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skepticism

  1. Orphia Nay

    Have we lost the war over the meaning of "skeptic"?

    My friend Robyn is quite logical about things, and yesterday she was telling me about a person who was a conspiracy theorist and alt-med nut. She thought she'd like to pair this woo woman up with our friend Geoff. Geoff is a fairly critical thinker. I told Robyn I didn't think pairing Geoff...
  2. acbytesla

    How to be a non-believer in a believing world

    I use to be a Christian. But I don't think I was ever a believer. Even as a 6 year old I just couldn't believe a woman was made out of Adam's rib. Or that a snake spoke to Eve. Or a donkey spoke to Absalom. Or that a 500 year old drunkard built a huge boat and gathered two of every animal...
  3. S

    The Best Method To Use In The Quest For Truth

    https://skepticsalamanderblog.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-best-method-to-use-in-quest-for.html Article discusses peoples false sense of truth, the problems with opinion media, and the best method to find truth.
  4. S

    Science & Reason Can Make The World A Better Place

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C29k4rHMdp8 Please discuss!
  5. Scott Sommers

    Gullible Skeptics

    A friend of mine wrote this here. I was wondering what people on the forum think about it.
  6. The Atheist

    The Word "Skeptic" Must Go

    Also "Sceptic". It's been well and truly hijacked and is now worthless. "I'm skeptical of climate change" means the person is a denier. "I'm skeptical of vaccines" is double-speak for "I'm ant-vax." "I'm skeptical of Covid....." means the person is a conspiracist loon. The term is done and...
  7. A

    Balancing Skepticism and Faith

    This is a difficult and very personal topic for me, so I figured an anonymous forum of strangers would be the perfect place to discuss it :p (actually serious about that). I grew up in a Christian home and have interacted with a variety of Christian people, groups, organizations in a variety...
  8. V

    How to spot a rookie skeptic

    What are some of the habits of a rookie skeptic? Does he call out every logical fallacy he sees? Is he reflexively anti-government and does he frequently spit uncompelling truisms about government corruption? Does he think nobody can say for sure if a falling tree in some remote island makes...
  9. F

    What Should the Default Skeptical Position on Telepathy Be?

    So take the claim "telepathy exists". I imagine most skeptics here would consider that an extraordinary claim that would require extraordinary evidence, and the basis of that would be the complete lack of any success of anyone actually demonstrating anything like telepathy in controlled...
  10. Chanakya

    How truly skeptical is our skepticism?

    I self-describe as skeptic. On the other hand, my skepticism is of fairly recent vintage. That is, while I’ve always been skeptical of very many things, a generally skeptical outlook (towards everything, not just some individual things) is something I’ve ‘converted’ to not very long back...
  11. O

    Do we dare to call ourselves Skeptics?

    After looking at an article titled “What is Scepticism” by Brian Dunning, I asked myself “do we all dare to call ourselves Skeptics?” Abstracts from his article… Skepticism is the process of applying reason and critical thinking to determine validity. Skepticism is, or should be, an...
  12. T

    Are all sceptics materialists?

    I've been arguing that I think that modern physical theories are moving towards absurdity. Computer Simulation or Multiverse is no better than religion; Religion even trumps those theories in evidence! Islam, for example, did stabilize a society for a very long time and even ushered in a Golden...
  13. OntarioSquatch

    The Mentality of Skeptics

    One of the things that's always fascinated me about people who call themselves "skeptics" is their reaction to the unknown. During my time here I've noticed that ambiguity can make these people very uneasy. The ability to tolerate ambiguity varies from person to person and apparently some people...
  14. aggle-rithm

    Evaluating Claims

    I've been thinking about how (hypothetically) I might introduce the topic of skepticism to young people, and thought a good starting point would be to describe the thought process when a skeptic evaluates a claim. Speaking for myself, I usually ask a few questions: 1. Do I care whether the...
  15. O

    The Irrationality Of Skepticism

    Scepticism is the self-refuting idea that one should not accept anything on ‘blind faith’.. Here’s an old joke that was apparently adapted from a popular bumper sticker: What’s the difference between a sceptic and a Christian? Sceptics do it with their eyes open! This little witticism...
  16. S

    Help me talk some sense into my grandma (auras)

    Hello fellow Randiers. As the title says, I need some assistance. My grandma believes in all kinds of wacky stuff, such as auras and vibrations and other new-age stuff, and I've been trying to talk her out of it. Now, my grandmother is a pretty smart person, and she thinks of herself as an...
  17. Verklagekasper

    Skepticism: How successful is it?

    Assuming that a common goal of dedicated skeptics is to promote understanding of science and critical thinking and to protect from fraud and deception, are there means to measure the success of those efforts? Well, maybe the sales progression of books promoting science vs. books promoting...
  18. D

    Are elements of the Skeptic community expounding dogma rather than skepticism ?

    Greetings folks - Apologies for making my first post such a potentially off putting one, I've been a lurker on here sometime and a contributing guest author to the site so I thought I'd get your opinions on this subject. Reading these forums I see the vast majority of posters are skeptics in...
  19. A

    The Believing Brain

    Michael Shermer’s newest work is a keen edge in a world of dull blades. Finally someone has come along and written on this subject providing actual scientific basis and biological evidence pointing to Man’s never ending struggle with his own brain and its propensity to paint itself into a...
  20. Orphia Nay

    Australasian Skeptics Forum now online!

    Want more skepticism than you can poke a stick at? Want to discuss science, the paranormal, critical thinking, politics, current events and much more? Want to befriend skeptics from Australasia and around the world? You need the Australasian Skeptics Forum. http://australasianskeptics.info...

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