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Posted in Government, Health, Science on Feb 22nd, 2010
Despite some £4m a year being spent on homeopathy, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee said today that using public money on the highly diluted remedies could not be justified. The cross-party group said there was no evidence beyond a placebo effect, when a patient gets better because of their belief that the treatment [...]
Posted in Faith, Literature, Religion, Science on Jan 25th, 2010
Although it is nearly 24 hours since I watched the first in Channel 4’s new series, The Bible: A History, I still find myself annoyed at the mere memory of it. It ended up being more of the aspirational wishful thinking of a romantic presenter than the history deceptively portrayed in the title.
The first quarter [...]
Posted in Health, Human Rights, Morality, Science on Dec 9th, 2009
The Merseyside Skeptics Society have produced the following open letter which I re-publish below in full:
An Open Letter to Alliance Boots
The Boots brand is synonymous with health care in the United Kingdom. Your website speaks proudly about your role as a health care provider and your commitment to deliver exceptional patient care. For many people, [...]
Who will win this year’s bad faith award?
The New Humanist’s annual vote to discover who people think deserves a bad faith award is still open. If you haven’t cast your vote yet, do pop along to the site and see if anyone merits your selection.
Last year Sarah Palin romped home to victory for her [...]
Posted in Censorship, Education, Existential, Science on Sep 27th, 2009
The feathers of the Malaysian peacock pheasant were stunning. The display had lit them in the centre of the room so that they looked like a metallic sculpture. I wanted to take the work of art home.
The Darwin Exhibition is running at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge for few more days. My visit yesterday, on [...]
Posted in Faith, Human Rights, Religion, Science on Jun 26th, 2009
There seem to be more and more cases where religious people are claiming that their faith prevents them from doing their job. If they are then asked to continue doing the job that they were employed to do, some are claiming that they are facing religious discrimination.
In recent months I have been aware of:
an employee [...]
Posted in Creativity, Education, Faith, Religion, Science on Apr 20th, 2009
There is a slightly amusing discussion going on - I am reluctant to call it a debate - in the responses being made to a Times Online article by Sarah Ebner about whether or not magic should be taught in schools.
The article briefly describes the career of Brad Ross who started learning magic at the [...]
Posted in Creativity, Existential, Faith, Humanity, Psychology, Religion, Science on Mar 23rd, 2009
I listened recently to a fascinating radio broadcast where Adrian Shine was discussing how, to date, he had failed to find the mythical watery monster of Loch Ness (Saturday Live, BBC Radio 4, 18/08/07).
Two things made this conversation interesting for me and took it above the realms of the usual “the-monster-must-exist-coz-I’ve-seen-pictures” story. First, this [...]
There are some things that you just know would never be allowed today if we had only known then, what we know now. If somebody today had invented alcohol or tobacco, you know they would never get passed for general public consumption, and would only be allowed to be developed for secret military purposes. Their [...]
Posted in Education, Religion, Science, Society on Sep 12th, 2008
Are you spooked by the appearance of black cats? Do you court disaster by walking under ladders of on cracks in the pavements?
There was a fascinating piece of research reported in the New Scientist recently which attempts to give an evolutionary explanation for the existence of superstitions. Natural selection might explain why people sometimes believe [...]
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