Help me debunk this "sun miracle"

[Brian37]

Well, if you absolutely must know, I haven't always been atheist. I have non or very little "skeptical" thinking, and I try to better it by asking you guys how to think in these situations. I have several psychical ilnesses and one of them is little paranoia.

I would highly recommend that you read the book "The Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan, or "Why People Believe Weird Things" by Michael Shermer.

These books will give you the critical thinking tools that will enable you to examine outrageous claims like those made in this video with a skeptical mind.

I recommend that book myself, but I'd be remiss not to mention I need to get around to buying it myself. I don't suspect it is really going to say much I don't already know. It is just a book that says "I fell for superstitious crap, but now I know why I did".

It really all boils down to "If you want to believe crap badly enough you will".

[Angrboda]

If you really feel the need, I suggest making JREF forums a part of your usual haunt (James Randi Educational Foundation). There's a much larger community, greater diversity, and these people spend most of their time practicing their critical thinking skills examining claims like this (and others). All though I'm less impressed with them, the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe is another popular haunt (though not as high a level as JREF).

Aside from that, reading books by skeptics like James Randi and Martin Gardner and Michael Shermer can be both comforting and entertaining. (And don't neglect Youtube videos and TEDtalks either.) There's also csicop.org's online magazine, and Skeptic magazine. (Csicop's magazine has seemed to become inundated with fluff pieces over the last year or so, but there are still good articles to be found.)

I'm skeptical that you can teach or learn skeptical or critical thinking (though many people do believe this), yet seeing multiple examples of phenomena taken apart and shown to be different than what they first appear can at least balance some of the emotional tempest by pointing out how these mysterious phenomena commonly turn out to be perfectly ordinary things.

And with that, I'll end with a paraphrase from Michael Shermer. The U.S. government investigation of UFOs claims that 90% of the cases it has examined have a natural explanation. That doesn't mean that the other 10% are demonstrable examples of extraterrestrials, it just means they are unexplained. (And fitting of the name unidentified flying object.)