Here Be Dragons

Brian Dunning, host of the skeptical podcast Skeptoid, has produced a well-made and well thought out movie, a sort of primer on skepticism. It's entitled Here be Dragons. You can download it for free at the website or you can view it on YouTube.

It lays out skepticism and what it's all about in easy to understand terms. Whether you're an atheist or not, it's a good movie to watch to learn more about critical thinking, and how it can help us in a world full of snake oil salesmen and pseudoscience.

The importance of critical thinking

Yesterday I got a text message and it reads like this:

U.S. GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY PREDICTS A 6.8 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE WILL HIT PHILIPPINE PLATES TONIGHT. PLEASE BE CALM AND ALERT. This text message comes from Hawaii State Emergency Preparedness Office. Pls pass (no harm in being prepared). pls pray

Now I'm pretty sure many people were scared (and rightly so) and passed it onto family and friends. But is there really any merit to it? This is where critical thinking helps. Here's are some of the red flags raised by this bogus message:

1.) There's no such thing as U.S. Geological Society. There's the U.S. Geological Survey, and they certainly don't make any specific predictions.

2.) There's no such thing as the Hawaii State Emergency Preparedness Office.

3.) There is no technology that accurately predicts earthquakes. The fact that this states a specific time (last night) and a specific magnitude (6.8) should also raise a red flag.

It irks me that there are people who are willing to create a panic and spread fear for a cheap laugh. True, there is no harm in being prepared, but there is plenty of potential harm in creating a panic.