Take Back Skepticism, Part I: The Elephant in the Room

I was planning a short rant about some ironically irrational arguments made by self-described rationalists at the World Atheist Convention in Dublin a couple of months ago. However, events of the past two weeks have left me frustrated, angry, and a little bit sick. Since they are all connected, I have decided to discuss them […]

Share

The Amaz!ng Meeting [TAM9]: Some Notes

Workshop: Skepticism in the Classroom First I would like to thank those who attended our workshop at The Amaz!ng Meeting 9 for your patience as we recover from the meeting and organize our thoughts. I have created a permanent page (under “Resources”) where you can access the materials we promised. Some of the things you […]

Share

Irony, Hypocrisy, and Being Human

I began this as a comment in response to this post by Daniel Loxton, but I had more to say than I thought, so I moved it here. Although this topic has been discussed to death, I do want to weigh in with a perspective that I have yet to see clearly expressed. Perhaps my […]

Share

Priming and Pareilolia

SPOILER!! Read this post first, please. SPOILER STARTS HERE Here’s the story… I caught this tweet this morning: @BadAstronomer: Beam me up some breakfast. Warp factor three egg omelette. http://twitpic.com/27mfxu I will pretty much click on anything that starts with “beam me up”, so I did and, as you know, I saw this: Well, I […]

Share

The Polarizing Nature of Skepticism

In the spring of 2009, one of my brainy students caught me in the hallway before class and pleaded, “Would you please give me something to tell these nutty people to calm down?” After a few seconds I realized what she was dealing with and asked, “The Aporkalypse?” Of course we were talking about the […]

Share