Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
One of the cool aspects involved within on-line skeptic forums such as reddit /r/skeptic is the access you gain to a pool of folks who quite often demonstrate a great sense of humor (I’m getting to a point … stick with me).
On one occasion, not too long ago, I stated what could be best described as the bleeding obvious. The following well deserved comment soon came back
In other news, scientists present the first conclusive evidence of a bear defecating in the woods. Film at 11.
New Scientist has a great review of Chris Stringer’s latest book, “The Origin of Our Species” (no prize for spotting the hat-tip to a rather more famous publication by a certian Mr Darwin). … The book is the first popular treatment to take on board the recent sequencing of the Neanderthal genome and the discovery … Read more
Time and time again we find that religious folks, who claim to hold the ultimate form of morality (an apparent direct line to a God) to be a tad lacking in basic ethics. The most common example we all often come across consists of Christian Creationists lying for Jesus and more or less making stuff up that they then claim is “proof”. When you go through it with them, it does not make one iota of a different, they might as well have stuck their fingers in the ears and babbled “la la la” while you patiently explained things. The very next day they will be back to babbling the same old rhetoric.
Is it just the Christians? Nope, not at all. Today we have an Islamic example. Andrew Gilligan writes in today’s Telegraph about an East London Mosque that had faithfully promised to ban homophobic preachers. Well yes, I’m sure you can guess where this is going … he writes …
Damian Thompson writes today on the telegraph with data that appears to show that anyone who has bought into Goldman Sachs’ $50 billion valuation of Facebook, which is based on projections of revenue growth that seem ludicrously optimistic in the light of the data now available … Here’s a chart showing year-on-year growth (again, click … Read more
Cool story in Wired today … Two research teams have found new evidence of transformations in elusive elementary particles called neutrinos. The findings may finally help explain why the universe didn’t vanish shortly after its birth. “These results are just the beginning of the story for neutrinos,” said physicist Robert Plunkett of Fermilab in Chicago. … Read more
I suspect many sites that thrive on the creation of satire must truly struggle when it comes to Islam … not because they fear the death threats, but rather because the actual claims made are so bizarre and morally outrageous, that it is almost impossible to distinguish satire and the real belief. To illustrate what … Read more