Branches

The effervescent president of the Hunter Skeptics was thrown out of Sunday School for asking all the wrong questions, upsetting the guardians of dogma in the house of god. At state school he learned not to succeed academically, an attitude that he unwisely carried over into compulsory sporting activities. Failing hypocrisy quite badly, he refrained from success until his final year when he gained entry to med-school. His maverick tendencies were later somewhat crippled by parents imbuing a sense of social responsibility which has severely hampered financial success in the ‘profit at any cost’ private health sector.

His Quixotic urges raise the ire of the faithful when he asks them to explain the origins and inconsistencies of their strange beliefs when there are more awesome wonders to be found throughout our marvelous universe.

Colin Keay, the psychically disadvantaged founder of the Hunter Skeptics, in the true spirit of post-modernist relativism, has already booked his heavenly resting place in the rocky terrain of Minor Planet 5007 KEAY, orbiting serenely between Mars and Jupiter. He originally found he was not alone in his skepticism when in Canada he discovered the American Skeptical Inquirer journal. A couple of years after returning home the Australian Skeptics was born and he immediately signed on. Under his Presidency the Hunter Skeptics hosted two national conventions (1992 and 1997). In 1995 a skeptically charged foray against the makers of a shonky cockroach zapper threatened to land him in court. For recreation he devotes considerable time to provoking deluded metaphysical members of society, a role assisted by his paranormally challenged mind.

A retired industrial chemist who was involved in such essential work as air-pollution measurements and occupational hygiene investigations, including noise measurements and heat-stress monitoring. Finds sailing on Lake Macquarie excellent therapy for his mental hygiene.

Retired Hospital Manager with an accounting background. Interests include study of ancient history, progress of calendar changes, the growth and backgrounds of religious beliefs (survivors create religions) and in Catastrophism as a viable alternative to creationism and the tautology of Darwinian evolution. Also passionately interested the theories of Wal Thornhill, Australian physicist whose theories indicate an all-pervasive Electric Force throughout the Universe (see Thunderbolts' web page) and any set of facts that disturbs those supporting the second greatest fraud ever perpetrated on Mankind, Global Warming.

Born in the great depression, when life was a struggle, Len Coates' youth was shaped by wartime, with food rationing and shortages of everything. Len studied and qualified as an  engineer, working in many different jobs. These included coastal shipping, steel-making, and, as a union representative, sugar mills and power stations, finishing off with a most enjoyable five-year stint as standby fitter at several coal mines. Len's wealth of experience in such a wide variety of work has given him an outlook on life that is an endearing mix of humour and skepticism. "Been there, done that" could well be his retirement motto.

Born a year after the Wall Street crash, John's stars foretold an interesting life in the service of technology, earning appropriate qualifications to do so. He joined the steelworks at Port Kembla, soon becoming a supervisor, before moving to BHP's head office in Melbourne as production executive then on to Newcastle for 12 years as manager of iron and steelmaking. He quit BHP to run an electrical appliance store in the Hunter region for a decade before retiring in 1991. Since then John has dedicated his time to community service, mainly in education where as an unpaid teaching assistant in science and mathematics he helps train a new technical generation. And in what spare time he has, he delivers words of wisdom on skepticism, atheism and evolution.