Most psychology professors, people who work in a field related to parapsychology, are quite skeptical of psychic phenomena. The same is true of biologists, physicists, and others involved in the physical sciences. They do not put much credence in the claims of things like telepathy, clairvoyance or telekinesis. Many psychology students, however, are not so skeptical - they tend to believe that these phenomena are real.

 

Read Article: Who Cares About Parapsychology? Why Parapsychology Matters

Bill O'Reilly of Fox News has asserted that humans don't know how the tides work, therefore it's reasonable to believe not only that some god exists, but that a specific god exists and be a Christian. Frankly, I don't know which part of Bill O'Reilly's comments is more absurd and stupid: the claim that tides are unexplained or the claim that this somehow validates theism.

Variations on the Argument from Ignorance have long been popular in Christina apologetics. It's a sign of just how weak Christianity is that believers depends so frequently and so heavily on arguing from a basis of what they don't know rather than from a basis if reliable, testable knowledge. Still, I don't think I've ever seen a worse, more stupefying example of it than these recent comments from Bill O'Reilly.

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DeRobigne Mortimer Bennett is not a name familiar to many, and given how much he fought for freethought, free speech, and a free press, that is unfortunate. Called the "American Voltaire" by friends and the "Devil's Own Advocate" by enemies, few fought as hard and suffered as much to promote American liberties we take for granted. If someone is unafraid to publish a criticism of religion, promote birth control, or advocate women's equality, they can thank D.M. Bennett for having paved the way.

Book of the Week: D.M. Bennett, The Truth Seeker

Best Agnostic / Atheist Book of 2010: Books by atheists and about atheism have been getting a lot more attention in recent years -- and for good reason. There have been a lot more such books and their quality has only been increasing. I can remember just a decade ago when the "atheism" section of even good book stores had at most one shelf of material, most of it not very recent.

So which new atheist book do you think was the best this past year? To be eligible, a book had to be first published in 2010. This means the first edition is from 2010; second editions, paperback editions, reprints, etc. don't count. The book had to be written by someone who identifies as an atheist, agnostic, or freethinker and the subject must be atheism, agnosticism, freethought, religious critique, etc.

Christopher Hitchens' book God is not Great is not eligible because it was first published in 2007. Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion is not eligible because it was first published in 2006. If you're not sure when a book was published, just check Amazon.com.

Important Links:

• About the Agnosticism / Atheism Readers' Choice Awards
• Agnosticism / Atheism Readers' Choice Awards Nomination Form
• About.com Readers' Choice Awards Main Page