ريتشارد دوكنز's Blog, page 12

David Copperfield’s History of Magic

From legendary magicians like Harry Houdini and James Randi to today’s great mentalists and illusionists such as Banachek, Mark Edward, and Dustin Dean, true masters of the art fill us with awe without lying about having supernatural powers. On a very special Skeptical Inquirer Presents online event, hundreds of live viewers were treated to a fascinating conversation with …

In the Tank for Pseudoscience

Is it getting cold in here, or is it just the giant tank of liquid nitrogen?  Physiologist Nick Tiller made a big splash with his recent talk on Skeptical Inquirer Presents, where he unpacked the problem of pseudoscience’s enormous influence in the sports, wellness, and fitness industries. It’s a big topic, with thousands of examples …

Religious Preference for the Privileged Few

The U.S. Supreme Court has recently heard arguments in the case of Ramirez v. Collier, in which a death row inmate is seeking to have his pastor in the room with him as he is lethally injected, and that his pastor be allowed to make physical contact with him to help guide his soul to the …

Julia Said Ha!

Julia Sweeney is best known as a brilliant actress and comedian of Saturday Night Live fame, but our community also knows her as the taboo-shattering cultural figure who spoke and wrote movingly about her own journey from belief to atheism well before it was cool, in particular with her one-woman stage plays, Letting Go of God and God Said Ha! …

Hopeless Ham

Last month, creationism apologist Ken Ham used the sudden death of our friend and colleague, Free Inquiry Editor Tom Flynn, as an opportunity to raise money for his thoughtless think tank Answers in Genesis and his alternative-history pseudo-museum the Ark Encounter, telling his followers “to do all we can to help undo the work of Tom Flynn.” …

Homeopathy’s Last Stand

“You may bend over backward to defend your pet ‘alternative’ remedy,” writes Richard Dawkins in the latest issue of Skeptical Inquirer. But, he warns, “if homeopathy is your personal favorite quackery, you are going to have to bend over backward a massive lot further than for any other branch of alternative medicine.”  That’s because homeopathy is utter …

OPEN DISCUSSION NOVEMBER 2021

This thread has been created for discussion on themes relevant to Reason and Science for which there are not currently any dedicated threads. Please note that our Comment Policy applies as usual. There is a link to this at the foot of the page. If you would like to refer back to previous open discussion …

THE CLIMATE CRISIS

This thread has been created as a central point for discussion about anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change so that as much information as possible can be held in one, easily accessible place. There will of course sometimes also be other climate change threads on specific new developments, and we’d encourage you to post on those too. …

Clear-Eyed and Self-Reliant

From the Richard Dawkins Foundation Newsletter. Subscribe here. Hello! There are things we want to be true, and then there are things that are actually true. So much of the work we do boils down to this simple distinction. We put our efforts toward advancing reason and science because we know that these are the best …

Reaching Science Deniers with Trust

When someone has made up their mind that the Earth is flat, that COVID-19 vaccines contain 5G microchips, or that evolution is a hoax, trying to change their mind seems pointless. But Lee McIntyre, a philosopher of science and history, is here to tell you to keep hope alive. On the latest Skeptical Inquirer Presents …