Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths: Eastern, New Age Beliefs Widespread
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Religion, the occult, and politics
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Tag Archives: skepticism
Science and the media
Great column by haddayr.
Two thumbs up!
Roger Ebert wrote:
New Age beliefs are the Creationism of the Progressives. I move in circles where most people would find it absurd to believe that humans didn’t evolve from prehistoric ancestors, yet many of these same people quite happily believe in astrology, psychics, reincarnation, the Tarot deck, the i Ching, and sooth-saying.
If you were attending a dinner party of community leaders in Dallas, Atlanta, Omaha or Colorado Springs and the conversation turned to religion, a chill might fall on the room if you confessed yourself an atheist. Yet at a dinner party of the nicest and brightest in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and (especially) Los Angeles, if the hostess began to confide about past lives, her Sign and yours, and her healing crystals, it might not go over so well if you confessed you thought she was full of it.
Via Bad Astronomy
Antivax nonsense
jeff_duntemann linked to Amy Wallace’s article: An Epidemic of Fear: How Panicked Parents Skipping Shots Endangers Us All, an excellent article about the anti-vaccination movement. Continue reading
UFO Update
Good News!
Judge clears way for dinosaur park to be seized
A federal judge has cleared the way for the government’s seizure of a creationism theme park in Pensacola owned by a couple convicted of tax fraud.
A ruling by U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers states that the nine properties that make up Dinosaur Adventure Land as well as two bank accounts associated with the park will be used to satisfy $430,400 owed to the federal government.
Via Skepchick
The rehabilitation of a useful phrase
The “Rule of Thumb for Wife-Beating” Hoax
The Straight Dope
The Phrase Finder
Chowder, Gig, Pipsqueak, Mayhem, Nonplussed and The Real Rule of Thumb
No Uncertain Terms
Origin(s) of “Rule of Thumb”
European Men Profeminist Network
Apparently back in the 1700’s some judge said there was such a law, and the story has been freely passed on from then without being checked. In fact the ordinary innocuous usage is considerably older.
I am pleased that the phrase can be used again. “Heuristic” is just too geeky in most circumstances, even for me.
(Following up on a Facebook note by my old friend Sister Edith Bogue)
Cereal with nuts
Convention Game
Pin the Disease to Jenny McCarthy
A humorous look at a very serious issue.
From Bug Girl‘s entertaining Con Report.
For the record: mia_mcdavid and I have two children. Both are on the autistic spectrum. T is fully autistic (non-verbal) and J has Asperger’s Syndrome. Both received all the usual childhood vaccinations. We have no regrets about this.
Convergence 2009
Convergence 2009 was a good con, though the sheer size of it exposed a basic structural flaw. In most of my decades in fandom, the social aspects of a convention have been more important than the programming. However, the highlight of this Convergence was one of the programming tracks. It was the most interesting programming I have seen in the several Convergences we have attended. The problem was with the party space: The parties of an ever-growing convention are squeezed into a finite and now very crowded space.
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From Hilbert Space to Dilbert Space, and beyond 