Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
I was writing yesterday about the religious claim that the default status of humans is that we are all fundamentally flawed, and suggested that if this was really true then the world should not be getting better, yet as a stark contrast to that the measurable worldwide trend is one in which violence of all types … Read more
A common foundational idea of religious belief is the classic sales pitch – “here is a hideous problem within human nature, but I have a product that will fix it for you”, but if the problem itself is fictitious, then the proposed “solution” is attempting to fix a problem you do not have. It really is often … Read more
I once tried a little experiment in a FB group. Upon diving in and starting to swim amongst the religious believers I deployed slightly different words. The result? – interactions were quite different. It was perhaps akin to this. “Do you collect stamps?” Instead of being specific and explaining, “No, I’m not a stamp collector”, … Read more
Valerie Tarico, a psychologist and writer in Seattle, Washington, has a nice Conservative Christian takedown over at RawStory entitled “Conservative Christians point fingers at atheists to cover growing corruption in church“. On the surface the claims made by many belief leaders sound both credible to those that believe and are also very much on script, … Read more
There is a YouTube clip that is a great example of fatally flawed “thinking”, and the claim presented is that they have clear simple logic that supposedly destroys new atheism. Side note … it is curious that they use the term “New Atheism”, so should we conclude that their argument does not hold true for “old” atheism? … Read more
Learning how to work out what is fact and what is fiction is all part of growing up, and so a 4 year old who believes Santa Claus is real is cute. If however a grown adult was seriously asserting that Santa Claus was quite real then we would be quite rightly concerned because clearly something has … Read more