The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

What is it about the human mind that so effortlessly translates natural events into messages from another realm — even despite our best attempts to deny that there’s any message in them at all?

In Science Salon # 58, Michael Shermer and noted conservative political commentator and public intellectual Ben Shapiro discuss and debate “what made the West great” in this wide ranging conversation.

How did a tiny sect of just 20 people at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion in 30 CE became 25 to 35 million Christians by 400 CE? In this remote Science Salon Dr. Shermer converses with the great bible scholar and historian Dr. Bart D. Ehrman, the Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In this week’s eSkeptic, Patrick Arnold reviews The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith by Rosaria Butterfield.

In this week’s eSkeptic, Tim Callahan reviews Derek Murphy’s book Jesus Potter Harry Christ.

In light of the final installment of the ubersuccessful Harry Potter series hitting theaters in two days, we present Ari Armstrong‘s examination of religion in J. K. Rowling’s novels.

Robert Sheaffer takes a critical look at Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.

Most people believe that science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the most common justification for religious faith. In this lecture, based on his explosive new book, The Moral Landscape, Sam Harris tears down the wall between scientific facts and human values, arguing that most people are simply mistaken about the relationship between morality and the rest of human knowledge.

On April 8, 2010, the British philosopher Antony Flew (one of the world’s most outspoken and prominent atheists) passed away after a long life in academic philosophy. Flew changed his mind in the closing years of his life, apparently impressed by the arguments from Intelligent Design creationists. In this week’s eSkeptic, we present an article by Kenneth Grubbs, which was written before Antony Flew died and aims to get at the truth of his conversion.

In this week’s eSkeptic, Kenneth Grubbs reviews The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Timothy Keller.