I have just left the Australian Skeptics (their spelling, not mine) group on FB. They seem to be more reactionary and dogmatic than sceptical. It would seem that that it is beyond their realm of thinking to accept that some ideas and theories are controversial and science is in a constant state of re- evaluation. Failing to mention that a theory is controversial, I consider to be a form of intellectual dishonesty. I would have thought that sceptical would be about being circumspect and asking the curly questions to the veracity of a claim. Was a conclusion reached as a result of inductive reasoning or deductive reasoning? Even though group rules stated no personal attacks one woman made a number of personal attacks against me. Such irritability is typical of someone with a nutrient deficient diet. No point in giving any unsolicited advice to a bigot. If you are wining an argument then personal attacks would seem unnecessary to me.
Are you talking about those groups of atheists+ who think they'll rid the world of all evil if only they rid it of religion, and where a man has to ask permission from women to speak or be labelled a woman hater and banned, not before being lectured about patriarchy by some feminazi nut and her entourage of white knights? Jesus Christ, My Lord, God, and Savior, please deliver me from them!
When I read this thread title, the first thing that popped into my head was: People who are skeptical of the existence of Australia.
There's a lot of Americans out there that'll tell you the native language of Australia is German... So it wouldn't surprise me at all ^^
'Australian Skeptics' have been around for a long time. Never really got interested in them. They just sounded really boring.
I was going to edit my OP but since there are already replies I will make a new post. Another person liked using terms like false dichotomy, non sequitur and illogical fallacy. I am not sure he really knows the meaning of these terms, but I suppose given his apparent tunnel vision thinking he may well consider my opinions to be those things. A third person just trivialised my comments. There are varying opinions to what trolling is but to my mind trolling is doing just that. I know some people who think that trolling is anyone posting an opinion they disagree with. Perhaps the biggest irony is despite claiming to having a nose for scientific fraud, they all the same been duped into believing that saturated fat and cholesterol are the cause of heart disease as shown on the Catalyst program.It has been called the hoax of the 20th century. http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?p=7875815#post7875815&f=406
I've been in conversations with Americans that think that too. I remember getting a comment like "your English is very good for Australian" and I answered "yes, well, English is the countries language.." And was answered back with "no it's not, it's German" *facepalm* and I used to live near a navy base headquarters and one yank had the courage to admit he thought Australia was a small island off of Japan somewhere. I also assume a lot of tourists visit Austria to see kangaroos because when I visited a few years back every tourist store sold goods with "no kangaroos in Austria" decals.
I was once at a Confest and I told a group of school teachers an anecdote of what seemed like a young man what is now called Sceptics in Australia who was 100% certain that LDL cholesterol was the one and only cause of CVD - I guess he had not heard of trans fat- 100% certain of AGW and 100% certain of the efficacy and safety of vaccines. Given his extraordinary level of certainty, I would find it hard to believe he would been older than 20. The school teachers all burst out laughing.
