The Skeptic Tank is a BBS which maintains extensive archives on destructive groups, individuals, and ideologies with special focus on religion's impact upon history as well as religion's impact upon rights, liberties, health, and safety of the world's populace in contemporary times. Newspaper articles and information about various groups and individuals and their destructive ideology-drive activities are provided upon request free of charge to serve the community.

This service is free because The Skeptic Tank is a charity service intended to benefit researchers and the common person. Eventually we hope to be a 501(c)3 tax exempt charity with additional staff to help assist in accumulating and distributing research materials.

The Skeptic Tank also maintains as a primary focus the scientific debunking of claims of the paranormal. This includes all testable claims of the paranormal from aliens in flying saucers to vague, ill-defined conspiracies. Untestable claims of the paranormal are really of no interest as metaphysical queries are pretty tiresome and pointless and there's enough testable claims being made by paranormalists that should be addressed. The activities individuals perform as the results of those beliefs, however, are subject to scientific inquiry as as such The Skeptic Tank considers such its venue.

These two areas of focus are somewhat diametrically opposed in some ways, you might have noticed. Religion's venue is with claims that are untestable (always factless) whereas claims of the paranormal are usually testable using scientific method to derive the closest approximation of truth that is possible. Since most skeptics are Hume-class skeptics, the archives attempt to exclude debates of untestable religious and paranormal claims and tend to focus upon the destructive attributes which belief in those claims yield.

So what's the point? It's often been suggested that I, the Chairman of The Skeptic Tank, have an unhealthy obsession with what is negative and ignore the positive. Well that just may be true. From a historical perspective it can be undeniably stated that history teaches us that history teaches us nothing... that we are doomed to repeat history regardless of whether we learn the history of the world or not. It's also undeniably true that human nature, imbued upon the species through its evolutional development, seems Hell-bent upon willful self-deception and willful self-destruction simply because it feels good. Nothing I could ever say or do can squelch Mankind's destructive dark side. The human attribute I call "The Prometheus Syndrome" is as much a part of humanity as death is -- and just as unavoidable.

Indeed: I know of no more worthwhile effort than exposing destructive beliefs and ideologies and working to educate ignorance out of existance.

So why fight it? Why expose human ignorance, superstition, greed, fears, hatreds, bigotry's, and need the to control others? There's a very good reason for that.

Prometheus sought to lift humanity out of its stagnation, recognizing our potential for greatness and, eventually, our potential to become as one with the gods. For his presumption, the gods set for him a trap in the guise of a woman -- Pandora who held within her hands a box which contained all the woes and strife that humanity could suffer as well as all that is good humanity could hold dear. Prometheus, falling for her grace and beauty, asked her to open her box and, before he could slam shut the lid, set free death, misery, deception, despair, suffering, disease, greed, and all the other woes humanity now faces. Pandora's Box was left filled only with Hope -- the slowest and most cherished of human attributes.

Seeing what he had set loose upon the world, Prometheus beseeched Pandora to release Hope to give humanity a chance and in return he would receive whatever punishment the gods desired for his crimes against them. Pandora opened her box and hope spread throughout the world and in return Prometheus was chained to a cliff to suffer untold agonies as his liver was eaten every night by an eagle until such time as someone would present himself to stand in his stead.

I hope that by exposing all that is destructive to humanity I can help others decide whether to join in on The Prometheus Syndrome or whether to reject human nature and strive for something beyond His petard.

Hatred of individuals because of their skin color or their religious beliefs may not be recognizable as hatred if it is ideologically ingrained within an individual since birth yet I hope that by showing the results of such ideological base-lines, people might recognize within themselves the need to grow beyond their natures and help put an end to the cycle of violence which threatens us all.