The public perception of a skeptic, I think it’s fair to say, is of a cold person who tries to deny their emotions, a party-pooper whose existence is simply to rain on everyone else’s parade, someone who categorizes everything into tightly constrained boxes with rigid definitions.
I can think of over 1000 people who attended TAM 7 last week who might disagree.
And I can think of two in particular: my friends and colleagues Rebecca Watson and Sid Rodrigues, who got married right there at TAM!
They had planned this out in advance, and set it up carefully. Rebecca is one of the Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe podcasters, and they record a show live in front of the TAM audience every year before the regular TAM session starts. This year, during the Q&A part, Sid stood up… and, well, watch for yourself.
Awe. Some.
[Update: the JREF released footage of the wedding as well, taken from a different angle.]
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Pay attention to people’s reactions in the video, too. Note the laughter, the smiles, the surprise, the support, the love.
Yeah, skeptics are a cold bunch.
Also note how giving of their time they are. There might even be an appearance of My Close Personal Friend™ during the wedding, too.
For more on this, including a video taken from another angle, check out Bug Girl’s skepchick post. I imagine more video will be popping up soon, too.
My sincere and whole-hearted congrats to the happy couple. It was a perfect wedding: funny, warm, silly, and the two betrothed surrounded by friends and family… with the line between the two very much blurred. Sometimes, that’s just the way we skeptics like it.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Aww, that’s so sweet, and it’ll be the talk of Skeptown for the next couple of months.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:43 am
You said it. Awesome. Love long and Prosper you two!
July 15th, 2009 at 10:49 am
I’m still a little skeptical that you guys have emotions. I’d feel inclined to believe you, but on the other hands I don’t want reality to be clouded by my own personal feelings.
July 15th, 2009 at 10:52 am
“Awesome” indeed!
July 15th, 2009 at 10:57 am
Congrats! I’m a big fan of the SGU podcast and I wish Rebecca and Sid best wishes.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:00 am
Awww, I got teary eyed! Congrats to the happy couple.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Congratulations to Mrs. and Mr. Skepchick!
July 15th, 2009 at 11:04 am
*tongue sticking out*
July 15th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Yeah, my wife’s first exposure to skeptics was last Dragon*con. After one of the “tracks” she said,”Those guys are hilarious. Skeptics aren’t supposed to be funny!” If only everyone could realize that we see all the wonder and awe and humor and love in the world, even without any belief in magic.
I said as much on the Skepchick site, but it bears repeating: Congratulations Rebecca and Sid.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:47 am
That was definitely a fun surprise. A nice bonus to my first TAM!
July 15th, 2009 at 11:50 am
“The public perception of a skeptic, I think it’s fair to say, is of a cold person who tries to deny their emotions, a party-pooper whose existence is simply to rain on everyone else’s parade, someone who categorizes everything into tightly constrained boxes with rigid definitions.”
I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger straw man in the last year at least.
No, I don’t think it’s fair to say that at all. Do you have any evidence to support this assertion, or are you simply making it up to support your argument?
July 15th, 2009 at 11:52 am
To the young in the audience don’t get old.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:56 am
REBECCA’S WEDDING WAS AN INSIDE JOB WAKE UP SHEEPLE!!!111
July 15th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Words fail me. Thanks for the good tears.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Wait? So Rebecca knew about it beforehand too? Boooo! Humbug!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:11 pm
haha love long and prosper, totally x
July 15th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
But Phil Plait IS devoid of emotion. He is a cold, calculating, killing machine. He makes the Terminator look like a romance novel junkie.
July 15th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Josh @13:
LOL!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Euh.. skeptics cold people?
I think you believe in your own stereotype too much
July 15th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
OH EM GEE my Galileoscope just arrived!!!!!!!!
Order number in the mid six thousands if people want to guesstimate when theirs might arrive.
Of course the problem is I am about to move house so have to pack it away and wait until the movers ship it cross country
p.s. sorry if this is off topic, just very excited
July 15th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Aw, thanks Phil! It was so much fun, we might do it again next year.
xoxo
July 15th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
@Sili
I would have thought that was patently obvious to anyone with a skeptical mind.
Congrats Rebecca!
July 15th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Huge cheers to Rebecca and Sid! What a fun way to have pulled this off!
July 15th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Marriage between skeptics threatens my heterosexual Christian ordained marriage. I demand it be stopped lest we destroy American culture.
/sarcasm
Way to go, best of luck to you both!
July 15th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Somewhat related, I recently saw Charlie Chaplin’s famous monologue from “The Great Dictator” (his first “talkie” film). From the monologue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IvPIWzQcUY):
“The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.
…Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
…In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written ” the kingdom of God is within man ” – not one man, nor a group of men – but in all men – in you, the people.
…You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.
…Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.”
The reasons I loved this speech (can’t believe I hadn’t seen it before) are:
1) It speaks to the universality of human nature.
2) God is defined as also being universal (with “God” very loosely defined). Interesting to note that you have a Jewish character, played by an agnostic(?) actor, citing Christian text, but interpreting it in a way that is applicable to all.
3) Science and reason are cited as being equally as important as religion or humanity in order to realize freedom and peace.
4) It points out that the merit/potential of science or religion is based first on its ability to bring about peace and freedom and that, as always, it’s how we apply them that often determines whether we’ll realize their potential.
So does being skeptic mean you must be cold, unfeeling, or inhumane? No, but people can use skepticism to become or remain such.
Likewise, does being religious or spiritual mean you must be gullible, uncritical, or otherwise less intelligent? No, but people can use religion or spirituality to become or remain such.
A balance of both is needed.
PS: That’s why in my mind I have written the 11th commandment: Thou shalt use thine head.
July 15th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
That’s so (sniff) sweet.
(is it true what they say about women at weddings?)
J/P=?
July 15th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
Congratulations to you 2 crazy kids! TAM will never be the same! (It’ll be better!)
July 15th, 2009 at 3:02 pm
I don’t think it’s very fair to the people who paid good money to attend TAM and have no interest in seeing a wedding. If you want to get married, good for you, but do it in your own time, please. I, for one, have no interest in other peoples private lives.
Seeing things like this just reinforces by opinion of TAM as a giant group masturbatory session.
July 15th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
Group hug!
July 15th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
I hate even more that I wasn’t able to go to TAM this year. I think it’s wonderful! A very big congratz to Rebecca and Sid!
July 15th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
congrats.
July 15th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
[...] to Phil Plait for bringing this to everyone’s attention, and of course to the Amazing Randi for giving birth, so to speak, to the [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
It was a hoax. The shadows are all wrong.
July 15th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
That was awesome.
jbs
July 15th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I dont think i can watch this again. Still devastated that my gorgeous skepchick rebecca is off the market. How can I go on
July 15th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Beautiful!
July 15th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Aww my dreams have been shattered I wanted to marry a hot skeptical chic…well Rebecca
I wish the married couple a long and fulfilling marriage and all the little skeptical children they could wish for. Congrats you two and have a long and loving marriage.
Congrats.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
I am greatly amused by the suggestion that the TAM audience was forced to witness the wedding, as if the doors were barred and armed security guards posted at all the exits. Everybody knows they only do that when Michael Shermer brings out his PowerPoint slides.
Again, as I have said in person and elsewhere on the Intertubes, best wishes to the happy couple.
July 15th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
The wedding was awesome! Congrats to Rebecca and Sid.
@38: I want a copy of Shermer’s slides of the US from his presentation this year. Those were great.
July 16th, 2009 at 3:35 am
It was the highlight of TAM for me. Next year I want to see Phil Plait and Richard Wiseman tie the knot.
July 16th, 2009 at 4:47 am
Oh no… Now that skeptics have finally learned to fake emotions, there is no limit to what they can do next. Someone will have to stand up and expose their true lizard faces…
July 16th, 2009 at 5:15 am
That’s awesome! Can’t wait to hear the relevant SGU episode!
Btw. I met — and fell in love with — my girlfriend at a Skeptics in the Pub in Johannesburg. We met, indirectly, through SGU… we both started blogs because of the skeptics movement (and specifically because of SGU), and thus became involved in skeptical activism and thence attended a Skeptics in the Pub…
July 16th, 2009 at 7:38 am
So, did Adam make the rings? That would be frakking awesome. I lost my wedding ring. Maybe he would make one for me! LOL!
Oh, and Congrats Rebecca and Sid!
July 16th, 2009 at 11:04 am
sniff snifff
Just bee-yutiful, really.
Was Phil in the room?
An AMAZING meeting to be sure.
July 16th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I’d be careful. If Brian Dunning and his Illuminati find out that you’re leaking footage of Skeptics being loving and showing emotion……well, there’s no telling what could happen.
Rebecca & Sid, awwwwwwww congratz you guys.
July 17th, 2009 at 5:52 am
Phil, this also
:
http://gmy.news.yahoo.com/vid/14547285
July 17th, 2009 at 10:52 am
Congrats, Rebbecca and Sid!
July 17th, 2009 at 11:13 am
[...] Cool stuff | The public perception of a skeptic, I think it’s fair to say, is of a cold person who tries to deny their emotions, a party-pooper whose existence is simply to. Original post: Skeptic love | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine [...]
July 17th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
[...] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/07/15/skeptic-love/ [...]
July 18th, 2009 at 6:02 am
[...] Posted by Martin Poulter on 18 July 2009 Last week Sid Rodriguez (whom I’ve met) married his transatlantic love Rebecca Watson (whom I’ve not met, but she’s a skepchick- how cool is that?!) at James Randi’s Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas. Panel sessions at conferences aren’t normally like this. [...]
July 18th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Bah … humbug … that sham ceremony was obviously a big pharma conspiracy supported by big oil and big coal and big nuclear who want us all to spend more time on our computers using electricity to run up their profits …
(congrats Rebecca and Sid! – awesome)
July 19th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
Oh, yeah, totally forgot:
CONGRATS!
Still disappointed that she was in on it.