Virgin Mary’s Tears to be Tested for Authenticity

Rationalists from the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations, headed by president professor Narendra Nayak, will be testing the veracity of the claims made by locals and priests alike that the image of the Catholic religious figure is shedding tears. The Bishop has invited the Rationalists to make sure that this phenomenon being hailed by locals as a miracle is not a scam. This event will take place on the 6^th of March, 2010 at Alleppey in Kerala.
After this event, the rationalists are holding a press conference in which the flex print of Premanand is going to shed tears, because he is very sad that cheap stupid tricks are being passed off as miracles.

It is not shedding tears now, but will do so on the 6^th

Also please note that there will be a rationalist training program by Dr. Nayak on the 7^th, at Alleppey.

The contact person for details on all three events (miracle investigation, press conference and training program) is Anil Kumar of the Kerala Yuktivadi Sangam. Phone no:+919846126080.

Update: The follow-up after the conclusion of the official investigation has been posted here.

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This is a video of Basava Premanand, founder of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations and Indian CSICOP which published Indian Skeptic magazine. Premanand has been featured in many documentaries, notably ones by the BBC.

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A group of activists, academics and leaders of the Freethought Movement have come together to propose the foundation of a well-organized, non-profit, freethought organization in India.

Summary: This is a proposal for a management-oriented approach to a Nirmukta organization. It is in three parts- (1) establishing why such an approach is needed, (2) presenting a mission statement and (3) proposing clear objectives to be implemented immediately.

Introduction

Nirmukta had its first online “meeting” on Saturday the 23rd of January, 2010. The members of the Nirmukta team who participated in this meeting include Prof. Narendra Nayak president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA), Dr. Prabhakar Kamath, Pankaj Kulkarni, Siddharth Singh, Ajita Kamal and Kedar Kulkarni. We also had a guest panelist, Blair Scott, the National Affiliate Outreach Director for American Atheists, to help bring us a unique perspective from an established freethought organization in the United States. While the meeting was beset with technical problems, some avoidable by refining protocol and familiarizing ourselves with the format, and some unavoidable (such as the bandwidth issue), we were still able to come up with some good ideas and share them with the group. Read the full story

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Indian Skeptic is the magazine that reports on the Rationalism Movement in India. This movement is spearheaded by the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations (FIRA), under its president Professor Narendra Nayak. The magazine was founded and for many years published by eminent rationalist and debunker Basava Premanand, along with with Prof Nayak. That original Indian Skeptic was retired after Premanand’s death. Recently, a new avatar of Indian Skeptic was born at the 2009 National level FIRA conference. The magazine still deals with issues concerning rationalists and skeptics of supernatural claims, particularly in India. The editor and publisher of the new Indian Skeptic magazine is T.V. Manoj. Read the full story

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Greetings Friends!

Members of the Nirmukta team will be broadcasting a live meeting and interactive discussion in the Nirmukta chatroom on Saturday the 23rd, at 21:30 IST (16:00 London, 11:00 New York). You have the chance to participate online by asking questions and presenting suggestions to our panel of activists, skeptics, writers and academics.

The chatroom is located at : http://tinychat.com/nirmukta

RSVP for this on facebook, here.

This event is open to all. A full agenda will be posted very soon along with the list of panel members.

The web-based platform we are using is tinychat.com. This service allows upto 8 panelists to broadcast simultaneously. The text-chat function is open to all audience members who sign in using their facebook or twitter accounts. If you don’t have one yet, consider getting one before the event (although if you don’t have one yet you’re probably here by mistake).

The main subject of the discussion will be the future of the movement, and our panelists will present their views on Nirmukta and its potential role in advancing reason in India. However, there will be other subjects discussed as well. There are many areas to be covered since this is the first meeting and broadcast. In the future we will have scheduled broadcasts of shows on various subjects and in various formats.

So, come talk with us at the chatroom next Saturday. Make a note of it on your calendar. Send us an email and tell us what you’d like to see discussed. Join us and become part of the Nirmukta community.

Important: Please RSVP for this event on the facebook page.

Ajita Kamal

Editor

Send Email to:

info [at] nirmukta.com

or

ajita [at] nirmukta.com

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This is an excellent short video by youtube user QualiaSoup that explains the nature of and the need for critical thinking.

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We have reported on many of the past challenges issued by rationalists to purveyors of supernatural beliefs. The challenger in many of these cases (1,2,3,4,5), Mr Narendra Nayak, president of the Federation of Rationalist Associations of India, has a long-standing challenge issued specifically for astrologers. Here it is in his own words:

“We shall provide the date, time and place of birth of 10 individuals along with the appropriate solutions. The challenger can cast the horoscope and state the following within 90% limits of accuracy- is the individual male or female, dead or alive. ” Read the full story

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This is an incredible piece of work by youtube user melodysheep.

Here are the notes that were posted with the video:

My own musical tribute to two great men of science. Carl Sagan and his cosmologist companion Stephen Hawking present: A Glorious Dawn - Cosmos remixed. Almost all samples and footage taken from Carl Sagan’s Cosmos and Stephen Hawking’s Universe series.

RIP Dr. Sagan, you will be missed!!

Please, click HQ to watch in better quality.

Go here to download the track:
http://www.symphonyofscience.com

And here for another scientist remix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84P…

And my website for more original music:
http://www.colorpulsemusic.com/

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This event was organized by the Orissa Rationalist Association in Rourkela on 10 and 11 October, 2009.

Prabir Ghosh, General Secretary of Science & Rationalist Association of India was invited as the chief guest to handover the certificates and mementos to the winners of the inter-school competition on scientific outlook being arranged by the Orissa Rationalist Association for the last 10 years. Read the full story

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This video is self-explanatory and almost no introduction is needed. All I will say here is that the rationalist in the video is Narendra Nayak, president of the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations. If you watch closely, the late Basava Premanand appears for a second or two, providing support (and advise, no doubt) to the younger rationalists.

The rationalist movement in India needs more volunteers. If you like what these brave folks are doing, please consider joining and helping in the effort. Together let’s fight these superstitious ideas that pervade our culture.

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