Orange County

Orange County Groups

The Center for Inquiry-West wants to gather freethinkers and rational people in a purely social setting. We want to introduce people who share a common rational worldview - that is, the idea that the universe operates on principles and ideas which are or will be explained by science and rational means. Paranormal and religious followers have, in many ways, dominated the media and the culture. Consequently, many skeptics and non-religious people experience a feeling of isolation in their communities, and even among friends and family. We seek to erase that feeling by getting some of the thousands of freethinkers and rationalists in the area together.

We sincerely hope you'll join us.

Click on the links below to jump to different groups and meetings.

Upcoming Orange County Events:

David Richards, The Supernatural And The Movies, May 18 (Hollywood)
Brian Dunning, Skepticism and the Media, May 18
Jennifer Ouellette, Physics in the Buffyverse, June 15

OC Skeptics Supper Club

CFI Community of Orange County

The Fullerton Atheists and Agnostics

Students for Science and Skepticism

Upcoming Orange County Events

CFI-L.A.'s FEED YOUR BRAIN Lecture Series presents

David Richards

The Supernatural and the Movies

Sunday, May 18
11 a.m. in Hollywood

$6, or free for
Friends of the Center

How did the horror genre in movies arise and become so popular? Plotting its emergence first in literature, and later in movies, David Richards traces the development of cinema as a successful outlet for horror material, discusses the transition from rational to supernatural antagonists, and evaluates the impact of horror and the supernatural on society. After Richards presents an overview with movie clips, a panel discussion with special guests having expertise in the genre will follow.

David Richards, who works for a manufacturer of equipment for the film exhibition industry, is a member of the Independent Investigations Group of the Center and the coordinator of CFI's Orange County Community

$6, or free for Friends of the Center

The Center for Inquiry-Los Angeles
4773 Hollywood Boulelvard.,
Hollywood, CA 90027
2 blocks west of Vermont at Berendo map
Free parking!

Brian Dunning

Skepticism and New Media

Sunday, May 18
4:30 p.m. in Costa Mesa

Brian Dunning, who is the host and producer of the Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena podcast, will show how he fights against some media that support useless alternative medicine systems, psychics preying upon the vulnerable, the erosion of science education in the classroom, and anything that distracts attention and public funding from scientific advancement.

$6, or free for Friends of the Center

Costa Mesa Community Center, 1845 Park Ave. map

Jennifer Ouellette

The Rules of the Game: Finding the Physics in the Buffyverse

Sunday, June 15
4:30 p.m. in Costa Mesa

What does the fictional world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer have to do with science? Plenty. Join science writer Jennifer Ouellette for an entertaining tour of the science behind “Buffyverse,” where magic, vampires and demons are real. Take a closer look of this surreal world and you’ll find that science lurks everywhere, from the “Big Picture” framework to the nooks and crannies. There are alternate universes and parallel worlds, Newtonian mechanics, electromagnetism, string theory, and even a “thermodynamics of magic.”

Ouellette is a recovering English major who stumbled into science writing as a freelancer in New York City. Now based in L.A., she is the author of two popular science books: The Physics of Buffyverse (2007) and Black Bodies and Quantum Cats: Tales from the Annals of Physics (2006), written numerous articles for science magazines, and is a contributing editor of APS News, a publication of the American Physical Society.

$6, or free for Friends of the Center

Costa Mesa Community Center, 1845 Park Ave. map

OC Skeptics Supper Club
Meets the second Thursday of each month at 7:30pm

The monthly skeptical supper club in Orange County meets for dinner on the second Thursday of each month.

The get-together is intended for those who are pro-science and anti-pseudoscience, including skeptics, atheists, and humanists, but all are welcome. The site is convenient to the 5, 57, and 22 freeways:

Hof’s Hut
4050 W. Chapman
Orange, CA 92868
(corner of Chapman and Lewis, right across the street from the Crystal Cathedral)
map

Menu entree items range from about $5 to $15. For more info, please contact Dave Richards at: david@iigwest.com

CFI Community of Orange County
For information, email Dave Richards david@iigwest.com.

The Fullerton Atheists and Agnostics
A chapter of the Campus Freethought Alliance. Please contact Fullerton Atheists and Agnostics president Brandon Johns at fullertonskeptics@shoutmail.com, or phone (909) 924-1885 for more info.

Students for Science and Skepticism
at University of California, Irvine http://spirit.dos.uci.edu/sss.
Fax and voice mail: 1-206-201-8828.

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