The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

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15-03-04

Announcing a new documentary: Merchants of Doubt; The Moral Arc book tour in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and New York; Michael Shermer responds to book reviews of The Moral Arc; and El D20ablo — The Satanic Panic & Role-Playing Games

15-02-25

The Skeptics Society conference, May 29–31, 2015; On The Moral Arc Blog: “Why Islam?” by Michael Shermer; The Daily Beast’s Jake Whitney Reviews The Moral Arc; “Poes, Trolls, and Dinosaur Deniers,” by Donald Prothero; “Gotcha! Thinking About Skeptical ‘Stings’,” by Daniel Loxton; “Considering a Complaint About Skeptical Tactics,” by Daniel Loxton; io9 interviews Daniel Loxton

15-02-18

We are thrilled to announce that the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist and atheist activist Richard Dawkins will be participating in the Skeptics Society’s annual conference at Caltech Friday–Sunday May 29–31, joining our galaxy of science stars: Jared Diamond, Esther Dyson, John McWhorter, Ian Morris, Carol Tavris, Greg Benford, David Brin, & Donald Prothero.

15-02-11

In this week’s eSkeptic: The Village Effect; Watch The Moral Arc lecture, recorded at Caltech; Read Michael Shermer’s Scientific American column for February; INSIGHT: Video critique of a viral archery video, Newsrooms Building Online Tools Skeptics Can Use; What the Empirical Evidence REALLY Says about Rock, Paper, Scissors; Mr. Deity and The Atheist

15-02-04

Rent Sam Harris’ “Waking Up” on Vimeo On Demand; Read Insights on Shakespeare, ghosts, and the Simpsons; Hear Bill Nye on Skepticality; mark your calendar for Shermer lecture on The Moral Arc at Caltech

15-01-28

Registration is now open for the 2015 Skeptics Society Conference, at Caltech’s Beckman Auditorium (May 29–31 2015). The theme for this conference is: “In the Year 2525: Big Science, Big History, and the Far Future of Humanity.”

15-01-21

In this week’s eSkeptic, Gary Whittenberger examines Miklos Jako’s “Soft Theism” God postulated in Jako’s article “In Defense of Soft Theism,” which appeared in Skeptic Magazine 19.2 (2014). Whittenberger argues that, when considering the origins of existence, we don’t need to step outside the boundaries of science.

15-01-14

Some might characterize the faith-inspired murder of satirical cartoonists as shocking. But the prospect of violent reprisal for religious criticism was hardly inconceivable to the now-deceased artists of Charlie Hebdo. In this week’s eSkeptic, Kenneth Krause describes potential relationships between religion and violence, and questions whether these murders would seem possible in the absence of religious devotion to an allegedly all-powerful god.

15-01-07

In this week’s eSkeptic, Michael Shermer discusses race relations and the law in America through the lens of Max Weber’s 1919 theory on “legitimate use of physical force.” A slightly different version of this OpEd was originally published at Time.com on December 23, 2014.

14-12-31

We wish to extend our sincere appreciation and gratitude to our supporters this year, and wish you all a happy and prosperous new year. Your generous donations continue to help your Skeptics Society—a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization—to promote science and critical thinking. We could not do it without you!

14-12-24

In issue 2.3 (1994) of Skeptic magazine, John Keller wrote a letter of analysis on “The Science of Santa,” taken from Spy magazine, in which he humorously demonstrated the impossibility of Santa delivering presents to hundreds of millions of children around the world in one night. In this week’s eSkeptic, we draw from the archives of Skeptic magazine issue 2.4 (1994) in which Gerald Huber, from Germany, begs to differ.

14-12-17

Psychologists have known for decades that memory does not operate like a video camera, with our senses recording in high definition what really happens in the world, accurately stored in memory awaiting high fidelity playback on the viewing screen of our mind. In this week’s eSkeptic, Michael Shermer discusses how the fallibility of memory can cause eyewitness testimony to contradict the evidence.

14-12-10

In this week’s eSkeptic, we draw from the archives of Skeptic magazine issue 4.1 (from 1996) in which Bernard Leikind posits the ant-thropic principle: the principle that the Universe somehow exists for ants and that ants are an expression of its purpose.

14-12-03

In this week’s eSkeptic, we draw from the archives of Skeptic magazine issue 2.1 (from 1993) in which the late, great Steve Allen (1921–2000), shared his observations on genius.

14-11-26

It’s our best sale of the year, on now through Cyber Monday, December 1. Save 25% on everything at Shop Skeptic, including: books, DVDs, print subscriptions, hoodies, t-shirts (and other cool swag), as well as printed back issues of Skeptic magazine. SHOP NOW, SAVE 25%

14-11-19

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by lone-gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. Yet, about three-quarters of Americans believe that President Kennedy was the victim of a multi-shooter conspiracy. In this week’s eSkeptic, Michael Shermer discusses several psychological factors at work that allow conspiracy theories to persist.

14-11-12

Since 1992, the Skeptics Society has sponsored over 350 of the biggest names in science in our Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, covering the most advanced, leading-edge discoveries, and controversial topics in all of science. Now we want to take it to a whole new level, and aim to reach millions of people around the world following the TED model. Find out more…

14-11-05

Learning to control our impulses and delay immediate gratification may well be one of the most important things our species has ever learned. In this week’s eSkeptic, Michael Shermer reviews The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control by Walter Mischel.

14-10-29

Horror is both the human emotion, and the artistic genre designed to produce that emotion. What is it really, and why do we regularly seek out such an unpleasant experience? In this week’s Halloween edition of eSkeptic, Stephen T. Asma discusses “horror” and our fascination with it.

14-10-22

Daniel Loxton wins a Victoria Book Prize; Donald Prothero considers claims that the future of publishing belongs exclusively to pixels over paper; Blake Smith defends the value of the examination of monster beliefs; Katherine Freese lectures on Dark Matter; MonsterTalk interviews Richard Sugg about vampires; and UCLA celebrates Alfred Russel Wallace.