Thursday 21 March 2013

The Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense


The curiously revered world of irrational nonsense has seeped into almost every aspect of modern society and is both complex and multifarious. Therefore rather than attempt a comprehensive taxonomy, I have opted instead for a gross oversimplification and a rather pretty Venn Diagram.

In my gross over simplification the vast majority of the multitude of evidenced-free beliefs at large in the world can be crudely classified into four basic sets or bollocks. Namely, Religion, Quackery, Pseudoscience and the Paranormal.

However as such nonsensical beliefs continue to evolve they become more and more fanciful and eventually creep across the bollock borders. Although all the items depicted on the diagram are completely bereft of any form of scientific credibility, those that successfully intersect the sets achieve new heights of implausibility and ridiculousness. And there is one belief so completely ludicrous it successfully flirts with all forms of bollocks.

Religious Bollocks ∩ Quackery Bollocks ∩ Pseudoscientific Bollocks ∩ Paranormal Bollocks = Scientology




*****************


UPDATE 24th March 2013

Many thanks for the retweets and shares.

I have also received the first translated copy of the Venn Diagram produced by Pavle Močilac of the Croatian Society for Promotion of Science and Critical Thinking.



Italian translation courtesy of Andrea Mirra



Spanish translation via @Cienciaaldía



30th Dev 2013:
Here's a Portguese translation courtesy of Samir Nassif (@samirchn)


If I receive any other translations I shall post them here with the original.




BTW, Its been awfully nice to have seen the Diagram popping up all over the interwebs in the last few days, but if you could so kind as to link back to here you'll be sure to have the latest version in case I make any updates.




FURTHER UPDATE 27th March


I conceived the Venn Diargram of Irrational Nonsense in the car on my way home from work last Wednesday, and quickly knocked it up when I got home. However, I didn't publish it immediatley as I was pondering the feasability of adding a fifth set.

I spent a few hours the following night attempting to add a fifth set, but the diagram was getting cluttered and the fonts too small, so eventually I reluctantly abondened the five set version and posted the original four set version from the previous night.

I have however, seen a fair few comments suggesting that the diagram might benefit from a conspiracy theorist dimension, however, before I've had a chance to have another crack at it, I noticed dehydrationstation has beaten me to it. I think it came out OK.(although I would have used the word "bollocks" a bit more myself.



116 comments:

Sceptimum said...

This is awesome. And depressing. And awesome.

Unknown said...

and awesome!

mallingual said...

Scientology FTW!

Olaf Simons said...

Brilliant Job,

would not you like to guest-blog this at the positivists? http://positivists.org/blog

I am really impressed,
Olaf Simons


Ant said...

Surely: Ghosts (unquiet souls) ∈ Religious Bollocks ∩ Paranormal Bollocks?

/@

Anonymous said...

I suggest an addition: Jeovah's wittnesses blood donation prohibition ∈ Religious Bollocks ∩ Pseudoscientific Bollocks...

Anonymous said...

It has some flaws. For example Geomancy, Crystal Power, Tarot and Seances are often connected with Angels and therefore somewhat religious. Also Geomancy claims to be scientific in some cases, so it would be a pseudoscience, too.

Silvio Casagrande said...

Fantastic

What about fantastic creatures? Loch Ness? Nahuelito is the Argentinean version...

Of course it will be fluid and changing... Bollocks creators are tireless. One good thing: they copy cut, not too imaginative

Anonymous said...

LOL, only scientology manages to dip its fingers into every pie of irrational nonsense. Love it. So true.

Michael Z. Williamson said...

I don't see "medical" pot or "medical" tequila on there.

Laughingcoyote said...

Brilliant. And hilarious. Unfortunately, there are plenty more not on there ("birthers" and "truthers" come to mind...).

I think "detox" is a bit too general. If you're poisoned by heavy metals and are treated by chelation, that's a perfectly valid therapy. But there is a great deal of bollocks around it.

Michael Z. Williamson: There are valid therapeutic uses for cannabinoids, but it has a reputation among some as a panacea for everything from headaches to cancer, which is rather ludicrous. On the other side, the "reefer madness" type stuff is also BS.

Who on earth suggested "medical tequila", though? That's a new one on me.

Anonymous said...

What about pseudo intellectual bullocks Who discount things that are unproveable for or against based on a mere uneducated opinion?
They say something doesn't exist because they so.

Anonymous said...

Except the Out-Of-Body Experience is a quite common artifact of high-stress situations. The brain does weird things when it thinks it is about to die.

The studies done on OBE have demonstrated that the person experiencing one does not have the ability to see things from that perspective, but humans DO sometimes feel as though they're floating in the air - It happened to me.

Anonymous said...

Homeopathy yes. Ayurveda no. I dont think Ayurveda does what you think it does.

Unknown said...

Someone I know recently started posting a lot of junk from Natural News on his Facebook page. I think there is a whole rich vein of stuff there that could be included on this Venn diagram. This person I know seems to be into the natural food movement: pro-organic, and rabidly anti-GMO. Then there is the anti-fluoridation crowd and the "vitamins can cure cancer" / "cancer cures They don't want you to know" hawkers.

Anonymous said...

Needs a political dimension too I think, to fully capture the idiocy of Scientology. And then you could include Freeman woo too! :)

Vaytw said...

They forgot climate science denialism!

Anonymous said...

Where is the belief in third sex

Anonymous said...

You failed to include a lot of non-Christian religious bollocks, like Islam's restrictions on images of their prophet and the over-reaction of many Muslims when they feel that has been violated, and the Tibetan Buddhist search for the reincarnation Dalai Lama.

Were the omissions of non-Christian "religious bollocks" intentional?

Christos linou said...

Irrespective of the detailed content and what was and what was not left out. I think you diagram looks like a psychological spectrum of a Dadaist diagram. It looks great!

Anonymous said...

Did you just call acupuncture "evidenced-less"? You all should go touch yourselves to celebrate your cynicism; and then get back online. Or maybe you do it all at the same time. Good luck with all that.

Spikey Mikey said...

Excellent piece of work. Only small critique I would like to see added would be "conspiracy theory bollocks" as an addition (illumanati (intersect with religous bollocks), grassy knoll, area 51, ufos, 9/11 cia plot, Bilderberg etc. ).

Anonymous said...

It's a 2D representation. A 3D might be able to include other connection you mention and would be more like reality. I bet that more dimensions could include more even. Dimensions being math/science type rather then......take you pick off the chart

Unknown said...

damn, i thought i would at least be able to keep my magic crystals out of this classification system.

pajamahead said...

Why Oh why! have you missed out Therapy ( cognitive & affective ), Psychoanalysis, Mental illness, Meditation, Zen Buddhism and other arcane philosophies and the notorious NLP, all of which are completely unscientific

http://steelweaver.tumblr.com/ said...

Yeah, Zen Buddhism is totally made up. Also missing from the diagram: so-called "inductive reasoning", paleo diets, altruism, the social "sciences", physiotherapy, Socratic philosophy, steady state economics, saunas, positive thinking, dialectical materialism, yoghurt, "human rights", massage, postmodernism, "Vitamin C", and any belief that the US government has ever lied about anything.

It's all bollocks! We've proved it with a graph!

I was right, that was much more fun than just linking to the extensive evidence base for the efficacy of acupuncture...

Anonymous said...

Irrational Nonsense has a political component to it, namely conspiracy ideation. I second Spikey Mikey's comment.

Ryan Lackey said...

Please make/sell t-shirts with this.

Anonymous said...

I approve of this diagram, and now there's a version in SVG with clickable links to your twitter and this blog at the bottom.

All the text in it is indexable by search engines, it can be smoothly scaled up to poster size, and the filesize is 99.15% smaller than the original.

The pencil effect for the title was fun to do :)

Vaytw said...

// I was right, that was much more fun than just linking to the extensive evidence base for the efficacy of acupuncture... //

I'd be curious as to your source. The ~extensive evidence~ I know of is that it's basically as good or not even as good as sham acupuncture.

If your review was from China, no single review from for a period of over thirty years has had a negative study of acupuncture, which raises huge red flags:

"A Review of the Evidence for Acupuncture Points and Meridians"
http://www.ivis.org/proceedings/aaep/2000/220.pdf

Or go to "Science-based medicine" bog and search "acupuncture". You'll find plenty of food for thought.

Anonymous said...

This is bollocks. "Reincarnation" has two lives in your diagram.

Crispian Jago said...

Well done Anon, I wondered who'd spot that duplication first. Now removed.

Anonymous said...

You're missing the "c" from "Bioharmonics".

The svg version has been updated to match your other edits here.

Crispian Jago said...

Thanks 'c' added

Myrmecia said...

Where are the world's organized religions?

Anonymous said...

psychosurgery (is that the same as psychic surgery?) is actually used to treat severe psychiatric and neurologic patients. Has remarkable succes in small but published in top journals samples (~70% decrease in psychiatric symptoms in OCD/ Parkinson).

Anonymous said...

It's perfect. Literally kept me crying from laughter for 10 straight minutes, thanks.

Anonymous said...

Where would you place Facilitated Communication?

MP

Anonymous said...

Oh, you forgot:

Philosophy (it's a dead science from the 19th century anyway), Rationalism, Science-Onlyism, Anti-theist/gnosts and other mindnarrowing "Truths" like Statistical "Modern" science.

Good thing about modern science is that's denyable. Today you can cure a disease, tomorrow some wanker proves the opposite by fuzzy statistical means and he gets his PHD promo. The old Dr "Scientist" also keeps his PHD and this is how losers and retards help eachother obtaining "Academic" jobs.

Let Darwin kill them. God will sort them out.

By the way: Darwinism was promoted by the Sovjets to give the idiot Communism ideology a "scientical" base. With some help from Darwin and Marx and Engels, Stalin, Lenin killed over 80.000 people. And then there's China's Mao.

Anonymous said...

Nothing wrong with Rolfing. I love to sing "Two little boys"

DehydrationStation said...

Working on a version with 4 sets, including 'CONSPIRACY'.

http://i.imgur.com/Z41pOzV.jpg

frank said...

I am missing global warming bollocks an psychology bollocks

http://steelweaver.tumblr.com/ said...

@Unknown I'm full of food for thought on this one, thanks all the same. I'm stuffed. I couldn't eat another thing.

No? Meaning of Life? Hello? Is this thing on?

Re: sham acupuncture, you might like to try googling "no such thing as sham acupuncture" in order to come across such delightful things as this: http://acupunctureinmedicine.info/clinical-evidence-and-research-of-acupuncture.html

But no, I have no intention of discussing the efficacy of acupuncture with pseudonymous commenters on the internet. Obviously.

Instead, I chose to use some crude sarcasm to highlight something this comments thread has already started to show - that the boundaries of what counts as "irrational nonsense" are much more fuzzy than people would like to admit:

"Why is rolfing on the chart? Is there supposed to be something unacceptably mystical about a particular kind of corrective massage?" "Why isn't global warming on the chart? Doesn't everyone know that it's pseudoscientific rubbish?"

etc. Have fun, guys.

Vaytw said...

// I am missing global warming bollocks an psychology bollocks //

By "global warming bollocks" I hope you mean "global warming denialism", and not the theory of global warming itself. If you meant the latter, you're ignoring a pretty huge consensus of evidence, so which is more likely: that that's all bollocks, or that you're full of bollocks?

Anonymous said...

If you send me the source file, I can translate it to spanish :)

Anonymous said...

If you are interested, let me know with a comment.

gutscheine zum ausdrucken said...

Nützliche Informationen,ich danke Ihnen sehr

Anonymous said...

Great job!! If you need gaditan (andalusian) translate i can help you.

Anonymous said...

Why is it that "Religious bollocks" includes "Religious fundamentalism" when it really should say "Religion"?

@Anonymous:
"Where is the belief in third sex"

Don't worry, son. Eventually you WILL have more sex than just those two times.

Chris Reynolds said...

You've missed Anthropogenic Climate Change Denial off the category pseudo-scientific bollocks.

Anonymous said...

All true, but you need to add Atheism... aka, the belief that you can and do know everything, aka, people who are obnoxious because they think that they are always right.

Anonymous said...

needs to be made available as a t-shirt along with your periodic table.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

why does intelligent design belong to bollocks?
Seems this was written by young scientist impressed by science and denying everything science can not explain. Isn't that bollocks also?

stevelaudig@gmail.com said...

Where would one locate the doctrine of transubstantiation? or infallibility?

Anonymous said...

If you need me to help you translate into Australian let me know.

Anonymous said...

This list is incomplete without Climate Science.

Anonymous said...

Calling chemtrails a form of woo has blown your tin foil integrity completely up. With me it happened almost as soon as I saw this propaganda photo of yours. I suggest you stick to blogging an quit your clue-stick-a-stan attitude about things which you are clearly clueless yourself.


Go look up SAG-SRM and enlighten yourself. Hell you could EDIT your photo and I will happily GO AWAY.






Anonymous said...

Propaganda Photo Change log v1.1
- Chemtrails
I film chemtrails every day, look up SAG-SRM , I am also an aircraft electrician, I am also an electronics tech.
+ Carbon Tax
Man made alright, using state secrets, and geoengineering, not your tailpipes!
- Dowsing
Removed Dowsing, since I am able to find water pipes, with a pair of stupid metal hangars.
+ 911 Boxcutters
We all know this is crap.

Anonymous said...

oops forgot the Propaganda Photo Change log v1.1 link..
http://imgur.com/unsl857

Víctor Raggio said...

great work.
shared it.

Anonymous said...

Really cool, but i'm not sure that i'd include either shiatsu or acupuncture. Granted, the traditional qi-based explanations of why they work, and some of the more outlandish claims about what they can do, seem to bs. However, this is not say that the practices themselves are completely bs. For example, shiatsu is basically massage, pressing myo-fascial trigger-points and stretching. Some of acupuncture's claims have been proven to be true and it has been shown to help with some medical conditions. Many of these more realistic applications of acupuncture have been refined into the "dry needling" techniques, used by many physios. So, in a way, acupuncture is "dry needling", with added bs.

Anonymous said...

Umm, seems to be missing that big, three letter word: god.

Mark w said...

"http://steelweaver.tumblr.com/ said...
Yeah, Zen Buddhism is totally made up. Also missing from the diagram: so-called "inductive reasoning", paleo diets, altruism, the social "sciences", physiotherapy, Socratic philosophy, steady state economics, saunas, positive thinking, dialectical materialism, yoghurt, "human rights", massage, postmodernism, "Vitamin C", and any belief that the US government has ever lied about anything.

It's all bollocks! We've proved it with a graph!

I was right, that was much more fun than just linking to the extensive evidence base for the efficacy of acupuncture..."

Massive LOL

I had a really similar post in mind when I read this.

It's like Orange (vMeme) - Rational, Scientific guy on steroids. He sees something, and it must be rational (which is good) or irrational (which is bad). No pre-rational, rational and transrational allowed, or even cognised. No quadrants (ie. No distinction between methodologies that look at interior and exterior phenomena), not to mention no understanding of states and structures (or Evolution and Involution).

That said, a fairly large whack of this stuff is probably mainly from the pre-rational camp anyway.

But that's why I liked your suggestion of postmodernism.

To that I'd add phenomenology, hermeneutics, any kind of enquiry that is not monological, materialist and reductive of life, mind, emotion and matter to just scurrying bits of dirt that we can measure and line up for observation for some article in a peer-reviewed journal.

Yogurt- LOL

Anonymous said...

I'd say, at a guess, this was created by an Atheist. Atheists believe they a free from the 'chains' of a religious system, but they are just as 'Robotic'. What they can't explain or categorize in the current scientific 'language' they arrogantly dismiss as 'Irrational Nonsense'....a mind-set that the likes of Albert Einstein would completely disagree with.

Hank Vandenburgh said...

https://www.facebook.com/henry.vandenburgh?ref=tn_tnmn#!/photo.php?fbid=10100192418813296&set=a.531562278116.2074549.34505867&type=1&theater

Tom Rhodes said...

A fine work.

Please add Neurolinguistic Programming.

Anonymous said...

The comments are the best part, all these idiots coming to attack, not the whole diagram, but ONLY the tiny part that is their "sacred cow". Seriously LOL!

Anonymous said...

Cute. Just too cute for words. And to think there are those that take it seriously, whether the diagram or the comments.

Jim Morone said...

Oh oh, what about LIBERTARIANISM--as in, the government created your suburb, but you'll be goddamned if you let it send your kids to school in the city.

Pretty sure "fault" is also a myth.


OK, I'm just sore cuz I'm emotionally invested in the validity of crop circles.

Anonymous said...

Acupuncture does have some truth in it. Some recent studies have found that it activates the periaqueductal grey, the midbrain system that releases endogenous opioids (pain killers)

Anonymous Coward said...

It's amazing how many people are showing up here to say "it's all bollocks except this-thing-I-believe-in, which isn't!"

Things missing: conspiracy theories (collectively), fad diets (basically, demonizing/sanctifying a particular category of food or method of preparation), indigo children, and did I miss bleeding/crying/etc. statues and miraculous images in food products and mold stains? And would colon cleansing go with detox, or should that be its own particular brand of bollocks?

My particular quibbles:

The stated reasons for Feng Shui are bollocks, but the overall effect -- namely simplifying and cleaning up your space -- definitely works. Not because you're clarifying the energy flows, of course, but just because you're not fighting a losing battle with your stuff anymore. So I'd call that only semi-bollocks. Mysticism bad, organization and simplification good.

Also, I'd quibble a bit about tarot reading. Again, a bunch of pieces of cardboard can't predict the future -- that's certainly bollocks -- but how one interprets those pieces of cardboard can do a remarkably job of giving the reader access to the non-verbal parts of their brain. It's kind of an interface for your intuition and subconscious. So for the reader, or a person they know well, "what's in the cards" can reveal what you know but don't know that you know. So tarot reading for a total stranger is bollocks, doing it for yourself is just a tool for introspection.

Oh, with regard to the person who wondered why non-Christian religions weren't mentioned ... most of the things in "Religious Bollocks" apply to ANY religon. Some such as "the Trinity" are fairly specific, but prayer, holy relics, etc., apply to just about every religion out there. Though I would put "taboos" in there somewhere -- that covers everything from no images of living things (or of certain individuals) to having to smash your stove if a dead gecko falls on it.

Kevin K said...

Please be aware there is a giant rift in the Chiropractic profession over these kind of issues

"Straight Chiropractic" might be more appropriate to include in your chart. In short, this branch believes that medical diagnosis is unimportant and just concern themselves with treating, essentially, backs that need cracking. here's a better explanation

Unknown said...

Where is the atheism in there? Should be in the Pseudoscientific and Religious bollocks category with OBE and Intelligent design. Too biased for me.

Anonymous said...

Seem there is some confusion about the acupuncture research and going to biased websites for or against acupuncture. Just go to medline.com and search acupuncture. There are some studies that show similar to placebo and some that show statistically significant results. If you have only heard of the "same as sham acupuncture" then you have only read the highly propagated studies that came out in the media a few years ago. Acupuncture has many variables not present in conventional medicine and appropriate studies that control those variables have yet to be developed. You have to know what you are talking about and do some research if you are to make statements. You should also consider the very known propharma bias that is present in almost every study as they are paid for by the corps. Merck has faked peer reviewed journals to promote their drugs and lie about the efficacy and they got caught. Google it. Phenfen, Vioxx, Fosamax...all proven to be safe with evidence based medicine. If you believe in a study without knowing the people and the funding and without witnessing the "double blind" procedure then you have more faith than you realize.

Peter said...

Shared with and published on The Underground Bunker blog run by Tony Ortega, and which follows the scifiology story closely. A 'fun' and clever way to illustrate woo.

stephan.com said...

OK, we need to add, at the intersection of quackery and conspiracy:

Baking Soda Cures Cancer

http://www.ehow.com/about_5243067_baking-soda-cancer-cure.html
http://www.bamboo-delight.com/download/Cure_Cancer_with_Baking_Soda.htm

Oh, and if it turns out that any of the sets are actually empty...

There's GOLD in them thar hills!!!!!!!!

clarinette said...

Aww, you forgot psychoanalysis :)

Phillip said...

The Church of the SubGenius falls squarely in the center of that five-way diagram.

calumny said...

Love the simple visual, and now like nearly everyone else in these comments I'm going to complicate it. Many of those bollocks are only bollocks when they are misused or overly generalized. Exercise is applied kinesiology, and crystals really can work if you're building a homemade AM radio, so their overapplication should probably overlap with pseudoscience....

TJ said...

is this how the anti-spiritual spend their time? If acupuncture is bollocks then why does it work so well for muscular and joint problems. You cant prove its unscientific you so you make a diagram to mock people? Science is the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world. oriental medicin from which acupuncture comes from along with reflexology fit this description to a tee. I think your venn diagram is bullocks!

Bengt Nilsson said...

The diagram is brilliant, but..
In Sweden parts of acupuncture and chiropractic are used in normal Medical treatment, so I think you should take them away from the diagram.

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't Phrenology be in the Quackery/Pseudoscience intersection? Or is it too out of date? I did find this on Wikipedia: "In 2007 the US State of Michigan included phrenology in a list of personal services subject to sales tax."

Anonymous said...

not true. scientology is a scam.
brought to you by the ideas of Mr Crowley.
http://www.mt.net/~watcher/crowleyhubbard.html
http://www.lermanet.com/cos/rondewolf.htm

Anónimo said...

I like the idea a lot, but I see the same reckless statements that I see on pseudo-science. Mostly, because even when things like 'aromatherapy' may be treated as non-scientific by their practitioners, there are some other disciplines -real scientific ones, such as Psychology and cognitive sciences- that put some grey tones on the debate; just another example: homoeopathy is a scam, but not its scientific side, the placebo effect, and they are both related. If you could include some representation of that, then it would be awesome; maybe with some references aroudn the diagram with the scientific branches of each thing. But so far, it shows all what did not come from Western's late-times discovering as 'bullshit'; with sense of humour sounds great, but not as a reference for teaching sceptic thinking.

acupuncture in rochester said...

Acupuncture is the practice of inserting needles into specific points on the body in order to solve physical ailments, illness, and pain.
acupuncture in rochester

Anonymous said...

Most of this Bollocks is about men selling it to women. I wonder what the economic value of combine sales would be :)

mr.goose said...

Excellent concept. However, IMO, no bollocks Venn-diagram is really complete without mentioning "high-end audio cables bollocks" somewhere - probably in the pseudo-scientific set?

For example, this guy is trying to con gullible audiophiles into paying 800 bucks for a simple IEC mains lead:-
http://www.morrowaudio.com/map4grandreference.htm

And fifteen hundred bucks for a pair of two-metre-length speaker cables:-
http://www.morrowaudio.com/sp7grandreference.htm

Morrow Audio claims of his speaker wire:- "The Grand Reference series offers an unlimited amount of detail, realism and presence to flow through your system."

And his mains leads:- "The MAP4 Grand Reference is an all out assult (sic) of our latest technology, It provides for the discriminating audiophile, the greatest amount of realism and presence from his music. Silent background, detail and ease are the words that describe the MAP4 Grand Reference."

Personally, I can think of plenty of other words to describe Morrow's Grand Reference cables, but I am too polite to use them in public! It's all based on belief and that the "discriminating audiophile" can hear things that the rest of us mere mortals cannot hear. And like most pseudo-scientific bollocks, please note the complete absence of any double-blind tests to prove Morrow's assertions. Which is not surprising really, because you can buy both cables down Maplin for a few quid and they will sound EXACTLY the same! lol ;-)

benbradley said...

There's still space for Alcoholics Anonymous. As to where it should go, "spiritual, not religious" is just one of its many false claims.

Unknown said...

Ok, so does anyone notice a propensity for the author to place unevidenced (while completely worthy of further credible inquiry) with outright rediculous items? (ex. Acupuncture and yoga with Kangen water and Urine therapy). I mean come on man, seriously? Anyone with half a brain can figure out that Kangen filters are a complete waste of money, you can buy really effective water filters at a fraction of the cost. However, Acupuncture, while not completely understood, has plenty of clinical research supporting that it does help people with certain issues. Plus, yoga is an excellent method for our modern and highly stressed society to have a healthy means of attenuating tension. There are plenty of other shaky points made in the graph, but I do not feel like spending the rest of my night arguing about them all. Apparently, the author is as blinded by establishmentarian dogma as many of the others headed under religion. Maybe there should be added under that heading "Jagoism"

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DehydrationStation said...

The newest version (now 3.1) of the 5-set Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/knILO

Thanks for the shout-out, Crispian!

Doubting Thomas said...

@Anon people rallying for atheism to be included and removing intelligent design.

1 You were born an atheist, before your own indoctrination.
2 Everyone is an atheist to most gods, we just go one further.
3 Intelligent Design has no evidence, at all.
4 I.D. is a lazy idea that doesn't help explain anything.

The word atheist really shouldn't exist at all. What's the word for someone who DOESN'T believe in Tooth Fairies? Leprechauns? How about Santa?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I believe the venn diagram is wonderful and insightful. I would like to request a version without "bollocks". The word itself doesn't offend my sensibilities, I'd just prefer something like "nonsense" or even "horseshit". Id eventually like to see male/female anatomy removed from being a metaphore for bad things.

Anonymous said...

Many people in the US (not so much other countries) would also include "Fluoride is harmful" as irrational nonsense. After all, doesn't your dentist recommend it?
http://www.maebrussell.com/Fluoride/Fluoride%20information.html

Anonymous said...

totally buy this concept!

Anonymous said...

Should 'racial supremacy' be on there somewhere? Under 'pseudoscience' maybe?

murison said...

You missed a big one: naturopathy.

Eric Original said...

You need to fit economic bollocks on there somewhere. Start with Gold Standard, and Constitutional Silver.

DehydrationStation said...

- 'Fluoridation' changed to 'Fluoride Use'.
- 'Supremacism' added.
- 'Naturopathy' is technically covered by 'Vitalism', but I'll add it.

Latest version can always be found here: http://imgur.com/a/knILO

Anonymous said...

Why aren't UFOs on the list ... ?

Anonymous said...

If your paradigm is a 110% "evidence reality" based world is what we live in, you're fooling yourself that we have all the evidence, number 1. Number 2, my guess is that you clearly haven't investigated some of these things enough. You dismiss them without actually looking into them because mainstream science and cultural norms deem these things as weird. If evidence is what you want, you need to actually LOOK at the evidence. Not just in passing, and not just on the surface either. A deep look and understanding from multiple avenues and multiple people. But that takes work and an open mind. What you're also doing is looking for diamonds buried deep in the sand with a metal detector. Many times these are right brain activities. You can't think about right brain activities with your left brain. Our culture is very deeply ingrained in left brain activities. Which is great, it gets things moving. But once you step out of that realm, you can't use that same sort of thinking.

Anonymous said...

Well, I'm not a spiritual guru nor am I highly educated in the sciences but it seems to me the forest has been lost because of the trees. They all stem from faith.. simple belief in an of itself. Even hard science floats on that sometimes as it quests for the truth or else it would have no direction to go in. So if you put "faith" in that diagram it would intersect all and therefore to believe in anything would be nonsense and what's left is nothing. I don't even know if what I am saying makes any sense..lol. 2 cent crazy talk.

Susan from 29 said...

I am writing a book review for Daily Kos on three first person Scientology books (including Narconon) on Monday. I would love to have your okay to use this as an illustration.

May I?

Unknown said...

Take two biro (disposable ball point pen) cases and one wire coat hanger, cut up the coat hanger make two L shaped bits of wire, slot the short part of each L into a biro case. Now find a friend a large rug and a flat metallic object ( must be VERY flat so you can not feel it with your feet, some folded up tin foil will do), get your friend to place the metallic under the rug while you can not see where it is. Now hold the biro cases so the wires are pointing out in front of you with your upper arms by your side and your elbows at 90 degrees, walk over the the rug with your arms fairly relaxed, see it anything happens as you walk over the rug, and does it happen over where the metallic object is hidden.

This was an experiment shown on the BBC program Tomorrow World in the late 70's, when they demonstrated Dowsing working, now it may not be able to do a lot of what dowsers claim, but it is real.

Megan said...

Hulloa, will your CafePress store be featuring this Venn Diagram soon? My favorite skeptic has a birthday coming up. :)

Unknown said...

Best use of Venn diagrams I've seen in ages, bravo.

BrianM said...

Good point anonymous - I think we forgot left brain -right brain

Unknown said...

That's pretty great!

MitiL said...

Why cope with all these diagrams?
It's much better and simpler just to post this text:
"I believe in the material universe as the only and ultimate reality, a universe controlled by fixed physical laws and blind chance.

I affirm that the universe has no creator, no objective purpose, and no objective meaning or destiny.

I maintain that all ideas about God or gods, supernatural beings, prophets and saviors, or other nonphysical beings or forces are superstitions and delusions. Life and consciousness are totally identical to physical processes, and arose from chance interactions of blind physical forces. Like the rest of life, my life and consciousness have no objective purpose, meaning, or destiny.

I believe that all judgments, values, and moralities, whether my own or others', are subjective, arising solely from biological determinants, personal history, and chance. Free will is an illusion. Therefore, the most rational values I can personally live by must be based on the knowledge that for me what pleases me is Good, what pains me is Bad. Those who please me or help me avoid pain are my friends; those who pain me or keep me from my pleasures are my enemies. Rationality requires that friends and enemies be used in ways that maximize my pleasure and minimize my pain.

I affirm that churches have no real use other than social support; that there are no objective sins to commit or be forgiven for; that there is no retribution for sin or reward for virtue other than that which I can arrange, directly or through others. Virtue for me is getting what I want without being caught and punished by others.

I maintain that the death of the body is the death of the mind. There is no afterlife, and all hope for such is nonsense"
By Ch. Tart

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for all these new great topics to look into in more detail! Someone saved me a big trouble as I am very interested about most of these topics!

You are awesome!

Sad that you guys choose to live blindfolded.

Cheers!

Jim said...

Cool !


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Unknown said...

Great but need to add MMS bleach. Horrific scam... Google the recent news reports about it! TY

Zoran Koš said...

Hi,

please can i get vector drawing of Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense. I want to translate it into Serbian.

Zoran