The Niles Star

Drinking Skeptically events focus on intellectual discussion

By AARON MUELLER
Niles Daily Star

The Michiana Skeptics group began about two years ago with a handful of people joining together to discuss religion, politics, science and current events.

Now there are 175 members of the club scattered throughout the Michiana area and they hold organized events several times a month. According to their website, Michiana Skeptics is dedicated to “providing community, inquiry and outreach based on rationality and science.”

Justin Kowalski, the the Skeptics current president, has been a part of the group since its humble beginnings and has watched it grow significantly.

“I think it’s grown because it’s a good sense of community,” he said. “Most of us are agnostic or non-religious. We don’t go to church so we don’t always have a social environment. We talk about religion, politics and sometimes our personal lives.”

Kowalski said the group really took off after atheistic author and journalist Christopher Hitchens debated Catholic writer Dinesh D’Souza at the University of Notre Dame in April.

The group has formal meetings every second Thursday and Tuesday of the month, movie nights the last Friday of the month and book club every first Saturday of the month at various locations in the Michiana area. The group also hosts “Drinking Skeptically” events regularly at different bars in the area, as another chance for the group to relax, discuss issues and drink.

The group has attracted more and more members from the Niles area, so on Tuesday the group will hold its first “Drinking Skeptically” event in the city at the Nuggett Downtown Grill.

Anyone looking for a place to have discussion are welcome to attend the events. For more information about the group and for a list of events, visit www.michianaskep tics.org.