Intelligent Design and the Argument From Ignorance
I admit to a certain affinity for logic-based arguments. There is a purity to logic, and the promise of an objective outcome, an unambiguous conclusion. Evidence is messy and always contingent; but...
View ArticleRepressing Memories
One of the basic concepts of Freudian psychoanalysis is that people tend to repress unpleasant memories and that this repression can lead to negative consequences. Bad memories were thought of as if...
View ArticleSkeptics Circle #65 – A Tour Through the Museum of Skepticism
Welcome to the Museum of Skepticism The room was filled with that odd combination of excitement, interest and restlessness that accompanies children forced to walk through a museum. “Quiet down,” said...
View ArticleMore Propaganda, Logical Fallacies, and Rewriting History from the Discovery...
I truly hate propaganda – the twisting of facts and logic for a pre-determined ideological goal. It represents the worst of those things in the intellectual realm that I loathe. Yesterday Michael...
View ArticleScientific Proof and Evolution Denial
In response to my Skeptics Circle entry last week, reader Tim left a comment decrying my reference to intelligent design proponents as “deniers.” In response I challenged Tim to give me one legitimate...
View ArticleThe Creationist Nonsense Just Doesn’t Stop
I promise my blog will not turn into all creationism all the time – but that has been a recent theme. I just can’t resist a juicy bit of illogical nonsense, and the creationists just keep serving them...
View ArticleWard Churchill, 9/11, Tenure, and Academic Freedom vs Standards
Yesterday Ward Churchill, the tenured professor at The University of Colorado, was fired by an 8 to 1 vote for academic misconduct. Churchill came to fame for making comments about 9/11, specifically...
View ArticleTexas Now Has a Creationist Heading the State Board of Education
Texas Governor Rick Perry has appointed outspoken creationist, Don McLeroy, to head the Texas State board of Education. Yikes! One of the recurring themes of this blog is that science should never be...
View ArticleMentally Ill Mice
Takatoshi Hikida, of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and his team have produced a strain of mice that they claim can serve as a useful animal model for schizophrenia. The press reports refer to...
View ArticleChief Justice John Roberts Seizure
I have received many questions from friends, family, and over e-mail in the last day about the nature and implications of John Roberts’ seizure. Of course, I don’t have any more specific medical...
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