I’ve had my first experience of a comment hanging in the air for what seemed like a whole minute, during a conversation with friends this month. The comment, damning of religion, was uttered by a delightful person who also happens to be a fervent Christian. It all began with discussion about the troubled Sony Pictures […]
Skepticism
Category: Skepticism
Why I’m proud to be a Skeptic
Three things this week confirmed to me that skepticism is a noble, genuine, honest and helpful worldview to live by. The events were: An admission of flawed thinking The welcoming of someone holding a contrarian position The baseless claims of a frustrated snake oil merchant For me, skepticism is about a discipline of seeking evidence […]
The Frankenfish Fallacy: How interest groups suck us in
Have you seen in Facebook recently, the links to a petition entitled, Stop The Frankenfish Attack? It is worth a read if you want to study propaganda creation. There are so many underhanded communication tricks and so much misinformation that we should create a new type of logical fallacy called The Frankenfallacy. In fact, this spurious piece […]
The car washing causes rain fallacy: Post hoc ergo propter hoc
Have you ever thought about washing your car and then seen that it is about to rain? Recently, one of my sisters popped over and mentioned how typical it was that it was about to rain because she had just washed her car. While this is a common form of logical fallacy – A happened, […]
An library of skeptical enquiry
The most attractive thing I find about being part of the skeptical movement, is the unquenchable sense of curiosity that inspires skeptics to understand the ‘reason’ behind various claims and beliefs. I am also greatly attracted by the focus on critical thinking skills. Too many of us are too lazy with our thinking, which feeds […]