This presentation introduces the “Critical Perspectives” segment of the course. Basic standards for objectively evaluating evidence are discussed, before introducing the Baylor Four-God typology based on US regional differences. The work of Karen Armstrong is used to discuss how concepts of God evolved into patriarchal monotheisms, marginalizing female divinities. Dan Dennett’s concept of “Belief in Belief” is introduced before addressing Richard Carrier’s four proofs justifying why he is not a Christian. The presentation concludes with the Epicurean refutation of God and a refutation of the Kalam Cosmological Argument.
Resource added on:
Friday, May 18, 2012 at
12:23 pm
Submitted by: Peter Boghossian
This course was taught at Portland State University.
Excerpt from Syllabus
The fundamental learning objectives of this course are threefold: 1) to empower students to be trustful of reason and to give them hope that they can make better communities and live better lives, 2) to demonstrate that there are better and worse ways of reasoning morally, and that the process one uses to make moral decisions can either contribute to, or alleviate, real life suffering and misery, 3) to teach student not to withhold moral judgment, but how to make better, more discerning moral judgments.
This class has the potential to disabuse students of ideologies and specious reasoning processes that bring students’ beliefs out of lawful alignment with reality. Specifically, it is meant to be both an antidote and a prophylactic to pedagogical constructivism, cultural relativism, radical epistemological subjectivism and faith-based belief systems. As such, this course should be viewed more as a moral and cognitive intervention than as a cannon of information that needs to be disseminated, assimilated and then assessed.
Resource added on:
Friday, May 18, 2012 at
12:09 pm
Submitted by: Peter Boghossian
This course was taught at Portland State University.
Excerpt from Syllabus
“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is the exact opposite.” —Bertrand Russell
“That which can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof.” —Christopher Hitchens
“Feeling better is not actually being better. Heroin also makes people feel better, but I wouldn’t recommend using heroin.” —James Randi
This course examines basic issues in philosophy of science through an analysis of creation “science,” faith healing, UFO abduction stories, and other pseudoscience. Some of the questions addressed: What distinguishes science from pseudoscience? Why does evidence matter? Must we invoke the supernatural to explain certain aspects of reality?
Learning Goals
By the end of this course, students should have:
Developed a healthy skepticism.
Formulated beliefs on the basis of reason and evidence.
Improved their critical thinking skills.
Designed experiments to test (pseudoscientific) claims.
Developed tools to discern reality from “makebelieveland”.
Resource added on:
Friday, May 18, 2012 at
12:06 pm
Submitted by: Peter Boghossian
This course was taught at Portland State University.
Excerpt from Syllabus
“As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” —Donald Rumsfeld, Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing
“I am one of those who are very willing to be refuted if I say anything which is not true, and very willing to refute anyone else who says what is not true, and quite as ready to be refuted as to refute—for I hold that this is the greater gain of the two…” —Socrates in the Gorgias
This class is designed to improve reasoning and critical thinking skills. The focus is on practical/applied methods of reasoning. Students will learn to use tools to think clearly and critically about a wide range of questions and issues.
Learning Goals
By the end of this course, students should have:
Developed a healthy skepticism.
Improved their critical thinking skills.
Formulated beliefs on the basis of reason and evidence.
Resource added on:
Friday, May 18, 2012 at
12:04 pm
Submitted by: Stephen Sekula, John Cotton, and Randall Scalise
This course was taught at Southern Methodist University.
Excerpt from Syllabus
This course will provide students with an understanding of the scientific method sufficient to detect pseudoscience in its many guises: paranormal phenomena, free-energy devices, alternative medicine, intelligent design creationism, and many others. Students will learn to think critically and to question outlandish claims, hype, and outright BS. Students’ writing will improve and they will be able to distinguish credible sources of information from nonsense; students will become intelligent consumers of information. Students should expect to do a lot of reading, writing, and, most of all, thinking.
Resource added on:
Friday, May 18, 2012 at
12:02 pm
Submitted by: Eric Remy
This is one of the assignments from Eric Remy’s course, “But is it Crazy Enough?” Students must review the materials (downloadable below) provided that describe the wonders of homeopathic medicine. Their job is to analyze the materials critically and find the (myriad) flaws.
FYS 141-3 Homeopathy assignment
During class, the instructor will present a paper, a poster and a talk on the wonders of homeopathic medicine. Students should take these as examples of what they will need to do for their final project. Students will then be allowed to ask as many pointed questions as possible about the assumptions, evidence, and reasoning of the paper/talk.
The paper will be available on Moodle. The job of the student is to read the paper and then develop a 1250 word (roughly) criticism of the paper. Students won’t be able to counter all of the arguments: so they may want to coordinate with other class members to pick specific sections to work on in more depth. (All work must be their own, however.) They should look at the paper with a highly critical eye, since they’ll be creating something similar as well as doing this for other student papers. The following are questions students should address in their paper.
Is the hypothesis sound?
Does the reasoning make sense?
Do the experiments account for possible complicating factors?
Do the experimental results actually support the hypothesis?
Are negative experimental results also being reported?
Is the displayed evidence actually significant, either in a statistics or impact sense?
Does the hypothesis/evidence contradict what you already know about reality?
Are the conclusions inflated beyond the evidentiary support?
Do the references say what the paper claims?
Is the referenced data the same in my paper and the references?
Do the papers include other claims?
Do the references even exist?
The paper heavily references original source documents. Students should work with the library to get copies of these and read them carefully.
Since the instructor will be promoting theory, students should ask other members of the faculty questions if they do not understand the material in the original documents. They should be able to answer basic questions about the material and give students ideas of alternate explanations if they choose to disagree with the author (i.e. instructor).
Resource added on:
Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at
4:22 pm
Submitted by: Michael Shermer
In this lecture, arguably his most controversial subject that is based on his highly-acclaimed book, “How We Believe”, Dr. Shermer addresses a very old question in religion with the newest data from science, namely: why do people believe in God?
As Dr. Shermer attempts to answer the question using the best theories and data from anthropology, psychology, sociology, and evolutionary biology, Dr. Shermer also addresses the important role of religion in society, the historical roots of religion and why it arose around 5000 years ago as a co-equal partner to governments and states, the origin of myths and the importance of myth-making in human cultures, and what belief in God means for individuals and society. In his always conciliatory and friendly approach to deep and controversial subjects, Dr. Shermer nevertheless is not afraid to face head-on, and courageously confront our most meaningful questions that we all have about God, the universe, and the meaning of life.
Resource added on:
Monday, March 5, 2012 at
5:51 pm
Submitted by: Evelyn Buday
This course was taught at the University of Findlay during the fall 2011 semester.
Excerpt from Syllabus
This course examines the key issues associated with the scientific study of critical thinking. Although it’s common to see courses on critical thinking in many domains (e.g. education & philosophy) the scientific examination of what critical thinking is and how it relates to problem solving is exclusively an advanced topic in cognitive science. Cognitive science is concerned with the study of the “thinking mind” and when we talk about “critical thinking” we base our examination on the hypothesis that while it’s true that everyone “thinks” it’s not true that everyone “thinks well.” At the core of this class is the idea that we can all fall prey to bad thinking strategies. In this course, students will learn how to be critical thinkers when dealing with a variety of situations, as well as learn how to tell the difference between science and pseudoscience. Students will focus primarily on how to think about weird situations, but if they can master the skills needed to effectively evaluate strange phenomena (e.g. UFOs) students can easily apply these skills to less bizarre situations (e.g. Will eating “Cheerios” really help lower cholesterol?). By the conclusion of this course students should be able to find answers for themselves (because everyone knows “The Truth Is Out There”) and with good critical thinking skills they will be more likely to find it.
Learning Goals
Upon completion of this course students will be able to:
Demonstrate scientific reading, and writing skills.
Apply the science of critical thinking to unique situations.
Discuss specific critical thinking & problem solving topics in depth.
Understand the biological bases of behavior and mental processes.
Use theories to explain and predict behavior and mental processes.
Resource added on:
Monday, March 5, 2012 at
5:37 pm
Submitted by: Jeffrey Brookings
This course was taught at Wittenberg University during the fall 2010 semester.
Excerpt from Syllabus
“Vaccines cause autism.” “Playing Mozart to infants increases their intelligence.” “Prayer cures cancer.” These and other sensational claims are reported daily by the popular media, who usually present them as factual because there is—purportedly—scientific evidence of their validity. But what qualifies as scientific evidence, and how do we distinguish scientifically-supported conclusions from plausible-sounding but unsubstantiated, untestable assertions? In this course, we begin by defining what science is and how it differs from pseudoscience. We then consider the basic perceptual and cognitive mechanisms through which humans gather and process information, emphasizing errors in thinking and reasoning that, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, predispose us to believe, “weird” things.
Finally, we will use what we have learned to investigate phenomena of particular interest to behavioral scientists and paranormal investigators, including subliminal perception and persuasion, astrology, near death experiences, criminal profiling, alien abduction stories, repressed memories, and “new” psychotherapies. Our goal is to be open to novel claims, coupled with the determination to subject those claims to careful scientific scrutiny.
Learning Goals
In this class, students will:
Learn how science and pseudoscience differ, and why the difference matters.
Explore human perception, cognition, memory, and emotion, including errors and biases that lead us to believe “weird things.”
Develop tools for conducting skeptical analyses of extraordinary claims.
Sharpen writing and oral presentation skills.
Design, complete, and present an investigation of an extraordinary claim.
Lay the foundation for a successful college experience.
Resource added on:
Monday, March 5, 2012 at
5:34 pm
Submitted by: Mark Gifford
This course was taught at the University of Texas at San Antonio during the fall 2011 semester.
Excerpt from Syllabus
By the end of this semester, students will come away from this course with a greater understanding of scientific thinking, and begin to see the need for skepticism in society. In his essay “Intellect,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please—you can never have both. Between these, as a pendulum, man oscillates.” Emerson recognizes that the search for truth might reveal uncomfortable facts for the truth-seeker, but we should take Emerson’s words to heart. An intellectual will rarely trade truth for simple peace of mind, and as students of argument, neither should we.
Through the course of the semester, students will use three textbooks to help strengthen and develop their writing in a variety of ways. First, students must recall and strengthen the conventions of previous college level writing, which includes but is not limited to studying and adopting MLA format, following the rules of grammar and mechanics, and by understanding and practicing writing different types of essays.
Finally, by constantly writing and revising their work, students will enhance their acumen for constructing effective arguments and rhetorical strategies and become comfortable with expressing themselves with the written word. By studying the various rhetorical strategies for crafting effective arguments, students will strive to find the perfect balance between truth-seeking and persuasion, which will not only allow them to grow as writers, but to grow as intellectuals as well. Writing is a recursive endeavor and must be treated like any other activity or skill. The more one practices writing the better writer one will become.
Resource added on:
Friday, March 2, 2012 at
4:54 pm
Submitted by: John Donovan
This course was taught at the University of Oregon during the fall 2010 semester.
Excerpt from Syllabus
Science is a powerful tool to understand and explain the natural world in which we all live. Because of its apparent success in so many areas of our everyday lives, there are many instances in which individuals or groups claim that certain strongly or emotionally held beliefs are “scientific” or are supported by “scientific” studies. Even some scientists may make unwarranted claims of scientific “truth” (e.g., Scientism). How can the public, often without specialized scientific training, distinguish between scientific and pseudo-scientific claims?
This course will attempt to teach how to separate reasonable and unreasonable claims by learning how science tackles difficult problems. The key is to be skeptical, but not too skeptical. Students will examine a number of beliefs, including paranormal effects, alternative medicine, creationism and intelligent design, recovered memory syndrome, pseudoscientific devices (e.g., dousing, free energy machines, fuel efficiency extenders, etc.) that all profess to be scientific, and try to explain the psychology behind this clearly human need to believe.
Assignment Outline
The seminar will consist of several components designed to stimulate critical thinking through class discussion and essay writing with 10 writing assignments in the first half of the class. There will be assigned reading from several books and one or two videos to be viewed in class. There will be a midterm essay style exam with 10 questions covering the material from the first half of the class.
Subsequently the class will be arbitrarily divided into a number of pro and con groups to examine, present and discuss several specific pseudo-scientific topics in detail (to be determined by the instructor with suggestions from the class). These topics will be presented by the students as an 8–10 minute formal oral presentation in the second half of the class. A final 5–8 page paper based on the student presentations and subsequent discussions will complete the course
Resource added on:
Friday, March 2, 2012 at
4:17 pm
Submitted by: Terence Hines
This course was taught at New York Medical College during the spring 2011 semester.
Excerpt from Syllabus
A paradox in modern society is that while society increasingly depends upon science, more and more members of that society are coming to accept various pseudoscientific and paranormal beliefs. Claims for all sorts of paranormal and pseudoscientific phenomena are widely treated in the media as if they were as real as, say, gravity. There is very little critical examination of these claims. Gullibility is the watchword. This course will examine a wide range of such beliefs and claims, as noted in the class calendar. One focus will be on the nature of the evidence for these beliefs. A second focus will be on the psychology of belief—what causes people to believe, often very strongly, in a claim of phenomenon that, the evidence shows, is false.
Course Objectives
There are several course objectives. At a general level, students should learn the characteristics of pseudoscientific claims and how to critically examine such claims. This will involve an understanding of basic logic and scientific methods, as well as some statistical reasoning. In addition, students should come away from the course knowing the cognitive factors that lead to acceptance of claims and ideas which the evidence shows are incorrect. At a more specific level, students will learn the facts about the various topics covered in the class and the readings and become conversant with the arguments for and against the reality of the phenomena that will be covered.
Resource added on:
Friday, March 2, 2012 at
2:59 pm
Submitted by: Michael Cassens
This course was taught at Irvine Valley College in Irvine, California in 2011.
Excerpt from Syllabus
This course has one principle goal: to familiarize students with the process of thinking critically about the world in which we live. This will involve a firm understanding of the science of psychology. A science requires adherence to the scientific method, and the scientific method requires that one obtain empirical evidence to support or refute testable theories. This course endeavours to persuade students that psychology is both interesting and vital—and that it is a key to understanding ourselves, those around us, and the world in general. Therefore thinking critically about psychology becomes of the utmost importance.
Learning Goals
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
Identify and contrast the biases and inherent assumptions behind controversial statements.
Explain and demonstrate the skills needed to be a critical consumer of information.
Recognize the difference between an observation and an inference.
Use standards of evidence derived from the scientific method to analyze and evaluate the quality of evidence presented in an argument.
Recognize and explain the dynamics of at least five different techniques of persuasion and propaganda.
Illustrate and apply appropriate strategies and models for solving problems.
Explain and distinguish among several strategies and models for decision making.
Resource added on:
Sunday, February 19, 2012 at
7:03 pm
Submitted by: Michael Shermer
Synthesizing thirty years of research, Michael Shermer upends traditional thinking about how humans form beliefs about the world. Simply put, beliefs come first, and explanations for beliefs follow. The brain, Shermer argues, is a belief engine. Using sensory data that flow in through the senses, the brain naturally looks for and finds patterns—and then infuses those patterns with meaning, forming beliefs. Once beliefs are formed, our brains subconsciously seek out confirmatory evidence in support of those beliefs, accelerating the process of reinforcing them. Shermer provides countless real-world examples of how this process operates, from politics, economics, and religion to conspiracy theories, the supernatural, and the paranormal.
Resource added on:
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at
10:53 am
Submitted by: Michael Shermer
In this introductory lecture to the study of skepticism, Dr. Shermer defines skepticism and what it means to be a skeptic, employing numerous examples from the pages of Skeptic magazine to illustrate what science is and how it works, how to think like a scientist, how to think about weird things, what constitutes an extraordinary claim and why we require extraordinary evidence for it, and how to test claims of the paranormal.
Resource added on:
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at
10:38 am
Submitted by: Michael Shermer
Taken from the chapter in his book The Believing Brain on the psychology of political beliefs, Dr. Shermer considers how belief systems operate in the realm of politics, economics, and ideologies. He reviews the research on why people vote Republican or Democrat, why we are so predictable in our political beliefs that if you know where someone stands on, say, abortion, you can predict where they stand on a number of other political issues, and what these political beliefs say about the nature of human nature.
Resource added on:
Friday, February 10, 2012 at
1:25 pm
Submitted by: James Randi Educational Foundation
Have you ever felt like you knew what someone was going to say before they said it? Or that you had a feeling that the phone was going to ring and it did? Have you had a “psychic” tell you something about yourself that s/he couldn’t know without reading your mind? Have you ever thought you had a “sixth sense”? What explains this? Many have experienced one or more of these events, described them as extraordinary, and attributed them to extrasensory perception (ESP). In this exercise you can take your students through the process of finding out (scientifically) whether or not they, or someone they know, has ESP. Designed for grades 9–12. This in-class exercise was created by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) and it answers questions such as: (1) What is ESP? (2) How I you test it? and (3) What is the history of this research?
Resource added on:
Friday, February 10, 2012 at
1:03 pm
Created by: Daniel Levy, Rachel Deering, Cristiana Wilcoxon, and Nikolai Eiteneer
Submitted by: Michael Shermer
This is a student-made, educational video on the psychological phenomenon of “change blindness,” created for Dr. Michael Shermer’s course, “Skepticism 101: How to Think Like a Scientist (Without Being a Geek)” at Chapman University during the fall 2011 semester.
Resource added on:
Saturday, February 4, 2012 at
12:28 pm
Submitted by: Eric Remy
This course was taught at Gettysburg College during the fall 2011 semester.
Excerpt from Syllabus
This course will explore a number of controversial theories in a variety of different, and hopefully fun, ways. It will be somewhat different than most science courses students may have taken up until this point: it will be far more interactive and experimental. Students won’t have any tests; they will have papers, oral presentations, posters, speeches and other activities instead, and run large portions of the course themselves. Students will also have to be a bit more creative than they may be used to in class. They may even find themselves singing through part of it!
By the end of the course, students should have an appreciation for how science is used to sort truth from fiction and what it takes to settle a debate in science. They will also better understand the reason why correct theories may be rejected for decades before being accepted, while others have been proved as false as possible within the realm of science.
Learning goals
Understand the scientific process and how theories are developed and tested over time.
Understand how scientific discoveries can affect culture and society, and how society can react to the presentation of controversial scientific ideas.
Understand how ideas are presented within academia, how peer review works and how to effectively use speeches, written papers, academic posters, Powerpoint and other visual aids to present an argument.
Understand research tools, databases and other academic resources.
Be better able to uncover deception in an argument ranging from shading the truth to outright fabrication.
Understand how a scientific theory can be used politically to justify multiple points of view.
Be better able to evaluate popular magazine, newspaper and internet articles discussing controversial ideas.
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