The Availability Heuristic is a well-known cognitive bias that primes people to more readily believe something when they can easily come up with examples. Of the cognitive biases that I’ve encountered among rationalists in the skeptical and atheist communities, this bias is the one I’m most capable of coming up with examples. I am therefore …
Tag Archive: skepticism
Apr 07 2013
Giving my very lifeblood for skepticism at #SkepTech
Oh man, SkepTech was a blast this weekend. Maybe a bit TOO jam-packed with epicness, though; such that I ended up missing several panels just getting food or, say, giving blood. Yesterday I gave blood for the first time ever. It’s something I’ve always meant to do, but every time there was a blood drive …
Mar 10 2013
Has a grad student invented the instant wound cure?
If this is true — and I have to admit more than a little skepticism about this, given the just-so story near the end — it could be the single biggest medical breakthrough in decades. You know how in Mass Effect, characters can take life-threatening damage and after one little button-press, they’re right back in …
Jan 11 2013
Adam Lee’s petition to leaders: more diversity, less “shunning” by anti-feminists
A petition to leaders of secular and atheist groups to disregard the nonsense that Thunderfoot passed around to them, you say? We, the undersigned, are atheists, skeptics and nonbelievers who value free speech and rational thought and who seek to build a strong, thriving movement that can advocate effectively for these values. We’ve chosen to …
Nov 20 2012
Debbie Goddard is CFI’s new Director of Outreach
Holy hell, this is great. I am 100% behind this choice by CFI — if anyone knows outreach, it’s Debbie Goddard. The CFI press release: The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is proud to announce that Debbie Goddard, formerly CFI’s campus outreach coordinator, has accepted the position of Director of Outreach. She replaces Lauren Becker in …
Oct 23 2012
Martin S Pribble on “The Hyper-Skeptic Problem”
Sorry. It’s shaping up to be another one of those weeks. Seems a lot of us around these parts are being struck with Real Life all at once. I don’t have it as bad as some, certainly, but I’m pretty swamped out at the moment. So I’m more than happy to spread around what few …
Sep 10 2012
It’s happening everywhere
No, not “to everyone”. Everywhere. io9 talks about three of our communities – skepticism/atheism, sci-fi fandom, and computer hacker culture. But it’s also happening in comics, in video games, in the movie industry. In every area where a woman tries to improve their lot, or to break those rigid gender roles by entering areas that …
Aug 19 2012
A new atheism
The Rifts are Deepening, it would seem. Jen McCreight laments that she had no idea exactly how prevalent the misogyny, privilege, irrationality, and Boys Club mentality all are in the atheist and skeptic movements before she got involved. Honestly, me neither. I was exactly what a Boy’s Club wanted. I was a young, not-hideous woman …
Aug 04 2012
An MRA explains Christianity
Turns out Christianity was never a bid to control men by other men — it was invented by women as a way of subjugating them to the Gynocracy, according to an MRA that Dave Futrelle has so kindly pointed us all to. But it’s not JUST that Mary Magdalene was the first wave of the …
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I have opinions. So do you. You want to share them with me. I would like to do likewise. Please don't expect a platform for proselytizing that will go unchecked and unchallenged, though.
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Contact me via these services:
I reserve the right to publish any contact, especially if it's hateful or ridiculous.
Not detailed enough to allow for proper stalking? Please read my Hello Freethought Blogs post. I promise* it will include my favorite style of underwear.
* Not a real promise
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