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Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking Surgery

Facepalm, thy name is Dr. Egnor! Or: I find your excess of faith in the scientific abilities of physicians…disturbing

I have to wonder if the most famous denizen of the Discovery Institute in medical circles, Dr. Michael Egnor, is on vacation or something. For some reason, he’s been especially active over at the Discovery Institute’s repository of pseudoscience, Evolution News & Views, over the last couple of weeks. Neurosurgeons tend to be very busy […]

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Complementary and alternative medicine Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Monday afternoon mandatory reading

Three goodies on skepticism and science: Skeptical Battlegrounds: Part III – Alternative Medicine. Suffice it to say, Steve agrees with me. He just lays it all out in one post instead of ten. Once again, Egnor and Tautologies. Blogchild Mark Chu-Carroll takes on our favorite creationist neurosurgeon, Dr. Egnor. This time he deals directly with […]

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Just what Dr. Egnor wanted for Christmas: Some not-so-Respectful Insolence!

It’s Christmas Eve. I know, I know, it’s all supposed to be Peace On Earth, Good Will Towards Men (and Women), and all that jazz. Really, that’s exactly what I had intended for today and tomorrow. Indeed, my plan was to do nothing more than a quickie post today and a maybe a couple of […]

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Biology Complementary and alternative medicine Evolution Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

When a single quote tells you all you need to know about a critic’s reasoning ability

Last week, I gave everybody’s favorite creationist neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Egnor, the gift everyone loves to read but not to receive: the gift of not-so-Respectful Insolence. Christmas or no Christmas, he did ask for it, and far be it from me, given my benevolent nature, not to respond to his plaintiff plea with a resounding […]

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Anti-Semitism Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine History Holocaust Holocaust denial Intelligent design/creationism Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking World War II

Bishop Richard Williamson, Holocaust denial, and the problem of “recantation” by cranks

Because of the fallout from the revelation by Brian Deer that very likely Andrew Wakefield, hero of the antivaccine movement but, alas for his worshipers, one of the most dishonest and incompetent scientists who ever lived, had almost certainly falsified data for his infamous 1998 Lancet paper that launched a decade-long anti-MMR hysteria that shows […]