EDITOR'S NOTE uirer

EDITOR Kendrick Frazier Taking Intellectual Life Out of Its Parallel Universe EDITORIAL BOARD James E. Alcock Barry Beyerstein he nature/nuture controversy can be irksome. That culture (environment) Thomas Casten Martin Gardner Tand our genes both contribute in a complex mixture of interactive ways to Ray Hyman everything that makes us human seems reasonable, and it is a view well sup­ Lawrence Jones Philip J. Klass ported by modern biological science. Yet as Steven Pinker points out in this issue, the idea that heredity plays any role at all in explaining human thought and Joe Nickell Lee Nisbet behavior "still has the power to shock.... Any claim that the mind has an innate Amardeo Sarma Bela Scheiber organization strikes people not as a hypothesis that might be correct but as a Eugenie Scott thought it is immoral to think." In "The Blank Slate," taken from his new book CONSULTING EDITORS Robert A. Baker of the same title, Pinker examines the doctrine that our minds emerge from birth Susan J. Blackmore blank, unaffected by hard-wired influences of human evolution. He maintains John R. Cole Kenneth L Feder he is not countering an extreme "nature" position with an extreme "nature" posi­ C. E. M. Hansel tion. But he explores "why the extreme position (diat culture is everything) is so E. C Krupp Scott O. Lilienfeld often seen as moderate, and the moderate position is seen as extreme." David F. Marks James E. Oberg Pinker, the Peter de Florez Professor of Psychology at MIT, author of How Robert Sheaffer the Mind Works and The Language Instinct, and a CSICOP Fellow, does not David E. Thomas Richard Wiseman mind academic controversy. He shows how the modern denial of human MANAGING EDITOR nature has "led to a disconnect between intellectual life and common sense" ART DIRECTOR and "left us unequipped to analyze pressing issues about human nature just as Lisa A. Hutter new scientific discoveries are making them acute." Pinker says acknowledging PRODUCTION Paul Loynes human nature, although unpopular in many intellectual circles where ideology Christopher Fix reigns supreme, shouldn't be feared. "It means only taking intellectual life out CARTOONIST Rob Pudim of its parallel universe and reuniting it with science and, when it is borne out WEB PAGE DESIGN by science, with common sense.' Patrick Fitzgerald, Designer Amanda Chesworth Kevin Christopher Rob Beeston This issue is filled with timely special reports, commentaries, and reviews. Space PUBLISHER'S REPRESENTATIVE Barry Karr engineer tells the story of his effort—temporarily sidetracked CORPORATE COUNSEL when NASA got embarrassed by the tone of news reports—to counter the Brenton N. VerPloeg BUSINESS MANAGER wackos who contend the moon landings never happened. Science author Sandra Lesniak Timothy Ferris examines "Taken," Steven Spielberg's widely viewed Sci Fi FISCAL OFFICER Channel miniseries about alien abductions. Physicist David E. Thomas finds Paul Paulin CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER that the same channel's "documentary" hyping an archaeological dig at the sup­ Arthur Urrows posed Roswell saucer crash site was a classic "bait and switch." CSICOP inves­ DEVELOPMENT OFFICER James Kimberly tigator Joe Nickell discovers reasons to doubt die claims made about die CHIEF DATA OFFICER recently reported James Ossuary. Nickell then examines Patricia Cornwell's Michael Cione claims that she has solved the case of Jack the Ripper. Dave Thomas critiques STAFF Darlene Banks The Bible Code II. He uses the same "code" to find this message in the book: Patricia Beauchamp Jennifer Miller "The Bible Code is a silly, dumb, fake, false...dismal fraud and snake-oil hoax." Heidi Shively Robert Sheaffer finds levity in the rising numbers of antigravity claims. Ranjit Sandhu Anthony Santa Lucia There seems no end to the new emergence of both serious claims that John Sullivan deserve careful examination and silly claims that nevertheless easily gain cred­ Vance Vigrass PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR ulous adherents. Applying science and reason to them and then informing the Kevin Christopher YOUNG SKEPTICS PROGRAM DIRECTOR public about what science really knows has never been more needed. Amanda Chesworth INQUIRY MEDIA PRODUCTIONS Thomas Flynn DIRECTOR OF UBRARIES Timothy S. Binga

The SKEPTICAL INQUIRE* is the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, an international organization.

4 March/April 2003