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Category: Latest JREF News
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  • Pharyngula | FreeThought Blogs, February 23, 2012
    Episode CCCV: Don't Do It, Carrie!
    Look! She actually videorecorded herself taking a massive overdose of a cold remedy! She survived. Calling poison control was a smart move — they had very good advice for her. And now she’s trying to return the favor and help everyone.
  • Towleroad, February 19, 2012
    James Randi to Get a Documentary: Vide    o
    James "The Amazing" Randi, the legendary conjurer, performer, writer, debunker of frauds, and lifelong crusader for skepticism and reason is at long last getting his own documentary.... the trailer suggests it'll be cool.
  • Tucson Weekly, February 23, 2012
    Loud and Silent
    "I really thought that art should be about the truth, and not about lies," Jillette said.     But later on, he said, illusionist James Randi taught him that "magic wasn't a lie," because when people come to see it in a theater, they are aware of the deception

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Category: Latest JREF News
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On January 3rd the disgraced British physician Andrew Wakefield filed suit in a Texas court against the British Medical Journal,Skeptic History Icon claiming he had been defamed. The suit came almost exactly one year after BMJ's historic article that accused Wakefield of deliberate fraud in his 1998 study which claimed a connection between bowel disease, measles vaccines and autism.  (This is no coincidence, as the statute of limitation on defamation cases in Texas is one year).

These are just the latest in a long series of twists and turns in the Wakefiled story. Two earlier key events both took place in February.  

When the original paper was published in The Lancet in 1998, Wakefield called a press conference on February 26, 1998 to promote his research.  This was the beginning of the modern vaccines and autism scare, what the BMJ now says was based on an "elaborate fraud".

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Category: Latest JREF News
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Some of the most exciting and important skeptical work is done on the local level by the many local skeptics' groups that exist all over the world. Many of these groups organize and participate in activism work, such as holding free vaccine clinics and educating the public about the pseudoscience of homeopathy through mass overdoses. Several offer a safe social setting for skeptics to meet, greet, and share their ideas.

The JREF is committed to supporting these organizations by providing them with valuable educational resources, workshops, organizational advice, scholarships, and sponsorships for their ambitious projects. And we are constantly developing even more resources for skeptics at the grassroots.

Today, we are proud to announce the publication of our database of local organizations specifically devoted to the promotion of scientific skepticism. Our goal with this database is to provide skeptics all over the world with a quick and easy way to coordinate with those of like mind who might already be organized in their communities. We also hope that those who live in places that aren't currently home to a skeptics' group might be inspired to fill in the gaps of this database by starting groups of their own.

The JREF's grassroots database is a living document, so please feel free to contact our field coordinator This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with any additions or comments you would like to make. New skeptical groups are forming all the time, and some transform in a variety of ways. Please, help us keep this database as up-to-date as possible by keeping in touch.

You can find the JREF's grassroots database by clicking here.

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Category: Swift
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 In the science-based community, critical thinking is paramount. While we have many ideas of what critical thinking (or the lack thereof) may look like on its face, I think that it would be valuable to introduce another way of thinking about thinking.

As the newest JREF research fellow, I suppose that it is time to share with you what my research is actually about. My field of research at the moment is communication and the theories of cognitive psychology held within. Considering critical thinking as a cognitive mode that deals with evidence and analytical evaluation, the Heuristic-Systematic Model developed by communications researcher Shelly Chaiken (1980) gives a dual-process view of human information processing.

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There’s a time and place to preach to the choir, but for skepticism to be truly effective, we need to take our message beyond our own community.

Of course, once we venture outside of our group, we face people who haven’t heard of pareidolia, cold reading, logical fallacies, or even…gasp…James Randi!

On the other side of the coin, there are people who have heard of James Randi, but think he’s a closed-minded cynic, and that his check for one million dollars isn’t real.

  1. New Career Opportunity at the JREF
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  3. Watch Phil Plait's Talk on The Goal of Skepticism at TAM 8
  4. How Boiron Scammed Me, and How You Can Fight Back [VIDEO]