The universe is a causal system where all events have prior causes. However, the probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics introduces an element of chance or randomness. The future is not predetermined, even though it's influenced by past causes.
Read MoreThe Storm
Even though it sounds like a big question, the kind of question that fuels hours of late-night coffee house conversations—DOES FREE WILL EXIST?—the truth is, that from an empirical point of view, the consensus is pretty uncontroversial and the answer is surprisingly simple.
Free will does not exist.
Read MoreFucking Dead
It was all there for the modern myth-makers. A ready-made American legend gift wrapped and delivered with a bow. The All-American hero willing to sacrifice everything for God, football, and country. Only, Pat Tillman wasn’t the perfect American Patriot, at least not in the way people wanted.
Read MoreNo News is Fake News
The greatest threat facing American democracy is not Russian interference. It is not even fake news. It is our own credulity.
Read MorePetty Argument Pt. II
In Part I of this two part post devoted to my good friend Josh Petty I promised that I would revisit an argument that we had recently on Instagram. For better or worse, here is Part II.
As I was putting my notes together for this blog entry, reviewing the copious comments sent back and forth between Josh Petty and me, I came to realize that the chasm between our different perspectives – with me, the Skeptic on one side and Josh, the believer on the other – was so vast and so profound that any argument spawned from that chasm was doomed ultimately to be meaningless.
Josh and I do not experience the world in the same way. Our experiences and our desires are so different that when we communicate, we are not even speaking the same language. Even when we appear to be using the same words, we are NOT, in fact, saying the same thing.
Read MorePetty Argument Pt. I
Josh Petty was in the midst of his Jim Morrison phase. He was wearing black leather pants, without a shirt (or underwear), and holding a bottle of Jack Daniels in one hand and a switchblade in the other. He even got a tattoo on his stomach that read, “Rider on the Storm,” (you know, because he was a solo rider on the storm). This is how I remember Josh stumbling through Europe while we were on tour back in the late nineties.
Read MoreNo More Tears
The first Skeptical podcast that I ever listened to was Skeptoid. Along with The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe, Skeptoid is among the most recognized and listened to podcasts within the fledgling Skeptical community.
Read More165,000 Justin Biebers
The universe is big. Incomprehensibly big. And it is very likely just one out of an incomprehensibly large number of incomprehensibly large universes. Our recorded history, recorded human history, goes back less than 5,000 years. It has been less than 10,000 years since humans first started organizing into civilizations and well under half-a-million years since modern humans even existed at all.
Read MoreWhat is Skepticism?
Would you prefer to live in a world full of mystery and wonder or a world guided by strict laws and rules? For many people this is the question at the heart of the tension between skepticism and belief. If the price of accepting science, or a naturalistic worldview, is the loss of wonder, then perhaps the price is too high.
Read MoreWhat is a Skeptic Tattoo?
Sometime over ten years ago I decided that I wanted to get a skeptical tattoo. I had a feeling in my mind of what I wanted, but there were no clear references to work from. I was aware that people were getting science tattoos, but those were usually pretty straightforward and not exactly what I was looking for.
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