25 Fallacies That Lead Us To Believe Weird Things

This is a list by Michael Shermer: 25 fallacies that lead us to believe weird things.

(1) Theory influences observation. Heisenberg wrote, “What we observe is not nature itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” Our perception of reality is influenced by the theories framing our examination of it.

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Penn and Teller: Creationism

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BncRhS3NBfk

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCWEpaLBa6U

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDDxF3j4Q4g

The Creationism segment from Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit” show.

Includes footage of Duane Gish from the Insitute of Creation Research and also the Cobb County school board in their voting process to include creationism as part of the school science curriculum.

One of the other websites I run is a bible discussion website. The Creation vs. Evolution debate section of that website is located at:
http://forum.bible-discussion.com/forumdisplay.php?f=17

You can spend many hours there reading debates between “creationists” and “evolutionists”. The debates include specific points of biology and geology. I have been literally amazed to see the amount of effort and research members put into their posts. For me, the most telling element of these debates is to see which side consistently posts documented information to support their side; and to see which side consistently changes the argument mid-stream.

Many US residents are not aware that the creation vs evolution “debates” are primarily an issue solely in the United States. There is not such widespread conversation on this subject outside the USA; although it has begun to spread to Australia.

Penn and Teller are magicians from Las Vegas. They devote a lot of their time to bring up subjects they consider “Bullshit”. If you search their other videos on YouTube you might be surprised to see some of the other subjects they cover.

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Study: Monkeys share human preference for imitation

capuchin-monkey

Excerpt: “If one person imitates what a monkey does, and the other person does not imitate, the monkey prefers to spend more time in front of the person that imitated them,” said Dr. Annika Paukner at the National Institutes of Health offices in Poolesville, Maryland.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/13/monkeys.imitations/index.html

Calculate Your God Delusion Index

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCX0JJ16dFM

Calculate your God Delusion index. The “God Delusion” is a book by Richard Dawkins published around 2007 (I think). I read it. This video was posted on one of my bible discussion forums. I was interested to note that my answers to the questions in the video were radically different than they would have been five years ago.

And this comment from the original poster of the video: A STUPID video that I found — a quiz that supposedly measures how deluded by religion you are. I’m glad this hateful moron won’t be spending the next trillion years in heaven with Jesus and me!

Would be interested in your thoughts on this video and it’s questions…

Asian Buddhism and the Lay Population

Mmmmm…….another blog post about nothing that I am an expert on. Just an observation from my limited personal experience. This post is about my perspective of religion and Buddhism in Asia and the lay population. (“Lay people” are ordinary people like you and me. Members of congregations and everyday people. They are not church leaders, monks or ministers.)

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Pope visits Africa, reaffirms ban on condoms

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/03/17/cameroon.pope/index.html

Excerpt:
Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it.

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I’m sure the blogosphere is on fire with this one right now. I have a friend who is Catholic and I asked her about this. She said it’s only for conservative Catholics. I said, “But the Pope is in Africa where millions of people have AIDS, and he’s telling them not to use condoms.” She replies, “Cannot. If people do not use condoms they will die. So they must.”

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