Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
25 year old Gareth Williams has become the first person with measles to die in the latest Swansea outbreak. So why in the 21st century, an age of highly effective vaccines, do we now once again have an outbreak of a very preventable highly infectious disease? It is all down to one man, Andrew Wakefield, the disgraced Doctor who was struck … Read more
Last night I had the privilege of hanging out at Dublin Skeptics in the Pub … or to be more precise “Skeptics in the Exchange” … where Richard Saunders, the well-known Australian Paranormal Investigator was giving a fascinating talk. Richard explained that he has been flown over by some folks to present his film on … Read more
There exists an on-line group that was established by some Muslims to “debunk” Atheism, and so given my stance I was added (without being asked). How are they doing so far? Not very well, but then how exactly do you de-bunk non-belief? the only way possible is to offer objective empirical evidence that some variation of belief … Read more
Did you catch the news not too long ago about the discovery of a new form of life? Back, just a few days ago on 7 March, the St. Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute’s Sergei Bulat, who led the Russian team that drilled through 4 kilometers of ice to the surface of the lake last year, told … Read more
Barbara Drescher, a cognitive psychologist and also a JREF board member, has a fabulous posting over on her blog entitled, “On Skepticism: Its Definitions and Scope”. In it she outlines some spot on definitions and has also listed after it a vast wealth of material. I struggled with this one a bit, normally when I find … Read more
While in a debate recently, one chap justified his assertion by deploying the following quote … “When you dismiss the impossible, whatever you have left, however improbable, is the answer.” Recognise it? Yep, Sherlock Holmes (or Spock if you prefer), well the precise quote is this … “You will not apply my precept,” he said, … Read more