The essays which follow are exercises of our rational nature.  They also disabuse certain all too common errors in factual foundations and logical inference.  Taken as a whole, the articles contain a scientific explanation of the Nature of Things (as understood by the Greek atomist school of philosophy).

The reference to Socrates (below the title "ENLIGHTENMENT") alludes to his assertion--according to Plato--that the God Apollo required of Socrates that he teach people the love of the good to his fellow Athenians and also to improve their analytic skill.  The Greek philosophers shared a vision of the ideal citizen. We too feel that Apollo is looking over our shoulders.

WHY BOTHER?

You probable wonder why we have done this.  There is the psychological answer:  We like working on this site because of intellectual pleasures and the relief of boredom; viz., we get more reinforcements from this activity than others for approximately 20 hours per week.  And there is the conceptual answer:  the combination of the fulfillment of the utilitarian imperative, and Hope (the chance that this would lead to something bigger).  We are unloading years of learning and paper collecting.  Nearly all that we have pasted is for the sake of helping both you and me rise above our animal side and become both logical and free of spiritual poppycock.  Secondly, it is to prmote ataraxia, read (Love of all things as foundation for happiness).  Why should we be knowing and logical? The Greek philosophers replied that such person, all other things being equal, would obtain a greater portion of ataraxia. 

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The skeptic is one who judges all things according to the evidence.  Many things are widely affirmed by the common herd in a degree well beyond what the evidence supports.  The humanistic skeptic applies a second measure, that of  harm resulting from such beliefs.  Issues of economics and politics, of religion, quackery, and of psychology and personal behavior top our list.   Education and scientific psychology are gateways to the following the dictates of reason.

This is where skeptically.org began, March of 01.  With the encouragement of Alan Peters the site /enlightenment was born.  The articles here expose the major common fallacies:  that the world is better for religion, that there is a beneficent Creator, that the laws physics (and nature) prove divine design, that the ancient Hebrews were in Egypt, that there is historical and reliable  (independent of religious writings) information on the lives of Mohammed and Jesus Christ, that the U.S. criminal justice system upholds the Bill of Rights (sound principles of jurisprudence), that our political-economic system is a blessing, and the benefits of big PHARMA.   Other sites in the skeptically.org family expand the issues raised in enlightenment and others branch out into the critical examination alternative medicine (including chiropractics),  psychic phenomena, mind based psychology and psychiatry, the performance of our president and legislature, economics, nuclear bombs and the Iraq war, & the war on drugs--to name the principal.  A large portion is a resource in religious studies with many ancient works and modern critical works.  To increase the number of visitors, there are several art works on each home page, a section of cartoons, and many, many links to other sites.

The skeptic is one who judges all things according to the evidence.  Many things are widely affirmed by the common herd in a degree well beyond what the evidence supports.  The humanistic skeptic applies a second measure, that of  harm resulting from such beliefs.  Issues of economics and politics, of religion, quackery, and of psychology and personal behavior top our list.   Education and scientific psychology are gateways to the following the dictates of reason.