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[This is part of a series looking at atheism and Wicca.] Many Wiccans practice magic. Skeptics, rationalists, and naturalists may all be tempted to try to use science to refute the effectiveness of magic. Although such refutations do persuade some people, they often fail to accomplish anything: despite the best efforts of scientific debunkers, magical [...]
Archive for the ‘Pseudoscience’ Category
Criticizing Wicca: Magic is Unethical
January 7th, 2012 
Eric Steinhart Criticizing Wicca: Magic is Unreliable
January 7th, 2012 Eric Steinhart [This is part of a long series looking at atheism and Wicca.] Any procedure for changing an initial situation (the start) into a desired situation (the goal) can be tested for its effectiveness. As used here, effectiveness is a matter of degree, so that procedures can be more or less effective. The simplest way to measure [...]
My Thoughts On Eric’s Wicca and Atheism Experiment
January 6th, 2012 Daniel Fincke In early December, after juggling 9 classes and a daily blog all semester, I got sick. Eric Steinhart, a previous guest contributor on the blog, stepped in and has been the primary blogger on the site for one month now. He has discussed possible connections between atheists and Wiccans. Thursday was my first day where [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Paganism, Philosophy Of Religion, Pseudoscience, PZ Myers, PZ Myers, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Wicca 
85 Comments »Criticizing Wicca: Rationality
December 26th, 2011 Eric Steinhart According to the Farrars, “Witches [that is, Wiccans] are neither fools, escapist nor superstitious. They are living in the twentieth century, not the Middle Ages” (1981: 105). The Farrars write that “Many witches are scientists and technicians . . . If modern witchcraft did not have a coherent rationale, such people could only keep going [...]
Criticizing Wicca: Energy
December 13th, 2011 Eric Steinhart On the basis of my reading of a few Wiccan texts, I said that Wiccans believe that their ultimate deity is the ultimate immanent creative power of being. This is an old Platonic idea. The existence of such a power of being is endorsed by a number of atheistic philosophers (like Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and [...]
An Example of Atheist Faith
August 2nd, 2011 Daniel Fincke by Eric Steinhart Here’s a nice statement of atheistic faith by Carl Sagan: “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.” (1980: 1). Such a statement is as faith-based as any statement in the Bible or in Christian theology. After all, it’s just a mirror-image of the statement that God [...]
On the Rapture
May 20th, 2011 Daniel Fincke The rapture isn’t going to happen on 21 May 2011. And that implies an ordered series of disconfirmations: (1) Harold Camping is wrong about the Bible; (2) his way of reading the Bible (that is, Biblical numerology) does not reveal anything trans-scientific about the future; (3) evangelical ways of reading the Bible reveal nothing trans-scientific [...]
Singularitarianism as Religion Entails Testable Predictions
April 14th, 2011 Daniel Fincke by Eric Steinhart Singularitarianism is religious. Specifically, it is a kind of millenarian movement. It will therefore develop according to millenarian patterns. Millenarian movements can develop in several ways. The first way is good: the movement turns into a positive mature religion. The second way is bad: the movement turns into a self-destructive cult. The [...]
The Singularity as Religion
April 11th, 2011 Daniel Fincke by Eric Steinhart I think much of the culture and discourse around the singularity is religious. I say this based in part on my reading of David Noble’s book The Religion of Technology and my reading of Robert Geraci’s Apocalyptic AI. Both are fantastic books. And I’ve compiled a long list of articles and books [...]
True Religion?
August 17th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Many a religious person defending her own religious beliefs will argue that a given politically, morally, or intellectually unflattering interpretation of her faith is simply not a true representation of her faith. While the question of who has the right or the adequate means to decisively determine with any rational clarity which competing interpretation of any [...]
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Tags: Literalism, Philosophy of Science, Primitivism, Ronald Dworkin 12 Comments »The Benefits Of Vaccination
September 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke For sharing with that special anti-vaccination fanatic in your life… Your Thoughts?
Judge This: Derren Brown False Lesson In Mathematics For Britain
September 12th, 2009 Daniel Fincke I was really irritated last night by Derren Brown’s choice to use his lottery trick on national TV in Britain to propagate fundamentally bogus mathematical thinking and to convince a group of people that their belief in their abilities to reach into the subconscious was able to generate knowledge of winning lottery ticket numbers. It’s [...]
“Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed”
August 7th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Via Dread Tomato Addiction comes this brilliant looking follow up to Ben Stein’s Expelled. RichardDawkins.net explains more about the controversy. A taste: the team has moved on to promoting other theories that they feel are being suppressed by the scientific community. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed tells of how Sex Theory has thrived unchallenged in the [...]
A Written Tour Of The Creation “Museum”
August 7th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Courtesy of tweets from the twitter feed set up for PZ Myers and the Secular Students Alliance tour of the Ken Ham’s Creation “Museum” comes the link to this article that explains the whole wacky museum. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Creationism, Fundamentalism, Intelligent Design, Pseudoscience, Religion and Science, Religulous Tags: Ken Ham No Comments »Bill Maher A Controversial Richard Dawkins Award Winner
August 1st, 2009 Daniel Fincke Orac explains the prize (which is given by the Atheist Alliance, not Dawkins or his foundation themselves) : The Richard Dawkins Award will be given every year to honor an outstanding atheist whose contributions raise public awareness of the nontheist life stance; who through writings, media, the arts, film, and/or the stage advocates increased scientific [...]
Posted in Atheism, Bill Maher, Pseudoscience Tags: Anti-Vaccine, Germ Theory, Germ Theory Denialism, Jenny McCarthy, PETA No Comments »Carl Sagan On Charlie Rose
August 1st, 2009 Daniel Fincke On the needs for scientific education:
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