Yesterday, I had a visitor, who turned out to be (as most knocks on the door are anymore) someone who wanted to introduce me to god. The last couple of times that this happened, it was some Wally Cleaver types in white shirts and ties, which spells either mormons or jehovahs, and I wasn’t in any kind of mood then to open the debate, so I chased them off with obvious amusement. This time, however,
Category: Critical Thinking
Book semi-review: Exuberant Skepticism
The book reviews on this blog have been more of a personal recommendation list, rather than a critical review of new releases as one might expect, for a couple of reasons. I don’t go through too many books at a time, and not many new ones, and as one might have noticed, there are certain topics I tend to concentrate on. So what’s been seen here before has been positive. Until now.
Exuberant
Book Review: Paranormality
In an earlier post, I refuted a handful of responses to an interview of Richard Wiseman after the release of his new book, and now, I have finally had the chance to read the book itself. Let’s just say that those who need this book the most are the ones who are likely finding every excuse not to read it.
So much for being nice
Atheists are often accused of not being nice, for a variety of reasons. One is, we have no outside moral guidance such as scripture, so we obviously have no morals – like morality is this unintuitive concept (hey, some people assume you are as godawful stupid as they are.) Mostly, however, it’s from the idea that we don’t let people slide on concepts like special pleading, arguments
It’s a head-scratcher
Richard Wiseman is very fond of conducting psychological research on his blog, and I have to appreciate his latest. He asks, very simply, that if you had the power to make a child either smart or pleasant (but not both,) which would you choose? I’m going to examine this a little after the jump, so if you prefer to participate unbiased by my thoughts, go there now before proceeding.
Now this is proof
I’ve had discussions about evidence with a lot of people, mostly in the effort to establish to them that what they were relying on as their own “proof” was questionable at best – more often simply wishful thinking. Confirmation bias is perhaps the worst trait that humans have, allowing us to assure ourselves that we’re right, without all the hassle of actually establishing
Shhhh! TV…
I know it’s short notice, but I just found out about it myself, courtesy of The Manatee. If you get Discovery Channel, there is a new show premiering tonight right after Mythbusters, going by the pseudonym of Penn & Teller Tell A Lie, and it sounds like it should be pretty cool. I’ll be recording it, so if you miss it, come on by and bring popcorn.
But not beer…
See?
Cultural blind spot
People who pride themselves on skepticism and critical thinking sometimes get accused of being as guilty as anyone else of bias, and of favoring their existing viewpoint when examining the facts, with arguments such as, “atheism requires just as much faith as religion.” Such accusations are occasionally true (not as often as they’re used, mind you.) Being totally open-minded
In the interests of balance
Part of adopting a critical-thinking cap is being willing to look at all sides of an issue, and seriously consider the arguments counter to the views you hold. Anyone who’s poked around on this blog long enough knows that I have an interest in evolution, so I feel obligated to feature Bobbie-The-Jean’s post of 50
Apply directly to forehead
Philosophy is a very curious thing, and I’ve been working out my feelings towards it for the past couple of years now. What I think I’ve finally settled on is that it has its uses, but about 10% of what it is usually given credit for.
Most agree that it was born in Greece a few millennia ago – or at least, that this was the period in time that it was structured and recorded. If