News 13 received copies of the emails shared between the organizers and the museum's staff showing their involvement. The Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA) oversees the running of the museum and has stated that they have retrained their staff to "clearly distinguish State events from private events". Darwin Day 2015 was cancelled. One of the creationists who raised the issue noted their objection to cancelling the event rather than adding other viewpoints, noting "By cancelling Darwin Day, they have basically said, they will not be giving both sides of the story". The DCA stated "workload and staffing issues" caused the confusion.
NMSR President Thomas responded on the NMSR website to accusations that the 2015 Darwin Day annual event was cancelled because the museum did not want to allow creationists to speak. Thomas says that this "story" is a creation of KRQE. The museum held a Darwin Day event in 2014 and there was "a brief error of attribution of an NMSR event as co-sponsored by the museum in a flyer, but this was corrected LAST YEAR, BEFORE the event even took place." (2014) In a letter shown on the KRQE video dated February 7, 2014, the DCA explained to the two creationists what had happened with the flyer. In 2015 KRQE reported that the 2014 event did not happen, although it did, and that the reason the annual event did not happen in 2015 was because of the complaint. Thomas explains that the Darwin Day event is not an annual event, it was not held in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, though it was held prior to 2009. It did not happen in 2015 because the museum hired a new director who choose not to have another event. Thomas explains this was a "non story" in 2014, but in 2015 reporters Tina Jensen and Dean Stanley were pressured by the intelligent design community to run the story as if creationists were being discriminated against.
Hemant Mehta
Hemant Mehta (born February 25, 1983) is an American author, blogger, and atheist activist. Mehta is a regular speaker at atheist events, and has been a board member of charitable organizations such as the Secular Student Alliance and the Founda ...
wrote about this controversy, explaining "promoting science — in a museum, no less — isn't the same thing as promoting atheism. And a museum doesn't have to give 'equal time' to
Intelligent Design
Intelligent design (ID) is a pseudoscientific argument for the existence of God, presented by its proponents as "an evidence-based scientific theory about life's origins". Numbers 2006, p. 373; " Dcaptured headlines for its bold attempt to ...
".
Operations
According to the NMSR website, "NMSR meets at 7 PM on the second Wednesday of each month, at CNM Main Campus, STUDENT RESOURCE CENTER (SRC), room 204, right next to the Richard Barr Boardroom.
Gallery
File:Invitation to the First meeting of New Mexicans for Science and Reason (NMSR).jpg, Original flyer sent to New Mexico SI subscribers in 1990
File:Marshall Berman campaign appearance.jpg, 1998 campaign event for NM school board candidate Marshall Berman (wearing white coat) L-R Harrison Schmitt
Harrison Hagan Schmitt (born July 3, 1935) is an American geologist, retired NASA astronaut, university professor, former U.S. senator from New Mexico, and the most recent living person—and only person without a background in military aviation ...
, NM Academy of Science President Richard Nygren, Al Narath from Sandia Base
Sandia Base was the principal nuclear weapons installation of the United States Department of Defense from 1946 to 1971. It was located on the southeastern edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico. For 25 years, the top-secret Sandia Base and its subsidiar ...
, Berman, Laura J. Crossey from UNM and Rev. Clyde Stanfield.
File:CSICON 2011 Creation & Evolution Panel-Dave Thomas.JPG, NMSR President Dave Thomas Dave may refer to:
Film, television, and theater
* Dave (film), ''Dave'' (film), a 1993 film starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver
* Dave (musical), ''Dave'' (musical), a 2018 stage musical adaptation of the film
* Dave (TV channel), a digital ...
lectures at CSICon
CSICon or CSIConference is an annual list of skeptical conferences, skeptical conference typically held in the United States. CSICon is hosted by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), which is a program of the Center for Inquiry (CFI). CSI p ...
on "Evolution and Creation" in New Orleans 2011
File:NMSR table at Cosmic Carnival 2005.jpg, Cosmic Carnival - NMSR member Frank Gfelner talks with the public - 2005
File:Charles B. Moore, physicist who caused the Roswell Incident.jpg, Atmospheric physicist Charles Moore displays radar reflector similar to those on balloons in Project Mogul Project Mogul (sometimes referred to as Operation Mogul) was a top secret project by the US Army Air Forces involving microphones flown on high-altitude balloons, whose primary purpose was long-distance detection of sound waves generated by Soviet ...
experiments.
File:Gage Thomas Debate.jpg, Richard Gage of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth
Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, Inc. (AE911Truth) is an American non-profit organization promoting the conspiracy theory that the World Trade Center was destroyed in a controlled demolition, disputing accepted conclusions around the Septe ...
debates Dave Thomas at NMSR event
File:25 years 1990-2015-NMSR.jpg, Logo created for NMSR's 25th anniversary in 2015
File:Taping of NMSR's Science Watch.jpg, ''Science Watch'' podcast recording with hosts Dave Thomas and Kim Johnson
File:TheHoax.gif, This shows the Onyate Man Hoax setup. The "hominid" and allosauruones were provide by artist David Arthur Thomas (at right), who played the part of "Dr Heinschvagel" in the hoax
File:TheReveal 01.gif, This shows the dismantling of the Onyate Man Hoax setup. The "hominid" was a fiberglass sculpture of "Dead Pan" by artist David Arthur Thomas
References
{{Reflist, 2
External links
Archive of ''Science Watch'' podcasts – 2005–2014Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education (CESE) website
Organizations based in Albuquerque, New Mexico
1990 establishments in New Mexico
Organizations established in 1990
Science advocacy organizations
Skeptic organizations in the United States
Scientific skepticism