Category: Science

Joe’s Grand Fantasy, Part One

You keep using that word...

I’ve written about Joe Cienkowski on a previous occasion. Some of you may already be familiar with Joe and his ideas about evolution and atheism. I’ve had brief exchanges with Joe on Twitter, and though we disagree, we keep things fairly cordial. Someone was kind enough to recently provide me with one of Joe’s self-published …

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A Poster Boy for the Dunning-Kruger Effect

Atheist cat finds your prayer cute, but ultimately futile.

Many people are not familiar with the term Dunning-Kruger Effect. The linked Wikipedia article begins with a very good description: The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which an unskilled person makes poor decisions and reaches erroneous conclusions, but their incompetence denies them the metacognitive ability to realize their mistakes. The unskilled therefore suffer …

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Does Jesus Heal Today? Ummm… No.

Could I have a moment? I'm calling bullshit.

While driving east on University Avenue in Champaign, Illinois, I was presented with the sight of this billboard. I found that I was not the only person in town who noticed the billboard, and was a bit insulted by it. [I’m not offended by it, as it takes much more to actually offend me.] A …

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Cancer and Stages

When I first heard that Christopher Hitchens has cancer, I was a bit saddened. It meant that there was a higher probability that an author who I admire might write fewer words for me to enjoy. The news was a bit closer to home for me than some others because I had been diagnosed with …

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Accommodation Will Not Work

The accommodationists and their ilk continue to demean us loudmouthed, brash New Atheists atheists while claiming that their own soft, warm, and fuzzy approach is the only way to reach out to the public (particularly its religious majority). As evidence of my claim, I wish to present the following information. A Letter from Nature 465, …

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Is Religion Compatible With Science?

I keep hearing the accommodationist mantra that religion is compatible with science (or vice versa). There have recently been issues regarding a person who happens to be a skeptic, while at the same time being Christian (of the Roman Catholic sect), becoming upset that her religious ideas were openly ridiculed by other skeptics. There have …

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Nothing’s Gonna Change My World

As many of the people who might read this blog already know, I was recently diagnosed as having Hodgkin’s Disease, or Hodgkin Lymphoma as they prefer to call it now. That was on the 19th of May, just one month ago. I have cancer. I don’t know any way to explain how that makes me …

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Congratulations and Kudos to RenewAmerica.com

To be honest and fair to RenewAmerica, I preface this post with the disclaimer that the views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates. Congratulations! Yes, I wish to heartily congratulate RenewAmerica.com for a magnanimous contribution to our society. Many institutions are either …

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Why Laugh at Religion?

Why not? httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiW7prxL-Tk The above video, titled “Laughing at Religion”, was edited together from various sources by FactVsReligion, a very intelligent and funny YouTube user. In the event that you enjoyed the first one, she’s also put together a sequel:

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What is Biological Evolution? (and Why do Creationists Not Understand the Answer?)

When I engage in conversations with creationists regarding the Theory of Evolution, I nearly always encounter the same problem: They don’t know what evolution is. They frequently to refer to evolution as ‘Darwinism’. In this context, evolution refers to biological evolution. I am not a biologist. I do, however, know how to find information and …

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