New Year Reality Revival

January 1-31

The New Year Reality Revival was inspired by an event held in California in the '90s by the Atheists United group and ideas generated through the Inquiring Minds Program.

The event offers interested groups and individuals an opportunity to educate within their surrounding communities. Event activities and materials focus on our current understanding of reality as illuminated by the discoveries and explorations of science. Through displays, workshops and learning activities, participants are provided a fascinating tour of reality - what we know and why; what mysteries have been solved and what questions we have answered; how our improved understanding relates to past and present beliefs; the tools we use for probing reality and why scientific methodologies have proven so reliable in our pursuit of truth; the questions that continue to riddle our minds and what remains to be discovered.

The New Year Reality Revival also affords participants a chance to question the unrealistic ideas that circulate widely within our societies and play the "Back to Reality" theme song at concert volume.

Science is our most precious tool, wrote Albert Einstein. Science provides us not just with one tool but an entire toolbox of skills and instruments that can help us to navigate successfully through our shared reality. Skepticism, critical inquiry, reason and rational thought can all be found within the tool kit of science and when we employ them throughout our lives we stand a better chance of reaching. We have an advantage in that these tools are available to one and all and they allow us to probe the very fabric of reality.

Activity Suggestions

Annual Science Discovery Symposium

In addition to the discoveries and explorations that have been made in the past, place special emphasis on the past year's achievements in science. Displays, exhibits and lists can be created to distribute, include at events and promoted in various outlets within your community. With the Science Fair exhibit format in mind, provide information tables on significant discoveries and offer thought experiments on how these discoveries have impacted previous knowledge and belief.

Reality Revival Entertainment

The Reality Revival could be a small event or a big tent rally. It's focus can be entertainment through parody and satire - proven effective in their ability to inspire questioning and further thought. It may provide entertainment in other forms as well - music, dancing, drama, theatre, and more.

Future Forecasting

One element of becoming a science fiction author is that you must have a decent grasp on existing reality and scientific understanding. The more you apply this understanding to the future you create, the more believable your stories tend to be. Several science fiction authors have been praised for their "prophetic" powers - Isaac Asimov, Gene Roddenberry, William Gibson and many others. We often refer to such forward thinkers as "before their time" - meaning they have anticipated developments and events in the future through the use of curiosity, reflective thought, and well-grounded imagination. Leonardo da Vinci is an excellent example of a man before his time.

Offer a fun fare of events and activities that invite participants to imagine the future. Short story contests, technological construction, invention and more.

Event Resources

What do we know? What don't we know?

Edge.com
A site offering fascinating articles and other material by some of our world's most sophisticated minds.

ClosertoTruth.com
Debating the questions that plague us, this site offers a lot of fodder for the mind about our current understanding and what the future may be like.

Send in your events & ideas!