New Mexicans for Science and Reason

New Mexicans for Science and Reason

Founder	Kendrick Frazier
Purpose	Science advocacy
Headquarters	Albuquerque, New Mexico
Location	New Mexico
President	Dave Thomas
Vice President	John Covan
Treasurer	Nancy Shelton
Past President	John Geohegan
Key people	Eddy Jacobs, Kim Johnson, Marilyn Savitt-Kring, Robert Cormack, Kendrick Frazier, John Geissman, Alan Hale, Randy Thornhill, Mark Boslough
Affiliations	Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education (CESE)
Website	www.nmsr.org

New Mexicans for Science and Reason (also known by the abbreviation NMSR) is a science advocacy organization based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded by Skeptical Inquirer editor Kendrick Frazier on May 16th, 1990. As of 1998, the President is physicist and mathematician Dave Thomas. 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, the editor of Skeptical Inquirer. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry'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".^[1] 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.^[2] The idea, according to Frazier was "to encourage critical thinking".^[1] 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 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".^[2]

NMSR was involved in attempts to restore evolution to the science standards of New Mexico schools in the 1990s.^[3] 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 identities. The CESE exists for serious activism and the NMSR is "where members go to play".^[1]

Creationism in school textbooks

In 1996 two creationists 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 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 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.^[3][4][1][5]

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 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".^[3]

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 intended to change the definition of pi to three, supposedly to bring it in line with the Christian Bible's statements on the matter.^[6] The article, which was satirical, was originally attributed to "April Holiday" of the "Associmated Press" [sic], but was really written by NMSR board member Mark Boslough.^[7] In addition to its appearance in NMSR Reports, the story was only posted in the talk.origins newsgroup on April 1, 1998 by Thomas who later that day confessed to the hoax.^[8] Several clues were included in the original post, including the author being named "April Holiday", and the article being posted on April Fools Day. 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.^[9]

Onyate man

On April 1, 1999, Stefan who was studying at the University of Heidelberg, posted a website about what was uncovered at a dig in New Mexico he and other students were working on. Stefan stated that he was worried that the website would not last long once the word got out "We found a fossil of a hominid, being eaten by an allosaurus [sic] dinosaur." He posted photos and included a email for serious researchers or the media if they wanted copies of the photos. The cast and specimens [sic] were uploaded to a truck and driven away, but not before being cautioned that they should not tell anyone otherwise they would ruin their careers and probably no one would 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!"^[10]

NMSR posted this website on a Art Bell 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 that Onyate man was a hoax, showing more photos and explaining the people behind the hoax. The reason they created this specific hoax was because they had held a debate in January 1999 with creationist Paul Gammill and at that debate, a discussion of finding a dinosaur fossil with a hominid's fossils inside would be ideal evidence that hominids existed at the same time as dinosaurs.^[11] Ed Brayton writing for Patheos wrote about the hoax and 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 was citing this in his revival meetings as proof that evolution was a lie."^[12]

Darwin Day

According to KRQE News 13, The Humanist Society of New Mexico, Freedom From Religion Foundation and NMSR intended to host a Darwin Day lecture series at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in February 2014. When a flyer was posted showing that the lectures were being co-sponsored by the publicly tax-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 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, which is not what the two creationists wanted, saying "By cancelling Darwin Day, they have basically said, they will not be giving both sides of the story". The DCA states "workload and staffing issues" as the reason.^[13]

NMSR President Thomas responds 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, (which 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 had happened 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 ID community to run the story as if creationists were being discriminated against.^[14]

Hemant Mehta writes 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".^[15]

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.^[16]

NMSR is a science organization; it is not a civil liberties or an anti-religious organization. Several of our members, like scientists in general, belong to various religious groups. We see no inherent conflict between science and religion, in that science concerns the natural world (the one accessible to our senses and instruments), while religion concerns the possibility of a supernatural world accessible only through faith. While we respect and cherish religious freedom, we stand ready to challenge those who promote bad science to further their goals, religious or otherwise.^[16]

Gallery

• 
  Original flyer sent to New Mexico SI subscribers in 1990
• 
  1998 campaign event for NM school board candidate Marshall Berman (wearing white coat) L-R Harrison Schmitt, NM Academy of Science President Richard Nygren, Al Narath from Sandia Base, Berman, Laura Crossey from UNM and Rev. Clyde Stanfield.
• 
  NMSR President Dave Thomas lectures at CSICon on "Evolution and Creation" in New Orleans 2011
• 
  Cosmic Carnival - NMSR member Frank Gfelner talks with the public - 2005
• 
  Atmospheric physicist Charles Moore displays radar reflector similar to those on balloons in Project Mogul experiments.
• 
  Richard Gage of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth debates Dave Thomas at NMSR event
• 
  Logo created for NMSR's 25th anniversary in 2015
• 
  Science Watch podcast recording with hosts Dave Thomas and Kim Johnson
• 
  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
• 
  This shows the dismantling of the Onyate Man Hoax setup. The "hominid" was a fiberglass sculpture of "Dead Pan" by artist David Arthur Thomas

External links

• Archive of Science Watch podcasts - 2005-2014
• Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education (CESE) website

References