Skepticism is generally a healthy thing. Requiring evidence and questioning other people's claims can help us avoid falling prey to quacks and con artists of all stripes. It can keep us from throwing our time, money and hope into a pit from which we can never get it back.

However, the tools of skepticism, like any other tools, can be misused. They can be selectively and inappropriately applied to create doubt even where almost no doubt remains. This tactic is referred to as bogus skepticism, or denialism. It's used frequently in discussion of politically charged topics, such as man-made global warming and the very existence of the Holocaust.

PalMD is an internist (a doctor of internal medicine) who has blogged extensively about medical denialism at White Coat Underground, Science-Based Medicine and previously at denialism blog. He also hosts a podcast (or PalCast) in which he talks about many of the same issues. The contentious topics he's covered include the dangers of secondhand smoke, claims of a vaccine-autism link, "alternative" medicine and diagnoses of diseases without any physiological basis. He'll talk with us about the difference between skepticism and denialism and how to spot a denialist.

• White Coat Underground 
• Science-Based Medicine
• The PalCast  
• denialism blog: What is Denialism
• denialism blog: Denialists' Deck of Cards  
• New Statesman: Against the evidence
• Mayo Clinic Diseases and Treatments Guide
• PaL MD and Dr. Free-Ride (Peter A Lipson and Janet Stemwedel) on Bloggingheads.tv

SUBSCRIBE TO THE iTunes PODCAST
SUBSCRIBE TO THE STANDARD RSS FEED
Write a review of Atheists Talk Listen to AM 950 KTNF on Sunday at 9AM Central to hear Atheists Talk produced by Minnesota Atheists. Stream live online. Call the studio at 952-946-6205 or email usat radio@mnatheists.org.

On this week’s show we’re going to try something different.  We’ll have a discussion between an atheist and a Christian about the current state of morality in this country.  Is the decline of religion really leading to a loss of moral values, as the Religious Right claims?  Is America going to hell in a handbasket?  Join us for what promises to be a lively debate between August Berkshire, past president of Minnesota Atheists, and Robert Dull of The Pearlygate Network.

Produced by Minnesota Atheists.  Directed and hosted by Mike Haubrich. 

• The numbers on moral decline - The Washington Times
  

• United States Crime Rates 1960-2007  [Note: Violent crime begins to decrease in 1992, 19 years after “Roe v. Wade”]

• “Important Distinctions: Morality vs. Sexual Morality” by Winston Smith
• The Culture of Morality: Social Development, Context, and Conflict by Elliot Turiel
• Lawrence Kohlberg’s six stages of moral development
• “Godless Moral Values” by Austin Cline

 

• American Religious Identification Survey 2008
• [The Political] Rise of the Godless
• “The coming evangelical collapse” - Christian Science Monitor

 

• unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters by David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons

• “A Christian by Any Other Name” by Lisa Miller, Newsweek  [Christians running away from the word “Christian”]
• “Religious Leaders Battle Abuse Bill in New York” - The New York Times
• Subscribe to FFRF’s Freethought Today newspaper to get listings of “Black Collar Crimes”

 

• “The Character of God in the Bible” by August Berkshire

 

 NATURAL ETHICS

• Mirroring People: The New Science of How We Connect with Others - by Marco Iacoboni
• On Being Moved: From Mirror Neurons to Empathy - edited by Stein Braten
• Mirrors in the Brain: How Our Minds Share Actions, Emotions, and Experience - by Giacomo Rizzolatti, Corrado Sinigaglia, and Frances Anderson
• Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved (Princeton Science Library) - by Frans de Waal, edited by Stephen Macedo and Josiah Ober
• Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals - by Frans B. M. de Waal
• Moral Minds: How Nature designed a Universal Sense of Right and Wrong - by Marc D. Hauser
• The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Car, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule - by Michael Shermer
• The Evolution of Morality - by Richard Joyce
• The Ethical Brain - by Michael Gazzaniga

 

 {podcast "America Losing Religion - And Morality?" - Atheists Talk #061 - March 15, 2009}  

 

Gene Roddenberry convinced the executives at Desilu Studios that a show about exploring space would appeal to a mass audience. They funded a weekly series for three beautiful years, and it turns out he was partially right. The show was not a ratings giant until it went into syndication and cartoons some five years after it had been canceled. From there it fostered a “Big Bang” of cultural infusion. Movies, fan fiction, spinoff series and “cons” exploded the concepts of Star Trek into our society.

Is it the underlying humanist message which infuses the Star Trek Universe that has led to its huge popularity as a cultural phenomenon? Robert Price and Scott Lohman will spend some time on our airwaves examining the issues of humanism in the Start Trek Universe, and science fiction's role in teaching us about ourselves.

Scott Lohman, president of the Humanists of Minnesota, will give a presentation on the Humanism of Star Trek on March 15 at 2 p.m. at the Southdale Public Library in Edina.  RSVP here.

Produced by Minnesota Atheists .  Directed by Mike Haubrich.  Hosted by Stephanie Zvan.   Interview by Scott Lohman.

• Gene Rodenberry Biographical Sketch
• Majel Barrett Rodenberry Biographical Sketch
• Offical Star Trek Site
• Star Trek Fanfiction Collections
• Biblebelievers.org on Humanism of Star Trek
• British Humanist Society on Gene Roddenberry's Atheism and Humanism
• Robert Price Biography at Mindvendor 
• Humanism of Star Trek, MN Atheists Monthly Meeting on March 15, 2009 (Meetup)

Prof. Massimo Pigliucci, of the Stonybrook Institute in New York,is a biologist and a philosopher who has published about a hundred technical papers and several books on evolutionary biology.  He is a fellow of the American Associationfor the Advancement of Science, selected “for fundamental studies of genotype by environmental interactions and for public defense of evolutionary biology from pseudoscientific attack.  ”Massimo is also an atheist, and has published articles in Skeptical Enquirer, Philosophy Now, The Philosopher's Magazine and American Atheist Magazine.

Greg Laden, who has been a frequent and popular guest on “Atheists Talk,” is an evolutionary anthropologist and professor at the University of Minnesota.  On Sunday Greg turns the tables and does the interviewing, talking to Massimo about Ken Miller and the role of God in tweaking the genome at strategic moments; whether or not man is some sort of elevated creature as according to biologists who should know better and the role of pseudoscience in weakening the public understanding of evolution.

Produced by Minnesota Atheists .  Directed by Mike Haubrich.  Hosted by Stephanie Zvan.   Interview by Greg Laden.

• Evolution Debate – Pigliucci v. Hovind, Infidel Guy
• Science and Fundamentalism; A Strategy on How to Deal With Anti-Science Fundamentalism
• Vows – Gillian Dunn, Massimo Pigliucci
• Why I Disagree with Ken Miller
• Ken Miller Responds to Massimo (and vice versa)
• Why Didn't Darwin Discover Mendel's Laws?
• Massimo Pigliucci Wikipedia
• Rationallyspeaking.org at Scientific Blogging

 {podcast The Difference Between Science And Bunk: Massimo Pigliucci on Atheists Talk #059, March 1, 2009}

SUBSCRIBE TO THE iTunes PODCAST

SUBSCRIBE TO THE STANDARD RSS FEED
Write a review of Atheists Talk

Listen to AM 950 KTNF on Sunday at 9AM Central to hear Atheists Talk produced by Minnesota Atheists. Stream live online. Call the studio at 952-946-6205 or email usat radio@mnatheists.org.