Selling (Bullshit) with Science in 5 Easy Steps!

From skepchick.

Covers most heath and personal care products I can think off.

HOWTO ask good skeptical questions

Open Mindedness

Excellent description

Telephoning the Dead

Michael Shermer has a nice article here about pattern seeking. In this case a (new to me) method of 'contacting the dead', using ... a, erm, telephone...

[it] “consists of a random voltage generator, which is used to tune an AM receiver module rapidly. The audio from the tuner (“raw audio”) is amplified and fed to an echo chamber, where the spirits manipulate it to form their voices.” Apparently doing so is difficult for the spirits, so Moon employs the help of “Tyler,” a spirit “technician,” whom he calls on to corral wayward spirits to within earshot of the receiver. What it sounded like was the rapid twirling of a radio dial so that only noises and word fragment s were audible.

of course it works but the ability of people to spot patterns where there are none, such as.

The Magic Cube

Synesthesia is the phenomenon in which the stimulation of one sense modality produces a sensation in a different sense modality, for example, touching something and sensing a color.



So how'd he do it?

Answer will appear tomorrow but the comments seem to provide decent solutions.

link

A Guide to Critical Thinking

Man made 'out of body experience'

fascinating stuff this;

Brain scientists have succeeded in fooling people into thinking they are inside the body of another person or a plastic dummy.

The out-of-body experience - which is surprisingly easy to induce - will help researchers to understand how the human brain constructs a sense of physical self.

link

Beyond Belief 3.0

The videos are available now on;

http://thesciencenetwork.org/programs/beyond-belief-candles-in-the-dark

Homeopathy You Could Actually Recommend To A Friend

Fairdeal Homeopathy are offering low cost, no nonsense homeopathic remedies. The testimonials page is excellent as is the 'About' page;

How does it work?

Homeopathy works through a complicated interaction with the human body and mind known as the "placebo effect". The placebo effect is still not fully understood, but is very effective for certain conditions†.

What conditions can FairDeal Homeopathy treat**?

FairDeal Homeopathy can be used to treat any self-limiting condition. Examples include non-specific aches and pains, mild headache, unlikely allergies and intolerances, implausible phobias, vague nausea, surprising bruises, UDIs and most other conditions for which your GP may find difficult to give you an instant cure.

**"Treat" in no way implies "cure". †Requires belief

Re-Growing Organs: Update

It seems the story of a man's finger being grown back by a special powder has hit the mainstream press.

Bad Science however pours some cold water on the "discovery"

Robert Ingersoll & Quote of the Day

Discovered Robert Ingersoll today courtesy of http://www.evolvedrational.com/

I like this quote in particular as so many people are distrustful of science and rationality in spite of the thousands of benefit's they experience as a result every day.

We have already compared the benefits of theology and science. When the theologian governed the world, it was covered with huts and hovels for the many, palaces and cathedrals for the few. To nearly all the children of men, reading and writing were unknown arts. The poor were clad in rags and skins -- they devoured crusts, and gnawed bones. The day of Science dawned, and the luxuries of a century ago are the necessities of to-day. Men in the middle ranks of life have more of the conveniences and elegancies than the princes and kings of the theological times. But above and over all this, is the development of mind. There is more of value in the brain of an average man of to-day -- of a master-mechanic, of a chemist, of a naturalist, of an inventor, than there was in the brain of the world four hundred years ago.
These blessings did not fall from the skies. These benefits did not drop from the outstretched hands of priests. They were not found in cathedrals or behind altars -- neither were they searched for with holy candles. They were not discovered by the closed eyes of prayer, nor did they come in answer to superstitious supplication. They are the children of freedom, the gifts of reason, observation and experience -- and for them all, man is indebted to man.
-- Robert Green Ingersoll, "God In The Constitution"

God in the Constitution

Also, the man had a sense of humour;

The old lady who said there must be a devil, else how could they make pictures that looked exactly like him, reasoned like a trained theologian -- like a doctor of divinity.
-- Robert Green Ingersoll, from "Superstition" (1898)

Finally;

The doctrine that future happiness depends upon belief is monstrous. It is the infamy of infamies. The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called "faith." What man, who ever thinks, can believe that blood can appease God? And yet, our entire system of religion is based upon that belief. The Jews pacified Jehovah with the blood of animals, and according to the Christian system, the blood of Jesus softened the heart of God a little, and rendered possible the salvation of a fortunate few. It is hard to conceive how the human mind can give assent to such terrible ideas, or how any sane man can read the Bible and still believe in the doctrine of inspiration.
-- Robert Green Ingersoll, The Gods

101 Atheist Quotes

link.

A small selection to get you started.

Not only is there no god, but try getting a plumber on weekends. - Woody Allen

What’s “God”? Well, you know, when you want something really bad and you close your eyes and you wish for it? God’s the guy that ignores you. - Steve Buscemi (From the movie “The Island”)

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? – Epicurus

I’m a polyatheist - there are many gods I don’t believe in. - Dan Fouts

Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people. - Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney


People will then often say, ‘But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case?’ This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. (If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, cross-your-fingers-behind-your-back, Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway.) - Douglas Adams

Jesus hardly made the greatest sacrifice. He knew he would be resurrected anyway. – Anonymous

Actually the last quote I remember thinking off when I was very young. Our teacher was explaining the marvelous and brave sacrifice of Jesus but I thought since he was the 'Son Of God' it really shouldn't have been all that much trouble to him. I managed to suppress/ignore this thought (and more like it) for quite some time.

Homeopathic Drugs found in US Drinking Water

Via Skeptico comes this story;

Despite multiple testing scenarios, and despite using the most advanced and sensitive equipment available, we were not able to find even one molecule of the homeopathic remedies in any of the tap water samples we examined. While this would not be a problem with allopathic medicines, homeopathic remedies are stronger the more dilute they are. This means that samples of water we tested containing zero molecules of, for example Arsenicum Album, would be potentized at the maximum strength possible, and as such could present real risks to the American public who would be unknowingly consuming these powerful homeopathic drugs.

Arguement By Analogy

Skeptico has a new post about Arguement by Analogy, it's well worth a read.

When someone argues by analogy, you can be pretty sure it’s because they don’t have any facts, evidence or logic to support their position. And all you have to do to debunk their argument, is find the flaw in the analogy.

It ties in nicely with a similar idea about the use of metaphor's

Be Careful Believing Your Own Metaphors:

I've cautioned students against using metaphors; though they make writing more vivid, and sometimes more persuasive, they often obscure more than they reveal. Part of the problem is that they are literally false -- if they were true, they wouldn't be metaphors. Sometimes the literal falsehood reveals a deeper truth, but sometimes it's just plain false.

The Power of Belief

This is a Ted Talk Micheal Shermer delivered last year - its interesting but the last 5 minuites or so are excellent.

James Randi

I'm in the process of converting a work mate to rationalism and today discovered he didn't know who James Randi is. Shocking! Anyway to get him started I found this piece on youtube and decided to post it here.

Wanna Headache?

Richard Dawkin's website has published links to a debate between Daniel Dennett and Dinesh D'Souza that is well worth watching but with a warning, D'Souza is full if shit and it's an ordeal listening to him. He starts talking in parts 6 and 7 and it's a real challenge to keep up with the logical fallacies he delivers in machine gun fashion, its a fun but exhausting game to try and name them. His favourite mode of debate however seems to be a blending of Ad Hominem and Equivocation so keep an eye out for how he presents Dennett's ideas and how he reckons Augustine preempted modern cosmology. One of the best bits is when (in Part 9) he castigates Dawkin's, Dennett etc for "wandering far outside their field's (of expertise)" for talking about religion. Apparently he finds this "intellectually embarrassing" but of course it wasn't in the least bit embarrassing for him when he talked about history, science and cosmology earlier in the debate, for people like D'Souza these hypocrisies don't seem to register but unfortunately they don't appear to register with his target audience either.

Dennett does very well, much better than either Michael Shermer or Christoper Hitchens did in their encounters and he seems to have gotten under the skin of D'Souza as D'Souza is far louder and angrier than he appeared in the two aforementioned debates. This makes him look far more like the lunatic he is and I for one approve.

D'Souza spends a lot of time explaining how he believes there must be something "greater", i.e. God and how logical and brilliant it is to believe in this god so I wish someone would put the point to him 'So what?'. If there is a god that can exist outside of space/time and is capable of creating the universe and everything in it then there is no reason to believe it's his god (I believe Dawkins came up with this argument). It could be any god ever thought of, or none, but the point is, it seems very unlikely such a being would bother feeding strange and contradictory stories to a bunch of bronze age goats herders to convey "truths" of any description. After all it's such an inept way to convey anything, but the good news is we have radio and TV now so god can contact us with the true "truth" whenever he's free.

Part 1


Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7MGyayvAa8

Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgK6M3WRFcc

Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzUUnjcTkQg

Part 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnGGOKDGLYw

Part 6
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcunc_hQ8U8

Part 7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SryFVhNfvow

Part 8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8puuM-C9XIY

Part 9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Ts_kPn5Tg

Part 10
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMEu_pGCCU0

Part 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqpumHZGx7c

Part 12:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rae3EUR-W4s

Part 13:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADLjLcS2kJs

Part 14:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KgVtKKgoks

Part 15:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM5mv-g2kUU

The Woo Handbook

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy Skeptico's blogg. Well he's got another great entry called "The Woo Handbook" which is basically a guide for "Woo's" to help them deal with skeptics. If you've listened or read any defense of "alternative" anything you'll find them very familiar. Heres a small extract.

1. Start by telling skeptics you want to “educate them on the facts”. This puts them on the defensive (see next point below) and makes it seem like you’re the knowledgeable one with facts on your side, even though what you’re about to tell them is mostly made up.

We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers

Richard Dawkin's website has the following lecture (in three parts) by one Prof Andy Thomson and it is well worth watching. The talk deals with psychology of "Suicide Terrorism" and covers some amazing ground regarding human behaviour such as, war as our natural state, in group/out group dynamics and deferring to authority. He also deals with the type of person who is more likely to commit the crime as in the case of female suicide bombers who almost always are suffering from depression, are victims of social rejection (commonly due to being raped & therefore unmarriageable) and, of course, are dominated by their menfolk. He doesn't have go too far back for his examples either, one of the attackers on Glasgow this summer set himself alight but was careful to ensure his genitals did not burn, presumably so that he could enjoy his 70 (odd) virgins when he entered paradise. So do yourself a favour and watch it.

part 1


Part 2


Part 3 (Q&A)