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Sci-ence provides a helpful chart worth spreading around: If you can’t read it, go to the source where it’s twice the size. Your Thoughts?
Archive for the ‘Skepticism’ Category
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 [...]
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 [...]
Get The Ultimate Power Balance Band
November 27th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Finally a Power Balance wrist band which promises to use a proven method for helping athletes perform better: The Sunny Skeptic reviews it: A friend gave me the most excellent present ever, a Placebo Band! I put it on, stood in the middle of the circle in my wrestler stance and said “TRY to knock [...]
Awkwardness of Association
November 2nd, 2011 Daniel Fincke Kylie (that’s Freethought Blogs’ Token Skeptic for the uninitiated) precisely and humorously describes an experience of being awkwardly and unwillingly seated near a heckler: I’m at a show, sitting with one person I know (let’s call them ‘Z’) and a bunch of people I don’t know (they’re friends of Z and I get a hurried introduction [...]
FtBTV
October 15th, 2011 Daniel Fincke In the last week, three of our newer Freethought Blogs neighbors posted videos in which they are featured. So see and/or hear your Freethought Blogs bloggers below! We have Crommie rocking out with his band CROWN, Justin Griffith giving what he considers to be his best interview ever about foxhole atheists, and Dana Hunter debunking “crystal magic”. [...]
Posted in Indie Music, Indie Music, Indie Rock, Indie Rock, Music, Music, Skepticism, Skepticism 
No Comments »The Problematic Use of Skeptics in Supernatural Shows
September 19th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Soon-to-be fellow Freethought Blogs blogger Jen McCreight has a good post, wherein she is skeptical of a character’s skeptical reactions in an episode of True Blood. Jen gives spoilers, but I won’t. I can just sum up the problem abstractly as the following: a character who over the course of 47 episodes of the show has discovered the [...]
On Rejecting Faith in Morality
September 16th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Update: Joel Marks has replied to this post and to my first follow up post. I have reedited this post to incorporate his remarks at the end. Joel Marks is at the Center for Bioethics at Yale University and is professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of New Haven. Though writing on ethics throughout [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Ethics, Ethics, Love, Love, Metaethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Personal, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Skepticism, Skepticism 1 Comment »Believing Too Little Is As Bad As Believing Too Much
September 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke When formulating principles and practices for forming good beliefs and avoiding bad beliefs, the first thing we must keep in mind is that consciously affirming a belief, consciously affirming a disbelief, deliberately avoiding believing or disbelieving are all actions. When we choose our standards for what propositions count as worthy of our belief, our disbelief, or [...]
“Typing in Tongues”
September 1st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Televangelist Juanita Bynum is on the cutting edge of religulousness:
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Religulous, Religulous, Skepticism, Skepticism 
Tags: Pentecostals, Speaking In Tongues, Typing in Tongues 20 Comments »Addressing Skepticism About Atheism’s Value To Skepticism
August 31st, 2011 Daniel Fincke In reply to my post last week about why atheism is important to advancing proper skepticism, Armchair Skeptic writes: You touch on some good points here. It would help, I think, if you start by defining what you consider to be “proper” skepticism; I didn’t really get a clear understanding of that from this post. [...]
“And There Are No Christians In Med School”
August 30th, 2011 Daniel Fincke I have an idea. In the future whenever you hear someone falsely say that there are no atheists in foxholes, don’t disagree with them. Don’t point out to them that this insults the bravery of countless non-theist soldiers by implying that without belief in God and an afterlife no one would ever courageously put his [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Divine Intervention, Divine Intervention, Faith, Faith, God, God, Jesus, Jesus, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Prayer, Prayer, Problem of Evil, Problem of Evil, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Skepticism, Skepticism 5 Comments »Call Me A Freethinker
August 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke All week, Eric and I have been volleying back and forth about the proper places of skepticism, on the one hand, and metaphysics, on the other, in an atheist worldview and self-presentation. I have argued that placing an emphasis on an evolutionary metaphysics as the primary identifier of an atheist worldview would be perceived as [...]
Disambiguating Faith: How Faith Poisons Religion
August 4th, 2011 Daniel Fincke There are many wonderful parts of life that billions of people experience through a religious framework, at least partially to their benefit. Spiritual experiences mean a lot to many people and many people interpret their spiritual experience within the symbols, concepts, rituals, metaphysics, and community of their religious group. Rituals enrich people’s lives by giving [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Ethics, Ethics, Evidence, Evidence, Faith, Faith, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Skepticism, Skepticism 17 Comments »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 [...]
Bill Maher's Challenge To Those Expecting Jesus To Return May 21
May 4th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Johnson & Johnson Comes Out As Pro-Superstition?
May 4th, 2011 Daniel Fincke In a bafflingly stupid and irritating new ad, Johnson & Johnson make the case that part of the special “human” touch that nurses add to the care of patients is their willingness to employ superstitious techniques to help them: Yes, superstitiousness is very human, but that’s to our embarrassment, it’s not a sign of our [...]
Derren Brown's "Miracles For Sale"
May 1st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Brown’s site’s description: With the cameras in hot pursuit, Derren faces his toughest project yet, going in search of an unsuspecting member of the British public prepared to adopt the guise of a pastor and miracle worker. His chosen one then has six months to learn the trade and flourish across the pond as a [...]
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Faith, Faith, Miracles, Miracles, Religion, Religion, Skepticism, Skepticism No Comments »Robert Price on the Mythic Precedents of the Jesus Story
April 24th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Posted in Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Jesus, Jesus, Religion, Religion, Skepticism, Skepticism 3 Comments »Einstein On God And Religion
April 19th, 2011 Daniel Fincke A nice set of quotes setting the record straight: I’m not crazy about his NOMA-like tacit approval of religion having a say in values. Your Thoughts?
On God And The Japanese Earthquake
March 16th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Edward Tarte says everything that shouldn’t need to be said on the topic, but sadly does: The word poison is a bit unnecessarily strong, but the rest is spot on. Your Thoughts?
On Zealously, Tentatively, and Perspectivally Holding Viewpoints
March 2nd, 2011 Daniel Fincke In a recent post, I wrote the following: Changing people’s minds to make them stop holding positions dogmatically and instead hold them tentatively is still a change of mind one may zealously pursue. On Facebook, Greg writes in reply: I want to address the peculiarity of this statement. One may passionately pursue such a change [...]
Posted in Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Featured, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Personal, Philosophy, Skepticism, Skepticism Tags: Nietzsche's Perspectivism, Nietzsche's Perspectivist Theory of Truth, Perspectival Epistemology, Perspectivalism 5 Comments »Is it Too Risky to Debate Morality's Foundations in the Public Square?
February 28th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Jean Kazez argues that the public square is not the place for atheists to be arguing that science and religion are incompatible. I strongly reject her position on this point because not only do I believe that ordinary people are quite capable of handling a vigorous, no-holds-barred debate about religion but because I believe the [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Duty, Duty, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Metaethics, Metaethics, Moral Psychology, Moral Psychology, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Politics, Politics, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Secularism, Skepticism, Skepticism Tags: J.L. Mackie, Jean Kazez, Jean-Paul Sartre, Moral Anti-Realism, Moral Error Theory, Moral Realism, Pragmatism, Russell Blackford, Sam Harris, The Death of God 8 Comments »14 Year Old Girl Evaluates Whether Bible Is Good For Children
February 25th, 2011 Daniel Fincke This is both hilarious and inspiring: via Blag Hag. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Religion, Religion, Skepticism, Skepticism, Videos No Comments »Why Bad Beliefs Don't Die
February 25th, 2011 Daniel Fincke The thoughts of Gregory W. Lester (as edited down by John W. Loftus) (okay, now I feel like calling myself Daniel W. Fincke): Because senses and beliefs are both tools for survival and have evolved to augment one another, our brain considers them to be separate but equally important purveyors of survival information….This means that [...]
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