Skeptic (Altadena, CA) articles from January 1 2009

Skeptic (Altadena, CA) archives from January 1 2009

Double blind, Satan's UFO, failed prophecies.(Twas Brillig...)
January 1, 2009... How to Conduct a Double Blind Experiment At the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) we have had several requests from potential prize applicants who believe that they have the power to dowse, and who need general guidelines on how to...

What to eat: food, not too much, mostly plants.(The SkepDoc)
January 1, 2009... AS I WAS FEEDING THE DOG, IT occurred to me that dogs have a very straightforward relationship with food. Our Labrador's philosophy seems to be "eat everything you can get and as much of it as possible, whether it's food, ice cubes, pine cones,...

Misleading by petition: just what is the consensus on global warming?
January 1, 2009... IS GLOBAL WARMING A REAL phenomenon, and if so, are humans causing or contributing to it by burning fossil fuels and will it lead to an increased frequency and/or severity of natural disasters? The American public looks to science or scientists...

A skeptic visits Noah's Ark: evolution and creationism in England.
January 1, 2009... DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF February, 2009, on the occasion of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday celebrations at various locals around England (including his birthplace city of Shrewsbury--see photo montage below), my hosts Andrew Kelly (a science...

Adventures in math and marriage: or why gay does marriage does not decrease straight marriage.
January 1, 2009... DOES THE LEGALIZATION OF GAY marriage contribute to the decline of heterosexual marriage? A good portion of our fair republic's cultural conservatives seem to believe that it does. Evangelical radio personality James Dobson, head of Focus on...

The value of L is unknown.(FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... I just got a chance to read the last issue of SKEPTIC magazine (Vol. 14, No. 2) and enjoyed your article about necessity and contingency in the question of whether or not intelligent life would have evolved again here or on another planet, and...

The magnetic Randi.(FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... I had to chuckle reading the column by James Randi in which he casts a skeptical eye at the notion that a single iron atom in a hemoglobin molecule somehow makes it "magnetic" and therefore results in the ability of magnets to improve blood...

Reply to the review of Darwinian Misadventures in the Humanities.(FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... I appreciate Massimo Pigliucci's invitation to sit down with him, share a glass of wine and in a friendly spirit iron out any differences that might exist between us. In his review of my book, Darwinian Misadventures in the Humanities, he says...

The meaning of the resurrection.(FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... At the risk of seeming to nitpick, in an otherwise informative and thoughtful review of Darwinian Misadventures in the Humanities by Eugene Goodheart (Vol. 14; Number 2, 2008), reviewer Massimo Pigliucci calls Goodheart "naive...when he claims...

NDEs the real deal.(FORUM)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... I was very disappointed with your article on NDEs and OBEs. Dr. Kenneth Ring, president of IANDS (the International Association of Near Death Studies), got the last word in on the NDE controversy. His short, highly readable, but scientifically...

A defective look at World War II.(The New Revisionism Forum)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... By Mark Weber, Institute for Historical Review In a key paragraph of his article on "The New Revisionism," in SKEPTIC Vol. 14, No.3, Michael Shermer writes that killings of innocents by the Allies in World War II "stopped the moment the...

World War II moral equivalency.(The New Revisionism Forum)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... In Michael Shermer's article in SKEPTIC Vol. 14, No. 3, "The New Revisionism: What if Hitler Had Won the War," he writes: "The Axis killed in order to stop the killing by the Axis, and for no other reason. The Axis killed for geography, for...

Just war and unjust killing.(The New Revisionism Forum)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... I agree that the actions of the Allies and the Axis were not moral equivalents. However, your statement that "The Allies killed in order to stop the killing by the Axis, and for no other reason" has dangerous implications. Stopping the Axis...

Don't knock constitutional monarchy.(The New Revisionism Forum)(Letter to the editor)
January 1, 2009... I enjoyed Michael Shermer's provocative article on the New Revisionism but was astonished by his description of what he terms the "Aristocratic Romance," which Shermer says might take the form of "a reversion to a constitutional monarchy." This...

Fooled by Ponzi: how Bernard Madoff made off with my money, or why even an expert on gullibility can get gulled.(Cover story)
January 1, 2009... THERE ARE FEW AREAS OF FUNCTIONING where skepticism is more important than how one invests one's life savings. Yet intelligent and educated people, some of them naive about finance and others quite knowledgeable, have been mined by schemes that...

Gulf War Syndrome or Gulf lore mythology?
January 1, 2009... ONE-FOURTH OF THE VETERANS OF THE 1990-91 Gulf War complain of persistent memory and concentration problems, chronic headaches, widespread pain, gastrointestinal problems, and other chronic abnormalities not explained by well-established...

Positively misguided: the myths and mistakes of the positive thinking movement.
January 1, 2009... MY COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACH WAS THE kind of guy Stanley Kubrik must have had in mind when he conceived the over-the-top drill sergeant for his classic Vietnam film, Full Metal Jacket. During one game midway in my sophomore year, my offensive-line...

Prophets and losses: the Peter Popoff and Apostle Stewart guide to personal riches and spiritual fulfillment ... maybe.(Faith Healing)
January 1, 2009... YOU'RE WAITING FOR A BUS LATE AT NIGHT, when a shady character sidles up to you and whispers, "How'd you like to be catapulted into a brand new realm of supernatural power?" He's hustling drugs, right? Crystal-meth, perhaps. "No way...

Behind Benny Hinn's healing crusades.(Faith Healing)
January 1, 2009... FAITH HEALER BENNY HINN FOLLOWS A PENTECOSTAL tradition established by Oral Roberts and Kathryn Kuhlman, which combines faith healing with wealth. Currently his ministry's yearly revenue is estimated at over $100 million and he travels the...

When faith kills; Christian healing v. scientific medicine.(Faith Healing)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. --Dennis and Lorie Nixon's dedication to their 16-year-old daughter, Shannon, on her headstone ACTUALLY, THE NIXONS OF ALTOONA,...

How to think about scientific claims: a study of how non-scientists evaluate science claims.(Report)
January 1, 2009... THE PUBLIC IS ROUTINELY BOMBARDED with truth claims from scientists, science writers, and journalists. Most of the time, the public uncritically accepts scientific truth claims such as the existence of distant galaxies or that table salt...

The origin of Eden.(Critical essay)
January 1, 2009... Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God say, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'?" And the woman said unto the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the...

A prosecutor takes on the JFK assassination.(Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, by Vincent Bugliosi. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2007. 1.612 pp. Bibliography and Index + 958 pp. of Endnotes and 170 pp. of Source Notes on CD-ROM. $49.95. ISBN...

Darwin's tiny white box.(Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... Microcosm: E. coli and the New Science of Life by Carl Zimmer, Pantheon 2008. 256pp., $14.95 paperback, $26.95 hardback. ISBN: 9780434016242 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AN EXAMINATION OF E. COLI--THAT supposed "evil" bacterium that causes...

Klaatu Gort redux: the remake of a classic film The Day the Earth Stood Still delivers a modern warning wrapped in an ancient myth.(Movie review)
January 1, 2009... KLAATU IS BACK AND BADDER than before, with Gort the robot four times the size of the original and a new message for humans to shape up and save the environment... or else. The remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still closely parallels...

Secrets, secrets, secrets.(The Secret History of the World: As Laid Down by the Secret Societies )(Book review)
January 1, 2009... The Secret History of the World: As Laid Down by the Secret Societies by Mark Booth. London: Overlook, 2008, 512 pp., $29.95. ISBN: 1590200314 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE YEAR'S MOST POPULAR treatise on magic-minded pseudohistory...

The God in our brains.(Did Man Create God? Is Your Spiritual Brain at Peace with Your Thinking Brain?)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... A review of Did Man Create God? Is Your Spiritual Brain at Peace with Your Thinking Brain? by David E. Comings. Hope Press, 2008 Duarte, CA: 694 pp., $29.95. ISBN-10 1878267736 ISBN-I3 978-1878267733 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WITHIN THIS...

Secular sunshine.(The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... The Secular Conscience: Why Belief Belongs in Public Life by Austin Dacey. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2008, 240 pp., $24.95, ISBN: 978-1-59102-604-4 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SECULARISM HAS "LOST ITS SOUL," says Austin Dacey, professor of...

Evolution on edge.(The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism, by Michael Behe. New York: Free Press, 2008, 336 pp., $15. Paperback. ISBN: 978-0743296229 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN HIS LATEST BOOK, THE EDGE OF Evolution (now out in...

The power of belief.(Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science by Robert L. Park, Princeton University Press, 2008. 240 pp., $24.95. ISBN: 978-0-691-13355-3 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A "SKEPTIC," IN ITS ORIGINAL Greek skepsis, means "examination, inquiry,...

Jesus the Christian.(How Jesus Became Christian)(Book review)
January 1, 2009... How Jesus Became Christian, by Barrie Wilson, New York: St Martin's Press, 2008. 315 pp., $25.95, ISBN: 0312362781. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN RECENT YEARS, SEVERAL BOOKS by scholars in the field of Christian origins have focused on the...

The art of cold reading: adapted from Ian Rowland's The Full Facts of Cold Reading.
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HI! I'M IAN ROWLAND. MOST OF US KNOW SOMEONE WHO HAS BEEN TO A PSYCHIC, OR THEY HAVE SEEN PSYCHICS ON TV. I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU HOW SOMEONE WHO IS NOT PSYCHIC CAN PRETEND TO BE =30 USING A SET OF PSYCHOLOGICAL...