The mission of the Center for Inquiry is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.
New Tests: Dawson Was Piltdown Forger
Investigative Briefs with Joe Nickell
August 18, 2016
After an eight-year examination, a team of researchers has concluded that the infamous Piltdown Skull hoax—consisting of human skull fragments together with an ape-like jaw having two teeth—was the work of a single forger: the “discoverer” and original suspect Charles Dawson. The study clears other suspects touted over the years, including the French priest Teilhard de Chardin, English paleontologist Arthur Smith Woodward, Scottish anatomist Arthur Keith, and, among others, famed Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle.
Abstract, Jargonistic, and Near-Mystical
The Morning Heresy with Paul the Morning Heretic
August 18, 2016
The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
The editorial board of Scientific American, not known for partisan polemic, castigates Trump for his "outright contempt" for science:
When the major Republican candidate for president has tweeted that global warming is a Chinese plot, threatens to dismantle a climate agreement 20 years in the making and to eliminate an agency that enforces clean air and water regulations, and speaks passionately about a link between vaccines and autism that was utterly discredited years ago, we can only hope that there is nowhere to go but up.
Relatedly, Wired does something novel for this year: It endorses a candidate. You can guess which one.
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Face Oblivion
The Morning Heresy with Paul the Morning Heretic
August 17, 2016
The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
Did you know that Skeptical Inquirer is 40? So what does a skeptics' magazine do to mark its big anniversary? Why, by being skeptical of course...about skepticism! In the big anniversary issue, leading skeptics contribute their thoughts about what skepticism is doing right, and what it isn't. It's got that funny science guy, that new-Cosmos guy, the New Atheist who looks like Santa, and many, many more. Get this issue in print or on your mobile device.
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A One-Dollar Browbeating
The Morning Heresy with Paul the Morning Heretic
August 16, 2016
The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
John Fea at RNS lauds the wisdom of America's founders for their aversion to having clergy serve in public office, comparing the intermingling of politics and religion to mixing "horse manure and ice cream":
The Founding Fathers understood something about the role of clergy in American society that Lane and his Christian nationalist friends do not. Those who care for the soul have a “great” spiritual duty that should never be compromised or tarnished by politics. This is why they thought that the “separation of church and state” was important.
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