http://www.scienceandreason.ca science, reason and critical thinking Tue, 23 Feb 2010 04:18:08 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en http://www.scienceandreason.ca/religion/killing-for-religion/ It’s that time of year again: there’s a chill in the air, malls are playing the same music over and over, and the whining about the alleged attempts to expunge Christmas has begun. There are many symbols of the season, but the Christmas tree is the most iconic. Most skeptics know that the tradition of taking [...]]]> http://www.scienceandreason.ca/religion/what-the-bible-says-about-christmas-trees/ Every year since I’ve become politically cognizant it seems I’ve had to endure people bickering about the ‘controversy’ over Christmas. Is it a war on Christmas, as the American right-wing TV and radio hosts purport? Is it offensive to say “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” as opposed to “Merry Christmas?” Is being inclusive and saying [...]]]> http://www.scienceandreason.ca/religion/im-dreaming-of-a-secular-christmas/ Cheers to… No cheers this month Jeers to… …Canadian Blood Services. On their web site and in a brochure being distributed to school children, Canadian Blood Services is promoting the completely absurd superstition that people can divine important personality and health traits from their blood type. Here is an example of what they say: “Having type A blood suggests that [...]]]> http://www.scienceandreason.ca/cheers-jeers/cheers-jeers/ On Sunday, November 29, early in the morning, Dave Bailey and I stood outside of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto to hand out brochures about homeopathy and display some clever signs decrying the Natural Health Products Symposium taking place inside. The symposium was being presented by the University of Toronto [...]]]> http://www.scienceandreason.ca/uncategorized/natural-health-products-symposium-protest/ http://www.scienceandreason.ca/skepticism/local-matters/ Recently some vitamin supplement scams have been passed off as legitimate news articles from reputable-looking sites. Here are two examples: http://www.news3news.com/wpo4.html http://www.channel7daily.com/ You may notice that every link you click on takes you to the same product page, regardless of whether you want to check the latest hockey scores or the local weather. This is known as a [...]]]> http://www.scienceandreason.ca/criticalthinking/news-scams-and-herbal-supplements/ Most skeptics will be familiar with the unfortunately popular notion that there is a link between vaccinations and autism. For the most part we see it as a manufactured controversy that has had only negative effects, such as decreased confidence in science-based medicine, increased and misplaced confidence in alternative medicine, and the suffering and death [...]]]> http://www.scienceandreason.ca/uncategorized/vaccines-and-autism-is-the-message-finally-getting-through/ As a rational Canadian watching the completely irrational American ‘debate’ on health care these past few months, I find that it would almost be funny if it weren’t so infuriating. As a skeptic, I can’t understand why other skeptical organizations/blogs/podcasts are not debunking the outright lies being promoted by anti-reformers, especially given the number of [...]]]> http://www.scienceandreason.ca/uncategorized/lies-about-canadian-health-care/ http://www.scienceandreason.ca/uncategorized/common-myths-debunked/