Skepticism

A new peer-produced skeptical website, De-fact-o, has popped up to provide skeptical, fact-based evaluation of claims of history, politics, science, health, environment, religion, pop culture, conspiracy theories, questionable quotes, fake photos, and more. There’s a page per claim, and the claim is rated true, false, mostly false, probably false, or unknown. The site is reminiscent of (and not yet as comprehensive as) Snopes.com, but I hope to see it grow substantially with member-produced content. The articles I’ve checked out appear to be well-done. Those who register on the site can comment on articles, vote on their accuracy, and write new ones, but unlike Wikipedia, approval from the site owners is required before new articles get posted. All articles on the site are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). I would have preferred a Creative Commons license, myself, due to some oddities of the GFDL (see the Wikipedia article on the GFDL, which is where the term is linked to from this paragraph). ...

ApostAZ podcast #6 is up: Episode 006 Atheism and Freethought in Phoenix- Go to atheists.meetup.com/157 for group events! Jim Lippard teases three cool books. “Squared” from Greydon Square’s ‘The Compton Effect’. Evolution Laments God of the Gaps. Saying Naughty Words. Bad reasons to be an atheist. Outro from ‘Dream’ Greydon Square’s Album ‘The Compton Effect’Comments: The podcast gets better each time. I disagree with the idea that everyone who is an agnostic is just trying to be politically correct, or is fence-sitting out of non-rational reasons. John Wilkins and Paul Draper are two examples of philosophers who are agnostic because they have rational reasons for thinking that there is some balance between arguments for and against the existence of gods, that there aren’t methods for weighing such arguments, or that there isn’t sufficient evidence to conclude that gods exist or do not exist. ...

Orac at Respectful Insolence critiques Dr. Jay Gordon’s argument that breastfeeding and eating less cheese is a better way to prevent communicable diseases than vaccination.

There’s a good article on Camp Inquiry in the Buffalo News: Deep in the Holland woods, D.J. Grothe wowed a group of kids at summer camp with a series of magic tricks. Seemingly impermeable steel rings were combined and separated again; rubber bands were melded into each other; coins vanished and returned in the unlikeliest of places. Then, Grothe, national field director for the Council for Secular Humanism, did something even more amazing: He gave away the trick, detailing exactly how anyone can do magic. It was another day at Camp Inquiry, where instead of swapping ghost tales or learning Bible stories, children take a critical look at claims of magic, the supernatural and even religion. The camp’s mission: Help young people “confront the challenges of living a nontheistic [or] secular lifestyle in a world dominated by religious belief and pseudoscience." The unusual camp, now in its third year, brings together curious children from across the country to hone their skills as skeptics and critical thinkers. Twenty-seven campers spent the past week following in the footsteps of Charles Darwin, digging up fossils and learning how to face moral dilemmas.See the full article here. I’m glad to see it’s not just a camp for atheists, but is open to theistic freethinkers as well: Organizers don’t specifically address faith or religion in their planned programming, which also includes a variety of art, music and leisure activities. But the topics arise frequently in casual discussions among campers. Some profess to be atheists, others refer to themselves as secular humanists, and a few say they believe in a higher power.Much better than Jesus Camp. UPDATE: I originally referred to Camp Inquiry as Camp Quest, a different set of camps with similar aims. Thanks, Carol, for the correction. UPDATE (August 9, 2008): NPR has also done a good story on Camp Inquiry. ...

The Skeptics Society has officially announced its 2008 conference, and the topic is not the one that was first suggested, war, terrorism, and security. Instead, this year’s conference is on “Origins: The Big Questions,” and is co-sponsored by the Templeton Foundation. The conference will be held at Caltech on October 3-4, and the speaker lineup includes Sean Carroll (the Caltech theoretical physicist, not to be confused with Sean B. Carroll, the University of Wisconsin at Madison professor of molecular biology and genetics), Paul Davies, Stuart Kauffman, Christof Koch, Kenneth Miller, Nancey Murphy, Donald Prothero, Hugh Ross, Victor Stenger, Leonard Susskind, Michael Shermer, Philip Clayton, and Mr. Deity. It’s an interesting mix of speakers for the subject matter, and I suspect I will attend, but I’d really rather go to a conference that brought critical thinking to the subjects of war, terrorism, and security.

The latest ApostAZ podcast is available, and it’s an “Apostamini”–a short one. This one has a short commentary from me about The Amazing Meeting 6. Contents: Apostamini 001 Atheism and Freethought in Phoenix- “Squared” from Greydon Square’s ‘The Compton Effect’. Ingersoll’s Vow. Amanda :). Pope George Carlin. Jim Lippard illustrates the cool points of TAM6 in Las Vegas (http://www.discord.org/). Greydon Square, “Dream” from ‘The Compton Effect’ album.

The spoonscience.com website and YouTube now has the video of the world record for largest simultaneous spoonbending activity (816 spoons) that took place at TAM6 under the guidance of Richard Wiseman and following the tutelage of Teller. Be sure to check out the second video at spoonscience.com on “The Science of Spoonbending.” (Looks like the Podblack blog has video of Teller’s lesson on spoonbending.)

The country shrink, whose point #2 from his post on “some psychological aspects of atheists” I critiqued in my previous post, also listed six other alleged characteristics of atheists. These were: 1). They tend to take the moral high ground. They look down on believers as simplistic, uneducated, stupid, weak, intolerant, gun toting, racists, and simple minded dolts. 2). [Responded to in my previous post.] 3). There is something in their lives that they are afraid they would have to give up if they believed in God. It’s usually some pattern that brings them pleasure in a way that they feel believers might label as immoral. They are typically not conscious of this. ...

Jeremy the Skeptic has been tracking Sylvia Browne’s record of success on her predictions. Once again, the evidence of psychic ability seems to be absent. Jeremy’s got two posts, one with her predictions for 2007, and one with a mid-year update on her predictions for 2008. Historical Comments Anonymous (2009-01-14): Well, there are lots of celebrity psychics out there that gives readings that seems odd and most of them doesn't really come true, not even close, but I think that what is important with this sort of things is on how we as individuals will interpret those readings and use them on our daily lives ...

Robert Lancaster of StopSylviaBrowne.com was able to attend one of her “performances” at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino after The Amazing Meeting, and his description of the event is fascinating. He, his wife, and another skeptic were each able to ask a question–she batted 0/2 for the two personal questions, and Lancaster himself asked where she obtained her Master’s degree in English literature. She was then foolish enough to call him back to the microphone in an apparent attempt to cause a scene, which only served to advertise his website to the entire audience. What I found most interesting about his account of the show was his description of his conversations with other attendees after it was over. Browne’s alleged psychic powers were apparently failing her at this event. UPDATE (July 12, 2008): Sylvia Browne’s shows at the Excalibur, originally scheduled to run through August, have been cancelled. Due to unforeseen circumstances, no doubt. ...