I apologize for the recent non-humanism related posts. I’ve emailed the Planet Humanism curator and requested my blog URL be changed to a humanism-only category feed.
I’m a regular reader of Planet Humanism and don’t wish to spam you all with updates about my music releases or other non-humanism related posts.
If you’re reading this and you haven’t checked out Planet Humanism, please visit, check out, and subscribe to the amazing service’s feed. You’ll be glad you did.. and more informed.
A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it.
– David Stephens
Faith is belief without, and against, evidence and reason; coincidentally that’s also the definition of delusion. – anonymous
Can omniscient God, who
Knows the future, find
The omnipotence to
Change his future mind?
– Karen Owens
Hey everyone. Well, after more than 1,000 downloads and a lot of great emails and feedback, I’ve finally updated the Dawkins Belief Scale Images Set.
The new set (Version 2) of the Dawkins Scale Images are 200 x 230 pixel PNG badges with rounded borders and a thin drop-shadow set on a transparent background. (As seen in the image to the right.)
The new set is available for download at the Dawkins Scale Images page. There are two new downloads, Ver. 2 for light backgrounds and Ver. 2 for dark backgrounds. Both downloads include the Photoshop template PSD file.
The original (Ver. 1) set will still be available for download as well. I really appreciate all the great feedback I’ve gotten and I hope everyone enjoys the new set.
I was listening to the new Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast last Saturday and near the end of the episode, host Steven Novella dropped a bombshell of a Christmas present. Steve informed us he had been working with The Teaching Company to make a lecture series on Medical Myths. I’m a big fan of The Teaching Company and the fine educational products they produce. Coupling that with my favorite skeptic on the planet AND producing a series with him on “the growing body of misinformation” that proliferates among the public discourse.
Medical Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths: What We Think We Know May Be Hurting Us
“You can’t assume that what you’ve always heard must be true simply because many other people believe it and spread it around,” notes Dr. Steven Novella of the Yale School of Medicine, a medical doctor who has built his career educating patients, the public, students, and professionals about the highest standards in medical science and practice. “You should challenge all of your beliefs and, wherever possible, try to rely upon a consensus of authority or primary sources in order to check out everything that you think you know to be true.”
Popular and easily accessible sources such as websites, blogs, advocacy groups, marketing materials, and celebrity endorsements are where we often get quick medical information. But they’re also the most unreliable sources.
Dr. Novella also opens your eyes to myths about pregnancy, loss of consciousness, detoxification, and the placebo effect. In one lecture toward the end of the course, he even takes you on a brief tour of common medical myths from around the world to demonstrate that medical myths vary, but misinformation is universal.
I’m a huge fan of The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe and The Teaching Company.
Every week Dr. Novella and his crew of ‘Rogues’ tackle the serious and the hilarious with wit and steadfast sincerity and a passion for a skeptical and critical approach to understanding the universe. They truly are a weekly escape to reality.
The Teaching Company provides very high quality, college level lecture courses on a variety of disciplines and specialized areas of education.
Combining these two elements into a single lecture series is a wonderful Christmas present for me and anyone else who happens to pick this up. Maybe there’s a God after all… or a great company recognized a great educator, got together and did what they do best. Which one do you think is more probable?
I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.” – Stephen Jay Gould
Source: Kyle Robertson - Dispatch
In one of those stories that just makes me smile, a group of strip-club dancers have turned the tides on church-goers bent on imposing their own morality on others.
For four years now, Pastor Bill Dunfee of New Beginnings Ministries and his congregation have been trying to shut down Ohio’s Foxhole strip-club by staging disruptive protests and generally harassing the establishment’s patrons.
Every weekend for the last four years, Dunfee and members of his ministry have stood watch over George’s joint, taking up residence in the right of way with signs, video cameras and bullhorns in hand. They videotape customers’ license plates and post them online, and they try to save the souls of anyone who comes and goes.
Now, fed up with the tactics of Dunfee and his flock, Foxhole employees are ready to accept the invitation to come to church… Dressed in their Sunday best skimpiness, the Foxhole dancers have started showing up every Sunday to do a little protesting themselves.
Via: Atheist Revolution
I’ve given Matt Smith a full season to woo me over but sadly, he’s just not doing it for me. Therefore, I hereby state… Now and forever after… David Tennant, the Tenth Doctor, is MY Doctor.
Now, I’ve been a Doctor Who fan for a while. I have fond memories of watching Tom Baker era episodes during family dinner & I quite like the Peter Davison era as well. I missed initially when the series returned but caught up pretty quickly a few of years ago and have been loving the ride ever since. I liked Christopher Eccleston fairly quickly with his big grinned humor just barely concealing a starch seriousness and pain of recent losses. When the first season came to a close and all we got from Tennant was,
“Hmm, new teeth. That’s weird. Now where was I? Oh yeah, Barcelona!”
… I wasn’t really sure. But then came four seasons of the absolute best television I’ve ever watched. Tennant’s Doctor immediately embodied every humanistic value and idea I hold dear. He approached every situation with compassion, curiosity and reason with a skeptical mind seeking for and usually finding the natural explanation. He engendered the best of humanity in those he met and left them all better people. (Even Jackie)
Tennant’s Doctor also had a dense pain hidden on his face that could come out at any moment in a way that made you realize he’d been holding it back for far too long. He carried a burden but never let it get in his way of doing what he thought had to be done for the good of the universe.
There’s always the possibility that Matt Smith or some future Doctor could swoop in and steal the crown… but I’m highly skeptical. Well, I say skeptical, I mean doubtful. Well, pretty impossible actually, now that I think about it…. anyways… Oh, look at that… That is beautiful!
Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of my favorite speakers. The amount of passion he puts into his work in inspiration enough… then you actually listen to what he’s got to say. Here, Tyson speaks out about why NASA and space funding/research is so important to America’s future.
Via: Bad Astronomy Blog