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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

I know you are, but what am I?

Denialism. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. The story might be apocryphal, and it might not even be true, but it’s often used as a metaphor. I’m referring to the “boiling frog” story. Basically, the idea is supposedly based on an observation that a frog, […]

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Biology Evolution Medicine Pseudoscience Science Skepticism/critical thinking

A deviously clever plan to destroy Darwinism once and for all

Every so often, real life intrudes on blogging, preventing the creation of fresh Insolence, at least Insolence of the quality that you’ve come to expect. This is one of those times, and it doesn’t help that it’s a holiday week plus a week I was traveling. So I dug way back into the archives, back […]

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Biology Humor Pareidolia Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Looking for Jesus in all the wrong places

I have a soft spot for pareidolia, as regular readers know. It amuses me to no end to see Jesus and Mary popping up on freeway underpasses, tacos, toast, pieces of sheet metal, Lava Lamps, and the like. I thought that I had seen it all–until now: His image has been seen on rocks, windows […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Fighting the “acid” of negative (e)motions?

If there’s one quack who both amuses and appalls me at the same time, it’s Robert O. Young. You remember Robert O. Young, don’t you? He’s the guy who thinks that all disease is caused by excess acid. I’ve written about him quite a few times over the last several years. For instance, he amused […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Medicine Politics Quackery Religion Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Politics versus science

I’ve always been reluctant to attribute antiscientific attitudes to one political persuasion or another–and justly so, or so I thought. While it’s true that antiscience on the right is definitely more prominent these days, with the Republican candidates conducting virtual seminars on how to deny established science. Evolution? They don’t believe in it because, apparently, […]