Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Most Popular

more tags
1500 questions
50
votes
1 answer

Did Freeman Dyson say that atoms have awareness?

A video uploaded on YouTube, Richard Dawkins irritated by irrationality, pictured a debate with Richard Dawkins and Deepak Chopra on whether God exists or not. Chopra: You said that atoms get together to create complexity, how does it get …
Online User
  • 30,276
  • 14
  • 130
  • 136
50
votes
4 answers

Is Snopes a "hoax" that is "covering up" for the Obama administration?

Of all the email I get, I don't know why this one bugged me so much. Here is an email accusing Snopes.com of deliberately "lying" and "covering up" for the Obama administration. From the look of it, this claim has been around quite a while and…
Monkey Tuesday
  • 24,486
  • 19
  • 111
  • 136
50
votes
3 answers

Is the O-type blood used as a universal donor?

In biology classes at school I was taught that O can be a donor to all blood types (given matching Rh group and other details), and AB can receive transfusion from any type. Quick googling seems to suggest this is true, at least theoretically for…
user69715
  • 2,499
  • 17
  • 24
50
votes
2 answers

Does the "Nonstop Elevator Hack" work?

I stumbled across this claim pretty often in the last few years. Now the problem is that I wasn't able to reproduce it but maybe it was just because I rarely visit tall buildings with multiple floors (Or I did something completely wrong, which I…
Jutschge
  • 1,687
  • 2
  • 18
  • 28
50
votes
3 answers

Does regularly drinking from a plastic container cause cancer?

I drink water from my plastic cup regularly and a friend commented that it could cause cancer. He also added that I should not heat food in plastic containers or wrappings in the microwave as that could also cause cancer in the long run. He claimed…
EuropaDust
  • 831
  • 1
  • 7
  • 9
50
votes
2 answers

Does the "sugar high" exist at all?

I've heard numerous times that eating1 a high quantity of sugar will give you a "sugar high" or "sugar buzz" The high one gets after consuming large amounts of sugar. Also called a "sugar rush." Sugar highs cause twitchiness, spasms, and hyper…
Sklivvz
  • 78,654
  • 29
  • 323
  • 429
49
votes
3 answers

Are a high percentage of scientists atheist?

When I was an engineering student, I had many friends who were atheist, or otherwise became so as the years progressed, including myself. Because I grew up with a religious background, I tend to notice when others took the same turn in the road as…
John
  • 745
  • 1
  • 6
  • 10
49
votes
5 answers

Are there 20,000 English words in the average adult's vocabulary?

Is there any consensus as to how many words are in the average adult's vocabulary? Over the years, I've come across various factoids and blurbs online and in magazine articles that have made statements like, "The average adult has a vocabulary of…
Scott Mitchell
  • 5,923
  • 4
  • 36
  • 32
49
votes
4 answers

Is there any scientific support for psychoanalysis?

I listened to episode 140 of the The Psych Files podcast where the host, Michael Britt, tried to psychoanalyze Jack Lalanne and was left wondering whether there's any validity to it. I am under the impression that psychoanalysis is a pseudoscience…
htanata
  • 637
  • 1
  • 8
  • 12
49
votes
4 answers

Are guns the number one killer of children in the US?

Joe Biden, in his speech on June 2, said that guns are the number one killer of children, even more than car accidents. Is this claim true? According to new data just released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns are the No. 1…
Amir reza Riahi
  • 563
  • 1
  • 4
  • 10
49
votes
2 answers

Is the decline in polio symptoms directly caused by the banning of pesticides such as DDT?

According to Forest Maready's "The Moth in the Iron Lung" and several other sites brought to my attention by social media posts, the poliovirus wasn't as virulent as thought. Claims by the book's author include (as summarized by their YouTube…
James Mertz
  • 733
  • 1
  • 5
  • 13
49
votes
3 answers

Is Christianity responsible for the scientific method?

I've heard at least a few times now from apologists that Christianity is responsible for science. For some examples: From a commercial for the site, Catholics Come Home (video LINK that opens right to the quote): We [The Catholic Church]…
Hendy
  • 21,725
  • 17
  • 117
  • 179
49
votes
6 answers

Does the third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine "boost antibody levels"?

On June 30, 2021, the Turkey Health Ministry announced the availability of a 3rd dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for certain categories of people (namely, medical workers and those older than 50). The announcement says: Third doses are recommended…
Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
  • 2,309
  • 2
  • 21
  • 30
49
votes
2 answers

Are unusually many people dying after being vaccinated for COVID-19?

On May 6, 2021, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said: We all assume the risks are negligible. Vaccines aren’t dangerous...Every flu season, we give influenza shots to more than 160 million Americans. Every year, a relatively small number of people…
Paul Draper
  • 6,817
  • 4
  • 38
  • 49
49
votes
1 answer

Is this colour footage of Breslau in 1939 authentic?

This 7 minutes footage on youtube purports to be from 1939 in Breslau, Germany (today Wrocław, Poland). In it we can see The banks of the Oder/Odra A random boy cycling in the streets Some military guys hanging out "near the border" A boy and his…
Bregalad
  • 657
  • 5
  • 8
1 2 3
…
99 100