Jeff Dellinger

Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s (usually) thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. “We have been at this for nearly fifty years. We know how to fight the forces arrayed against reason, science, and secularism. “Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to it.” Those were the words of CFI President …

America was founded on Enlightenment ideals, a rational polity, and a commitment to church-state separation as an essential requirement for a peaceful and pluralistic society. As President-Elect Donald Trump and his Christian nationalist allies begin planning their return to power, they’ve already previewed a desire to demolish the wall between church and state (through the …

NOTE: In lieu of a new Morning Heresy today, we instead would like to share the statement this morning from the Center for Inquiry, reposted in full below. The Circumstances Have Changed. Our Mission Has Not. The Center for Inquiry is dedicated to promoting reason, science, and secular values. That has been true since this …

Welcome to your Monday Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. Ben Radford’s newest “Misleading Meme Monday” column tackles “Photo ID Requirements and Voter Fraud Myths.” The implicit—and incorrect—assumption is that there’s reason to think that states that do not require photo IDs are more vulnerable to election fraud. …

Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. Ronald Lindsay’s latest “Unprayerful Reflections” column is titled “My Hopes for the Election.” Let me emphasize the “my” in the title for this column. I speak as an individual and the views expressed herein in no way represent the …

Ahoy-hoy! Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. On Monday, we looked at the cover feature from Skeptical Inquirer’s November/December issue, which is available now on select newsstands and online. The latest issue also features a pair of essays on the importance of critical thinking: Melanie …

If there was one idea that popped up most frequently throughout Saturday’s CSICon presentations, it was the many conflicts between facts and feelings, between what evidence tells us is true versus what we sometimes want or wish to be true. As Neil deGrasse Tyson observed on Friday, that tension is something we all have to …

Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. I am freshly returned from Las Vegas, after the spectacular celebration of CSICon 2024. If you’d like detailed recaps of the weekend-long conference, you can read write-ups of Thursday and Friday now, with a recap of Saturday and Sunday’s …

Buffets are a Las Vegas staple, and Day Two of CSICon offered a variety of skeptical flavors, with a little something for everyone. The recurring theme was on the misinformation and pseudoscience that runs rampant in the health and wellness industry, while also touching on the foundations of skepticism, the importance of curiosity, psychic detectives, …

In her welcome remarks during CSICon 2024’s opening night reception, Center for Inquiry President and CEO Robyn Blumner said, “This is the very definition of science nerd heaven.” It is safe to say that, had you polled the attendees at any point on Day One, you’d have been hard-pressed to find many who disagreed. This …