Throughout the pandemic, writer Naomi Wolf fell from feminist icon and public intellectual, to conspiracy theorist and talking head of the right-wing media ecosystem
spot_img
spot_img
spot_img

Learning about science and statistics through pseudoscience

Evaluating claims of ESP and other psi abilities can provide the perfect opportunity to grapple with some counterintuitive, but incredibly important, maths.

From the archives: A healthy dose of sarsaparilla – snake oil for the nineties 

From the archives in 1993, Jerome Cosyn compares the flagrant snake oil of old with our enlightened times, and asks how much has really changed.

Smoke and mirrors: violent media, cigarettes, and shaky statistics

Is violent media as closely linked to aggression as smoking is to lung cancer? Only if you take at face value heavily cherry-picked research.

Gen Z don’t really think they’re psychic – at least no more so than their elders

New "research" suggests that a third of Gen Z believe they have psychic intuition – based on an online survey with deep methodological flaws.

The demons of Varginha: The cultural context behind Brazil’s famous UFO case

In 1996, three girls claimed to see a strange creature in the Jardim Andere neighbourhood of Varginha, Brazil, kicking off a now-legendary UFO story.

From the archives: A Test for Reincarnation 

From the archives in 1993, Val Dobson proposes a practical method for checking whether claims of past lives and reincarnation really stand up.

How a very wrong Royal horoscope put astrology on the map in Britain

Astrology really found its foothold in Britain in 1930, when the Sunday Express began to publish astrological predictions for the new-born Princess Margaret.

Richard Dawkins and AI: the lights are on, but nobody’s home

When Richard Dawkins claims AI may have consciousness, he's committing the same cognitive blunder as the creationists he has long argued against.

‘God: The Science, The Evidence, The Dawn of a Revolution’… and underwhelming apologetics

'God: The Science, The Evidence, The Dawn of a Revolution', by Michel-Yves Bollore and Olivier Bonnassies, is nothing more than an intelligent design bait-and-switch

From the archives: Tunnel Vision – Is the ‘near-death experience’ just an illusion? 

From the archives in 1993, Brian W. Haines on the spate of claims that people on the verge of death have a Near Death Experience, and see a bright tunnel.

For a truly global humanist movement, we need an International Humanist Institute

Humanism extends beyond Europe and America - to allow the movement to flourish worldwide, we must address the challenge of humanist leadership.
spot_img