It's a beautiful day out there, so let's dispense with this quickly and meet up for Lawn Darts at Scott's house...
In 1838, the Englishman Samuel Birley Rowbotham performed experiments along the Old Bedford River in Cambridgeshire. He then included additional research in an 1845 pamphlet which drew its title (as the later organization devoted to his ideas proclaimed) from a Greek word meaning "seeker," and gave public lectures advocating his views, which caused concern among the scientific and religious establishment. In 1870 one of his followers laid down £500 in a challenge to scientists to re-test Rowbotham's observations, and Alfred Russel Wallace, the famous advocate of evolution, took him up on it, but the outcome of the wager remained in dispute, with a British court refusing to take sides. Three years later, branches of an organization championing Rowbotham's views were founded in Great Britain and New York City, using the Greek term borrowed from Rowbotham's original publication. In 1956, General Secretary Samuel Sheldon changed its name, removing its Greek-root appellation and substituting a name more familiar to all of us. The organization grew in size in the 1970's, although the death of its last leader in 2001 has left its future, according to my sources, in doubt.
What was the name of the organization after it was changed in 1956?
First correct answer posted to comments wins a posable Thomas L. Friedman action figure (Tom's Dream Lexus and Olive TreeHouse not included). No Googling or embarking on a Flowers for Algernon style project of mental superhumanization. One guess per comment, but please comment as often as you like.
maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but I'm thinking of the International Oddfellows Association
Posted by: teenidol on March 26, 2004 10:50 AMGreek roots and screwball religion; I should have a chance here.
Rosicrucians?
Posted by: Jonathan on March 26, 2004 10:51 AMOpus Dei
Posted by: teenidol on March 26, 2004 11:25 AMScientology?
Posted by: Scott on March 26, 2004 11:27 AMI wonder if this is the guy who claimed that souls weigh something.
Posted by: boxjam on March 26, 2004 11:35 AMSome interesting guesses so far but nothing on the mark.
Posted by: BT on March 26, 2004 11:37 AMChristian Scientist?
Posted by: Scott on March 26, 2004 11:53 AMHighlights for Children
Posted by: Scott on March 26, 2004 11:53 AMThe Red-headed League.
Posted by: Garthmeister J. on March 26, 2004 11:54 AMTranscendental meditation
Posted by: Jonathan on March 26, 2004 12:06 PMTransactional analysis
Posted by: Jonathan on March 26, 2004 12:07 PMThe Church of Christ, Scientist was founded by Mary Baker Eddy, in Boston, in 1879. Highlights for Children was, of course, the first joint project between L. Ron Hubbard and the young Dick Clark.
Posted by: BT on March 26, 2004 12:09 PMAh, yes, Mary Baker Eddy. Girlfren could play the electric guitar, couldn't she? Damn!
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Posted by: Scott on March 26, 2004 12:27 PMFlat Earth Society?
John Birch
Posted by: teenidol on March 26, 2004 01:09 PMPreservation Green Society
Posted by: teenidol on March 26, 2004 01:10 PMPet Sounds
Posted by: teenidol on March 26, 2004 01:12 PMPOO: If there is no correct guess winner, does the award go to most guesses?
Posted by: teenidol on March 26, 2004 01:13 PMOnce again, Hackly proves himself the master of the moment. Rowbotham's pamphlet was titled Zetetic Astronomy: A Description of Several Experiments which Prove that the Surface of the Sea Is a Perfect Plane and that the Earth Is Not a Globe! and the society which was later founded was called the Universal Zetetic Society (though I think the NY branch may have called it the New York Zetetic Society). "Zetetic" (from "zeto") can also mean "skeptical." Apparently deciding in the 1950s that eyebrow-raising classical tags had gone out with muttonchop whiskers and port, the move was made to be a bit clearer about the society's beliefs, at least on the American side, and thus the International Flat Earth Society went into battle against such anti-Christian organizations as NASA. Supposedly, when he was confronted with pictures of the Earth from space, Samuel Shenton remarked: "It's easy to see how a photograph like that could fool the untrained eye."
Mr. Fracture, of course, has long held that the Apollo landings were faked for the sole purpose of marketing Tang to a generation of gullible consumers. So it's natural that he'd be familiar with the views of his fundamentalist fellow-travelers.
Posted by: BT on March 26, 2004 01:14 PMYup. Oddly enough, though, Spirit and Opportunity are the real McCoys. I call 'em as I see 'em!
That's what he calls his "furniture" if ya know what I mean.
Posted by: Frackly_Hacksure on March 26, 2004 02:17 PMDang. And me from a town that has a Druid Temple.
Posted by: Jonathan on March 26, 2004 03:30 PM