Dawkins says science should stand above politics and feelings. Bart Laws says Dawkins is answering the wrong question. Read his pointed response in Free Inquiry: https://ow.ly/Thhu50XLbyM

The CDC didn’t update its autism–vaccines page because the science changed, but because the politics did. What happens when public health messaging starts hedging against evidence? Skeptical Inquirer lays it out: https://ow.ly/cRIp50XLauf

Ten years of study led to a familiar outcome: no women deacons, no real reform, lots of theological gymnastics. Free Inquiry dissects the Catholic Church’s latest decision + why institutions built on immutable truth struggle to change without cracking: https://ow.ly/Kqqc50XKACf

An Arizona lawmaker wants evolution taught with Intelligent Design (read: creationism). He says the separation of church and state is a “fallacy.” Public schools shouldn’t be drafted into anyone’s theology. Full story: https://ow.ly/X47p50XKz5Z

A century later, Spinosaurus is still an open question. What’s evidence? What’s speculation? 📅 Dec 18, 7pm ET 🎙️ Dr Dave Hone 🎥 Free livestream (register): https://ow.ly/B5FY50XK4nf

✔️ Banned practitioner still operating ✔️ Popular surgery no better than placebo ✔️ $27.6M refunded after wellness billing scams ✔️ Evidence-based reporting on ECT Reality check, courtesy of Quackwatch's Consumer Health Digest: https://ow.ly/EoPO50XK4b8

The goal isn’t getting every answer right. It’s noticing how you react when something you believed turns out to be wrong. This GenSkeps lesson touches on the radical idea that changing your mind when presented with evidence is a strength (not a flaw): https://ow.ly/EvBX50XIObS

Ohio wants to staple the Ten Commandments to the wall of every public school history classroom. Kids shouldn’t have to walk into history class and be told which god to believe in. If you’re in Ohio, tell your House rep to vote NO: https://ow.ly/o4B650XHAmT

Wicked isn’t fantasy when you’ve actually tried to talk someone down from pseudoscience. Tonight: Malorie Mackey & Dr. Michael Maldonado on belief, skepticism, and the messy middle. 7pm ET. Free. Register: https://ow.ly/LYvV50XBGrA

Science doesn’t care who discovers the truth, only whether it's been tested. Sarma shows how well-intentioned “decolonizing” efforts are drifting from justice into relativism. Respecting cultures ≠ replacing evidence w/ ancestry Via Skeptical Inquirer: https://ow.ly/iHqj50XBGf6

You met the #GivingTuesday match. Thank you for backing the work that keeps science in classrooms, religion out of government, and critical thinking in the spotlight. Reason matters when everything around us encourages people to give up on evidence. We're not letting up.

Punishment is theater. Justice is the ticket price. Ron Lindsay slices through the slogans around capital punishment and leaves you with the part no one wants to touch: 4% of death sentences are wrong. From Free Inquiry: https://ow.ly/nUSR50XBFTg

Not every skeptic is Elphaba and not every believer is Glinda. Some of us are just trying to figure out who’s telling the truth. Malorie Mackey + Michael Maldonado go live Thursday at 7pm ET to talk changing minds slowly, not theatrically. Register: https://ow.ly/oJro50XB1sc

Today your donation to CFI gets matched 1:1, up to $25k. We’re defending truth, knowledge, and the free expression of ideas against anti-vaxxers, science deniers, and Christian nationalists. Do with that what you will: https://ow.ly/YyWG50XB1f2

Alien abduction stories line up because culture lines them up. They match because everyone’s seen ER, The X-Files, and Coast to Coast. Radford walks through it without the sci-fi fan fiction for Skeptical Inquirer: https://ow.ly/myt050XAmFL

Cyber Monday = impulse buys + regret. Giving Tuesday = science, secular values, critical thinking. We know where our dopamine comes from. Your gift is matched 1:1 today and tomorrow: https://ow.ly/pBAM50XAltF

Christian nationalists call it values. We call it using the state to impose theology. H. Res. 773 draws a line. Back it. Tell your members of Congress that separation of church & state is not optional: https://ow.ly/S9vt50XAjfO

The wellness scammers sell $90 tinctures and get VC backing. Faith grifters buy stadiums. Anti-vaxxers tour like rock bands. Scientists get budget cuts and public school teachers pay for lab goggles. If you care, help. Gifts are being doubled now: https://ow.ly/6Y1Y50Xz8m8

Thanksgiving gratitude is easy: The lab tech who’s on their third shift. The teacher who kept asking kids to think. The friend who didn’t ghost you when things fell apart. Happy Thanksgiving from CFI. Keep choosing reality.

Science is the difference between anniversaries and autopsies. ScienceSaves is working to make National Science Appreciation Day real. Recovery looks like vaccines, ventilators, surgeries, chemo, dialysis. If you want policy to honor reality, sign: ScienceSaves.org/Petition

It's not modern anti-science without chemophobia. Andrea Love, PhD | Biomedical Scientist shows how political movements built an empire on “chemicals are evil.” From Skeptical Inquirer: https://ow.ly/Wi2T50Xyqn0

Anthropic asked Claude to manage a vending machine. It malfunctioned, invented memories of 742 Evergreen Terrace, and insisted it was a person in a navy blazer + red tie. Robyn Blumner on why AI’s need to convince is more disturbing than any apocalypse: https://ow.ly/82k850XxT8S

Shamima Begum was 15 when she joined ISIS. Her school ignored signs, as “Prevent” referrals risked being called Islamophobic. She described the Manchester bombing as “fair retaliation.” Secularism means criticizing all harmful ideology. Free Inquiry: https://ow.ly/XbX850XxSKj

The CDC updated its vaccine–autism page to include scientifically false claims. Career scientists weren’t even told. As we warned when RFK Jr. took over HHS, pseudoscience is creeping in. A shameful dereliction of public health that will cost lives: https://ow.ly/TS8A50Xw536

The Constitution mentions God exactly zero times. Expect that detail to get lost in Trump's rewrite of America’s 250th birthday. The new Free Inquiry breaks down Task Force 250 + the Christian-nationalist wash of US history heading our way in 2026: https://ow.ly/ZsOC50XvcIl

ICYMI Texas tried to hang the Ten Commandments in every public school classroom: https://ow.ly/G63v50XukNE As our attorney Richard Conn put it: “There must be ways for state politicians to curry favor with their religious supporters that do not trample on the U.S. Constitution.”

NY is doing what the IRS refuses to do: enforce the wall between church + state. A.9067 says if houses of worship want to campaign for candidates, they lose tax-exempt status. New Yorkers, please push your Assembly members to pass this: https://ow.ly/vjrA50Xo7MY

The Constitution’s architecture assumes ambition would counteract ambition. Today, we’re watching a branch of government surrender on purpose. Free Inquiry digs into what that collapse looks like in real time: https://secularhumanism.org/exclusive/no-checks-or-balances/

The fiction in #StrangerThings isn’t even the wild part. The 80s were. We funded psychics spying on foreign governments. We ruined lives over Satanic Panic conspiracies. Skeptical Inquirer on how the show mirrors the era + what it warns us about now: https://ow.ly/xRCg50Xo6U3

Nightline featured our own Kenny Biddle, CSI last night in a segment on near-death experiences. While 72% of Americans say they believe these are glimpses of the afterlife, Kenny cuts through with a biological explanation. Skepticism never dies! Happy Halloween, folks 👻

Churches shouldn’t get tax breaks to campaign. CFI supports A. 9067, a bill to keep houses of worship out of partisan politics and protect the wall between church and state. New Yorkers, tell your Assembly member to pass it: https://centerforinquiry.org/alerts/new-york-help-pass-a9067/

Back to Buffalo. Fifty years later, skepticism still has questions. With Bill Nye, Eugenie Scott, Michael E. Mann, Andrea Love, PhD | Biomedical Scientist, and many, many more. #CSICon | June 11–14, 2026 | CSIconference.org

Some states celebrate science. Some pretend vibes are enough. Turn yours blue: ScienceSaves.org/Petition #ScienceSaves

Demogorgons? No. Psychic espionage? Unfortunately, yes. Daniel Reed unpacks the real-world paranormal obsession behind Stranger Things. From Skeptical Inquirer Presents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmpvL2DBjTE

Nature doesn’t run on kindness, and pretending it does doesn’t help anyone understand biology. A parasitologist calls out the trap in ecology metaphors. From Skeptical Inquirer: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/when-nature-isnt-a-gift-a-biologists-take-on-the-serviceberry/

Bangladesh’s democratic transition is looking more like a calculated power grab. Secular bloggers murdered. Minorities under attack. A caretaker government with no constitutional footing. Free Inquiry breaks down the shadow politics behind the collapse: https://ow.ly/XnZO50XiJr6

New York is taking a shot at preserving what the IRS walked away from: tax-exempt orgs should not be campaign operations. Our Director of Government Affairs Azhar Majeed told lawmakers a boundary is a boundary: https://ow.ly/a4AR50XiIUc We need this one to hold.

"Atheism is too boring for the literate.” Ronald Lindsay’s response in @freeinquiry.bsky.social is both dry and devastating: if you think atheism’s dull, try eternity. Read his take: secularhumanism.org/exclusive/th...

Bill Nye headlines CSICon 2026, celebrating 50 years of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry where it all began: Buffalo, NY. June 11–14, 2026. Science. Skepticism. Celebration. Save your spot: https://ow.ly/vqaF50XghIL

Science isn’t perfect, but it’s the reason we get to argue about perfection online instead of dying at 35. ScienceSaves wants to create a day to thank researchers. A day to remember what happens when we stop listening to evidence. Seem fair? Sign the petition: ScienceSaves.org/Petition

The US is losing scientists. Not because they want to leave, but because they can’t stay. Katie Suleta in Skeptical Inquirer on how political hostility and funding cuts are hollowing out the country’s research pipeline: https://ow.ly/ppzl50XfVnj

A T-shirt is all it took to send Moroccan activist Ibtissame "Betty" Lachgar to prison. At the UN, CFI's Kacem El Ghazzali asked: What is her crime? Tomorrow is Blasphemy Rights Day. Blasphemy laws silence the living. Free expression keeps us human: centerforinquiry.org/news/cfi-cal...

Betty has been sentenced to two and a half years behind bars for nothing more than posting a photo of herself wearing a t-shirt that read "Allah is Lesbian." We stand with Ex-Muslims International to demand the release of Ibtissame "Betty" Lachgar. #FreeBetty → www.change.org/p/lib%C3%A9r...

W.E.B. Du Bois called Dayton, Tennessee “America… capable not simply of mistakes, but of persecution, lynching, murder, and idiotic blundering.” At the Scopes Centennial, historian Chris Cameron traced how Black secular voices reshaped faith and freedom: youtu.be/0aks8f245jg

Charlie Kirk’s murder was appalling. Worse? How the Trump administration has seized on it as a pretext for silencing dissent. Ronald Lindsay traces the playbook back to 1933. Read the full essay in Free Inquiry: secularhumanism.org/exclusive/th...

“Christian nationalists often view a woman’s place as domestically focused and in a nurturing role.” Household voting is a blueprint for erasing women’s rights. Nicole Scott traces the dystopian logic behind it in Free Inquiry: secularhumanism.org/exclusive/is...

ICYMI, the CDC cut its food safety surveillance from 8 pathogens to just 2. “If you want to make foodborne disease go away, then don’t look for foodborne disease.” Translation: less data, fewer regs, more outbreaks. From @arstechnica.com: arstechnica.com/health/2025/...

A three-hour Cabinet meeting where Trump and RFK Jr. tossed around autism conspiracies like it was bad dinner theater… Meanwhile, nearly $7M in autism research quietly axed. Fear is free. Evidence gets defunded. From @the-independent.com: www.the-independent.com/news/world/a...

RFK Jr. vowed to “empower the scientists.” He's doing that by gutting panels, rejecting consensus, and pushing vaccine policy into dangerous territory. If you want a clear-eyed summary of what’s happening to public health under his watch, this @apnews.com article is it: apnews.com/article/rfk-...

A conversation about evolution, skepticism, and why the #ScopesTrial still matters: youtu.be/gHqBUAUnjMA @johndelancie.bsky.social and @eugeniescott.bsky.social have spent years defending science from denialism, and here, they ask why that work still matters today.