Raymond Richards

Rudolf Steiner kindergartens look set to cash in on free early childhood education initiatives. The plan of Education Minister Steve Maharey to provide 20 hours of free early childhood education ... (703 words)

A visit to the birthplace of science prompts some thoughts on spatial and temporal patterns in alternative medicine. There is no special reason for skeptics in New Zealand to follow news from ... (817 words)

In the 21st century, there are still people who believe the Earth is flat. Mad people are among us. Reading letters to the editor and discussing issues at universities can be frustrating exercises ... (779 words)

In George W Bush's America, it's okay to throw human embryos in the trash, but not to use them as a source of stem cells. A political question on the minds of scientists in the United States is: How ... (754 words)

The promotion of critical thinking can seem an uphill struggle, but at least we don't get torn limb from limb for trying. As skeptics, we fight to uphold certain freedoms: freedom of enquiry, ... (773 words)

Mexican cancer clinics continue to do a roaring trade, despite their poor track record. When civil rights leader Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968, the world lost a voice for decency and ... (744 words)

Checking facts should be part and parcel of academic life, but too often it isn't done. The late David Lange opened his 1990 book Nuclear Free: the New Zealand Way with a remarkable story. He wrote ... (809 words)

Raymond Richards The Mormon church: anti-science and pro-repression. Still. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often called the Mormon church, has long been an enemy of science and the ... (823 words)

New Zealand's tertiary institutions have some strange ways of measuring academic performance The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) is gaining a reputation as a Mickey Mouse government organisation ... (789 words)

The Green Party does not have a good record when it comes to scepticism. In 2002, party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons was an ungracious winner of our bent spoon award for her support of "etheralised ... (799 words)

Pseudoscientific beliefs can be dangerous when they form the basis of government policy In my last column, I mentioned that conspiracy thinker Phillip Day travels the world (he again toured New ... (775 words)

The Break Free tour will be coming soon to a city near you. The week-long tour of lectures and book selling will start in Christchurch at the end of November and proceed to Wellington, Taupo, ... (792 words)

The Enlightenment -- a period of intellectual progress in Europe and North America during the eighteenth century -- saw superstition, dogma and ignorance lose ground to reason, science and freedom of ... (830 words)

Like scientists, historians use a dependable methodology to ensure their findings are reliable. Assertions of historical fact can properly be based only on empirical evidence. Historians then use ... (791 words)

Government hypocrisy is rife amid the talk of a "knowledge-based economy" Homeopathy does not work. There is no debate about this fact among rational, informed people. Homeopathy is a sham system of ... (769 words)

When Raymond Richards included a lecture on the Mormon Church in his course on American history he ran foul of not only the Mormon community but also the University of Waikato heirarchy. He told his ... (2690 words)