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1500 questions
40
votes
2 answers
Are atheists barred from holding public office in Texas?
I saw the following claim in B3ta newsletter #574 (possibly NSFW), under "US Postal Service hates Atheists".
Awful, but then Atheists are not allowed to hold
public office in six US states, including
Texas.
Is it true that Atheists can't…
Tom77
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40
votes
2 answers
Is the Bates Method for improving eyesight efficacious?
The Bates Method is often cited by people looking to avoid wearing glasses, or as an alternative to LAZIK surgery for improving/correcting eyesight.
Is the method at all effective? Can eyesight truly be improved/repaired through exercise and…
blueberryfields
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40
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1 answer
Is eating eggs bad for me?
I read yesterday that a single egg contains 70% of my daily cholesterol. I will frequently cook myself an omlette for lunch with 2-3 eggs. Is this unhealthy if I do it more than once a week?
fredley
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39
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2 answers
Do patents boost innovation?
In a recent judgement Europe's highest court ruled that Stem Cells derived from human embryos cannot be patented (see BBC story here). This provoked many scientists to argue that both research and the european economy would suffer as a result. The…
RomanSt
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39
votes
2 answers
Can eating too much sugar cause diabetes?
I have frequently heard (even from diabetics) that diets high in sugar can cause (or at least contribute to) diabetes. Others have said it's a common misunderstanding, and there's no demonstrated causal connection between the two, but only…
jrdioko
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39
votes
2 answers
Did Netanyahu express support of Hamas in 2019?
When discussing the ongoing Israel/Hamas war, the following quotes occasionally come up.
Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas
This is part of our…
Sam I am says Reinstate Monica
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39
votes
2 answers
Did over 1000 people in the US die of cannabis overdose in 2021?
According to the National Safety Council, in 2021 in the US, 1159 people died of cannabis overdose, of which 1130 of the deaths were preventable:
Is this true?
I'm skeptical because the drug enforcement agency says on its Marijuana/Cannabis…
DavePhD
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39
votes
3 answers
Did Bertrand Russell spend 360 pages in Principia Mathematica to prove 1 + 1 = 2?
I read from several places that Bertrand Russell spent many pages in Principia Mathematica to prove 1 + 1 = 2, e.g. here said "it takes over 360 pages to prove definitively that 1 + 1 = 2", while here said 162 pages.
I do not believe that is the…
Qiulang
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39
votes
4 answers
Is this video of a fast-moving river of lava authentic?
In July 2020, Facebook page "Meteorologist Greg Pollak" posted a video (Facebook link):
WHOA! Check out how fast this river of lava was moving in Hawaii back in 2018 Note: This is not a time-lapse video
: Ken Boyer
The video is a river of lava…
Oddthinking
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39
votes
1 answer
Is 86% of the food fed to livestock unfit for human consumption, and is most of it byproducts of crops grown for human consumption?
Most sources I found imply that animal agriculture uses much more land and resources per unit of nutrition compared to plant agriculture for human consumption. A quick Google search shows that this is the most commonly held view in scientific…
Fiksdal
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39
votes
3 answers
Is the flu more deadly than COVID-19 for children?
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was quoted in this recent Foundation for Economic Education article:
In a debate last week with pro-lockdown Harvard epidemiologist, Marc
Lipsitch, Dr. Bhattacharya acknowledged that COVID-19 “is an
absolutely deadly disease…
Graviton
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39
votes
2 answers
Are environmentalists largely responsible for Californian forest fires?
An article on Reason, and the associated video, claim that the severity of the recent forest fires are largely due to environmental regulations that prevent good forest management, along with an insistence on putting out small fires that would have…
Paul Johnson
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39
votes
2 answers
Did Einstein say this quote about blind belief in authority being the "greatest enemy of the truth"?
There is a quote/image circulating Facebook (please don't get me started on the source), quoting Einstein:
Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth
I would like to avoid getting into the validity of the quote in the context its…
Möoz
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39
votes
7 answers
Are deaths of patients with, but not because of, COVID-19 recorded as COVID-19 deaths in the USA?
A long Mises Institute article questions the US COVID-19 metrics.
It ends with this claim, quoted from a Daily Caller reporter's Twitter feed:
Here is Dr. Birx saying that the government is recording anyone who dies with coronavirus in the United…
the gods from engineering
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39
votes
4 answers
Can social isolation kill babies?
According to the Wikipedia page for Language Deprivation Experiments,
An experiment allegedly carried out by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the 13th century saw young infants raised without human interaction in an attempt to determine if there…
Frou-Frou Fox
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