Right now the University of Michigan Wolverines football team is hosting the Minnesota Golden Gophers. More than 100,000 humans are attending this football game. More than 100,000 humans have attended every Michigan home football game since 1975. There used to be real wolverines in Michigan. One was sighted there in 2004, the first time in 200 years. That wolverine died in 2010. More people in Michigan—“The Wolverine State”—care about the Michigan Wolverines football team than care about real wolverines. This is human supremacism.

A guiding tenet has emerged through years of climate change discussions and other polarizing scientific debates: Framing issues as “us versus them”—with a clear ingroup and outgroup—encourages polarization. The term pseudoscience inherently creates this framing, pitting those who believe in “real” science against those who believe in “fake” science. But these discussions really indicate whom we trust. And maybe if people trust alleged pseudoscience over science, we should be discussing why, rather than dismissing their values and beliefs.

The world's first cancer vaccine has halved the number of new cervical cancers ten years after it was first administered in Australia.

With the percentage of U.S. adults who do not identify with a religious group growing, we asked these people to explain, in their own words, why they left.

Christian apologists point to a universe that is understandable by physics, mathematics, and other disciplines as evidence of God. That kind of order shows the hand of God! But let’s first ask ourselves how understandable the universe actually is.

Are some scientific results so unexpected that we should just reject them?

*And these people will tell you why. By Alexis Kleinman.

Several times in the last couple of months, I’ve come across references claiming that honey has no expiration date, a shelf life of thousands of years. Such references pepper the websites of beekeepers and honey vendors. It is part of the legend and lore of honey... By K Cummings Pipes.

For decades, Ray Kurzweil has consistently been wrong about the future. But people still listen to him for some reason. By Matt Novak. (July 26, 2016)

Witch hunts and panic among communities are nothing new, but what happens when cyberspace intensifies the frenzy? By Amelia Tait.

The fact-checking website was launched to correct urban legends and false rumours. Now, with even presidential candidates repeating fake stories from the web, its co-founder David Mikkelson says ‘the bilge is rising faster than you can pump.’ By Rory Carroll.

It's one of the most universal recommendations in all of public health: Floss daily to prevent gum disease and cavities. Except there's little proof that flossing works. By Jeff Donn.

A majority of U.S. adults still say religious institutions contribute either “a great deal” (19%) or “some” (38%) to solving important social problems, but the combined figure of 58% has fallen significantly in recent years.

A 9-year-old boy was rescued from a church in Ogun state Nigeria, after weeks of being chained and tortured. The Celestial church of Christ had been keeping the emaciated child in chains and tortured him in a bid to rid him of demonic possession. This was said to be with the consent of the child’s father, a pastor.

What does it feel like to find out you were wrong? Why is doubt discouraged? Why don't we encourage people for changing their mind for good reasons?

“You’re not really sick, They’re poisoning you so you have to buy Their costly drugs to treat the symptoms They’ve caused because They’re also suppressing the cheap and easy natural remedes you probably already have in your kitchen cupboard! Credit card number?” By Spenser Davis.

Those who make paranormal claims have a lot to teach us about the Bible and its supernatural claims. The apologetics from both camps are surprisingly similar.

In my Atlas Shrugged series, I wrote about the tobacco companies who tried to conceal the health risks of smoking by sowing confusion and uncertainty. The strategy was to counter all the scientific evidence with ginned-up studies and paid-to-order experts so that people wouldn’t be sure what to believe. Their memos said that “doubt is our product” and that their goal should be “establishing a controversy” in the public mind. That story is an object lesson in how corporations that sell dangerous products are incentivized to encourage ignorance.

Religion isn’t all bad. Sometimes false information leads to the correct conclusion or even to good results. Case in point: If you really do believe the Fridge is the one true being we should worship and see it’s power manifest in all our kitchens… If you truly believe the one commandment of the Fridge, a simple “Be Nice” then it follows that you might see another person in distress, remember the words of your cool God, then reach out and do something about it.

Experiment suggests that humans are capable of perceiving even the feeblest flash of light. By Davide Castelvecchi.