Scientific skepticism
Questioning of claims lacking empirical evidence
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We include updates on List of topics characterized as pseudoscience, Nobel disease, Infrared sauna, Detoxification foot baths, Donation of Constantine, Freedom From Religion Foundation, Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin, RationalWiki, Brights movement, After School Satan, American Humanist Association, Center for Inquiry, Anomalistic psychology, Reason Rally, Activated charcoal cleanse, Voodoo Science ... and more.
| April 2025 |
RationalWiki
The RationalMedia Foundation was hit with multiple defamation lawsuits and announced potential dissolution due to lack of legal funding and absence of pro bono legal representation.
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| 2024 | Columnist Charles M. Blow was recognized by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. |
| 2024 | Christchurch journalists Martin Van Beynen, Sinead Gill, Tatania Gibbs, and Philip Matthews received Bravo Award for team reporting on local cults and supporting the Decult conference |
| 2024 |
Books about skepticism
John O'Connor published 'The Secret History of Bigfoot', exploring skepticism around cryptozoological claims
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| 2024 |
Books about skepticism
Jonathan N. Stea released 'Mind the Science', addressing mental health and wellness industry skepticism
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| 2024 | Amy Goodman receives the Humanist of the Year award. |
| December 2024 | Criticized King Charles for appointing a homeopathy-supporting doctor as head of the royal medical household, undermining evidence-based medicine. |
| December 29 2024 | Jerry Coyne resigned from the FFRF honorary board, following earlier resignations by Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins, leading to the dissolution of the honorary board. |
| December 27 2024 | FFRF published a statement retracting Jerry Coyne's article and stating it did not reflect their values. |
| November 15 2024 | Joint conference of NZ Skeptics and New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists (NZARH) held at the Fickling Convention Centre in Auckland, featuring a diverse range of speakers. |
| November 7 2024 | Kat Grant published an article titled 'What is a woman' on Freethought Now!, sparking a controversy about gender definition. |
| June 2 2024 | Continuation of the SkeptiCamp event, which included panel discussions and a screening of 'The UFO Movie THEY Don't Want You to See' by Brian Dunning, featuring speakers such as Dave Thomas, Susan Gerbic, Ben Radford, Adrienne Hill, Celestia Ward, Larry Barker, Frank Etscorn, and Kurly Tlapoyawa. |
| June 1 2024 | New Mexicans for Science and Reason hosted their first SkeptiCamp, featuring multiple presenters discussing various skeptical topics including 9/11 conspiracy theories, spirit photography, Flat Earth, The Blue Whale Game, memory fallibility, Bigfoot, Roswell UFOs, facilitated communication, medical quackery, and pseudoarchaeology. |
| 2023 | Felinton, alongside other parents, students, and the FFRF, settled a lawsuit against the Cabell County Board of Education to ban teacher-run religious events during school hours. |
| 2023 | Comedian and writer Lizz Winstead was honored by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. |
| 2023 | Facebook groups Debunking Conspiracies Aotearoa, Skeptical Kiwi, and YouTube channel New Zealand Conspiracy Loons received Bravo Award for identifying and calling out conspiracy theories in New Zealand |
| 2023 | NZ Skeptics awarded themselves the Bent Spoon Award for their lack of critical thinking regarding a 1995 award to the Ministry of Justice, publicly apologizing for their previous unjustified criticism. |
| 2023 | Michael E. Mann is named Humanist of the Year. |
| November 24 2023 | NZ Skeptics Conference held at Toitū Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin, featuring speakers like Susan Gerbic and including a discussion with an acupuncturist about alternative medicine and skepticism. |
| 2022 | Samuel Felinton, a high school junior at Huntington High School, was forced to attend a Christian revival assembly and was unable to leave. |
| 2022 | Author John Irving received recognition from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. |
| 2022 | The Disinformation Project (Kate Hannah and Dr. Sanjana Hattotuwa), Byron Clark, and Marc Daalder received Bravo Award for documenting and combating misinformation, studying alt-right movements, and science-based reporting on diverse issues including COVID-19 and far-right nationalism |
| 2022 | No Humanist of the Year award is given. |
| December 6 2022 | Joseph Richardson delivered a secular invocation on behalf of non-religious citizens at a Lake County, Florida commission meeting. |
| September 11 2022 |
European Skeptics Congress
The European Skeptics Congress concludes after three days of presentations by notable speakers including Massimo Pigliucci, Stephen Law, Franck Ramus, and others, covering topics such as conspiracy theories, science-based decision making, and skepticism in various fields.
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| September 9 2022 |
European Skeptics Congress
The 19th European Skeptics Congress (ESC 19) begins in Vienna, Austria at the Billrothhaus, featuring multiple sessions and panels on scientific skepticism, conspiracy theories, education, and science communication.
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| 2021 | Ann Druyan, science writer and producer, was recognized by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. |
| 2021 | Published book 'Electrohypersensitivity The New Belief: How media and associations made the electrohypersensitives', an independently edited work exploring the topic of electrohypersensitivity. |
| 2021 | Denounced the OPECST recommendation (chaired by Cédric Villani) to study electromagnetic fields' effects on biology in the agricultural world, calling it a 'charlatan network' and a 'profitable business with political relays'. |
| 2021 |
Books about skepticism
Julia Galef published 'The Scout Mindset', examining critical thinking and cognitive perspectives
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| 2021 | Honored as a Knight of the French Legion of Honour, a prestigious recognition of his distinguished work in historical scholarship. |
| 2021 | Richard Dawkins made a controversial tweet about gender identity and Rachel Dolezal, which sparked significant criticism. |
| 2021 | Anthony Fauci receives the Humanist of the Year award. |
| 2021 | Richard Dawkins' 1996 Humanist of the Year award is revoked. |
| 2021 | Junior Skeptic section ceased publication following the death of Skeptic magazine co-founder Pat Linse. |
| 2020 |
Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin
Bryan Walsh & Larry Schwalbe published a paper analyzing the statistical heterogeneity of the Shroud data, proposing potential explanations for the variations in the original radiocarbon dating results.
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| 2020 | The website was updated, and the journal was discontinued, replaced by an emailed newsletter and a fortnightly podcast called the Yeah... Nah! podcast. |
| 2020 | Awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, highlighting his international scholarly recognition. |
| 2020 |
The New Inquisition
Hilaritas Press released the second edition of the book, expanding it to 323 pages, further preserving and potentially updating Wilson's critique of scientific orthodoxy.
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| December 2020 | FFRF argued to limit the official role of Pastor Mark Thornton at Boise State University, specifically challenging his involvement with the football team. |
| November 17 2020 |
Brights movement
Paul Geisert, co-founder of the Brights movement, passes away.
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| July 2020 | The Skeptic Research Center (SRC) was launched to conduct surveys exploring attitudes about divisive issues, with the goal of producing concise, single-topic analytical reports. |
| 2019 |
Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin
Casabianca et al published a statistical analysis suggesting lack of precision in the original radiocarbon dating measurements and calling for a new radiocarbon dating process.
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| 2019 |
Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin
An editor of Nature journal commented on the 1988 radiocarbon dating study, stating that no compelling evidence has emerged to prove the original study was substantially wrong, though the study was not considered definitive.
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| 2019 |
RationalWiki
Researchers from RWTH Aachen University conducted a bias analysis of RationalWiki, finding it had gender biases but less pronounced compared to other wikis like Conservapedia and Wikipedia.
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| 2019 | Freedom From Religion Foundation honored comedian Trae Crowder and humanist scholar Anthony B. Pinn. |
| 2019 | NZ Skeptics criticized the Wellington City Council and Downer Group for using dowsing to locate buried water pipes, ultimately co-awarding them the Bent Spoon Award for promoting pseudoscience. |
| 2019 | The Commission on Pseudoscience publicly criticized Roscosmos' cooperation with agricultural engineer Vladimir Leonov, who claimed to have developed a 'quantum engine' prototype. Notable space technology experts like Oleg Baklanov, Mikhail Sautin, and Alexander Kubasov were involved in testing this unproven invention. |
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This contents of the box above is based on material from the Wikipedia articles Launceston Skeptics, NZ Skeptics, Scientific skepticism, Freedom From Religion Foundation, List of books about skepticism, American Humanist Association, The New Inquisition, New Mexicans for Science and Reason, The Skeptics Society, Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin, RationalWiki, European Skeptics Congress, Commission on Pseudoscience, Lucian Boia, Brights movement & Sébastien Point, which are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.