Critical Thinking

Recognising the “No True Scotsman” fallacy in religion

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First, lets start with a clear understanding of the “No True Scotsman” fallacy.  This is basically where you challenge others about some rather unpleasant or even quite appalling actions by some group, and quickly discover that “they” are not “real” members of the group. The term was first deployed by philosopher Antony Flew in his … Read more

UK Weather report – Lots of snow coming!!!

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Several UK tabloids have been reporting that a big UK freeze is coming and also claiming … Britain is about to experience an early winter, with snow expected to arrive as soon as next month, forecasters have warned. Temperatures over the next three months will plummet to below average This is coming from headlines in, … Read more

Claim: “Six Scientists go on trial next week for failure to predict earthquake” – not quite correct.

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Some utter insanity has apparently broken out in Italy. The BBC Newsnight page reports that seven scientists are, in a Galileo-style inquisition, to stand trial next week for failing to accurately predict the precise timing of an earthquake. Wow … scientists accused of failing to predict an earthquake? Actually no, that is not what is … Read more

Religious Myths about Atheists

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There is a great article over at AlterNet entitled “10 Myths Many Religious People Hold About Atheists, Debunked”. There you will find that Amanda Marcotte has done a great job slicing and dicing the following list … There are no atheists in foxholes Atheists are just angry with God Atheists are aggressive and rude Atheism is … Read more

Bot tricks people into thinking it is human – Artifical Intelligence at last? Nope, I’m skeptical

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I’ve tripped over an interesting little snippet in New Scientist where there is a claim that some software called Cleverbot has passed one of the key tests of artificial intelligence: the Turing test. Now before we proceed, lets clarify what this test actually is. It was introduced by Alan Turing (hence the name) in his … Read more

Chruch of Ireland Priest causes shock by entering into a formal Gay partnership

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The news is that Rev Tom Gordon, a Church Of Ireland Anglican priest, has formally entered  into civil partnership with his boyfriend of 20 years, and has also received the full support of his bishop, the Rt Rev Michael Burrows. Now normally when a couple get together it is not public news to anybody except their friends who wish them well, so why is this an exception? I need not explain, you all know, and are all familiar with the anti-gay rhetoric that is very pervasive amongst many shades of belief.

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