Over at npr: New research suggests that misinformed people rarely change their minds when presented with the facts — and often become even more attached to their beliefs. The finding raises questions about a key principle of a strong democracy: that a well-informed electorate is best. Full article is here: In Politics, Sometimes The Facts [...]
Archive of posts tagged critical thinking
Homeopathy
http://xkcd.com/765/ Unfortunately stupidity can be richly reward by society especially when the skills of critical thinking are not widely taught. Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2010
Blair Witch
Thanks to http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2009/09/tony-blair-on-faith.html, we see yet more evidence of the warped logic of the ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair. He’s eagerness to jump into the clutches of the religious, and his condemnation of atheism both indicate that he is a person who has taken a path in which religious dogmas will sustain and prosper his [...]
Being open-minded
Thanks RichardDawkins http://richarddawkins.net/article,3700,n,n http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T69TOuqaqXI&feature=player_embedded Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2009
"defamation of religion"
Good. James Randi’s article http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/swift-blog/487-a-u-n-victory-for-reason.html states that the silly proposal brought to the United Nations to "…forbid critical, insulting or defamatory statements about religion…" has been rejected. Excellent news. I will criticise religion. I will make fun of it. Because clear and critical thinking demands it. Religions have, for far too long, abused their powers [...]
Dumb and dumber degrees…it really does get dumber
Another interesting DC’s Improbable Science article, this time highlighting the woo-ness of certain “degrees” at Thames Valley University and the lack of critical thinking that is leading to the increase of dumb and dumber “degrees” at a number of universities. The trouble with most folks isn’t so much their ignorance, as knowing so many things that [...]
The New Witch Doctors
I recently received some comments from a reader regarding my articles on homeopathy and my criticism of this pseudoscience. The reader asked if I had ever met anyone who had been treated using homeopathy and that I also should temper my vehemence; the implication being that homeopathy provided a valuable service which delivered positive results [...]
Here Be Dragons
This was recommended at the Bad Astronomy blog last week but I’ve only just around to putting this here on my blog. Not terra incognita but “Here Be Dragons”…an introduction to critical thinking. The video at that website provides the basic tools to allow a critical mindset to develop…a useful weapon to get past all [...]
Unsupported claims
Skeptico has a great article on something that I’ve felt strongly about for some time. I’ve tried to introduce critical thinking processes to some people and have tried using various arguments for showing the perilous foundations that homeopathy, astrology, chiropractice, etc are built on. But most people are set in their ways and although I [...]
