Skeptic: Extraordinary Claims, Revolutionary Ideas, and the Promotion of Science
eSkeptic: the email newsletter of the Skeptics Society
the new issue of Skeptic magazine:
Richard Dawkins & Religion
- Scientists Richard Dawkins and Francis Collins debate the existence of God.
- Dawkins as “The Skeptic’s Chaplain” by Michael Shermer
- Norman Levitt and Deepak Chopra provide two contrasting views of Richard Dawkins’ best selling book The God Delusion.
- Paul Gabel discusses the Soviet’s attempt to eliminate religion and why it failed.
- What Creationist Christians hate about Intelligent Design.
Also…
- What is the secret behind the best selling book “The Secret”? A critical analysis of the claims made about the “Law of Attraction.”
Free article from this issue!
One of the knottiest problems in all of cosmology (with deep implications for theology and metaphysics) is why our universe is structured the way it is and what that particular configuration of laws and constants of nature means. As you will see in reading this brilliant summation and classification of the numerous answers to the question — “Why This Universe?” — there are many well-thought out answers but little consensus among the experts about which one is the most likely to be true. Here we see science on the borderlands between, say, physics and metaphysics, between empirical evidence and theoretical speculation. In the 15 years of publishing Skeptic magazine, I believe this is one of the most important articles we have ever published. Enjoy.
Benjamin Radford (photo courtesy of University Press of Kentucky).
The Haunting of YouTube
On the last episode of Skepticality, the Skeptical Inquirer’s own Benjamin Radford discussed new Nessie sightings and other lake monsters from his comprehensive book on the subject. This week, Ben is back to tackle a brand new paranormal mystery from his own back yard.
Almost over night, a video of a glowing, orb-like apparition at the courthouse in Santa Fe, New Mexico has soared into the media spotlight, with widespread news coverage and nearly 100,000 views on YouTube. Was it the spirit of an infamous murderer, the ghost of a construction worker who met his demise, or a disturbed Indian burial ground? Derek & Swoopy discuss paranormal investigation in the age of viral video with author Benjamin Radford, who examined the video tape and went to the site to investigate the mysterious Santa Fe Courthouse Ghost.
Also of interest
- WATCH the YouTube video >
- READ the original Santa Fe New Mexican story >
- READ Benjamin Radford’s story on LiveScience >
- WATCH the Fox News media coverage >
a female participant wearing Persinger’s “God Helmet”
Michael Shermer’s
Out of Body Experiment
Michael Shermer travels to Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada, to strap on the “God Helmet” in neuroscientist Michael Persinger’s lab that duplicates out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, alien abductions, and other paranormal phenomena.