In April 2009 I wrote a blog post on how I became a skeptic. I followed that up with a list of skeptical resources that I found useful (and still find useful) in my (continuing) skeptical journey. Since such a list changes and grows over time, I thought it might be best if I gave it a page of its own.
These are some organizations whose websites you should explore:
Blogs
Here are some good blogs to read:
- The multi-author Skepticblog
- Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy blog
- The official SGU blog, The Rogue’s Gallery
- The New England Skeptical Society’s Neurologica blog
- The Science-Based Medicine blog
- Michael Shermer’s Scientific American articles
- Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science blog
- PZ Myer’s Pharyngula blog
- Richard Wiseman’s blog
- The Skepchick blog
- Kylie Sturgess’ Token Skeptic blog
- Rachael Dunlop’s The Skeptics’ Book of Pooh-Pooh
- The Young Australian Skeptics blog
- The UK Skeptic’s Skepticism section
There are many, many more out there and they’re very easy to find.
Podcasts
You need to listen to the following podcasts:
Also check out Hunting Humbug, Skepticality, and the Pseudo Scientists.
Resources
The following are excellent resources on critical thinking and logical fallacies:
- Here be Dragons: An Introduction to Critical Thinking by Brian Dunning
- Episodes 73 and 74 of the Skeptoid podcast
- The SGU 5×5 and Hunting Humbug podcasts
- Humbug! The Skeptics Field Guide by Theo Clark and Jef Clark
- Wikipedia’s articles on logical fallacies and cognitive biases
Here are some excellent general resources on skepticism:
- The Cleveland Skeptics’ Critical Thinking 101 resources
- The list of links and resources listed on Wikipedia’s skeptics page
- The Skeptic’s Dictionary
- What’s the Harm?
- Information on Skeptical Activism
YouTube Channels
These are a few good YouTube channels to subscribe to:
Magazines
Here are some magazines worth subscribing to:
- The Australian Skeptic’s The Skeptic magazine
- The US-based Skeptic magazine
- The US-based Skeptical Inquirer magazine
Books
And, finally, here are a list of books worth reading (some of which were suggested by Brian Dunning in Here be Dragons):
- The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan
- Flim-Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns, and Other Delusions by James Randi
- Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena and Skeptoid 2: More Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena by Brian Dunning
- Bad Science by Ben Goldacre
- Humbug! The Skeptic’s Field Guide to Spotting Fallacies in Thinking by Theo Clark and Jef Clark (eBook version that you can also download as a PDF)
If you can think of any other resources that are worth adding to this list, please let me know. Thanks.