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Written by: Amardeo Sarma

Scientific Temper and gbs join forces to promote critical thinking, education, and global initiatives – from Uganda’s Science Week to the “My Head Belongs to Me” project for children and youth.

Cooperation with the Giordano Bruno Foundation

For Scientific Temper gUG, 2025 was a year of intensive collaboration with the Giordano Bruno Foundation (gbs). Together, we pursue the goal of strengthening critical thinking and an open society through education, science, and enlightenment. Even though this year is not yet over, we can already draw a positive conclusion.

SkepKon 2025: Science and Enlightenment in Dialogue

One highlight was our support for SkepKon 2025, the leading skeptical conference in the German-speaking world. By financing the film production, Scientific Temper increased the event’s visibility. Together with the gbs, we presented a wide range of materials promoting education and critical thinking at our booth. The topics covered at SkepKon 2025 ranged from conspiracy theories and disinformation to pseudo-medicine and vaccination myths to climate change and energy policy. This diversity shows how important it is to promote scientific temper and critical thinking among the public – and how much our cooperation with gbs contributes to this.

Education: Uganda and Global Responsibility

Supporting the Kasese Humanist School in Uganda is and remains one of our core projects. In 2025, we supported Science Week to strengthen scientific education and humanistic values in a region facing significant challenges. You can find out more about this on our new Substack site, amardeo.scientifictemper.org. There, we regularly report on our educational work, the prospects for Africa as the continent of the future, and other current, pressing issues.

Education: “Mein Kopf gehört mir! (My Mind Belongs to Me!)” – Focus on the future

We continue to strengthen our commitment to critical thinking in children and youth. We are therefore working with gbs on this key project to promote and improve self-determination and rational thinking. Luca Jakob, Research Scientist at Scientific Temper, is actively involved in this project and has already published articles emphasising the importance of autonomy and critical thinking for children. This project will be a central focus in the coming year, with events planned in collaboration with gbs. Among other things, this involves developing teaching materials, such as those already available in the Evokids section.

Online Presence and Publications

Our website scientifictemper.org is constantly growing. Contributions from Manfred Körkel, Amardeo Sarma, Meera Nanda and Luca Jakob address topics such as:

• A plea for the early promotion of critical thinking
• The Strength of Recognising Limits: Intellectual Humility
• Evolution and Knowledge
• Postcolonial Theory and the Making of Hindu Nationalism

Most recently, Amardeo Sarma’s book in German „Scientific Temper – Eine Verteidigung universellen Denkens“ (Scientific Temper: A Defence of Universal Thinking) was published by Alibri. It highlights the basic principles of our work and the challenges facing science and society worldwide.

Shared Vision

The collaboration between Scientific Temper and the Giordano Bruno Foundation is a powerful statement of support for future generations to be scientifically competent and grounded in critical thinking. Through initiatives such as ‘My Head Belongs to Me!’, international educational projects and an expanding digital presence, we are dedicated to bringing critical thinking and enlightenment to life.

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Written by: Amardeo Sarma

We thank Dr Benedikt Matenaer and everyone who donated to our school project in Uganda through him.

This will enable us to invest even more in the Kasese Humanist School. We will report on this here!

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Written by: Amardeo Sarma

The Giordano Bruno Foundation reports on its collaboration with Scientific Temperon on its website. The Humanist Press Service (hpd) also reports on the support by the Giordano Bruno Foundation here.

The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, is quoted as saying that the political programme 1946 was already at the centre of his political programme: "The scientific temper points out the way along which man should travel. It is the temper of a free man. We live in a scientific age, so we are told, but there is little evidence of this temper in the people anywhere or even their leaders. [..] What we need is the scientific approach, the adventurous and yet critical temper of science, the search for truth and new knowledge, the refusal to accept anything without testing and trial, the capacity to change previous conclusions in the face of new evidence, the reliance on observed fact and not on pre-conceived theory, the hard discipline of the mind—all this is necessary, not merely for the application of science but for life itself and the solution of its many problems."

Scientific Temper is grateful for the support and will continue to place a particular focus on global education with this cooperation, which is in line with the motto "Learning how to think, not what to think" as the best long-term investment in the future.

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Written by: Amardeo Sarma

Fellows of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry condemn the Clinical Report (12/3/23) of the prestigious journal Pediatrics, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, for strongly implying that parents should not feed their children foods containing ingredients from genetically engineered (GE) crops.

The conclusions of the clinical report are not supported by evidence. On the contrary, 30 years of intensive research provide no legitimate evidence of undue risk from ingredients derived from GM crops. After nearly half a century of use, thousands of independent studies, and regulatory evaluation by dozens of countries (including re-approval by the EU in December 2023), there is no direct evidence that glyphosate is carcinogenic at dietary or occupational exposure levels. 

CSI: "Unjustified vilification of a technology under the authority of a trusted, major journal breaks consumer trust and ultimately harms progress in sustainable food production, especially for the food insecure. Pediatrics must correct this record".

Read the full article here.