Categories
Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Choprawoo and magical thinking: Two crappy tastes that taste crappy together

There I was, puttering around the Internet trying to procrastinate while writing yet another grant, when I came across a truly inane article by Scott Adams arguing that the entire universe must be intelligent because processes that lead to products of intelligent (machines, books, etc., made by us) must also be intelligent. (At least I […]

Categories
Announcements Skepticism/critical thinking

Last minute warning

Here’s just another friendly reminder that the latest edition of the Skeptics’ Circle, that now-venerable blog carnival dedicated to critical thinking and skepticism, is due to appear this week on Thursday, February 1 at Slicing with Occam’s Razor. (Hmmm, that’s mighty close to Groundhog’s Day.) So, if you’re a blogger and have written something that […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Acupuncture for Parkinson’s disease?

Critics who don’t like my insistence on applying the scientific method to the claims of alternative medicine sometimes accuse me of unrelenting hostility towards alternative medicine, as though no amount of evidence would ever convince me of the efficacy of various alternative medicine therapies. Nothing could be further from the truth; I merely insist, as […]

Categories
Complementary and alternative medicine Friday Woo Medicine Skepticism/critical thinking

Your Friday Dose of Woo: The hills are alive with the sound of woo

After posting about the Donnie Davies, an alleged “youth minister” in Houston who has garnered a lot of attention throughout the blogosphere for his website in which he provides a hilariously off-base list of “gay bands” to avoid and “safe” bands, I was perusing my Folder of Woo, looking for this week’s target, but it […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics Skepticism/critical thinking

Too fast to label others as “conspiracy-mongers”?

The other day, I did a reality check on a story making the rounds through the blogosphere about an alleged new cure for cancer that, if you believe some hysterical bloggers, is being suppressed because it would cut into their profits. I took one blogger to task for what I characterized as the “utterly ridiculous […]