When I was young, I was transfixed by Ripley’s Believe It or Not! As I viewed and reviewed the drawings that appeared in the newspaper, I learned about a great many jaw-dropping oddities. But of all ...

This post is a review of Rationality: What It Is. Why It Seems Scarce. Why It Matters. By Steven Pinker. Viking. 432 pp. $32. Forty-two percent of Americans believe in possession by the devil.

The Internet is teeming with crazies, jerks, and blowhards; and in online forums, debaters are full of passionate intensity. Peruse the comments area on any popular blog, and you’ll find more ...

Logical fallacies are mistakes in arguments. For example, if someone says that something is better solely because it is more "natural," this is the appeal to nature fallacy. If someone presents two ...