Skeptic: Extraordinary Claims, Revolutionary Ideas, and the Promotion of Science
eSkeptic: the email newsletter of the Skeptics Society
Can Skeptics Tame the Internet?
Misinformation is everywhere, but nowhere more prolific than on the internet. A Google search for “homeopathy” or “UFO” returns a landslide list of mystery-mongering websites. Yes, there are a few skeptical web resources too — but a non-skeptic can be easily misled online.
On this episode, Derek & Swoopy talk with Tim Farley, a skeptic applying his 20-plus years of software development experience to the creation of advanced tools and techniques for fighting the battle against misinformation on the World Wide Web.
Tim’s popular websites include the Skeptical Software Tools blog “Skeptools” (which uses Web 2.0 techniques to aid the spread of critical thinking information online), and WhatsTheHarm.net, which has collected the stories of over 225,000 people who have been injured or killed as a result of supernatural and pseudoscientific practices from alternative medicine to hypnosis to faith healing.
Michael Shermer & Stephen Mayne head to head
over money, markets & morality
Are markets moral? Is our hunter-gatherer brain geared for modern capitalism, and do economies work like evolutionary organisms? The rise of neuroeconomics, the extinction of Homo Economicus and more…
Those were the topics discussed in last week’s ABC Radio National show All in the Mind, a debate recorded for National Science Week in Australia, with outspoken founder of the Skeptics Society, Dr Michael Shermer, and shareholder activist and Crikey founder, Stephen Mayne.
reminder of our 2008 Conference:
ORIGINS — the BIG Questions
October 3–4, 2008
Today, there is arguably no hotter topic
in culture than science & religion.
So much of the debate turns on The Big Questions that involve Origins: the origin of the universe, the origin of the ‘fine-tuned’ laws of nature, the origin of time and time’s arrow, the origin of life and complex life, and the origin of brains, minds, and consciousness. From theologians and philosophers to creationists and intelligent design theorists, the central core of almost all of their arguments centers on filling these origin gaps with God. But now science is making significant headway into providing natural explanations for these ultimate questions, which leaves us with the biggest question of all: Does science make belief in God obsolete?
Organized by the Skeptics Society and running from October 3–4, 2008, we have assembled some of the world’s greatest minds to discuss some of the world’s greatest questions at the California Institute of Technology.
This year’s speakers include:
- Dr. Sean Carroll, Senior Research Associate in Physics at Caltech
- Dr. Paul Davies, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, and author
- Dr. Stuart Kauffman, founding director, Institute for Biocomplexity and Informatics
- Dr. Christof Koch, Ph.D. (bio)-physics with a minor in Philosophy
- Dr. Kenneth Miller, Professor of Biology at Brown University
- Dr. Nancey Murphy, Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary
- Dr. Donald Prothero, Professor of Geology at Occidental College
- Dr. Hugh Ross, Ph.D. astronomy from the University of Toronto
- Dr. Victor Stenger, emeritus professor of physics and astronomy at U of Hawaii
- Dr. Leonard Susskind, the discoverer of string theory.
Hosted by:
Dr. Philip Clayton, a professor of religion and philosophy at Claremont Graduate University and Ingraham Professor at Claremont School of Theology, and Dr. Michael Shermer, the cofounder of the Skeptics Society, the Publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, the host of the Skeptics Society’s Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, and an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University.
With entertainment by:
Mr. Deity himself.