Comments and Articles

The illustration is "Attempting the Impossible" by René Magritte
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There are also some commentaries and magazine articles I have written which apply to a category or more than one site. Some of these have appeared in the following publications.
(You can see the articles ordered by publication here.)

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  The journal of the Australian Skeptics
• 
  Australasian Science
• 
  Australian Doctor
• 
  Issues
• 
  Yahoo! 7 News Blog
• 
  MamaMia
• 
  ABC Science
• 
  The Dubbo Weekender

Health Fraud ( articles)

Plus ( articles by other people):

• Beware the spinal trap – Simon Singh
• DTP Vaccination or SBS?: The Role of Irresponsible Medical Expert Testimony in Creating a False Causal Connection – David L. Chadwick and Rob Parrish
• Homeopathy and Its Kindred Delusions – Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Homo Neanderthalensis – H.L. Mencken
• Mannatech Using Disputed Study to Boost Sales of Its Products – David Evans
• Shaken Baby Syndrome – Pamela Rowse RN
• The Gentle Art of Homeopathic Killing – Andy Lewis
• The Liver Cleansing Diet – Dr Joe Proietto
• The Median Isn't the Message – Stephen Jay Gould
• The WHO and homeopathy – World Health Organization
• When Judges Play Doctor – Paul Offit

Racism ( articles)

• Getting yourself hated
• Subtle Racism

Plus: ( articles by other people)

• I have a Dream – Martin Luther King Jr
• Redfern Speech – December 10, 1992 – Paul Keating

Religion ( articles)

• A night out with the creationists
• Acts of God?
• An atheist at Christmas
• "Blasphemy" comes before "Science" in the dictionary
• Bogus Challenges
• Book review – Has Science Found God?
• Book review – Science and Religion : Are They Compatible?
• Can atheism be called a dangerous idea?
• Craig and Krauss – religion meets science
• Creation/Evolution Debate
• Creation/Evolution Debate – Part 1
• Creation/Evolution Debate – Part 2
• Creation/Evolution Debate – Part 3
• Creationists coming! Think of the children!
• Devastation in Haiti
• Don't make any plans for Sunday. Jesus was wrong!
• Earthquakes and God
• Faith healer? Fraud!
• Fides et Ratio – Faith and reason
• Getting yourself hated
• Have we outgrown religion?
• Ian Plimer was right. They do tell lies for God
• Knowing things that just ain't so
• Literature v Literalism
• Literature v Literalism (Y)
• My patience is tried
• Philosophical skepticism and what skeptics really do
• Polite request to creationists
• Psychic predictions for 2011
• Someone gets upset
• The Danger of Knowing for Sure
• The end is nigh! Repent!
• The end of the world. Really?
• The end of the world. Really? (ABC)
• The Myth of "The Myth of Mental Illness" (AS)
• We have a saint!
• We're off to see the Benny, The wonderful Benny of God
• We're still here.
• When religion and medicine disagree
• Why am I a skeptic?

Plus: ( articles by other people)

• A Free Man's Worship – Bertrand Russell
• A Letter Concerning Toleration – John Locke
• Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic? – Bertrand Russell
• Among the Believers – a night out with Benny Hinn – John Sweatman
• An Agnostic's Apology – Sir Leslie Stephen
• An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish – Bertrand Russell
• Bible Teaching and Religious Practice – Mark Twain
• Has Religion Made Useful Contributions to Civilization? – Bertrand Russell
• Is There a God? – Bertrand Russell
• Memorial Service – Where is the grave-yard of dead gods? – H.L. Mencken
• Of Miracles – David Hume
• Of Miracles and Their Uses – Thomas Hobbes
• Of Religion – Thomas Hobbes
• On the Value of Scepticism – Bertrand Russell
• The Antichrist – Friedrich Nietzsche [translation by H.L. Mencken]
• The Necessity Of Atheism – Percy Bysshe Shelley
• The Skepticism of Believers – Sir Leslie Stephen
• The Ten Commandments – Mark Twain
• The War Prayer – Mark Twain
• Theology and Falsification – Antony Flew
• Thoughts of God – Mark Twain
• Vatican Statement on Vaccines Derived From Aborted Human Foetuses – Pontifical Academy for Life
• What is an Agnostic? – Bertrand Russell
• What Is the Soul? – Bertrand Russell
• What Would You Substitute for the Bible as a Moral Guide? – Robert Ingersoll
• Which Way? – Robert Ingersoll
• Why I Am A Rationalist – Bertrand Russell
• Why I Am An Agnostic – Robert Ingersoll
• Why I Am an Unbeliever – Carl Van Doren
• Why I Am Not A Christian – Bertrand Russell

Creationism ( articles)

• 150 years since the death of creationism
• A night out with the creationists
• Argumentum ad whateverum
• "Blasphemy" comes before "Science" in the dictionary
• Bogus Challenges
• Creation/Evolution Debate
• Creation/Evolution Debate – Part 1
• Creation/Evolution Debate – Part 2
• Creation/Evolution Debate – Part 3
• Creationists coming! Think of the children!
• Darwin visits the Blue Mountains
• Don't let straw men give you hay fever.
• Getting yourself hated
• Ian Plimer was right. They do tell lies for God
• Irregular regulation
• Knowing things that just ain't so
• Literal interpretation of the Bible
• Literature v Literalism
• Literature v Literalism (Y)
• Obituary – Stephen Jay Gould
• Polite request to creationists
• Science books? We don't need no stinkin' science books
• The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
• The Woo Review
• What science isn't.

Plus ( articles by other people):

• 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense – John Rennie
• A Refutation of Deism – Percy Bysshe Shelley
• A scientist and Christian talks about Intelligent Design – David Goldney
• Creationist Deception Exposed – Barry Williams
• Homo Neanderthalensis – H.L. Mencken
• The Dissertation Kent Hovind Doesn't Want You to Read – Karen Bartelt
• The Information Challenge – Richard Dawkins
• Theology and Falsification – Antony Flew

Anti-vaccination liars ( articles)

• A brief history of some science
• Answer me this, anti-vaccinators
• Anti-vaccination propaganda at the Folk Festival
• Anti-vaccinators demand the impossible
• Anti-vaccinators want to deceive
• Argumentum ad whateverum
• Asses and the law
• Banned from the Australian Vaccination Network's mailing list
• Bending your conscience to fit your opinion
• Better get a lawyer son
• Bogus Challenges
• Book review – The Doctor Who Fooled The World
• Censorship and intolerance at iVillage
• Checking the facts (AS)
• Checking the facts (Y)
• Child Abuse
• Chiropractic – quackery to the core
• Damaging autism paper retracted
• Dante and Virgil descend to Hurstville
• Death By Lethal Vaccine Injection
• Debating the undebatable
• Devastation in Haiti
• Don't let straw men give you hay fever.
• Dr Andrew Wakefield
• Final jab for the anti-vaccination lobby
• Free Alan Yurko (Part 1)
• Free Alan Yurko (Part 2)
• Free speech breaks out in Anti-vax Land?
• Getting risk wrong (I)
• Getting yourself hated
• How many unicorns does it take to match a draught horse's weight?
• How not to do science – Everyone retracts except Dr Wakefield
• How to attack freedom of speech.
• If it's good enough for doctors, it's good enough for liars
• Irregular regulation
• Keeping your skepticism out of court (SC)
• Liars just can't help themselves
• Lies about abortions and vaccines
• Lies about vaccines and foetuses
• Lying with the truth
• Mark and David Geier
• Meryl Dorey disagrees with me – Part 1
• Meryl Dorey disagrees with me – Part 2
• Meryl Dorey disagrees with me – Part 3
• Meryl Dorey disagrees with me – Part 4
• Needle point
• Pictures of children suffering from "harmless" diseases
• Polio vaccination – thank you very much! (MM)
• Professor Boyd Haley
• See how "harmless" measles is.
• The Anti-vaccination Lobby
• The AVN circles the drain
• The girl in the iron lung.
• The good news keeps on coming
• The Precautionary Principle
• The real truth about vaccinations
• The times they are a changin'
• Tim O'Ranter – Patrick Timothy Bolen
• Vaccines
• "Vaxxed" spreads like a plague
• We live in fearful times.
• What is a PhD worth?
• What's in a name: The anti-vaxxers reach a shocking new low

Plus: ( articles by other people)

• Anti-immunisation scare: The inconvenient facts – Dr Stephen Basser
• DTP Vaccination or SBS?: The Role of Irresponsible Medical Expert Testimony in Creating a False Causal Connection – David L. Chadwick and Rob Parrish
• Fatal Exemption – Paul Offit
• Measles: A dangerous illness – Roald Dahl
• Meryl Dorey's Trouble With Finance – Ken McLeod
• Meryl Dorey's Trouble With The Truth – Part 1 – Ken Mcleod
• Meryl Dorey's Trouble With The Truth – Part 2 – Ken Mcleod
• Meryl Dorey's Trouble With The Truth – Part 3 – Ken Mcleod
• Olmsted Lied, People Laughed: The "Amish Anomaly" hoax – David Brown
• Shaken Baby Syndrome – Pamela Rowse RN
• Vatican Statement on Vaccines Derived From Aborted Human Foetuses – Pontifical Academy for Life
• When Judges Play Doctor – Paul Offit

Pseudoscience ( articles)

• A brief history of some science
• A close run thing at the chemist
• A conspiracy of conspiracists
• A Placebo Can relieve A Skeptic's Pain
• A very profitable trick
• Anatomy of a quack
• Are all placebos equal?
• Argumentum ad whateverum
• Better get a lawyer son
• Beware! Are invisible rays frying your brain?
• Blackmore's and the Pharmacy Guild – a marriage made in Hell
• Book review – Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction
• Burzynski gets audited
• But is it science?
• CAM or SCAM?
• Checking the facts (AS)
• Checking the facts (Y)
• Coincidences
• Communicating science and skepticism
• Confirmation bias, denialism and Morton's Demon (AS)
• Confirmation bias, denialism and Morton's Demon. (DR)
• Counting the Opinions
• Craig and Krauss – religion meets science
• Darwin visits the Blue Mountains
• Debating the undebatable
• Denialists ignore the science
• Do Be a Dick
• Don't let straw men give you hay fever.
• Don't wave goodbye just yet.
• Experimenting on skeptics
• Faith, Fact and Fiction : The demarcation of science and non-science
• Fides et Ratio – Faith and reason
• Filtering science through conspiracy
• Get together and do it again.
• Getting risk wrong (AS)
• Getting risk wrong (I)
• Getting yourself hated
• Give me my word back.
• Go! Learn things.
• Have you heard the one about ... ?
• History lesson for smart kids
• Homeopathy – so diluted there's no evidence left.
• How many unicorns does it take to match a draught horse's weight?
• How time flies.
• How to attack freedom of speech.
• I try not to know what just ain't so
• I'm a celebrity. What do you want to hear?
• Irregular regulation
• Is philosophy dead?
• It can't hurt you. It's natural.
• It's all happening. And it's all connected
• James Randi: An Honest Liar
• Just the facts, ma'am.
• Keep the eyes on the Prize.
• Keeping your skepticism out of court (AS)
• Knowing things that just ain't so
• Lying with the truth
• Magic wands (AS)
• Magic wands (Y)
• Milks ain't milk
• Misremembering the past
• Mobile phones are frying our brains.
• Multiple Chemical Stupidity?
• My patience is tried
• Nocebo – whatever doesn't kill you might.
• Obituary – Stephen Jay Gould
• One, two, three. What are we counting for?
• Organic food. What's in it for me?
• Pasteur's Last Words
• Peer review – Close enough is better than nothing.
• Philosophical skepticism and what skeptics really do
• Philosophy and Science
• Philosophy Versus Science, And Vice Versa
• Professor Boyd Haley
• Progress? We don't need no stinking progress.
• Prove all things
• Psychic parasites
• Psychic predictions for 2011
• "Psychic" Predictions for 2010
• Psychics predict the future. Do they?
• Psychological testing
• Publication in the peer-reviewed literature
• Right to read denied by deniers
• School Daze
• Science as she is spoke
• Skeptical Field Trips
• Skeptics aren't always skeptical.
• Smart people. Strange ideas.
• Someone gets upset
• Stem promises give way to abuses
• Still Deluded After All These Years
• Sweet simple things of life
• That dreadful carbon tax
• The 90th Meeting of the Skeptics' Circle
• The AVN circles the drain
• The Bear's Progress – SkeptoBear's 2004 World Tour
• The Bermuda Triangle
• The Best Research Money Can Buy
• The Bloated Truth About Gluten
• The Danger of Knowing for Sure
• The end is nigh! Repent!
• The end of the world. Really?
• The end of the world. Really? (ABC)
• The Magical Mystery Museum
• The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
• The Myth of "The Myth of Mental Illness" (AS)
• The Power of Coincidence
• The Precautionary Principle
• The science goes round and round, and it comes out here
• The times they are a changin'
• The Woo Review
• The WooWoo Credo
• Things change. Get used to it.
• True Believers
• Understand the numbers? Don't count on it.
• Universities. What are they for?
• We live in fearful times.
• We're still here.
• What is a PhD worth?
• What science isn't.
• What's that up in the sky? Is it a ...?
• Where were you 40 years ago?
• Why am I a skeptic?
• Will your smart meter make you less smart?
• Words have meanings.

Plus: ( articles by other people)

• An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish – Bertrand Russell
• Dumb and dumber at the ABC – Ken McLeod
• Dumb, dumber and really dumb at the ABC – Ken McLeod
• Homo Neanderthalensis – H.L. Mencken
• I can smell onions! – Ken McLeod
• Of Reason and Science – Thomas Hobbes
• On Astrologers – Bertrand Russell
• On the Value of Scepticism – Bertrand Russell
• Path to the truth is littered with useful failures – Umberto Eco
• Postmodernism Disrobed – Richard Dawkins
• Stupid Skeptic Tricks – D. Owens
• The Grand Academy of Lagado – Jonathon Swift
• The Liver Cleansing Diet – Dr Joe Proietto
• What is a kook? – Michael Davis
• What Is the Soul? – Bertrand Russell

Multi-Level Marketing, Pyramid Schemes, Scams and Frauds ( articles)

• Advertisements
• Better get a lawyer son
• Creating Distrust with Multi-level Marketing
• Doing the sums with MLM
• How time flies.
• How to attack freedom of speech.
• Keeping your skepticism out of court (AS)
• Keeping your skepticism out of court (SC)
• MLM adventures
• Multi-level Marketing Doesn't Add Up
• Multi-Level Marketing spam collection
• The Multi-Level Mirage
• The Ratbags Dream
• Thoughts about multi-level marketing

Plus: ( articles by other people)

• Mannatech Using Disputed Study to Boost Sales of Its Products – David Evans
• Report of G Robert Blakey – Amway – G Robert Blakey

Conspiracy theories ( articles)

• A conspiracy of conspiracists
• Anatomy of a quack
• Book Review – Republic Of Lies
• Checking the facts (AS)
• Checking the facts (Y)
• Confirmation bias, denialism and Morton's Demon. (DR)
• Devastation in Haiti
• Filtering science through conspiracy
• Getting yourself hated
• How time flies.
• It's all happening. And it's all connected
• Knowing things that just ain't so
• My patience is tried
• Peer review – Close enough is better than nothing.
• Philosophy Versus Science, And Vice Versa
• Put the Lyme in the quackonut
• Right to read denied by deniers
• Smart people. Strange ideas.
• Sweet simple things of life
• The 9/11 conspiracies
• The Anti-vaccination Lobby
• The times they are a changin'
• What is a PhD worth?
• What science isn't.
• What you see might not be what you get
• Where were you 40 years ago?
• Will your smart meter make you less smart?

Plus: ( article)

• The Paranoid Style in American Politics – Richard Hofstadter

Other topics

• Free speech
• Full Canvas Jacket
• Introduction to skepticism
• Jack Shitman gives me an award
• Mary Daly and Feminist Nonsense (a tautology)
• MindBodySpirit Festival, November 1999
• Penis enlargement spam collection
• Skeptical Activism? A real thing or just talking to the choir?
• Y2K – Is there still time to panic?
• Y2K – What went wrong?

Plus:

• MindBodySpirit Festival, May 2004 – Belinda Bowditch
• Remembrance Day Speech – Paul Keating

Book reviews

• Agnotology: The making and unmaking of ignorance by Robert N Proctor & Londsa Schiebinger (Eds)
• The Australian Book Of Atheism by Warren Bonnett (Ed)
• The Cancer Cure That Worked! by Barry Lynes
• The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel
• The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel
• The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
• The Doctor Who Fooled The World by Brian Deer
• The End of Faith : Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris
• Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner
• Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore (Film)
• Has Science Found God? The Latest Results in the Search for Purpose in the Universe by Victor Stenger
• How to Poison Your Spouse the Natural Way by Jay Mann
• A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton
• Merchants of Deception by Eric Scheibeler
• Quantum Leaps in the Wrong Direction by Charles Wynn and Arthur Wiggins
• Republic of Lies by Anna Merlan
• The Root of All Evil? by Richard Dawkins (TV program)
• Science and Religion : Are They Compatible? by Paul Kurtz, Barry Karr and Ranjit Sandhu (Editors)
• Seven Brief Lessons On Physics by Carlo Rovelli
• The Sins of Scripture by John Shelby Spong
• The Six Ways Of Atheism by Geoffrey Berg
• Sunburnt Country: The History and Future of Climate Change in Australia by Jöelle Gergis

• "The Danger of Knowing for Sure" – An essay I wrote about skepticism, following the events of September 11, 2001 (This also appeared as a guest editorial in the Skeptic in Vol 21:4, Summer 2001)
• The Ragtag Posse of Snake-oil Vigilantes – The remnants of a superseded RatbagsDotCom project.