A Cracking Start to the Seasonal Festivities

I was honoured last night to host and compere the Seasonal Skeptical Cabaret for Portsmouth Skeptics in the Pub. It was a sold out, ticketed event with food and drink as a way of saying thanks, and offering something a little quirky, to local skeptics, old and new. Indeed, it was great to see a number of first timers in the audience of 60. What did we have to offer?

Well, in between each act, I was reading poetry from my recent volume: Filling the Void: A Selection of Atheist and Humanist Poetry. The acts were:

Kevin Friery on the history of the mince pie with its puritanical heresy.

Paul S Jenkins and his short story The Gatehouse about the woman in charge of the paperwork for the admissions process into heaven.

Sean Ellis on how Santa Works as quantum, tunnelling into each house and appearing in multiple places simultaneously.

Sara Thornton reading an excerpt on zombies from my book Survival of the Fittest: Metamorphosis.

Wyn Jones doing some skeptical "magic" akin to Derren Brown.

Gareth Howells and his son Louis, part of folk-rock band Bemis, playing a collection of songs superbly, thematically fitting to each section of the night.

All in all, a wonderful experience, and so great that such a movement of skepticism and the oft-associated nonreligious community, is gaining more and more traction. Where religion has held sway because of its monopolies on community cohesion, we are now seeing a growth in organisations that seek to replace this, whether it be the Sunday Assembly, or some other such group.