… if what you’re mocking is pseudoscience and/or superstition. The target of this lovely video? Homeopathy.

Found this on Bad Astronomy via Weird Things.

This video is a great primer on how easy it is to misattribute probability to events in hindsight. Specifically, it demonstrates why ascribing supernatural causes to rare events is fallacious. This is the mistake made by evolution deniers who believe that the appearance of a conscious being is too unlikely to happen naturally.

Thanks to Mentally Jumbled and skepnet (via astroengine) for making this video known to me.

This post is a response to the December 11th episode of Raborn Johnson and Steve Sensenig’s wonderful podcast Beyond the Box. The podcast is basically the two’s take on Christianity free from the interpretational filter of organized religion. Even as a non-believer, I find the podcast intelligent, thought provoking, and entertaining. I highly recommend listening to them. I especially recommend listening to this episode in order to fully understand my response.

Hello Steve and Raborn,

Thanks for tackling this topic and answering some of my questions. It’s challenging but very interesting. You guys approach your beliefs with an astounding mixture of enthusiasm and intelligence. As I listen, I’m amazed at how well you anticipate my next question and then proceed to answer it. It enabled you to cut straight to the heart of the issue. You can color me impressed… again.

First, allow me to express my thoughts on historical accounts and why I have my doubts about the resurrection of Jesus so that you can get an idea of where I’m coming from. There are at least a couple of ways to verify that a historical event actually occurred. The best way is via multiple, first-hand accounts, as you two note. First-hand is best because it has only one layer of interpretation, bias, and embellishment. Multiple sources enable us to reduce said interpretations, biases, and embellishments via comparative analysis. A second way to verify is forensic/physical evidence. For the examples of Lincoln’s and Kennedy’s assassinations that you cite in your episode, we have bodies with bullet wounds to the skull, for instance. With respect to the resurrection, we have only second-hand accounts at best and no physical evidence.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is the sort of stuff everyone should know by the time they finish grade school.

This is what can happen when people take psychics seriously. A Canadian School Board made accusations of sexual abuse based on a psychic’s ‘vision’.

Leduc said they advised her that Victoria’s educational assistant (EA) had visited a psychic, who said a youngster whose name started with “V” was being sexually abused by a man between 23 and 26 years old.

For some reason, I’m unconvinced. You?

I found this story by way of this Skepticality post.

The above comic is created and licensed by Rudis Muiznieks of Cectic.com.

Not only does this comic point out the absurdity of treating any ‘alternative’ theory seriously, it actually makes a deeper point. It’s also a critic of modern American media. When the media reports on almost any issue, it tries to report on both sides of that issue, even when one side is a deluded minority with an agenda.

It kinda brings to mind media’s coverage of global warming and teaching evolution, doesn’t it?

Happy Friday!

The above comic is created and licensed by Rudis Muiznieks of Cectic.com.

I just love Cectic.com. They even have a cool shirt you can buy now.

A while back, I blogged about my disappointment over the British government employing a ‘psychic’ to de-haunt a home. Now, that very same government is implementing new laws that protect gullible consumers from supposed fortune tellers, mediums, spiritual healers, etc. The new laws require such ‘psychics’ to demonstrate the efficacy of their trade before selling products or services.

Not surprisingly, the bullshit artists are complaining about the new laws. An astute observer might note that they have nothing to fear if their products and services actually work. So why are they protesting? It’s likely because most of them know it’s bullshit and fear that their ill-gotten income will be lost.

If I’m giving a healing to someone, I don’t want to have to stand there and say I don’t believe in what I’m doing,” said Carole McEntee-Taylor, a healer who co-founded the Spiritual Workers Association.

“I’d rather keep that to myself,” she may as well have added.

Many of con-artists are claiming these laws amount to religious discrimination. I’m sorry, but being religious doesn’t not exempt you from consumer protection laws or any other laws for that matter.

This is a small victory for evidence-based policy advocates!

I found an excellent article on the website Science Progress via RichardDawkins.net. It was written by Leah Ceccarelli and is about a class of sophistry that is 2,500 years old yet is being used to great effect by anti-science elements in recent decades.

The technique manufactures a controversy where none exists to create public confusion in order to pursue an agenda. Ceccarelli gives three examples in recent years. The first is from global warming deniers. Those who have reason to delay action on global warming exaggerate the minority scientific opinion way out of proportion in order to make it appear main stream. This generated a controversy where none existed and it effectively halted political action that would have been based on good science.

A second example of the use of this tactic is from Africa. Some political leaders did the exact same thing with AIDS deniers (those who denied a link between HIV and AIDS) to forestall spending on treatment.

The final example is the ‘teach the controversy’ campaign used by the Discovery Institute and other evolution deniers. There is no controversy in the scientific community but by marketing the minute opposing view, the public has been convinced that there is. Their goal, of is to undermine science so that religion can once again become our culture’s only truth source.

The rest of the article is Ceccarelli’s hypothesis as to why this brand of ancient sophistry has been so effective at undermining science. These are her first steps in trying to find a way to combat this irrationalism from a rhetoric point of view. Please, read the article. It’s fantastic information for those of us who love and want to protect science.

The above comic is created and licensed by Cectic.com.

If people believe the bullshit works, sell it to them! Happy Friday!