Reading Time: 9 minutes Online panic about AI models like ChatGPT follows a well-travelled path set by impoverished understandings of evolutionary theory. Can we reclaim human agency?
Pseudoscience
Posted inLaw
Turkish Creationist Adnan Oktar sentenced to 8,658 years in prison
Reading Time: 3 minutes Adnan Oktar, a Creationist preacher in Turkey, has been sentenced to 8,658 years in prison for a variety of crimes including running a criminal organization, sexual abuse, torture, and abduction. It comes after he was previously sentenced to over 1,075 years in prison, only to have that verdict overturned by an appellate court. The more […]
Posted inPolitics
AL Democratic gubernatorial candidate endorses Creationist theme park
Reading Time: 3 minutes Yolanda Flowers, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Alabama, made a surprising appearance yesterday at Dinosaur Adventure Land, the bargain-bin Creation Museum knockoff run in the city of Lenox. It raises an interesting question: How badly must a candidate be polling in order for the candidate to think livestreaming with convicted tax cheat and Creationist Kent […]
Posted inCritical thinking
There’s a reason every strip club has a ghost story
Reading Time: 3 minutes Late one night, I stepped down from what I hoped was my last stage show of the night at the strip club where I worked the closing shift. My eyes were still dazzled by the strobe lights and the fake smoke. My Red Bull had long since worn off. I was exhausted and more than […]
Posted inPseudoscience
Why are pseudosciences so appealing?
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s only natural for us to try to find certainty and protection from our fears. Pseudoscientists take advantage of this yearning.
Posted inNews
Alzheimer’s, artificial sweeteners, and depression meds: A heavy month for health science literacy
Reading Time: 2 minutes Three major reports this month highlight the fragility of ongoing health sciences research, and challenges for broader scientific literacy. Earlier in July, the World Health Organization recommended against the use of non-sugar sweeteners, in a blow to many conventional weight-loss strategies. On July 20, Joanna Moncrieff and Mark Horowitz shared a research review that undermines […]
Posted inHealth
What does fasting tell us about the state of scientific literacy?
Reading Time: 10 minutes In the last two episodes of Global Humanist Shoptalk, I explored the question of human agency in relation to food. In “The Humanist Chicken Egg”, I reflected on how product choices are shaped by the cultures we inhabit. In “The Humanist Carbon Footprint”, I considered the onus placed on consumers to interpret manipulative labeling. But […]
Posted inScience
Scientific horoscope for Sun March 6th – Sat March 12
Reading Time: 3 minutes The scientific horoscope this week will show you where the future of computers is headed, how to reduce plastic usage, and the latest news on climate change from the UN. Pisces Health will be on your mind, Pisces. You may feel fishy. Want some smart advice? Don’t get caught in the ever-growing net of pseudoscientific […]
Posted inPseudoscience
Demand for useless and dangerous ‘alternative’ cures hits an all-time high
Reading Time: 5 minutes In Oscar Wilde’s fabulously funny The Canterbury Ghost, an apparition haunting Canterbury Chase is both mortified and angry when the new owners of the property—American clergyman Hyram B. Otis and his family—flatly refuse to be fazed by his attempts to scare them. The ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville is particularly outraged by the clergyman’s […]
Posted inPseudoscience
7 more ways Christian thinking is like flat earth thinking
Reading Time: 7 minutes Is the earth flat? Did God create the universe? These two worldviews are surprisingly similar. Let’s add 7 more similarities to the list.