SKEPTICISM . SCIENCE . SOCIETY Vol 39, No 3. September 2019 Helping Kids Think +Diet - Carnivore v Vegan Review: Mahogany Ship Australian Skeptics . www.skeptics.com.au Skeptic_Cover_SEP19.indd 1 1/09/2019 5:03 pm The Skeptic September 19 Skeptical Groups in Australia NSW VIC Australian Skeptics Inc – Alethea Dean Australian Skeptics (Victorian Branch) Inc – Chris Guest www.skeptics.com.au PO Box 5166, Melbourne VIC 3001 PO Box 20, Beecroft, NSW 2119 Tel: 0403 837 339 [email protected] Tel: 02 8094 1894; Mob: 0432 713 195; Fax: (02) 8088 4735 [email protected] Skeptics’ Café – third Monday of every month, with guest speaker, at the Dan O’Connell Hotel, 225 Canning St, Carlton. Sydney Skeptics in the Pub – 6pm first Thursday of each Meal from 6pm, speaker at 8pm sharp. month at the Occidental Hotel, York Street in the city, near More details on our web site www.skeptics.com.au/vic Wynyard Park (meeting second floor) Dinner meetings are held on a regular basis. Ballarat Skeptics in the Pub http://facebook.com/groups/3978112230309544 Hunter Skeptics – John Turner Tel: (02) 4959 6286 [email protected] Gippsland Skeptics in the Pub Occasional social meetings at the Cricketers Arms Hotel, Cooks Interested parties contact Mark Guerin or Martin Christian Power Hill. Those on the contact list will be sent details in advance. via the Gippsland Skeptics page: https://www.facebook.com/ Currently meeting at 12.30 on third Sunday of each odd-numbered groups/291929110900396/?ref=bookmarks month. Melbourne Eastern Hills Skeptics in the Pub Blue Mountains Skeptics Contact: Andrew Rawlings [email protected] See Facebook for details. Tel: 0438 043 050 hyyp://groupspaces.com/meh-sitp https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-Eastern-Hills Coffs Coast Skeptics & Freethinkers See Facebook for details. Skeptics-in-the-Pub/19241290737690 Meets second Monday of each month at The Knox Club, Wantirna South. ACT Canberra Skeptics – Lauren Kelly PO Box 555, Civic Square ACT 2608 Melbourne Skeptics in the Pub www.canberraskeptics.org.au Tel: 0410 382 306 See Facebook for details. [email protected] (general inquiries), Meets on the fourth Monday of every month from 6 pm at the [email protected] (Canberra Skeptics in the Pub). Mt View Hotel in Richmond. A free monthly talk, open to the public - check website for details Skeptics in the Pub gather at 1pm on the third Sunday of each Mordi Skeptics in the Pub month at King O’Malleys Pub in Civic. For up-to-date details: http://www.meetup.com/Mordi-Skeptics-in-the-Pub/ www.meetup.com/ SocialSkepticsCanberra/ Meets at 7.30pm on the first Tuesday of each month at the Mordialloc Sporting Club. ($4 to cover website costs) For details on Skeptical groups in other states and territories, see inside back cover Volume 39 • No 3 September 19 Contents REPORTS Chiro Wars 9 9 Ken McLeod FEATURES 18 The Moral Argument 12 Sue Knight 12 While They’re Young 18 20 Richard Saunders The Early Bird 20 Scott Lilienfeld Teach Your Children Well 22 ACARA 22 ARTICLES 27 34 Meat and Veg 27 Larsen, Noble, Joannes-Boyau Mahogany: Ship Ahoy 34 Bob Nixon Mahogany: Divining 42 Steve Hynes 42 Mahogany: Conspiracy 46 Denis Gojak REGULARS 54 Editorial 4 Around the Traps 5 Them! 10 Puzzles page 16 Logical Place 45 49 Book reviews 49 What Goes Around 54 Forum 56 Letters 59 Quotable Quotes 62 EDITORIAL On your way to the shops ritical thinking is a fundamental probably think of a critical thinking aspect of science and skepticism. aspect to every subject – some pretty C It is – or should be – the basis of mundane, such as which tool to use in scientific and skeptical method. In woodwork, but certainly applicable. fact, some have suggested that “critical And that’s the point. Critical thinking” might be a better term for thinking is everywhere and it’s ISSN 0726-9897 what we currently call “skepticism”, teachable, and it’s … well … critical. Quarterly Journal of the latter having a lot of negative Your editor has given talks to Australian Skeptics Inc associations and misunderstandings. groups of all ages on critical thinking (ABN 90 613 095 379) (Consider an organisation, Australian – school kids to senior citizens. Editor Critical Thinkers – ACT now!) Explaining to people that they use Tim Mendham But what is often misunderstood critical thinking every day, often about “critical thinking” is how without thinking too much about it Editorial Board intrinsic it is to everything we do. being critical, is not as hard as it might Steve Roberts Mention the term to some people, sound, especially if you couch it in Eran Segev and they imagine an esoteric branch everyday situations. Martin Hadley of philosophy that will be full of Deciding how to get to school or Design Services technical jargon and academic terms the senior citizens’ meeting is a matter Nova Consulting P/L that are hard to understand and it’s of weighing evidence, experience, and just for people in the ivory tower efficacy – what does it cost, how long All correspondence to: and how will it help me with the will it will take, how close is the bus Australian Skeptics Inc shopping. stop/car park, are there things I can do PO Box 20 And that’s exactly the point. on the way, should I be energetic or Beecroft NSW 2119 The special feature in this issue of energy conservative (feet or wheels). Australia The Skeptic covers various aspects The same applies to buying a fridge Contact details of teaching critical thinking to kids. – you make a decision on model, Tel: +61 (0)2 8094 1894 How can you teach such an esoteric capacity, brand, reliability, delivery, Mob: +61 (0)432 713 195 and academic topic to the littlies? energy usage, even the colour and Fax: +61 (0)2 8088 4735 How well are they able to consider whether you should have a freezer on an approach to thinking that will the bottom or the top or the side. [email protected] help them to make sense of the world This is critical thinking in the real www.skeptics.com.au and to make decisions? How is it world, and when you demonstrate this associated with creative thinking and to your audience, they get the point. The Skeptic is published four times ethics? How young can you start? The next step of the discussion is per year by Australian Skeptics Inc. And what’s it like on the cutting edge, where you don’t use critical thinking, Views and opinions expressed in articles getting a bunch of fidgety kids to and many (most?) people do not use and letters in The Skeptic are those of put down their phones and watch a critical thinking on their choice of the authors, and are not necessarily demonstration of someone lying on a religion. It’s often a matter of parental those of Australian Skeptics Inc. bed of nails? influence, followed by a desire not Articles may be reprinted with The point is, it can be done. And it to think too critically if the beliefs permission and with due acknowledge- can be done in a school and it should are challenged. Kids get this readily, ment to The Skeptic. be done in every subject at school. almost begrudgingly. (Do I have to go All effort is made to ensure correct The Australian Curriculum lays out to Sunday school?) acknowledgement of all contributions. how critical thinking processes should The point is that critical thinking We are happy to update credit when so be incorporated into virtually every is real, everyday, teachable, and we are informed. school lesson. Science, mathematics, already doing it. English literature, and history are Think about that the next time you Editorial submission deadline fairly obvious candidates, but what go to the shops. for the next issue: about languages, art and PE. If - Tim Mendham, editor November 1, 2019 you put your mind to it, you could 4 NEWS The Skeptic September 19 Around the traps ... Africa set to be declared polio free AFRICA: Nigeria is set to mark three around 20,000 cases every year at the years since it saw its last case of polio beginning of the millennium. – an important landmark on the road That just leaves two countries to official eradication of this deadly in the world where the disease childhood disease. is still endemic – Pakistan and Nigeria is the last country in Africa to Afghanistan. Afghanistan has made security situation in Pakistan has record wild poliovirus infections, but if great strides in eliminating the disease hampered eradication efforts and three no more cases are found in the next few with just 12 cases this year. However, vaccinators were shot in April. months the whole continent could soon there has been a resurgence in Meanwhile, research on Ebola has be declared polio free. Pakistan where there have been 53 identified a 100% effective vaccine Wiping out the disease in Africa cases of the disease so far this year, and medications that produce a 90% is a huge milestone as there were still compared to just 12 last year. A poor survival rate. NHMRC releases draft homeopathy report Britt Hermes successful AUS: The National Health & Medical report had many issues with the studies GERMANY: Britt Hermes has Research Council is releasing an it was using. been successful in the defamation unfinished draft report of an overview The statement by NHMRC contin- law suit brought against her by US of systematic reviews of homeopathy ues: “To address this misinformation, naturopath Colleen Huber.