Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
I was truly sad to hear the news that Steve had passed away, for he was truly unique and has actually changed the world and made it a far better place, countless numbers of lives have been touched and moved by all he did. There is much I would like to write on that topic, … Read more
First, lets start with a clear understanding of the “No True Scotsman” fallacy. This is basically where you challenge others about some rather unpleasant or even quite appalling actions by some group, and quickly discover that “they” are not “real” members of the group. The term was first deployed by philosopher Antony Flew in his … Read more
Several UK tabloids have been reporting that a big UK freeze is coming and also claiming … Britain is about to experience an early winter, with snow expected to arrive as soon as next month, forecasters have warned. Temperatures over the next three months will plummet to below average This is coming from headlines in, … Read more
Some utter insanity has apparently broken out in Italy. The BBC Newsnight page reports that seven scientists are, in a Galileo-style inquisition, to stand trial next week for failing to accurately predict the precise timing of an earthquake. Wow … scientists accused of failing to predict an earthquake? Actually no, that is not what is … Read more
There is a great article over at AlterNet entitled “10 Myths Many Religious People Hold About Atheists, Debunked”. There you will find that Amanda Marcotte has done a great job slicing and dicing the following list … There are no atheists in foxholes Atheists are just angry with God Atheists are aggressive and rude Atheism is … Read more
I’ve tripped over an interesting little snippet in New Scientist where there is a claim that some software called Cleverbot has passed one of the key tests of artificial intelligence: the Turing test. Now before we proceed, lets clarify what this test actually is. It was introduced by Alan Turing (hence the name) in his … Read more