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News Gathering vs. Confirmation Bias
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Science
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.
— Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996) at p.32.
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
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Tag Archives: religion
AP: 12 things to know about the end of the world?
Cute video. Covers several of the major apocalyptic theories (Talk about “just a theory”!!!), as well as a number of previous (and obviously, incorrect) end-of-days predictions. I truly appreciate that the AP includes in their coverage of the Rapture an important point that most Christians either never knew, or conveniently forget: “The Bible records Jesus […]
Also tagged fear, freethought, history, reason, skepticism
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Ohio Senate Puts End to ‘Heartbeat’ Abortion Bill
Associated Press: COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The leader of the Ohio Senate put a stop Tuesday to a bill that would have imposed the most stringent restriction on abortions in the nation. The chamber doesn’t plan to vote on the so-called “heartbeat bill” before the end of the legislative session next month, Republican Senate President […]
Also tagged constitution, freedom, government, health, politics
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Steinberg: Mourdock’s mistake is speaking for God
Neil Steinberg, writing at the Chicago Sun-Times, gets it: This flies by some Republicans, and they trip over it. Particularly when it comes to abortion. They are so lost in their own religious belief — that a fetus is a baby, that God is against abortion, contraception, often sex itself — that the idea that […]
States Vary Widely in Number of Tax Filers with No Income Tax Liability
Scott A. Hodge writing at TaxFoundation.org back in 2010: Southern States Have Highest Percentages of “Nonpayers” Generally speaking, the most populated states have the most nonpayers. More than 6 million tax-filing Californians paid nothing to Uncle Sam for the 2008 tax year. That was 37 percent of the 16.4 million tax filers in California. The […]
Also tagged education, government, money, politics, taxes
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Bill Nye the Science Guy: Why Creationism is Bad for Children
Speaking of Bill Nye, here’s another excellent video from Big Think wherein Bill Nye the Science Guy explains why Creationism is not appropriate for children.
Also tagged education, evolution, reason, science, skepticism
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Romney = Akin?
Ok, let’s just recap the events of the last few days. First, Missouri Representative Todd Akin, running for Senate in that state, made statements to the effect that a woman’s body shuts down when she is legitimately raped and that this prevents pregnancy from occurring. These statements are patently false, and are so very far […]
Also tagged constitution, crime, government, health, medicine, politics, reason, science
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Ebert: Don’t tear down that wall!
Roger Ebert gets the separation of Church and State; unfortunately, many, many Americans don’t. Writing at his Chicago Sun-Times site “Roger Ebert’s Journal”: And make no mistake: it is a principle we’re discussing here. If I believe my church’s teachings are correct, my obvious course should be to convert you to my church, not pass […]
Also tagged constitution, government, politics, reason
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Religiosity on the decline, atheism on the rise
A new global survey on faith and atheism, released by WIN-Gallup International, and based on interviews with more than 50,000 people selected from 57 countries — asked participants, “irrespective of whether they attended a place of worship, if they considered themselves to be religious, not religious, or an atheist.” Dominique Mosbergen writing at the Huffington […]
Chick-fil-A and free speech
Teller (@MrTeller) on Twitter: A clear little essay on Chick-fil-A and the 1st Amendment in Boston. In addition to dealing with what the Mayor of Boston, and others such as certain Chicago Aldermen, have said on the matter, the linked piece is actually a clear and concise primer on Chick-fil-A and the First Amendment, and […]
Also tagged freespeech, government, reason, society
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Why are believers ignorant about atheists?
Greta Christina writing at AlterNet.org (via Salon.com): It’s important to remember that most atheists were once believers. We’re familiar with religion because we’ve believed it ourselves. And it’s important to remember that, in most of the world, religious belief is the dominant culture. Atheists have to be familiar with it. It’s shoved in our face […]
Also tagged freethought, reason
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