Parents Can Relax: Vaccines Do NOT Lead to Autism

Skeptical Monkey’s Predictions for 2010

As many self-proclaimed “psychics” scramble to release their predictions for the coming year, we here at Skeptical Monkey decided to take our own stab at the fake-prophecy business.  Of course, we claim no actual psychic ability; the following predictions are based entirely on guesswork, common sense, and probability.  At the end of the year, we’ll see how our success rate compares with folks who do this for a living. (more…)

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Halloween Origins: Those Ancient Celts Sure Were Crazy…

While perusing History.com, I came upon some info on the origins of Halloween:

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other’s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

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Psychic Twins: They’re Just Bad People

In my previous article on Linda and Terry Jamison (the “psychic” twins who claim to have predicted the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11) I feel that, while researching whether or not their claim was true, I  failed to confront a few other important issues. Let’s revisit this for a moment: (more…)

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John Marcotte Wants to Ban Divorce in California

With gay marriage out of the way, are there other, more pressing threats against traditional marriage that must be addressed? As I wrote in a recent article on Examiner.com: (more…)

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5 Things I Didn’t Know About Islam

Being raised Protestant Christian (and then transitioning to militant agnostic / atheist), I’ve never been exposed to the Islam religion in depth. I deeply regret this. Until recently I’ve been largely unfamiliar with the reasons behind some of their beliefs and actions that we read about in the news. I decided to start learning more about what it is to be Muslim. (more…)

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