Digital Bits Skeptic

By David Annis
Article ID: 1233

 

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Evolution can easily be observed in the laboratory and in the world around us.  We can see moths evolve their coloring to match the color of soot that covers their habitat, watch bacteria evolve antibiotic resistance in hospitals, and my favorite variety of grapefruit (that’s Rio Star) was made by scientists who exposed seeds to radiation to increase the mutation rate.  In the face of such overwhelming evidence - including knowing the exact DNA changes effecting such change - it is impossible for the creationists to deny evolution with a straight face.

Continue reading ‘Macro-evolution observed in the laboratory’ »

By Andy Kaiser 
Article ID: 1229

 

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In writing this article, I tried to use ten percent of my brain. I really did. But I got stuck pretty fast on the method of how to actually use only ten percent of my brain. There seem to be many ways to go about it. For example, I could just think this article in my head, and only write down every tenth word. But the results would be incomprehensible. I could decrease my writing quality to 10% of its usual stellar technique. But that would be annoying for any future readers. I could remove 90% of my writing tools, and type this article using only one finger. But that would just slow me down significantly, when I’d be getting the same final result. Wait: I could encode the characters in this article into their base-10 ASCII equivalents. I’d then take the resulting numeric string and increase its value by a factor of 10, then convert the results back from ASCII into plain text. Mathematical perfection. Granted, it would be unreadable mathematical perfection. That’s counterintuitive to the purpose of Digital Bits Skeptic, so maybe that’s not the best idea.

Continue reading ‘The ten percent of the brain myth: a fractional truth’ »

By David Annis
Article ID: 1226

 

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In the late 1850s, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace introduced the world to the theory of evolution. The theory of evolution is a scientific hypothesis that describes how species descended from a common ancestor, diversifying to produce the myriad species that we see today. 

Continue reading ‘Evolution makes testable predictions’ »

by Andy Kaiser 
Article ID: 1218

 

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Continue reading ‘Christopher Hitchens debates Peter Hitchens: Hitchens vs. Hitchens video and writeup’ »

By Andy Kaiser 
Article ID: 1111

 

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Continue reading ‘Book review of “The Flight of Dragons” by Peter Dickinson: How dragons could have evolved and existed’ »

By Sandra L Hubscher
Article ID: 117

Introduction to Apophenia 

August Strindberg, the early 20^th century Swedish playwright, chronicles in Inferno/From an Occult Diary his descent into what would likely be diagnosed as schizophrenia in modern times: Continue reading ‘Apophenia: Definition and Analysis’ »

By Andy Kaiser 
Article ID: 114

What’s the harm in New Age beliefs? What’s the harm in a non-questioning acceptance of religion? Is anyone really hurt if you give money to television psychics, or worship any particular brand of god? In fact, let’s look broader than the umbrella of religion, New Age and superstitious beliefs. Let’s examine credulity.

Continue reading ‘What’s the harm in believing? Reasons for skeptical thought and critical thinking’ »