Skeptic: Examining Extraordinary Claims and Promoting Science

In this week’s eSkeptic, Donald Prothero reviews The Rocks Don’t Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah’s Flood, by David R. Montgomery.

Just as there are still those who believe that the earth is flat (despite all the evidence), there are also those who argue that the earth is actually expanding. Expanding Earthers believe that, at some point in the past the earth was much smaller, and that all the continents fit together nicely. In this week’s eSkeptic, geologist Donald Prothero discusses why the notion of an expanding earth is false.

In this week’s eSkeptic, Skeptic magazine’s Religion Editor, Tim Callahan, and our resident geologist Donald Prothero, debunk Noah’s Flood both from a mythological and geological standpoint.

In this week’s eSkeptic, Donald R. Prothero reviews Richard Milner’s new book, Charles R. Knight: The Artist Who Saw Through Time.

Skeptic is a science magazine, and as such we only deal with non-scientific issues when they come into contact with science. Foremost in this category, in our culture during the past decade, is the intersection of science and religion; in fact, science and religion studies have become something of a cottage industry in academia, with conferences, journals, magazines, and books on the subject being generated at a prodigious rate. Our primary focus in this area has been on evolution and creationism, most notably Intelligent Design creationism. Related to that in vol. 12, no. 3 of Skeptic is an article reporting for the first time the results of a study on the attitudes of Orthodox Jewish college students on the theory of evolution. Although one might expect skepticism of evolution to be found in this cohort, we were surprised by just how skeptical Orthodox Jewish college students were — not just about the theory of evolution, but about most aspects of science. For details, read on … and pass along this article to your friends and colleagues and encourage them to subscribe to Skeptic and eSkeptic.

In The Medea Hypothesis, renowned paleontologist Dr. Peter Ward proposes a revolutionary and provocative vision of life’s relationship with the Earth’s biosphere, one that has frightening implications for our future — yet also offers hope. Using the latest discoveries from the geological record, he argues that life might be its own worst enemy…

2009 marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth on February 12, 1809 — the same day as Abraham Lincoln — and the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species on November 24, 1859. Come join us for a special celebration of the life and science of one of the greatest scientists in history.

In this engaging and richly illustrated lecture, based on his new book, Dr. Donald Prothero — one of the world’s most respected paleontologists — will provide a wealth of evidence and answers to creationist challenges to science. If you are interested in defending science education order this lecture on DVD.

In this week’s eSkeptic, geologist and paleontologist Dr. Donald Prothero discusses the latest creationist challenge to science in the form of banning park rangers at the Grand Canyon from telling people how old it is!

Why were Prometheus and Loki envisioned as chained to rocks? What was the Golden Calf? Why are mirrors believed to carry bad luck? How could anyone think that mortals like Perseus, Beowulf, and St. George actually fought dragons, since dragons don’t exist? Strange though they sound, however, these “myths” did not begin as fiction…