Critical Thinking

The 2011 Pigasus Awards

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Every year, since 1997, The JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation) has published the Pigasus Awards, and of course this year is no exception.

So what is this all about? Well, its about exposing the frauds and con-men out there, It was originally called the Uri Award, after Uri Geller, and was first announced in the appendix of Randi’s book Flim-Flam!. The 1982 book listed the awards “recipients” in 1979, 1980 and 1981.When describing it there, Randi writes…

“I am personally responsible for the nomination of the candidates. The sealed envelopes are read by me, while blindfolded, at the official announcement ceremony on April 1. Any baseless claims are rationalized in approved parapsychological fashion, and the results will be published immediately without being checked in any way. Winners are notified telepathically and are allowed to predict their victory in advance.”

So then, are you curious to know who this years collection charlatans and swindlers are? OK, here is the list

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Bullshit Detection – “Endorsements are just Hype”

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I started out with a posting on “Woo Words“, then moved on to “Evidence not Credentials“. Now I’m adding more thoughts that will hopefully help to enrich your Bullshit detection kit.

I do hope this one is obvious, really obvious. In fact I’d be astonished if it was not, and yet so many of us still fall for it.

When somebody famous is engaged to push a specific product we all know in our heart of hearts that its just marketing hype, so why does it still happen? Well, basically because it works. The celebrity in question gets a wad of cash for their services, so they are quite happy to do or say whatever is required, and the advertiser reaps a jump in sales.

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Fools Gold

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The UK’s Guardian started a live blog buildup to the Royal Wedding yesterday. It starts at 07:30, and was full of juicy gossip, but then at 11:38 this appears … We’ve received a communication from Buckingham Palace suggesting that some of the contents of this blog could contravene the Treason Felony Act of 1848. According … Read more

Bullshit Detection – “Evidence not Credentials”

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As far as Bullshit Detection goes, I appear to be on a bit of a roll at the moment. I blogged here about spotting woo words a week ago, and that resulted in some interesting debate in reddit, so I’ve added an update to that original woo-words posting.

OK then, so what else can we add to our “Bullshit detection kit”? Well how about developing a healthy respect for evidence and learning to be skeptical about claims that are backed with nothing except credentials.

You do of course appreciate that you can obtain a degree in just about anything without actually studying or passing any exams; just pay the appropriate fee and become instantly accredited. A great example is Thunderwood college. This is a site run by Brian Dunning of Skeptoid and offers you free instant degrees. Brian is not attempting to con anybody, he simply designed the site to drive home the point that many credentials are bogus and meaningless. The mainstream academic community will of course issue valid degrees as proof that the recipient has acquired a specific level of knowledge. Unfortunately, there are also thousands of others churning out worthless credentials not recognized by the academic community, so unless the credentials are from an institution that is recognised by the mainstream academic community as an accredited organization, its meaningless.

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Does Jesus make you fat?

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If you believe the media, then apparently being a religious believer also makes you fat.

In the UK we have the Daily Mail claiming … (and they even have a picture offering you proof) …

U.S. researchers say Sunday worship can be just bad for your health as burgers and chips.

Experts at a Chicago university found those who worship regularly were 50 per cent more likely to be obese by middle age compared to non-religious people.

They are not quite sure why, though some say that because eating during church services has traditionally been allowed, worshippers were inclined to munch their way through the sermon.

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Real Skeptics vs fake skeptics

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Today’s Uk Telegraph has what can be best described as a rant from James Delingpole. Just to give you an idea of what I’m on about, here are a few choice snippits from it …

The aspect of it which I have particularly enjoyed is the sanctimonious and hypocritical rage of a vociferous lobby group of self-styled “skeptics.” (See here, here and here.) Though mostly based in Britain, they spell themselves in the American style to distinguish themselves from “sceptics” like me. That’s because, unlike proper sceptics they – get this! – are card-carrying members of the Church of Climate Change.

Now least you wonder, buried in that rant among the Ad-Hominem is his delusional belief that a “true” skeptic is somebody who is a climate-change skeptic. Little things like reality and scientific fact don’t count. Note the use of the term “Church” in a vain attempt to label climate change as a religious belief.

If curious, and you are prepared to tolerate a considerable degree of utter stupidity, then you can read his full rant here.

His main theme is that these “fake” skeptics have committed the horrendous crime of not agreeing with him … gasp, what a shock.

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