Has It Occurred to You that Life Presents Far More Questions than Answers?

Consider what you know for sure about UFOs, for example.

Are they real? If so, what are they? Where do they come from? Do they carry aliens from another galaxy? Or from another dimension (whatever that means)? Or angels? Or demons? Are they experimental aircraft that our government (or some other government) has been keeping secret since at least 1947?

DNA

Suppose there is a crime in your neighborhood and DNA evidence is used along with other tools to find the perpetrator. Do you understand how DNA evidence works? What is DNA, anyway? Doesn't it have a real name besides just those three stupid letters? How accurate is DNA evidence?

Our Runaway Universe

Are you aware that the known universe is not only expanding at a very high rate of speed, but that it's expanding faster and faster? Is it real expansion, or are we just able to see farther as we invent better instruments? Is the "known universe" all there is, or could the whole universe be a trillion times larger? Should we even care?

I care! And I want to make you care.

I want to show you the wonderful story of science in an interesting an simple way so you'll catch the fever of discovery, too.

No, the expansion of the known universe doesn't effect us in our daily lives; but curiosity, knowledge, and understanding do. They are important too us.

No Bull is a website for skeptics, doubters, questioners, and thinkers; people who tend not to accept whatever other people believe just because other people believe it.

We don't disagree to be disagreeable, but we need evidence that many people don't seem to need. We simply realize that life offers more questions than answers, and the answers are often more difficult to learn than they seem. Therefore, a skeptic is likely to keep looking for answers when others feel certain they already have them.

We'll ask a lot of questions and try to find answers when we can.

Sometimes we'll be pretty sure of the answers; other times, not so sure. We'll recognize no sacred cows as we delve into religion, philosophy, politics, cloning, abortion, evolution, and many other controversial or poorly understood subjects, trying to make sense of the world we live in. And doing our best to present it in such a way that you'll be as fascinated as we are.

I have no intention of delving into controversy just for the sake of being controversial. On the other hand, much controversy could be settled if we would all look at it rationally and skeptically. Even while realizing that not everybody will do that, I intend to do it to the best of my ability.

Why No Bull Exists

The late Isaac Asimov, author of almost five hundred books and many thousands of short stories, articles, and essays, referred to himself as a "professional explainer."

I cannot claim to be a professional in any sense of the word, and I have neither Asimov's talent nor his education. On a smaller scale, though, an explainer is exactly what I want to be.

Simplifying difficult ideas so they are both interesting and understandable seems to be one of my talents. I made a pretty good living doing it for a few years.

Now I'm retired and writing because I want to; so theoretically I can write about whatever I choose. What I want to do is explain a wide variety of difficult subjects in plain, simple language so anybody can understand them.

However, I am reminded daily that we are drowning in superstition here in the United States. In some other parts of the world,  the ocean of superstition is even deeper. Dealing with this nonsense requires more of my writing energy and time than I would prefer, but I consider it essential.

As the world-famous magician, James “The Amazing” Randi, said recently, "It's a very dangerous thing to believe in nonsense." I agree totally.

For that reason, we're going to do our best to spot the nonsense in our society and get rid of it. We want no bull here!

It was Roger Staubach who said "When you start worrying about mistakes is when you start losing." Well, I do worry about mistakes; because I'm not an expert at anything. Besides that, I've already made at least one mistake here and had it pointed out by a medical doctor so I could correct it.

I work slowly enough to double check things and try hard to avoid mistakes, but the fear of them is not going to stop me from doing this.

My Real Preferences

When we feel like we can spare the time, though, I would much rather discuss things like what makes the sky blue, a sunset red, and where all the colors in a rainbow come from. Why do green leaves turn red, brown, or yellow in the fall?

If you and I both look at something red, does it look the same to you as it looks to me? Or do our brains interpret it differently? How could we ever know?

How do we think? Can we really do anything we can imagine? Do we create our  own reality? Is it possible for an objective fact to be true for you and false for me?

Do we really need to go back to the moon? And Mars? Why or why not?

Did we really come from monkeys? Is that even what Darwin said?

When does life begin? Maybe more to the point, DOES new life ever begin? Are there better or more important questions to ask about a fetus?

As I write both for myself and my readers, my main purposes are these:

  1. To think skeptically and rationally.

  2. To encourage my readers to think skeptically and rationally.

  3. To use skeptical, rational thinking to understand a variety of difficult and sometimes controversial concepts and (when possible) reach appropriate conclusions.

  4. To share some fun with my readers. After all, skeptics need fun, too.

Here are a few more questions we may discuss as time permits, and you are welcome to participate through your emails. If you've written an appropriate article you would like to contribute for No Bull, I'll be happy consider that, too. (Your payment will be the satisfaction of helping stamp out bull.)

  • Are there intergalactic aliens who abduct humans for medical examinations or sex?

  • Is God any more real than Santa Claus?

  • Is Allah different from God?

  • What in the world is YHVH?

  • When does life begin? Or DOES life begin?

  • What can we believe about astrology?

  • Is there any real, credible evidence that the Bible is a revelation from God? What about the Koran (or Qur'an, if you prefer)?

  • What should we say about witches, magic, good and bad luck, black cats, broken mirrors, "and so ad infinitum"?

I promise to try hard to keep this site both interesting and thought-provoking. With subjects like these to discuss, it shouldn't be difficult, should it?