That's how these things usually go. When I checked my email this morning I saw that a friend had sent me this piece of nonsense: someone behind a blog called "NARWatch" in Israel is attacking me and my content. Normally I don't even read these. There haven't been...
peer review
Excellent Article on the Sol Invictus Myth as the Basis for Birth Date of Jesus on December 25
Some readers will recall that last year around Christmas we devoted an episode of the Naked Bible Podcast (#195) to the myth that Christmas was a pagan holiday because of the December 25 (winter solstice) date. As the myth goes, the date was chosen by Constantine to...
The Atacama (Non) Alien Back in the News: Peer-Reviewed Research Demonstrates Its Human
Remember the Atacama "alien" that was the centerpiece of a Steven Greer film? Well, the important peer-reviewed journal Genome Research published the following article on the specimen today. Bhattacharya S, Li J, Sockell A, Kan M, Bava F, Chen, S, Ávila-Arcos M, Ji X,...
Naked Bible: Why Do We Do What We Do?
It's exceedingly unusual for me to share emails here that I get from Naked Bible Podcast listeners, or folks who read my books, or someone who has otherwise benefited from the content I try to produce. But this one captures why we do what we do on the podcast that I...
What Does Earning a PhD Mean?
What follows arose up within me in the wake of yet another soul-crushing example of the disturbing ignorance that passes for insight or knowledge in Christian Middle Earth. If you follow me on Twitter, you know I'm referring to a tweet that orgasmically exalted in...
This is What Encourages “Truth by Anomaly and Outlier” Thinking
I've blogged about the problem of how the peer review process in the sciences has been compromised by laziness and money. Here we go again: "Sting Operation Reveals Science's Insane Fake News Problem." As the article's author notes by way of explaining his title: This...
Mike’s World
A bit of a personal aside for this post. Most readers know I'm busy (that word actually doesn't begin to describe the situation). But I sometimes get asked why I don't do certain things. For example ... Mike, why don't you / won't you: answer my email? spend time on...
Another Illustration of Why Anomalist Research Needs to be Submitted to Peer Review
Remember the demon fairy fiasco? If not, read that link first. Although "peer review" in this case (below) isn't about submission to an academic journal, the principle is the same. Anomalous objects, experiences, events, etc. should be submitted for review by experts...
Distinguished Editor of Lancet Medical Journal: Much of Peer-Reviewed Content is Bogus
This pronouncement will no doubt cause a firestorm. Here's the pull quote: “The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid...
Peer Review: The Kryptonite of PaleoBabblers
I've blogged before here about the importance of peer review. I came across these thoughts by another scholar (and friend; Dr. Larry Hurtado) on its crucial role for sifting nonsense. Hurtado is a seasoned NT scholar and has been on both sides of the process. Unless...
Dissertations and Theses Available in PDF from Duke University’s Religion Department
Some good items (to my interests) here, so I thought others might want to have a look.
Why There is a Publishing Process Known as “Peer Review”
For all the ancient astronaut "researchers" out there - a wonderful illustration of why peer-review of your material is important (otherwise known as the nuttiness filter). Publisher's note: Adding in a resource here. I was at this presentation at DEF CON 26 and was...
Peters ET Intelligence Religious Crisis Survey
Many of you are likely familiar with the Alexander Religious Crisis Survey (1994) conducted by Victoria Alexander. If you've heard me speak on whether Christianity can accommodate a genuine ET reality (news flash for Ryan Wood and Stan Friedman: this a subject I've...
Night Terrors and Sleep Paralysis
Nick Redfern recently posted something on night terrors put together by Tim Binnall. Interesting reading, but there was a curious omission. Binnall's work (at least in this installment) neglects to mention the major scholarly work on night terrors and its relation...
Recent (2007) Scholarly Article on ET and Jesus
Here's another article that I think we can all benefit from in some respects. Some of it is material I've already blogged about, but other parts are items I've not yet commented on. It's a good instance of current scholars thinking about the issue of the interface of...