Archive for January, 2008
An Imaginative Bonus Question
One would think that keeping a blog on the topics of critical thought, parenting, skepticism, and similarly related ideas is a difficult task — and one would be right. But, unexpectedly, when I set out to write here I was overwhelmed in a different way than I am now, having touched on a small handful of topics and researched twice again as many for future articles. The task is not difficult because there is a lack of subject matter. The task is difficult because there is far more to cover than I had ever anticipated. And I’ve been struggling not for lack of questions, but because I’ve been hesitant to ask the wrong ones.
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Gaming and Critical Thought (Proposal)
In my everyday life I have been finding overlap between fellow skeptics and folks who game. That is to say, the people I know in real life and online who I would consider ‘critical thinkers’ and scientists have a notable affinity for playing complex and unique board games, dice games, or card games. It is not a closed-set of people by any means, but it makes me wonder: What do games teach us about thought? Are games good models for teaching integrity to kids (one of skep/dad’s claimed core pillars of critical thinking) or is it mere correlation? Or what else could we deduce from this seeming connection — if it even exists?
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Gaming and Critical Thought (Survey)
I’ve started writing a series of posts about gaming and critical thought in kids. When I think of gaming — as I’m sure do many others — I think of cracking open a cardboard box and extracting a board, dice, cards, tokens, bits, pieces, and often a crisp sheet of rules. But I don’t want to limit my definition to that. A handful of dice, a deck of cards, or a pencil and paper can be the basis for the simplest game. And it goes from there to anything increasingly more complex than that…
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What is Skepticism?
If you have stumbled upon this blog from some random web search looking for (as the otherwise-anonymous statistics suggest) information on playing music to your baby in the womb, optical illusions for kids, or even (on rare instance) banjo lessons, you may be wondering what exactly you have found in this site. I’ve tried to explain my own interpretation of capital-S Skepticism in my own little About Page by writing: Defined, skepticism is a method of rigorous thought where one suspends judgment, systematically doubts, and thinks critically about new ideas before accepting them as truths. But others, far more seasoned than I, have elaborated and pontificated much more deeply than I on the topic.
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Future skep/dad Topics, Perhaps?
I’ve not had much time to sit down and write this week. Truth is, I scraped together some cash and bought myself a new notebook that has been occupying too much of my attention whilst I try out the many new features. That said, the plan in buying the new notebook was to give me more time and convenience in writing for this project (as well as a few others). Convenience? Well, it’s a notebook, so I can sit on the couch, put on some tunes, and type. Time? A rare commodity as a parent, but the new computer is, admittedly, a Mac so (as promised by the onslaught of advertising) its been running all weekend trouble free right out of the box. No more precious hours shared between changing diapers, reading aloud, and wireless connectivity maintenance. Of course, this gives me reason to pause and consider what I should write.
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Avoiding Logical Fallacies: Presuming Causation
The story so far: My pal, Victor Dillweed, has a time traveling baseball cap. He calls it his Chrono-Hat, and when he wears it he can travel backwards and forwards through time, visiting the far future and the ancient past. His visits are instantaneous, ephemeral, and he can only make a return journey if he comes back empty handed. Or so he claims. These rules, after all, leave him a little short on hard evidence. As usual, the skep/kids (Winston and Julia) and I attempt to debunk his claims — but this time around make the mistake of presuming causation.
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Talking Critical Thought
Some readers might be interested to know that a fellow skeptical father has recently set up a community discussion forum specifically devoted to topics that run parallel to the goals of this blog. A small handful of people have recently signed up. I think that as much as it is important to give readers the opportunity to comment and respond to things I write here, building a small community around an equal platform is a great idea, too. I’ll be checking in regularly to join discussions where able, and I hope more skeptical fathers sign up and help build a strong and balanced community.
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Thumbs Up for Pacifiers?
It seems to me that the role of a skeptical parent is often defined by a collection of little decisions that seem much more important than they really are. Case in point, my wife and I were very recently discussing the choice to be made between fostering a child who uses a pacifier versus a child who sucks her thumb. This is — in that ‘big picture’ — a seemingly minor topic, but one that has amounted to more than one conversation and a number of hours researching to decide on the ultimate course of action. Fools wisdom points with hearsay and warnings in either direction, but the skeptical parent knows to ask the right questions rather than jump to the easy conclusions.
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The skep/dad blog is a place for rational, science-minded fathers to express their thoughts, opinions, and ideas about bringing up kids to be critical thinking adults in a world filled with superstition, mysticism, and pseudoscience.
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Brad adds: As of October 2007, I'm soliciting interest for skeptics in the Edmonton, Alberta, Canada area who are interested in forming a skeptical society to contact me. Please do so through this blog or via Facebook (through the Edmonton Skeptical Society Group).
Or visit our new website: www.edmontonskeptics.org - When through indifference, inattention, incompetence, or fear of skepticism we discourage children from science, we are disenfranchising them, taking from them the tools needed to manage their future.- Dr. Carl Sagan
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- Science Based Medicine
- The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
- Skeptic’s Annotated Bible
- James Randi Educational Foundation
- Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena
- The Museum of Hoaxes
- Nye Labs
- The Philosopher Dad
- Snopes (Urban Legends Reference)
- NeuroLogica Blog
- Podblack Blog
- SkepBitch
- Claire’s Booklist
- Skeptical Mom
- Skeptical Kids
- DIYFather.com
- The Meming of Life
- Skeptical Family Forum
- Science Creative Quarterly
- Pediatrics
- Memoirs of a Skepchick
- ScienceBlogs
- Skeptical Surfer
- The Skeptic Dad
- The Blogfathers
- Bug Girl’s Blog
- Junior Skeptic
- Skeptic Magazine
- Bad Language
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