No. 4 | Skeptical Inquirer (original) (raw)
Team Science: Building Better Science Activists with Insights from Disney, Marketing, and Psychological Research Troy H. Campbell
Let me start with a secret: although I am a scientist, in my life I have denied, ignored, and generally resisted a lot of science. In high school, I denied science when a doctor diagnosed me with hypoglycemia. I did it because I simply wanted to keep drinking that sugary Starbucks Frappuccino. In college, I …
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Conspiring for the Common Good Joseph E. Uscinski
I have been studying conspiracy theories for about ten years now. When I started, I did not expect that the topic would become as important as it has become, particularly from 2016 on. I would like to be able to say that I had the foresight to know that they would eventually come to dominate …
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A Stegosaur Carving on the Ruins of Ta Prohm? Think Again Scott E. Burnett
Cover Image: Figure 1. The Ta Prohm carving some contend to represent a stegosaur based largely on the interpretation of dermal plates along the back. Did dinosaurs live alongside humans within the past 10,000 years? Human footprints alongside dinosaur tracks at Paluxy near Glen Rose (Texas) and dinosaur figurines in archaeological contexts at Acambaro …
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Teaching College Students Critical Thinking Skills by Posing as a ‘Registered Psychic’ Bob Baugher, Philip Haldeman
Twenty-five years ago, I met Philip Haldeman, cochair of Seattle’s Northwest Skeptics, and we formed a friendship. One of the many topics of interest we shared was cold reading. As a result, over the years I have invited Haldeman to my general psychology classes to pose as a psychic and see how my students would …
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Confessions of an American Opium-Prescriber Peter Barglow
The title of this article originates in the 1821 drug memoir of Thomas De Quincey, who at age nineteen (in 1804) became addicted to Laudanum, a preparation of opium dissolved in alcohol prescribed for rheumatic pain. In his Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, he wrote, “Oh, heavens! what a revulsion! what an upheaving, from its …
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Creationist Funhouse, Episode Two Stanley A. Rice
The Curse In the first in this series we found that creationists believe God red-shifted the light from the stars to make a young universe look like an old one. In this episode, we will discover that creationists believe God corrupted his own perfect and beautiful world. Creationists believe that when God created the …
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Commentary
Massless Is Not Nonmaterial Sadri Hassani
Pseudoscientists and Eastern mystagogues have been propagating the myth that only objects that have mass are material. Their efforts have been so successful that even some physicists adhere to that myth. Here is an astrophysicist describing the myth to a gleeful Dalai Lama: “You can see [energy transforming into mass] happening in elementary particle processes. …
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From the Editor
Effective Science Activism and Three Thanks Kendrick Frazier
We have published several recent articles arguing that to be persuasive in changing the minds of people who believe pseudoscientific claims and appealing misinformation, scientists and skeptics need some better tactics. In a way, Troy Campbell’s cover article, “Team Science,” is the culmination of this informal, continuing counseling course. Campbell, a social psychologist, is a …
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News & Comment
See Skeptical Inquirer’s New, Entirely Redesigned Website
There’s an entirely new website for the Skeptical Inquirer and Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, with a new address, a total redesign, and an attractive and user-friendly format. It went live in April 2019. The new address, skepticalinquirer.org, replaces csicop.org as the Skeptical Inquirer website and becomes the official internet home for the magazine and the Committee for Skeptical …
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News & Comment
Space Exploration: Robots vs. Humans David Morrison
What should be the roles of humans and robots in space exploration, including the search for life beyond Earth? This question will be important for the newly announced NASA goal of human landings on the Moon by 2024, followed by a lunar outpost and future human flights to Mars. Sometimes this issue is posed as …
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News & Comment
Lorraine Warren Dead at Ninety-Two Joe Nickell
Lorraine Warren—who with her late husband “investigated” alleged demon-possessed houses—died at ninety-two on April 19, 2019. The couple—real names Edward Warren Miney (1926–2006) and Lorraine Rita Warren (1927–2019)—founded New England Society for Psychic Research allegedly as early as 1952. Ed would claim to be a “Demonologist”; his business card with that title appeared to represent …
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Investigative Files
Premonition! Foreseeing What Cannot Be Seen Joe Nickell
An article in the March 4, 2019, New Yorker gave the regrettable impression that some people could do what science—and common sense—say cannot be done: see something (usually a tragedy) before it has occurred. (The magazine followed other outlets that have recently hawked paranormal claims—The New York Times regarding UFOs in 2017 and 2018 [Nickell …
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Reality Is the Best Medicine
Science Envy in Alternative Medicine Harriet Hall
One definition of alternative medicine is medicine that is not supported by good enough evidence to have earned a place in mainstream medicine. Comedian Tim Minchin asked, “What do you call alternative medicine that works? Medicine.” That’s a simplistic answer good for laughs, but the truth is a bit more complicated. Alternative medicine embraces many …
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Behavior & Belief
Who Are More Biased: Liberals or Conservatives? Stuart Vyse
Recently Jane Mayer (2019) of The New Yorker wrote about the very close relationship between Fox News and President Donald Trump, outlining in great detail how the Murdoch family–owned news outlet functions as a tacit communication operation of the Trump White House and its political agenda. There is a revolving door of former Fox News …
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The Science of Science Communication
DNA Is Not Destiny: Challenging the Hype over Genetic Testing Matt Nisbet
“Genetic Code of Human Life Cracked by Scientists” was the June 27, 2000, front-page headline of The New York Times. The previous day, in an event held at the White House, President Bill Clinton was joined by Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Project, and Craig Venter, president of Celera Genomics, to announce …
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Skeptical Inquiree
Anomaly Hunting with Satellite Images Benjamin Radford
Q: I’m curious as to what you think these two images could be of. They are screenshots I took from Google Earth and are off the coast of Borneo. —V. Corbett A: We can begin with what they’re least likely to be: something mysterious, such as a sea serpent or top-secret experimental snakelike submarine. It’s …
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Letters to the Editor
Letters – Vol. 43, No. 4
Respectful Skepticism? Craig Foster (“Respectful Skepticism,” March/April 2019) makes the serious linguistic mistake of treating disrespect as the negative counterpart of respect—which it is not—and then builds on this mistake in arguing that we skeptics should respect crazy ideas and the misguided people who hold them. Of course we shouldn’t indulge in “disrespecting” other people, …
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Review
When Athletes Fall for Bogus Gimmicks Terence Hines
Good to Go. By Christie Aschwanden. New York: W.W. Norton. 2019. ISBN 978-0-393-25433-4. 302 pp. Hardcover, $27.95. The more desperate people are to achieve some goal, the more likely they are to fall prey to quack and pseudoscientific treatments or aids. Thus, the seriously ill are often easy targets …
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Review
A Friendly Guide Showing How Ghost Hunters Go Wrong Brian D. Parsons
Investigating Ghosts: The Scientific Search for Spirits. By Benjamin Radford. Corrales, New Mexico: Rhombus Books. 2018. ISBN: 9780936455167. 320 pp. Paperback, 19.99;ebook,19.99; ebook, 19.99;ebook,16.99. Did you feel that? A cold breeze just brushed the back of your neck, but it’s not a ghost. That sensation is actually the cold, …
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Special Report
Why Parapsychological Claims Cannot Be True Arthur S. Reber, James E. Alcock
The July-August 2018 issue of American Psychologist contained an article titled “The Experimental Evidence for Parapsychological Phenomena: A Review” by Etzel Cardeña. Cardeña is known for research on hypnosis and consciousness, parapsychology, and, interestingly, for his work in theater as an actor and director. The paper prompted us to examine and critique the science behind …
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Special Report
The Not So Divine Acts of Medium ‘John of God’ Felipe Nogueira
John of God (João de Deus, real name João Teixeira de Faria) is a well-known Brazilian medium who claims to have healed several people through his spiritual surgeries. According to one John of God website, he is “arguably the most powerful unconscious medium alive today and possibly the best-known healer of the past 2000 years.” …
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