supernatural, resources-referencesI must admit that some things are so strange that it’s too easy to say “maybe it was supernatural”. What good resources on the web explain how some of these amazing deeds were achieved (in case of hoaxes), or at least, what led (so many) people to believe them? I’m thinking here stuff like witchcraft, sightings, visions, satanism…
score: 6
James Randi Educational Foundation, JREF in short, has a nice encyclopedia at http://www.randi.org/site/index.php/encyclopedia.html
This is more for Bible-specific claims, but many of them are supernatural by definition:
There are a couple of great video series specifically dedicated to debunking creationist and other religious statements. Her are a couple.
Why do people laugh at creationist
Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism
Any video with Christopher Hitches in it.
If you want just some good ammo check out Evilbible
Michael Shermer’s ‘Baloney Detection Kit’ is good at enabling you to work out for yourself if something is bull crap;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUB4j0n2UDU
Also check out the Snopes website for ‘urban myths, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation’;
http://www.snopes.com/
The Atheist Bus This is a great site in the UK crated by Ariane Sherine to gather donations to run ad's on the side of busses other public advertizing to counter the many biblical and religious ad's run by churches and other religious organizations. Well worth a read - I feel that, perhaps, a similar thing should be started over here in the US.
Interesting books:
The Atheists Guide To Christmas
The best resource you have is your own mind and following a sceptical approach to claims without evidence.
Claims of the supernatural are generally anecdotal evidence at best, or people simply placing a supernatural assumption as an explanation of that which they do not understand. The human mind also does strange things and is shown to be susceptible to suggestions of all kinds, from oneself, others and the environment. We are usually better to investigate experiences and build a conclusion based on evidence, or simply accept that we may never know the answer to the strangeness of an experience we have had.
There are a myriad of resources on the internet and the best approach is to actually look at the question as a whole from your own concepts rather than regurgitate a sites reply simply in reply. To reason and critically think is the best approach and should be done with all positions and claims. Of course, some positions and claims have an overwhelming amount of evidence and logical reasoning to back them up, others do not and are simply a leap to a conclusion based on no evidence at all.
skeptoid.com is as good as it gets. Brian Dunning is a master at researching pseudoscience.
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