Last Wednesday (26^th Nov, 2008), UK-Skeptics were contacted by Shannonside Northern Sound Radio in Longford, Ireland to see if we could supply a skeptic to take part in a live debate about psychics and Cold Reading: the techniques psychics use to convince people they are passing messages from the dead or that they are telling them things they couldn’t possibly know and such like.

We don’t normally take part in these ‘skeptics versus believer’ debates as they usually turn out to be of little value – skeptics often being included simply to provide some token opposition. UKS forum member Richard Sutherland decided that he would, however, represent the skeptics’ side of the debate; and this conversation turned out to quite different to the usual: (more…)

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P. Bailey © 2005

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One of the more universal themes of conspiracy theorists is that the world is being run by secret societies that permeate every aspect of political, economic and social life, and whose intention is to create a New World Order. The actual details may vary from theorist to theorist, but the one group whose name appears above all others is that of the Illuminati. (more…)

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P. Bailey © 2005

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David Icke is the best known conspiracy theorist in the UK today. Having previously enjoyed some success as a professional goalkeeper for Coventry City, and later Hereford United, his five year career was cut short by arthritis. Icke became a well-known public face with a new career as a BBC sports’ commentator and anchorman. Between 1988 and 1991 Icke was a spokesman for the Green Party, from which he was to be later expelled. His career from 1991 to the present day has followed a path that not even the most imaginative of science-fiction authors could have predicted. (more…)

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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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This fallacy is committed when a claim is believed to be true because it has not been proved false, or vice versa.

The general form is:

1. A states that claim X is true.
2. B states that claim X is not accepted as true.
3. A states that claim X is potentially true as B has not proved it false (wrongly shifting the burden of proof to B). (more…)

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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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Does aspartame cause cancer? Is Fluoride in drinking water poisoning our children? Are vaccines causing childhood illnesses?

The answer to those questions, of course, is that there’s no evidence to suggest that any of them are true; yet such claims persist, and although completely discredited, show no signs of abating.

It’s disconcerting to see just how willing people are to accept such claims, but we need to understand that there’s a psychological factor involved: we are particularly sensitive to threats of danger, especially when we don’t know who or what to believe. (more…)

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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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President Kennedy set a challenge in 1961 for the USA to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. The fact that they managed this, is one of the greatest feats of mankind. Conspiracy theorists, however, claim that the USA did not actually put men on the Moon at all: they claim the entire mission was faked to affirm the USA’s lead in the space race.

The critical question is: why would the USA risk its reputation by perpetrating a hoax that would be incredibly difficult to pull off?

The Soviet Union would have had the most to gain from exposing the hoax. With their involvement in the space race, they would be the best qualified to spot any cheating going on. (more…)

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Chillzero © 2007

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“What goes around, comes around.”

I looked at the man telling me this – a phrase he had used often before, and noticed a change in his eyes as he spoke. The tone of his voice was altered subtly as well. At the time I was unable to place the change, or the significance, but years later I see that this was when I lost my support network of new-age healers; people I called friends.

All because of karma. (more…)

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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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We’re all aware of our conscious actions. If we want to pick up a pen, for example, we simply think about the action and do it. This is known as volition. It’s entirely natural; and it feels entirely natural. There are other actions that we perform however, that are unconscious, instinctive actions: actions performed without volition.

The first category of unconscious action is known as excitomotor actions. These are actions such as breathing, swallowing, and maintaining a heartbeat. The second category is known as sensorimotor actions. These actions are reacting to fright or reflex actions: pulling one’s hand away from a heat source before the pain has registered, for example. The common factor in these unconscious actions is that they are instinctive and involuntary. (more…)

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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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One of the problems skeptics face in using the term ‘skeptic’ (often ‘sceptic’ in the UK) as a label identifying our approach to claims and issues is that there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding as to what skepticism actually is. Here I will look at how this confusion arises. There are three main areas where ‘skeptic’ is used differently to how skeptics define it and use it. (more…)

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John Jackson © UK-Skeptics

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In 1891 William von Osten, a German, started displaying his horse “Clever Hans” before the public. His claim was that Hans could answer questions by tapping his hoof: numbers were simply counted, the alphabet was encoded as “A”=one tap; “B”=two taps etc.

Von Osten believed that animals possess an intelligence that is equal to that of a human. In his quest to prove this he attempted to teach animals, including a cat and a bear, how to do simple calculations; however, it was only Hans who showed any ability. (more…)