This is directed primarily at the people who get into these kinds of discussions, from any angle, but the perspective might be useful to others as well. And by, “these kinds of discussions,” I mean all of the fringe, esoteric, paranormal, supernatural and suchlike topics like alien visitation, crypto-critters like Bigfoot and Nessie, religious miracles… you know the range. Because
Category: Critical Thinking
Playing the rubes
I’ve had this one sitting in the blog folder for a while, and since it’s Freethinker’s Day, I decided to tackle it (especially since photographs still aren’t happening too often.) If I don’t finish this, I’ll set it aside for Freethought Day instead and just change this paragraph.
The U.S. really has an inordinate number of religious politicians – or at least,
Tomorrow, let’s… keep on
Tomorrow is, honest and for true, Freethinkers Day, and as god as my witness (a ha ha ha ha haaa!,) I don’t really know what to post about it.
I mean, I don’t really even like the label: freethinker, as opposed to, what, a paid thinker? The idea is that a freethinker is not hampered by religious dogma or cultural restrictions, but in reality, nobody tells you, or can
Our ignorance made it plausible
That’s a new phrase in my critical-thinking arsenal now. By itself, it seems counterintuitive, but that’s really the point. Let me explain.
A century or so ago, as telescopes got better and we began to understand more about our closest stellar neighbor Mars, we realized that it was not too much smaller than Earth and not too far away, and surmised that, given these conditions and the
That don’t work
We have some funny trends in our media – books, films, TV shows, and so on these trends are, in a way, a self-perpetuating culture of ‘expectations,’ clichés and tropes that are used because they’ve been overused, and so we begin to think they’re correct. Many of them get addressed – the affect of gunshots, the idea that using a defibrillator
“Mean?” Please.
It’s been a while since I’ve tackled a post of this nature (instead of a post of nature,) and I’m out of practice, I think. More, my reading and web surfing hasn’t been related to this as much anymore, so I’m not inspired to address such topics anywhere near as much. But in light of recent developments (as well as re-reading Richard Dawkins’ The god
Here’s why, part 5: G-g-g-ghosts!
Once again we delve into the question of why science doesn’t seem to take a particular subject seriously, and this one was appropriate for the month. Countless websites – some frivolously, some seriously – are featuring and soliciting their own selections of ghost stories, and of course there are (or were) various video series showing intrepid investigators sussing out the spirits
Well, that is good news
There’s a bit of sarcasm in that title, on multiple levels perhaps, but let’s take it from the beginning.
Almost four years ago, I had a paragraph within a post (down after the page break, here) that commented on the present state of cosmological physics and my ‘gut reaction’
It’s still cool
It’s kinda funny how abruptly your perspective may change. I’ve been getting reminders of what today is the anniversary of all week, and to a distinct degree, I wasn’t all that motivated to recognize it – and then the rational part of my brain kicks the emotional part in the ass and tells it to go back to worrying about bad drivers.
What I’m talking about is that today
But how? Part 30: Responsibility
[As a throwback to the early days, I did this one as a podcast too, so you can hear the audio of it immediately below. But if sounds like a long-overdue brake job bother you, you can simply read the text version.]
Walkabout podcast – But How? part 30: Responsibility
This is one that I’ve touched on here and there before, but I was reminded of it while watching Julia Sweeney’s