Critical thinking
Early phase
My first article against pseudoscience was published in 2008, and from that year until 2011, I published a dozen articles in the Croatian language about pseudoscience. The most successful article was the debunking of “energy bracelets”, but it was followed by an amazing amount of hate comments toward me.
Also, in 2011 we (a group of physics students and several astronomers and professors) visited a pseudo-scientific lecture by Charles Jackson. Dejan Vinković debunked Jackson’s claims – you can see it in video I recorded during that event.
Skepticism in Croatia
In 2011, dozens of scientists, skeptics, and students were having continuous communication via Google groups. We had a common interest: the popularization of science and critical thinking.
Dejan Vinković introduced me to this group and I soon noticed some interesting people: evolutionary psychologist Igor Mikloušić, physicists Saša Ceci and Dario Hrupec, and journalist Neven Barković. So I invited them all to Sinj, for a Festival of Science, that I was organizing the same year.
And they all accepted my invitation.
And the first time ever they formally met each other – it was a great moment for a history of skeptical thought in Croatia.
Festival of Science: Critical Thinking
Soon, two main organizations for critical thinking and popularization of science were formed: Society and CFI-Croatia.The first one did not have a formal leader, and the second one was led by Slobodan Danko Bosanac. I was, and still am, a member of the second group.
Marija Mađor-Božinović (now a Ph.D. student in quantum field theory) helped organize Festival of Science in 2012.
The topic was Critical Thinking and most of the lectures were about critical thinking, pseudoscience, reason, etc. We even had some lectures regarding secularism. Both main groups were invited and they both sent the lecturers.
I cannot think of a bigger skeptic event in the history of Croatia. For one week, Sinj was the center of skeptical thinking – from public lectures, to the lectures in school, to, even, lectures in pubs (Skeptics in Pub).
Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science
I continued to write articles about pseudoscience, and a few years later Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science permitted me to publicly project the documentary The Enemies of Reason by Richard Dawkins.
And today?
Today, as always, I am working alone and now and then I write articles about critical thinking and pseudoscience. You can see some of them in this link (but in Croatian language).