Skeptical Science – Page 634 – Promoting Science and Critical Thinking

Atheist Discrimination

March 23, 2019June 17, 2011 by Dave

Does Atheist Discrimination exist to the same degree as that experienced by ethnic minorities in the US? One the one hand we can make these observations: Atheists are not denied equal access to housing for lacking belief in god They are not kept from seeing their partners during life-threatening scenarios in hospitals Atheists don’t earn … Read more

Unicorn no longer extinct

July 4, 2017June 16, 2011 by Dave

Now here is a small piece of encouraging news from Today’s Guardian … Unicorn’s are no longer extinct. Basically … the last wild Arabian oryx was shot in 1972, thus making it more or less extinct. However, a successful captive breeding programme and reintroduction efforts mean its population now stands at 1,000. You can read … Read more

Fake Psychic Reading – How Accurate is it for you?

December 8, 2016June 15, 2011 by Dave

In Professor Richard Wiseman’s latest book, Paranormality, he suggests that it is very easy for so-called psychics to give highly accurate readings. Later, in the back of the same book, he gives an example that can be utilized to convince complete strangers that you can read their aura (or some other similar medium babble) and demonstrate that your apparent psychic powers are real, because you know all about them.

OK then, lets put that to the test here and now.

Vaccines and Foreign aid

December 22, 2023June 14, 2011 by Dave

There is a great article in today’s UK Telegraph by Hugh Pennington , the emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen. It has been written in response to the news that Bill Gates and also the UK government have comitted huge sums to money, when yesterday they pledged £814 million on top of the UK’s existing commitment to GAVI (the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation) of £680 million between 2011 and 2015.

Here are a couple of choice quotes that I’ve plucked out because I really like them …

Islamic Cleric – “When I want a sex slave, I just go to the market and choose the woman I like and purchase her.”

June 13, 2011June 13, 2011 by Dave

Not too long ago I blogged about a crazy Egyptian Islamic Cleric, Shaykh Abi-Ishaq al-Huwayni, who suggested that Muslims who were short of cash should go on a raid and sell any prisoners taken in the market.

As you might imagine, it caused a bit of a stir (his comments made it into the Egyptian press), so he was interviewed over the phone by a TV station and asked to explain himself. At first he appeared to back off a bit and suggested that his words had been taken out of context, but then he proceeds to put it into a 7th Century setting. What is astonishing is that his explanation is even more outrageous and utterly offensive to any normal sane human.

Here we do indeed have an individual, who is not just out of time from another century, but has had his sense of morality so utterly fucked up by religion, that he appears to be from another millennium.

PZ on YouTube – Confrontation and Education

May 24, 2019June 11, 2011 by Dave

PZ is well-known, and also well worth listening to, not just because he is somebody who can communicate effectively, but also because he actually has something worth listening to, so it was a delight to see him coaxed him out of his academic seclusion for a trip to Ireland and also, on his way back, to a Skeptics In the Pub in Glasgow.

I have two treats for you today. The first is a direct confrontation with some Muslims who stuck a camera under his nose while he was out for a walk, the second is his complete talk at Skeptics in the Pub in Glasgow.