Derren Brown – Experiments … the secret of luck

Derren Brown, the UK-based illusionist, mentalist, painter, writer and skeptic has just finished a TV series called “The Experiments”. The last episode, “the secret of luck” was last night, so it is that I am now blogging about, but first, a bit of background. Derren is well-known for some truly amazing illusions and feats of … Read more

Psychic Sally Challenge – As expected, she ducked out and did not show up

I blogged a couple of days ago about the challenge presented to supposedly Psychic Sally Morgan, and suggested that she would be a no-show. Hey guess what … (now deploy your very best guess) … yep, she ducked out, apparently too busy. Ian Sample has an update for us in the Guardian today, … Morgan’s … Read more

Sally Morgan challenged to prove her psychic powers on Halloween

The UK’s currently famous (or infamous) psychic has been given a challenge … basically “Prove it”. She has recently been in the news, because during a show in Dublin fans say they heard a man’s voice giving what sounded like prompts to her. She replied with a statement, “All my life I have run the … Read more

Recognising the “No True Scotsman” fallacy in religion

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