Digital Bits Skeptic

By David Annis
Article ID: 1237

 

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If you can’t disprove the existence of God, why not believe in Him?  This is a question often posed to atheists by believers.  The basic answer is that there are a lot of improbable things that I can’t disprove, but believing in them leads to a distorted view of the world.  These range from things that nobody else believes, such as the belief that there is an invisible snorg (an alien from outer space) sitting on my shoulder, to things that many believe - as an example, pick the mythology of any religion.

Bertrand Russell gave a rather famous example of an idea that can not be disproved which nobody would seriously ask an atheist to believe called Russell’s Teapot or the Celestial Teapot.  Here’s his original description: read more…

By David Annis
Article ID: 1236

 

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One frequent objection that creationists use about evolution is to question how a complex structure could evolve - what good is half an eye?  What possible evolutionary path could there be that would lead to such a complex structure?

So, how would an eye evolve?  Start with simple organisms that don’t have an eye.  In my fish tank I have a Tridacna maxima which is a saltwater clam.  It has no eyes, but if I move my hand between the light and the water in a way that makes a shadow pass over the clam, it will close its shell.  The clam has no eyes but is able to avoid predators by being able to sense light and dark.  It is easy to see how this example of something that isn’t even half an eye results in a competitive advantage.  Many organisms, not just clams, have the ability to sense light and dark.

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By Peter Booth
Article ID: 1235

 

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Mentalism is a form of performance magic that simulates the paranormal, most commonly mind-reading, predicting the future and psychokinesis.  Magicians get involved in skepticism because much of the time the so-called real psychics are doing very standard magic tricks.  But what makes the difference between appearing to be a magician and appearing to be the real deal?  Here I present a few rules for any half-decent magicians who would like to throw away their morals, break all the mirrors in their houses so they don’t have to look at themselves anymore, and most importantly, start making some real money by making the jump to pseudo-miracle worker.  Being a cold reader, for example, has an excellent profit margin!  Think of it this way:  you can charge the same prices per ticket as David Copperfield, or a world-famous rock band, and you don’t even have all that heavy stuff to carry around!  It’s just you on a stage.  That’s profit!

For many audience members, the worlds of entertainer and genuine psychic are separated only by the inclusion - or omission - of a straight-forward disclaimer.  As many mentalists will attest, some people only believe what you’re doing is real if you make an explicit statement that you’re not using tricks.  Others are the opposite and will believe it is all real unless you explicitly state you are doing tricks.  Some people will believe your ability is real, even after you’ve said you’re using trickery!  Once you’ve decided what disclaimer you are going to use, here are the four main rules of changing from magician to real psychic.

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By Tammy Buchli, Science & Reason in Hampton Roads
Article ID: 1234

 

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Everybody has a story, and most people are eager to share their stories with anyone who will listen.  A problem is that some like to use their stories as scientific evidence.  Alternative medicine advocates, in particular, love to use anecdotes in order to justify the efficacy of their wares.  After all, if something seems to work, it’s pretty easy to make the claim that it actually is working.  The problem, of course, is that anecdotal evidence can be deceptive.

My daughter, now 21 years old, is disabled with cerebral palsy.  She was diagnosed at 8 months old, and her level of disability is fairly severe.  I soon discovered that having a disabled child made us attractive to people attempting to sell alternative cures.  This was particularly obvious after we got our first home computer. Typing ‘cerebral palsy‘ into a search engine unleashed a deluge of snake oil salesmen, each of whom urged us to buy their product or service and offered a long list of satisfied customers as proof that they could help our daughter.  We chose instead to limit our daughter’s medical care to therapies which had been vetted by science.  But still… sometimes those alternative therapies seemed mighty attractive - some of these things did seem to work for some people.  Were we wrong not to take the chance that some of these cures might help our daughter?  Finally, though, an event occurred which convinced me of the error of using anecdotal evidence as the sole claim for the efficacy of a treatment or therapy.  This is our story - what I like to call anecdotal evidence against anecdotal evidence.

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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.

To get around the problem, creationists often try to separate evolution into two types, micro-evolution and macro-evolution. They argue that micro-evolution can make minor changes, but can¹t build new structures or make other major changes to organisms. Although “the attempt to differentiate between micro-evolution and macro-evolution is considered to have no scientific basis by any mainstream scientific organization” (according to Wikipedia), creationists often claim that a chain of small micro-evolutionary steps can¹t add up to a macro-evolutionary step. 

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By David Annis
Article ID: 1232

 

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The French philosopher Blaise Pascal made a famous argument, today called “Pascal’s Wager“. It says: A person cannot prove God’s existence through reason. Since by believing in God you have nothing to lose - and potentially everything to gain - you should behave and believe as if that God exists.

Nevertheless, I’m wagering against the existence of the God of evangelical Christianity, and here’s why.

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By Andy Kaiser 
Article ID: 1231

 

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Intelligent Design has come to Michigan. Michigan is my home state, so this gives me motivation to get off my big fat brain and do some research. And I have a child who will be entering the Michigan school system soon. That gives me motivation to write.

According to Michigan House Bill 6027 - sponsored by Republican John Moolenaar - Michigan is now the recipient of a so-called “academic freedom“. campaign. This bill uses language recommended by the religiously-motivated Discovery Institute.  Here’s the text of the original Michigan bill 6027. It’s subtitled with “academic freedom to teach evidence regarding controversial scientific subjects“. Here’s recommended bill text from the Discovery Institute. Compare the two and you’ll find connections, including word-for-word similarities.

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By Rodrigo Neely
Article ID: 1230

 

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Since becoming a dedicated and pro-active skeptic, I have observed some troubling trends. One is the under-representation of women. I submit that all of my data on this issue is anecdotal. But some of my anecdotes are pretty compelling. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area where I live, I’m a member of the local skeptic group, the North Texas Skeptics. I’m also the president of a skeptical club at my university. In these two areas I have seen about 1 woman for every 10 men.

This could just be Dallas-Fort Worth, but I also asked Alison Smith. She coordinates the James Randi Educational Foundation’s million dollar challenge, directs SAPS, a skeptical ghost hunting organization, and is an all-around skeptical hero. I asked her what her experience has been, and she readily acknowledges that skepticism does seem to be a sausage party.

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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.

No, as much as I’d love the symbolism, I can’t easily write this article using ten percent of my brain. Yet there are some who argue that’s what everyone does all the time. Everyone, that is, apart from a few special gifted people.

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By ScienceReasonRationality.blogspot.com
Article ID: 1228

 

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Do you want to learn how to knock out an opponent without touching them? How about learning the art of fighting ghosts with the power of “The Force“? Well, here’s your chance! Japan’s Yanagi Ryuken can teach you now. He holds a 10th degree black belt in five traditional martial arts, and his system is based on martial arts like Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu and spiritual paths like Qigong. Yanagi Ryuken supposedly won over 200 Vale Tudo competitions (these are “anything goes” fights, involving unarmed combat and minimal rules). According to the author of the video below, you need 500,000 yen (about $5,000 USD) in order to get a chance to fight with Yanagi Ryuken. However, if you win the fight, Yanagi Ryuken will pay you back double: 1,000,000 yen ($10,000 USD)! Good deal, right?

With such a confident offer and so many claimed achievements and victories, you might think there would be more written about this martial arts master. However, little more can be found. Now, watch for yourself the Jedi-like “Master” in action using the power of the “Force”.

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