"My colleague Ruth Gruhn, Emerita in our department, recently showed me a critique of Chariots of the Gods? (the title still had its question mark back then) that she published in the journal Calgary Archaeologist (vol 3) way back in 1975. ... There are entire passages of her article in which one could search and replace (not as easily achievable in 1975) Hancock for von Däniken, and no one would notice much"

https://archeothoughts.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/this-fifty-year-old-critique-of-chariots-of-the-gods-reads-like-a-2025-critique-of-graham-hancocks-work/ #archaeology #skepticism #pseudoscience

Just a reminder to be skeptical. Associate professor of biology Melanie Trecek-King runs “Thinking is Power”. In this YouTube short, she calls out another fake video made with generative “AI” that plays on our emotions:
https://youtube.com/shorts/aQWHPMS_ZHY?si=0mdv5ykgwKUREzNg
#ai #genai #generativeai #fake #video #criticalthinking #science #reality #fakenews #education #simulatedintelligence #skepticism

Cristóbal Bellolio tarkastelee SERRC-artikkelissaan Hugh Desmondin (2022) ajatusta populistisesta tieteenvastaisuudesta "rationaalisena skeptisisminä" status-epäluottamus-perustein, https://social-epistemology.com/2025/07/28/status-distrust-rational-skepticism-and-populist-objections-to-science-cristobal-bellolio/

Aiheesta on keskusteltu SERRCin lisäksi SE-journaalissa. Tällä kertaa episteemisen populismin nyansoitu luonnehdinta viehätti, samoin linkit aiempaan keskusteluun.

Science is more than a body of knowledge, it's a way of thinking, a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility. If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan — political or religious — who comes ambling along. The people have to be educated, and they have to practice their skepticism and their education otherwise we don't run the government, the government runs us.
-- Carl Sagan

#Wisdom #Quotes #CarlSagan #Education #Government #Science #Skepticism

#Photography #Panorama #Palms #Florida

Sven Hansson has revised his SEP-entry on Science and Pseudoscience, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pseudo-science/

Do Bigfoot creatures exist? I don’t know, but it strikes me as quite unlikely. It would be cool if they did, but that isn’t an adequate basis for believing that they do. And yet, it would not occur to me to claim that I know they don’t exist. How could I know that?

#atheism #atheist #skepticism #belief #bigfoot

https://medium.com/@atheistrevolution/i-live-my-life-as-if-bigfoot-does-not-exist-5b31ec7d9f4c?sk=5efe8980b5ff375025f89ad2ea90835a

My new article analyzes a landmark Czech abuse case. A woman's case against a priest was dismissed due to the statute of limitations, ignoring the psychological reality of abuse. The Church’s response? Transferring the priest abroad.

It took a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights to force Czech courts to reconsider. This is a clear case of institutional failure, both secular and religious. Read the full analysis on my blog.

#skepticism #humanrights #secularism #czechrepublic #churchabuse #accountability

https://psax.mosl.cz/czech-church-state-fail

This is the most blatant example of theistic projection I've ever seen.

Pastor: "If you worship and pray to a God that isn't real, you won't get a response."

Pastor also: [Worships and prays to a God, and when someone points out that this God doesn't respond to anyone, they just tell them to have faith that this God exists]

Link to video: https://mastodon.social/@aliveinchristaz/114876958336707003

The Ockham Awards 2025: recognising the best in skepticism, and the worst in pseudoscience

Nominations for the 2025 Ockham Awards are now open, with our annual award for Skeptical Activism and our Rusty Razor award for pseudoscience.

https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2025/07/the-ockham-awards-2025-recognising-the-best-in-skepticism-and-the-worst-in-pseudoscience/

The Czech Republic abolished the death penalty in 1990 as a break from its totalitarian past, yet 52% of its citizens now support its return.

I looked into the data from recent survey, analyzing the generational divide and the emotional arguments (retribution) versus the rational ones (risk of irreversible error). It's a classic case of the head vs. the heart.

You can read it on my blog, which I'm slowly rebuilding (along with Atropos Blog) after a recent cyber attack.

https://psax.mosl.cz/czech-death-penalty

Cyber attack took down mosl.cz — including Psax’s Skeptiffic Globuli & Atropos Blog.
The ape survived. With backups and black tea with a sugar and lemon.

The great reconstruction has begun. Expect digital rubble, skeptical persistence, and temporary missing links and content.

Skepticism isn’t that easy to kill!
— Psax

Teaching Nigerian primary school children the importance of asking questions

Instead of traditional rote learning and memorising, the questionstorm project encourages children to explore by asking questions

https://www.skeptic.org.uk/2025/07/teaching-nigerian-primary-school-children-the-importance-of-asking-questions/

Faith is the surrender of the mind, it's the surrender of reason, it's the surrender of the only thing that makes us different from other animals. It's our need to #believe and to surrender our #skepticism and our #reason, our yearning to discard that and put all our trust or faith in someone or something, that is the sinister thing to me….Out of all the virtues, all the supposed virtues, faith must be the most overrated.
—Christopher Hitchens

______________________
#atheism #faith #god

Igor Douven has revised his SEP-entry on Abduction, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/abduction/

Ah yes, another riveting article pondering the earth-shattering mystery of #UBI —as if endless successful #trials aren't enough proof for the skeptics clinging to their "sacred struggle." Wake me up when civilization actually collapses, Katie.
https://medium.com/the-no%C3%B6sphere/just-how-many-more-successful-ubi-trials-do-we-need-64ed124c7001 #skepticism #UBI #societal #progress #economic #debate #HackerNews #ngated

Two Czech women murdered their spiritual guru — because he asked them to.
They believed his body would disappear.

✦ This isn’t a movie plot. It’s a true story of belief, manipulation, and the tragic cost of abandoning skepticism by well-educated people.

Full article on my blog:
https://psax.mosl.cz/czech-cult-murder-case/