Newsweek published a cover story by Eben Alexander, a neurosurgeon who claims to have visited heaven while in a coma resulting from bacterial meningitis. Religious believers have predictably jumped all over the story as proof that their beliefs are correct, that we have a soul that is entirely separate from the body and that after …
Category Archive: Skepticism
Sep 28 2012
Wash. Post Reports on Popular New Form of Woo
Are you tired of traditional medicine and its artificial restrictions on “natural healing”? Do you have a chronic pain or illness that needs to be fixed? Maybe you should have someone scrape your back with a kitchen spoon. But be sure to give it an Asian name so you can convince yourself that it’s vaguely …
Sep 23 2012
Sean Carroll: Servant of Satan
A few years ago I had the good fortune to be speaking on a panel with Sean Carroll — the cosmologist, not the paleontologist — at a conference in Chicago. After being quoted in an MSNBC article, someone at the Catholic Answers Forum called him a “servant of Satan.” But here’s my favorite comment, from …
Sep 16 2012
Polish ‘Exorcists’ Get Their Own Magazine
The Catholic exorcism business in Poland is growing so fast that it’s actually getting an entire magazine devoted to the subject, called Egzorcysta. Who says religious lunacy isn’t a growth sector for the economy? Raw Story reports:
Sep 06 2012
The Importance of Comparative Religion
I have long argued, based on my own experiences, that the study of other religions is one of the best ways to lose your faith in the religion you were raised with. Brian Jay Stanley makes a similar point in this essay, part of a larger piece, in Sun Magazine.
Aug 24 2012
The Latest in Pyramidiocy
You’ve probably seen the image below, or some version of it, on Facebook or elsewhere. It’s usually accompanied by breathless gee-whiz exclamations or even talk of how brilliant and advanced and ahead of their time the Egyptians were to build the pyramids where they would line up so perfectly with astronomical objects.
Aug 23 2012
Chiropractor Exploits Aurora Shootings
In the wake of any tragic event, especially one that involves someone killing people, we get a mad rush of purported explanations for why the shooter did what he did — religion, or lack of religion, or gun control, or no gun control, or violent video games, or Judas Priest records. But here’s a press …
Aug 16 2012
The Deepak Chopra School of Prayer
Wow, this column in an Idaho newspaper really has to be seen to be believed. It’s from a local resident, writing in response to the Cranston prayer mural controversy, and there is some serious fertilizer being spread. It reads like something straight out of a Chopra lecture:
Aug 09 2012
‘Psychic’ Fraud Comes Clean
Mark Edward, a former “psychic” and now a member of the editorial board of Skeptic and a big supporter of the work of James Randi, has a new book out called Psychic Blues, in which he argues that the vast majority of “psychics” are con artists (the rest may actually believe they have an ability …
Jul 31 2012
CSI Exposes Astrology Scam
Sharon Hill has an article on the Committee for Scientific Investigation website that exposes, yet again, the fraud of astrology. She begins by citing a statement from astrologer Susan Miller: “What I do is scientific. Astrology involves careful methods learned over years and years of training and experience.” Yes, you can laugh now. Hill responds:
Jul 30 2012
‘Psychics’ Give Tips on Missing Girls
Two young girls from Evansdale, Iowa have disappeared and the people in that area are searching far and wide to find them. The local sheriff’s department have been looking for more than two weeks and there’s a $50,000 reward being offered. But they’re getting exactly the wrong kind of “help” from dozens of ‘psychics.’
Jul 30 2012
The Unreality of Reality TV — Or Why NatGeo Should Be Ashamed
One of the more irritating things about the Discovery Channel and the National Geographic Channel, which purport to be pro-science and educational, is how often they put on shows that push egregious nonsense instead of critical thinking. And a new NatGeo show about UFOs is so bad that even the stars of the show are …
Jul 24 2012
People Burned at Tony Robbins Publicity Stunt
I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hate Tony Robbins (and every other motivational speaker — but especially him). Here’s another good reason why, because he pulls stupid stunts like having people walk on hot coals.
Jul 18 2012
Another Crying Virgin Mary Appears
You gotta hand it to the Virgin Mary — for a dead person, she sure gets around. Catholics are often virtually obsessed with her and they tend to lose their minds when they see her on a tortilla or a potato chip. And when she bleeds? Well that’s just a full-on celebration:
Jul 18 2012
Skeptics Greet Sylvia Browne
A group of skeptics protested a Sylvia Browne show at the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas during TAM last week. I almost did the same thing when she was at a casino here in Michigan, but I didn’t have time to put it together. I think this should happen everywhere she appears.
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