(Published in Faith and Philosophy 2011. Volume 28, Issue 2, April 2011. Stephen Law. Pages 129-151) EVIDENCE, MIRACLES AND THE EXISTENCE OF JESUS Stephen Law Abstract The vast majority of Biblical historians believe there is evidence sufficient to place Jesus’ existence beyond reasonable doubt. Many believe the New Testament documents alone suffice firmly to establish Jesus as an actual, historical figure. I question these views. In particular, I argue (i) that the three most popular criteria by which various non-miraculous New Testament claims made about Jesus are supposedly corroborated are not sufficient, either singly or jointly, to place his existence beyond reasonable doubt, and (ii) that a prima facie plausible principle concerning how evidence should be assessed – a principle I call the contamination principle – entails that, given the large proportion of uncorroborated miracle claims made about Jesus in the New Testament documents, we should, in the absence of indepen
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/21/technology/book-offers-new-details-of-jobs-cancer-fight.html?_r=2&hp
(I've contacted a few podcasters who specialise in this sort of stuff with the link to here.)
Nadia Sawalha always endorses homeopathy:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1282474/EastEnders-actress-Nadia-Sawalhas-eczema-drove-desperate-measures--decided-aside-prejudices-try-homeopathy.html
Gwyneth Paltrow is reliably into nonsense like cupping too:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2011/09/08/contagion_vs_goop_did_gwyneth_paltrow_sell_out_alternative_medic.html
Jodie Kidd fronted an extraordinary BBC 3 woo-fest covering all manner of alternative modalities:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qmvyr
Marsh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Tredinnick_(politician)#Support_for_complementary_and_alternative_medicine
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/11/for_shame_oprah_winfrey_shills_for_faith.php
http://drerika.typepad.com/notepad/2006/10/letter_to_suzan.html
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/suzanne-somers-knockout-spreading-dangerous-misinformation-about-cancer-part-1/
http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2011/08/a-letter-to-david-bellamy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_charles#Alternative_medicine
Unfortunately so is Caroline Lucas, our only Green MP (I like her otherwise): "She is a supporter of homeopathy, having signed an early day motion in support of its continued funding on the National Health Service sponsored by Conservative MP David Tredinnick."
Cruise on Scientology.
Also, Tom Cruise comes out against psychiatry:
Cruise on the history of psychiatry.
It is some kind of example of what goes wrong when you buy in to woo.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/vaccination-a-conversatio_b_358578.html
Source: http://paranormal.about.com/cs/trueghoststories/a/aa022304_3.htm
Not surprising given this 2005 Gallup poll: http://www.gallup.com/poll/17275/onethird-americans-believe-dearly-may-departed.aspx
He's also interested in ghosts: http://randalrauser.com/2011/07/on-my-preliminary-research-into-ghosts/
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2011/03/when_faith_healing_isnt_enough_woo_for_d.php
http://www.powerbalance.com/faqs currently makes the claim that: The thin polyester film hologram is programmed through a proprietary process, which is designed to mimic Eastern philosophies that have been around for hundreds of years. and has a list of 32 professional athletes who are still prepared to endorse it. The most famous one I could recognise is F1 driver Rubens Barrichello.
"Paranormal expert set to become Tory MEP" (You might need to log in to see this or search via Google) - the guy in question apparently taught "Master’s Degree in Metaphysics, Focus in Paranormal Studies”.
It states "In addition to Mr Matthews’ course, students were obliged to study “psychic protection” and could take courses in “ghost hunting” and “advanced ghost hunting”.
OK the guy is rather obscure outside the fantasy world of EU politics but even so..
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=6596366&page=1
Why, exactly, do we care about what famous people say? Isn't it more important what they *are* saying rather than that they *are* saying something? (It's kind of a shame that Stephen Fry is so famous ... :)