by Carl Howard | Sep 3, 2009 | Atheism and Religion, Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Science and Skepticism
One of the most long-standing arguments used by religious debaters (eg. Dinesh D’Souza) is to claim that atheism is responsible for more killings than all the religions put together because of Stalin, Hitler, Mao etc. I have typically seen several types of responses...
by Carl Howard | Jul 16, 2009 | Atrocities and Oppression, Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, History, Science and Skepticism
I usually try to keep posts concise. But I thought once a month I can splurge on my word count and try talk about something in a bit more detail. Here goeth my first attempt. A few days ago Takis Konstantopoulos wrote a reaction to my 2008 post about the Holodomor...
by Carl Howard | Jun 22, 2009 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Feminism and LGBT, Mind, Psychology and Consciousness
[Uni coursework is over so woo-hoo to more blogging!] Milgram’s experiment is one of the most popularly known psychology experiments. Basically, a subject was to administer electric shocks of increasing intensity to a student (who was really an actor taking fake...
by Carl Howard | Sep 22, 2008 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Mind, Psychology and Consciousness, Science and Skepticism
You’re at home, enjoying a hot drink on a winter’s day. You have a dog resting beside you on the floor, staring nobly into the fire. A large clump of snow (if you don’t live in a country with snow, pretend) falls from the roof making a sharp thud. What happens next?...
by Carl Howard | Aug 24, 2008 | Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Evolution and Biology, Philosophy, Science and Skepticism
Since evolution is taught badly in schools (and few go on to learn it at uni), we have misconceptions. One is that evolution is “for the good of the species”, with each species becoming refined as a whole. Not true: evolution doesn’t necessarily cause a whole species...
by Carl Howard | Aug 12, 2008 | Atheism and Religion, Biases and Fallacies, Blog Topics, Evolution and Biology, Science and Skepticism
Heard a very good point on a Mindcore episode: Biblical literalists require a stronger belief in evolution than the most “radical atheist scientist”. If Noah’s ark had only 1 pair of each kind, the speed of evolution required to get some of the variation that exists...