Michael Shermer - The Baloney Detection Kit

In this blog we have featured previously a basic intro to logic and argumentation, a primer on the importance of critical thinking, a fun intro to informal logical fallacies, and many more relevant entries. And yet the main point cannot be emphasized enough: critical thinking is a crucial form of mental self-defense against possible manipulation and exploitation by others, and it is also the conceptual basis upon which we can figure out how to become citizens of the world and create a more promising future.

You can spend a lot of time and energy learning the vast landscape that is critical thinking, and you definitely should, but in the meantime you might find it helpful to learn a few simple heuristics from Michael Shermer that will help you tell the difference between possibly interesting and productive claims that might be worth your time investigating and exploring, and absolute bullshit pseudo-scientific woo-woo...

For more related entries, check out the Enemies of Reason tag.