The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

In this week’s eSkeptic, we announce: Julia Sweeney’s new CD Letting Go of God, now available at shop skeptic; James Randi compiles a remarkable line-up of speakers for The Amazing Meeting 5; and Michael Shermer sheds some light on Kramer’s Conundrum, in an LA Times op-ed on racism.

The God Delusion, by the Oxford University evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, is based on his controversial BBC documentary, The Root of All Evil? Dawkins presents his view of religion as a cultural virus that, like a computer virus, once downloaded into the software of society corrupts almost all programs it encounters.

Philosopher and evolutionary psychologist David Livingstone Smith elucidates the essential role that deception and self-deception have played in human — and animal — evolution and shows that the very structure of our minds has been shaped from our earliest beginnings by the need to deceive…

In this week’s eSkeptic, Michael Shermer recounts his experience appearing on the Art Bell Show.

In this week’s eSkeptic, the New York Sun reports fraud and deceit in Columbia University’s study into the power of prayer. Jason Rosenhouse reviews three books addressing Intelligent Design: The Design Revolution by William Dembski, God, the Devil and Darwin by Niall Shanks, and Darwinism, Design, and Public Education by John A. Campbell and Stephen Meyer.

In this week’s eSkeptic, a reader repsonds to Michael Shermer’s The Science of Good and Evil. Wayne Lutz reviews The Holy Land, by Dr. Robert Zubrin. Sallie Hofmeister finds feng shui is infiltrating corporate America.

In this week’s eSkeptic, Don Lattin reviews Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Two short articles look at homophobia in Tennessee and superstitions in Glasgow. Michael Shermer discusses the origins of evil and The Science of Good and Evil receives a positive review.

In this week’s eSkeptic, Logan Hill interviews Michael Shermer in the New York Post. Craig Waterman reviews Stephen D. Unwin’s The Probability of God: A Simple Calculation That Proves the Ultimate Truth.