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This is both hilarious and inspiring: via Blag Hag. Your Thoughts?
Archive for the ‘Skepticism’ Category
14 Year Old Girl Evaluates Whether Bible Is Good For Children
February 25th, 2011 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Religion, Religion, Skepticism, Skepticism, Videos 
No Comments »Why Bad Beliefs Don't Die
February 25th, 2011 Daniel Fincke The thoughts of Gregory W. Lester (as edited down by John W. Loftus) (okay, now I feel like calling myself Daniel W. Fincke): Because senses and beliefs are both tools for survival and have evolved to augment one another, our brain considers them to be separate but equally important purveyors of survival information….This means that [...]
What Closed-Mindedness and Open-Mindedness Actually Entail
February 23rd, 2011 Daniel Fincke Yesterday, I offered 10 tips for religious people who want to reach out to atheists. Joseph wants me to mention one more thing: Very good! One thing that you missed and would have lived to see is the accusation from theists to us heathens that we are narrow minded or closed minded. This drives me [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Probability, Science, Science, Skepticism, Skepticism 
Tags: Closed-mindedness, Open-mindedness 2 Comments »Why, As A Skeptic, Focus So Much On Religion?
February 22nd, 2011 Daniel Fincke Matt Dillahunty explains why he focuses his skeptical energies so much on religion: Your Thoughts?
Clarifying The Relationships Between Dogmatism, Skepticism, And Properly Proportioned Belief
February 22nd, 2011 Daniel Fincke In a post last weekend entitled ”Evangelical Atheism?“ I explored the ways in which some atheists may both be called “evangelical” with some justification and yet deserve to be spared the moral approbation aimed at the most notorious kinds of theistic proselytizers. In reply Greg Teed suggested to me that atheists could not be “evangelical” in any [...]
Wakefield’s Study Linking Autism And Vaccines Was Fraudulent
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Not just bad science, we’re looking at outright fraud: Evidence published a decade ago, giving birth to the belief of a connection between vaccines and autism, has been deemed outright “fraudulent,” according to an editorial published Wednesday in the British Medical Journal. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a former British surgeon, published research in 1998 that seemed [...]
Who Cares About Atheists?
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke There are a lot of anti-atheistic responses to us that get indignant that we try to organize, have community, and make ourselves known as a public presence. A lot of people reflexively and unfairly respond to all of this by feeling it as inherently threatening and inherently rude and intolerant. The most upsetting part of [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Skepticism, Skepticism, Uncategorized Tags: Richard Wade 9 Comments »Matt & Trey Talk Skepticism
August 26th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Thanks to Hemant Mehta for this video with the South Park geniuses discussing the skeptical themes in South Park: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Comedy, Comedy, Satire, Satire, Skepticism, Skepticism, Videos Tags: Isaac Hayes, John Edward, Matt Stone, Penn Jillette, South Park, The Amazing Meeting, Trey Parker 1 Comment »Penn & Teller, Assuming The Anti-Vaxers Were Right…
August 22nd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Concisely and forcefully, they make the point that it’d better to be alive with autism than dead but without it if that were even the choice (which it is not). Or, as Penn puts it: even if vaccination did cause autism, WHICH IT FUCKING DOESN’T, anti-vaccination would still be bullshit Thanks to Sean for the [...]
Posted in Skepticism, Skepticism, Videos Tags: Anti-Anti-Vaccinations, Anti-Vaccination, anti-vaxers, Bullshit, Penn & Teller, Penn Jillette 1 Comment »Threatened With Death Penalty, Maldivian Skeptic Of Islam Recants
July 3rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke A while back I highlighted the story of a Maldivian man who was attacked by a crowd for expressing his lack of belief in Islam during the Q&A session by a the visiting Indian scholar Dr. Zakir Naik. Maldives is a state where it is illegal to not believe. Now, via Atheist Media Blog, here’s video [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Skepticism, Skepticism, Theocracy, Theocracy, Videos, World Affairs, World Affairs Tags: Maldives, Mohamed Nazim, PZ Myers, Zakir Naik 3 Comments »Sympathy For The Hate-Mailers
June 30th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Barrett Brown, the director of communications for the godless lobby “Enlighten The Vote” and a contributor to skeptic magazines, explains why he deserves all the mean e-mails he gets: In my defense, though, I didn’t choose to be either an atheist or a skeptic; rather, these were simply mindsets I came to adopt around the [...]
Posted in Atheism, Hilarious, New Atheism, Nietzsche, Nietzsche, Skepticism, Skepticism Tags: Indigo Children, New Age, Nostradamus No Comments »Disambiguating Faith: Not All Beliefs Held Without Certainty Are Faith Beliefs
June 30th, 2010 Daniel Fincke David Crowther raises a crucial point of contention: What I really want to do, is get back to the question of whether atheism is necessarily a “faith position”. If we generalize the term “faith” to mean believing or relying on something without absolute proof, than I think it is true to say that every possible [...]
Posted in Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Faith, Faith, Featured, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Language, Religion and Science, Science, Science, Skepticism, Skepticism Tags: Beliefs, Certainty, Skepticism 18 Comments »Beyond Agnosticism: More Details About How I Know Various Kinds Of Gods Do Not Exist, Based On Scientific And Philosophical Reasons
June 30th, 2010 Daniel Fincke While I agree with, and vigorously defend, the notion that there is an important difference between lacking a belief in gods (as an agnostic atheist) and believing there are no gods (as a gnostic atheist), I also think that atheists should not, based on the best available scientific evidence and philosophical arguments, merely lack belief [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Evolution, Evolution, Featured, God, God, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Problem of Evil, Problem of Evil, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Skepticism, Skepticism, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: Agnosticism, Personal God 9 Comments »Disambiguating Faith: Why Faith Is Unethical (Or “In Defense Of The Ethical Obligation To Always Proportion Belief To Evidence”)
June 21st, 2010 Daniel Fincke A couple of weeks ago, I argued that there was a real distinction between “lacking a belief in any God or gods” on the one hand and “believing there is no God (or gods)” on the other hand. Primarily I saw the heart of the distinction as resting with the difference between on the one [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Authority, Autonomy, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Disambiguating Faith, Duty, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Evidence, Faith, Featured, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Law, Metaethics, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Politics, Rationalism, Religion, Religious Extremism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Skepticism, Teleology, Virtues, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: Agnostic Atheism, Agnostic Theism, Belief, Belief Apportioned To Evidence, Evolutionary Epistemology, Evolutionary Ethics, Gnostic Atheism, Gnostic Theism, Indirect Consequentialism, Moral Formalism, Moral Rationalism, Principle of Sufficient Reason, Rational Belief 10 Comments »Here Be Dragons
June 19th, 2010 Daniel Fincke A well produced introductory film on how to think critically when sifting through pseudo-scientific pop culture from Brian Dunning, author of Skeptoid: Critical Analysis Of Pop Phenomena and the podcaster and blogger behind Skeptoid. It’s a terrific, lively, highly informative resource, especially for your less critical and informed friends. (thanks to Ky for the link) Your [...]
Posted in Skepticism Tags: Brian Dunning, Critical Thinking, Pseudoscience, Skeptoid, Superstition No Comments »Jennifer Michael Hecht On The History Of Doubt And Atheism
June 18th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Here is Jennifer Michael Hecht, author of Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson at Hampshire College in 2007 discussing the the wrote the complicated history of doubt and atheism: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheism, Atheist Videos, History, Secularism, Skepticism, Videos Tags: Doubt, History of Atheism, History of Doubt, Jennifer Michael Hecht No Comments »Michael Shermer On “The Pattern Behind Self-Deception”
June 14th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Shermer does TED and explains how two of the brain’s most basic, hard-wired traits, useful for survival, backfire on us: Your Thoughts?
“Skipping Sunday School”: A Documentary On Parenting Without Religion And Growing Up Godless
June 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke (via Atheist Nexus) Learn more about the topic and the film here. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Film, Moral Psychology, Psychology, Secularism, Skepticism, Social Sciences Tags: "Skipping Sunday School", Atheist Parenting, brother richard haynes, Dale McGowan, Documentary, ed buckner, extended trailer, Growing Up Godless, indie film, Parenting Beyond Belief, reel, Roy Speckhardt, sizzle, todd stiefel, Trailer No Comments »Disambiguating Faith: How A Lack Of Belief In God May Differ From Various Kinds Of Beliefs That Gods Do Not Exist
June 7th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Yesterday on Friendly Atheist there was a vigorous debate in the comments section about whether there is a real and important difference between claiming one lacks belief in God (or gods) and outright claiming that there is no God (or gods). Here is a nice formulation of the argument that the distinction is an irrelevant [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethics, Evidence, Faith, Featured, God, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Metaphysics, New Atheism, Philosophy, Problem of Evil, Skepticism, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: Agnostic Atheism, Agnostic Theism, Agnosticism, Friendly Atheist, Gnostic Atheism, Gnostic Theism, theism 24 Comments »Derren Brown Investigates Bronnikov’s Claims To Make The Blind See
May 23rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Even if you do not have time or much interest in watching the entire 5 part exposure of the shameless fraud profiled in this video, at least do yourself a favor and watch part 5 in which he is forced to answer direct face-to-face challenges from Derren Brown. It is a true treat to watch [...]
If You Know The Bible, You Know It Is Riddled With Clear Contradictions
April 26th, 2010 Daniel Fincke NonStampCollector provides a hilariously fun, rapid-paced, guide to biblical contradictions through a cartoon quiz show. This video is, in short, a great resource which every Christian should take to heart and every atheist should memorize and have available for making the case against biblical credibility as in any way divinely guaranteed: Here’s a handy list [...]
Posted in Atheist Videos, Bible, Christianity, Comedy, Faith, God, Hilarious, Jesus, New Atheism, Parody, Religious Satire, Satire, Skepticism, Videos, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: 1 Chronicles 11:11, 1 Chronicles 18:4, 1 Chronicles 21:25, 1 Chronicles 21:5, 1 Corinthians 14:33, 1 John 4:8, 1 Kings 15:11-12, 1 Timothy 6:16, 2 Chronicles 15:12-13, 2 Kings 2:11, 2 Peter 3:10, 2 Samuel 23:8, 2 Samuel 24:24, 2 Samuel 24:9, 2 Samuel 8:4, 70 Elders of Israel, Abraham, Acts 1:18, Acts 22:9, Acts 2:44-45, Acts 4:34-37, Acts 9:7, Ascension, Bible As Unreliable Historical Testimony, Biblical Contradictions, Biblical Corporate Solidarity, Biblical Death Penalties, Biblical Discrepancies, Biblical Inerrancy, Biblical Inerrantism, Biblical Infallibilism, Biblical Infallibility, Biblical Literacy, Cartoons, Corporate Solidarity, Deuteronomy 13:13-16, Deuteronomy 17:12, Deuteronomy 24:16, Deuteronomy 5:9, Ecclesiastes 1:4, Empty Tomb, Exodus 20:24, Exodus 21:15, Exodus 22:20, Exodus 24:9-11, Exodus 31:12-15, Exodus 33:11, Exodus 33:20, Exodus 34:6, Galations 2:16, Genesis 12:7, Genesis 1:25-27, Genesis 2:18-19, Genesis 32:30, Genesis Creation Account, God's Wrath, Herod, Isaiah 1;14, Isaiah 40:28, Isaiah 43:24, Isaiah 45:7, Jacob, James 2:24, Jeremiah 17:4, Jeremiah 7:22, Jesus Curses Fig Tree, Jesus Healing Blind Men Near Jericho, Joab, John 19:1-2, John 1:18, John 20:1, John 20:12, John 3:13, Judas, Justification By Faith Alone, Justification By Works, King David, Leviticus 20:10, Leviticus 20:13, Leviticus 20:27, Leviticus 20:9, Leviticus 21:9, Leviticus 24:10-16, Luke 10:26-28, Luke 12:33, Luke 14:33, Luke 18:22, Luke 18:35, Luke 23:11, Luke 23:39-42, Luke 23:45-46, Luke 24:10, Luke 24:2, Luke 24:4, Luke 2:1, Luke 6:24, Mark 10:46, Mark 11:12-17, Mark 15:32, Mark 15:37-38, Mark 16:1, Mark 16:5, Matthew 17-19, Matthew 19:17, Matthew 20:30, Matthew 21:12, Matthew 27:27-28, Matthew 27:44, Matthew 27:5, Matthew 27:50-51, Matthew 28:1, Matthew 28:2, Matthew 2:1, Matthew 7:24, Micah 7:18, Moses, NonStampCollector, Pilate, Psalm 112:1-3, Resurrection of Jesus, Romans 3:28, Seeing God, Temptation, The Thieves Crucified With Jesus, Zechariah 13:3 No Comments »How To Create A Ghost Illusion
October 31st, 2009 Daniel Fincke Extremely cool: And for a little bonus, here Brown demonstrates some amazing seance tricks. His skills in the dark are rather astounding. Your Fears?
Posted in Skepticism, Videos Tags: "Science of Scams", Derren Brown, Ghosts, Magic Tricks No Comments »What Does It Matter If People Who Claim To “Know Jesus” Disagree About What Jesus Thinks—Can’t Some Still Be Right?
October 29th, 2009 Daniel Fincke Last night (or, more technically, “this morning) I posted a Non-Stamp Collector advertisement and as a bonus threw in a video in which he demonstrates the implausibility of people’s claims to have “personal relationships with Jesus” by making the point that people claiming to “know Jesus” constantly contradict each other about exactly what this Jesus [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheist Videos, Featured, Jesus, Parody, Religion, Satire, Skepticism, Videos Tags: Extraordinary Claims, Personal Relationship With Jesus No Comments »
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