The Morning Heresy
The Morning Heresy is your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities.
“A Shared Understanding of Basic Facts” – Defining Reality, Protecting Secular Public Education, and Weather-Related Witchcraft
November 8, 2024Welcome 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 …
“The Circumstances Have Changed. Our Mission Has Not.” – A Message from CFI
November 6, 2024NOTE: 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 …
“Proven Over and Over to Be Bunk” – Misleading Memes, Accrediting Pseudoscience, and Dismantling Public Health
November 4, 2024Welcome 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. …
“None of This Progress Happened by Itself” – Vibes vs. Data, Ghost Stories Explained, and Royally Bad Decisionmaking
November 1, 2024Welcome 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 …
“They Won’t Let Me Go” – More Skeptical Inquirer Highlights, Political Preachers, and Tired Psychics
October 30, 2024Ahoy-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 …
“Human Rights Are Universal” – Secular Celebrants in Texas, the Latest Skeptical Inquirer, and Election Conspiracies
October 28, 2024Welcome 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 …
“My Kind of Place” – Biddle at the Bellaire House, Christian Nationalism on the Ballot, and the Upside of Asteroids
October 23, 2024Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. CSI Chief Investigator Kenny Biddle delivers a longread account of his much-anticipated investigation of the Bellaire House. I recall finding the house on Google and reading about paranormal portals, malevolent spirits possessing enthusiastic ghost hunters, and a demonic little girl …
“A Vague Nostalgia for Belief” – Quackwatch’s Latest, U.S. Blasphemy History, and Declining Vaccination Rates
October 21, 2024Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s regular roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. A quick programming note: the Morning Heresy will be off this Friday (10/25) so that we can bring you a full recap of CSICon 2024 Day One. That’s right…after months of anticipation, the conference finally kicks off this week …
“Some Find it a Comfort to be Controlled” – Domination, Deepfakes, and First Amendment Law
October 18, 2024Happy Friday! Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. In his weekly Free Inquiry column, Ronald Lindsay reflects on Yorgos Lanthimos’s latest film, Kinds of Kindness. The film consists of three, mostly unrelated segments. Each segment is what I would characterize as a fable: a story …
“Blame Gutenberg” – Secular Day of the Dead, Public Money for Religious Education, and Needling Doubts
October 16, 2024Ahoy-hoy! Welcome to the Morning Heresy, CFI’s thrice-weekly roundup of news and headlines for the reality-based community. We’ll start today at CFI’s Quackwatch, where you’ll find this week’s edition of the Consumer Health Digest. Items featured this week include: ScienceSaves is currently gathering signatures for its 2025 National Science Appreciation Day online petition. The goal …