There Are Four Lights

Atheism is a religion in the same way that not-stamp-collecting is a hobby. In a similar way, skepticism is an ideology about not using ideology. Not when we want to know the difference between what is true and what we simply want to be true. Mysticism is about answers; skepticism is about questions. It’s not so much criticizing your conclusions, as it is the methods you used to get to them. If you evaluate a claim using methods that decrease bias and account for error, you are being skeptical.

So, when I hear people who self-identify as skeptics say that “______” needs to be applied to skepticism, I wonder how they can so fundamentally misunderstand the point of skepticism (insert your worldview in the blank). The absolutely most important thing about skepticism is that it is doesn’t investigate through ideology. Claims about reality should be tested free from our personal views because reality has demonstrated over and over again that it doesn’t necessarily align with those worldviews.

But the world we live in is so devastatingly lacking in critical thinking skills that it’s necessary to band together and promote skepticism through local groups and organizations…a movement. What people like PZ Myers, who claimed to “divorce” himself from skepticism because he feels it is anti-atheist, don’t seem to realize is that there are going to be people in the skeptic movement with different philosophical, social, and political views from your own because skepticism is for everyone.

“Beliefs are what divide people. Doubt unites them.” —Peter Ustinov

Skeptics are united, not by belief, not by denial, but by doubt. We promote the fact that it’s even easier to be deceived by ourselves than by others. The hard part is actually applying this to ourselves (realizing we may indeed be deceiving ourselves, instead of simply noticing self-deception in others). But we all have different worldviews and sometimes these views make us purport ideas which are testable claims, and sometimes they are value judgments. The challenge for those of us who want to promote science-based thinking is to realize that the price we pay for having skepticism be for everyone is that we must work together, even with those we may disagree with.

What’s really going on when you want ideas from your social or political views added (+) to skepticism is that you want those ideas protected from skepticism. But the point and greatest strength of skepticism is that it is critical of all -isms. All of them. When you start wanting your ideas protected from criticism, that’s when you stop being a skeptic.

Richard Feynman was born May 11, 1918. This months’ manga donation doodle celebrates this Nobel Prize winning theoretical physicist! As always, you can get your hand drawn and signed manga doodle simply by making a donation of any amount.

Buying these science themed drawings not only celebrates a love of great thinkers, but also helps fund an indie artist like myself to keep on creating. Your support means a lot to me.

Previous Months: Darwin Day, Einstein Day, Da Vinci Day

The Rising Star grant is my new fundraiser to send young talent (between ages 18-30) to the Amazing Meeting 2013. So far, it will be sending 6 rising stars to the event this July, in Las Vegas. Keep donating!

Jessica Castillo

Currently studying philosophy at the University of Missouri in Kansas City, Jessica plans on pursuing a career in education. She’s 29, has two lovely daughters, and many different passions in life all stemming from overwhelming curiosity and a genuine love of learning. Ultimately, she’s eager to become an advocate for skepticism and education.

Ana Ruiz 

Ana was born in Miami Florida, with parents from Cuba. She grew up as a Catholic Christian, but converted to evangelical Christianity in her early teens. As a devoted evangelical Christian, she became disillusioned after attending University. She moved to New York when she was 12 and has lived there ever since, currently working as a freelance web developer, with the hope to go back to school after her daughter gets a bit older.

Sasha Halasz 

Sasha graduated in May from Moravian College with honors in Neuroscience. She was very involved as an undergraduate in many clubs and organizations including serving as president of her campus neuroscience club and volunteering for local community partners. She has been very engaged in research throughout her undergraduate career and recently completed a yearlong study of a potential treatment for Parkinson’s disease for her senior thesis. She is a strong advocate for science research and outreach and has traveled to the past two Society for Neuroscience national conferences as well as Capitol Hill Day in D.C to promote a scientific perspective. She has a particular interest in health and medicine and will be attending medical school this August.

Kyle Sanders

Kyle is a C-130 Air Force pilot currently stationed in Little Rock, Arkansas, graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2008, and has since been engaged in local groups at each of his duty locations. With a passion for science communication, he is also an artist creating a new a comic strip, “Carbon Dating”, for web and print about science and relationships, written specifically for the skeptic audience.

Brandie Hesse

Brandie is a fourth year history student and the University of Calgary and upcoming president of the University of Calgary Freethinkers Club, which produces a club podcast and organizes local events. She intends to complete a double major in philosophy, obtain a PhD, and become a research professor and author of books on the history of religion. Her passion for activism focuses on humanism and the elimination of discrimination, and is interested in future involvement in politics to promote these goals.

Trent Brusky

Trent is a musician and the creator of Dropfox, a project dedicated to providing music to secular, freethought, science, and skeptic podcasts, having produced tracks for Oddments, Dogma Debate, Meet the Skeptics, The Skeptic Zone, and Skepticality. He is also an engineer technology student and State College of Florida and hopes to work in alternative energies in the future.

Albert Einstein, born March 14, 1879

After a very successful Darwin Day, and by popular demand, I present Einstein Day Drawings! You get a hand drawn manga ink of Albert Einstein when you make a donation of any amount. March celebrates Einstein’s birthday on the 14th. Support indie art and celebrate science at the same time!

February 12th is Darwin Day, celebrating famous scientist, Charles Darwin!

I’m making cute manga ink drawing of Darwin for those who make a donation to my site. You’ll get a handmade manga illustration in ink on 90lb paper stock.

Please donate any amount you wish. Each donor will receive a signed hand-drawn ink of Darwin as a cute manga chibi. As an indie artist, I make a living from my commissions, manga series sales, and donations to my free online webseries. I’m currently dealing with a US medical bill and your added support will help me weather the unexpected expense to my unpredictable freelancer income.

Thank you so much! Support indie art and get a cute science drawing—I call that a DarWin/Win! heh heh…

Happy Darwin Day!

A recent article on Skepchick makes a critique of Ben Radford’s article on BMI, claiming it’s false that BMI is simply a diagnostic tool: “BMI is often used as a weapon by which to shame, judge, and oversimplify people’s health and wellness.” The author also offers an anecdote about feeling shamed by her doctor for making comparisons between BMIs, and therefore making judgements about body image standards.

The problem is that BMI is not a indicator of how fat you are or the specific measurements of your body. A high BMI is claiming that you are too heavy for your height and age, regardless of whether it’s fat or muscle making you overweight. Consequently, a new study showed that BMI was best, compared to other measuring methods, at predicting health risks related to weight.

Though excess fat is likely the most common cause of having a high BMI, this doesn’t mean the method is making a judgment about body image. Since BMI was a better predictor than body fat percentage or waist ratios, you could take away from the study that it’s being too heavy, rather than simply excess fat, that might place you at a higher health risk. You could have an aesthetically pleasing hip to waist ratio and low body fat percentage, but if you’re carrying too much mass (like muscle) for your frame (height and age), it may cause increased health risks. For example, obesity is now a bigger burden on healthcare systems than smoking.

BMI is a medical tool, and to claim that it is used to shame body image is a weak argument. We tend to judge people’s body image by looking at their waist to hip ratio and how much excess fat they seem to have, rather than their mass. Body fat percentage is likely to place more people in the obese category than BMI, since you could carry a certain amount of excess fat before being considered too heavy for your height.

I would argue that obesity is the only body image factor that has any scientific validity. Take into consideration the many other beauty standards women are judged by; long legs, waist-to-hip ratio, plump lips, cheekbones, perky breasts, perfect skin, hair, and noses—even plus sized women must meet these standards in order to be considered attractive. However, having thin lips, a big nose, blotchy skin, greasy hair, small or sagging breasts, or a number of other aesthetic critiques of a woman’s image, don’t carry with them the negative health consequences that being overweight does.

Your doctor telling you your BMI is too high is not a critique of your image or attractiveness, but a calculation that you are too heavy for your height and age. This is a valid health critique. Society and media judge women on their visual appearances, not on this calculation of mass, age, and height.

Atheism+ is an attempt at a new movement that takes an existing one, atheism, and adds social justice issues. As a designer, skeptic, and humanist, I have some critiques of the pseudo re-branding from each of these perspectives.

There’s something about adding a “plus” to atheism that rubs my design background the wrong way. It’s a bit cliché and sounds a bit like a parody (which might be why a google images search brings up so many). Adding a “plus” feels as lazy as adding “super” or “extra”. It’s brings up images of typical marketing labels on products that advertise “+Vitamin C”, “100% Real Fruit”, or “Flavorblasted!”. You could make the argument that the ambiguity of what the “plus” in Atheism+ means could encourage people to ask more about your ‘product’, and get them in the door. But, to me, it feels like sloppy marketing.

As a skeptic and humanist I find Atheism+ redundant. Skepticism is applying critical thinking to all claims, so I’ve viewed atheist organizations as devoting their efforts to applying skepticism to religious claims; things like teaching ID/creationism in schools, separation of church and state, and using religious beliefs to oppress others. Secular humanism is the philosophy that humans are capable of being moral without religion or divine power and valuing human equality. Both skepticism and humanist emphasize using reason to continually question theories and update ideologies based on new evidence or rational ideas.

Packaging certain ideologies into a plus sign and placing it with atheism seems to actually take away from atheism. It takes away the notion that atheism is for everyone, no matter what your political or social values might be. Not only does it alienate non-believers with different political or social views, it alienates those who share these same social justice goals who happen to also be believers. The PLUS in Atheism+ seems to have the intent of excluding certain people (those who believe in a god) from getting involved in important social causes or defending science. Humanism or skepticism doesn’t.

I can’t help but see Atheism+ as little more than Humanism-.

My Master Sagan tees have arrived! I’ll be wearing mine in Nashville at CSICon along with a matching black version for my boyfriend. (aaww!)

I also have a men’s large and women’s large available. I’d like to auction them off, signed, at some point. They’re custom screen printed versions I had produce by a Canadian company (as opposed to the tees available through Zazzle).

Let me know what you think!

The landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars last night highlights the amazing things that we can do with science, dedication, a thirst for knowledge, and a drive for exploration.

But in contrast to my anthropocentric cheer-leading, such an astonishing accomplishment (given the “7-minutes of terror” we had to overcome) reminds me that there are those of us who still do not give credit where credit is due. We can put people on the moon, we can smash atoms together to discover the fabric of the cosmos, we can send a science lab to Mars, but conspiracy theorists still think that humans could not have built the pyramids or flattened a few crops in a field, for example. This sort of blind thinking saddens me. It diminishes the very real human effort and perseverance (and many times, lives lost) that went into shaping some of the most important milestones in history.

Out of my frustration, I quickly created the graphic below (and feel free to reproduce it):

So, give humanity some credit. We can literally move mountains, send our fellow men and women into the void of space, handle disease on an atomic scale, and explore the very organs that allow us to skeptically question the universe. With the proper drive and resources, we can accomplish amazing things. The success of the Curiosity mission is testament to that.

Cross-posted at the Science-Based Life blog