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Skeptic Magazine, Volume 23 Number 2
Table of Contents

Skeptic magazine, vol 23, no 2 (cover)

Special Section: The Rise of the Nones

Imagining No Heaven
The Rise of the Nones and the Decline of Religion
by Michael Shermer
Never Doubting God
Surveys on Belief in God’s Existence
by Charles S. Reichardt

Skeptic Investigates

Is the Earth Flat?
Flat Earthers Are Back—How do You Best Make the Argument for a Round Earth?
by Daniel Loxton

Junior Skeptic

Perpetual Motion

Today I’d like you to imagine two impossible, magical machines: The first machine runs forever. You may picture a complex tangle of gears and wheels, or something as simple as a spinning top, but imagine that it never runs down—once started it just keeps going without ever needing more energy. Now imagine a second machine. This one may require fuel or energy to run, but somehow, through some fantastic process, it generates more energy than it consumes. We aren’t the first to imagine these two types of “perpetual motion” machines. Inventors have dreamed of such devices for centuries. How has their search unfolded? Let’s find out!

By Daniel Loxton. This issue’s cover by Daniel Loxton is based upon a perpetual motion machine designed in 1790.

Columns

Cover illustration by Pat Linse
The SkepDoc
Premature Ejaculation in the News: How Headlines Influence Our Thinking
by Harriet Hall, M.D.
The Gadfly
Please Touch
by Carol Tavris

Excerpt

Persistence of Belief In a Purposeful Universe
by Ralph Lewis

Reviews

Honor, Dignity, Victim
A review of The Rise of Victimhood Culture: Microaggressions, Safe Spaces, and the New Culture Wars, by Bradley Campbell and Jason Manning
reviewed by Kevin McCaffree
Reason (and Science) for Hope
A review of Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, by Steven Pinker
reviewed by Michael Shermer
Realizing Rawls’ Just Society
A review of It’s Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear, by Gregg Easterbrook
reviewed by Michael Shermer
Unsubstantiated
A review of Unacknowledged. A new Netflix documentary purports to provide proof of alien visitation but fails to deliver.
reviewed by Tim Callahan

Articles

Conspiracy Theorists, and the Harm They Do
by James K. Lambert
The Last One Forgotten
Bruce Perkins and Another Terrible Tragedy of the Recovered Memory Movement
by L. Kirk Hagen
The Rooney Rule
The Value of Diversity In Birds, Bees, and People
by Todd M. Freeberg
Deterrence and Its Discontents
Now That Nuclear War Seems to Be Getting More Likely Again, It’s Time to Turn a Skeptical Eye on Deterrencen
by David Barash
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