No. 1 | Skeptical Inquirer (original) (raw)
A Note to Readers
A Personal Note to Readers of the Skeptical Inquirer Kendrick Frazier
It was just a small anomaly, a mystery. In August, I had two routine doctor’s follow-up visits. The blood tests each showed a puzzling drop-off in red blood cells. But I assured my doctors that I felt fine, had all my regular energy, and was ready for the vacation trip my wife, Ruth, and I …
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Feature Article
The Case of the Devil’s Baby of Ravenswood Daniel A. Reed
In Jackson County, West Virginia, near the eastern banks of the Ohio River, lies the quintessential Appalachian city of Ravenswood, population 3,865 (U.S. Census Bureau 2019). In many ways, this town is comparable with any number of places you will find in the state; it has restaurants, schools, shops, and municipal buildings, as well as …
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Feature Article
The James Webb Space Telescope: First Responses from Religion Manfred Cuntz
There is a long and intricate history of the relationship between science and religion. An early and well-studied example includes Galilei Galileo’s trouble with the Roman Catholic Church when he was put on trial because of his advocacy of his heliocentric idea and his conflict with Pope Urban VII (see, e.g., Hellman 1998). Many of …
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Feature Article
Analysis of an Arthur Ford Séance Loren Pankratz
In 1929, Arthur Ford was credited with revealing the secret code that Harry Houdini said he would transfer to his wife if he survived death. After that, Ford was considered the greatest American medium of the twentieth century, and he attained extensive public recognition again in 1967 when he delivered a message from the deceased …
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Feature Article
Ecocognition: Observation and Interpretation in the Understanding of Climate Change Matthew J. Sharps, Simran K. Nagra, Anders Paulsen, Jasmin Moreno, Stevie Mortensen, Troy Folmer, and Jana L. Price-Sharps
In a recent article in the Skeptical Inquirer, David Mountain discussed the tremendous good that the scientific environmental movement has created. At the same time, he emphasized an important cautionary note: “Unfortunately, environmentalism and science are not always the same thing. Indeed, throughout its history, environmentalism has been shaped by a range of fringe beliefs …
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Feature Article
The Night Begins to Shine: The Tapetum Lucidum and Our Backward Retinas Nathan H. Lents
The “argument from poor design” as evidence for evolution dates back to Charles Darwin himself. The dysteleological argument, as it is formally known, goes something like this: If the world and everything in it were created by an omniscient and omnipotent creator, why are there such clear examples of quirks and glitches in living organisms, …
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Feature Article
‘I Can’t Believe You Believe That’: Identifying Unsubstantiated Claims D. Alan Bensley
Is it true that: 1. A cabal of liberals run sex rings that traffic and murder thousands of children each year? 2. Shape-shifting lizard “people” from another planet impersonate Earth’s world leaders to secretly run the world? 3. Research has found that chemicals in vaccines cause autism, which the medical establishment is covering up? 4. …
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Special Report
Score One for the Good Guys—A Major Battle Won in the Continuing War on Homeopathy Fraud Nicholas Little
Opposing pseudoscience is consumer protection. We at the Center for Inquiry (CFI) know that. You know that. And, finally, the D.C. Court of Appeals has recognized that as well. It’s been a long time since I argued CFI’s case in front of the D.C. Court of Appeals in January 2022 and an even longer time …
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Commentary
Applying Science to SCAM: A Brief Summary of the Past Thirty Years Edzard Ernst
It has been almost thirty years since I started my job at the University of Exeter as a full-time researcher of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). Perhaps this is a good time to reflect on what has happened during this time in the realm of SCAM research. One of the first things I did after being appointed …
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From the Managing Editor
A Moving Farewell to SI Readers Julia Lavarnway
“Legacy, what is a legacy?/ It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see/ I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me.” —Lin-Manuel Miranda Kendrick Frazier, beloved editor of the Skeptical Inquirer for the past forty-five years, passed away on November 7, 2022. A forthcoming issue …
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News & Comment
Homeopathy on Trial: CFI Suits against Walmart and CVS on Consumer Fraud Allowed to Proceed Jeff Dellinger
On September 29, 2022, a three-judge panel for the D.C. Court of Appeals, the highest court in the District, reversed the dismissal of suits the Center for Inquiry brought against Walmart and CVS over claims that they deceived customers by marketing fake medicine as if it were real. Walmart and CVS shelve homeopathic products alongside …
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News & Comment
Most Americans Concerned with Fake News, but ‘Fake News’ May Be ‘Old News’ David Tolkacz
According to a poll conducted by the Pearson Institute in September 2022, 91 percent of Americans believe that the spread of misinformation is a problem. Additionally, the poll showed that seven out of ten Americans believe misinformation increases extreme political views, contributing to escalating racial violence, gender violence, hate crimes, and terrorist attacks. While “fake …
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News & Comment
French Scientist Passes Off Chorizo as Star Closest to the Sun Julia Lavarnway
The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021, and its first images were released to the public just over six months later on July 11, 2022. SI featured several of its images in the September/October 2022 issue. People around the world were awed by the stunning renderings from the infrared telescope, and …
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Investigative Files
History Real or Fake: Some Cases of an ‘Academic Forger’ Joe Nickell
In memory of Kendrick Frazier Several of my cases have involved my role as an “academic forger” (e.g., Nickell 2021; Nickell 2022a; Nickell 2022b). All these and more have involved my work with questioned historical writings, photos, and artifacts, for which I have had an affinity since an early age. At about eight, I began …
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Notes on a Strange World
Undercover in a Madhouse: The Extraordinary Story of Nellie Bly Massimo Polidoro
In September 1887, New York newspapers published the story of a lost girl who was behaving strangely and was about to be locked up in Blackwell’s Island, the asylum of the city. The New York Times spoke of the girl’s face as “almost haggard in its paleness” and talked of the “wild, hunted look in …
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Reality Is the Best Medicine
Antioxidants: The Hype and the Reality Harriet Hall
Everyone is talking about antioxidants, but misconceptions abound. For example, I just received an email that described antioxidants as “the ability to soak up toxins in the body.” One dictionary definition of an antioxidant is “(1) a substance that inhibits oxidation, especially one used to counteract the deterioration of stored food products [and] (2) a …
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Behavior & Belief
Autism Politics and the Death of Truth and Freedom Stuart Vyse
Among the hot-button issues of the current era is the nature of autism and the way people with this disorder should be treated. Due to the introduction of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the 2013 edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (2013), children and adults who previously would have been diagnosed …
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The Practical Skeptic
UFOs over Kyiv Mick West
With the war in Ukraine taking up everyone’s attention in that country, it can seem surprising that Ukrainians have the time and energy for other things. So it was rather unexpected when on August 23, 2022, a preprint of a paper on UFOs written by three scientists titled “Unidentified Aerial Phenomena I. Observations of Events” …
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Skeptical Inquiree
Deconstructing the Dover Demon Benjamin Radford
Q: What do you make of the Dover Demon? I haven’t seen much skeptical analysis of that famous case. —C. Blennerhassett A: The Dover Demon is one of only a handful of distinctly American monsters. It’s also nearly unique in that—unlike, for example, the chupacabra or Bigfoot—sightings happened not over years (or decades) but instead …
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The Time Warp: Skepticism Revisited—from the Future
On the Origin of Skeptical Inquirer Craig A. Foster
“The Time Warp: Skepticism Revisited—from the Future” is the first of an occasional series examining skepticism by looking back on early issues of the Skeptical Inquirer. Welcome aboard, amigos! In “The Time Warp,” we aren’t limited to present-day examination. We use Skeptical Inquirer’s rich history to examine skepticism … from the future. On this voyage, …
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Review
Reason’s Valiant Champion Richard Dawkins
Just another run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-road Pinker volume. Which is another way of saying it’s bloody marvelous. What a consummate intellectual this man is! Every one of his books is a bracing river of fluent readability to delight the non-specialist. Yet each one simultaneously earns its place as a major professional contribution to its own field. Grasp …
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Review
A History of Discoveries, Deceptions, Credulity, and Skeptical Inquiries William M. London
The title of Loren Pankratz’s latest book reminds me of Breaking the Magician’s Code: Magic’s Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed, a popular and controversial series of network television programs broadcasted beginning in 1997. The series featured the “Masked Magician” performing various feats of conjuring and then revealing the trickery he used, which sometimes differed from what …
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Letters to the Editor
Letters – Vol. 47, no. 1
Critical Thinking I was happy to see so much discussion of critical thinking in the latest issue of SI (September/October 2022) but was left feeling that this subject can be handled better. It is treated as an intellectual activity, targets mainly pseudoscience, and is aimed at changing other people’s minds. It should be presented as …
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The Philosopher’s Corner
Fake News as Noxious Markets? Massimo Pigliucci
We’ve all heard of fake news. But what exactly are we talking about? Allcott and Gentzkow (2017) define fake news as articles that are “intentionally and verifiably false,” for instance the “news” in 2016 that Pope Francis had endorsed Donald Trump for the U.S. presidency. Despite somewhat natural disbelief that anyone could actually take such …
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