Skeptic: Examining Extraordinary Claims and Promoting Science
Skeptic Magazine, Volume 3 Number 2
Table of Contents
Bell Curve Issue Preview
-
For Whom the
Bell Curve Tolls -
An interview with the author of The Bell Curve, Charles Murray. On IQ, Race, Class, Gould, Gardner, and the Clintons
Articles
- ’Twas Brillig…
-
The Great Astrology Brouhaha: The Internet Becomes a Weapon of Change
-
Should the Bible
be Taken Literally? - Do Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence?
- A Reappraisal of a Classic Skeptics’ Axiom
- A Gentlemanly Arrangement
- Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, and the Resolution of a Scientific Priority Dispute: The story of how the co-discoverers of natural selection resolved a scientific priority dispute offers deep insight into the nature of discovery and history
-
The Question All
Skeptics are Asking -
Why Did God Make Rice Cakes?
Special Section:
The AIDS Heresies
- Does HIV Really Cause AIDS?
-
A Case Study in Skepticism Taken Too Far
- AIDS Part I
- The Skeptics and Their Claims
- AIDS Part II
- How Skepticism Went Astray
- AIDS Part III
- Lessons on How Science Works
News
- “Cool Moss Clinton”; Randi 1 — Geller 0; Scholastic Magazine Haunted by Nostradamus; Janos Was No Janus: So Long to a Skeptical Friend; California Has its Faults; No Satanic Abuse; Repressed Memory Suit Dismissed; South African Witchcraze; No Social Security For UFOs; Mystery Fumes Not Mass Hysteria; Psychic Cats; Ig Nobel Peace Prize; California Cloudbusting; The Madness of King George (& the American Public); A Trip to Waco; Why Ask Why; Corporate Religion.
Forum
- Suicide Astrology; Am I Crazy? Seeking Answers — 20 Questions; Abducted by Santa; A Psychic Test for Skeptics; A Skeptical Test of Graphoanalysis; Lucky Chicken Crap; The Great Atheism — Agnosticism Debate; Skeptical Religion; Challenging Drees — Religion is Not a Deterrent; Understanding the Total Human Experience — Drees Responds; Randi is Wrong; Reality is Right — Randi Responds; The Skeptics Dogmatic Society — Raso Needs Revising; Tending Garden and Health — Raso Responds; Curing Homeopathy; Satire — A Powerful Weapon; Sloppy Thinking Media
- Forum Challenge
- Who Really Discovered Punctuated Equilibrium? A Skeptical Critique of Stephen Jay Gould, by Bruce Sobol; The Mismeasure of Gould — On the Perils of Striking Out, by Michael Shermer
- Pseudohistory forum
- Revising the Founding Fathers; Afrocentric Skepticism or Credulity?; Holocaust Poll Still Distorted; The Greeks Stole Philosophy?; Plane Crashes and Gas Chambers; The John Birch Society & Holocaust Revisionists — Common Methods & Mistakes; Greetings from the Aryan Nations; Speaking Volumes About Revisionism; Don’t Forget the Gypsies
Reviews
- The Fall of The Soviet Union & the Changing Game of Biblical Prophecy
-
Hal Lindsey’s “Planet Earth — 2000 A.D.: Will Mankind Survive?”
- Culture Wars
-
Skeptics, Parapsychologists & New Agers — Has the “good guys v. bad guys” rhetoric hindered the quest for truth? A review of Science in the New Age, by David Hess
Books in Brief
- Skeptoon: An Illustrated Look at Some New Age Beliefs; and Magic Minds, Miraculous Moments, by Harry Edwards; How To Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age, by Theodore Schick, and Lewis Vaughn; Telling the Truth About History, by Joyce Appleby, Lynn Hunt, and Margaret Jacob; Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by its Most Brilliant Teacher, recordings of Richard Feynman in the Classroom; The Pleasures and Perils of Genius: Mostly Mozart, ed. by Peter Ostwald and Leonard Zegans; Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man Behind Star Trek, by Joel Engel; Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, by Carl Sagan
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The Believing Brain
(now in paperback)
Get the autographed paperback
In this, his magnum opus, Dr. Michael Shermer presents his comprehensive theory on how beliefs are born, formed, nourished, reinforced, challenged, changed, and extinguished. Sam Harris calls The Believing Brain “a wonderfully lucid, accessible, and wide-ranging account of the boundary between justified and unjustified belief.” Leonard Mlodinow calls it “a tour de force integrating neuroscience and the social sciences.”
FREE PDF Download
Top 10 Myths About Evolution (and how we know it really happened)
This concise pamphlet provides answers to common objections to evolution, such as: If humans came from apes, why aren’t apes evolving into humans?; Only an intelligent designer could have made something as complex as an eye; The second law of thermo-dynamics proves that evolution is impossible; Evolution can’t account for morality; and more…
FREE PDF Download
Top 10 Things You Should Know About Alternative Medicine
Harriet Hall, MD (aka the SkepDoc), shares her wit and wisdom about alternative medicine including: chiropractic, the placebo effect, homeopathy, acupuncture, and the questionable benefits of organic food, detoxification, and ‘natural’ remedies.
FREE PDF Download
Learn to be a Psychic in 10
Easy Lessons
Psychic readings and fortunetelling are an ancient art — a combination of acting and psychological manipulation. While some psychics are known to cheat and acquire information ahead of time, these ten tips focus on what is known as “cold reading” — reading someone “cold” without any prior knowledge about them.