Archive for the tag Skepticism
Wi-fi Fever?
According to this latest journalistic masterpiece of the intellectually outstanding newspaper The Sun, an English DJ named Steve Miller is allergic to electromagnetic radiation. He’s not allergic to just any frequency, but to signals at 2.4 Gigahertz. In other words, Steve gets nauseous because you just happen to surf the intertubes using Wireless LAN. You are polluting his aether!
Click here to see a simple animation explaining the principles of frequency and wavelength.
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity, as this form of allergy is called, is a known phenomena in the medical literature. However, evidence that this is actually a real condition is lacking. Still, people who have vague symptoms claim it is caused by all the electromagnetic radiation around us, and in certain cases they are even trying to ban Wi-Fi (and other electromagnetic signals) in public buildings and private dwellings. Beam me to the rest of this article»
Molecular Leitmotif
A Creationist commenter on the Unicorn Museum website regurgitated a huge section of an old Michael Behe article. For those “not in the know”, Behe is an intelligent design proponent from the Discovery Institute who coined the principle of “irreducible complexity”. In a nutshell, irreducible complexity means that if some biological structure or function seems so complex that the observed cannot think of a way to explain the entire evolutionary process in detail, then the answer automatically is “God did it”. Although this is a clear example of Argumentum ad Ignorantiam, it still remains a powerful argument aimed to win over laymen to the evolution deniers camp.
In the article Behe wrote:
Each of the anatomical steps and structures [with regards to vision] that Darwin thought were so simple actually involves staggeringly complicated biochemical processes that cannot be papered over with rhetoric. Darwin’s simple steps are now revealed to be huge leaps between carefully tailored machines. Thus biochemistry offers a Lilliputian challenge to Darwin. Now the black box of the cell has been opened and a Lilliputian world of staggering complexity stands revealed. It must be explained.
This argument makes two false assumptions: first, that the entire biochemical cascade evolved as is, and second, that all the proteins involved evolved dependently of each other. This is far removed from the biological reality: life uses, re-uses, recycles and remixes common “motifs”! Therefore, the proteins and their functional subsections called domains, in the vision pathway and in other complex pathways, can evolve independently of all the other proteins.
I will address this failure in logic once I have more time. For now, a good break-down of the fallacies in Michael Behe’s book Darwin’s Black Box can be found at the wonderful Talk Origins website.
Childhood Origins of Resistance to Evolution
This is an old, unpolished file I dragged up from my folder filled with notes and clutter. Come back daily till the 12th of February for the Darwin Day advent posts and links!
In a 2002-2003 study about a third of American adults indicated that evolution is “absolutely false” (Miller et al. 2006). Disturbing as these results might be, the origin of this misconception concerning life’s humble origins lies not solely with, as one might expect, religious fundamentalism or plain ignorance. Don’t resist! Read more»
Book Review: The Age of American Unreason
True! American intellectual culture is even more depleted than the elusive, Iraqi uranium stockpiles that apparently have been depleted into non-existence. Susan Jacoby makes that point come across clearly and quite eloquently. Filled with interesting details and plenty of harsh criticism, Jacoby has written an interesting tome on, among other things, why Americans are so obsessed with folksy people (George W. Bush, anyone?), and why so many Americans fear “intellectual elitists” (Obama, anyone?). Continue reading this post»
Haggard’s Law
It seems to happen so often: a public figure bashes everything he or she considers to be wrong or sinful, to later be caught involved in what he or she so denounces. Mark Foley tried to lure young guys in his bed. Larry Craig was found tap-dancing for some action in an airport bathroom stall. Glenn Murphy Jr. deliberately got guys drunk so he could give an oral examination. And the list goes on!
Well, I non-statistically analysed all these observations and discovered Haggard’s Law! Continue reading this post»
A Divine Case of Stomach Flu
A recent outbreak of a gastrointestinal norovirus (a severe stomach flu causing virus) claimed the lives of four elderly psychiatric patients in The Netherlands. Outbreaks like these are not uncommon, but the source of this particular outbreak might come as a surprise: the Roman Catholic pilgrimage town of Lourdes. Time for a pilgrimage?»
The Scarlet Letter of Atheism
Note:
This is a double post from Skeptivism.com.
Recently, Professor Richard Dawkins launched The OUT Campaign, as a call to arms for atheists to “come out of the atheist closet”.As it says on the website:
Atheists are far more numerous than most people realize. COME OUT of the closet! You’ll feel liberated, and your example will encourage others to COME OUT too.
One of the ways you can also speak out is by adding a red scarlet letter of atheism to your website. Unfortunately, the website only provides one big scarlet letter ‘A’ on a white background. Since one choice equals no choice, I have created a different kind of banner.
Continue reading this post»
Ask for a new lung, not a new car!
Every morning of the work week I take a shuttle bus between the uptown and downtown campus, and every morning the driver is listening to this local radio show. The host of the show always has this “inspirational” moment which usually results in inspiring me to get a stroke. Today, the host went on and on about how you should expect God to give what you ask for. “If you ask God for something, be ready to receive! If you ask Him for a new car, be prepared by cleaning out your garage!” Obviously, this tripe made my blood pressure rise to a four digit mmHg, but it also opened my eyes to an age-old question. Why, if God is all-loving, is there suffering and evil in the world? I now know the answer: because God is too busy handing out new cars!
While little Jimmy is asking God for a new lung in the little spare time he has left between coughing fits caused by his Cystic Fibrosis , God is handing out Camaro’s to a bunch of WGOD listeners. While some poor girl in some war zone is asking God to make him prevent the soldiers of abusing and killing her, our Lord is giving away some SUVs in his Summer Prayer Sweepstakes!
And suddenly Christianity all makes sense: God is a material girl in a material world.
Horoscopes: The Gullibility and Stupidity Effect
Although it is likely that I do not know you, seeing how many individuals surf the internet, I do know a great deal about your personality. Let me analyze you:
“You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others’ statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.”