The Skeptic Society (Russian: Общество скептиков, ''Óbščestvo skeptikov'') is a Russian-speaking

skeptical Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

. Its aim is to spread

critical thinking Critical thinking is the process of analyzing available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to make sound conclusions or informed choices. It involves recognizing underlying assumptions, providing justifications for ideas and actions, ...

, popularize science, educate the general public, promote and teach critical and skeptical thinking skills and create a platform for science and skepticism communication.

History

The Society was founded on 31 March 2013, when Kirill Alferov organized the first meeting of the society in Moscow., in part on the principles frequent in-person meetups and distributed participation. Since then, the Society has met every second Thursday of the month. From 2014 onward, local groups of the Skeptic Society were also founded, and regular meetings held, in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg (, ; ), alternatively Romanization of Russian, romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( ; 1924–1991), is a city and the administrative centre of Sverdlovsk Oblast and the Ural Federal District, Russia. The ci ...

Voronezh Voronezh ( ; , ) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects wes ...

Ufa Ufa is a city in Russia and the capital of the republic of Bashkortostan. UFA or Ufa may also refer to: Places * Ufa (river), a river in Russia; a tributary of the Belaya * Ufa International Airport, near the Russian city * Ufa railway statio ...

Samara Samara, formerly known as Kuybyshev (1935–1991), is the largest city and administrative centre of Samara Oblast in Russia. The city is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Samara (Volga), Samara rivers, with a population of over 1.14 ...

Almaty Almaty, formerly Alma-Ata, is the List of most populous cities in Kazakhstan, largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population exceeding two million residents within its metropolitan area. Located in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains ...

Pavlodar Pavlodar (; ; ) is a city in northeastern Kazakhstan and the capital of Pavlodar Region. It is located northeast of the national capital Astana and southeast of the Russian city of Omsk along the Irtysh River. In 2010, the city had a popul ...

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, and

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

. On 25 October 2014, the first Skeptic Society conference, Skepticon (Скептикон), took place in Moscow. Around 250 people attended the conference. On 26–27 November 2016, the third Skepticon was held with 350 people attending.

Activities

Most of the activities and projects of the society are available online. Despite the fact that there is a lot of skepticism-related information available in English, the society decided not to limit its activity just to translating this information, and started producing its own podcast ''Skeptik'' (Russian: Скептик, "Skeptic"). The focus of the podcast became skepticism-related issues that are relevant for Russian society. The ''Skeptik'' podcast was produced every Friday from 2013 until January 2015. At the moment the production of the podcast does not have a regular schedule. The podcast ''Delfinarij'' (Russian: Дельфинарий, "Dolphinarium") and video programme ''Kriticheskij vzgljad'' (Russian: Критический взгляд, "Critical view") as well as short

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

clips are made under the aegis of the Russian Skeptic Society. The Society offers to give lectures in various educational institutions. It also sets up experiments, that tests the claims of supernatural abilities.

References

External links

* {{Skeptic organizations 2013 establishments in Russia Organizations based in Moscow Skeptic organizations in Russia Organizations established in 2013 Scientific skepticism