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No Nonsense

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Anti-pseudoscience, anti-woo, pro science, pro critical thinking, no conspiracy theories, no spin. Count the logical fallacies. No Nonsense!

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"Keep an open mind – but not so open that your brain falls out" -unknown

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." -- Carl Sagan

"What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence." -- Christopher Hitchens

What is a logical fallacy? All arguments have the same basic structure: A therefore B. They begin with one or more premises (A), which is a fact or assumption upon which the argument is based. They then apply a logical principle (therefore) to arrive at a conclusion (B). An example of a logical principle is that of equivalence. For example, if you begin with the premises that A=B and B=C, you can apply the logical principle of equivalence to conclude that A=C. A logical fallacy is a false or incorrect logical principle. An argument that is based upon a logical fallacy is therefore not valid. It is important to note that if the logic of an argument is valid then the conclusion must also be valid, which means that if the premises are all true then the conclusion must also be true. Valid logic applied to one or more false premises, however, leads to an invalid argument. Also, if an argument is not valid the conclusion may, by chance, still be true. For a more thorough discussion of logical fallacies and how to structure a logical argument, see the New England Skeptical Society's article, How To Argue.

Top 20 Logical Fallacies (in alphabetical order) taken from -

The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe

The New England Skeptical Society The Skeptics' Guide To The Universe Science-Based Medicine
The James Randi Educational Foundation
Propaganda
snopes.com
Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
Simon Singh and his fight to mend British libel laws
Professor Richard Wiseman
PZ Myers' Pharyngula
Dr. Phil Plait and Bad Astronomy
Skeptic Blog
Michael Shermer's Baloney Detection Kit
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
The Skeptics' Dictionary
List of cognitive biases
Don Watson - Weasel Words
QuackWatch
A List of Fallacious Arguments

Chat #NoNonsense

"No skeptic, to my knowledge, ever made a major scientific discovery or advanced the welfare of others."

-- Deepak Chopra (yes, he actually said that)

"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not "Eureka!" (I found it!) but That's funny..." -Isaac Asimov

The scientific world view is full of awe and wonder. Understanding how truly awesome the universe is – in its elegant complexity, its staggering beauty, and the many intricate systems of which it is comprised – gives a profound feeling of connectedness and sparks the imagination. And it has the advantage of being real. -Steven Novella

The glory which is built upon a lie soon becomes a most unpleasant incumbrance. How easy it is to make people believe a lie, and how hard it is to undo that work again.
— Mark Twain

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Comment by Jaume on August 21, 2011 at 4:24am: Don't need a Ph.D in psychology to work that out.

True. "God helps those who help themselves" is at least as old as Aesop, but some still get it the other way. But I looked up the phrase in Wikipedia, which says:

It is mistaken by many to be a Bible quote, however the phrase does not occur in the Bible. Some Christians have criticized it as actually against the Bible's basic message of God's grace.

At least they're consistent: actually trying to save the boy would be denying God's grace. It's obviously more important to preserve faith than to save lives.

Comment by Ian Mason on August 21, 2011 at 12:24am: How about the rescuers? Didn't they exist at all? It sounds like the result of guilt to me. NONE of the church group even attempted to DO anything practical so when someone else DOES do something that WORKS guilt hits hard. Don't need a Ph.D in psychology to work that out.

Perhaps they should throw the boy back and try prayer alone. That would really give some empirical data.

Comment by Dallas (on hiatus) on August 20, 2011 at 8:30pm: Mike, they live in their own little world of make-believe.

Comment by Susan Stanko on May 9, 2011 at 6:26pm: The email come addressing the group so, i am surprised that you aren't getting them.

Comment by George on May 9, 2011 at 6:22pm: @Sacha,
The member, Deborah Greenbaum, appears to have been deleted already.

Comment by sacha on May 9, 2011 at 6:18pm: Thanks Susan,
If you have the name of the member, I can block them. I'm notr eceiving the emails, so I don't know who it is.

Comment by Susan Stanko on May 9, 2011 at 5:20pm: I reported the issue to management. You can as well. There is a report issue link at the bottom of the page.

Comment by James M. Martin on May 9, 2011 at 5:18pm: Someone is spamming the group members with a jobs database. Can't you do something about it?

Comment by Richard Haynes on April 17, 2011 at 12:52pm: Just so everyone knows, when a spammer gets past our walls, we ban them as soon as they are reported to us. This is why they don't show up in member searches. They are already gone.

In the future, remember to use the "Report an Issue" link at the bottom of every page.

Thanks.

Comment by James M. Martin on April 16, 2011 at 10:43pm: @Fred: not sure it is a virus. Maybe the web site it touted was innocuous, but it is odd all the same.