scientists who are interviewed for the alpha course

Who was the first curate of Alpha?

Charles Marnham was the Curate. It started in the flat just over there, and they had six people on it and it grew from there. Lots and lots of people have been involved in the evolution of Alpha over the years. AR: I appreciate that.

What happened to Project Alpha?

In 1983, Randi held a press conference to expose the deception, which he called Project Alpha. In the wake of Project Alpha, there were a number of controversies about the ethics of interference in scientific research and the validity of Paranormal research as it then existed. It remains a watershed event in the field of parapsychology.

Can we control the way an Alpha course is run?

NG: Well we can't control the way an Alpha course is run, that is true. Nor would we want to. The only way you can do it is to go around policing it, and that's such a heavy handed thing to do. It's a gift. We basically say this is something that has blessed our church, if your church wants to run it, here it is.

What is Project Alpha in psychology?

Project Alpha. Project Alpha was an elaborate hoax that began in 1979 and ended with its deliberate disclosure in 1983. It was orchestrated by the stage magician and skeptic James Randi.

Who is Nicky Gumbel?

Nicholas Glyn Paul Gumbel (born 1955), known as Nicky Gumbel, is an English Anglican priest and author in the evangelical and charismatic traditions. He is known as the developer of the Alpha Course, a basic introduction to Christianity supported by churches of many Christian traditions.

Who narrates the Alpha course?

I've really liked Jennifer Van Dyck's narration. She did a great job giving Faith a voice, and she was a really good choice for this series. I'm really glad I went with the audio, and it's because of her! 4 stars.

How much does the Alpha course cost?

Everyone is welcome. How Much Will It Cost? There is no charge for attending the Alpha course. There will be a $3 fee for adult dinners (Kids eat free and free childcare is available during class).

Who started Alpha course?

The Alpha Course had been founded in 1977, by the Reverend Charles Marnham, but Gumbel developed it into its current format. Courses involve sessions over a 10-week period, which are preceded by informal suppers.

Is Alpha good for Catholics?

Alpha is proven to awaken faith in lapsed Catholics, those on the fringe of parish life and those outside the faith. It gives faithful Catholics a path and a language to fulfill their baptismal call to evangelize.

Is Alpha a Catholic program?

Although originating from the evangelical Anglican tradition, Alpha is now used in various denominations around the world. Its supporters include many Catholic cardinals, Anglican archbishops and bishops, and leading figures of all denominations.

How long is an Alpha course session?

They're about thirty minutes long and explore the big issues around faith and unpack the basics of Christianity, addressing questions such as Who is Jesus?, How can we have faith? and How does God guide us?

Is running Alpha free?

All the resources you need to run an 8-week Alpha on campus are available to download free from Alpha Builder. Alpha is a tool for evangelisation that is being used by thousands of Catholic parishes to introduce people to the life-changing message of Jesus Christ.

What does HTB Church stand for?

Holy Trinity Brompton0. From the street, Holy Trinity Brompton – known universally in Anglican circles as HTB – hides its light under a bushel.

What nationality is Nicky Gumbel?

BritishNicky Gumbel / Nationality

Where was Nicky Gumbel born?

London, United KingdomNicky Gumbel / Place of birth

Is Nicky Gumbel Catholic?

Gumbel insists he's a Christian first, then if pushed, an Anglican. It's a tactic which betrays the cataclysmic schisms of which the Anglican Communion is in the midst. And no bigger wedge is driving that schism than the "gay issue".

Who was the chief victim of Project Alpha?

According to Marcello Truzzi, Berthold E. Schwarz was the "chief victim of Project Alpha." Schwarz had written a monograph on Shaw's psychic powers which was withdrawn from publication. Truzzi adds "... Dr. Schwarz first became involved with Shaw because Schwarz hoped that Shaw might be able to use PK to help his seriously ill daughter for whom no orthodox medical cure is available." Shaw states that he was unaware of this agenda of Dr. Schwarz.

Who changed protocol during the project Alpha?

In writing about Project Alpha, he cited Uri Geller, who had changed protocols during tests at Stanford Research Institute.

How did the magicians test spoons?

When starting to bend a spoon, the two magicians would complain the labels were in the way and remove them. They would then simply switch the labels when putting them back and wait. The spoons were measured before and after the experiment, and since all sorts of spoons were used, simply switching the labels would produce different measurements, causing the scientist to believe that something paranormal had occurred. In other cases, they would drop one of the spoons in their lap and bend it below the table with one hand, while pretending to bend a spoon in their other hand, distracting the scientists.

When did Phillips release his research brief?

Phillips decided to release a research brief at a workshop of the Parapsychological Association Convention in August 1981. According to the researchers' official version, in preparation Phillips also wrote to Randi to ask for a tape of fake metal-bending, which was to be shown alongside the recording of Shaw and Edwards. The researchers were looking for critical input from the parapsychology community and afterward released a revised abstract that reflected the received criticism.

What is Project Alpha?

Project Alpha was an effort by magician James Randi to test the quality of scientific rigor of a well-known test of paranormal phenomena.

How did Edwards and Shaw test spoon bending?

Edwards and Shaw were so successful at spoon bending that several other tests were invented. In one , they were given pictures in sealed envelopes and then asked to try to identify them from a list shown to them later. The two were left alone in a room with the envelopes. Although there was a possibility that they would peek, this was supposed to be controlled by examining the envelopes later . The envelopes were held closed with four staples, which the magicians simply pried open with their fingernails. They looked at the picture and then resealed the envelope by inserting the staples back into the same holes and forcing them closed by pressing them against the table.

Why did the two people use the video to critique their own performance?

Because the studio was set up to allow people in front of the camera to see themselves on monitors, and the videotapes were available to be watched by anyone, the two used the video to critique their own performance. They would deliberately fail on their first attempt at a demonstration, and then use the video to find out what was visible to the researchers and what was not. They would then develop a technique that would not appear on video. Edwards found that one particular camera operator was on guard to capture any attempts at sleight of hand, so he picked the man to assist him in one experiment, and he was replaced by a less competent cameraman. This was also a breach of Randi's caveats; the test run should have been stopped at this point and recorded as a failure.

How many countries does Alpha operate in?

If you do it in Brixton prison it'll be a different group of people. If you do it in Burundi it'll be very different. Alpha's operating in 169 countries, so it's operating in every culture; in China, rural India, right across the globe.

Who ran the '81 to '85 course?

And then, in 1981, it was taken on by someone called John Irvine, who was a Curate here, and he developed it into a ten week course with a weekend, and that really changed the nature of the course quite a lot, and it started to grow quite rapidly. Then John Irvine ran it from '81 to '85 and Nicky Lee took it on from '85 to 1990, ...

Is it true that no matter what country you are from you see the same vocal patterns as your natural language?

AR: It is, in fact, and looking at the scientific research, no matter which country you're from you see the same vocal patterns as your natural language.

Who said "would you mind stating your name and who you are"?

Adam Rutherford: Ok, would you mind stating your name and who you are, so we have it on record.

Is Alpha alien to people?

AR: It is one of the aspects that critics of Alpha tend to focus on, on the grounds that it does feel very alien to people who don't participate, or can't. Certainly there is plenty of scientific evidence on what's going on. Often the distinction between what happens in patients with mental illness and what happens in patients going through glossolalia looks very similar. But you actually believe there is a supernatural mechanism at play here, rather than a manifestation of something biological?

What is Alphazero?

In 2018, Silver and colleagues developed a more general version of the program, called AlphaZero, capable of learning to play expert chess and shogi as well as Go. Then, in November 2019, DeepMind released details of MuZero, a version that learns to play these and other games—but crucially without needing to know the rules beforehand.

Who is David Silver?

David Silver is responsible for several eye-catching demonstrations of artificial intelligence in recent years, working on advances that helped revive interest in the field after the last great AI Winter. At DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet, Silver has led the development of techniques that let computers learn for themselves how ...

What is AlphaGo program?

Most famously, this includes AlphaGo, a program revealed in 2017 that taught itself to play the ancient board game Go to a grandmaster level. Go is too subtle and instinctive to be tamed using conventional programming, but AlphaGo learned to play through practice and positive reward—an AI technique known as “reinforcement learning.”

Do super smart algorithms take jobs?

Supersmart algorithms won't take all the jobs , But they are learning faster than ever, doing everything from medical diagnostics to serving up ads.

Is AI a cornerstone of science?

However, we continue to believe that the appropriate publication of our methods is a cornerstone of science and that the development of general-purpose AI algorithms will lead to greater overall societal benefit across a raft of positive applications.

Does AI require power?

Powerful AI systems now require enormous amounts of computer power to work. Are you worried that this will hold progress back?

Does machine learning have a blank slate?

I think it does, actually. You never truly have a blank slate. There's even a theorem in machine learning —the no-free-lunch theorem— that says you have to start with something or you don't get anywhere. But in this case, the slate is as blank as it gets. We're providing it with a neural network, and the neural network has to figure out for itself, just from the feedback of the wins and losses in games or the score, how to understand the world.

When Great Scientists Got It Wrong In Brilliant Blunders?

When Great Scientists Got It Wrong In Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein, astrophysicist Mario Livio explores the colossal errors committed by scientific greats, from chemist Linus Pauling's botched model of DNA, to Charles Darwin's failure to understand genetics--the very mechanism of natural selection.

Who makes NPR transcripts?

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc. , an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary.

What did Einstein think of the universe?

He thought that the universe would be static, that everything, you know, just stands in place.

Who described Mendel's experiment?

LIVIO: ...because I looked at what - how, you know, Focke, who is the person who wrote that book, described Mendel's experiment, and he didn't understand the meaning of the experiments himself. So, you know, Darwin would not have been illuminated even had he read those pages.

Who was the greatest chemist of his time?

LIVIO: He was the greatest chemist of his time.

Did Darwin experiment with peas?

But you write that - something I didn't know - that Darwin himself, though, was doing experiments with peas. LIVIO: Yes. He actually did a very similar experiment with Mendel - to that of Mendel. And, you know, Mendel got a 3-to-1 ratio between yellow and green peas, and Darwin got 2-point-something-to-1.

What is Todd Hunter's mission?

On his journey from Calvary Chapel through the Vineyard, the emerging church, the Alpha Course, and now the Anglican Mission in America, Todd Hunter has remained tightly focused on evangelism.

Is Todd Hunter an evangelical?

As a Southern California native, Todd Hunter has caught some of the most notable evangelical breakers.

What was the rigour and honesty of the scientists at the Climatic Research Unit?

The "rigo ur and honesty" of the scientists at the Climatic Research Unit were found not to be in doubt. The panel found that they did not subvert the peer review process to censor criticism as alleged, and that the key data needed to reproduce their findings was freely available to any "competent" researcher.

How was the Climatic Research Unit breached?

The incident began when a server used by the Climatic Research Unit was breached in "a sophisticated and carefully orchestrated attack", and 160 MB of data were obtained including more than 1,000 emails and 3,000 other documents. The University of East Anglia stated that the server from which the data were taken was not one that could be accessed easily, and that the data could not have been released inadvertently. Norfolk Police later added that the offenders used methods that are common in unlawful internet activity, designed to obstruct later enquiries. The breach was first discovered on 17 November 2009 after the server of the RealClimate website was also hacked and a copy of the stolen data was uploaded there. RealClimate's Gavin Schmidt said that he had information that the files had been obtained through "a hack into [CRU's] backup mail server". At about the same time, a short comment appeared on Stephen McIntyre's Climate Audit website saying that "A miracle has happened."

What did the CRU say about the emails?

Among the scientists whose emails were disclosed, the CRU's researchers said in a statement that the emails had been taken out of context and merely reflected an honest exchange of ideas. Michael Mann, director of Pennsylvania State University 's Earth System Science Center, said that sceptics were "taking these words totally out of context to make something trivial appear nefarious" and called the entire incident a careful, "high-level, orchestrated smear campaign to distract the public about the nature of the climate change problem". Kevin E. Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research said that he was appalled at the release of the emails but thought that it might backfire against climate sceptics, as the messages would show "the integrity of scientists". He also said that climate change sceptics had selectively quoted words and phrases out of context and that the timing suggested an attempt to undermine talks at the December 2009 Copenhagen global climate summit. Tom Wigley, a former director of the CRU and now head of the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, condemned the threats that he and other colleagues had received as "truly stomach-turning", and commented: "None of it affects the science one iota. Accusations of data distortion or faking are baseless. I can rebut and explain all of the apparently incriminating e-mails that I have looked at, but it is going to be very time consuming to do so." In relation to the harassment that he and his colleagues were experiencing, he said: "This sort of thing has been going on at a much lower level for almost 20 years and there have been other outbursts of this sort of behaviour – criticism and abusive emails and things like that in the past. So this is a worse manifestation but it's happened before so it's not that surprising."

What is the Pennsylvania State University email controversy?

Exoneration or withdrawal of all major or serious charges. The Climatic Research Unit email controversy (also known as " Climategate ") began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) ...

When did the Climategate email controversy start?

Climatic Research Unit email controversy. The Climatic Research Unit email controversy (also known as " Climategate ") began in November 2009 with the hacking of a server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) by an external attacker, copying thousands of emails and computer files ...

What was the CRU's work?

The report of the independent Science Assessment Panel was published on 14 April 2010 and concluded that the panel had seen "no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice in any of the work of the Climatic Research Unit." It found that the CRU's work had been "carried out with integrity " and had used "fair and satisfactory" methods. The CRU was found to be "objective and dispassionate in their view of the data and their results, and there was no hint of tailoring results to a particular agenda." Instead, "their sole aim was to establish as robust a record of temperatures in recent centuries as possible."

What was the scope of the Muir Russell review?

On 22 January 2010, the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee announced it would conduct an inquiry into the affair, examining the implications of the disclosure for the integrity of scientific research, reviewing the scope of the independent Muir Russell review announced by the UEA, and reviewing the independence of international climate data sets. The committee invited written submissions from interested parties, and published 55 submissions that it had received by 10 February. They included submissions from the University of East Anglia, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Met Office, several other professional bodies, prominent scientists, some climate change sceptics, several MEPs and other interested parties. An oral evidence session was held on 1 March 2010.