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Tag Archives: Michael Shermer
Do Democracy, Mass Education, and Economic Prosperity Weaken God Belief?
Michael Shermer thinks so, and he has some data that supports him. Writing at Scientific American, here he is on democracy and mass education: One factor [in the decline of God belief internationally] is the dramatic spread of democracy around … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, belief, Blake, Dionysus, God, Michael Shermer, Nietzsche, tigers
1 Comment
Carl Sagan Day: Three Historians Reflect on Carl Sagan’s Life
For “Carl Sagan Day” (which is today), this extended reflection on Carl Sagan’s life seems fitting to post.
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Tagged astronomy, atheism, carl sagan, carl sagan day, history of science, humanism, Michael Shermer, science, skepticism
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Baloney Detector
How well does a belief that you currently subscribe to hold up under these 10 questions? Do I have any actual evidence for the thing I say I believe, and what is the extent and quality of that evidence? If … Continue reading
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Tagged atheist, baloney detector, critical thinking, Hinduism, Islam, Jesus, Judaism, Michael Shermer, muhammad, Politics, reason
4 Comments
Flim-Flam Watch: Microbiologist Rosie Redfield on Felisa Wolfe-Simon’s Mono Lake Arsenic Based Life Claim
In a recent blog post, microbiologist Rosie Redfield is scathing concerning Felisa Wolfe-Simon’s recent claim, made in a scientific paper (Wolfe-Simon et al. 2010, A Bacterium That Can Grow by Using Arsenic Instead of Phosphorus) that arsenic based life may have been … Continue reading
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Tagged arsenic based life, atheism, biochemistry, biology, chemistry, critical thinking, felisa wolfe-simon, flim-flam, Genesis, Michael Shermer, NASA, science
1 Comment
Biologist Jerry Coyne vs. Adam and Eve
At his blog this week, Jerry Coyne calls out the BioLogos Foundation, a self-professed reconciler of good science with reasonable religion, for not unequivocally rejecting the historicity of Adam and Eve: BioLogos does not take an official position on the historicity of … Continue reading
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Tagged Adam and Eve, afrocentism, atheism, atheist, Genesis, God, jerry coyne, Jesus, Michael Shermer, Noah, the Bible, young earth creationism
15 Comments
Silencing atheism: I find this news report sad
A billboard put up by an atheist group is vandalized by a theist who apparently could not bear a dissenting opinion on religion within his community: Oops. It doesn’t embed. See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SO7K4UL7kk When you can’t even stand exposure to opinions … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, doubt, faith, free inquiry, God, James Dobson, Jesus, Michael Shermer, philosophy, the Bible
1 Comment
La Brea Tar Pits’ Page Science Museum sells a pseudoscience product—“Mystery Marbles”—at its museum store
The George C. Page Museum, adjacent to the famous La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, is a natural history museum devoted to the fossil discoveries drawn from the tar pits. In other words, it’s a place for science and … Continue reading
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Tagged biology, evolution, geology, la brea tar pits, Michael Shermer, museums, pseudoscience, science, science museums
4 Comments
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) on Hell Belief and Critical Thinking
In John Stuart Mill’s Autobiography is a brilliant reflection on hell belief: he argues that belief in hell is made paradoxically both strong and weak by an across the board system failure in critical thinking. Here are the two critical thinking errors that Mill … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, critical thinking, God, hell, Jesus, john stuart mill, liberty, Michael Shermer, reason, skeptic, skepticism, the Bible
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Teaser for the Pilot TV Show “The Skeptologists”
Michael Shermer and his gang of skeptical inquirers look like they’re channeling the Sopranos. And in the word “skeptologist” I feel a vague association with “exorcist.” I don’t know if this show is ever going beyond the pilot stage—or if any … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, ghosts, God, Michael Shermer, philosophy, science, skepticism, skeptologist, sopranos, UFOs
2 Comments
A Great Critical Thinking Quote from Groucho Marx
Watching Animal Crackers last night, a line of Groucho’s jumped out at me as the voice of all people possessed of a vested interest in producing and maintaining a culture hostile to critical thinking (which, of course, is damn near everybody): Once we … Continue reading
Is Atheism Just the Rejection of Belief in Gods?
In discussing atheism with atheists I’ve noticed that there is a good deal of resistance on their part whenever I claim that atheism, logically, is in the possession of a positive ideology: naturalism. No, they will say, an atheist is just someone who sees no good … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, God, Jesus, Michael Shermer, philosophy, religion, Richard Dawkins, science, weird things
47 Comments
Blogging Schick and Vaughn’s “How to Think about Weird Things,” Chapter 3, page 37
Something that jumped out at me early on in chapter 3 of the college critical thinking text, Schick and Vaughn’s How to Think about Weird Things (5th edition, 2008), is the distinction that was made between argument and persuasion. To win support for … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, argumentation, atheism, evidence, Michael Shermer, paranormal, reason, rhetoric, Richard Dawkins, weird things, writing
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Blogging Schick and Vaughn’s “How to Think about Weird Things,” Chapter 2
Every other year or so I find myself returning to Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn’s critical thinking text, How to Think about Weird Things, and rereading the whole darn thing through again. Schick and Vaughn’s book is a rather popular college text, and it’s in its sixth edition. … Continue reading
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Tagged apologetics, atheism, atheist, critical thinking, g.k. chesterton, Michael Shermer, philosophy, schick and vaughn, skepticism, weird things, writing
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Should Liberals Have a Scientistic or Poetic Vision for Society?
This is a question that Stanford philosopher Richard Rorty used to ask, and he put it another way as well: is it the scientist or the poet who is (or should be) the liberal’s hero? Or to put it yet another way: Is a human … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, God, literature, Michael Shermer, philosophy, poetry, Richard Dawkins, richard rorty, science, skeptic, the Bible
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A Golden Rule for the 21st Century? And a Quote That Rivals Anything in Shakespeare or the Bible?
I certainly don’t always live up to it, but this quote of Spinoza’s, like Shakespeare’s “to be or not to be”, or the Bible’s “love your neighbor”, is also a taut summing up of one aspect of existence, the intellectual … Continue reading
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Tagged agnostic, atheism, atheist, God, jerry coyne, Michael Shermer, philosophy, reason, religion, Shakespeare, the Bible, the golden rule
3 Comments
Michael Shermer, Responding to Jerry Coyne’s Accusation that He is a “Faitheist”, Quotes Me as More Properly Characterizing His Position
Here’s what Shermer says about his perspective on atheist accommodation of religion: This comment well captured my position and needs no further comment: “What Shermer is trying to make peace with are sensible moderate theists, not fundamentalists. It is the people in … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, evolution, faitheists, jerry coyne, Michael Shermer, philosophy, science, the godless revolution
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Atheist Michael Shermer, in the Huffington Post, Quotes Me
And favorably! Shermer thought I had offered an amusing blog post retort to Jerry Coyne’s charge that he (Shermer) had gone soft on theism and now deserved the label “faitheist”. See Shermer’s Huffington Post piece here, and my blog post that Shermer quotes from here.
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Tagged agnostic, agnosticism, atheism, atheist, faitheists, jerry coyne, Michael Shermer, new atheistland, New Atheists, reason, skepticism, the big time
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Dissent in New Atheistland: Jerry Coyne Takes After Michael Shermer!
At Jerry Coyne’s blog today, Coyne takes after Michael Shermer for being a little too cozy with religion: It always amuses me when an accommodationist tells the faithful that no, there is no conflict between science and religion, at least not if they … Continue reading
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Tagged agnosticism, agnostics, atheism, atheist, atheists, Christianity, God, jerry coyne, Michael Shermer, philosophy, religion
20 Comments
Go with Throttle Up? Skeptic Magazine on the Large Hadron Collider
In reading my most recent dead tree edition of Skeptic magazine, I noticed that there were two articles on the Large Hadron Collider and the potential catastrophic effects that could come from bringing it up to full power (black holes eating the Earth, etc). … Continue reading
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Tagged atheism, atheist, black holes, higgs boson, large hadron collider, Michael Shermer, physics, science, skeptic magazine
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Prometheus Unbound 