Category Archives: woo

AP/NORC poll: Most religious Americans see a message from God in the coronavirus pandemic

July 26, 2020 – 9:00 am

In one way things haven’t changed since the Middle Ages: the onset of a pandemic leads people to search for a greater meaning, usually involving the wrath of a god. So, for instance, the Black Death was blamed on a lack of piety (penitentes arose), the perfidy of the Jews, and so on. Now, in […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in pandemic, religion, religiosity | Comments (46)

Gwynnie’s summer luxuries

July 10, 2020 – 1:30 pm

I know you’ve all been asking yourselves, “What on earth is Gwyneth Paltrow doing this summer?” For we always want to know what the rich are doing because, as Hemingway said, they’re different from you and me. Well, Gwynnie has put up a post documenting her summertime activities, which of course involve products she’s bought, […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in advertisements | Comments (27)

George Ellis responds to my criticism of his argument for free will

June 15, 2020 – 9:30 am

Yesterday I posted a critique of an Aeon article by physicist George Ellis, arguing that science itself gives evidence for true libertarian free will. This rests on his claim that psychology exerts a “top-down” effect on molecules, and those top-down effects, because they stem from our thinking, our experiences, and our personalities (all subsumed under […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in free will, physics | Comments (46)

I get emails

June 3, 2020 – 9:00 am

I’m working on a longer post that should be up later today, showing a reader’s analysis of the question, “Did countries led by women have a better response to coronavirus?”, an issue that got a lot of publicity and that I discussed here on May 17.  We’ll have a statistical analysis of the issue, something […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Comments (62)

Another befuddled person touts panpsychism, proposing some possible (but impossible) tests of the idea that all matter is conscious

May 28, 2020 – 9:00 am

I continue to be baffled by the presence and lucubrations of apparently sentient people who claim that consciousness inheres in all matter, from electrons to us. This view that everything (including the Universe itself) is conscious is called panpsychism, and I’ve written about it at length. Why is this cockeyed theory so popular? Because it purports to […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in consciousness, panpsychism, philosophy | Comments (50)

A large percentage of conservatives (indeed, of U.S. adults) subscribe to a bizarre Bill Gates conspiracy theory

May 24, 2020 – 9:30 am

It’s unbelievable what Trump supporters, Republicans, and conservatives can bring themselves to believe, but this new Yahoo/YouGov poll shows that bizarre and unevidenced beliefs are held by a substantial proportion of not just those on the Right, but of all U.S. adults. This article (click on screenshot below) centers on both Bill Gates and the […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in Republicans behaving badly, Trumpiana | Comments (106)

Francis Collins, new Templeton Prize winner, pushes woo in a Scientific American interview

May 22, 2020 – 2:00 pm

As I reported two days ago, NIH head Francis Collins, an evangelical Christian, just nabbed the lucrative Templeton Prize, usually given to people who are both science minded and blather on about the “Big Questions”:  metaphysical “why” questions like “Why are we here?” or “What is our purpose?” Designed to exceed the Nobel Prize in […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in awards and honors, Christians behaving badly | Comments (45)

The New York Times is dying before our eyes

May 20, 2020 – 12:30 pm

by Greg Mayer The New York Times is dying before our eyes, and for longtime subscribers, such as myself, it is a sad and painful experience. From Orwellian editorial practices to crusading for wokeism, the decline has been clear for some time now. I used to think that Jerry was reacting too strongly to some […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in paranormal | Comments (43)

Faith-soaked physician to conduct study of prayer in curing Covid-19

May 2, 2020 – 10:30 am

Does prayer work to cure diseases? Anecdotal evidence from Lourdes, where amputees and the eyeless aren’t cured, suggest not. And we all know the results of the Templeton-funded study of the effects of intercessory prayer on recovery of cardiac patients, the most thorough study of intercessory prayer yet, involving over 1800 patients (Benson et al. […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Also posted in health, medicine, medicine and health, pandemic | Comments (64)

Pentagon releases videos of UFOs, but remember what those initials mean. And now we have non-alien explanations.

April 28, 2020 – 12:45 pm

Three videos have just been officially released by the Pentagon, and yes, they do show true “unidentified flying objects”—in the sense that they weren’t identified and they were flying.  CNN describes the release. I believe these have been kicking around the internet for a few years, but now the release is official.  CNN: The Pentagon […]

By whyevolutionistrue | Comments (37)