The Skeptics Society

According to its "About Us" page, the Skeptics Society is a scientific and educational organization dedicated to the unbiased study of controversial subjects, especially in areas such as fringe science, paranormal phenomena, medical practices, evolution, puzzling historical events, and religion. Members of the society include scholars, scientists, professors, historians, and even magicians. One of the main goals is to promote critical thinking, curiosity, and open-mindedness in as many people as possible.

When I visited the site, the home page contained links to a number of recent articles, with subjects such as anti-science propaganda, the history of the Inquisition, why people believe weird things, and medical quackery. There are also links to podcasts of scholarly lectures and debates on topics such as the possibility of an afterlife, science and Nazism, and environmental politics. In perusing the forum, I came across discussions about sea serpents, alleged photos of aliens, Houdini, demonic possession, crystal skulls, and witchcraft.

The Skeptics Society is probably best-known for its publication of the quarterly Skeptic Magazine, which has been continuously published since 1992. It also puts out a "junior" version of the magazine and an email newsletter.

To visit this site, go to The Skeptics Society. In addition to the articles, there is a forum and an online book store.

World Mysteries Website

In addition to many well-known ancient mysteries, this website also covers some lesser-known modern puzzles. Included in the ancient category are articles about such varied subjects as high technology in the bible, ancient visitors from other planets, human origins, the location of Atlantis, the lost treasure of King Juba, the building of the tower of Babel, ancient observatories, the ark of the covenant, the purpose of Stonehenge and other megaliths, sacred geometry, and Nazca lines. Articles about modern mysteries cover crop circles, who was really behind the attack on the World Trade Center, theories about the origin of the universe, Tesla's experiments, crystal skulls, space vacuum theory, black holes in space, and the Bermuda triangle.

One interesting section of this site contains recent satellite images of various architectual wonders such as the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, the abandoned city of Petra, Chichen Itza, the Taj Mahal, and the Roman colosseum. Because they are taken from satellites, these high quality high-resolution photographs give a different perspective than the normally seen views of these famous structures.

In the modern mysteries area, I came across an article about the supposed hidden treasure of Rennes-le-Chateau in southern France. Best selling authors such as Dan Brown in his book The Da Vinci Code have tried to connect this supposed treasure with legends about the Holy Grail, and with theories that Mary Magdalene secretly married Jesus and bore a child whose descendants still preserve his bloodline. But this article focuses mostly on the original suspicions about a possible treasure, and the reliability of the local evidence for its possible existence.

Go to World Mysteries to view the complete selection of articles.

Bible Walks Website

Bible Walks is a guide to archaeological and historical locations in the Holy Land. It includes descriptions, maps, and photographs of hundreds of sites. Many of these sites are well-known, and attract thousands of tourists every year. But if you are looking for "off the beaten path" less-visited locations, you can find many of these here as well.

Some of the locations are identified from uncertain traditions, and therefore may not be the real original sites mentioned in the bible. These include Mary's Well, the Mount of Beatitudes, Job's Spring, Armageddon, the Via Dolorosa, the Holy Sepulcher, and the site of the Last Supper. For example the Via Dolorosa is a supposed path to the site where Jesus was crucified at Golgotha. But in fact the real location of Golgotha itself is uncertain.

One interesting but less-visited location is Mar Saba, a Greek Orthodox monastery in the Judean desert that was built built during the fifth century. It was here that a portion of a letter describing the Secret Gospel of Mark was discovered. There could be other valuable ancient manuscripts and artwork here, but unfortunately there are tight restrictions on public access.

To visit this website, go to Bible Walks. You could spend many hours looking at the maps and photographs.

Is God Imaginary?

According to the author of this website, belief in the Christian God is a delusion, because such a God doesn't exist. The author supports this contention with 50 different independent arguments, or items of evidence. Number 1 on the list is the fact that the vast majority of prayers go unanswered, even though many of them, such as prayers for world piece or famine relief would be of great benefit to humankind. In fact, the author says that "God never answers any prayers," arguing that the rare cases in which they appear to be answered are just coincidences brought about by statistical probabilities.

As another example of the arguments, number 10 is called "Watch the Offering Plate". In this article the author wonders why churches have to take up collections instead of just asking God to give them whatever money they need.
His conclusion is that they have to pass the offering plate because God is imaginary.

Argument number 30 is called "Examine God's sexism". It quotes numerous passages from the bible which say that women should be submissive to men, or even that women must not speak in church. It concludes that a real God would not have allowed such statements to get into the bible, so therefore he doesn't exist.

I won't try to describe all 50 arguments, and in fact didn't take time to read all of them. But the ones I did read do raise some interesting questions. If you want to examine some of the others, go to God Is Imaginary. In addition to the articles, the site also contains a forum, a blog, and some videos.