The Skeptic's Inquisition: April 2011

Derren Brown - Miracles for Sale

With the cameras in hot pursuit, Derren faces his toughest project yet, going in search of an unsuspecting member of the British public prepared to adopt the guise of a pastor and miracle worker.

His chosen one then has six months to learn the trade and flourish across the pond as a convincing pastor.

The final phase of the volunteer's extraordinary challenge sees them attempt to perform faith healing miracles live in Texas, but will Derren's new recruit be accepted as a faith healer or cast away as fake healer?

Source:
http://derrenbrown.co.uk/blog/2011/04/derren-brown-miracles-sale-tonight-9pm/

Purchase Derren Brown's books and books at Amazon:

Here Be Dragons - An Introduction to Critical Thinking

Here Be Dragons is a free 40 minute video introduction to critical thinking. It is suitable for general audiences and is licensed for free distribution and public display.

Most people fully accept paranormal and pseudoscientific claims without critique as they are promoted by the mass media. Here Be Dragons offers a toolbox for recognizing and understanding the dangers of pseudoscience, and appreciation for the reality-based benefits offered by real science.

Official Site/Download movie

http://herebedragonsmovie.com/

Here Be Dragons is written and presented by Brian Dunning, host and producer of the Skeptoid podcast, author of Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena, and Executive Producer of The Skeptologists and Truth Hurts.

Michael Shermer: Why People Believe Strange Things

Why do people see the Virgin Mary on cheese sandwiches or hear demonic lyrics in "Stairway to Heaven"? Using video, images and music, professional skeptic Michael Shermer explores these and other phenomena, including UFOs and alien sightings. He offers cognitive context: In the absence of sound science, incomplete information can combine with the power of suggestion (helping us hear those Satanic lyrics in Led Zeppelin). In fact, he says, humans tend to convince ourselves to believe: We overvalue the "hits" that support our beliefs, and discount the more numerous "misses." (TED)

Source:
http://www.ted.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/TEDtalksDirector

Purchase Michael Shermer's books at Amazon:

James Randi: Problems with Miscommunication

James Randi complains about the absurd uses of language.

Source:
http://www.randi.org/site/
http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesRandiFoundation

For more of James Randi, purchase his books at Amazon:

James Randi Speaks: Conjuring w/ Barbara Walters

Source:
http://www.randi.org/site/
http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesRandiFoundation

James Randi: A Reflection

James Randi speaks about the great experiences of his life.

Recorded: 3/4/2009

Source:
http://www.randi.org/site/
http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesRandiFoundation

Richard Dawkins in Lynchburg - The God Delusion

Richard Dawkins reads excerpts from The God Delusion and answers questions at Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia on October 23, 2006. This Q&A features many questions from Jerry Falwell's Liberty "University" students.

(Part 1 of 2)

(Part 2 of 2)

Source:

http://richarddawkins.net/

http://richarddawkins.net/videos/303-reading-of-the-god-delusion-in-lynchburg-va

http://www.youtube.com/user/RationalResponse

Ayaan Hirsi Ali at AAI 07

This is the speech given by Ayaan Hirsi Ali at the AAI 07 conference in Washington DC. She is the author of the bestselling book "Infidel", and helped create the film "Submission" with Theo Van Gogh.

(Part 1 of 2)

(Part 2 of 2) - Q&A

Visit the AAI website at:
http://atheistalliance.org

See more videos like this at http://richarddawkins.net
and http://video.rationalresponders.com

Video by
The Richard Dawkins Foundation

Camera
Wayne Marsala
Josh Timonen

Edited by
Josh Timonen

The Simpsons - Sacrilicious

Source:
http://www.youtube.com/user/huluDotCom

David Attenborough explains the Tree of Life

This six-minute Tree of Life video appeared on the BBC One programme 'Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life' narrated by David Attenborough.

Download:
http://atheistmovies.blogspot.com/2009/02/david-attenborough-charles-darwin-and.html

Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life
http://www.youtube.com/user/WellcomeTreeofLife

Poetry of Science: Richard Dawkins & Neil deGrasse Tyson

"The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science presents:

"The Poetry of Science: Discussions of the Beauty of Science."

Two of science's luminaries converse on the beauty of science. Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and host of NOVA and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins will explore the wonders of the Cosmos and of Life, its origins, its inspirations, and why science is not just an option, it is the only reality we possess."

Source:

http://richarddawkins.net/

http://www.youtube.com/user/richarddawkinsdotnet

The Double-Slit Experiment

Prof Anton Zeilinger conducts the double-slit experiment to show the strange behavior of photons.

Prof Anton Zeilinger Shows the Double-slit... by blindwatcher

Source:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xxgbn

BBC - Islamic Lessons of Hate and Violence

Dispatches: Lessons in Hate and Violence

Dispatches investigates how some faith schools in Britain are operating behind closed doors. Going under cover, they expose extreme intolerence to other faiths (even other Muslims) and violence against pupils. Main problem of the program is that they blame extremists for these problems and ignore the fact that Quran is a source of hate speech and discrimination. Before the end of the program, we see a more tolerant and modern faith school which teaches the Quran in Arabic. I wonder how they teach the verses like these: "O ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for friends. They are friends one to another. He among you who taketh them for friends is (one) of them." or Allah curses the Jews "So when they took pride in that which they had been forbidden, We said unto them: Be ye apes despised and loathed!"(Atheist Movies)

Aired February 14, 2011 on Channel 4.

Hate Speech and Violence in Islamic Schools by blindwatcher

Source:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/
http://atheistmovies.blogspot.com/2011/02/dispatches-lessons-in-hate-and-violence.html

BBC - The World's Worst Place to Be Gay

The World's Worst Place To Be Gay by blindwatcher

Download:
http://atheistmovies.blogspot.com/2011/02/bbc-worlds-worst-place-to-be-gay.html

Sam Harris - AAI 2007 - The Problem with Atheism

Source:
http://www.youtube.com/user/richarddawkinsdotnet#g/c/C5B25927966FD4D5
http://richarddawkins.net/

Bill O'Reilly: Is There a Hell?

An incredibly absurd debate...

But you really come to expect this from O'Reilly and his friends at FOX News

April 25, 2011 on Fox News - via http://www.AtheistMedia.com

James Randi Speaks: Why Do We Still Believe

Source:
http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesRandiFoundation

Scientist Colin Blakemore vs. Creationism

Scientist Colin Blakemore visits a creationist museum.

Creationist Museum by blindwatcher

Richard Dawkins - "What if you're wrong?"

Richard Dawkins answers "the most simplest" question from a Liberty U student.

Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mmskXXetcg
http://www.youtube.com/user/Eyedunno

Richard Feynman - The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out

Richard Feynman - The Pleasure Of Finding Things Out (1981)

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(2 of 5)

(3 of 5)

(4 of 5)

(5 of 5)

Source:

http://www.youtube.com/user/nethius

The Trial of Karol Wojtyla

Hold the Halo

By MAUREEN DOWD

Published: April 23, 2011

Pope Benedict XVI will preside over the beatification for the man he revered, the first time in a millennium that a pope has elevated his immediate predecessor and the swiftest ascension toward sainthood on record.

Hoping to get a P.R. boost by resurrecting John Paul’s magic, Benedict fast-tracked the process, waiving the usual five-year wait before starting.

After Communism collapsed, John Paul offered a stinging critique of capitalism, presciently warning big business to stop pursuing profits “at any price.”

As progressive as he was on those issues, he was disturbingly regressive on social issues — contraception, women’s ordination, priests’ celibacy, divorce and remarriage. And certainly, John Paul forfeited his right to beatification when he failed to establish a legal standard to remove pedophiles from the priesthood, and simply turned away for many years.

For years after the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of the Legion of Christ, was formally accused of pedophilia in a Vatican proceeding, he remained John Paul’s pet. The ultra-orthodox Legion of Christ and Opus Dei were the shock troops in John Paul’s war on Jesuits and other progressive theologians.

Full Story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/24/opinion/24dowd.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

NYT - The Danger of Donald Trump

Gary Coronado/Palm Beach Post, via Associated Press, left; Olivier Morin, via Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesDonald Trump, left, and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy

It’s easy to see why people think Donald Trump has become the Charlie Sheen of the Republican Party. Gluttons for attention, the two share a rare talent at self-promotion, self-delusion and self-immolation. And Sheen now proclaims himself a birther, in league with Trump’s crusade to promote a lie about President Obama that is also believed by nearly half of G.O.P voters.

But the more you watch Trump crash around the land, leaving shards of fabrication for the rest of us to sweep up, the more you realize who he’s really like: Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister who has served longer than any leader of his country since Mussolini goose-stepped over bell’Italia.

Full Story...

Source:
The New York Times
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/the-danger-of-donald-trump/?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1

AAI 2007: 'We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers' by Dr. Andy Thomson

Dr. Andy Thomson gives a talk on the motives behind suicide terrorism at the Atheist Alliance International 2007 Conference in Washington, D.C. This video is available on DVD as part of the 'AAI 2007' DVD set, available at http://store.richarddawkins.net.

Brought to you free online by
THE RICHARD DAWKINS FOUNDATION FOR REASON AND SCIENCE

Filmed by
JOSH TIMONEN
WAYNE MARSALA

Edited by
JOSH TIMONEN

James Randi reveals Uri Geller's compass trick.

James Randi Speaks: The Compass Trick

Source:
http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesRandiFoundation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siDy1o9-swk

Richard Dawkins at UC Berkeley

Richard Dawkins on "The Greatest Show on Earth"
at Berkeley Arts and Letters, on October 7, 2009."

Richard Dawkins reads some chapters from his new book " The Greatest Show on Earth"

Buy 'The Greatest Show on Earth' and all of Richard Dawkins' books and DVDs at Amazon:

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/04/carl-sagan-universe-not-made-for-us.html

Carl Sagan: Wanderers

(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 3)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-wanderers.html

Carl Sagan: A Gift From Apollo
(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 4)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-gift-of-apollo.html

Carl Sagan: The Backbone of Night
(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 5)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-backbone-of-night.html

Carl Sagan: The Edge Forever
(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 6)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-edge-of-forever.html

Carl Sagan: The Great Demotions
(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 7)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-great-demotions.html

Carl Sagan: To The Sky
(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 8)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-to-sky.html

Carl Sagan: Darkness
(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 9)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-darkness.html

Carl Sagan: You Are Here
(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 10)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-you-are-here.html

Carl Sagan: The Story of Everything
(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 11)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-story-of-everything.html

Carl Sagan: The Blessing and the Curse

(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 12)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-blessing-and-curse.html

Carl Sagan: The Frailty of Knowledge

(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 13)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-frailty-of-knowledge.html

Carl Sagan: Heaven and Hell

(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 14)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-heaven-and-hell.html

Carl Sagan: Scaling Heaven

(Carl Sagan Tribute Series, Part 15)

http://skepticinquisition.blogspot.com/2011/07/carl-sagan-scaling-heaven.html

Source:

http://www.youtube.com/user/callumCGLP

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