In a recent post I defined scientism as: "A set of beliefs, focused around a narrow interpretation of materialism, that purports either to be a true defense of “real” science or science per se, but is closer to a type of religion." For my definition of science I quoted Wikipedia: “an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the world.” One of the biggest differences between real science and religion is the way information is organized. With science, you take a lot of information and come up with a theory that both explains the information and allows you to make predictions. For example, Albert Einstein,

A few mornings ago I received a phone call from a friend on the opposite side of the country. Alay'nya started out as a hard-driving scientific researcher. We met at a psychic fair in San Diego where she came and received a Tarot reading from me. Although we've rarely seen each other in person, we have kept in touch. Alay'nya has gone through enormous changes. Today she is a professional belly dancer, teacher, and more. You can learn about who she is and what she's teaching and doing by going to her website. We talked about a new book she's completing. We also talked about how she's setting up classes combing spirituality with dance in a highly structured format. Although there are

I saw a blog by Jerry Coyne which referenced an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In particular there is a chart that shows a surprising percentage of adults who have false beliefs about science: 33% of adults don't think the Earth goes around the Sun once per year. 49% think that "ordinary" tomatoes don't have genes but genetically modified tomatoes do. 14% think that sound travels faster than light. And this one is a bit more challenging, 45% think that antibiotics kill viruses (they don't; they kill bacteria). The point of the article is that there are several reasons for scientific illiteracy. For one thing, we need to improve science education in order to help adults have a

The year was 1987. For over 15 years, an unusual astrological alignment had been predicted to begin on August 16–17: The Sun, Moon, Mars and Venus were in alignment, what astrologers call a conjunction, at the first degree of Virgo Mercury was at the fourth degree of Virgo, within the "orb of influence" of the four-planet conjunction Jupiter was in Aries, about 180 degrees from the massive conjunction. Saturn and Uranus were in Sagittarius, about 90 degrees between both the massive conjunction and Jupiter. This made what astrologers call a "Grand Trine," one of the most amazing such formations in history, involving eight of astrology's eleven planets (the famous nine plus the