Busting 9 Vaccination Myths, With Science! « Science-Based Life

"Thanks to the great work of our skeptical sympathizers in Australia, we have another science-based refutation of anti-vaccinationist claims by Dr. Rachael Dunlop. You can find the full story here, but allow me to summarize some excerpts of each myth and response below. Keep in mind that these are only summaries, and much more information on this “immunization cheat sheet” can be found at the source."

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Thinking Scientifically « Science-Based Life

"Why Do We Need Science?

Humans are poor data gathering machines. We have numerous biases, cognitive flaws, and psychological errors that prevent our unguided minds from grasping reality in any accurate way."
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The Delusional Belief That God Is In Control

"Every time, without fail, when I read a news story about the untimely and senseless deaths of the innocent in some sort of horrible accident, the responses from the Christian community are ludicrous. What irks me to no end are those who believe that their god not only knew that these people were going to die these horrific deaths, but had actually planned it. They simply accept it as the will of God, not an accident, or an act of terrorism, or a murder, etc. There is absolutely nothing even remotely intelligent about this and you have to wonder how many times do you need to get your ass kicked before you realize that the person kicking your ass does not have your best interests in mind."

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Reflections from the Other Side: Why Believers Think Prayer Works

"Christians believe that their pleas to God have a tangible effect on the real world. Why do they believe this if it isn't true (aside from the obvious answer of "their religion says so")? Even Christians themselves should be curious about the underlying reasons for belief in prayer—after all, people of other faiths think prayers to their gods are effective as well. In fact, there are quite a few reasons, all of which are quite fascinating."

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Near-Death Experiences: Science After All « Science-Based Life

"Here I will give the supposedly supernatural claims of near-death experiences (NDE’s) and provide the science behind them. Although only approximately 3% of Americans declare to have had a near-death experience, their seemingly paranormal components have perpetuated pseudoscience for years. Until now."

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Faster than light story highlights the difference between science and religion | Science | guardian.co.uk

"Most physicists believe, as Einstein proposed, that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light in a vacuum. You might say that some, like Jim Al-Khalili who promised to eat his shorts if this was proved untrue, hold this belief religiously. But the recent fuss over the possible existence of faster-than-light neutrinos illustrates precisely how different science and religion are when it comes to questions of "belief" or "knowledge"."
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Why I Am a Naturalist - NYTimes.com

"Naturalism is the philosophical theory that treats science as our most reliable source of knowledge and scientific method as the most effective route to knowledge. In a recent essay for The Stone, Timothy Williamson correctly reports that naturalism is popular in philosophy. In fact it is now a dominant approach in several areas of philosophy — ethics, epistemology, the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science and, most of in all, metaphysics, the study of the basic constituents of reality. Metaphysics is important: if it turns out that reality contains only the kinds of things that hard science recognizes, the implications will be grave for what we value in human experience."

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Peace of Mind: Near-Death Experiences Now Found to Have Scientific Explanations: Scientific American

"Near-death experiences are often thought of as mystical phenomena, but research is now revealing scientific explanations for virtually all of their common features. The details of what happens in near-death experiences are now known widely—a sense of being dead, a feeling that one's "soul" has left the body, a voyage toward a bright light, and a departure to another reality where love and bliss are all-encompassing."

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The Blog : September 11, 2011 : Sam Harris

"What if I had said, “Gravity comes from God”? That would be merely to stifle her intelligence—and to teach her to stifle it. What if I told her, “Gravity is God’s way of dragging people to hell, where they burn in fire. And you will burn there forever if you doubt that God exists”? No Christian or Muslim can offer a compelling reason why I shouldn’t say such a thing—or something morally equivalent—and yet this would be nothing less than the emotional and intellectual abuse of a child. In fact, I have heard from thousands of people who were oppressed this way, from the moment they could speak, by the terrifying ignorance and fanaticism of their parents." Go To Article

Study Dumps Colon Cleansing as Useless and Dangerous | Colonic Irrigation Dangers & Colon Fecal Matter | Debunking Colon Cleansing | LiveScience

"Doctors have long argued that colon cleansing is money down the proverbial toilet, utterly useless for good health and a huge waste of time and money. A new study, however, finds that this is only half the story: Colon cleansing not only in unnecessary, but over time, it is also detrimental." Go To Article