Crossing Over With Tobe

Many people hold the view that if God exists, then he is supernatural and, therefore, beyond the realm of science – which can only study the natural – to discuss. The same could be said of anything supernatural, from ghosts to telepathy; if science can study it then it is no longer supernatural. It is, […]

How Do You Know That?

Critical thinking is a complicated subject. You can study structures of arguments, syllogisms, logical fallacies, science, philosophy, epistemology and ontology, all in the name of improving your critical thinking skills. You can learn the difference between an inductive and a deductive argument, contrary and contradictory statements, and a properly constructed argument compared to a simple […]

Everything Happens for a Reason

If I had a penny for every time something bad has happened to me and someone has tried to comfort me with the words, “everything happens for a reason”, I’d be rich. There seems to be an unspoken understanding in society, a consensus that the expected response to this luke-warm platitude is to nod sincerely, […]

Supernatural TV

I use Google News Alerts to keep a steady supply of material coming in. Among other things, I have a list of any news stories containing the words “paranormal” or “supernatural” emailed to me every twenty four hours. But I rarely find a topic to write about in them, the reason being that nearly all […]

And now for the Weather

Science is often accused of being arrogant. Whether it is or not is a moot point. What is indisputable, is that science has an awful lot to be arrogant about. After thousands of years of stagnation and stifled lack of progress, science in the past three centuries has freed us from the chains of darkness […]

Abstain With Me

This news story from the BBC reports that a new study has shown that students in America who attend “abstinence classes” are no more likely to abstain from sex then students who receive regular sex education. Well, I didn’t see that one coming (no pun intended). “Abstinence only” sex education is, to quote Roy Zimmerman […]

The Adoring Younger Brother

The main pillars of academic study, while differing widely in the knowledge they seek, all share a number of things in common. Science, history, philosophy and mathematics, across the spectrum, are all built on similar foundations. First and foremost, they are a quest for the truth. They all aspire to ask the right questions and […]

Challenging experience

Whenever a discussion comes up about God, ghosts, UFO’s or any other strange or supernatural beliefs, how often have you heard someone say “I’ll believe it when I see it” or “seeing is believing”? They say it like it’s obvious. “Why should I believe in God/ghosts/aliens based on your experience?”, they say, defiantly, “I base […]

A Tribute to Derren Brown

In my article The Importance of being satirical I talked about the effectiveness of entertainment in communicating important principles and ideas. I can think of no-one better to personify this idea than psychological illusionist and mentalist, Derren Brown. I expect the vast majority of my UK readers will be familiar with Brown and his work, […]

Astrology – the real ones

Whenever I am getting to know someone new, and I reach the point where we both outline our beliefs, I always ask them if they believe in astrology first. I find that their response tends to give a fairly accurate indication as to where they draw their ‘rationality line’, separating the things they need evidence […]