Reading Time: < 1 minute There appears to be a bit of a debate gearing up over at this thread on homeopathy and its effectiveness. Check it out and get involved, in the name of evidence-based rationality. All I can say is that pro-homeopathic people tend to have rather interesting special pleading for the ability of water. Apparently you can […]
skepticism
Posted inPseudoscience, Science
Homeopathy Now Consigned to Dustbin of Ideas. Officially.
Reading Time: 2 minutes Well, if officially means by anyone with a brain who can use, analyse and reflect on empirical data. An Australian meta-study has looked at 1800 studies, and has concluded that the quackery that is homeopathy is bullsh*t. No surprise. But it’s good to have such robust data to defend even the most obvious of claims. […]
Posted inBooks, Pseudoscience, Psychology, Science
Critical Thinking, Science, & Pseudoscience – Lack and Rousseau Nail It!
Reading Time: 6 minutes Caleb Lack is a good friend of mine. Indeed, I have published four of his book son the Onus Books imprint. He has just had a superb book published (aimed at the academic market but begging a popular release) that has been highly lauded (including by the likes of Michael Shermer). He wrote it with […]
Posted inBooks
13 Reasons to Doubt – scientific and philosophical skepticism
Reading Time: 3 minutes SIN has created its own book which came out in 2014. It’s a great collection of essays looking at a whole range of subjects to be skeptical of. For example, Rebecca Bradley deals with “pseudoarcheology”, whilst Caleb Lack writes about cognitive biases. Subjects from science denialism to groupthink, free will to the history of skepticism, are dealt with, with care and quality. The variety is a real joy. It would make a great Christmas present!
Posted inHealth
Homeopathy could be blacklisted in the UK
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ministers are considering whether homeopathy should be put on a blacklist of treatments GPs in England are banned from prescribing, the BBC has learned.
Posted inUncategorized
Medical Miracle Anecdote
Reading Time: 2 minutes This came into our mailbox here at SIN. It is a medical miracle anecdote, in the same strain as a post from the other day:
I have just returned from a surgical mission trip to the Dominican Republic. Although I am an atheist my schedule was such that it was most convenient for me to travel and work with XXX Ministry XXX, a frankly Christian evangelical organization operating out of Texas.
Posted inBooks, The Secular
Reminder that I need poetry submissions!
Reading Time: < 1 minute This is a reminder of a project I am working on for which I need your help: I was thinking over the weekend, as I wrote my own eulogy for the SIN Series – Death piece I did, that there is a lack of such a book. I have found one book which appears to […]
Posted inBooks, Philosophy, Science
Get your skeptical needs fulfilled! Do it!
Reading Time: 2 minutes Some of the writers here at SIN have contributed to an anthology called 13 Reasons to Doubt, with chapters ranging over many aspects of skepticism. Here s the description:
Posted inPhilosophy
Don’t (Moral) Panic!!!
Reading Time: 5 minutes The world is NOT going to hell in a handcart, as I have discussed elsewhere. But people like to think it is. People are, indeed, susceptible to panicking, to over-egging the sense of danger that there is, and probably for good evolutionary reason. After all, it is better to overstate the case, in causal terms, when […]
Posted inUncategorized
More #AncientAliens Talk on Paranormal Review Radio with Me this Friday
Reading Time: < 1 minute I know everyone loved my talk at Illini about aliens, especially of the ancient sort, but unfortunately not everyone in the world could be there. But this Friday, Sept 26 at 10 pm EST, I will be on Paranormal Review Radio to talk about the subject and perhaps debunk the idea.