THE SKEPTIC'S DICTIONARY • BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA ON EVOLUTION • TOWN CURSE

* • • Ann Druyan Talks About . Religion, Wonder, Awe...and

Art and Science (Larry) King of the Intelligent Design * « Neither Intelligent Nor Designed Nor Designed TV Fellowship Sidesteps of the Rings lest Challenges UFO Rings and Fairy Rings

Published by the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION off Claims off the Paranormal AT THE -INTERNATIONAL (ADJACENT TO THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO) • AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION , Chairman; professor emeritus of philosophy. State University of New York at Buffalo , Executive Director , Senior Research Fellow . Research Fellow , Research Fellow Lee Nisbet, Special Projects Director FELLOWS

James E. Alcock,* psychologist, York Univ., Toronto Saul Green. PhD. biochemist, president of ZOL James E. Oberg. science writer Jerry Andrus, magician and inventor, Albany, Consultants, New York, NY Irmgard Oepen, professor of medicine (retired), Oregon Susan Haack, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts Marburg, Germany Marcia Angell, M.D.. former editor-in-chief, New and , prof, of philosophy. University Loren Pankratz, psychologist, Oregon Health England Journal of Medicine of Miami Sciences Univ. Robert A. Baker, psychologist, Univ. of Kentucky C. E. M. Hansel, psychologist, Univ. of Wales John Paulos. mathematician, Temple Univ. Stephen Barrett, M.D., psychiatrist, author, Al Hibbs, scientist. Jet Propulsion Laboratory , cognitive scientist. MIT consumer advocate, Allentown, Pa. Douglas Hofstadter, professor of human Massimo Polidoro, science writer, author, execu­ Barry Beyerstein,* biopsychologist, Simon Fraser understanding and cognitive science, tive director CICAP, Italy Univ.. Vancouver, B.C., Canada Indiana Univ. Milton Rosenberg, psychologist. Univ. of Chicago Irving Biederman, psychologist, Univ. of Southern Gerald Holton, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics Wallace Sampson. M.D., clinical professor of medi­ California and professor of history of science. Harvard Univ. cine, Stanford Univ. editor. Scientific Review of Susan Blackmore. Visiting Lecturer, Univ. of the ,* psychologist. Univ. of Oregon West of England, Bristol Leon Jaroff, sciences editor emeritus. Time Amardeo Sarma. engineer, head of depl. Henri Broch. physicist, Univ. of Nice. France Sergei Kapitza, former editor, Russian edition. at T-Nova Deutsche Telekom, executive Jan Harold Brunvand, folklorist professor emeri­ Scientific American director, GWUP. Germany. tus of English, Univ. of Utah Philip J. Klass.* aerospace writer, engineer Evry Schatzman. former president, French Physics Vern Bullough, professor of history, California Lawrence M. Krauss, author and professor of Association State Univ. at Northridge physics and astronomy. Case Western Reserve Eugenie Scott, physical anthropologist, executive . philosopher, McGill University University director. National Center for Science Education John R. Cole, anthropologist, editor, National Edwin C. Krupp, astronomer, director, Griffith Robert Sheaffer, science writer Center for Science Education Observatory Elie A. Shneour, biochemist, author, Frederick Crews, literary and cultural critic, profes­ Paul Kurtz,* chairman. Center for Inquiry director, Biosystems Research Institute, sor emeritus of English, Univ. of California. Lawrence Kusche. science writer La Jolla, Calif. Berkeley Leon Lederman. emeritus director, Fermilab; Dick Smith, film producer, publisher, Terrey Hills, F. H. C. Crick, biophysicist Salk inst. for Biological Nobel laureate in physics N.S.W., Australia Studies, La Jolla, Calif; Nobel laureate Scott Lilienfeld, psychologist. Emory Univ. Robert Steiner. magician, author, El Cerrito, Calif. Richard Dawkins, zoologist. Oxford Univ. Lin Zixin, former editor. Science and Technology Victor J. Stenger. emeritus professor of physics Geoffrey Dean, technical editor, Perth, Australia Daily (China) and astronomy. Univ. of Hawaii; adjunct profes­ Daniel C. Dennett, University Professor and Austin Jere Lipps. Museum of Paleontology, Univ. of sor of philosophy. Univ. of Colorado B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Director of California, Berkeley Jill Cornell Tarter, astronomer. SETI Institute. the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts . professor of psychology, Univ. of Mountain View. Calif. University California, Irvine Carol Tavris, psychologist and author. Los Angeles, Cornells de Jager, professor of astrophysics, Univ. Paul MacCready. scientist/engineer, Calif. of Utrecht, the Netherlands AeroVironment, Inc., Monrovia, Calif. David Thomas, physicist and mathematician. Paul Edwards, philosopher, editor. Encyclopedia John Maddox. editor emeritus of Nature Peralta. New Mexico of Philosophy David Maries, psychologist City University. London. Stephen Toulmin, professor of philosophy. Univ. of Kenneth Feder, professor of anthropology. Mario Mendez-Acosta. journalist and Southern California Central Connecticut State Univ. science writer. Mexico City. Mexico Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director. Antony Flew, philosopher, Reading Univ., U.K. Marvin Minsky, professor of media arts and Hayden Planetarium New York City Andrew Fraknoi, astronomer. Foothill College, Los sciences. M.I.T. Marilyn vos Savant, Parade magazine contribut­ ing editor Altos Hills, Calif David Morrison, space scientist, NASA Ames ,* science writer, editor, SKEPTICAI Research Center Steven Weinberg, professor of physics and astron­ omy, Univ. of Texas at Austin; Nobel laureate INOUIRER Richard A. Muller, professor of physics. Univ. of E.O. Wilson, University Professor Emeritus. Yves Galifret vice-president, Affiliated Calif.. Berkeley Organizations: France H. Narasimhaiah, physicist, president. Bangalore Richard Wiseman, psychologist. University of ,* author, critic Science Forum, India Hertfordshire Murray Gell-Mann, professor of physics. Santa Fe Dorothy Nelkin, sociologist, New York Univ. Marvin Zelen, statistician. Harvard Univ. Institute; Nobel laureate Joe Nickell,* senior research fellow, CSICOP Thomas Gilovich, psychologist. Cornell Univ. Lee Nisbet* philosopher. Medaille College * Member. CSICOP Executive Council Henry Gordon, magician, columnist. Toronto Bill Nye, science educator and television host Nye Labs (Affiliations given for identification only.)

• • • Visit the CSICOP Web site at http://www.csicop.org • • •

TheSMHli Al K«." IK! H (ISSN 0 !*)-».6" VI) is published bitiKtnihlv b> the Committee (bf the and on page 63 ol the September/October 2003 issue. Or wu may send a tax request to the editor Scientific Investigation ot Claims ol the Paranormal. I MO Wcct Home Rd.. Amherst. NY Ankles, reports reviews, and letters published in rhc SKEFTrl U INQUIRED represent the \-tl2X I Yin ted in U.SA Periodicals postage paid at Buffalo, NY, and at additional mailing ••icss*. and WOffe "' individual authors Fhcir publication does not ncccssarilv constitute an office Subscription prices: one voir si* ittucs), $35j WO years. $60; three year*. S84. single endorsement by CM( i ip or its members unless so sutcd. issue. S4.9S Canadian and foreign orders: Payment in U.S. funds drassn on J L'.S. hank must Copyright ©2003 by the Committee for the Scientific fovesugation <>\ < laims ot the •". orders; please add USSlO per vear for shipping. Canadian and toreign customer* are Paranormal. All rights reserved. The SKEFTIGU Iv.u'iRm IS available on 16mm microfilm. encouraged to use Vb» M Mastcri vd 3^mm microtilm. and lO^mm microfiche from { nnttsh} Microfilfni International and is Inquiries from the media and the pub IL about rhc work "' the * nmmittcc should be made indexed in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature to Paul Kun?. Chairman. CSICOP. Bca703.Ainhem.NV 14226-0703-Tel 716436-1425. Subscriptions and changes of address should be addrcv-\t KK SKEFID M INQUIRER, Bra 703 FAX 716436-1733 Amherst. NY l422**O703.OrcJ»flWn* l*-80©*^ loi model S 0*716 Manuscripts, letters, books tor review, md editorial inquiries should be addressed to Kendrick addrev* as well as new arc necessary rbr change of subsenber s address, wkh m \\ ceks advance notice FraOCt E-dfroc StUmi U |v,.; tRER, °H Deer Drive N'h. Albuquerque. NM 87121 IJA 505- SKUTK.M Iv.x ik!» subsenbers mav not speak on behalf'on 's|( OPord 828-2080. Before Mibnmungaits manuscript, please consult our Guide lor Author, lor format and Postmaster: Send changes of address m SH R£R. Bra 703. Ambem NY rrf>rcnvns requirements. It i« on our Web site at hnp:^ww-M.oicop.org/*.i/eukic*for-auili«>fs.hiriil 1 1226-0703. SPECIAL REPORT November/December 2003 • VOL 27, NO. 6 12 Botanical Society of America's Statement on Evolution

ARTICLES COLUMNS 25 Ann Druyan Talks About Science, EDITOR'S NOTE 4

Religion, Wonder, Awe ... and NEWS AND COMMENT Carl Sagan 'Bogus' Poll of Scientists Latest Twist in ID/Creationists' Fight Against Science Standards; Scientists Battle Back / Evolution It is a great tragedy that science, this wonderful process for Battle in Texas Textbooks / Extensive Loch Ness Search by BBC finding out what is true, has ceded the spiritual uplift of Team Yields No Monster / Astrologer Misses John Ritter's Death / Scott Peterson Defense Suggests Satanists / Daniel Dennett its central revelations: the vastness of the universe, the Elected a CSICOP Fellow / Polygraph Testing to Be Scaled Back at immensity of time, the relatedness of all life, and life's National Labs / Autistic Boy Killed During / Recent preciousness on our tiny planet. Deaths (Hibbs, Taves) 5 ANN DRUYAN INVESTIGATIVE FILES The Curse of Bodie: Legacy of Ghost-Town ? 31 Less About Appearances: JOE NICKELL 15 Art and Science Visual art throughout history has given form and shape to PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS fictional spaces—habitats to the gods, myths, and legends. A Quiet Summer in Roswell ROBERT SHEAFFER 19 But art has changed slowly moving from fictional space into physical space—leading some artists to an interest in science and the untamed complexity of the real. THINKING ABOUT SCIENCE The Sin of Scientism STEPHEN NOWLIN MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI 21

35 King of the Paranormal NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD CNN's Live has a long history of outrageous Houdini's Final Days MASSIMO POLIDORO 23 promotion of UFOs, , and spiritualists. CHRIS MOONEY SCIENCE BEST SELLERS 60 41 Sylvia Browne FORUM TV Psychic Sidesteps Challenges Hen-Dubious, Cock-Sure RALPH ESTLING 61 Popularized by Larry King and Montel Williams, self- proclaimed psychic Sylvia Browne has reneged on promises LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 64 to be tested for her extraordinary claims of communicating with the dead and "seeing" health problems. Is she really psychic? Would the medical profession consider her to be BOOK REVIEWS practicing medicine without a license? Do the media care? The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Belief, BRYAN FARHA Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions By Robert Todd Carroll 45 Neither Intelligent nor Designed AMANDA CHESWORTH 55 Evolution succeeds where "Intelligent Design" fails in describing the natural world The Ghost in the Universe: God in the Light of Modern Science BRUCE and FRANCES MARTIN By Taner Edis PHIL MOLE 56 50 The Fellowship of the Rings 1421: The Year China Discovered America By Gavin Menzies UFO Rings versus Fairy Rings Fungal diseases, mushrooms, fairy rings (a fungus ring), DAN KOCH 57 bioluminescent fungi, and slime molds are presented as possible explanations for some UFO rings Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in North America or "landing rings. " By Loren Coleman ANGEL M. NIEVES-RIVERA BENJAMIN RADFORD 58 THE MAGAZINE EOI SCIENCE

EDITOR Kendrick Frazier EDITORIAL BOARD Ann Druyan Evokes the Passion of Science James E. Alcock Barry Beyerstein A s soon as Ann Druyan spoke, 1 knew I wanted to share her words with Thomas Casten Martin Gardner -/l.you. Her informal talk came at a small conference, "The Assault on Ray Hyman ," opening the auditorium at our new Center for Inquiry-West in Los Philip J. Klass Paul Kurtz Angeles. Her words ring with a passion for science and a determination to Joe Nickell share with others the emotional uplift of learning about the wonders of the Lee Nisbet Amardeo Sarma . And she wonders why we leave to religion that sense of awe that many Bela Scheiber of us find in scientific discoveries about our origins, the depth of time, the vast- CONSULTING EDITORS Robert A. Baker ness of space, and our connections to it all. Her article based on that talk leads Susan J. Blackmore this issue. John R. Cole Kenneth L. Feder She speaks of "die great bifurcation" that happened four or five hundred C. E. M. Hansel years ago when churches agreed to stop torturing scientists and scientists "pre­ E. C. Krupp Scott O. Lilienfeld tended that knowledge of the universe has no spiritual implications. . . . There David F. Marks is a great wall that separates what we know from what we Feel" She writes of Eugenie Scott reaching people by combining "rigorous science with dial soaring, uplifting Richard Wiseman CONTRIBUTING EDITORS feeling" when we encounter beautiful revelations about how we are all part of Chris Mooney "this greater fabric of life." You can see for yourself what 1 am talking about. James E. Oberg If in anything you read there you find yourself recalling some of the grace Robert Sheaffer David E. Thomas and evocative prose you remember reading Carl Sagan, it is no accident. For MANAGING EDITOR twenty years, Ann and Carl shared dieir lives, personally as wife and husband, Benjamin Radford and professionally as collaborators on books and the majestic television series ART DIRECTOR Lisa A. Hutter Cosmos. She shared bylines with him on Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and PRODUCTION and was a credited contributor to at least four other books, including Paul Loynes his final two. It is clear tiiey shared a poetic embrace with the universe. They Christopher Fix CARTOONIST both have a cosmic perspective, and a facility of expression that brings its won­ Rob Pudim ders to us with a power that few others have been able to evoke. WEB PAGE DESIGN Patrick Fitzgerald. Designer Amanda Chesworth Kevin Christopher Rob Beeston Their works always combined soaring prose with inspiring visuals—emotionally evocative photographs and artists paintings. So it is a pleasure to present imme­ PUBLISHER'S REPRESENTATIVE Barry Karr diately following Ann's article an essay on an and science by Stephen Nowlin. He CORPORATE COUNSEL discusses how some artists have gained a new interest in science and how "in 8renton N. VerPloeg combination art and science can forge a kind of nonsupernatural spirituality—a BUSINESS MANAGER Sandra Lesniak deep appreciation for the beauty and untamed complexity of the real." FISCAL OFFICER Paul Paulin DEVELOPMENT OFFICERS Richard Hull The next two articles also closely complement each other. Chris Mooney, a James Kimberly new SKEPTICAL INQUIRER contributing editor, probes into the regrettably cred­ CHIEF DATA OFFICER ulous fascination with the paranormal of CNN's Larry King. In his nightly Michael Cione STAFF CNN show , King usually does legitimate journalism and plays Darlene Banks it straight, but when it comes to psychics and other pseudoscientific matters Patricia Beauchamp Matthew Cravatta die proponents get a mostly free, uncritical ride. Bryan Farha investigates one Jennifer Miller particular King favorite, "spiritual medium" Sylvia Browne. He documents Heidi Shively Anthony Santa Lucia how Browne has repeatedly reneged on her on-camera promises to submit her John Sullivan claims to testing. Over and again, on the King show, she has promised to Vance Vigrass accept the challenges, then refused to follow through. Yet King's producers PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR Kevin Christopher keep bringing her back to spout the same old discredited stuff. That's behavior EDUCATIONAL DIRECTOR not befitting a King. Amanda Chesworth INQUIRY MEDIA PRODUCTIONS Thomas Flynn DIRECTOR OF UBRARIES Timothy S. Binga

The SMPTKAI INQUIRER is the official journal of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, an international organization.

4 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER NEWS AND COMMENT 'Bogus' Poll of Scientists Latest Twist in ID/Creationists' Fight Against Science Standards; Scientists Battle Back

KENDRICK FRAZIER But Sandia National Laboratories, Here is complete text of Robinson's one of the nation's leading engineering statement: One of the latest tactics of "intelligent and scientific research laboratories, A recent news release issued by the design" proponents in their battle to strongly disputed both the poll and the Intelligent Design Network indicated water down the teaching of evolution is news release. Sandia issued a statement Sandia's 8,000 employees were among to announce results of questionable calling the poll "bogus" and said it "has 16,000 people surveyed about the polls it claims were taken at major scien­ no scientific validity." issue of teaching creationism along tific institutions. with evolution in New Mexico At least that's what IDnet-NM schools. This release was very mislead­ (www.nmidnet.org), the New Mexico ing. No such survey took place among Sandia's 8,000 employees. branch of the pro-creationist Intelligent When we looked closely into this Design Network, Inc., tried this summer. claim, we learned that of the 16,000 But it got caught with its polls down. people at Sandia, Los Alamos, and the In its many attempts to influence mem­ three New Mexico state universities who bers of die State Board of Education, we understand purportedly were given IDnet-NM sent a news release to board an opportunity to participate, only 248 members on July 28 announcing die people actually chase to participate in such a survey. We have no idea how results of supposed polls it said represented these individuals were selected. attitudes of local scientists concerning the A sample this small, from such a teaching of evolution and intelligent design large population, has no scientific valid­ in New Mexico's schools. ity and should not be used to imply It claimed die overwhelming major­ Sandia National Laboratories or its employees endorse the Intelligent ity of respondents, including scientists Design Network's ideas. I am disap­ at two national laboratories in New pointed that the Intelligent Design Mexico, "favored teaching the evidence Network chose to include Sandia bodi for and against evolution by a fac­ C. Paul Robinson National Laboratories in a news release tor of 4-to-l." It also claimed that they based upon a bogus mini-survey. "favored teaching intelligent design by The statement came directly from As one of the world's leading engi­ an overwhelming factor of 5-to-l." Sandia's president and director, C. Paul neering and science laboratories, we Robinson. Robinson is a physicist and a at Sandia are very careful to apply It said its online survey was sent to accepted scientific methods to all sur­ "approximately 16,000 employees of respected national leader in science and veys in which we participate. That is Sandia and Los National Labs" and 500 technology and in defense policy. He's a not the case with the survey in ques­ science and engineering faculty mem­ member of the National Academy of tion. We did not participate in the bers at three universities in New Mexico. Engineering and a 2003 recipient of the Intelligent Design Network's survey Trouble is, one of the laboratories, American Physical Society's Pake prize. and do not support its conclusions. strongly miffed by the group's attempt He also carries the rank of Ambassador; As soon as the statement was com­ to use its name and prestige to promote he headed the American delegation to pleted, on August 13, physicist Marshall the ID cause, fought back—successfully. the US/USSR nuclear testing talks in Berman, a former Sandia department Suspicions were first raised when Geneva that led to protocols to the manager and a former member of the informal questioning of employees found Threshold Test Ban Treaty. State Board of Education, immediately few, if any, who said they had received When informed about the poll sent it, as was Sandia's intention, to all such a poll. An independent poll of announcement and the way it was being current board members and to officials eighty-one employees at Sandia and Los used to persuade Board of Education in the governor's office. Berman had Alamos found diat not one had received members to dilute New Mexico's much- been instrumental in reversing the 1997 the IDnet poll at their lab addresses. praised new draft science content stan­ victory of creationists in New Mexico. Many other questions about the poll's dards for public school education, validity and claims were soon raised. After they stacked the board of educa­ Robinson looked into the matter. He tion, he ran for election to it on a strong Los Alamos decided initially not to then prepared a strong statement refut­ pro-science stance, was elected, and led respond about the poll. ing the IDnet assertions. successful efforts to restore evolution

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 5 NEWS AND COMMENT

and other related scientific concepts survey are an interesting indicator of the "I would appreciate it if you would such as the age of the Earth to state sci­ attitudes of scientists in the national refrain from associating the name of Los ence teaching standards (see David E. labs." And he concluded with the cre­ Alamos National Laboratory with your Thomas, "Science Trumps Creationism ationist assertion that the science stan­ effort in any and all materials." in New Mexico," SKEFHCAL INQUIRER, dards, by including evolution, "compro­ On August 27, the Board's Instruc­ January/February 2000). mise the integrity of science." tional Services Committee met in Santa Prior to the Sandia statement, the IDnet then published a full-page Fe to consider the science standards. For SKEPTICAL INQUIRER sent an e-mail request paid ad in the August 24 Albuquerque once, audience members in favor of to Joe Renick, executive director of IDnet- Journal repeating its arguments. It gave adopting the standards without change New Mexico, asking if he would answer "A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism" outnumbered the IDnet supporters, and some questions about the poll and IDnet's and included a chart of results of the many of them spoke, including scien­ news release. Renick never replied. supposed poll that it had said it would tific leaders and a representative of the On August 17, Albuquerque Journal make no more use of. New Mexico Council of Churches. science writer John Fleck reported on the New Mexico scientists battled back. According to a report on the meeting Sandia statement. In an article headlined In an op-ed column in the Albuquerque written that night by Marshall Berman, "Anti-Evolution Poll Called Bogus," Journal titled "Creationists Tainting Real "Members of the audience who hadn't Fleck quoted extensively from the Sandia Science," M. Kim Johnson, president of spoken were asked to stand and identify statement about the poll's shoncomings. the New Mexico Academy of Science, themselves. About 90-95 percent of the Fleck also reported that as a result of the referred extensively to the Sandia state­ audience favored adopting the standards statement, Renick said his organization ment and said "the misleading use of die as is, and they came from all over the planned to stop using the poll, saying, "It bogus poll by IDnet is not simply an iso­ state. It was an amazing sight." is turning into a distraction." lated mistake, although it is a mistake," The committee voted to endorse the Renick told the Journal that he never but is an attempt "to deceive the public standards by a 4-2 vote. The next day the intended to suggest that the lab surveys and die State Board of Education. . .." full board voted unanimously, 13-0, to results were representative of all the Other scientists wrote and e-mailed the accept the standards as is. Berman reports employees of Sandia and the other scien­ board in support of the science standards. that the IDnet people tried dirty tricks up tific institutions. "It should not be inter­ Biology department faculty from the to the end—wrongly claiming that the preted as representative," Renick said. University of New Mexico forwarded to all new standards allow discussions of ID, But Fleck pointed out that IDnet's board members die new Botanical Society for example—but the board would have July 28 news release claimed that the poll of America statement on evolution (see none of it. The 2003 batde was won. "could be important in convincing the page 12). All mis was to help counter the On September 5 the New Mexico State Board of Education that the current massive campaign mounted by die IDnet, Department of Education capped the mat­ language developed by die Department which was bombarding Board members ter. It issued a news release proudly of Education does not reflect die general with appeals to alter die standards. announcing that leading outside science attitudes of parents of school children in Los Alamos also then joined the fight. organizations and experts were calling the New Mexico or that of scientists in New Los Alamos National Laboratory Director board's newly adopted science standards Mexico's national labs." IDnet was G. Peter Nanos sent a letter directly to "truly excellent," "cleady among the best in caught in a self-contradiction. Renick, with copies to the head of the die nation, if not the best," and "an accu­ Later, on August 19, IDnet's Renick State Department of Education and the rate representation of the best science." sent still another letter, this one stun­ New Mexico Board of Education. IDnet's attempts to (mis)use a poll ning for its hypocrisy, to all fifteen "The claims made in that [July 28] backfired diis time. But it took a strong, members of the Board. Renick again news release are misleading," said Nanos's even courageous reaction from the dis­ defended the poll and said criticisms of letter. "There is no evidence diat all of tinguished director of a major national it were "misinformed." But, he said, our scientific and technical staff members scientific institution (followed by an "IDnet will make no further use of the received die so-called 'poll,' nor is there equally strong letter from the director of results of this survey." He acknowledged assurance that diose who responded were another)—and aggressive follow-up that "some will take that as an admission actually scientific or technical staff mem­ actions by many other pro-science to the charges of fraud. So be it." But bers. The 'results' come from less dian activists—to refute the effects of the poll then he immediately disputed that one percent of the total employee base, announcement. Opponents of evolution interpretation and again repeated the hardly a response rate that can purport to will surely try the same tactic again, poll's supposed results and reasserted his represent the opinions of'all scientists' at in odier states. The warning remains: claims that "the results of the laboratory this institution." Defenders of science must speak out.

6 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER NEWS AND COMMENT

The good news: Speaking out can Fellow Steven Weinberg), educators, repeatedly over the past seventy years, the have strong, positive effects on behalf of concerned parents, clergy, and other cit­ investigation is the most thorough to good science. izens from around the state. date. The BBC team surveyed the waters Texas is die second largest textbook using 600 separate sonar beams, and used See also Chris Mooney, "Polling for ID, " market in the country, surpassed only by a satellite navigation system to make sure on the CSICOP Web site at www. California. Changes made by publishers that the entire lake was searched. csicop.org/doubtandabout/polling/. because of decisions in these two states Ian Florence, one of the experts who often influence textbooks across the participated in the investigation, was Kendrick Frazier is Editor of the United States. For this reason the emphatic that the lake holds no mon­ SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Discovery Institute and other enemies of sters. "We went from shoreline to shore­ science education are eager to influence line, top to bottom on this one, we have Evolution Battle in these school boards. The approved text­ covered everything in this loch and we Texas Textbooks books will be announced on November 7. saw no signs of any large living animal in the loch." Another investigator, In September 2003, a crowd packed a —Kevin Christopher Hugh MacKay, told the BBC that, far Board of Education hearing on the from being skeptical, the team began the selection of biology textbooks in Kevin Christopher is Public Relations Director for CSICOP. search expecting to find the creature. Austin, Texas. The topic of contention "There was an anticipation that we was, of course, evolution. More dian would come up with a large sonar 160 people signed up to speak in front Extensive Loch Ness anomaly that could have been a mon­ of the board at the September 10 meet­ ster, but it wasn't to be." ing. Among them were officials from Search by BBC Team Yields No Monster It is important to note that for the the Seattle-based creationist group Dis­ creature to exist, there would have to be covery Institute. The board voted 10 to In July 2003, a team commissioned by a breeding population of the monsters— 3 not to let the out-of-state witnesses the British Broadcasting Corporation perhaps a dozen or more. Out of all testify during the hearing. They were, to search Loch Ness for its fabled mon­ those giants supposedly swimming in the however, allowed to make presenta­ ster concluded that Nessie could not loch, not even one was found. tions to the board members after the be found. Having failed to find Nessie, the hearing adjourned and to submit writ­ Though the lake has been searched BBC team explained why people ten testimony. William Dembski, Baylor professor and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, misrepresented scientific opposition of evolution while speaking to the Associated Press. "There is con­ siderable debate in scientific circles about the mechanism of evolution, namely how it happened," Dembski said, quoted in a September 11 news story on the hearing. "All the textbooks under consideration grossly exaggerate the evidence for neo-Darwinian evolu­ tion, pretending rJiat its mechanism of natural selection acting on random genetic change is a slam dunk. Not so." Many groups and individuals voiced their support for quality science educa­ tion, including members of National Center for Science Education, Texas Citizens for Science, the Texas Freedom Self-proclaimed white witch Kevin Carlyon stands by a statue of the Loch Ness monster as he per­ forms an invocation on the banks of Loch Ness in an attempt to summon the monster, June 13. 2003. Network, scientists from the University A British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) team had earlier searched the lake for the creature. Both of Texas at Austin (including CSICOP Carlyon and the BBC failed to find Nessie. Reuters/Jeff J. Mitchell

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER No.ember/December 2003 7 NEWS AND COMMENT continue to see monsters where there Polygraph Testing tory. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-New apparently aren't any: witnesses see what Mexico, who had requested the NAS they want to see. As an experiment, the to Be Scaled Back at study, said even the new, reduced pro­ researchers hid a fence post beneath the National Labs gram would produce about 800 "false waterline and raised it in front of a party The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) positives." Said Bingaman: "I think you of tourists to see how they would inter­ has mostly reversed its controversial ear­ have many Americans who have other pret what they saw. When asked to lier stand about polygraph testing and options than having their patriotism describe what they had seen, several now will recommend a vastly scaled questioned and being hooked up to a drew monster-shaped heads instead of down program of mandatory polygraph machine to determine their loyalty." the actual square post. Expectation exams at the three national laboratories Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-California, said influences observation, and clearly the that deal with nuclear weapons. she was relieved by die new policy, "But suggestion that lake creatures might be In a preliminary decision announced I remain deeply concerned diat a dan­ lurking in the deep waters can transform June 13, 2003, DOE ignored strong gerous gap between science and the pol­ mundane objects into monsters. National Academy of Sciences criticisms icy remains." Continuing to subject Interest in the Loch Ness monster about polygraph testing and said it thousands of lab employees to poly­ was fueled earlier in July 2003 when a would continue the full-fledged program graphs, she said, "only promotes a false fossil vertebrae said to be of a plesiosaur as is (News & Comment, July/August sense of security and does nothing to (an extinct animal thought to be a pos­ 2003). The decision stunned many. foster good science at our national labs." sible candidate for Nessie) was found But now Deputy Energy Secretary —K.F. along the shores of the loch. In late July Kyle McSlarrow has completed a full National Geographic News reported that review of the issue. In a 29-page state­ scientists had concluded that the fossil ment to a Senate committee on Septem­ Scott Peterson Defense find was a hoax. It was a legitimate fos­ ber 4 he announced that he had found Suggests Satanists the October 2002 NAS report persua­ sil, all right—but not from Loch Ness. Scott Peterson, a fertilizer salesman who sive, which he called "a study of consid­ The fossil was embedded in limestone, is accused of killing his pregnant wife erable rigor and integrity," and as a result which is not found in the area. Most Laci in December of 2002, is bringing would recommend retaining a manda­ likely, says National Museum of Scot­ up the spectre of Satanism in his tory polygraph screening program "only land paleontologist Lyall Anderson, the defense. The photogenic Modesto, for individuals with regular access to the fossil was planted there to be later dis­ California, mother was found washed most sensitive information." covered and touted as part of a Nessie up on a San Francisco shore. skeleton. (One of the arguments against The new approach would reduce the The legal team for Peterson report­ the existence of lake monsters is the total number of people affected from well in edly plans to put forth the theory that absence of bones or skeletons.) Even the excess of potentially 20,000 to approxi­ Laci was kidnapped and killed in some president of the local Nessie fan club mately 4,500. sort of Satanic ritual as a sacrifice. admitted it was almost certainly a hoax. However, he also said he recom­ Randy Cerny, an "expert" on ritualistic mends starting a small new program of crimes, is expected to testify, in part The BBC report has angered many random screening of an additional pop­ because of his involvement with another around Loch Ness, which is economi­ ulation of individuals in the weapons alleged Satanic killing case, that of four cally dependent on tourism. Some complex who have somewhat lesser people in nearby Salida, California, in residents are afraid that fewer visitors access to classified information. Only a 1990. Angela Ragsdale, anodier self- will come to the lake if the monster is small percentage of die some 6,000 styled Satanic ritual expert, noted revealed not to exist. The findings will individuals in that category would be unconfirmed reports that Laci's unborn be broadcast later this year in a program polygraphed in any given year. child's body allegedly was found with a titled "Searching For the Loch Ness slash on the torso and a nooselike length Many details still need to be worked Monster." Despite the new findings, of tape wrapped around the neck. This out. Publication of a formal rule is of course, the sightings and search detail, Ragsdale said, suggests "a satani- expected by the end of the year. will continue. cal-type thing." Other claimed links Outside observers welcomed the include the time of year Peterson was scaled down mandatory program, but killed (supposedly coinciding with an —Benjamin Radford many questioned whether die DOE important Satanic date), and the (possi­ action went far enough. bly erroneous) detail that Laci's internal Benjamin Radford wrote on the Lake "It's still a voodoo test," said die for­ organs were removed. Champlain monster in the July/August mer head of union of scientists at Throughout the 1980s and early 2003 issue of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Lawrence Livermore National Labora­ 1990s, a rash of child abuse cases horrified

8 November/Decembe< 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER NEWS AND COMMENT

America. Children accused adults of ritual tions constitute 'the greatest hoax per­ "John Ritter is a lovable character . . ." rapes, torture, and abuse, and die news petrated upon die American people in Jillson's Sept. 12 column item began. media reported die lurid stories widi glee. the twentieth century.'" "Having a Virgo sun sign helps keep his Often die accusations included charges of Twenty years after die hysteria and career ticking." Satanism. Though some media reports panic, Scott Peterson and his lawyers are were carefully researched and stuck to the trying to revive die Satanic spectre. —K. F. facts, most were heavily sensationalized. Whether the Satanism story is found The pinnacle was perhaps Geraldo Riveras credible or not may reveal how well infamous NBC special "Devil-Worship: Americans learned their lessons. Daniel Dennett Elected Exposing Satan's Underground," which a CSICOP Fellow aired on October 28, 1988. —B. R Daniel C. Dennett, author of Darwin's On die special (as well as in his syndi­ Astrologer Misses Dangerous Idea (1995) and the new cated talk show), Rivera mixed together a book Freedom Evolves (Viking Penguin stew of self-proclaimed "Satanism John Ritter's Death 2003), has been recently elected a experts," misleading and inaccurate statis­ Fellow of the Committee for the tics, crimes with only tenuous links to It must be the ultimate embarrassment for an astrologer: publish in a newspaper Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Satanism, and sensationalized media Paranormal (CSICOP). reports. What came out was a rancid yet a glowing horoscope about a celebrity A leading philosopher of the mind, irresistible two hours that garnered the hours after that celebrity has suffered a Dennett is Director of the Center for largest viewership for a documentary in tragic and premature deadi. Cognitive Studies and University Pro­ television history—though "documen­ That's what happened to newspaper fessor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor tary" is perhaps giving it too much credit. astrologer Joyce Jillson. Jillson's "Your Rivera did his best to whip up emotions, paranoia, and fear, claiming that an orga­ nized, Satanic conspiracy was at work killing babies, murdering innocents, con­ ducting ghastly rituals, and having orgies, all to appease evil incarnate, Satan. The notable lack of evidence for die Satanic crimes was seen not as a reason to ques­ tion die claims, but simply as proof of how well organized and shrewd the Satanic conspiracy really had become. Little evidence supports claims of Satanic cults. According to Jeffrey Victor, author of Satanic Panic: The Creation of a Contemporary Legend, "There are no Satanic cults as organiza­ tions, not even as minuscule groups." In a 1992 report on ritual crime, FBI agent Kenneth Lanning concluded that Actor John Ritter Daniel C. Dennett the rampant rumors of ritual murders, cannibalism, and kidnapping were unfounded. Phillips Stevens, Jr., associ­ Stars" syndicated column appeared in of Philosophy at Tufts University, ate professor of anthropology at the the New York Daily News and other Medford, . State University of New York at Buffalo, newspapers on September 12, 2003, Dennett's odicr books include Content said that "In 1991, after more than with a mini-profile of actor television and Consciousness, Brainstorms, Con­ ten years of patiendy suggesting socio- John Ritter. Unfortunately, Ritter, 54, sciousness Explained Kinds of Minds, and psychological explanations for the had collapsed on the set of his TV Brainchildren: A Collection of Essays. He tens of thousands of allegations of show Eight Simples Rules For Dating co-edited The Mind's I widi Douglas horrible deeds by Satanic cults, I lost My Teenage Daughter Sept. 11 and died Hofstadter. my patience and in an article in the of a torn aorta in a Burbank, A Boston native, Dennett received his Wayne County (New York) Times California, hospital shortly after 10 B.A. in philosophy from Harvard and his (October 8), I declared that such allega­ P.M. that same night. Ph.D. in philosophy from Oxford

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 9 .CENTER FOR INQUIRY \International I ilnr Mission: To promote anil di-lind reason, science, and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human emleawir.

Outpacing its origins as a dissenting publisher, today's Center for Inquiry (CFI) movement has emerged as an educational resource, think tank, and advocacy orga- i. We have a bold plan to advance critical thinking, freedom of inquiry, and the scientific outlook through research, publishing, education, advocacy, and social services. REACH OUT TO II NEW FUTURE!

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University. He taught at UC Irvine from five years in prison and five years of they tried to drive out her demons. 1965 to 1971, when he moved to Tufts, court supervision if convicted. No one 1996. Glendale, California: A fifty- else was charged. where he has taught ever since. three-year-old Korean woman died Prosecutors claim that they could not from "blunt force trauma" suffered Autistic Boy Killed lay more serious charges without prov­ during an exorcism. Her minister ing that Hemphill was aware that his husband and two other males, one a During Exorcism actions could harm the victim. "That is Deacon at Glendale Korean Meth­ odist Church, beat her with their fists a subjective test," Milwaukee assistant The Committee for the Scientific Investi­ and feet for several hours, trying to district attorney Mark Williams told die gation of Claims of die Paranormal (CSI- drive "the devil" out of her. She had Times. "What matters from a legal sense COP) has been following the latest case of consented to the exorcism. is what was in his mind when he was an exorcism-related deadi at the Faith doing what he was doing. And in his 1997. Bronx, New York: A five-year- Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith in mind, he was trying to help this child. old girl died after her mother and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On Friday, This wasn't a normal situation." grandmother forced her to drink a August 22, 2003, eight-year-old Terrance lethal cocktail containing ammonia, Cottrell, Jr., who suffers from autism, was "How can a child be dead and these vinegar, and olive oil and then wrapped in sheets and held down by people get charged with child abuse?" bound and gagged her with duct asked Mary Luckett, Cottrell's grand­ tape. The two women claimed that church members during a prayer service mother. "I can't even understand what they were merely trying to poison a held to exorcise die evil spirits they these people are thinking. I don't care if demon that had infested the little blamed for his condition. girl several days earlier. it was a church. I don't care what they According to die New York Times., were trying to do." 1998. Sayville, New York: Charity "[h]is shin was drenched in sweat when This tragic exorcism death received a Miranda, seventeen, was suffocated with the church members who were holding few days' coverage in the week following a plastic bag by her modicr and her sister him down, saying they wanted to rid him Cottrell's death, yet the mainstream in an effon to destroy a demon inside of demons, finally noticed that he was media have failed to report that such her. The deadi came following hours of dead. He had urinated on himself, and deaths are nothing new. In the past eight attempts to rid her of demons. his small, brown face had a bluish cast." years, there have been at least four other And now the tragic case of Terrance According to the medical examiner, exorcism-related deaths in the United Cottrell, who died horribly because of a there was extensive bruising on the back States, two of the victims children: church whose congregation failed to of the little boy's neck and it appeared 1995, San Francisco, California: exorcise itself of irrational beliefs. that he died of mechanical asphyxiation Members of Jesus-Amen Ministries from pressure placed on his chest. Pat pummeled Kyung-A Ha to death as —K. CD Cooper, the boy's mother, told investiga­ tors that she held down one of Terrance's Recent Deaths feet, while other women held down other parts of his body. Ray Anthony Albert R. (Al) Hibbs, retired space scientist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Hemphill, the preacher who led the Bisl chid ol JPLs Space Science Division, "the voice ol JPL for die Ranger, spiritual healing service, held the boy's Surveyor, Mariner. Mercury. Viking, and Voyager unmanned planetary missions, head and body down. Cooper said winner of NASA's Exceptional Service Award, co-audior with Richard Feynman of Hemphill's knee was pressed into the Quantum Mechanics anil Path Integrals and audior of the introduction to boy's chest at one point, but Hemphill, Feynman's Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, and CSICOP Fellow, of complica- who weighs nearly 150 pounds, said dons following heart surgery, on February 24. 2003. at age 78. that he at times lay on top of the boy, chest to chest. About two hours into the Ernest H. Taves, psychoanalyst turned writer of fiction and skeptical nonfiction. praying and die struggling, Hemphill researcher into and visual perception, author of Trouble Enough: got up but Terrance was still. Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon (Prometheus 1999) and co-authot with the noted Harvard astronomer Donald H. Menzel of The UFO Enigma (Doubleday Some in Cottrell's Milwaukee com­ 1977, one of die best early books critically examining bodi the physical and psy- munity arc outraged by the relatively ical aspects ot the UFO ), practiced psychiatry and psv. lenient charges Hemphill faces. Though analysis in New York City and Cambridge, Mass., a CSICOP Scientific the county medical examiner ruled the Consultant. August 16, 2003, in Boston, ol compl tOowing a heart boy's death a homicide, Hemphill has been charged only with felony child abuse, and faces a maximum sentence of attack, at age 87. t -KM SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 11 SPECIAL REPORT Botanical Society of America's Statement on Evolution

The Botanical Society of America exists to promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, Junction, diversity reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere. Our membership largely con­ sist of professional scientists, scholars, and educators from across the United States and Canada, and from over 50 other countries. Most of us call ourselves botanists, plant biologists, or plant scientists, and members of our profession teach and learn about botanical organ­ isms using well-established principles and practices of science. As such, we were asked by the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) if we could provide a statement outlining our view on evolution. On July 27, 2003, at the 2003 Annual General Meeting the BSA Council approved the statement to follow for use by the NCSE. [Published in the SKEPTICAL INQUIKEK by permission of the BSA.J

he Botanical Society of America implied when someone says, "evolution is they were created just so, and they has as its members professional just a theory," the cote concepts of evolu­ exhibit the hallmarks of intelligent scientists, scholars, and educa­ tion are well documented and well con­ design. As such, creationism is an all- T firmed. Natural selection has been tors from across the United States and inclusive explanation for every biological Canada, and from over 50 other coun­ repeatedly demonstrated in bodi field phenomenon. So why do we support tries. Most of us call ourselves botanists, and laboratory, and descent with modifi- and teach evolution and not creation- plant biologists, or plant ism/"intclligent design" scientists, and members if both explain the of our profession teach same phenomena? Are and learn about botanical botanists just dog­ organisms using well matic, atheistic materi­ established principles and alists, as some critics of practices of science. science imply? Hardly, Evolution represents although scientists are one of the broadest, most routinely portrayed by inclusive theories used in creationists as dog­ pursuit of and in teaching matic. We are asked, diis knowledge, but it is "Why, in all fairness, by no means the only die- don't we teach both ory involved. Scientific explanations and let theories are used in two students decide?" ways: to explain what we The fairness argu­ know, and to pursue new ment implies that knowledge. Evolution creationism is a scien­ explains observations of BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA tifically valid alterna­ shared characteristics (die tive to evolution, and result of common ances­ w\AAA/.botany.org that is not true. Science try and descent with is not about fairness, modification) and adaptations (die result cation is so well documented that scien­ and all explanations are not equal. Some of natural selection acting to maximize tists are justified in saying that evolution scientific explanations are highly specu­ reproductive success), as well as explain­ is true. lative with little in the way of supporting ing pollen: ovule ratios, weeds, deceptive Some people contend that creation- evidence, and diey will stand or fall pollination strategies, differences in sex­ ism and its surrogate, "intelligent based upon rigorous testing. The history ual expression, dioecy, and a myriad of design," offers an alternative explana­ of science is littered with discarded other biological phenomena. Far from tion: diat organisms are well adapted and explanations, e.g., inheritance of being merely a speculative notion, as have common characteristics because acquired characters, but these weren't

12 July/August 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER discarded because of public opinion or of many human problems, e.g., host- Breadwheat had chromosomes similar to general popularity; each one earned that pathogen interactions, origin of crop emmer, but 14 more, so they were desig­ distinction by being scientifically falsi­ plants, herbicide resistance, disease sus­ nated AABBCC. To plant biologists fied. Scientists may jump on a "band­ ceptibility of crops, and invasive plants. familiar with mechanisms of speciation, wagon" for some new explanation, par­ For example, plant biologists have these data, the chromosome numbers ticularly if it has tremendous explanatory long been interested in the origins of and sets, suggested that the emmer and power, something that makes sense out crop plants. Wheat is an ancient crop of breadwheat species arose via hybridiza­ of previously unexplained phenomena. the Middle East. Three species exist both tion and polyploidy (an hypothesis). The But for an explanation to become a as wild and domesticated wheats, Middle Eastern flora was studied to find mainstream component of a the­ native grasses with a chro­ ory, it must be tested and found mosome number of 14, and useful in doing science. several goatgrasses were dis­ To make progress, to learn covered that could be the more about botanical organisms, predicted parents, the hypotheses, the subcomponents sources of the BB and CC of theories, are tested by attempt­ chromosomes. To test these ing to falsify logically derived hypotheses, plant biologists predictions. This is why scientists crossed einkorn and emmer use and teach evolution; evolu­ wheats with goatgrasses, tion offers testable explanations which produced sterile of observed biological phenom­ hybrids. These were treated ena. Evolution continues to be of to produce a spontaneous paramount usefulness, and so, doubling of the chromo­ based on simple pragmatism, sci­ some number, and as pre­ entists use this theory to improve dicted, the correct crosses our understanding of the biology artificially produced both of organisms. Over and over the emmer and breadwheat again, evolutionary theory has generated predictions that have species. No one saw the proven to be true. Any hypothe­ evolution of these wheat sis that doesn't prove true is dis­ species, but logical predic­ carded in favor of a new one, and tions about what happened so the component hypotheses of were tested by recreating evolutionary theory change as likely circumstances. Grasses knowledge and understanding are wind-pollinated, so grow. Phylogenetic hypotheses, cross-pollination between patterns of ancestral relatedness, wild and cultivated grasses based on one set of data, for example, happens all the time. Frosts base sequences in DNA, are generated, einkorn, emmer, and breadwheat. and other natural events are known to and when the results make logical sense Archeological studies have demonstrated cause a doubling of chromosomes. And out of formerly disparate observations, that einkom is the most ancient and the hypothesized sequence of specia­ confidence in the truth of the hypothe­ breadwheat appeared most recendy. To tion matches their observed appearance sis increases. The theory of evolution so plant biologists this suggested that some­ in the archeological record. Farmers permeates botany that frequendy it is how einkorn gave rise to emmer, and would notice and keep new wheats, not mentioned explicitly, but the over­ emmer gave rise to breadwheat (an and the chromosome doubling and whelming majority of published studies hypothesis). Further evidence was hybrid vigor made both emmer and are based upon evolutionary hypotheses, obtained from chromosome numbers breadwheat larger, more vigorous each of which constitutes a test of an that showed einkorn with 14, emmer wheats. Lastly, a genetic change in hypothesis. Evolution has been very suc­ with 28, and breadwheat with 42. breadwheat from the wild goatgrass cessful as a scientific explanation Further, the chromosomes in einkorn chromosomes allowed for the chaff to because it has been useful in advancing consisted of two sets of 7 chromosomes, be removed from the grain without our understanding of organisms and designated AA. Emmer had 14 chromo­ heating, so glutin was not denatured, applying that knowledge to the solution somes similar in shape and size, but 14 and a sourdough (yeast infected) cul­ more, so the)' were designated AABB. ture of the sticky breadwheat flour

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER luly/August 2003 13 would inflate (rise) from the trapped dispersal ability of organisms in direct to the (disease, genetic carbon dioxide. proportion to their distance from east­ defects, lightning, blights and plagues, The actual work was done by many ern Turkey), creationism has been scien­ epilepsy, eclipses, comets, mental illness, plant biologists over many years, little tifically falsified. etc.) became known to have natural by little, gathering data and testing Is it fair or good science education to causes and explanations. Recognizing ideas, until these evolutionary events teach about an unsuccessful, scientifi­ this, the Catholic Church finally admit­ were understood as generally described cally useless explanation just because it ted, after 451 years, that Galileo was above. The hypothesized speciation pleases people with a particular religious correct; the Earth was not the unmoving events were actually recreated, an belief? Is it unfair to ignore scientifically center of the Universe. Mental illness, accomplishment that allows plant biolo­ useless explanations, particularly if they birth defects, and disease are no longer gists to breed new varieties considered the mark of evil or of emmer and bread of God's displeasure or pun­ wheats. Using this specia­ ishment. Epileptics and peo­ tion mechanism, plant ple intoxicated by ergot- biologists hybridized wheat infected rye are no longer and rye, producing a new, burned at the stake as vigorous, high protein witches. As natural causes cereal grain, Triticale. were discovered and under­ What would the cre­ stood, religious authorities ationist paradigm have were forced to alter long-held done? No telling. Perhaps positions in the face of grow­ nothing, because observing ing scientific knowledge. This three wheat species spe­ does not mean science has cially created to feed disproved the existence of the humans would not have supernatural. The methodol­ generated any questions ogy of science only deals with that needed answering. No the material world. predictions are made, so Science as a way of know­ there is no reason or direc­ ing has been extremely suc­ tion for seeking further cessful, although people may knowledge. This demon­ not like all the changes sci­ strates the scientific useless- ence and its handmaiden, ness of creationism. While technology, have wrought. creationism explains every­ But people who oppose evo­ thing, it offers no under­ lution, and seek to have cre­ standing beyond, "that's the way it was have played no role in the development ationism or intelligent design included created." No testable predictions can be of modern scientific concepts? Science in science curricula, seek to dismiss and derived from the creationist explana­ education is about teaching valid con­ change the most successful way of tion. Creationism has not made a single cepts and those that led to the develop­ knowing ever discovered. They wish to contribution to agriculture, medicine, ment of new explanations. substitute opinion and belief for evi­ conservation, forestry, pathology, or any Creationism is the modern manifes­ dence and testing. The proponents of other applied area of biology. tation of a long-standing conflict creationism/intelligent design promote Creationism has yielded no classifica­ between science and religion in Western scientific ignorance in the guise of learn­ tions, no biogeographies, no underlying Civilization. Prior to science, and in all ing. As professional scientists and educa­ mechanisms, no unifying concepts with non-scientific cultures, myths were die tors, we strongly assert that such efforts which to study organisms or life. In only viable explanations for a myriad of are both misguided and flawed, present­ those few instances where predictions natural phenomena, and these myths ing an incorrect view of science, its can be inferred from Biblical passages became incorporated into diverse reli­ understandings, and its processes. (e.g., groups of related organisms, gious beliefs. Following the rise and migration of all animals from the resting spread of science, where ideas are tested Authored by: J. E. Armstrong and J. Jernstedt. offi­ cers of die BSA. Approved by die BSA Council: place of the ark on Mt. Ararat to their against nature rather than being decided July 27, 2003. Copyright ©2003 The Botanical present locations, genetic diversity by religious authority and sacred texts, Society of America. P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO derived from small founder populations. many phenomena previously attributed 63166-0299. Web site: www.botany.otg.

14 July/August 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL

The Curse of Bodie: Legacy of Ghost-Town Ghosts?

oday, the ghost town of Bodie, They agreed to keep the discovery secret Mine, which, in just six weeks, shipped California, is one of the most until the following spring, but one, W.S. gold bullion worth a million dollars. Tauthentic abandoned gold- Bodey, returned with another man, a Meanwhile, Bodie grew rapidly, with mining towns of the Old West (figure half-Cherokee named "Black" Taylor. boarding houses, restaurants, saloons, 1). It is also reputed to be a "ghost" Having traveled to Monoville for sup­ and other enterprises springing up town in another sense: Some claim, plies, die pair were returning to their (Williams 1992, 9-10). according to a TV documentary, that cabin when they were caught in a bliz­ Camps like Bodie attracted a breed Bodie is inhabited by ghosts who guard zard and Bodey perished. of adventurous types: the town against pilferers {Beyond Named for its discoverer, camp Besides the business and professional 2000). Supposedly, a visitor who dares Bodey was soon rechristened "Bodie" men, mine-operators, miners, etc., to remove any artifact can be plagued by when (according to local lore) a sign there were hundreds of saloon-keep­ the dreaded "curse of Bodie." painter misspelled the word and the new ers, hundreds of gamblers, hundreds version was preferred (Bodie 2001; of prostitutes, many Chinese, a con- Boom Town The 1849 discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in the western Sierra foothills lured men and women to California from '[Bodie had] an unusual number of what we across the United States and indeed the used to call 'Bad men'—desperate, violent world. Prospectors equipped with picks, shovels, and the ubiquitous gold pans characters from everywhere, who lived by searched for placer deposits—loose gambling, gun-fighting, stage robbing, flakes and nuggets that have eroded and washed into streams. and other questionable means." These deposits were searched for by "panning" (an art I once learned in the Yukon) in which the lighter dirt is deftly Misspelling 2003). At first Bodie was sidcrablc number of Mexicans, and an washed out, leaving behind the flakes of largely neglected due to other strikes in unusual number of what we used to "color" that are collectively called "gold the area. Mark Twain was among the call "Bad men"—desperate, violent characters from everywhere, who lived dust." The discovery of sufficient placer gold seekers who rushed to nearby by gambling, gun-fighting, stage rob­ deposits sparked quests for the "mother Aurora, Nevada, for instance. bing, and other questionable means. lode," involving hardrock mines labori­ However, Bodie eventually boomed. The "Bad man from Bodie" was a cur­ ously dug, blasted, and shored up with In 1876, a freak mine cave-in exposed a rent phrase of the time throughout the timber (Williams 1992. 5; Smith 1925). valuable body of gold, and the Standard west. In its day, Bodie was more A decade after die gold rush began at Consolidated Mining Company re­ Sutter's Mill, four prospectors made a sponded with a large investment in Joe Nickell is CSlCOP's Senior Research rich strike on the opposite side of die equipment and lumber. Anodicr rich Fellow and author of numerous investiga­ Sierras—that is, in the eastern foothills. strike followed in 1878 in die Bodie tive books including Real-Life X-Files.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 15 widely known for its lawlessness than next two decades. A disastrous fire and the superstitious to think of ghosts, for its riches. (Smith 1925) struck in 1892 and—with a steady and Bodie is no exception. It represents decline in the interim, including addi­ an entire townful of potentially haunted There were other perils and hard­ tional mine closings and abandonment houses and other premises—168 re­ ships, including the savage winter of of the Bodie Railway in 1917—another maining structures—as well as the Bodie 1878-1879 in which hundreds died of devastating fire destroyed much of the cemetery. It is, gushes one ghost-hustling exposure and disease, and mining acci­ town in 1932 (Johnson and Johnson writer, "A ghost town that is really a dents that claimed victims by falling 1967,20-21). ghost town" (Myers 1990). timber, the explosion of a powder mag­ azine, and other means (Smith 1925; Although Bodie was already dying, However, the reports of ghosdy activity Bodie Cemetery n.d.). further decline having resulted from tend to fall into categories of familiar, well- Given Bodies reputation, it is perhaps Prohibition and the Depression, some understood phenomena. Consider, for not surprising mat one little girl, whose mining continued. However, there were example, occurrences at die J.S. Cain family was moving to the mining town, no new strikes and companies eked out House at me corner of Green and Park reportedly prayed: "Goodbye God! We only minor profits, largely by using the streets. Once me home of a prominent are going to Bodie" (Smith 1925). cyanide process to extract gold from old businessman and men the residence of caretakers' families, it is Decline supposedly haunted by me specter of a Chinese Hardships and violence woman, possibly a maid aside, Bodie was a thriv­ who worked for the Cains ing, busding place, con­ (Hauck 1996). taining some 600 to 800 buildings and a popula­ Reportedly, mis "heavy tion that reached over set" Chinese lady appeared 10,000 (Williams 1992, to children in tlieir sec­ 10; Johnson and John­ ond-floor bedroom. Also, son 1967, 20). As it ap­ a rangers wife stated: peared about 1880, I was lying in bed witli The traffic in the my husband in the lower streets was continuous bedroom and I felt a and enlivening. There pressure on me, as were trains of huge, though someone was on white-topped "prairie- Figure 1. This California ghost town is allegedly haunted by spirits who wield "the curse of top of me. I began fight­ Bodie." schooners," bringing ing. I fought so hard I freight from the railroad, each drawn tailings (i.e., mine refuse). By the 1950s ended up on the floor. It really fright­ by twenty or more horses or mules, ened me. Another ranger who had even this recovery operation ceased and and pulling one or two large, four- lived there, Gary Walters, had the Bodie became a ghost town. Explains wheeled "trailers"; ore wagons, haul­ same experience, in the same room, one writer: "When people were leaving ing ore down the canyon to the mills; except that he also saw the door open wood wagons bringing huge loads of Bodie, there were no moving companies and felt a presence and a kind of pine-nut from long distances, for the in the area. People simply packed what suffocation. (Myers 1990) mines and mills and for general use; they could on one wagon or truck and hay wagons, lumber wagons, pros­ left the rest behind." He adds, "That is pecting outfits, nondescript teams of All of these effects are well known why many of Bodies buildings still con­ all descriptions, spanking teams dri­ and may occur when one's consciousness tain belongings that were left here years ven by mine superintendents' horses shifts into a state between being fully ridden by everybody, and most excit­ ago" (Williams 1992,36). asleep and fully awake. In this condition, ing of all, die daily stages that came In 1962, after years of neglect, Bodie tearing into town and went rushing seemingly realistic "waking dreams" became a State Historic Park, and two out; the outgoing stages often carrying often occur, involving ghosts, aliens, or bars of bullion, guarded by stern, years later the Ghost Town of Bodie was other beings. Also in this interim state silent men, armed with sawed-off dedicated as a California Historic Site. It one may experience "sleep paralysis" in has also been designated a National shotguns loaded widi buckshot. ... which, although the mind is awake, the (Smith 1925) Historic Site. Bodie is maintained in a body is still in the sleep mode. The sen­ state of what is termed "arrested decay," sation of being held or strapped down is However, like other boom towns. which means the buildings are protected a typical consequence (Nickell 2001). Bodies period of glory was brief, lasting but not restored (Johnson and Johnson from 1879 to 1882. The decline was 1967,21; Bodie 2001, 3). Some apparitional or auditory experi­ slow, with the two major mines—the ences such as riiose reported at Bodie— Bodie and the Standard—merging in Ghost Town, 'Ghost' Town for example "a woman peering from an 1887 and operating successfully for the Old, deserted places inspire die romantic upstairs window in the Dechambcau

16 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER House" or "the sound of children's laugh­ In addition to perceived phenomena, nails and other souvenirs taken from ter ... heard outside the Mendocini photographs represent another form of Bodie. While "Most of it comes back in House" (Myers 1990)—may be similarly "evidence" for alleged ghosts at Bodie. an unmarked box," the ranger states, explained. These typically occur when the Again, however, there are familiar pat­ "We still get letters . .. from people say­ experiencer is relaxed or performing rou­ terns. For example, streaks of light in ing, 'I'm sorry I took this, hoping my tine work. Such a mental state may allow some photos (Lundegaard 2002) are luck will change'" (Beyond 2000). images or sounds to spring up from the consistent with the camera's flash The earliest use I have found of the subconscious and thus be superimposed rebounding from something—such as phrase "The curse of Bodie" appears in upon die consciousness (Nickell 2001). the wrist strap—in front of the lens the 1925 reminiscence of a former resi­ One man visiting the Bodie cemetery (Nickell 2001). dent. However, he was speaking of some­ thing entirely different, namely what had with his little girl noticed her giggling befallen Bodie and caused its decline. As and apparcndy playing with an unseen Bodie Curse he wrote: "the curse of Bodie, as it was of entity. This was supposed to be "The Yet, if some people are to be believed, 'The Comstock,' was the stock market, Angel of Bodie," a child who was killed there are not only ghosts in the which was manipulated by when she was accidentally stock gamblers in San hit in the head by a miner's Francisco for their own pick (Myers 1990). profit, regardless of the mer­ Actually the dead child was its of the mines, and with­ Evelyn, the three-year-old out thought for the thou­ daughter of Albert and sands that found their ruin Fannie Myers, who died in in the unholy game .. ." 1897. Her grave is sur­ (Smith 1925). mounted by the figure of a The notion of a quite child angel, sculpted of different Bodie curse—one white marble (Bodie that does not harm the Cemetery n.d., 5)—an town but instead defends it ideal model for a little girl's from pillagers—is of much imaginary playmate (see more recent vintage. Not figure 2). surprisingly, it appears to follow efforts to preserve I have found that Bodie as a historic site. some people seem espe­ Obviously the "curse" is cially susceptible to being officially promoted ghosts—because they are today when a ranger more inclined to believe Figure 2. Investigator Vaughn Rees examines the tombstone of "The Angel of encourages the idea on a Bodie." reportedly one of the resident ghosts. or because they are espe­ television program and the cially imaginative. I continue to use a windswept town but, purportedly, spir­ museum/gift shop displays an album of questionnaire that helps me analyze its who are responsible for protecting its letters from those believing themselves reported ghost encounters, and thus far treasures by implementing the "Curse of accursed. I find a good correlation between those Bodie." Explains the narrator of one Although these letters may be only a experiences and the number of traits television documentary: selection and three are undated, the ear­ associated with fantasy proneness Bodies inhabitants were of hardy liest of the remaining twelve was sent in (Nickell 2001). stock, fiercely possessive of what they 1992. Having taken a nail from Bodie, This correlation continued with my had built in this barren desert, and it the writer states: "Life since then has is said that the long-dead spirits want research at Bodie, although colleague been a steady downward slide. It's possi­ to ensure that what they left behind ble that all the unpleasant events of the Vaughn Rees and I obtained only four remains intact. According to legend, past nine months are a coincidence, but completed questionnaires there. (A anyone who removes anything—large just in case the Bodie curse is real I am ranger stopped the project since I had or small—from the town is cursed returning the nail." Another letter, from not obtained official permission, some­ with a string of bad luck. Misfortune and tragedy arc heaped upon the vic­ 1994, is addressed, "Dear Bodie Spirits": thing I usually try to avoid to keep tim until the stolen item is returned. employees from being told what to say.) Some claim that the ghosts of Bodie I am SORRY! One year ago around Nevertheless, even with this limited patrol the crumbling ruins to guard the 4th of July I was visiting the Ghost sample, the highest ghost-experiences against thieves. (Beyond 2000) Town. I had been there many times before but had always followed the reg­ score was matched by a high fantasy ulations about collecting. This trip was score, and similar results were obtained According to park ranger J. Brad different. I collected some items here with six questionnaires we obtained at Sturdivant, "The curse still exists today." and there and brought them home. 1 another California ghost town. Calico. Spooked former visitors often return old was a visitor again this year, and while

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 17 I was in the museum I read the lcncts curse, a Hope Diamond jinx, or a the newspaper, The Bodie Evening Miner. of others who had collected things and Kennedy family propensity for misfor­ If it be argued that these were not pil­ had "bad luck." I started to think tune (Nickell 1999). fered from Bodie, the other item, an old about the car accident, the lost [sic] of my job, my continuing illness and A different mindset allows one to fork, reportedly was: I bought it from an antiques dealer who said she picked it up herself at Bodie several years ago without apparent consequence. I have even specifically challenged the I would like to donate tiiese items to Bodie. I am only waiting for the time Curse of Bodie by collecting artifacts that when the town's custodians officially cease have come from there. promoting and disclaim die existence of any Bodie curse.

Acknowledgments I am grateful to CFI Librarian Tim Binga, SI shrug off such nonsense. Skeptics some­ managing editor Ben Radford, and intern other bad things that have "haunted" times hold "Superstition Bashes" during Dawn Peterson for research assistance, and me for the past year since my visit and which they break mirrors and challenge to Paul Loynes for his professional word pro­ violation. I am generally cessing. not superstitious but ... Please find enclosed (he References collectibles 1 "just could­ n't live without," and ask Beyond Bizarre. 2000. Travel Channel documentary, Sept­ the spirits to see my ember 24. regret. Bodie Cemetery: The Lives Within. N.d. Bridgefore, California: This was signed, "One The Friends of Bodie. with a very guilty con­ Bodie State Historic Pari. 2001. science." Guide booklet. Sacramento: California State Parks. On the TV series Be­ Hauck, Dennis William. 1996. yond Bizarre (2000), a Haunted Places: The National German man related how Directory. New York: Penguin Books, 36-37. his uncle had removed a Johnson, Russ, and Anne Johnson. small bottle from Bodie 1967. The Ghost Town of and two days later had a Bodie. Bishop, California: Sierra Media Inc. car accident on the Lundegaard, Karen. 2002. Autobahn. The next day Identifying spirit photos. his son took the botde to Available at www.karenlunde- gaard.com/Spirit_Photos/SPho school to show classmates tol6.html. and on the way home Figure 3. Artifacts from Bodie—especially ones pilfered from there, like this old Misspelling of Bodie. 2003. Avail­ fork—supposedly attract the fearsome "curse." had a bicycle accident. able at www.bodic.net/si/Bod ey.asp. Said the man, "Yes, I do Myers, Arthur. 1990. The Ghostly believe in the curse of Bodie." other without fear of con­ Gazetteer. Lincolnwood. Illinois: Contempor­ Belief aside, such anecdotal evidence sequence. In attendance may be a resi­ ary Books, 40-48. Nickell. Joe. 1999. Curses: foiled again. SKEPTICAL does not prove the existence of a "curse" dent spokesperson (such as myself), INQUIRER 23(6), November/December 16-19. (or "hex" or "jinx")—an alleged para­ identified as a friggatriskaidekaphobiol- . 2001. Phantoms, frauds, or fantasies? normal attack. Indeed, belief in curses is ogist—that is, one who studies the fear Chap. 10 of James Houran and Rense Lange, of Friday the Thirteenth and, by exten­ Haunting and . Jefferson, North merely a superstition, a form of magical Carolina: McFarland & Company, 214-223. thinking. Once the idea takes hold, sion, other supposed causes of bad luck. Poag, Larry. 1997. Poag's Guide to Shopkeepers and there is a tendency for any harmful I have even specifically challenged the Shootists of Bodie. Lake Grove, Oregon: Western Places. occurrence to be counted as evidence for Curse of Bodie—not by pilfering items from the site, which is appropriately ille­ Smith, Grant H. 1925. Bodie: The last of die old- the belief, while beneficial events are time mining camps. California Historical gal—but by collecting artifacts that have ignored. Through die power of sugges­ Society Quarterly IV: 1; reprinted in Williams come from there. As shown in figure 3, 1992. 11-24. tion, the magical conviction spreads these include an 1879 check, drawn on Williams III, George. 1992. The Guide to Bodie from person to superstitious person, and Eastern Sierra Historic Sites. Carson City, the Bodie Bank, and two 1882 issues of until many believe, say, in a King Tut's Nevada: Tree By The River Publishing. •

18 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS ROBERT SHEAFFER

A Quiet Summer in Roswell

o far all the stories we've heard plenty of time to be on the lookout for thirty years until he heard the stories from former military personnel at strange objects—as they and the being told by Marcel and trumpeted by SRoswell, New Mexico, tell of weather observers had been warned to UFOIogists, turning a minor "incident" crashed spaceships, frenzied covert activ­ be. Summers says that well before the into a major "event" and "cover-up." ities, and alien cover-ups. But now famous "incident," they had been Summer, who is the father of the another voice is heard from the Army instructed by an officer whose name he composer and Prometheus author Air Corps in Roswell in 1947, and this believes to have been Capt. Hill, to be Joseph Summer, knew the late Major one tells a very different story from the on the lookout for "something" strange. Marcel quite well, and didn't have good one we've been hearing on the TV They were never told exactly what they things to say about him. When Marcel shows. Herbert H. Summer of Pitts­ were supposed to look for, but they were picked up die famous "debris," he took burgh, Pennsylvania, now seventy-five, told if they saw it, they must report it. it home and attempted to burn it with a was a strapping youngster of nineteen Perhaps this may have been some offi­ match—both of which, as which when he was an Army Air Corps cer's over-reaction to the excitement Summer points out. Marcel had no Weather Observer stationed in Roswell over Kenneth Arnold's first report ol business doing. If debris of unknown from 1946 to August 1947. When 1 "flying disks" on June 24 of that year. origin is found, it becomes military spoke with him. he told me his duties Vigilant they were, but neither the property and should not be left in a were to make hourly weather observa­ weather observers nor the flight con­ civilian location but immediately tions during an eight-hour shift, record trollers ever saw anything to report. brought in for analysis. It should be pre­ the data, and use it to make up weather As for the famous "incident" on July sumed to have potential intelligence maps. Sometimes they sent up weather 7 (although perhaps "fiasco" would be a value, and also to be potentially haz­ balloons, occasionally even lighted bal­ better term), while Summer was not ardous. It should not be toyed with, loons, although nothing of the scale of involved in the recovery of the so-called which is what Marcel appears to have the huge Mogul balloon train that is "debris," he is confident that it was a done, bringing it home and letting his now believed to be responsible for the balloon. The first he heard about it was young son handle it. celebrated Roswell debris (see "The when he learned that Major Jesse Marcel In fact, Summer goes so far as to and Project Mogul" by "flew off to Ft. Worth carrying a space­ describe Marcel as inclined towards "fan­ Dave Thomas, SI July/August 1995). ship under his arm," as he now satiri­ tasy." When a hoaxer sent a message Weather observations were being made cally describes it. This agrees well with about a supposed "Russian invasion" around the clock every day at Roswell, the statement that Mac Brazel, who first across a weather teletype network rJiat but the weather observers reported no found the debris, made to newspapers: it was shared by a number of military and saucers—flying, crashing, or otherwise. resembled "tinfoil and sticks," and university sites, Marcel interrogated The non-sighting of saucers is even weighed about five pounds. Summer Summer for four days over the incident, more remarkable when you consider the says that there was no unusual activity at asking the same questions and receiving case of the air traffic controllers, who the base immediately following the the same reply literally hundreds of times. shared a barracks with the weather "incident," and that the stories about Marcel seemed disappointed, according observers. The)' manned a small air traf­ the recovery of a spaceship with alien fic control tower twenty-four hours a bodies are "all fabrications." In fact, he Robert Shaffers World Wide Web page for day, aldiough there was very little air says that he had hardly thought about UFOs and other skeptical subjects is at traffic going in or out. Thus they had the so-called "incident" at all for about www. debu niter, com.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 19 to Summer, when a student confessed at moment." People have reported "close widespread use in personal computers, it one of the university sites. Marcel seemed encounters" with a brilliant orange UFO, supposedly reads, "Beware the bearers of determined to distinguish himself by one that reportedly maneuvers around fol­ FALSE gifts & their BROKEN finding the originator of the offending lowing them. PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. message right there in Roswell, whether it And the research of Hoagland and BELIEVE. There is GOOD out there. originated there or not. his colleagues continues to turn up We oppose DECEPTION. Conduit amazing, literally unbelievable facts CLOSING." > * • about Mars. A new analysis of Mars The Web site www.cropcircle The recent extra-close approach of Mars Odyssey frames of the so-called "Mars connector.com notes that there were just (in reality, just a few percent closer than face" on Cydonia has revealed that that three circle formations each found dur­ the planets typical close approach) has feature is "incredibly reflective" when ing the months of April and May 2003. That number suddenly jumped to twenty-one in June, as if the extraterres­ Apparently the first-time cirdemakers were not trial circle makers suddenly had much more time on their hands. In July it rose very skillful, because the pilot who discovered the to twenty-five. The August numbers circles said that it looked like "drunk aliens" (not yet complete as this is written] con­ tinue at a good clip. It will be interesting had created them. to see if the numbers drop off signifi­ cantly when the school session on Alpha Centauri begins again in September. provided plenty of fodder for the cranks the Sun comes up. From this, Hoagland Closer to home, thousands of tourists and mystery mongers. Chief among concludes that this feature is made of began flocking to the Sacramento Valley them is Richard C. Hoagland, who mirror-like "artificial surface materials." in July when a string of six crop circles claims that NASA probes have revealed Kind of like the Luxor Casino pyramid was discovered near Fairfield. However, all kinds of artifacts on that planet (and in Las Vegas, perhaps? soon four teenagers confessed that they elsewhere; see www.enterprisemission. Speaking of Mars, the conspiracy- had made the circles using boards con­ com). Referring to his claim that our oriented "Mind Control" Web site nected to a rope. According to a story in ancestors originally lived on Mars, he www.ravenl.net reveals that yet another the Vallejo Times-Herald, they had seen a informed a nationwide audience on Face has recently been discovered. This television documentary about crop cir­ Coast to Coast AM (Art Bell's old show, one seems to be wearing a "crown"— cles, and decided to try to make some now hosted by George Noory), "Mars is apparently revealing diat our ancient themselves (sec http;//timesheraldon- now almost blinding, it's absolutely Martian ancestors had kings. You can see line.com/articles/2003/07/11 /news'news breathtaking. . . . Tonight, it's closer it at www.ravcnl.net/crownedface.jpc. 03.txt). Apparently the first-time cir- than it's been since maybe we were • * * clemakers were not very skillful, because there." But apparently our ancestors on the pilot who discovered the circles said Mars were as careless as some ol us have Even though the major media haven't that it looked like "drunk aliens" had cre­ been here on Earth, and somehow been reporting much about crop circles ated them. destroyed that planet: "When you look lately, the circles keep getting more But who says that crop circles can at Mars," said Hoagland, "you're seeing complex, and the purported messages occur only on farms, in crops? Why not in a planet where something has gone ter­ more elaborate. According to Marshall vacant lots, in the weeds? The newest ribly wrong. I think that going to Mars Masters, a frequent guest on Coast to twist in the circles phenomenon is "weed and finding out that our ancient ances­ Coast AM, a complex crop circle pattern circles" (see http://www.paratexas.com- tors somehow blew it, that whatever near the Chilbolton Radio Telescope in /Vacantlotcircles.htm). The group there is now is in ruins, will have a stun­ England appears to be a response to the Para Texas, which specializes in "paranor­ ning dramatic effect on the psyche of SETI message sent out by Carl Sagan mal investigations of Texas," reports on an people here on this planet." and in 1974 (see unexplained circle discovered on August Perhaps that effect has already begun: a www.yowusa.com/Archivc/May2003/cr 12 in the weeds of a vacant lot near story in the Sydney Morning Herald of abwood4/crabwood4.htm), even Galveston. What's even more remarkable, August 28 proclaims "Mars Movements though those researchers used the using "Electronics Voice Phenomena" Spark Huge Rise In German 'UFO Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, thou­ (EVP), researchers Rich and Mary Smith Sightings'" (see www.smh.com.au/anicles/ sands of miles away. Another researcher, found that the weed circle was emanating 20O3/O8/27/lO6l66385531O.htm). Wer­ Maurice Osborne, claims to have deci­ electronic voices from the spirit world. ner Walter, the head of CENAP, a group of phered the ET's message, encoded in Fortunately, the weed circles were not German UFO skeptics, said "I'm hearing binary patterns of broken grain. found to be magnetic or radioactive, so some of the most outrageous claims at the Encoded using the ASCII code set in there's no danger in approaching them. •

20 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER THINKING ABOUT SCIENCE MASSIMO PIGLIUCCI

The Sin of Scientism

he United States is characterized a person who engages in scientism plexities ol human mental phenomena by a peculiar mixture of science- (engaging in scientistic behavior doesn't into current neurobiological parlance, worshipping and anti-intellect- make you a scientist). Indeed, the word perhaps it is the latter that is at fault for T being too simplistic. The Churchlands, ualism. On the one hand, America is the is often hurled at people as an insult, clear world leader in science and tech­ especially by philosophers at other on the other hand, have faith in the fact nology, boasting achievements such as philosophers, or by creationists at evolu­ that eventually psychology will be absorbed into biology, just as chemistry landing a human on the Moon (or, tionary biologists and other scientists. is now considered largely a branch of more questionably, inventing and using Scientism is essentially an ideological physics. Perhaps, but the jury is obvi­ nuclear weapons). On the other hand, position implying that science is the only ously still out, and it seems premature to almost half of the American people don't key to solve any problem worth address­ be too dogmatic on the matter. "believe" in evolution, and many ing, and that—given enough time and espouse all sorts of doubtful or down­ right silly beliefs in paranormal phe­ Scientism is essentially an ideological nomena. How is this possible? Many explanations have been pro­ position implying that science is the only key posed, and undoubtedly several are to solve any problem worth addressing, and that— needed. As is often the case with complex sociological phenomena, many given enough time and resources—science factors are at play simultaneously, and in fact will solve those problems. there is no simple answer to the prob­ lem. I'd like to focus here on what 1 think certainly is one of these factors, resources—science in fact will solve Another example of scientism can be which when mentioned finds scientists those problems. Let us consider philoso­ found in the ambitious program that and skeptics immediately on the defen­ phers Patricia and Paul Churchlands E.O. Wilson set up for himself when sive: the intellectual hubris of scientism. rather radical idea that emotions do not writing his Consilience: The Unity of Scientism is not a philosophical posi­ exist. Their notion of "eliminativism" Knowledge. In it, the famous biologist tion that people espouse of their own (see Armstrong, D.M., 1999. The elimi- (already controversial enough for wishing choice. There is no National Association nativist theory, pp. 91-99 in The Mind- to straightforwardly extend the sociobiol- for the Advancement of Scientism, and Body Problem: An Opinionated ogy of ants to that of human beings) in fact there is not even a word to label Introduction. Westview Press, Boulder, attempted to present the broad picture of Colorado) aims at reducing all psycho­ a "consilience," i.e., a unification, of all logical talk to terms of neurobiology, and branches of human knowledge, from sci­ Massimo Pigliucci is Professor of Ecology & the idea is that when one thinks of neu­ ence to history, from religion to an. The Evolutionary Biology at the University of rons and electrical potentials, one docs problem was that rather than a unifica­ Tennessee and author of Denying not need to bring up cumbersome and tion, Wilsons project increasingly took Evolution: Creationism, Scientism and vague concepts such as emotion. One the shape of a program of academic impe­ the Nature of Science. His essays can be could object that if there is a problem rialism in which science would eventually found at uww.rationallyspealeing.org. when attempting to translate the com- reduce and explain everything else.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 21 Skeptics have their share of scientistic such a successful activity in die past, it in what other people justly perceive as tendencies, real or perceived, as on those simply does not follow that it will con­ an argument from authority ("believe occasions in which they dismiss out of tinue to be so in the future, or that it me, I have a Ph.D. in the sciences .. ."). hand (i.e., without serious considera­ will work in any particular case. To What we often fail to convey to the pub­ tion, or based only on armchair investi­ think otherwise is to put an unsubstan­ lic is not that science is incredibly gations) new or unusual phenomena. tiated amount of trust in the method of effective at solving a wide variety of We should always remember that plenty induction (the idea that one can gener­ problems—it obviously is. We fail to of currently accepted scientific discover­ alize from past experience), a principle present science as an open-ended ies were once thought to be "impossible" that in itself cannot be justified on sci­ inquiry, a process of continuous revision or to contradict established scientific entific grounds (see the May/June 2003 of its own findings, a metaphor of the principles (heliocentrism, the theory of "Thinking About Science" column). never-ending quest for human knowl­ evolution, and continental drift imme­ Second, and perhaps more impor­ edge and wisdom. Scientism is the secu­ diately come to mind). tantly, adopting a scientistic attitude is lar equivalent of religious bigotry, and What, exactly, is wrong with scien- likely to result in very bad publicity with it does no good to either society or to tism? I maintain that there are two cate­ the average citizen. The essence of sci­ science itself. gories of problems with it, which every ence is the application of critical think­ serious skeptic should ponder from time ing to empirically verifiable questions, Further Reading to time. First, it is philosophically and the last thing one should do in Sorell. T. 1991. Scientism: Philosophy and the untenable. Just because science has been order to foster such attitude is to engage Infatuation with Science. Routledge, London. I_"J

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22 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAt INQUIRER NOTES ON A STRANGE WORLD MASSIMO POLIDORO

Houdini's Final Days

ne of the best things about lec­ he had an elderly acquaintance whose to visit the hospital, but again he refused turing around the world is the deceased husband was the physician who to get the needed rest; he had his foot put Ochance to meet a lot of inter­ initially attended Houdini during his ter­ in plaster and resumed his scheduled tour. esting people. That's what happened, minal illness in Detroit. Would I be He continued to appear in his complete for example, when I was touring the interested in having her tell me this story? evening's entertainment of , escapes, United States in August 2001 to speak Of course I was! Though we could not and pseudo-, moving from about my book Final Seance, about the meet in person, eventually Dr. Sandweiss Albany to Schenectady. On the eigh­ curious friendship between Harry graciously wrote me and sent a written teenth he arrived in Montreal, Canada, Houdini and Sir . memoir of Ethel Cohn Schatz, the where physicians strenuously advised him Naturally, I was approached by many widow of Houdini's physician. against continuing his public perfor­ fans, students, and historians or both mances until his leg healed. But Houdini Tragedy Strikes Doyle and Houdini, but also by other adamantly continued. intriguing people. There was a man in In October 1926, Houdini, then fifty- On October 22, Houdini was visited , Ohio, who told me I could two years old, was touring North backstage by a few students. One of get all the information I wanted on America with his grand show of magic them began drawing a portrait of the Doyle directly from him—meaning not and escapes. He had opened on magician, who was then laying on a the Clevelander, but "him," Doyle him­ September 13 at the Majestic Theater couch reading his mail. To the students self! This man did not claim to be a in Boston, and when the tour had Houdini looked like someone "much in medium but, nonetheless, believed he reached Albany on October 11, need of a long, carefree vacation"; still, had talked many times with the spirit of Houdini was getting quite tired. His he was kind, affable, and made them feel Doyle. To prove it he told me he had wife Bess had been ill and he had not comfortable. They talked for a while, taped all these conversations and slept for almost three days in order to and Houdini answered all of their ques­ promised to send them to me. When spend time close to her in New York. tions. "Is it true, Mr. Houdini," asked after some time I received the tapes they When he arrived in Albany, nonethe­ then a student named Wallace White­ were completely blank. Maybe he had less, he went on stage and performed in head, "that you can resist the hardest made some mistake duplicating them, the scheduled show. During the perfor­ blows struck to die abdomen?" or they had been erased during ship­ mance of the famous Water Torture The unexpected question took every­ ping, or maybe the man had tried to Cell act, the apparatus that held him body aback. Houdini, who had never tape conversations that only happened upside down suddenly snapped and he claimed such a thing, tried to change in his mind. broke his left ankle. A physician subject. But the student persisted. A more fruitful meeting took place in ordered that he be taken immediately to Eugene, Oregon, at the Skeptics Toolbox the hospital, but Houdini refused, Massimo Polidoro is an investigator of the Workshop sponsored by CSICOP and wanting to finish the show. paranormal, author, lecturer, and co- held at the University of Oregon. I met Only after the curtains had been low­ founder and head of CICAP, the Italian Donald Sandweiss, M.D., who told me ered on the closing act did Houdini agree skeptics group.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 23 Houdini replied that he had strong mus­ How did it happen that a young, nearby delicatessen on Woodward cles in his arms and back. inexperienced practitioner was called in Avenue and bought two portions. As they were eating, Houdini said, "If I "Would you mind if I delivered a to see the great Houdini? According to die, don't be surprised if phony spiri­ few blows to your abdomen, Mr. Mrs. Cohn Schatz, tualists declare a national holiday." Houdini?" was the next surprising An older colleague of Daniel's, leaving His public battles with spiritualists question from Whitehead. on vacation, asked him to substitute were well-known. Houdini accepted, but as he tried to as house physician at the Statler. get up from the couch, the well-built Daniel, with few patients of his own, The operation, however, did not save young man began punching him in the complied with enthusiasm. As soon as Houdini; the infection had already Daniel examined Houdini and heard stomach with terribly forcible punches. spread through Houdini's body. The sit­ his story, as told by his wife Bess, he uation was desperate, and the physicians "Hey there!" cried out one of the called Dr. Kennedy, chief of surgery issued a statement indicating that he was students. "You must be crazy. What are at Grace Hospital. Sick as Houdini near death. Houdini seemed to improve you doing?" was, however, he refused to go to the after the doctors gave him an experi­ Whitehead delivered a few more hospital until Daniel called Houdini's own physician in New York and mental serum; but he had to be operated punches and, when Houdini murmured explained the urgency of the case. His on again and the situation got worse. "That will do," stopped his attack. The physician persuaded him to go, he atmosphere slowly returned back to nor­ was admitted to the hospital and On October 29, he told Bess to "be mal as Houdini regained his breath. The Kennedy operated immediately. prepared, if anything happens," meaning by this not only to expect the worse, but portrait was finished and handed to There were no antibiotics then Houdini. "You made me look a little tired and without the drugs that we also to be ready should he try to contact in this picture," remarked the magician. take for granted today, medical sci­ her from beyond the grave. On the diirty- "The truth is, I don't feel so well." He ence knew of nothing to save first Houdini said to his brother: "I'm thanked die students and said goodbye. Houdini's life. When the surgeon tired of fighting, Dash. 1 guess this thing operated and discovered a ruptured, is going to get me." At 1:26 P.M., October That night he performed his show as gangrenous appendix, the doctors expected, but between intermissions he realized the magician was doomed. 31, , died. rested on his couch in a cold sweat. After Innumerable medical men were Mrs. Cohn Schatz notes that the performance he rushed to the station called in consultation to treat him. The insurance company questioned They were all well-established, out­ to catch a train for Detroit, where he was whether abdominal punches could standing physicians with many patients scheduled to open the next evening. On possibly cause an appendix to rupture of their own. Only one young physi­ the train, however, the stomach pain and lead to a fulminating streptococ­ cian had nothing but time. became unbearable and a wire had to be cal peritonitis. All the physicians on Daniel welcomed the opportunity the case testified that this was 'the first sent ahead asking for a physician to meet to spend night and day at Houdini's case of undoubted traumatic appen­ them at the Detroit station. bedside. At the end, an awestruck dicitis' they had ever seen. The New The doctor found signs of appendici­ young novice became friend and con­ York Life Insurance Company then tis and urged him to enter a hospital. fidant to a dying magician. paid Bess Houdini double indemnity. Houdini, instead, went to his hotel, When Daniel wrote the case his­ tory, he found ii intriguing that Daniel's name appeared in news­ where he shook with chills. On October Houdini designated his occupation papers and in newscasts in Detroit 24 he went to Detroit's old Garrick first as an author and second as a and all across the country, even Theatre and opened the show, although magician. The world knew him then abroad. After hearing that he was the his temperature had reached 104 and he as it remembers him now, as an doctor who took care of the great collapsed twice between intermissions. extraordinary magician and show­ Houdini, coundess patients called his office for appointments. After the show was over, the magician man. But he prided himself much more on the many books and articles Daniel was overwhelmed by the returned to his room at the Statler Hotel he had written, books and articles widespread publicity and the sudden and collapsed in the middle of the night. rarely read today. burgeoning of his medical practice. Enter Dr. Daniel Cohn. Every evening Daniel sat at But more than anything, he treasured Houdini's bedside listening to his for the rest of his life, the memory of The Dying Magician halting sentences as he reminisced die serendipitous stroke of chance "Daniel," remembers Ethel Cohn Schatz, mostly about his childhood. Bom in that led a 'young punk' to meet, treat "not yet my husband at dnat time, was Hungary, he grew up in Appleton, and get close enough to know as a Wisconsin, the son of a rabbi. warm, likeable person, a renowned only twenty-five years old, a 'young punk' Though he had no appetite for magician on his deathbed. as he described himself. He had recendy food, he said to Daniel one evening, "I completed his residency at Grace have a yen for Farmer's Chop Suey." Acknowledgments Hospital and had just opened an office to Farmer Chop Suey is a favorite I would like to diank Mrs. Ethel Cohn start private practice. He had earned his dish in Jewish homes, consisting of Schatz for leaving a written testimony of her medical degree at the University of raw vegetables combined with sour husband's experience, and Dr. Donald Michigan Medical School." cream. Daniel walked over to a Sandweiss for letting me have it.

24 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Ann Druyan TaiKs Aj Science, Religion, Wonder, Awe ... and Carl Sagan

spiritual uplift O) :he vast). 'full life, and life's pre, ioioness on on W^ _ ^ «ANN DRUYAN

"ve been thinking about the distorted view ofscienc prevails in our culture. FVe been wondering aboi IA because our civilization is completely depended ence^nd high technology, yet most of us arc alien science. We are estranged from its methods, its vain its language. V\ ho is the scientisl in our culture? lie 4 FfUistus^Dr. Fjraj^nstcin, Dr. Strangelove. He's of the Faustian bargain that is bound to en •fcfc"doe s that come from? We've had a i dented success in scientific disci

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 25 even our recent ancestors would consider magic, and yet our fear-based behavior, obedience. God threatens to kill Adam self-esteem as a species seems low. We hate and fear science. and Eve if they disobey his wishes. God tells them that the We fear science and we fear the scientist. A common theme of worst crime, a capital offense, is to ask a question; to partake popular movies is some crazed scientist somewhere setting of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. What kind of father is about ruining what is most precious to all of us. this? As Diderot observed, the God of Genesis "loved his I think the roots of this antagonism to science run very apples more than he did his children." deep. They're ancient. We see them in Genesis, this first story, This imperative not to be curious is probably the most self- this founding myth of ours, in which the first humans are hating aspect of all, because what is our selective advantage as doomed and cursed eternally for asking a question, for partak­ a species? We're not the fastest. We're not the strongest. We're ing of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. not the biggest. However, we do have one selective advantage- that has enabled us to survive and prosper and endure: A fairly large brain relative to our body size. This has made it possible for It's puzzling that Eden is synonymous us to ask questions and to recognize pat­ terns. And slowly over die generations with paradise when, if you think about it at all, we've turned this aptitude into an ability it's more like a maximum-security prison with to reconstruct our distant past, to question the very origins of the universe and life twenty-four hour surveillance. itself. It's our only advantage, and yet this is the one thing that God does not want us to have: consciousness, self-awareness. Perhaps Genesis should be read as an It's puzzling that Eden is synonymous with paradise when, ironic story. Here's a god who does not give us the knowledge if you think about it at all, it's more like a maximum-security of good and evil. He knows we don't know right from wrong. prison with twenty-four hour surveillance. It's a horrible place. Yet he tells us not to do something anyway. How can someone Adam and Eve have no childhood. They awaken full-grown. who doesn't know right from wrong be expected to do the What is a human being without a childhood? Our long child­ right thing? By disobeying god, we escape from his totalitarian hood is a critical feature of our species. It differentiates us, to prison where you cannot ask any questions, where you must a degree, from most other species. We take a longer time to never question authority. We become our human selves. mature. We depend upon these formative years and the social Our nation was founded on a heroic act of disobedience to fabric to learn many of the things we need to know. a king who was presumed to rule by divine right. We created So here are Adam and Eve, who have awakened full grown, social and legal mechanisms to institutionalize the questioning without the tenderness and memory of childhood. They have of authority and the participation of every person in the deci­ no mother, nor did they ever have one. The idea of a mammal sion-making process. It's the most original thing about us, our without a mother is, by definition, tragic. It's the deepest kind greatest contribution to global civilization. Today, our not- of wound for our species; antithetical to our flourishing, to exactly-elected officials try to make it seem as if questioning who we are. this ancient story is wrong. . .. That the teaching of our evolv­ Their father is a terrifying, disembodied voice who is furi­ ing understanding of nature, which is a product of what we ous with them from the moment they first awaken. He does­ have been able to discover over generations, is somehow un- n't say, "Welcome to the planet Earth, my beautiful children! American or disrespectful of strongly held beliefs. As if we Welcome to this paradise. Billions of years of evolution have should not teach our children what we've learned about our shaped you to be happier here dian anywhere else in the vast origins, but rather we should continue to teach them this story universe. This is your paradise." No, instead God places Adam which demonizes the best qualities of our founding fathers. and Eve in a place where there can be no love; only fear, and This makes no sense and it leads me to a question: Why do we separate the scientific, which is just a way of searching for Ann Druyan is a cowriter with the late Carl Sagan of the Emmy truth, from what we hold sacred, which are those truths that and Peabody award-winning series Cosmos. Their twenty-year inspire love and awe? Science is nothing more than a never- professional collaboration included NASA's Voyager Interstellar ending search for truth. What could be more profoundly Message and many speeches, articles, and books, including sacred than that? I'm sure most of what we all hold dearest and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and Comet. She was co-creator cherish most, believing at this very moment, will be revealed with Sagan of the motion picture Contact, and a credited con­ at some future time to be merely a product of our age and our tributor to his , The Demon-Haunted World, and history and our understanding of reality. So here's this process, . She is co-founder and CEO of Cosmos this way, this mechanism for finding bits of reality. No single Studios, as well as Program Director of Cosmos 1, the first solar bit is sacred. But the search is. sailing spacecraft mission. She and Carl Sagan were married until And so we pursue knowledge by using the scientific his death in 1996. They have two children. method to constantly ferret out all the mistakes that human

26 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER beings chronically make, all of the lies we tell ourselves to this information at the Council, but he declined because he combat our fears, all of the lies we tell each other. Here's sci­ knew how dangerous it would be to puncture this cosmologi- ence, just working like a tireless machine. It's a phenomenally cal illusion. Even though the pope at that moment was not successful one, but its work will never be finished. actually terribly exercised about this idea, Copernicus's fears In four hundred years, we evolved from a planet of people were not baseless. Even sixty years later, a man named who are absolutely convinced that the universe revolves Giordano Bruno was burned alive for one reason: he would around us. No inkling that the Sun doesn't revolve around us, not utter the phrase, "There are no other worlds." let alone that we are but a minuscule part of a galaxy that con­ I've thought about this a lot. How could you have the guts tains roughly a hundred billion stars. If scientists are correct, if to be willing to be burned alive? Bruno had no community of recent findings of planets that revolve around other stars are peers to egg him on. He wasn't even a scientist, he didn't really correct, there are perhaps five have any scientific evidence, but hundred billion worlds in this he chose this horrible death galaxy, in a universe of perhaps because he refused to say this another hundred billion galax­ phrase: "There are no other ies. And it is conceivable, even worlds." It's a magnificent thing, possible, that this universe it's a wondrous mystery to me, might one day be revealed to be and I don't think I completely nothing more than an electron understand how it was possible. in a much greater universe. And Copernicus did find the here's a civilization that was courage to publish his idea when absolutely clueless four or five he was comfortably near a ­ hundred years ago about its own ural death. When in 1543, On tiny world and the impossibly The Revolutions of Celestial greater vastness surrounding it. Spheres was published, some­ We were like a little bunch of thing unprecedented happened: fruit flics going around a grape, a trauma from which we have and thinking this grape is the never recovered. Up until that center of everything that is. To time, the sacred and the scien­ our ancestors the universe was tific had been one. Priests and created for one particular gender scientists had been one in the of one particular species of one same. It is true that two millen­ particular group among all the nia before Copernicus there had stunning variety of life to be been the pre-Socratic philoso­ found on this tiny little world. phers, who really were the inventors of science and the There was only one problem. democratic values of our society. These very special beings for These ancient Greeks could whom the universe was created imagine a universe and a world had a holiday called Easter and without God. But they were Ann Druyan the)' wanted to be able to cele­ very much the exception, flourishing too briefly before being brate it on the same day at the same time. But in this geocen­ almost completely extirpated philosophically by the Platonists. tric universe that they blissfully inhabited, there was no way to Many of their books were destroyed. Plato loathed their mate­ create a workable calendar that was coherent. At this time, there rialism and egalitarian ideals. So there really wasn't a vibrant was a phrase to describe what science was. It is suffused with school of thought with a continuous tradition that survived disarming candor and not a bit of self-consciousness at all. It down through the ages, daring to explain the wonder of nature was called saving the appearances. That was the task of science: without resorting to the God hypothesis. To save the appearances. Figure out a way to take the reported appearances of the stars and the planets in the sky and predict It was actually initiated by a group of uncommonly reli­ with some reliability where they would be in the future. It's gious men like Copernicus, Newton, Kepler, and (much later) almost as if they knew they were living a cosmic lie. To call it even Darwin, who catalyzed that separation between our saving the appearances is wonderful. knowledge of nature and what wc held in our hearts. All four So the Lateran Council of 1514 was convened, and one of of them either had religious careers or were contemplating its main goals was to figure out a calendar that everybody such a profession. They were brilliant questioners, and they could use so that they won't be celebrating Easter on different used the sharpest tools they had to search for what was holy. days. A man named Nicolas Copernicus, who was a very reli­ The)' had enough confidence in the reality of the sacred to be gious guy, whose lifelong career was in the church, had already willing to look at it as deeply as humanly possible. This figured out what the problem was. He was invited to present unflinching search led to our greatest spiritual awakening—

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Nov*mbet/D«ember 2003 27 the modern scientific revolution. It was a spiritual break­ We built a wall inside ourselves. through, and I think that it is our failure to recognize it as such It made us sick. In our souls we cherished a myth diat was that explains so much of the loneliness and madness in our civ­ roodess in nature. What we actually knew of nature we com­ ilization, so much of the conflict and self-hatred. At that time, partmentalized into a place that could not touch our souls. the public and their religious institutions, of course, rejected The churches agreed to stop torturing and murdering scien­ out of hand their most profound insights into nature. It was tists. The scientists pretended that knowledge of the universe several hundred years before the public really thought about has no spiritual implications. this, and took seriously what Copernicus was saying. The last It's a catastrophic tragedy that science ceded the spiritual four centuries of disconnect between what our elders told us uplift of its central revelations: the vastness of the universe, the and what we knew was true has been costly for our civilization. immensity of time, the relatedness of all life and it's precious- I think we still have an acute case of post-Copernican-stress ness on this tiny world. syndrome. We have not resolved the trauma of losing our When I say "spiritual," it's a complicated word that has infantile sense of centrality in the universe. And so as a society some unpleasant associations. Still, there has to be a word for we lie to our children. We tell them a palliative story, almost that soaring feeling that we experience when we contemplate 13 billion years of cosmic evolution and four and a half billion years of the story of life on this planet. Why should we give It has only been through science that we that up? Why do we not give this to our children? Why is it that in a city like Los have been able to pierce this infantile, Angeles, a city of so many churches and dysfunctional need to be the center of temples and mosques, there's only one place like this Center for Inquiry? And the universe, the only love object of its creator. that it's only us here today? Fewer than a hundred people in a city of millions? Why is that? Why does the message of science not grab people in their souls and to ensure that they will be infantile for all of their lives. Why? give them the kind of emotional gratification that religion Is the notion that we die so unacceptable? Is the notion that has given to so many? we are tiny and the universe is vast too much of a blow to our This is something that 1 think we have to come to grips shaky self-esteem? with. There's a confusion generally in our society. There is a It has only been through science that we have been able to great wall that separates what we know from what we fid. pierce this infantile, dysfunctional need to be the center of the Medicine has had an oath that goes back to Hippocrates. universe, the only love object of its creator. Science has made Hippocrates is an amazing figure, both a father of scientific it possible to reconstruct our distant past without the need to ethics and first articulator of the insight that frees humankind idealize it, like some adult unable to deal with the abuse of to discover the universe. He's one of those pre-Socratic childhood. We've been able to view our tiny little home as it philosophers I was talking about earlier, and he said something is. Our conception of our surroundings need not remain the that resonated for me at a moment in my life when I realized disproportionate view of the still-small child. Science has what my path would be. His words inspired me to try as hard brought us to the threshold of acceptance of the vastness. It as I could in my own life to make it matter what is true. has carried us to the gateway of the universe. However, we are Hippocrates was writing in an essay called Sacred Disease 2,500 spiritually and culturally paralyzed and unable to move for­ years ago. He was writing about the sacred disease that is now ward; to embrace the vastness, to embrace our lack of central­ called epilepsy, and very matter-of-factly he said something ity and find our actual place in the fabric of nature. That we that struck me like a lightning bolt. I'll paraphrase: "People even do science is hopeful evidence for our mental health. It's believe that this disease is sacred simply because they don't a breakthrough. However, it's not enough to allow these know what causes it? But some day I believe they will, and the insights; we must take them to heart. moment they figure out why people have epilepsy, it will cease What happened four or five hundred years ago? During to be considered divine." Why don't we have schools every­ this period there was a great bifurcation. We made a kind of where that teach children about Hippocrates, about the power setdement with ourselves. We said, okay, so much of what we of asking questions, ratJier than cautionary tales about the believed and what our parents and our ancestors taught us has punishment for doing so. Our kids arc not taught in school been rendered untenable. The Bible says that the Earth is flat. about Hippocrates, not taught about this multigenerational The Bible says that we were created separately from the rest of process of divesting ourselves of superstitions, false pattern life. If you look at it honestly, you have to give up these basic recognition, and all the things that go with it, racism, sexism, ideas, you have to admit that the Bible is not infallible, it's not xenophobia, all that constellation of baggage that we carry the gospel truth of the creator of the universe. So what did we with us. We live in a society now where our leadership is all do? We made a corrupt treaty that resulted in a troubled peace: about promoting superstition, promoting xenophobia.

28 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER in the experience of travelling through the universe. I was hon­ It seems to me that the biggest challenge we face is to evolve a ored to cowrite, with our Cosmos cowriter Steve Soter, the first language that couples the cold-eyed and rigor of two shows that inaugurated the planetarium center. And this science with a sense of community, a sense of belonging thai is what got me thinking about how we might offer something religion provides. We have to make it matter what is true. If that would be at least as compelling as whatever anyone else in instead we say that what really matters is to have faith, what the religion business is offering. We get to take you through really matters is to believe, we'll never get there. It's not enough the universe, and through the history of not only the Milky to have forty minutes of science in the daily school program, Way Galaxy but also the larger universe, and to tell some­ because science shouldn't be compartmentalized that way. thing—the second one's called The Search for Life. Are We Science is a way of looking at absolutely everything. Alone?—something about the nature of life. It's a very uncom­ What I find disappointing about most religious beliefs is promising message about evolution and I think very directly that they are a kind of statement of contempt for nature and promotes the kind of values and ideas that I think we share. reality. It's absurdly hubristic. It holds the myths of a few thou­ Every kid who goes to a city public school gets taken to these sand years above nature's many billion-ycared journey. It says shows. It was eye-opening to me, first of all, how far you could reality is inferior and less satisfying than the stories we make up. go in this direction, and what you could do with music and a

We need to create a community of skep­ ticism for people of all ages. We desper­ It's not enough to have forty minutes of science in ately need some good music. We don't have to cut any corners on our ethos of the daily school program, because science shouldn't skepticism. We do have to learn how to be compartmentalized that way. Science is a instill a sense of community, a rational experience of communion with nature way of looking at absolutely everything. and each other. I would love to see, actually, not so much building more Centers for Inquiry, which would be great, but why don't we take over the plane­ fantastic technical capabiliry that lets you tour that part of the taria of the country, of which there are hundreds, and turn universe we have come to know something about. You really them into places of worship. Not worship of the science that hold on to your chair. You feel like you're traveling through the we know of this moment. Always give the message, over and galaxies. It's uplifting. I constantly get mail about this and over again, that our understanding could be wrong, this is everyone is saying the same thing: you made me feel a part of what we think at this moment. The wonder of science is that something. You made me feel, even though I'm really small, we may find out that all of this is untrue. Why don't we take that I'm a part of this greater fabric of life, which is so beauti­ over these places and have services in the planetaria. We can ful. And that's the kind of stuff that Cosmos Studios is work­ connect. We can find inspiration in the revelations of science. ing on, all of our projects. II they don't combine rigorous sci­ We can have skepticism and wonder, both. ence with that soaring, uplifting feeling, then they don't qual­ ify as a project for us. So I would say that that there's a lot in the entertainment world that we could be doing that I think To me, faith is antithetical to the values of science. Not hope, has the power to really reach people. which is very different from faith. I have a lot of hope. Faith is saying that you can know the outcome of things based on what you hope is true. And science is saying in the absence of evi­ Since we founded Cosmos Studios in the spring of 2000. we dence, we must withhold judgment. It's so hard to do. It's so have accomplished the following: We are launching Cosmos 1, tempting to believe in the lie detector or in heaven or that you the first solar sailing spacecraft later this year. Our partners are know who you are based on the day of the month that you and the Babakin Space Research Center were born. It's a sort of unearned self-esteem. It's an identity of Russia. We are actually launching the spacecraft from an that you can slip right into, and it's tremendously reassuring. intercontinental ballistic missile based on a Russian submarine. So, I don't have any faith, but I have a lot of hope, and I have We have taken this weapon of mass destruction and converted a lot of dreams of what we could do with our intelligence if we it to a means of advancing the dream of space exploration. Solar had the will and the leadership and the understanding of how sailing is an idea that has been around in science since the we could take all of our intelligence and our resources and cre­ 1920s, but it's never been tried before. If we succeed, we will ate a world for our kids that is hopeful. have demonstrated a practical means of literally riding light all I had a wonderful experience writing for the relatively new the way to die stars. We liken our solar sail to what the Wright Rose Center at the Hayden Planetarium in New York. It's the brothers did at Kitty Hawk, because although they were aloft greatest virtual reality theatre on Earth; completely immersive for only twelve seconds and went 165 feet, they demonstrated

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 29 that powered flight in a heavier than air vehicle was possible. start cutting off the other person. But to do so is to abandon What we're trying to demonstrate is that solar sailing is possi­ all hope of changing minds. ble, and solar sailing is the only physically sound way of which we know to travel so quickly rJiat it begins to be feasible to do interstellar flight on human time scales—two thousand years to When my husband died, because he was so famous and known the nearest star instead of twenty thousand years. for not being a believer, many people would come up to me— Cosmos Studios has funded research that has resulted in it still sometimes happens—and ask me if Carl changed at the two papers published in the journal Science. Wc have produced end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently a spifFed-up version of the thirteen-hour Cosmos TV series ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with on DVD. We have produced unflagging courage and never three full-length documentaries. sought refuge in illusions. The Perhaps our most promising pro­ tragedy was that we knew we ject is an ambitious new way of would never see each other again. teaching science from pre-kindcr- I don't ever expect to be reunited gartcn through high school. This with Carl. But, the great thing is involves a whole new approach to tJiat when we were together, for curricula. We hope to engage nearly twenty years, we lived with people from early childhood in a vivid appreciation of how brief science as a way of thinking. and precious life is. We never triv­ I'm also at work on a book ialized the meaning of death by dealing with the themes I've tried pretending it was anything other to cover here. than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive and we were together was miraculous— [In answer to a question about not miraculous in the sense of Carl Sagan's role in garnering sup­ inexplicable or supernatural. We port for the legitimate scientific knew we were beneficiaries of search for extraterrestrial intelli­ chance. . . . That pure chance gence (SETI) and taking on the could be so generous and so creationists]: kind. .. . That we could find each Congress cut off federal fund­ other, as Carl wrote so beautifully ing for SETI years ago. I was with in Cosmos, you know, in the vast- Carl when he went into Senator ness of space and the immensity of William Proxmire's office after time. .. . That we could be Proxmire had given die Golden carl Sagan together for twenty years. That is Fleece Award to the SETI pro­ something which sustains me and gram. Carl sat down with him. I didn't say a word. I was just a it's much more meaningful... . The way he treated me and the witness. And I just watched Carl. I was inspired by him, by not way I treated him, die way we took care of each other and our only the breadth of his knowledge, but his patience, his lack of family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the arrogance, his willingness to hear the other person out. Senator idea I will see him someday. I don't think I'll ever see Carl again. Proxmire did a complete turnabout as a result of that meeting. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the And diere were other instances of Carl's remarkable persua­ cosmos, and that was wonderful. D siveness. One was a great story of a so-called "creation scien­ Copyright Q2003 Ana Druyan tist" who watched Carl testify at a hearing about creationism in schools. Carl testified for about four hours. It was some­ where in the South, I can't remember where. And six months later a letter came from the "creation scientist" expert who had Here is the dedication Carl Sagan wrote in his 1 also testified that day, saying dial he had given up his daytime best-selling book Cosmos; job and realized the error of what he was doing. It was only because Carl was so patient and so willing to hear die other For Ann Druyan person out. He did it with such kindness and then, very gen- In the vastness of space and the immensity of time, dy but without compromising, laid out all of the things that it is my joy to share were wrong with what this guy thought was true. That is a les­ son that I wish tJiat all of us in our effort to promote skepti­ a planet and an epoch with Annie. cism could learn, because I know that very often the anger I feel when confronting this kind of thinking makes me want to '

30 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Less About Appearances: Art and Science

Visual art throughout history has given form and shape to fictional spaces—habitats to the gods, myths, and legends. But art has changed, slowly moving from fictional space into physical space— leading some artists to an interest in science and the untamed complexity of the real. STEPHEN NOWLIN

long with the development of supernatural beliefs, humans long ago invented fictional spaces—extra Adimensions of the imagination that augment physi­ cal reality. Fictional spaces are ubiquitous throughout social and cultural history as the habitat for gods, spirits, mytholo­ gies, and legends, as well as for art and literature. For thou­ sands of years visual art has given form and shape to fictional spaces, using the tools of pictorialism and vanishing-point perspective to build a convincing illusory world, full of meanings that resonate back in physical reality. However in the middle of the nineteenth century visual art began a slow process of flattening illusionist perspective, ultimately open­ ing the door to works of art that were neither fictional nor

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 31 illusory. In the twenty-first century this history of objectification various museums, reflecting a growing interest in the new has combined with new technologies to lead some artists toward expressive potential revealed by combining art, science, and an interest in science, and in combination an and science can technology. Shows such as BitStreams at the Whitney Museum forge a kind of nonsupernatural spirituality—a deep apprecia­ of American Art (2001) and 010101: Art in Technological tion for die beauty and untamed complexity of the real. Times at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2001) sur­ In 1960, the French artist veyed new expressions being Jean Tinguely's self-destructing forged via the use of digital kinetic sculpture Homage to media, while Gene(sis): Con­ New York was installed at New temporary Art Explores Human York's Museum of Modern Art. Genomics at the Henry Art A bizarre assortment of wheels, Gallery (2002), NEURO at Art levers, pulleys, and sciencey- Center College of Design's looking gizmos, the work sym­ Williamson Gallery (2003), bolized the apocalyptic momen­ and Signatures of the Invisible at tum of over-industrialization. PS1 in New York (2003) focus In creating his sculpture, even more specifically on the Tinguely benefited from techni­ intersection of art and science. cal assistance by Swedish-born Avant-garde as it may sound Bell Laboratories engineer Billy to some, die modulation of an Kluver, a clever and visionary and science is not somediing par­ scientist who went on to work ticularly new to history. As early with the celebrated New York as die first known cave paintings artists Andy Warhol, Jasper more than 30,000 years ago, the Johns, and Robert Rausch- study of mammalian anatomy enberg. Together, Rauschenberg and the an of representation and Kluver developed an initia­ were integrated and infused with tive called Experiments in Art a sense of magic. The architects and Technology (EAT) which and sculptors who built places would have a profound impact like England's Stonehenge on the art of successive decades. 25,000 years later were also some of history's first scientists (as well EAT was an endeavor that Jennifer Steinkamp. "Einstein's Dilemma," 2003 Rauschenberg hoped would Projectors, motion sensors, computers. as high priests), contributing to "develop an effective collabora­ "Einstein's Dilemma" addresses the powerful impact science has on our early understanding of society. Installed in Caltech's Athenaeum, visual explosions are trig­ tion between engineer and gered as scientists walk through the space. astronomy and structural engi­ artist. The raison d'etre of EAT All artworks were created for the exhibition NEURO, April 13 neering. A few millennia later is the possibility of a work through June 2003, an art and science collaboration between the Leonardo da Vinci thought of Center for Neuromorphic Systems Engineering at California Institute which is not the preconception of Technology, and the Alyce de Roulet Williamson Gallery, Art himself in equal parts as anist and College of Design. Photos courtesy of Art Center College of engineer. Throughout human of either the engineer or the Design/Steven A. Heller. anist, but is die result of the history, social and cultural evolu­ exploration of the human interaction between them." tion have been threaded together by die integration of an and sci­ Recently, a younger generation of artists emerged to con­ ence, and this collaboration has been tightly interwoven with the tinue the investigations of EAT, this time using tools of die evolution of spiritual beliefs and theories. twenty-first century. A series of exhibitions have appeared at To house the deities of those beliefs, fictional spaces were invented and then elaborated upon over the eons. Humans of Stephen Nowlin is Vice President and Director of the Alyce de all sons, beliefs, and persuasions appear to enjoy their fictional Roulet Williamson Gallery at the Art Center College of Design in spaces, even those understood to be no more than products of Pasadena, California. He is a founding co-administrator for the imagination (witness the always popular Hollywood movie, online discussion Forum for Active Critical Thinking and not to mention the ubiquitous TV drama and sitcom!). But Skepticism (FACTS), at www.factsforum.org. This article is the spaces where gods and spirits live are considered not to be adapted from an essay written for NEURO, an art and science imaginary, but actual. These are the serious fictional spaces— collaboration between the Williamson Gallery at Art Center the ones inextricably tied to operations within our own com­ College of Design, and the Center for Neuromorphic Systems mon reality. Judged to be as genuine as the one we occupy, Engineering at California Institute of Technology, presented April these fictional spaces and our own are believed to have borders 13 through June 29, 2003, on both college campuses that are open and porous. (www.artandscience.us). Stephen Nowlin can be reached via Explanations for how the universe works, even if dubious e-mail at Stephen, nowlin @artcenter. edu. and ultimately untrue, can be made to seem more convincing

32 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER if the medium used to communicate diem is itself convinc­ In subsequent decades of the twentieth century, this rever­ ingly structured. So, as a kind of architecture of fictional space, sal of illusionist perspective received contributions from a two-dimensional pictorialism and, in particular, vanishing- series of artistic developments. The abstract expressionists, point perspective from the middle of the fifteenth century on, whose candid exposure of the developmental stages of paint­ infused painting with an authority that likewise imbued its ing—the drips, splashes, and gestures of human hand and subjects with a sense of reality, no matter how fantastic or recorded error—suggested that aesthetic experience could be imaginative those subjects might be. In fictional space the located in the flawed and belabored process of an object's mak­ supernatural could be revealed and constructed to appear as if ing. Art, their canvases argued, could be the artifact of an it were an equal partner with physical reality, even though it action in the real world. existed only as an illusion on a flat plane. Even the artists' In painting, the picture frame—a symbol of separation extraordinary skills in accomplishing feats of painting and between art and the world—began to be minimized or elimi­ sculpture seemed to lend nated altogether, and in credibility to the reality sculpture the pedestal dis­ of fictional content, for appeared, removed by who but God could artists such as Anthony bestow such talent? As a Caro and David Smith to tool for constructing emphasize that an occu­ pictorial realism, perspec­ pied the same ground as tive enabled artists to give those who experienced it. fictional space factual In the 1960s, painters credibility, through Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis contributed which viewers could to a flattened perspective seemingly confirm their by emphasizing materials magical beliefs. In the and staining paint directly last few hundred years, into the canvas weave, while science trudged while Robert Rausch- along methodically enberg and Jasper Johns explaining physical phe­ began attaching physical nomena, art leveraged objects to their painted perspective's authority to Malcolm MacIver, Simon Penny; "Body Electric." 2003 surfaces. Frank Stella illustrate the human desire Infrared cameras, lights, projectors, computers, speakers, custom software. "Body Electric" is an immersive environment that asks users to perceive and navi­ invented three-inch-deep for enigma, spirituality, gate space as different species might. stretcher bars, thus bring­ and deeper meaning. ing painting forward in space and emphasizing its object quality. Roughly 125 years ago, however, the space of painting was Pop An emerged, elevating real commercial products to the sta­ beginning to undergo a gradual but drastic change (along with tus of aesthetically charged icons. Later on, minimalism and the space of science, through individuals like Darwin, Planck, installation an likewise contributed, finding anistic torque in the and Einstein). Beginning with Impressionism, the deep per­ relative position of a viewer to the artwork being viewed, making spective space promoted by painters up through nineteenth of the two a real-time interactive event. century neo-classicism was gradually reduced, moving it toward the viewer and closer to the plane of the canvas itself. In the early 1990s the affordability of relatively powerful Through this shortening of perspective's vanishing point, art desktop computers, available for the first time to artists with­ was gradually transformed from being a window into a fic­ out requiring of them any institutional affiliation, catalyzed tional world to being an object located on the same side of the the emergence of a robust form of interactivity in art. Not sur­ window as the viewers themselves. Aesthetic experience, prisingly, this development mirrored advances in communica­ through notable artists such as Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso, tion technologies, from the Internet to digital games to the Piet Mondrian, Kasmir Malevich, and Marcel Duchamp was array of consumer software products that emerged after per­ by the 1920s slowly aligned with objects that displaced the sonal computer ownership became widespread. Perhaps the same real space that art's onlookers displaced. Rather than most extreme inversion of perspectival space thus far, interac­ being an idealized world beyond the window of the picture tivity in an also undermined some of modernism's other max- plane, this new work implied that an was less about appear­ ims—among them the notion of a passive audience enrap­ ances and more about reality—potentially found in all those tured by privileged anistic insights. Interactivity democratized surroundings of daily life that activate an aesthetic response. the search for an's meanings, making of it a collaboration "Art is there," the painter Josef Albers said, "where art seizes between anist and audience—in some sense turning everyone us"—very nearly the same as saying that art can be anything to into a researcher, an artist, and a creator. which we respond with the familiar combination of emotions and intellect we experience in front of a painting or sculpture. Both active and passive forms of interactivity can be found in new an. In the active form, spectators consciously affect an

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 33 artworks behavior by touching or manipulating some sort of both the cultural impact of science and its exposure of reality as interface. Passive interactivity, on the other hand, is typically being stranger than fiction. And third, given our human com­ achieved via sensors that monitor spectators' movements or pulsion to aspire to archetypes that are aesthetic as well as other variables such as body heat, leaving them to discover over omniscient, the integration of art and science seems an time the influence they exert. In either case, the work of art is inevitable path to a kind of spirituality—a fusion of conceptual not complete without a partnership with its audience. In this curiosity and emotional wonder about ourselves and our world. manner fictional space has been completely inverted, the spec­ This nonsupernatural spirituality may feel like a personal sense tator transformed from passive voyeur to active accomplice— of our core, or a connection with the human fabric that from being an onlooker to being a part of the work of art. stretches across time and generations. It can be not so In its transition from fictional to real space, painting may grandiose, a fleeting glimpse of an essence or simple reverence have become the barometer of a larger change in the way for some new bit of knowledge. Or, it can be a swarm humans perceive their world. of oceanic sensation that ascends to Traditional assumptions about the surface of our consciousness, ourselves and the universe have then just as quickly disappears, leav­ slowly dissolved under the now- ing us with an emotion of ubiquitous influence of science. ephemeral insight into something Whereas in earlier times explana­ deep and essential. Its most distin­ tions came from mytii and encap­ guishing characteristic, however, is sulated everything—not the least that it finds its fountainhead in the our imaginations—in the modern unfolding of reality, not of fiction. world the greatest mysteries now Heaven, the ultimate goal of come from science itself. Science supernatural spirituality, is pic­ reveals with every new discovery a tured as a place where vital ques­ real universe of bizarre propor­ tions are answered and existence tions, extraordinary beyond artfully provided with stately Newtonian (and perspective- mansions and streets of gold. bound) expectations, full of quan­ In heaven, were it real, one would tum ambiguities. Reality, it seems, imagine other fictional spaces is too strange for the fictional to be no longer necessary— capacities of vanishing-point per­ everything needed for the spirit spective to contain. would be present and accounted Artists seek to understand the for. Heaven is described as a realm space in which they work, not only both aesthetically pleasing and its metaphorical potential but its intellectually omniscient—a place structural organization—hence the where knowledge is revealed and studies of perspective and illusion, Ken Goldberg, Pietro Perona; "Infiltrate." 2003 beauties uncovered. In fact, how­ Fish tank, koi, cameras, computers, projectors, custom software. ever, what mankind has always the construction of theories for "Infiltrate" shows nature from the inside out. It uses three color and composition, and the cameras to follow six koi in a tank, one orange and five white, described as the divine ideals of analysis of materials and tech­ and feeds tracking data into rendering software that synthe­ such fictional spaces as heaven, it sizes the inside of the tank as seen from the perspective of the niques that accompanied two- swimming orange fish. has ended up pursuing in real dimensional pictorialism. Artists space. What in the past would have been considered possible only through the supernatural is routine today. Humans fly, choosing to construct their expression from an interest in real the dead are resuscitated, life is prolonged, voices "magically" space, whether they work in two or three (or more) dimensions, transmitted. Infertile couples give birth. We travel to planets, are now seeking a new means of ordering, de-emphasizing the to the homes of the gods themselves. We peer deep beneath vocabulary of pictorialism that has lingered throughout the last the surface of appearances, and far into the cosmic past. century. Science provides a means to pursue that order, and as science asks startling questions, striking at core assumptions At the same time, emancipated from its historical and singu­ and uncovering new mysteries, artists are drawn to the result­ lar alliance with fiction, art is increasingly looking at science to ing nexus of change. understand the space in which it continues its search for deeper Beyond the acknowledgement that they significantly enrich meanings. Appreciating the world as a place of borh facts and each others' practice, there are at least three speculations beauty, in which the two are interwoven and indistinguishable, embedded in this movement to reintegrate art and science. One a place where knowledge and aesthetics, science and art, are one is that both disciplines encourage die probing of boundaries, so in the same and in no need of help from the imaginary, is in it is not surprising that they doubt their own divisions—die some ways like what we have come to expect of heaven. In die boundaries said to separate art and science. Second, inasmuch real worid, an and science are attaining heaven the hard way— as art is the means by which humans depict worlds of meaning, by realizing it one small ideal at a rime. What better, more real, imagination, and mystery, artists will be increasingly drawn to "spirituality" could there be for humans to embrace.

34 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER King of the Paranormal

CNN's Larry King Live has a long history of outrageous promotion of UFOs, psychics, and spiritualists. CHRIS MOONEY

roadcast on CNN, the July 1, 2003, installment of Larry King Live was a sight to behold. The program, Bin Kings words, explored "the incredible events of fifty-six years ago at Roswell, New Mexico." What most likely crashed at Roswell in 1947 was a government spy bal­ loon, but the panel of guests assembled on King's show pre­ ferred a more sensational version of events. Jesse Marcel, Jr., son of a Roswell intelligence officer, claimed that just after the crash, his father showed him bits of debris that "came from another civilization" (Marcel 2003). Glenn Dennis, who worked at a Roswell funeral home at the time, said a military officer called him to ask about the availability of small caskets (i.e., for dead aliens). Later Dennis, obviously

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 a UFO enthusiast, abruptly observed that the pyramids in Roswell crash site. Doleman admitted to King rJiat his dig had Egypt had recently been "[shut down] for three or four days not yet yielded any definitive evidence, but added that the and no tourists going out there on account of the sightings" "results" of his analysis will air on Sci-Fi in October—as (Dennis 2003). opposed to, say, being published in a peer-reviewed scientific King's program didn't merely advance the notion that an journal (Doleman 2003). [See also David E. Thomas, "Bait alien spacecraft crashed at Roswell in 1947. It also hawked the and Switch on 'Roswell: The Smoking Gun,'" SKEPTICAL DVD version of a recent Sci-Fi Channel documentary, "The INQUIRER, March/April 2003.] Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence," clips of which Sci-Fi is an entertainment network, and can arguably air appeared throughout the hour. A breathy and sensationalized whatever it wants, including pseudodocumentaries hyping the take on the events of 1947, "The Roswell Crash" first appeared Roswell myth. But Larry King is different. King regularly as a tie-in for Sci-Fi's fictional miniseries Taken, a Steven interviews senators, former presidents, and heads of state. One Spielberg production tracing the impact of UFO abductions would expect him to hew to basic standards of journalistic on three generations of American families. Other Taken tie-ins rigor and balance. On July 1, however. King presided over a that tend to blur the line between fact and fiction include a thoroughly biased discussion of the Roswell question that documentary titled Abduction Diaries, a Roper Poll finding eschewed historical accuracy and gave a big boost to Sci-Fi's that Americans are ready for the discovery of extraterrestrial paranormalist marketing strategies. Project Mogul, a secret life, and even the launching of the Coalition for Freedom of government program to develop spy balloons, counts as a Information, an advocacy group devoted to unearthing classi­ strong candidate for the source of the Roswell incident (see fied government documents about aliens (Mooney 2002). Thomas 1995). One Roswell expert, New Mexico physicist Sure enough, King's July 1 guests included two people with and mathematician Dave Thomas, told me that King's pro­ Sci-Fi ties: Leslie Kean, a left-wing journalist turned UFO gram failed entirely to explain this. 1 investigator who works with the Coalition for Freedom of Does CNN, the "most trusted name in news," take respon­ Information, and William Doleman, a University of New sibility for the factual content and balance of Larry King Live? Mexico archaeologist contracted by Sci-Fi to excavate the This article attempts to answer that question. After all. King's July 1 Roswell program was no aberration. King has hosted uncritical shows about UFOs in the past, and he probably devotes more air time to spiritualist mediums like , Sylvia Browne, and than to America's the World at Hand?," "Paranormal Warfare—A Secret UFO obsessives. No other serious cable news anchor treats the Military Power?," "Is Exorcism Real?," and "Are Some Persons paranormal in the consistently promotional way that Larry Programmed for UFO Contact?" interspersed with more seri­ King does, which more resembles the approach of Montel ous programs (King 1990a, 1990b, 1991, 1992). Sometimes Williams or Jerry Springer than that of a trusted journalist. these shows have included skeptics, but King frequently In researching this article, I interviewed four leading skep­ devotes entire programs to paranormal topics widi nary a tics who have appeared skeptic to be seen, as was on Larry King Live, seek­ the case with the July 1 ing their perceptions of Roswell program. In fact, why the program consis­ a study by Matthew tently promotes the para­ Nisbet found that even in normal, sometimes with­ one case where King out airing any critical included skeptics on his perspective at all. I also program, these doubters attempted to contact were granted dramatically King or his producers to fewer total seconds of seek a response to the speaking time than the skeptics' criticisms. My paranormalists (Nisbet request, however, was 2001a). unmet. As a result, I have Possibly the most trou­ been left with no choice blesome aspect of King's but to privilege the skep­ promotion of the para­ tical perspective, which normal involves spiritual­ views Larry King Live as ism, the contacting-the- dead movement that a depressing example of A(leged ^chic Roserr,ary Altea says she can see the "guardian spirits" of earthlings began in the nineteenth the way that marketing and can travel "astrally" out of her body to points around the world. century with the "rap- values and the demand for viewers can trump journalistic responsibility. This process pings" of the and evolved into the televised psychic leads otherwise trustworthy media outlets to inflate the repu­ seen today on programs like Crossing Over with tations of psychics and promoters of the paranormal because John Edward (a Sci-Fi production that originated after the they draw in hordes of credulous viewers. CNN may be a channel's president saw Edward on Larry King Live [Ballard respected news network, but in its irresponsible presentation 2001]). Prior to his July 1 Roswell program, King's most recent of paranormal topics and themes, Larry King Live compro­ foray into the paranormal was a May 16 interview with popu­ mises that reputation. lar psychic Sylvia Browne, whose Web site attests that she is "truly on a mission from God" (Browne 2003), and who fre­ Larry King's Paranormal Journalism quently dispenses explicit health advice despite her lack of med­ ical qualifications (Farha 2003; see "Sylvia Browne: TV Psychic On CNN's Web site, Larry King's impressive personal page Sidesteps Challenge," page 41 of this issue). An excerpt from presents the sixty-nine-year-old anchor as a true lion of jour­ the show transcript demonstrates just how low these programs nalism (King 2003). King, the page notes, hosted the famous can go, and how willingly King plays along [Browne 2003b]: 1993 debate between Ross Perot and Al Gore over the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, which broke CNN records by King: Do you believe in angels? drawing in some 16 million viewers. King also conducted Sylvia Browne: Oh, yes. "award-winning jailhouse interviews" with Karla Faye Tucker King: What arc they? and Mike Tyson, and has won journalism accolades ranging Browne: They're actually the (unintelligible) that was from the Allen H. Neuharth Award for Excellence in made by God to protect us. I mean, they're not. .. Journalism to the George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence King: Bad people have angels? in Broadcasting. Indeed, over the years King has conducted Browne: You know, bad people, I've never seen bad people interviews with pretty much anybody who's anybody, celebri­ have angels. That's interesting you should ask that, because I've ties and politicians alike. Some top tier interviewees include never seen angels around bad people. Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev and King: Do they look like the drawings of angels? Browne: Yes. Vladimir Putin, and Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher. King: The)' do? You might be surprised to hear that someone so decorated could be guilty of repeatedly treating a certain topic—the paranormal—in a fashion that betrays virtually all journalistic Chris Mooney is a freelance writer and SKEPTICAL INQUIRER con­ standards. If you cast a glance back at King's various shows tributing editor who lives in Palo Alto. California, and a colum­ over the years, however, you will find titles like "Is the End of nist for www.csicop.org. His Web site is www.chriscmooneycom.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 37 Browne: And I didn't think they had wings. I thought that other vague data, and then waits for callers to take the bait and was just some stupid... suggest he's on to something. Edward also asks questions, King: Sylvia, Sylvia, come on. You see people with wings? makes educated guesses, and feeds ofF reactions for more infor­ Browne: Yes. I used to tell people they didn't have wings, mation. His statements are often wrong, and when they're Larry. And then I saw one with wings, and then I had to go right it's only in a vague way. But the willingness of callers to back up on stage and say, I'm sorry, I lied. They have wings. seize upon Edward's "hits" and ignore his "misses" makes his King: Why do you see them and I don't? performance seem believable. (See also James Underdown, Browne: I don't know. You probably could see them if you wanted to. You have four of them around you. "They See Dead People—Or Do They?" SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, King: To what, to protect? September/October 2003.) Browne: To protect. King's uncritical presentation of spiritualists like Browne King: We have four them around us? and Edward, as well as and Rosemary Altea, Browne: You have four. reached such a pitch in 1999 that two leading skeptics, King: 1 have four. CSICOP's Paul Kurtz and Joe Nickell, sent a complaint letter Browne: You have four. Some people have two. to King and one of his producers (Kurtz and Nickell 1999). King: I'm a good guy? "We must protest," wrote Kurtz and Nickell, "your repeated Browne: Well, that's it. promotion of 'spiritualism' . . . without providing a contrary King: I've got connections, right? view," continuing: Browne: You've got connections. One must wonder if people would really want the touted "communications" from their deceased loved ones if they knew the facts about spiritualism's history of fraud and deception, or even that the techniques Browne has repeatedly promised, on used by mediums on your several shows arc the air, to allow magician well known and easily discredited. If spirit communications are not gen­ to test her psychic abilities in uine, we are often isked, nevertheless what harm is there in the solace provided by the a rigorously controlled setting, pretense? The answer is that falsehoods have consequences. Magician Harry Houdini cat­ but she has not yet submitted to the test. alogued many of them—"the suffering, losses, misfortunes, crimes and atrocities — of spiritualistic deception. We have person­ ally witnessed the consequences to people's

Browne appeared alone for the entite hour. Throughout much self-respect when they realized their most sacred beliefs had been manipulated and trivialized. of the show, King allowed her to take phone calls and attempt to contact listeners' dead loved ones—a process gready facili­ Kurtz and Nickell concluded by noting that while "we do not tated by a palpable will to believe on the part of these desper­ advocate censorship, we do invite fair-minded journalism." ate, bereaved callers. King has invited Browne on his show According to Kurtz, the letter resulted in a telephone numerous times in the last few years. In fact, Browne has "shouting match" between Kurtz and King's producers, who repeatedly promised, on the air, to allow magician James defended their presentations on the grounds that, in Kurtz's Randi to test her psychic abilities in a rigorously controlled set­ words, "everybody knows it's entertainment." Kurtz disagreed, ting, but she has not yet submitted to the test. On his Web site explaining to me that since Larry King has a reputation as one Randi maintains a "Sylvia Browne Clock" that keeps track of of TV journalism's leading figures, even his treatments of the how many days it has been since Browne accepted his chal- paranormal will inevitably be taken as "authoritative and .' King, however, has shown litde interest in learning newsworthy" (Kurtz 2003c). Indeed, it's almost as if the sheen whether Browne can actually do what she claims (Farha 2003). from King's interviews with senators and former presidents rubs off on the UFO promoters, psychics, and quacks. Larry King and the Psychic Mediums So what's going on at Larry King Live* Why are psychics, And if King's promotion of Browne rankles, it's just the begin­ mediums, and UFO believers permitted to speak without ning. Another psychic superstar of King's program is John interruption to King's vast audience? Among the skeptics I Edward, who has appeared repeatedly, both alone and with interviewed, all of whom have appeared at one time or another other guests (including occasional skeptics). As CSICOP para­ on Larry King Live, a consistent theme emerged: The quest for normal investigator Joe Nickell and others have documented ratings is the only possible explanation fot King's journalistic (Jaroff 2001, Nickell 2001), the techniques used by Edward to transgressions. "Having the spiritualists on must be for him convince Larry King Live callers that he can contact the very popular shows. Whatever he uses for feedback to tell him deceased turn out to be quite mundane. Using a process called this, it must really work. Otherwise he would drop it like a hot , Edward essentially goes fishing for information. potato," said Nickell (Nickell 2003). Magician James Randi Talking quickly, he throws out common causes of death and was even more explicit: "This is a marketing thing. They want

38 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER sponsors, they will get sponsors and they will keep sponsors if article deadline, I decided to go ahead with this piece without they put this kind of material on, because it attracts viewers. a formal response from Larry King Live. That's the bottom line" (Randi 2003). Where does that leave matters? If the past is any indication, , of Skeptic magazine, has also appeared on we will continue to see unbalanced presentations of paranor­ Larry King Live and confirms the views of Kurtz, Nickel), and mal topics on Larry King Live, sometimes with token skeptics Randi. Of King's presentation of the paranormal, Shermer included, sometimes not. Barring a sudden change of heart at notes: "I've actually asked Larry about this. Specifically, 'Do you CNN, things will proceed as usual. believe this stuff?' And he said, 'For the most pan, I'm a skeptic At this point, Michael Shermer's suggestion—that skeptics like you,'" recalls Shermer. "And I've asked his producers, 'Why try to create their own programs to get their messages into the do you put this stuff on?' And they said, 'Cause it gets great rat­ media—does sound pretty attractive. Granted, it basically ings, it's good television'" (Shermer 2003). Since ratings concedes that skeptics stand little chance of convincing shows inevitably drive the media's presentation of die paranormal, like Larry King Live to change their practices. And yet, these Shermer argues, it's incumbent upon skeptics to create programs practices themselves are not set in stone. After all, who knows diat stand an equal chance of drawing large audiences. Shermer's how our culture's approach to the paranormal—both journal­ own show. Exploring the Unknown, presented a skeptical per­ istic and otherwise—will change? spective for sixty-five segments on die Fox Family Channel. And with Showtime's late night show Perm & Teller: Bullshit!, the Discovery Kids Channel's Mystery Hunters, and the Discovery Science Channel's Critical Eye (produced with the help of CSICOP's Paul Kurtz and Joe Nickel. CSICOP and SKEPTICAL INQUIRER), the sent a complaint letter to King and one of his skeptical perspective does seem to be find­ ing its way onto television more frequently producers. According to Kurtz, the letter resulted than it did during the paranormal- obsessed 1990s. in a telephone "shouting match" between Kurtz and King's producers, who defended their Shermer's strategy certainly describes one way of combating the paranormal mes­ presentations on the grounds that, in Kurtz's sages spread on Larry King Live and other words, "everybody knows it's entertainment." programs. But should ratings alone dictate the treatment of the paranormal on a tele­ vision news network like CNN? Shermer opines that "Larry King is not in the news department, he's in the entertainment department, so he's not required to have any journalistic ethics, We have already seen skeprir-friendly media program*. and he doesn't" (Shermer 2003). But Larry King Live will some­ Perhaps one day the skeptic movement will produce another times transition back and forth between news reporting and Carl Sagan—a media personality of sufficient stature to appear paranormal "entertainment" within the course of die very same on Larry King Live for a whole hour uninterrupted, the way program (Nisbet 2001b). When this happens, how are viewers Sylvia Browne and John Edward currently do. Then maybe supposed to tell the difference? Larry and the skeptic will exchange a few jokes at the expense In any case, Shermer's recollection of his conversation widi of psychics and UFO believers. Indeed, perhaps die skeptic King and his producers seems consistent with Kurtz's account will even ask King to repent for his show's previous transgres­ of his own interaction with King's producers. Still, I wanted to sions, and King will go along. An on-air confession: Now that be sure these first-hand accounts accurately represented the would make for great ratings. institutional view of Larry King Live. So I contacted King's publicist, Erin Sermeus, identifying myself as a writer with the Notes online version of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER magazine. Sermeus 1. Before becoming involved wiih (he Coalition for Freedom of returned my initial call, and in our conversation I summarized Information, Kean directed the Burma Project USA. and wrote several major for her the criticisms of Larry King Live that I had been hear­ articles for the liberal-left Nation magazine, including a lengthy 1996 .untie with Dennis Bernstein entitled. "People of die opiate: Burma's dictatorship of ing from leading skeptics. drop." By 2000. however, she had changed courses significantly, authoring a Besides noting—correctly—that shows devoted to psychics thoroughly unskeptical article for the Boston Globe entuieii. 'UFO theorists gain support abroad, but repression at home: Study by French officials oudine comprise only a small percentage of total Larry King Live pro­ unexplained sightings. US military safety aspects combine to boost believers." gramming, Sermeus did not provide much substantive 2. The clock can be viewed at www.randi.org/sylvia/indcx.shtml. response. However, she said she would get back to me in a few days with something more thorough. She never did. An e- References mail, a follow-up phone call, and a call to Sermeus's cell phone Ballard. Chris. 2001. Oprah of the other side. Magazine, all went unreturned. After waiting a week beyond my original July 29.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 39 Browne. Sylvia. 2003. Her Web site is available at www.sylvia.org/homc/ . 2001. Transcript of Larry King Live show titled "Arc psychics for indcx.cfm. real?" CNN, airdate March 6. . 2003b. Quoted on Larry King Live, CNN, airdate May 16. . 2002. Transcript of Larry King Live show titled "Interview with Dennis, Glenn. 2003. Quoted on Larry King Live, CNN, airdate July 1. Sylvia Browne." CNN, airdate August 2. Doleman, William. 2003. Quoted on Larry King Live, CNN, airdate July 1. -. 2003. His Web page is at www.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_rcportcrs/ Farha. Brian. 2003. Sylvia Browne: Psychic Guru or Quack? Quackwatch, king.larry.html. available at www.quackwatch.org/lllnd/browne.html; also published as Kurtz, Paul, and Joe Nickell. 1999. Letter to Larry King on behalf of the the accompanying article in ihis issue, "Sylvia Browne: TV Psychic Council for Media Integrity. August 20. Copy on file with author. Sidesteps Challenges," on page 41. Kurtz, Paul. 2003. Telephone interview with author, June 10. Jaroff, Leon. 2001. Talking to the dead. Time, March 5. Marcel, Jesse. 2003. Quoted on Larry King Live, CNN, airdate July 1. King, Larry. 1990a. Transcript of Larry King Live show titled "Paranormal Mooney, Chris. 2002. Getting Taken: Steven Spielberg, paranormal huckster. warfare—A secret military power?" CNN. airdate September 12. Slate online. November 27. Available at hrtp://slate.msn.com/?id=2074656. . 1990b. Transcript of Larry King Live show titled "Is the end of the Nickell, Joe. 2001. John Edward: Hustling the bereaved. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER world at hand?" CNN, airdate September 21. 25(6) November/December. 19-22. -, 1991. Transcript of Larry King Live show titled "Is exorcism real?" . 2003. Telephone interview with author. June 6. CNN. airdate April 11. Nisbet, Matthew. 2001a. Talking to heaven through television: How the mass . 1992. Transcript of Larry King Live show titled "Arc some persons media package and sell psychic medium John Edward. CSICOP Online. programmed for UFO contact?" CNN, airdate May 25. March 13. Available at www.csicop.org/genx/cdward/. -, 1999. Transcript of Larry King /./'urshow titled "What does the surg­ . 2001b. That's Infotainment! CSICOP Online. April 30. Available at ing interest in the psychic world say about our spiritual lives?" CNN, airdatewww.csicop.org/gcnx/infotainmcnt/indcx.html September 1. . Randi, James. 2003. Telephone interview with author, June 16. . 2000a. Transcript of Larry King Live show titled "On wc tunc in to Shermer. Michael. 2003. Telephone interview with author, June 10. those who have passed on?" CNN, airdate May 5. Sermeus, Erin. 2003. Telephone conversation with author, July 15. -. 2000b. Transcript of Larry King Live show titled "Sylvia Browne talks Thomas. Dave. 1995. The Roswcll Incident and Project Mogul. SKEPTICAL about life on the other side." CNN, airdate August 31. INQUIRER. July/August. D

In January 2004 CSICOP will release a new magazine for Latin America and the Spanish speaking world MzM mThe Lati n American magazine for science and reason www.pensar.org

A partir de Enero de 2004 el CSICOP lanza una nueva publicacion para Latinoamerica y el mundo de habla hispana HEH|_ Revista Latinoamericana para la ciencia y la razon www.pensar.org l CSICOP THI COMMITTii (OK THI SCIINTIIIC INVISTIQATION Of CLAIMS Of THI PAIANOIMAL

40 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Sylvia Browne TV Psychic Sidesteps Challenges

Popularized by Larry King and Montel Williams, self proclaimed psychic Sylvia Browne has reneged on promises to be tested for her extraordinary claims of communicating with the dead and "seeing" health problems. Is she really psychic? Would the medical profession consider her to be practicing medicine without a license? Do the media care?

BRYAN FARHA

ne of the most popular "spiritual mediums" in the Oworld is Sylvia Browne. Sylvia's Web site (www.sylvia.org) states: Sylvia began her professional career as a psychic on May 8, 1973, with a small meeting in her home. Within one year her practice had grown very large and she decided to incorporate her business as the Nirvana Foundation for Psychic Research. Wanting to make her work as pro­ fessional as possible, then as now, Sylvia maintains required business licenses, is a member of a national consumer protection agency, and donates a lot of time to charitable organizations and working with police. Her business has remained in the same general vicinity since beginning her work Sylvia's family line includes several practicing psychics and mediums. Her maternal grandmother, Ada, was an established and respected counselor and healer in Kansas City, Missouri. This familial psychic

-«. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 41 talent has also passed on 10 her son Christopher Dufresne. Caller: Sylvia and Larry, I enjoy you so very, very much. I lis­ There seems to be a genetic componem necessary to create tened to you for years and I just wanted to get on for a long exceptional psychics, Sylvias bloodline carries that predisposi­ time. Randi, I feel sorry for you as well, because we have to tion to excellence. As Sylvia says, "Anyone can learn to play the believe in something. My question is, Sylvia, I never had a piano, but not everyone is a concert pianist." (2003) chance to say goodbye to my husband. And 1 am wondering if he knows how much I loved him. Sylvia "diagnoses" health problems, purports to communicate Browne: Not only did he know that, but what was the—clot with the dead, and even claims to have proven there is an after­ or whatever that let loose? Because it looks like there was life. Her recent books include Contacting Your and something about a clot. Past Lives, Future Healing A Psychic Reveals the Secrets to Good Caller: Yes, he had a severe brain hemorrhage at the very last minute. Health and Great Relationships. For several years, she has been Browne: Because it looks likes it was, not only that, but this popularized by TV talk-show hosts Montel Williams and Larry was massive. King. Williams—who has hosted Caller: Yes, it was. Sylvia more than seventy times since Browne: Yeah. 1995—will have absolutely no pan of a Caller: Right through the top of his head. skeptical perspective. Larry King has Browne: And he really—you know, included skeptics as guests on two of there are so many times, like when I her three recent appearances during the lost so many people. I don't care how past three years. But neither Williams many times if you can say good-bye, you never have enough good-byes. But nor King has shown the slightest inter­ see, aside from Randi, he hears every­ est in checking out her monumental thing you say, especially when you talk claims. And, as far as I know, neither is to him. interested in whether Sylvia's health Caller: Well, I don't really know advice causes people to delay appropri­ whether I can say anything to him. There arc people like that. But 1 feel ate treatment or to undergo needless sorry for them. Because we have to tests to look for nonexistent problems believe. that Sylvia "sees." King: 1 thank you, ma'am. (Turning For health questions, callers can to Sylvia): Now, help me with some­ get a "reading" from Sylvia for only thing. Browne: Yes? $700 by phone or $750 in person, King: Did you see that clot? according to her Web site (2003). Browne: I saw the clot letting loose. Does that sound like proper commer­ King: How do you explain? .... cial activity for someone who has no Browne: I don't know. It's like Randi said one time to one of the psychics, a medical license, just a master's degree lot of psychics just say chest. Of in English literature? Sy|via Browne course, because a lot of people have chest problems. But not everybody has a massive embolism. Sylvia in Action King: How would you explain that. A massive .. . On September 3, 2001, Sylvia was challenged on Larry King Browne: 1 know what he is going to say, it's a guess. Randi: Larry, you're asking me to explain specific things. 1 Live by James Randi, the conjurer/skeptic who heads the James don't know who this woman is who called. I don't know Randi Educational Foundation (JREF), a nonprofit organiza­ whether she is a ringer. I'm not saying she is, and I'm not sug­ tion founded in 1996 to "promote critical thinking by reaching gesting that. out to the public and media with reliable information about Browne: Oh. paranormal and supernatural ideas so widespread in our society Randi: But it is possible. There arc many possibilities here. We today" (Randi 2003). During the program, Sylvia claimed that have made a lucky guess, and we have hit. An embolism. A clot. she had worked with 350 doctors and had cured a child of King: There are many possibilities. Is one of them—Randi, is seizures. When asked how he thought Browne worked, Randi one of die possibilities Sylvia is right? replied that she asks questions, makes guesses, offers sugges­ Randi: Absolutely. tions, throws out words, waits for answers, and builds on what Randi was actually being generous. A clot might be she gets—a method commonly referred to as cold reading. involved in a heart attack, a stroke, or a few orfter rapidly fatal Randi also pointed out that people tend to remember what conditions. Because heart attacks and strokes arc among the seems to fit and forget what does not. During the program, she most common causes of sudden death, the word "clot" had a demonstrated her technique to one caller (2001): fairly good chance of being correct. However, in this case it Bryan Farha is a professor at Oklahoma City University where he was not. Although Browne and King seemed to think that teaches a course entitled Psychology and Skepticism. He is also on Browne's "diagnosis" was on target, it actually was dead wrong. CSLCOP'S subcommittee. Correspondence: Oklahoma The caller said the problem was a severe brain hemorrhage. A City University 2501 N. Blackwelder, Oklahoma City OK clot is just the opposite of a hemorrhage. As Randi (2001) 73106. E-mail [email protected]. notes on his Web site:

42 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Now, to me, this sounds as if the caller is describing an impact 6, 2001, Larry King Live hosted a discussion about criticism of some sort to the top of the head! Clots don't go through the aimed at medium John Edward, who hosts Crossing Over. top of the head. They originate inside the head and stay there. Sylvia and another alleged psychic, James Van Praagh, partici­ Notice, too. that the term "embolism," which was introduced by Sylvia as applying to the cause of this death, and never by pated together with skeptics Leon Jaroff and Paul Kurtz and the caller, refers to a blocked blood vessel, and could not apply three others. During this program, Sylvia insisted that Kurtz here. She said, amplifying her reading—the caller had already had a prostate problem, which Kurtz denied. Jaroff urged been disconnected by that time—that I claimed "psychics" fre­ Sylvia and Van Praagh to take Randi's "million-dollar chal­ quently refer to "chest problems" as a cause of death, while "not everyone has a massive embolism." She then predicted what I lenge," and Sylvia agreed to do so (Larry King Live 2001): would say about this remarkable "hit," that I would call it a Browne: I have never been offered this challenge. guess. She was wrong; I say that it's a dead miss. And it is. No, not everyone has a massive embolism, nor a clot, both of which King: You would take it? Sylvia put forth as the cause of death, and this man had neither. Browne: 1 would take the challenge. I have tried to run An M.D. friend said that in his opinion, Sylvia is not just around the table—[Randi] ran away from me. full of baloney but also dangerous. She mentioned to one King: She will meet with Randi and take the challenge. caller that she should check the "bilirubin," which she told Browne: He ran away from me. King "is a liver enzyme." In fact, bilirubin is not a liver enzyme but a degradation product of human hemoglobin. This is rou­ Browne failed to contact Randi, but on the September 3 tinely checked when blood tests are done. show, she told Randi she would take the test. No need to check it separately, as any eleva­ tion of bilirubin will give the very obvious clinical appearance of jaundice. You just have to look in the person's eye to see that. "An M.D. friend said that in his opinion, And there is no test for Epstein-Barr disease related to the examination of fecal matter, as Sylvia is not just full of baloney Sylvia, in her vast medical expertise, offered to a caller. And *he prescribed the drug but also dangerous...this type of medical advice, Tegretol, as well, for another caller's disor­ der. This type of medical advice, which by which by law Sylvia cannot offer, law Sylvia cannot offer, is dangerous as it can mislead the caller. Who is she to give is dangerous as it can mislead the caller. medical advice? Larry King was amazed at her facility with medical terms. As Randi Who is she to give medical advice?" points out, facility does not necessarily equate with accuracy. King: Randi has offered a million dollars in the past to those who would take his challenge. Would you first—let's sun with Later in the program, Browne said that Randi needed to see Randi—explain what the challenge constitutes? You will pay a a doctor because he had a problem in his left ventricle (the million dollars if... ? chamber in the heart from which the blood is squeezed out Randi: A million dollars in negotiable bonds, Larry, to any into the body's general circulation). Soon afterward, Randi saw person or persons who can provide evidence of any paranor­ mal, , or supernatural event or ability of any kind under a cardiac surgeon, who found no problem. If you think this proper observing conditions. It is that simple. example is benign, consider that most of Sylvia's readings are King: Okay, and the observing conditions would be? with people who believe in her alleged psychic ability and Randi: It would depend upon what the claim is. I have got a therefore take her seriously. Health-related readings like this whole outline right here that will tell Sylvia exactly what the test would be if she agrees to take the test. are commonplace with Sylvia. King: Sylvia, in the past you have not agreed to this. Browne: Well, I don't even want his million dollars. I don't One Evasion after Another want his million dollars. I mean, the reason I came on is because he kept you know, my Web site, yeah, yeah, and said The James Randi Educational Foundation offers a $1,000,000 I would never come on and face him. Bui I don't care about prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing condi­ his million dollars. I mean, 1 don't need his million. . . . King: Arc you willing to take his test? tions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult Browne: Yeah, whatever test it is. power or event. The prize is in the form of negotiable bonds held in a special investment account. All tests are designed After Randi suggested the specific type of psychic ability he with the participation and approval of the applicant. In most would test, Sylvia agreed: All that was needed was for her to con­ cases, the applicant will be asked to perform a relatively simple tact Randi. But by April 2003, she had made no contact. On preliminary test of the claim, which if successful will be fol­ May 16, she appeared again on Larry King Live, this time as the lowed by the formal test. Preliminary tests are usually con­ only guest. As usual, the program began with King's mostly ducted by associates of the JREF at the site where the appli­ unskeptical questions plus phone calls from viewers who cant lives. Upon success in the preliminary testing process, the sounded like true believers. About forty minutes into the show, "applicant" becomes a "claimant." So far, no one has ever I managed to get past the screencrs by telling them I wanted to passed the preliminary tests (Randi 2003). ask about "my dead cousin." I'm not proud of being deceptive, Sylvia has promised three times to take the test. On March but I don't believe the screeners would have let me through if

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 43 they knew that I would question her about Randi's test. As As you arc also aware, we have legally committed ourselves for as I know, nobody has ever been able to do this while to awarding this prize money to anyone who successfully she was on the air. Here's what took place on that Larry passes both the preliminary and then the formal test, as agreed King Live (2003): to between the applicant and the JREF. This is described on our Web page, which also clearly states all the conditions for King: Oklahoma City, hello. assuring that the prize money will be awarded if the conditions Caller (me): Sylvia, 620 days [ago] on Larry's show, you are met. Since you have already heard and accepted the terms agreed to take James Randi's $ 1 million paranormal challenge, and protocol of the test, and your understanding and agree­ and on a later show you even agreed to the specific terms of ment have been broadcast across the world via CNN, it only die test. remains for you to give us a date upon which we can conduct Browne: Yes, but let me tell you something. I also found out the test. that he won't put it into escrow. He won't put the money into One caveat: Several of the persons who responded more escrow. than a year ago to our request for suitable subjects—one of Caller: You agreed to the terms of the test. which would be chosen at random—have since died. It would Browne: No, not until he puts the money into escrow. 1 mean, be necessary for us to re-issue the request, of course, and that why would I do it when the money can't be validated? would mean that a suitable date would have to be set some­ Caller: Have you contacted James? time in July, but no sooner. Browne: I don't want to contact him. I already know about Now that this issue of the prize money has been resolved, this Russian person who the lawyer contacted and said he and there can no longer be any impediment to your involve­ won't put it into escrow. ment, we anticipate hearing from you widi a renewed accep­ Caller: Okay, so you agreed 620 days ago to take his test. tance of our challenge. Of course, if you are afraid of taking Browne: I'm not going to do thai—I'm not going to do that the test, or you are aware that you cannot pass a simple dou­ if he doesn't have the money. ble-blind test of your claims, you may wish to further obfus­ Caller: If I can arrange for James to come up wiih the money, cate the matter by producing more excuses and problems. would you take the test? That's entirely up to you. King: You said you would. Since Larry King has agreed to "arrange" that you be Browne: Yes, yes, I will. But if he won't come up with the assured of the existence and availability of the prize money, a other girl, why would he come up with me? copy of this letter is being sent to him for his information. King: If you come up with it, sir, she'll do it. (Randi 2003) Caller: And will you arrange for it, Larry? King: Sure. But on May 22, Sylvia refused to accept Randi's certified Caller: You got it. letter. On May 26, I e-mailed Sylvia a copy of Randi's letter King: Be happy to do it. and asked "any office personnel" who receive it to make sure she reads it herself. On May 27, I left a telephone message for Promise number 3, this time from Sylvia and Larry King: Larry King's producers, to which they have not responded. King will arrange for the testing, and Sylvia will take the test if the money she previously dismissed as unimportant can be val­ The Bottom Line idated. Randi, who has posted a "Sylvia's Clock" box on his Sylvia Browne would like people to believe she has the psychic home page, corrected my figures. Sylvia had agreed to take the ability to communicate with the dead and to diagnose their test 808 days before I had called—620 was the number of days ailments. She has broken three promises made on live, inter­ since she had agreed to the specific protocol. national television to take the JREF One Million Dollar On May 18, Randi e-mailed me a scanned copy of the doc­ Paranormal Challenge. More than two years have passed since ument from Goldman, Sachs & Company stating that the her first promise. I don't believe she ever intended to take the JREF prize money account contained $1,054,656.70. I imme­ test. Do you think any talk-show hosts will care? diately wrote to Larry King, with copies to Randi and Sylvia, and Randi sent the following letter to both by certified mail: References Browne, Sylvia. 2003. Brief history. Available at www.sylvia.org/home/indcx. Ms. Browne: crm. Though proof of the JREF prize money is easily available on . 2003. Psychic readings. Available at www.sylvia.org/home/rcadings. cfm. request, you have not made any such request. Your May 16 Larry King Livt. 2003. Interview with Sylvia Browne. May 16, 2003. appearance on the Larry King Live TV show seemed to indi­ Transcript available at www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0305/16/lkI.00. cate that you wete ignorant of the facts, and since we arc an html. educational foundation, we therefore enclose a notarized copy . 2001. Are psychics for real? March 6, 2001. Transcript available at of the account sums showing the balance in a special "James www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0103/O6/lkI.0O.html, Randi Educational Foundation Prize Account* in excess of one -. 2001. Are psychics real? Sept 3, 2001. Transcript available at www.cnn.com/TRANSCRJPTS/0109/03/lkl.00.html. million dollars. Also enclosed is a formal statemem from the Randi, James. 2001. Reluctant wizard Sylvia Browne. Swift, September 7. agency holding these assets, verifying that the funds are in 2001. Available at www.randi.org/jr/090701.htmL place. I'm sure that you are aware of the grave legal conse­ . 2003. JREF Web site. About die foundation. One million dollar quences that would result against ihe JREF if either of these paranormal challenge. Available at www.randi.org/rcscarch/index.html. documents were to be found false or altered. . 2003. Sylvia emerges! Swift. May 23. 2003. Available at www.randi.org/jr/052303.hunl. CD

44 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Neither Intelligent nor Designed

Evolution succeeds where "Intelligent Design" fails in describing the natural world.

BRUCE and FRANCES MARTIN

re you puzzled by the appearance of the words "Intelligent Design" in recent anti-evolution dis­ Acourse? Most of us lack time to follow the history of this term or its analysis in the expert volumes produced by Robert T. Pennock and others (see references). But as the phrase Intelligent Design shows up more and more often in public debate over science education, skeptical citizens need a handle on this topic. [For recent previous articles on this subject in the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER see Mark Perakh, "Intelligent Design: Dembski's Presentation Without Arguments," November/December 2002; Massimo Pigliucci, "Design Yes, Intelligent No," September/October 2001 (Science and Religion issue); and the section "Evolution

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 45 and Intelligent Design" in the World Skeptics Conference out a preordained purpose. They offer as the alternative report, September/October 2002.] Intelligent Design: the purposeful fashioning of each species Intelligent Design is a well-worn concept in theological by an intelligent designer—by implication God. Like its fore­ argument. Since ancient times, the harmony and complexity runner, creation science, this movement presumes that by of natural organs and systems have served as "proof" for the undermining Darwinism they ensure Intelligent Design reigns existence of God. In modern times before Darwin (1859), as the sole available alternative, ignoring numerous other cre­ William Paley (1802) was the most famous proponent of this ation myths. A full defense of evolution is available elsewhere; idea. Remember the watch found on the heath? Paley sup­ our purpose in this short article is to cite some cases incom­ posed that, just as the discovery of such an intricate mechani­ patible with Intelligent Design. cal setting would be proof Does the real world of a human designer, so show evidence of wise, the intricate mechanisms omniscient design? To be of the natural world, such plausible, an argument as the human eye, prove must take all the facts into the existence of a benevo­ account. The scientific lent, divine designer. study of biology shows us Today design has new cur­ that existing species have rency in the latest anti- serious flaws, belying evolution thrust. Pennock claims of a beneficent cre­ gives a list of its academic ator. Intelligent design sponsors (Pennock 1999, spokesmen ignore vesti­ 29) and cites Philip gial organs, anatomical Johnson as "the most inefficiency, destructive influential new creationist mutation, the sheer waste­ and unofficial general" of fulness of natural the Intelligent Design processes, and the find­ school. Johnson is a ings of molecular genetics. retired professor of law at The constant interplay of the University of random mutations honed California at Berkeley and by selection pressures dur­ author of Darwin on Trial ing evolution produces (1991) and Defeating many instances of poor Darwinism (1997). Since design. What follows are a the word design itself few of the less technical of implies plan or purpose, it the hundreds of examples appears redundant to say of flaws noted by paleon­ "intelligent design" unless tologists and other stu­ one means to imply intelli­ dents of evolutionary gence of the highest order processes. or divine intelligence. Despite its abstract , Vestigial Features the origin of the term is Darwin was not only con­ undeniably religious. vinced by the success of By their own definition, creationists believe that the world evolution in explaining numerous instances of common in general, and mankind in particular, arc designed and exist descent, but also by its ability to account for vestigial organs, for a divinely ordained purpose (Pennock 2001). Therefore, "parts in this strange condition, bearing the stamp of inutility." creationists reject the possibility that new species appear These organs are of little or no current use to an organism but through evolution by common descent, which proceeds with- are probable remnants of an earlier form from which the organism evolved. Intelligent Design has no explanation for Bruce Martin is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University these organs. As has put it, "Odd arrange­ of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. He authored the article ments and funny solutions are the proof of evolution—paths "Coincidences: Remarkable or Random?" in the September/ that a sensible God would never tread but that a natural October 1998 issue of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER and on a purported process, constrained by history follows perforce'" (Gould 1980; UFO sighting in the fall 1984 issue. His wife, Fran, coauthor of Gould in Pennock 2001, 670). Let's look at some examples. this article, also contributed to the two previous articles. E-mail: Cockroaches and other insects may grow an extra set of Bruce@ Virginia, edu. wings, as did their fossilized ancestors. Unlike most other

46 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER snakes, boa constrictors possess small vestigial hind legs. Crabs to strip leaves from a bamboo stalk (Gould 1980; Gould in possess small useless tails under their broad, flat bodies, rem­ Pennock 2001, 669). To achieve this feat, the thumb muscles nants of some ancestral form. Flounders lie flat on the sea floor normally assigned to other functions have been rerouted. It is and in the adult both eyes are on the same side of the head, but difficult to see how this anatomical architect would receive when young the eyes are on opposite sides of the head and one another commission. moves to the other side! The earlier stage is a clue to an evolu­ The early embryos of most animals with backbones have tionary path. The result is a wrenched and distorted skull. eyes on the sides of the head. In those such as humans that The frigate, a non-aquatic bird, does not benefit from die develop binocular vision, during development the eyes must webbing on its feet. In flightless birds the number of usable move forward. Sometimes this forward movement is incom­ limbs is reduced from four to two with the presence of two plete and a baby is born with the eyes too far apart. non-functional limbs. Penguins possess hollow bones although In mammals the recurrent laryngeal nerve does not extend they do not have the same need for minimal body weight as fly­ directly from brain to larynx, but upon reaching the neck ing birds. Otherwise fully aquatic animals such as sea snakes, bypasses the larynx and drops into the chest where it loops dolphins, and whales must rise to the surface to breathe air. around a lung ligament and only then retraces up to the larynx Modern whales exhibit several non-func­ tional vestigial traits. Fetuses of baleen whales bear teeth that are absorbed as the fetus matures; adult baleen whales do not have teeth. Paleontologists proposed that whales Why should moles, bats, whales, dogs, and had evolved from land mammals with legs, humans among others possess forelimbs based and therefore, in an example of its predic­ tive power, the theory of evolution forecast on the same bones that have been adapted in each that legs would be found on fossilized case unless inherited from a common ancestor? whales. In recent years the evolution of whales from now extinct land mammals has become well documented through newly found fossils from the Eocene epoch, about 50 million years ago (Wong 2002). The fossilized in the neck. While a one-foot length of nerve would be required whales contain well-defined feet and legs. In modern adult for the direct route from brain to larynx in giraffes, die actual whales, the front legs have evolved into flippers and the rear length of the doubled-back nerve from die chest of giraffes may legs have shrunk so that no visible appendages appear. reach twenty feet (K.C. Smith in Pennock 2001, 724—725). Hindlimbs still appear in the fetuses of some modern whales There are many features of human anatomy we might wish but disappear by adulthood. Externally invisible, vestigial were better designed. Our jaws are a litde small to accept wis­ diminished pelvic bones occur in modern adult whales. dom teeth that are often impacted and may need pulling. The Evolution accounts for these useless vestigial elements as left­ overs in the development of whales from land mammals, but openings of our tubes for breathing and swallowing are so they remain unaccounted for by Intelligent Design. close that we often choke. In humans the appendix serves no apparent purpose, but it is infection-prone, leading to inflam­ mation and potentially fatal appendicitis. In men the testes Anatomical Inefficiency form inside the abdomen and then drop through the abdomi­ Some anatomical features that may be useful to a creature do nal wall into the scrotum, leaving two weak areas that often not show efficient design one could term intelligent. They tes­ herniate, requiring surgery to relieve pain. Also in men the col­ tify instead to the process of natural selection. Tails have a lapsible urethra passes though the prostate gland that enlarges widely varied role in mammal bodies. They appear essential for in later life and impedes urine flow. Anatomists cite many monkeys, but the small, wispy tail in a large elephant seems more examples of such inefficient or useless structures, such as useless. Tails are absent in adult apes and humans, except they nipples in male primates. appear in early embryos and are residual in the coccyx at the Creationists often cite the human eye as a model of perfec­ end of the vertebra. In some human babies a residual tail is tion for which Darwinism cannot account, claiming that such clipped at birth. a complex organ could not be created by natural selection. But Why should moles, bats, whales, dogs, and humans among throughout the animal kingdom eyes have evolved many others possess forelimbs based on the same bones that have times, presumably beginning with plentiful photosensitive been adapted in each case unless inherited from a common material followed by a stepwise incremental buildup over gen­ ancestor? Starting from scratch, an engineer could do a better erations to the current organs. And the human eye is far from job in each case. In pandas a normally small bone in the wrist a model of perfection. In all vertebrate eyes the "wire" from has undergone significant enlargement and elongation so it is each of three million light-sensitive retinal cells passes in front opposable as a thumb to the other five fingers, enabling them of the retina, and the collection is bundled into the optic

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 47 nerve, creating a blind spot. This set-up is just the reverse of passed from one generation to the next, sometimes lurking in what any designer would construct: wires leading away from recessive genes until they meet a recessive partner. One example the backside, not light side, of the light-sensitive cells is cystic fibrosis, which causes mucus buildup in lungs, liver, and (Dawkins 1987). On the other hand, the wires do lead from pancreas. Sickle cell anemia results in poor blood circulation, the backside of the separately evolved eyes of the squid, octo­ general weakness, and when inherited from both parents, painful pus, and other cephalopods. Why does the designer favor crises owing to sickling and clumping of the red cells. squid over humans? Phenylketonuria prevents infant brain development. Muscular Instead of the efficiency and elegance one expects from dystrophy wastes muscles and often leaves the victim helpless. In Intelligent Design, we see numerous vestigial characteristics other cases such mutations are dominant. Huntington's Disease and instances of poor design. Such anomalies are both causes gradual deterioration of brain tissue in middle age. expected and accommodated Hypercholesterolemia causes by evolution. Only evolution heart disease due to cholesterol offers a self-contained expla­ build-up. Neither intelligence nation of why more than 99 nor design seems at work in percent of the species that producing such cruel muta­ have lived on Earth are tions, though modern evolu­ extinct. What sport does a tionary theory fully accounts benevolent, omniscient, and for nature's fickleness. omnipotent deity receive from visiting on humans and Discoveries of other mammals all sons of Molecular Genetics afflictions including parasitic In the genetic material, DNA, bacteria, viral diseases, cancer, the sequence of four nucleic and genetic diseases? bases furnishes three-letter These and many other code words for the sequence examples suggest that any of twenty amino acids that Intelligent Design must have occur in proteins. Owing to been undertaken by a com­ similarities among the proper­ mittee of fractious gods who ties of some of the twenty could not agree. Taken at face amino acids, substitutions value, invocation of may occur without conse­ Intelligent Design supports quence for proper protein an argument for polytheism. folding and function. For Of course creationists many animals it has proved might respond to these and possible to follow the other examples by saying that sequences of both nucleic the ways of God are mysteri­ bases in DNA and amino ous and inscrutable, and that acids in proteins to spot the we are not wise enough to changes that have occurred comment on the means by over time. One example is the which he achieves his ends. If blood protein hemoglobin, anyone offers this argument, which is a tetramer composed what gives him license to pro­ of two alpha and two beta pose Intelligent Design as the means by which God achieves chains working in concert to bind four oxygen molecules. For his ends? Such a personal view is patently religious, and does the beta chain of hemoglobin, the number of amino acid dif­ not belong in any science classroom. ferences compared to that in normal adult humans of 146 amino acids appears in parentheses after the listed animal: Destructive Mutations gorilla (1), gibbon (2), rhesus monkey (8), dog (15), horse and The study of molecular evolution strongly reinforces and extends cow (25), mouse (27), chicken (45), frog (67), and lamprey the classic whole animal conclusions for evolution, while appear­ (125) (Campbell 1987). Clearly, species more closely related ing whimsical at best for an intelligent designer. Modern evolu­ to man have fewer differences from humans in their hemoglo­ tionary theory regards generic mutation in the DNA of a species bin. Since each amino acid substitution requires millions of as the source of favorable variations that natute selects for their years to occur, a time scale for branching descent from a com­ value in aiding the survival of an individual. But mutation occurs mon organism according with evolutionary theory is more randomly, and in most cases the variation is harmful and results probable than creation by an intelligent designer. in miscarriage, deformity, or early death. Such mutations are The known library of DNA and protein sequences is now so

48 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER huge that numerous comparisons between organisms are possi­ arching explanation for these laws is achieved in atomic theory, ble. If evolution had not already been elaborated by Darwin, we which is expressed in terms of invisible atoms and molecules. would be led to it by the more recent results of substitutions in No one thinks that atomic theory is "just a theory," for it pos­ molecular sequences. Many amino acid substitutions result in sesses extraordinary explanatory power and provides the context inactive mutant proteins that are not further elaborated by the in which many of the conveniences of our civilization depend. organism, if it survives the mutation. On the other hand, many Thus we proceed from many observations or facts to their gen­ substitutions do not impair function and result in amino acid eralization in terms of laws, both levels macroscopic, to a theory sequence variation of a functional protein, as in die example of expressed in terms of invisible entities. the beta chain of hemoglobin above. Furthermore, in humans If we now apply this scheme to biology, we see that the con­ there are more than 100 amino acid substitutions in the 146- cept of evolution is at the law level, as it summarizes the results amino-acid beta chain of normal adult human hemoglobin that of a large number of observations or facts about organisms. still yield a functional protein, and most carriers are unaware that The analogous theory is natural selection or other means by they bear a hemoglobin variant. On the odier hand, die substi­ which evolution is achieved. Unknown nearly 150 years ago to tution of only die third amino acid in die beta chain of human Darwin, explanations of macroscopic evolution in terms of hemoglobin gives rise to an aberrant hemoglobin diat aggregates microscopic genes and molecular sequences of nucleic bases in within and produces sickling of die red cell widi conscqueni DNA are known to us. Plating the concept of evolution at the reduced oxygen-carrying capability. This kind of trial-and-error law level clarifies its status; it is not a theory. probing involving numerous inter- and intra-species amino acid substitutions has evolution written all over it; it is very diffi­ cult to ascribe any design or anything intelli­ gent to this process. An Intelligent Designer would create

Human Nature only successful species, but evolutionary theory Is it any more than an overweening human can account for the many unsuccessful ones. ego that proposes intelligent design for such If Intelligent Design fails so badly to account a poorly designed creature? In this egoism, creationists confirm in a perverse way that for the real world, is there any justification they have great difficulty rising above their for its continued promotion? animal origins. It is by reducing influence of ego diat die nobler aspects of human nature emerge in humanistic values, values which have been appropriated by some religions. Of course, evolutionary history fails to induce the warm In contrast, the premise of Intelligent Design fails to meet and fuzzy feeling inspired by Intelligent Design. People would even the most fundamental elements of rational inquiry. By rather believe in a benevolent ucaiur who cares for them. being able to account for everything by divine edict, Evolution offers no mercy for the individual or species that Intelligent Design explains nothing. lack the traits enabling them to compete in the struggle for food or adapt to changing environments. Fossil evidence shows the number of species that have failed these trials. An References Intelligent Designer would create only successful species, but Campbell. N.A. 1987. Biology. Mcnlo Park. California: evolutionary theory can account for the many unsuccessful Bcnjamin/Cummings. ones. If Intelligent Design fails so badly to account for the real Dawkins. R. 1987. The Blind Watchmaker. New York. New York: W.W. world, aside from the emotional appeal of a wise providence, Norton. Godfrey. LR. 1983. Scientists Confront Creationism New York, New York: is there any justification for its continued promotion? W.W. Norton Gould. S.J. 1980. The Pandas Thumb. New York. New York: W.W. Norton.

Addendum: The Law of Evolution . 1983. Hen's Teeth and Horses Toes. New York, New York: W.W. We end with a comment on the status of evolution—as fact, Norton. Mayr, E. 2000. Darwin's influence on modern thought. Scientific American. "just a theory," or somediing in between. In the physical sci­ 283, No. 1. July, pages 79-83. ences there are many observations or facts that have given rise to Pennock. R.T. 1999. Tower of Babel Cambridge. Massachusetts: MIT Press. generalizations: two of these are the law of conservation of mat­ . 2001. Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics. Cambridge. Massachusetts: MIT Press. ter and the law of definite proportions (which states that when Rennie. J. 2002. Fifteen answers to creationist nonsense. Scientific American. two or more elements combine to form a compound they do so 287. No. 1. July, pages 78-85. in definite proportions by weight). The statements of facts and Strahler. AN. 1987. Science and Earth History—The Evolution/Creation Controversy. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus. their convenient generalization to laws are expressed in terms of Wong, K. 2002. The mammals that conquered the seas. Scientific American, macroscopically observable and weighable quantities. The over­ 286, No. 5. May. pages 70-79. •

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/Decfmber 2003 49 The Fellowship of the Rings UFO Rings versus Fairy Rings

Fungal diseases, mushrooms, fairy rings (a fungus ring), bioluminescent fungi, and slime molds are presented as possible explanations for some UFO rings or "landing rings."

ANGEL M. NIEVES-RIVERA

"We all agree that your theory is mad. The problem which divides us is this: is it sufficiently crazy to be right?"—Niels Bohr

Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) phenomena have existed since the beginning of mankind itself; strange and unidentified objects have been seen in the skies for millen­ nia. A "cascade" of UFO cases have been described over the years (Hynek 1972; Steiger 1976; Hendry 1979; Klass 1986; Robiou-Lamarche 1979). Nowadays, with the advances of science in fields such as astronomy, meteorology, and biology, the "flying saucers myth" is seen today with disdain by scientists for the simple reason that there is no physical evidence for it. Many UFO cases are based almost entirely on nothing more than personal observation.

50 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Although personal testimony is considered valid in any court of law, applied sciences have more rigorous standards to vali­ date evidence. This article provides a down-to-earth explana­ tion for the phenomenon known as "UFO landing rings" or "UFO rings. When a UFO allegedly interacts with the environment and leaves physical or tangible evidence, some call this a " of the Second Kind" (or CE-2). This term was coined by the late J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who con­ sulted with the U.S. Air Force on Project Blue Book and was a lecturer on UFOs for more than twenty years. According to Hynek (1972) this interaction, what he called "physical trace evidence," can be with abiotic matter (marks, holes, or rings made on the ground), or with biotic matter, as when plants or animals are affected. A catalogue of more than a thousand Figure 1. "Enigmatic UFO ring" found on a residence's lawn in Cupey, cases in which the UFO was both seen and left physical traces Puerto Rico. Photo by Lucy Guzman (www.ovni.net). have been compiled by investigators (Hynek 1972; Steiger 1976; Hendry 1979; Fuller 1997; Phillips 1999). UFO rings fit the general description provided by Hynek (1972) as "either as circular patch (or patches), uniformly depressed, burned, or dehydrated, with an overall diameter of [about thirty feet] or more and [one foot] to [three feet] thick (the inner and outer diameters of the ring differ by that amount, while the ring itself may be quite large)." Furthermore, "the most frequently reported diameters are twenty to thirty feet" (Hynek 1972). In most cases, the rings persist for weeks or months—sometimes years—and the inte­ rior of the ring or the whole circle remains barren for three to six months (Hynek 1972; Howe 1999). Scientific explanations about the origin and implications of the UFO rings were reported by Condon (1968). He concludes, however, that the Figure 2. Snow mold of turf grass caused by Typhula. Photo by J. Drew main problem with the UFO rings is the difficulty of estab­ Smith. lishing that the rings or imprints actually were made by an extraordinary object or being. The existence of an imprint of odd shape, circular area of crushed vegetation or a barren spot often can be established (figure 1). Its mere existence docs not prove, however, that the markings were made by any extraterrestrial being or vehicle (Condon 1968). The alleged UFO rings I have personally examined can be explained away as hoaxes, meteorological effects, and damage to plants caused by natural factors (abiotic and biotic). Abiotic factors, such as chemical and physical soil effects on plant growth, are extremely complicated; it is difficult to describe the effect of one isolated factor and ignore the influence of others. Examples of abiotic factors include mineral nutrition imbalances (Evans ct al. 1991), soil alkalinity or acidity, extreme temperatures, soil humidity imbalance, pollution, and Figure 3. Damping-off of turf grass by Rhizoctonia. Photo by J. Drew Smith. excessive fertilization (Alexander 1991). Examples of biotic factors include diseases, like those caused by insects, nema­ 1997). Fungal diseases such as snow mold (Coprinus, Typhula, todes, bacteria, fungi, and viruses (Agrios 1997). figure 2); powdery mildew (Erysiphe); damping-off (Fusarium, Take turfgrasses for example. Many rings or patches in turfgrasses are caused naturally by fungal (and/or other Angel M. Nieves-Rivera is a doctoral student with the microorganism) diseases, which are strikingly similar to "unex- Department of Marine Sciences (DMS), University of Puerto plainablc" UFO rings or crop rings. Fungi, which naturally Rico (UPR) and author of several investigative articles in scien­ occur in topsoil, may become a plant disease under certain tific journals and newsletters. Address: Mr. Nieves-Rivera via favorable conditions (favorable to the fungus) such as stress, DMS, UPR. P.O. Box 9013, Mayagiiez, PR 00681-9013 or e- wounds, immunodeficiency, etc. (Alexander 1991; Agrios mail anievesQcoqui. net.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 51 Helminthosporium, Pythium, Rhizoctonitr, figures 3 and 4); take-all or Ophiobolus patch (Gaeumannomycer, figure 5); and brown patch (Rhizoctonid) commonly infect creeping bent- grass, Kentucky bluegrass, and Bermudagrass, among other turfgrasses (Couch 1995; Agrios 1997; Provey and Robinson, 2001; Nieves-Rivera, 2001, in press). Photos of diseased turf­ grasses presented by Couch (1995, plates 1 to 29), Evans (2000), Provey and Robinson (2001), and photos of alleged UFO rings (Robiou-Lamarche 1979; Fuller 1997; Howe 1999) arc practically identical. Many of these fungal diseases form rings, spots, or circular formations similar to UFO rings. Curiously, the powdery mildew caused by die fungus Erysiphe and the damping-off of seedlings by Pythium (see figure 4) Figure 4. Pythium damping-off of turf grass, see enlarged filaments. Photo produce a white powder or filaments that cover the entire by J. Drew Smith. blade of the grass, reminding me of "Angel Hair."1

Fairy Rings Fairy rings may also have been confused with UFO rings (Anonymous 1968; Janosch 2001). Fairy rings are fungus rings, generally produced by mushrooms (some sixty recorded species), and very frequently occur in grass, grasslands, and woods (Hawksworth et al. 1995). It is a fungus mycelial (mycelium) growth in which the fungus, originating in a cen­ tral spot, spreads outward in an ever-widening ring. According to Hawksworth et al. (1995) there are three types of fairy rings: (1) those in which the development of the fruitbodies has no effect on the vegetation, i.e., Chbrophyllum molybdites (see photos in Fernandez 2001); (2) those in which Figure 5. Ophiobolus patch caused by Gaeumannomyces. Photo by J. there is increased growth of the vegetation, i.e., Calvatia Drew Smith. cyathiformis, the fruitbodies of which are at the outer edge of the ring, Lycoperdon gemmatutrn, and (3) diose in which the vegetation is damaged, sometimes so badly as to have an effect on its value, i.e., Agaricus praerimosus, Marasmius oreades (fig­ ures 6 and 7). Rings of the third type are frequently made up of outer and inner rings in which the growth of the vegetation is strong with a ring of dead or badly damaged vegetation between (Hawksworth et al. 1995). Fairy rings started from a mycelium, the growth of which is at all times on the outer edge because of the band of decaying mycelium and used-up soil within die ring of active hyphae. The mean growth of a ring of A. praerimosus is twelve cm in radius every year (zero to thirty cm annually); that of one of Calvatia cyathiformis is about twenty-four cm. From this, the ages of rings of these two fungi in Colorado, sixty and more than 200 meters diameter, were thought to be 250 and 420 years old; parts of A. praerimosus rings were possibly 600 years old (Hawksworth et al. 1995).

Ghost Lights Among CE-2 cases 1 have had the opportunity to see and/or read about are talcs about glowing marks on the ground, "phosphorescent patches," or "ghosdy lights" in the forests. Fungi are capable of lighting up the woods. Bioluminescent mycelium, spores, and fruitbodies of some mushroom species

Figure 6. Fruitbodies and fairy ring: Marasmius oreades from Our Edible (i.e., Armillaria, Mycena, Omphabtus, Panellus) usually grow Toadstool and Mushrooms by Hamilton W. Gibson, 1895. in wood, soil, and leaf liner. The mushrooms produce a non-

52 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER pulsing light which attract insects that spread fungal spores. Studies of bioluminescent mushrooms are included in Newton (1952). Herring (1978), and O'Kane et al. (1990). For excel­ lent photos see www.luxgene.com. Bioluminescent fungi are by no means a recent discovery. One of the earliest accounts of bioluminescent fungi in the New World was published by Spanish chronicler Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo in 1526 (Glawe and Solberg 1989). I personally have had the opportunity to see this curious phe­ nomenon in the Big Tree trail at the Caribbean National Forest El Yunque in Puerto Rico (Nieves-Rivera 2001). This might be an explanation for the ghostly green-bluish lights, the glow-in-thc-dark "foxfire" in the United States, or appari­ tions seen at night in the forests by the locals since ancient Figure 7. Curious "8-shape" caused by Marasmius oreades fairy ring. times. They may also be precursors of many folk tales and leg­ Photo by Levan R. Evans. ends (Nieves-Rivera in press), including many "ghostly light" tales of the woods (Robiou-Lamarche 1979).

Bioluminescent fungi might be an explanation for the ghostly green-bluish lights, or apparitions seen at night in the forests by the locals since ancient times. They may also be precursors of many folk tales and legends, including many "ghostly light" tales of the woods.

In 1973, a small suburb of Dallas was terrorized by a mov­ ing bright yellow blob of an undetermined organism crawling into house lawns' turfgrasscs. This yellow blob known a» Plas­ modium (figure 8) was immediately mistaken as an alien entity in the form of microbes that had started an invasion of Earth (Sharnoff 1991; Nieves-Rivera 2001). The news kept the spellbound attention of many Americans, similar to Orson Welles's classic radio transmission about an alien invasion on Halloween Eve 1938. Fortunately, mycologists quickly dis­ missed any Extraterrestrial Biological Emit)' (EBE) hypothesis and identified the blobs as pan of a slime mold or myx- omycete. The slime mold responsible for the invasion of turt- grasses was the scramblcd-egg slime, Fuligo septica. For further Figure 8. Slime mold Diachea thomasii. Photo by Bill Roody. details of the taxonomy, biology, and distribution of this and other slime molds, see Stephenson and Stempen (1994). naturally atmospheric (thunderstorms, lightning bolts) and Slime molds, in general, are decomposers that cover low- astronomic (shooting stars, meteorites) phenomena (Nieves- lying plants with plasmodium and fructification without Rivera in press). This strange association might explain many "infecting" them, for example Diachea thomasii (figure 8) and CE-2 episodes in ancient and modern times. This fascination Physarurn cinerta (figure 9). For those who encounter slime began with the observation of the skies by ancient cultures and molds in turfgrasses and other plants in your yard, my recom­ their attribution of unnatural phenomena to the gods. For the mendation is to avoid using fungicides, mow the lawn, and ancient Greeks and Romans, after a thunderbolt struck on the put your fears to rest! ground, mushrooms (single or gregarious, sometimes as fairy Another interesting association involves fungus lore and rings) such as boleti, puffballs, and tubers arose from it. An

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 53 disease photographs. Dr. E.H. Williams, Jr. and Ms. N.N. Mercado for reviewing the text, and Mrs. L. Guzman (www.ovni.net) for assistance.

Notes

1. Angel Hair are stringlike lines that fall from the sky and form unique patterns. They look like cobwebs or filamcntlike substances, often white, gray, or yellowish. It is said that this substance sublimates in a few seconds after falling (from www.crystalinks.com/angclhair.html). 2. Pea-shaped chambers containing the spores.

References

Agrios, G.N. 1997. Plant Pathology. California: Academic Press. Alexander, M. 1991. Introduction to Soil Microbiology. Florida: Krieger Pub­ lishing Co. Anonymous. 1968. Hongos. OVNIS y anillos de brujas. La Nacion (November 12: local newspaper from Argentina]. Condon, E.U. 1968. Final Report of the Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects. New York and Colorado: E.P. Dutton Co., Inc. and The Colorado Associated University Press. Couch, H.B. 1995. Diseases in Turfgrasscs. Florida: Krieger Publishing Co. Evans, I.R. 2000. Major Diseases of Turfgrasscs in Western Canada. Alberta Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development. Available at www.agric.gob. ab.ca/pcsts/diseases/turfgras.himl. Evans, I.R., E. Solberg. and I). Penney. 1991. Circles, lines, and patterns in standing wheat crops in Alberta associated with copper deficiency. Canadian Journal of Plant Pathology 13(3): 276. Fernandez. G. 2001. Caso FederaciAn: (Aterrizajc extraterrestre o presencia dc clemcntales? Available at www.ciudadfutura.com./ovnis/articulo/ clemcnta.htm. Fuller, P 1997. Ted Phillips' physical trace catalogue. Available at www. projectl947.com.phillips.html. Glawe. D.A.. and V/.U. Solberg. 1989. Early accounts of fungal biolumincs- cence. Mycologia 81: 296-299. Haag. R.A. 1997. The Robert A. Haag Collection: Field Guide of Meteorites 12th anniversary edition. Arizona: Self-published. Sec also www.mcteoritc man.com. Hawksworth, D.L.. P.M. Kirk, B.C. Surron. and D.N. Pegler. 1995. Ainsworth & Bisby's Dictionary of the Fungi. United Kingdom: Inter­ national Mycological Institute. Figure 9. Slime mold Physarum cinerea. Photo by J. Drew Smith. Herring. P.J. 1978. Bioluminescence in Action. New York: Academic Press. example is the "fairy butter" or "star-jelly" (Tremella lutescens), Howe. L.M. 1999. Delphos. Kansas ring mystery—more analyses. Available at www.eanhfiles.com/carth066.htm. a yellowish jelly-fungus often found after a heavy rain, a Hynek. J.A. 1972. The UFO Experience: A Scientific Inquiry. New York: favorite folklore candidate associated with shooting stars or Ballantine Books. meteorites. Even the dye-maker's false puffball (Pisolithus tinc- Janosch, H. 2001. Sobre extraterrcstres. hadas y hongos: cuando los ovnis atcr- torius), which forms a large irregular club with a narrow stem- rizan. Available at http://ar.geocities.com/mitosdelmilenio200l/hongos.htm. [Published in January 1994 in the Spanish magazine Fl Ojo Esctptico. vol. 9.| like base submerged in the substrate, resembles a stony-iron Klass, P.J. 1986. UFOs: The Public Deceived New York: . meteorite lying on the ground. If sliced, the peridioles-' are NEMS [New England Metcoritical Services]. 1998. NEMS reference cara- exposed, giving the false impression of a stony-iron meteorite loguc of meteorites & planetary science—No. 6. Massachusetts: Self-pub­ lished. Available at www. meteorlab.com. as shown in Haag's (1997) or NEMS (1998) catalogues. Newton, H.E. 1952. Bioluminescence. New York: Academic Press. In conclusion, true fungi (plant pathogenic microfungi, Nieves-Rivera. A.M. 2000. Arc mvxomycctes phytopathogens? Inoculum mushrooms) and fungal-like organisms (slime molds) offer 51(4): 2—4. Available at www.msafungi.org. . 2001. About the so-called "UFO Rings" and Fungi. Inoculum 52(6): an interesting and often overlooked explanation for some 3-6. Available at www.msarungi.org/inoc52(6).pdf. UFO landing ring cases. Future eyewitness accounts of such . (in press). Ethnomycological Notes. I. Lightning bolts and fungus UFO encounters should be taken seriously, but every effort lore. Moeszia (Hungary). O'Kane, D.J., W.L Lingle, D. Porter, and J.E. Wampler. 1990. Spectral analy­ should be made to obtain tangible evidence. Not all CE-2 sis of bioluminescence of Panellus stypticus. Mycologia 82: 607-616. cases are easily explained, but from what I have seen, there is Phillips, T.R. 1999. Top physical trace cases. Available at www.angelfirc. nothing "unearthly" about them. Current evidence suggests com/mo/cptr/topcases.html. Provey, J., and K. Robinson. 2001. Turf wars. Popular Mechanics, April. Avail­ that most UFO landing rings are cases of mistaken identity able at www.popularmechanics.com/popmech/homei/0I04higdam.html. or willful deception. Robiou-Lamarche, S. 1979. Manifesto OVNI de Puerto Rico. Santo Domingo v Cuba. Puerto Rico: Editorial Punto y Coma. Acknowledgments Sharnoff, S.D. 1991. Beauties from a beast: Woodland Jekyll and Hyde. Smithsonian 22. July: 98-103. I thank Dr. S. L. Stephenson for supplying the photographs by B. Stephenson, S.L, and H. Stempen. 1994. Myxomycetes—A Handbook of Slime Roody, Drs. I.R. Evans and J.D. Smith for supplying the turf grass Molds. Oregon: Timber Press.

54 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER BOOK REVIEWS

A Dictionary of Skeptical Splendor AMANDA CHESWORTH

The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefi, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions. By Robert Todd Carroll. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2003. ISBN 0-471-27242-6. $19.95.

or almost a decade now, the online other collections of this sort usually just From the budding teenage magician Skeptic's Dictionary at www.skep sit on bookshelves collecting dust, taken to the retired physicist wondering Fdic.com has provided a beacon of down for a quick reference check or to why on earth we remain so scientifically light to cyberspace dwellers of all shades refresh our understanding of a specific illiterate. The Skeptic's Dictionary and flavors. Journalists, educators, spans generations and is accessible students, doctors, lawyers, itchy- to all ages. bum chiefs ... we've all visited and Dipping in at random we dis­ returned time and again, dipping cover that veterinarians who use into die a-through-z of the bizarre, alternative medicine on their unusual, and fantastic. Robert patients have been labeled "animal Carroll's creation has served the quackers," we are introduced to the virtual community well, becoming bizarre practices of exorcism and a valuable aid in research and trepanation, as well as the unusual understanding. The Web site has characters who have made the occult become a reliable guide in navigat­ what it is today. We learn about how ing the gobbledygook diat has accu­ our perception can be fooled by illu­ mulated through millennia of sions and die many cognitive fallac­ human history and continues to ies we face. We are entertained by the pervade our civilization. hoaxes perpetrated on mankind, Now, care of John Wiley & frightened by the large number of Sons, Carroll has turned his master­ cults existing today, and frustrated piece Web site into a book—typed by the continued appeal of conspira­ words on paper, illustrations sprin­ cies and the success of cold-reading kled about the pages, bound techniques. together and portable—with great Little nonsense has escaped gift possibilities. subject. The Skeptic's Dictionary cer­ Carroll's eye, and he has not only woven The Skeptics Dictionary: A Collection tainly allows for these possibilities but it a web but a book that should be a staple of Strange Belief, Amusing Deceptions, is also a surprisingly good read all on its of everyone's diet—pan of die package and Dangerous Delusions came out in own—for those moments we have set we are given at birdi to help us avoid the August 2003. From acupuncture to zom­ aside to relax and enjoy an interesting dangers and pitfalls of living in a world bie, readers will be entertained and book. The rich and diverse subject mat­ riddled with bad ideas and empty enlightened with hundreds of topics ter is presented in informative and promises.... from the paranormal, die supernatural, digestible chunks, written with great and die pseudoscientific; from the fields clarity of language. Sources for further Amanda Chesworth is educational director of logic, science, philosophy, and skepti­ reading are given with most entries, and for CSICOP and directs the Inquiring cal investigation. the bibliography provides a collection of Minds program at www.inquiring Encyclopedias, dictionaries, and some of die best in skeptical literature. minds.org.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 55 BOOK REVIEWS

ator who designed the universe for Religion in a human happiness. That is not what happened. Astro­ Scientific World nomical discoveries revealed that Earth PHIL MOLE was not the center of the universe, and there was no difference between the The Ghost in the Universe: God in the Light of Modern Science. composition of elements in the "heav­ By Taner Edis. Prometheus Books, New York, 2002. ens" and those on Earth. Furthermore, ISBN 1-57392-977-8. 330 pp., Hardcover, $29. much of the universe appeared hostile to life, and the overwhelming size and age of the universe challenged the notion that it exists primarily for our benefit. In iologist H. Allen Orr once noted for simplistic models. As Edis explains, fact, natural selection showed man is that discussions of science and "Serious religious belief and unbelief are not the pinnacle of a great chain of religion have a way of turning both handicapped by their over-reliance being, but the contingent product of the B on conceptual arguments. . . . Liberal otherwise intelligent people, as if by struggle for existence, and modern magic, into idiots. Few other topics thcists say the fact of biological evolution physics reveals an eternal universe, with has no significance for religion. Atheists inspire so many simplistic judgments no need for a Creator to set things in based on even more simplistic concepts, and so mortally wound attempts at seri­ ous analysis. Taner Edis, a physics pro­ As Edis demonstrates, scientific naturalism fessor at Truman State University, intre­ pidly enters this intellectual climate has gradually undermined theological with his new book The Ghost in the explanations of the world. Universe. Succeeding where so many others have failed, Edis examines reli­ gion in the spirit of honest inquiry, while simultaneously understanding the say, 'Science can never lead us to God. motion. Knowledge of both psychology appeal of religion to believers. In the It can't even try,' and concentrate on and the physical sciences refutes the process, he cogently discusses topics as refuting the classical proofs. Neither are concept of a spiritual reality beyond the wide-ranging as theology, biblical criti­ taking their fact claims seriously enough. empirical world—traditionally a main cism, the historical origins of Islam, and ... However practical this arrangement component of theistic worldviews. . may be, it does not help us take Finally, objective historical research Edis uses a dialectical method similar God seriously." showed religion to be a social institution to Karl Poppers "conjectures and refuta­ Intellectually sophisticated believers with all of the contradictions of other tions" to explore the strengths and weak­ and atheists alike have rejected the old human endeavors. nesses of theistic arguments. Ultimately, model of God as a "Great Boss" in the The overwhelming success of natu­ he finds many theologians occupying the sky, but have not been able to replace it ralism cannot help but have deep impli­ contradictory position of claiming God is with anything meaningful. cations for the ways thoughtful people the ultimate ground of all being while The great strength of The Ghost in conceptualize, or fail to conceptualize, retreating from claims about how this all- the Universe lies in Edis's lucid explana­ the nature of the divine. As Edis states, important God affects his creation. This tion of how and why we arrived in this we no longer seem able to base our con­ approach is dishonest, because the God predicament. As he demonstrates, scien­ cept of God on anything real, and the most people want to believe in must be tific naturalism has gradually under­ entire spiritual worldview seems deeply more than an abstract concept. If God mined theological explanations of the mistaken. But if Edis is right, what atti­ really exists, we should be able to find evi­ world. During the Middle Ages, theol­ tude should we adopt toward religion? dence that the world is his creation. The ogy was the "queen of the sciences," the He righdy rejects the sentimental argu­ lack of any such evidence is the true rea­ organizing paradigm for philosophy, ments that religion is philosophically son for the vagueness in our modern talk history, and the burgeoning natural sci­ necessary to find higher moral meaning of religion, and our maddening fondness ences. Religious thinkers across the in the world, but remains respectful of intellectual spectrum assumed that the the role of religion as one possible way Phil Mole frequently writes about issues in sciences would testify to the glory and to express meaning. science, religion, and philosophy. He lives majesty of God, and confirm die tradi­ Edis understands, as too few secular in Chicago. tional view of God as a benevolent cre- humanists do, that the value of religion

56 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER BOOK REVIEWS

is not reducible to its fact claims. In a of great author's work. Yet, against the demented apocalyptic fantasies, leg­ concluding chapter called "The God of claims of fundamentalists seeking sim­ ends of magic and mystery set in ancient times—arc wonderful stories. Song and Story," he points out that nar­ plistic and inflexible understandings of ratives effectively express an aesthetic scripture, Edis asserts that this complex­ Edis surely knows diis argument can and moral understanding of life, even if ity is precisely what makes sacred stories only go so far—most of die religious the narratives are not factually "true." so vitally resonant with human needs. faidiful want to believe that their myths He describes the sense of wonder that he As Edis concludes, provide meaning as well as disclose deep and many other readers experience At their best, they arc stories we can realities about the purpose and design of through the purely fictional work of appreciate regardless of whether they the universe. However, Edis gives dieists writers like J.R.R. Tolkien. Drawing a are remotely true, morally uplifting, and secular humanists alike plenty to perceptive analogy with sacred litera­ or practically significant. After all, human hopes and desires are an inco­ consider. No one interested in the com­ ture, Edis also argues that Tolkien's vast herent mess, so to consistently speak plex phenomena of religion can afford to body of mythological lore, resulting par­ to us, a myth must be able to generate ignore Edis's book. It is a rare work of tially from his many volumes of unfin­ many different, contradicting levels of great honesty and empadiy, and may be ished material, negates the possibility of meaning. So even the strange, disrep­ utable corners of religion—Gnostic one of the few truly essential books about carving a fully coherent worldview out visions and mystic cosmologies. science and religion of recent times.

taining and more an exasperating exam­ Rewriting History with a ple of the wealthy amateur run amok. Possibly the weakest aspect of the Grand Theory book is the specious logic that under­ DAN KOCH pins the author's entire enterprise in asserting the validity of his Grand 1421: The Year China Discovered America. By Gavin Menzies. Theory. Like so many authors in the William Morrow, New York, 2003. "alternative history" genre, Menzies ISBN 0-06-053763-9. 552 pp. Hardcover, $27.95. places his theory in front of the data. The logical basis for the theory could be summarized in the following propo­ avin Menzies, the author of mic thinkers protecting their turf") sition: "The Grand Theory requires 1421: The Year that China Chinese age of global discovery. this evidence to be valid; therefore here G Discovered America, is a retired Menzies's Grand Theory could be is the evidence that supports the Royal Navy sub commander, and per­ summarized as containing two separate Grand Theory." haps only a seaman could have written yet closely articulated internal claims. And diere is certainly a long list of this book. The book has the feel of a The primary claim is that the several voy­ data-sets in the many Appendices that are traveler's tale, a seaman's yarn, all 500- ages of die great Chinese admiral Zheng presented as evidence. It is only that the plus pages of it. Sailors are great read­ He during the sixteenth century, well- "internal facts" of the evidence are often ers—what else to do on long night known to scholarship, actually completed ignored, because these facts may in fact watches?—and Menzies appears to be the first circumnavigation of die globe, have no support for die Grand Theory. very broadly read in a wide variety of supported by a massive logistic effort that Out of the many examples of physi­ subjects related to his diesis—among included die construction of astronomi­ cal evidence offered his Grand Theory, I diem history, cartography, archaeology, cal observation platforms all over the will focus on the ones I know best: the art history, and travel books. world. The subsidiary claim is that the stone structures and archeological sites The book can be entertaining viewed maps and navigational data on which the of the Pacific—specifically the part as a sort of roller coaster ride through a later European explorers such as wide variety of scholarly areas. For tiiose Magellan, Columbus, and Cook de­ Dan Koch has been working in the area of who enjoy going around the world in a pended were based on original Chinese Pacific studies since 1969, including a book, Menzies will take the reader maps—which have since disappeared. stint as a linguist at the University of through an interesting variety of scenes, To the reader interested in the latest Hawaii. Today he owns and manages a all thanks to what I would refer to as his in "alternative" world history, this is fiin manufacturing business in Chicago but Grand Theory: diat the European age of stuff. But there will be other readers, continues his interests in Pacific language, discovery was based on an earlier (and professionals and skeptics among them, culture, and history. E-mail: dankoch. "still unrecognized by the stuffy acadc- who may find the book to be less enter- entcract@rcn. com.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Novembn/December 2003 57 BOOK REVIEWS

known as Micronesia. As Menzies pre­ evidence we have on Nan Madol sup­ understandable appeal to many readers, sents his theory, the fifteenth-century ports the orthodox scholarly theory that and it contains the kernels of some ideas Chinese had to have built large stone well-organized Micronesians had that are probably valid, such as the structures in their circumnavigational planned, built, and occupied Nan notion that the medieval world was voyages in order to take sun and star Madol approximately 200 years prior to more interconnected than we tend to readings for their maps. And, as his par­ the fifteenth century, without the help recognize. But its weaknesses are signifi­ ticular brand of circular logic seems to of any known outside group—European cant, and the danger is that the book, demand, since this theory is correct, or Asian. and so many others in its genre, pro­ then every important archaeological While it is not possible to say that all motes wishful dunking and circular rea­ complex, such as Nan Modal in the pre­ of the existing evidence is explained by soning as a replacement for sound con­ sent day state (and island) of Ponape in the current theory, certainly there is no clusions based on the . Micronesia, was built by the Chinese. data from Nan Madol itself that requires In today's world, we can ill afford to allow There is one serious problem with the presence of fifteenth-century such practices to emerge unchallenged this claim. There is not single shred of Chinese, and no one who studies the and dominate public discourse, and must internal evidence from Nan Madol that data would need such a presence, with continue to support informed thinking connects it with fifteenth-century the sole exception of Gavin Menzies. and critical review through periodicals China. On the contrary, every bit of A book such as this one has an such as SKEPTICAL INQUIRER.

Minnesota Iceman, a "man left over BIGFOOT! A New Look at Bigfoot from the Ice Age" exhibited in a block of BENJAMIN RADFORD ice as a sideshow attraction. The Iceman's background is too fantastic and Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in North America. By Loren involved to go into here, but suffice it to Coleman. Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York. 2003. say that it involves an anonymous mil­ ISBN 0-7434-6975-5. 278 pp. Softcover, $14. lionaire, a creationist conspiracy, a Bigfoot shot and killed in Minnesota, a showman known for spinning wild LDIIN C O I I M A N tales, and a fake Iceman/Bigfoot that was deviously switched for the "real" one. Despite its thoroughly dubious circumstances, though some of his oren Coleman has been investigat­ provenance, two respected cryptozoolo- descriptions are a little subjective. For ing mysterious animals for decades, gists, Ivan Sanderson and Bernard example he says Roger Patterson's pony Land is author of several books on Heuvelmans, were certain it was not a the topic, including A to Z "smelled the creature and reared, bring­ sideshow illusion but a real, modern and The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti, and ing both pony and rider to the ground" human ancestor. (Heuvelmans believed Other Mystery Primates Worldwide. His (p. 82). (We know the pony reared, but it to be a Neandertal killed in Vietnam.) latest is Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in there's no way to know if it was because One of die questions surrounding die North America The book is light on hard it smelled a Bigfoot, as Coleman matter- Iceman is, if it really was a Bigfoot (and evidence—there are no in-depth discus­ of-factly states.) This subtle shift from not a faked dummy), why hadn't anyone sions of hair fibers or footprint finds— reporting to advocacy appears in other else noticed it during the years it had and instead deals with the general phe­ places as well. been on public exhibition in many states? nomena of Bigfoot, including the crea­ Coleman says of the Patterson crea­ Coleman answers by quoting Sanderson: ture's cinematic history and a survey of ture that "this filmed Bigfoot does not "Just how many people with proper Bigfoot researchers. lock its knees; this would be extremely training in any of the biological sci­ Coleman discusses the famous 1967 difficult for a hoaxer to do and yet look ences. . .go to such shows? If any do, how Patterson/Gimlin Bigfoot film and its as smooth as this creature's walk" (p. many are trained physical anuSropoIo- 96). Yet experiments conducted by gists or primatologists?... The answer is: practically no one who attended the Benjamin Radford wrote about Bigfoot in David Daegling and Daniel Schmitt exhibit (p. 112)." Yet this simply begs the March/April 2002 SKEPTICAL (and published in the May/June 1999 die question; one could as well ask how INQUIRER. His book Media Mythmakers: SKEPTICAL INQUIRER) found it was much Sanderson and Heuvelmans know How Journalists, Activists, and Adver­ instead quite easy to duplicate the about carnival exhibits and illusions. tisers Mislead Us was published in smooth gait seen in the film. September by Prometheus Books. Coleman includes a chapter on the

58 November/Oecember 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER BOOK REVIEWS

They would not be the first scientists to be gay and more randy males are said to of scat. Expert Craig Newton gave the be fooled by tricksters. have a bent for bovine buggery.) results: the scat turned up nothing Coleman claims that the Iceman "was In chapter 2, Coleman discusses usable; "we couldn't conclude anything" never a carnival exhibit," (p. 115) and "The Strange Cast of Skookum," a mud from the saliva sample; and the Bigfoot that it was instead shown at shopping impression discovered in Washington hair sequences were "so human-like as to malls and state fairs (as if the latter did state in September 2000 by the Bigfoot most likely be contaminants." In other not have midways). "The elitist practice Field Researchers Organization words, the cast was largely a bust, little of labeling the Minnesota Iceman a 'car­ (BFRO). A large cast was made of the more than another inconclusive (albeit nival exhibit' is a way to immediately impression, said to contain the body large) print find. diminish the possible significance" of the print of a reclining Bigfoot. Hair, saliva, Coleman searches for evidence of Iceman, Coleman writes. Yet Sanderson and waste samples were also collected, Bigfoot in myths, native legends, old himself seems to suggest that the venue raising the possibility of DNA analysis. newspaper reports, and even a novel was less than respectable when he asks If authentic, this find has the potential place: 1930s fruit crate labels. One how many educated, trained biologists to reveal a trove of useful information. curiosity of the history of Bigfoot sight­ would "go to such shows." If it was not The BFRO has repeatedly refused to ings is that no contemporary accounts displayed as a carnival attraction, that provide outside investigators—myself exist of Bigfoot in California between would be news to Verne Langdon, a long­ included—access to the cast. In stark 1900 and 1957. Such a striking absence time special effects artist whom the contrast to open scientific inquiry, the of reports seems odd, especially given the Iceman exhibitor approached to make a experts who were allowed to examine it fact that four of the top five "best places life-sized fake. Langdon claimed in a were hand-picked by the BFRO to be to see Bigfoot" Coleman lists are in or recent article in Cult Movies magazine filmed for a documentary. Those who near California. Why would creatures (number 38, page 69) that the Iceman wish to see their "evidence" can pay $35 that have presumably lived in the area for was to be used for appearances "on carni­ for the documentary on DVD available centuries not be reported for nearly sixty val midways." In fact. Senior Research through a company called Whitewolf years? Coleman makes an interesting (if Fellow Joe Nickell saw the exhibit first Entertainment. The fact that suppos­ not entirely compelling) case that a hand at a carnival midway—at Toronto's edly scientific findings must be pur­ Bigfoot-like illustration depicted on Canadian National Exhibition on August chased though an entertainment com­ crate labels provide "critical evidence for 19, 1973. pany instead of appearing in peer- the awareness of hairy giants." reviewed journals reveals much about Coleman delves into new territory I would have liked more in-depth the BFRO's credibility. with a chapter tided "Sex and the Single (and more critical) analysis; however, Sasquatch." Jokes about large feet aside, Though Coleman spends five pages given its intended audience, Coleman's Bigfoot sex is a legitimate avenue of discussing the Skookum Cast, he stops decision to forego detailed discussions of inquiry—the creatures would have to just short of actually revealing the results Bigfoot evidence is understandable. For have a large enough breeding population of the BFRO's investigation. Aside from the average reader interested in Bigfoot, to survive through generations. (Though the mud imprint, three samples were this book is an accessible introduction apparently not all of them breed; subjected to DNA analysis: unidentified that surveys some interesting, recent, Coleman writes that some Bigfoot might hair, saliva from an apple core, and bits and oft-overlooked Bigfoot topics. •

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION (Required by 39 U.S.C. 3685) Date of filing: August 26, 2003. Title: The SKEPTICAI INQUIRER. Frequency of issue: Bi-monthly. Complete mailing address of known office of publication: 3965 Rensch Road, Amherst, Erie County. NY 14228-2713. P.O. Box 703, Amherst, Erie County, NY 14226-0703. Publisher: CSICOP. Inc. (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal), 3965 Rensch Road, Amherst, Erie County, NY 14228-2713. Editor: Kendrick Frazier. 944 Deer Drive NE, Albuquerque. NM 87122. Assistant Editor: Benjamin T. Radford, P.O. Box 703. Buffalo. NY 14226- 0703. Owner: CSICOP, Inc. (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal), 3965 Rensch Road, Amherst Erie County, NY 14228-2713. P.O. Box 703. Buffalo, Erie County. NY 14226-0703. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders: None. Aver, no. copies each issue during preceding 12 months: A. Total no. copies (net press run) 59,683. B. Paid and/or requested circulation (1) Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales 22.175 (2) Mail subscriptions 34,935. C. Total paid and/or requested circula­ tion (sum of B[1] and (2]) 57.110. D. Free distribution by mail (samples, complimentary, and other free) 797. E. Free distribution outside mail (by carrier or other means) 0. F. Total free distribution (sum of D and E) 800. G. Total distribution (sum of C and F) 57.910. H. Copies not dis­ tributed (1) Office use. left over, spoiled 1.773; (2) returns from news agents 0. Total (sum of 6, H [1) and [21) 59,683. Percent paid and/or requested circulation 98.619%. Actual no. copies of single issue published nearest filing date: A. Total no. copies (net press run) 61.362. B. Paid and/or requested circulation (1) Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales 24,235 (2) Mail subscriptions 34,377. C. Total paid and/or requested circulation (sum of B[1] and [2]) 58,602. D. Free distribution by mail (samples, complimentary, and other free) 800. E. Free distribution outside mail (by carrier or other means) 0. F. Total free distribution (sum of D and E) 800. G. Total distribution (sum of C and F) 57.910. H. Copies not distributed (1) Office use. left over, spoiled 1,960; (2) returns from news agents 0. Total (sum of G, H |1) and (2]) 61,362. Percent paid and/or requested circulation 98.653%.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 59 NEW BOOKS

Listing does not preclude future review. intended as an accessible and up-to-date guide 2003- 293 pp. $28, hardcover. This new con­ to Darwin and his influence. The emphasis is tribution to the Einstein literature focuses on Calculus and Pizza: on Darwin as a thinker and on Darwinian five aspects of Einstein's emotional nature that A Cookbook for the themes within philosophy. Contributions by had a profound impact on his life and careen Hungry Mind. seventeen Darwin scholars. his love of learning, his love of classical music, Clifford A. Pickover. his frequently turbulent relationships with Wiley, New York, From Complexity to Life: On the women and his family, his strong antiwar 2003. 208 pp.$ 16.95, Emergence of Life and Meaning. Edited by paper. This is the pro­ stance, and his with finding a uni­ Niels Henrik Gregersen. Oxford University lific Clifford Pick- fied theory of physics to explain all of the over's breezy attempt Press, 2003. 243 pp., $35, hardcover. Volume forces of the universe and reluctance to accept to give us a highly of essays originating from a research sympo­ the indetcrminancy of quantum theory. popular treatment of sium, "Complexity, Information, and Design: some of the essentials of calculus. He sets up A Critical Appraisal," in Santa Fc, New The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, residence in a pizza parlor and does his best Mexico, in 1999. Fundamental questions of Atheism, and Anthropology in France. (which is pretty good) to help us understand the steady emergence of organized complexity Jennifer Michael Hecht. Columbia Uni­ what calculus is all about and to grasp its arc dealt with from leading scientists in com­ versity Press, New York, N.Y, 2003. $29.50, basic principles and rules, formulas, and plexity studies. Physicist Paul Davies outlines 402 pp., hardcover. In 1876 some leading problems. He hopes it "will stimulate critical the basic ideas of an etnergentist worldview. French citizens, both male and female, thinking, get some students interested in Mathematicians Gregory Chaitin and Charles formed a group with the aim of proving that computer programming, and suggest the Bennett present their computational defini­ souls do not exist. They agreed that, after usefulness of simple mathematics for solving tions of complexity. Stuart Kauffman writes death, they would dissect each other and curious, practical, or even mind-shattering on the emergence of autonomous agents. Paul hopefully show a direct relationship between problems." Illustrated with cartoon diagrams Davies discusses complexity and the arrow of brain shapes and sizes and the character, abil­ by Brian Mansfield. time. Ian Stewart examines the Second Law of ities, and intelligence of individuals. The Gravities and the Fourth Law of Thermo­ group helped to develop anthropology, but The Cambridge Companion to Darwin. dynamics. Editor Niels Henrik Gregersen their interests grew out of aggressive, evangel­ Edited by Jonathan Hodge and Gregory concludes with a chapter on "From Anthropic ical atheism. With this group as its focus, The Radick. Cambridge University Press, New Design to Self-Organized Complexity." End of the Soul's a history professor's study of York, 2003. 486 pp. $70, hardcover; $26, science and atheism in France in the late softcover. A volume about the life, work, and Einstein: The Passions of a Scientist. Barry nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. intellectual legacies of Charles Darwin, Parker. Prometheus Books, Amherst, N.Y. SCIENCE BEST SELLERS Top Ten Best Sellers

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60 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER FORUM

Hen-Dubious, Cock-Sure

RALPH ESTLING

'm assuming that these little wool­ from one-celled organisms to many- facts, because the same facts may lead in gatherings in the Outer Homilies celled creatures must be difficult and more than one direction, with all direc­ Itell you very little if anything that is rare. This is certainly one very possible tions being perfectly logical, cogent, new, that has never occurred to you interpretation of die known facts. intelligent, in harmony with the known before, perhaps many times. The web- But it could just as easily be argued data—and pointing to diametrically footed, egg-laying, near-blind duck­ from the very same facts that, given opposed solutions. Juries find this to be billed platitude waddles ever after us, time, three billion years or so, unicellu­ the case almost invariably and scientists stalking us, sniffing and snuffling us lar life will evolve into multicellular life find this often enough to be cautious out, making us ashamed of our preten­ inevitably/probably/possibly. G-type with the "facts" (well, most scientists). I tious windbaggery and grandiose mole­ stars like the sun are common and think it would be a good idea for us to hills. So bear with me once again while remain viable for 10 billion years, and learn all we can about how life began I go through the old and the obvious. cooler stars keep going for many times and then evolved on Earth, and then go One old, obvious fact is that facts that length of time. So, using Earth as a out and look for other life in lots of often aren't enough by themselves, they typical example—and there is no very other places in the universe before we need to be interpreted correctly and good reason why we should—we can pronounce on die issue in any even unambiguously. This old chestnut pretty well assume that complex, multi­ slightly definitive terms. We are all anx­ struck me forcibly recently while read­ cellular life abiding by the universal ious and eager to find answers to ques­ ing Mark Ridley's Mendel's Demon. In it rules of natural selection and thereby at tions that intrigue and perplex us: this is Ridley draws a perfectly logical conclu­ least on occasion leading to intelligence, natural. But the fact that it's natural sion about life in the universe based on if not as prevalent as simple, unicellular doesn't compel us to yield to it without the one example we have some informa­ life, is still quite likely to emerge on a struggle. And when are enough facts tion about, Earth. He concludes that, planets and moons of planets. This is in? When can we be sure that this inter­ while unicellular life is reasonably com­ precisely the opposite conclusion that pretation, and not that one and all the mon throughout the universe, multi­ Ridley comes to, using the same exact others, is the right insight? Ah, now cellular life is not and, this being the data but this time standing die data on that, as somebody once remarked, is die case, complex and intelligent life forms their head. Stalemate. Consternation. question. In Murder in the Cathedral are virtually nonexistent. He bases this Letters to die Editor. (not your typical detective story), T.S. analysis on the pretty likely fact that life The cure for this kind of reasoning, Eliot wrote that the greatest treason was began on Earth just about as soon as it Ridley's or mine, is, of course to get in doing the right thing for the wrong could, about 4 billion years ago when more information from a wider range of reason. In science the greatest embar­ things had cooled down a bit and mete­ sources before concluding anything; the rassment must be to get the right answer orites weren't smashing into the planet noble art of fence-sitting. Ridley may from the wrong, though logically quite as often as they had been. But life indeed turn out to be right, but that's impeccable, deduction. Facts only remained unicellular for another three not the point. The point is with getting sometimes speak for themselves. or thereabouts billion years. So he the right slant on facts, such facts as we Most people, including scientists, decides, quite cogently, that the change have, which are always incomplete and yearn for certainty, to be free from often indistinct and fuzzy. Often doubt, to know. There are grave dangers Our occasional essayist Ralph Estling enough in life the interpretation of facts in this: one is that our yearning for cer­ writes from Ilminster, Somerset, England. is more difficult dian assembling of tainty can drive us too fast, too hard, too

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 61 FORUM single-mindedly, and so we accept rea­ And if, just possibly, there is a rea­ professionals, for the experts, with their sonable possibilities, and call them cer­ sonable number of reasonably intelli­ overmastering systems of explanation, tainties. Another danger is that once we gent beings out there in this and 100 well, analogies involving camels and convince ourselves that we possess die billion other galaxies, all pondering on eyes of needles come to mind. truth, the right interpretation of all life, the universe, and everything, at One last genuflection to the self- those messy facts that never really quite least one or two of them might hit on evident. All science, indeed, all rational add up to the answer we want, we stop something. You never know. thinking, is an examination of individual searching for other possible interpreta­ As things arc though, the universe facts with the hope of arriving at a gen­ tions, alternatives that fit the known doesn't always listen to us as carefully as it eral, useful conclusion. This is called data but point in other directions, as with my interpretation of the facts Ridley presents. There is a third danger. As is too often the case with too many of As is too often the case with too many of us, us, if the evidence we have does not if the evidence we have does not agree with the agree with the evidence we want, no problem, we just go out and "find" the evidence we want, no problem, we just go evidence we want. It's bound to be out and "find" the evidence we want. there, somewhere. It's just a matter of being patient. And not too demanding. It's bound to be there, somewhere.

I don't envy those who are certain they are in full possession of The Facts. should, so we should always keep open induction. We should have some notion They have nothing left to learn, nothing the possibility that diings may be other as to where we are going, where the facts else to look for. I think that one of the than we think they are, at least until we seem, at least momentarily, to be leading. most energizing, invigorating, life- obtain absolute proof diat we are right in And so we create hypotheses, sensible enhancing thoughts must be, "I may all and every facet, and this may take a guesswork based on coherent though after all be wrong." So long as we think while. Up until very recendy we all took incomplete knowledge, and test this this, we have purpose in life. for granted that all life on Earth receives guesswork against all the facts we can And then there is one final danger. its energy, in the final analysis, from the muster, including those we would rather We look and search and gather facts— Sun. We now know this is wrong. ignore. This is called deduction. and these facts and their possible inter­ Humility and doubt are not just nice Deduction in scientific method is both pretations make us even more confused things to have, they are essential ingredi­ necessary and dangerous, necessary than we were before, so we end up ents if we're not to be absolute fools, but because without a hypothesis, a precon­ "knowing" even less than we did, and all only the relative fools we are. With the ception of what the individual facts seem those facts don't solve anything and same facts pointing in diametrically oppo­ to indicate, we are lost in a chaos of don't lead anywhere. I suppose that's site directions it is best, as James Thurber unrelated details; and dangerous because what you call life. No easy answers. No has reminded us, to be hen-dubious it is easy to become so enamored of our hard answers cither. Life may be just a rather than cock-sure. hypothesis that we tend to test the facts bowl of cherries, with lots of cherry pits by the preconception, rather than the for us to chip our teeth on under the I hope this latest litde homily, this other way round. soft, sweet fruit. most recent excursion into the old and All useful thought is founded on obvious, hasn't been too awful. I sup­ We shouldn't feel too sorry for our­ these two approaches working in tan­ pose that if a man can only write badly selves. After all, Ridley could be dead dem and balancing each other the way a then it doesn't matter if he writes badly right and there are very, very few others long pole balances a tightrope walker. on a word processor or damp clay tablet out there in the universe with enough Without this balance we tumble into or whether he dispatches what he's writ­ brains even to have them addled with the abyss of unreason and nonthought. ten by e-mail or dugout canoe. But questions for which they cannot find It is not and never was a case of "I think, however he writes and whatever he has answers. I don't think there's much point therefore I am" but "I think as best I can to say, the truth is out there, somewhere, in envying the nonexistent, the intelli­ with what knowledge I have, and there­ but it's an elusive little bastard. All we gences that aren't there, or to be jealous fore I am rational, though of course I of the ubiquitous microbes that may can do is our best, and then acknowl­ may still be dead wrong." inhabit the cosmos, or to admire those edge that it isn't good enough. And we who haven't the wits to be totally con­ can try to learn, if only to learn how lit­ Come. The need beckons and the fused by the nature of things and the tle we know. This may not be so difficult hour is already late. It is rime to get on things of nature. for us rank amateurs, but for the real with the job.

62 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER ural paradigm, Kurtz I Francis Bacon and the true ends of skepticism. Friedberg I Worlds in collision: Where FILL IN THE GAPS IN YOUR reality meets the paranormal, Radford I Why bad beliefs don't die, Lester / Supernatural power and cul­ tural evolution. Layng I The brutality of Dr. Skeptical Inquirer COLLECTION Bettelheim, Gardner. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2000 (vol. 24, no. 5): Voodoo • 15% discount on orders of $100 or more • science and the belief gene. Park I Rogerian Nursing Theory. Raskin I Sun sign columns. Dean and Mather I • $6.25 a copy, Vols. 1-18 ($5.00 Vols. 19-25). To order, use reply card insert • The psychic staring effect. Marks and Colwell I Management of positive and negative responses in a spiritualist medium consultation, Greasley I The laws SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2003 (vol- 27. no. 5): The ongo­ JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2002 (vol. 26. nO. 1): Myths of of nature: A skeptic's guide. Pazameta I Special ing problem with the National Center for murder and multiple regression. Goertzel I Education, Report: On ear cones and candles, Kaushall and Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Atwood I scientific knowledge, and belief in the paranormal, Kaushall I Little Red Riding Hood. Gardner. What does education really do?, Losh, Tavani. Njoroge. Goode / A university's struggle with chiropractic, JULY/AUGUST 2000 (vol. 24. no. 4): Thought Field Wllke, and McAuley I Nostradamus's DeRobertis I Snaring the Fowler: Mark Therapy: Can we really tap our problems away?, clever '', Yafeh and Heath I Twain debunks phrenology, Lopez I Gaudiano and Herbert I Absolute skepticism equals They see dead people—Or do they?. Three skeptics' debate tools examined. dogmatism. Bunge / Did a close encounter of the third Underdown I Energy, , and Caso / Mickey Mouse discovers the 'real' kind occur on a Japanese beach in 1803?, Tanaka I in Santa Fe, Seaveyl Faking UFO Atlantis. Hardersen I Atlantis behind Rethinking the dancing mania. Bartholomew I Has sci­ photos for the twenty-first century, the myth. Christopher I 10th European ence education become an enemy of scientific ratio­ Callen I Haunted plantation, Nickell. Skeptics Congress report. Mahner I nality?, Ede I Krakatene: Explosive from Voodoo in New Orleans, Nickell I Some the Czech Academy of science. Slanina I David Bohm JULY/AUGUST 2003 (vol. 27, no. 4): m$$$ thoughts on induction. Gardner. and Krishnamurti. Gardner. Special Report: Chasing Champ: Legend NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 (vol. 2S. of the Lake Champlain monster, Nickell I no. 6): A critique of Schwartz et al.'s MAY/JUNE 2000 (vol. 24, no. 3): Special Report: The The measure of a monster, Radford /The after-death communication studies, new bogus MJ-12 documents, Klass I Mass delusions Rorschach inkblot test fortune tellers, Wiseman and O'Keeffe I Magical think­ and hysterias of the past millennium. Bartholomew and cold reading. Wood1. Nezworski. ing in complementary and alternative and Goode I Doomsday fears at RHIC. Guiterrez I Save Lilienfeld, and Garb I Can minds leave medicine, Stevens / Educational mal­ our science: The struggle for rationality at a French bodies?, Bensley I Memory recovery practice. Moore I Philosophers and psy­ university. Broch I Paraneuroscience?, Kirkland I techniques in psychotherapy. Lynn, chics: The Vandy episode. Oldfield I CSICOP 25th Bohm's guided wave theory, Gardner. Loftus. Lilienfeld, and Lock. Anniversary section: The origins and evolution of CSI­ MARCH/APRIL 2000 (vol. 24, no. 2): Risky business: MAY/JUNE 2003 (vol. 27. no. 3): The Luck Factor, Wise­ COP. Nisbet / Never a dull moment, Karr I John Vividness, availability, and the media paradox. Ruscio I man / More hazards: Hypnosis, airplanes, and strongly Edward: Hustling the bereaved. Nickell I Ernest Physics and the paranormal, 't Hooft I Efficacy of held beliefs, Pankratz I 'Premenstrual dysphoric disor­ Hemingway and Jane. Gardner. prayer. Tessman and Tessman I Can we tell if someone der' and 'premenstrual syndrome' myths. Flora and is staring at us?, Baker I Assessing the quality of med­ Sellers I A patently false patent myth—still!, Sass / ical Web sites, lew / The demon-haunted sentence. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2001 (vol. 2S. no. 5): Special Wired to the kitchen sink. Hall I Mediumship claim Byrne and Normand I Mad messiahs, Gardner. Issue: Science and Religion 2001. Holy wars. Tyson I responses, Schwartz and Hyman / mysterious The dangerous quest for cooperation between science sites. Nickell. and religion, Pandian I Design yes, intelligent no, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2000 (vol. 24, no. 1): Special Report The ten outstanding skeptics of the twentieth MARCH/APRIL 2003 (vol. 27. no. 2): The Blank Slate. Pigliucci I A way of life for agnostics?. Lovelock I century / Two paranormalisms or two and a half?, Goode Pinker I Omission neglect: The importance of missing Science, religion, and the Galileo affair, Moyl The god / , Polidoro I The pseudoscience of oxygen information. Kardes and Sanbonmatsu I Acupuncture, of falling bodies. Stenger I The relationship between therapy. Allen I Confessions of a (former) graphologist. magic, and make-believe. Ulett I Walt Whitman. Sloan paranormal beliefs and religious beliefs. Sparks I Tripician I The Second Coming of Jesus, Gardner. I The James Ossuary, Nickell. Science and religion in an impersonal universe. Young / Arthur C. Clarke's 'Credo.' C/arke / A designer uni­ JANUARY/FE8RUARY 2003 (vol. 27, no. 1): How not NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1999 (vol. 23. no. 6): The verse?. Weinberg I An evolutionary-genetic wager. to test mediums. Hyman I Beliefs on trial, and the Universe and Carl Sagan, Davidson I The millennium Avise I Shroud of Turn scandals. Nickell I Multiverses legality of reasonableness, Fisher I Placebos, nocebos, thought contagion, lynch / Debunking the : and blackberries, Gardner. and chiropractic adjustments. Homola I Pliny the A response to astrology, Kelly I The physics behind four amazing demonstrations. Willey I Another lunar Elder: Credulist, skeptic or both?. Parejko / Unfazed: JULY/AUGUST 2001 (vol. 25. no. 4): Confronting vet­ effect put to rest. Sweet I Special Report: Blooming Mark Twain debunks the mesmerizer, Englebretsen I erinary medical nonsense. Imrie I and the shroud claims. Nickell I The star of Bethlehem, Amityville Horror. Nickell. law, Dodes I Chevreul s report on the mysterious oscil­ Gardner. NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2002 (vol. 26. no. 6): Politi­ lations of the hand-held pendulum. Spitz and cizing the Virgin Mary. Eve I Hypothesis testing and Marcuard I CSICOP 25th Anniversary section: A quar­ SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1999 (vol. 23. no. 5): Special the nature of skeptical investigations. Pigliucci i ter-century of skeuliidl inquiry, Paul Kurtz I Thoughts Report: Fiasnt Fox news reports aliens may have built Intelligent design: Dembski's presentation without on science and skepticism in the twenty-first century, the pyramids. Carrier I Where do we come from?. arguments. Perakh I Hugo Gernsback, skeptical cru­ Kendrick Frazier I Proper criticism. Ray Hyman I The Pigliucci I Profits and prophecy. Wise I Projective mea­ sader. Miller I Alternative medicine and pseudo- lighter side of skepticism. Pudim I A sures of personality and psychopathol- science. Mornstein I Are skeptics cynical?. Mole I skeptical look at Karl Popper, Gardner. ogy: How well do they work?. Lilienfeld Psychic pets and pet psychics. Nickell. I What every skeptic ought to know MAY/JUNE 2001 (vol 25, no. 3): The about subliminal persuasion. Epley. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2002 (vol. 26. no. 5): Special shrinking filedrawer. Stokes / The Savitsky. and Kachelski I Carlos Report: Circular Reasoning: The 'mystery' of crop cir­ Pokemon Panic of 1997. Radford I The Castaneda and New Age anthropology, cles and their 'orbs' of light. Nickell. Fourth World Antinous Prophecies, Pickover I Gardner. Skeptics Conference Report / A skeptical look at Common myths of children's behavior, September 11th. Chapman and Harris I Sheldrake's Fiorello I Bertram) Russell and critical JULY/AUGUST 1999 (vol 23, no. 4): Crystals, van Genderen. Koene and Nienhuys I receptiveness. Hare I CSICOP 25th Special Issue: Science and Religion, Teaching skepticism via the CRITIC acronym. Bartz I Anniversary section: from the editor's Conflict or Conciliation? Celebrating Skepticism under the big sky. Schwinden, Engbrecht seat: 25 years of science and skepticism, creation, Raymo I Should skeptical Mercer and Patterson I Why was The X-Files so appeal­ Kendrick Frazier I Science vs. pseudo- inquiry be applied to religion?, Kurtz I ing?, Goode /Winchester mystery house. Nickell. science, nonscience. and nonsense. The 'Science and Religion' movement. James Alcock I CSICOP timeline / Primal Scoff / Science and the versus of reli­ JULY/AUGUST 2002 (vol. 26. no. 4>: Special Report Al­ scream: A persistent New Age therapy. gion. Palevitz I Science vs. religion, ternative medicine and the White House commission. Gardner Pazameta I Anthropic design. Stenger I Gorski. London I Special Section: Science and psefdo- Scientific skepticism. CSICOP. and the local groups. science in Russia. Kurtz. Efremov. Krugfyakov I Who MARCH/APRIl 2001 (vol. 25. no 2): Darwin in mind. Edis Novella and Bloomberg I Two mind-sets. Allen I God abused Jane Doe? Part 2. Loftus and Guyer I The high /A bit confused, Roche I What can the paranormal teach is dead, after the weather and sports. Reiss I Whence cost of skepticism. Tavris I Graham Hancock's shifting cat­ us about consciousness?. Blackmore I Spontaneous religious belief?. Pinker I Non-overlapping magiste- aclysm. Brass / The Mad Gasser of Mattoon. Ladendorf human confabulation, Nienhuys I Italy's version of Harry ria. Gould I You can't have it both ways: Irreconcilable and Bartholomew I Moscow mysteries, Nickell. Houdini. Nisbet / A psychological case of 'demon' and differences?, Dawkins I The concerns of science. Mayr alien' visitation. Reisner I Distant healing and Elizabeth I The religious views of Stephen Gould and Charles MAY/JUNE 2002 (vol. 26. no. 3): Who abused jane Targ. Gardner. Doe? Part 1. Loftus and Guyer / Is the Mars Effect a Darwin. Gardner. social effect?. Dean I Gray Barker's book of bunk. JANUARY/FE8RUARY 2001 (vol 25, no. 1): Special MAY/JUNE 1999 (vol. 23. no. 3): Special Section: Urban Sherwood I The king of quacks: Albert Abrams. M-D.. Section: Issues in Alternative Medicine: Medicine legends. The snuff film. Stine / Bitter harvest: The Haines I Benny Hinn: Healer or hypnotist?. Nickell wars. Seidman I Herbal medicines and dietary sup­ plements, Allen I Psychoactive herbal medications. organ-snatching urban legends. Radford I Bigfoot's MARCH/APRIL 2002 (vol. 26. no. 2): Special Reports: Spinella I Chiropractic, Homola I Damaged goods? screen test. Daegling and Schmitt I Tracking Bigfoot Bioterrorism and alternative medicine, Atwood I Science and child sexual abuse. Hagen I Special on the Internet Zuefle I Statement analysis. Shearer I 'Mothman' solved I Nickell I Bigfoot at fifty. Radford I Report: Science indicators 2000 / Facilitated commu­ NAGPRA. science, and the demon-haunted world. Cripplefoot hobbled. Daegling I Pseudohistory in nication. Gardner. Oar* / Urine therapy, Gardner. ancient coins. Carrier I Are science and religion com­ patible?, Kurtz I The emptiness of holism. Ruscio I NOVEM8ER/DECEMBER 2000 (vol. 24. no. 6): The face For a complete listing of our back issues, call 800-634- Undercover among the spirits. Nickell. behind the Face on Mars. Poster I The new paranat- 1610, or see http 'Jiwww.csicop.org'si/back-rssues.html LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

I was quite pleased with the article regarding test's numerous indexes exhibit strong or the Rorschach Test. I have had strong doubts practically useful levels of validity. Yet its supporters display an almost religious fer­ about the Rorschach for many years and this Skeptical Inquirer vor in its defense and their claims often article validated my suspicions. My misgiv­ read like theological discourses and not ings began a number of years ago when I scientific analyses; its attackers are merci­ attended a business show here in Virginia less and maintain that it is totally worth­ Beach. While 1 was walking around looking less and may even be harmful because it can lead the clinician astray. at the various booths and talking to a num­ ber of people I happened to meet a fellow When debates of this intensity and polarity occur between honorable people who told me that he was a practitioner of the there are likely to be elements of truth on Rorschach Test. As it was obvious that I both sides. The following is a personal knew nothing about the test, he proceeded view. It seems not unreasonable to assume to show me how it works by asking me to tell that the test can be of value in a clinical set­ ting, but perhaps not necessarily because of him what one of the blots meant. I told him any intrinsic property of the Rorschach D MEMORY that the blot looked like Unalaska Island up itself nor of the manner of its administra­ ,ECHN QUES in the Aleutians. He looked at me in an odd tion. Rather, it is likely the case that the test •Rating h,, ' manner and then showed me another blot. I provides an opportunity for an extended, CAN MINOS LEAVE BODIES? told him that it looked like one of the atolls unbounded interaction between client and A CogniUv! Science Perspective therapist with the inkblots acting as the out in the Pacific Ocean! vehicle for the interaction.... Then he noticed my lapel (a "Ruptured The Rorschach Test Duck") which indicates that I am a veteran of WWII. At this point he suddenly found Arthur S. Reber The article by Wood ct al. ("The Rorschach that he had something else to do so he Dept. of Psychology Inkblot Test, Fortune Tellers, and Cold departed for another venue! Brooklyn City College Reading," SI, July/August 2003) is right on Brooklyn, New York Robert J. Tripician target. As a Stanford psychology major (1930s), 1 was astounded by Rorschach Virginia Beach, Virginia Wizards, but as an amateur magician I was 1 found the Rorschach article very interesting, skeptical. Later, as a psychiatrist and bur­ and 1 would like to take this opportunity to dened by Freudian dogma, I envied psychol­ I deeply enjoyed the piece comparing the offer some additional thoughts on the matter. ogists who had psychological tests as tools Rorschach Test with fortune telling and cold The authors appropriately point out the while I was supposed to only sit and listen. reading. I thought you readers might enjoy Rorschach's psychometric limitations prior the entry on the Rorschach in our Dictionary As a military psychiatrist (1940s), with to the arrival of the Exner system. Prior to of Psychology, 3rd Ed., (Reber, A.S. & Reber, Exner's text The Rorschach: A Comprehensive many patients to evaluate, I learned from E.S., Penguin Books, 2003). This definition System (1974), five distinct schools of Captain Kenneth Kelly how he began every was originally written for the first edition of thought regarding the administration and psychiatric interview with a brief exposure to the dictionary published in 1985 and we scoring of the Rorschach existed. While Rorschach cards. He used cold reading tech­ have found no reason in the intervening some overlap existed, these schools con­ niques to obtain cues for rapid access to use­ years to change a word of it. flicted with each other in significant ways. ful information. One can imagine the poor reliability and I scanned the existing literature and devel­ [Dr. Reber kindly let us print the entire validity that would be present if any instru­ oped a simplified scoring tool easily taught to entry, but for space we are able to use ment was approached in as little as two dif­ our residents. This, the Rorschach Evalo- only a portion, which follows.—ED. J ferent manners. So, criticism of the graph, has since been updated as part of a ... There is a certain fascination with this Rorschach data from that time period is less teaching module. In 1949. I also wrote a test that affects all. professional and lay­ accurately focused on the instrument per se, paper, "Rorschach Test as Used in the person alike. In some ways, particularly and more appropriately directed on the psy­ Psychiatric Interview." Similar to the descrip­ among lay people, it is seen as a symbol of chological community that was responsible tion by Wood et al- this method used cold psychology itself and keeps finding itself for the various manners in which the instru­ reading and leaned heavily upon experience, on die covers of textbooks. It reflects that ment was employed. One can hardly blame strange belief which many have that psy­ insight, and intuition. I categorized ink blots the tool for being defective if it is used dif­ chologists and psychiatrists can somehow ferently on each occasion.... like Tarot cards as cues for "depression," "anx­ tell you something about yourself that you iety," etc. This method enhanced and facili­ would never be able to ascertain on your To say diat Exner developed the most tated my psychiatric interviews, permitting own, as if they possessed some mysterious ability to read through the veils of defenses popular modern version of the Rorschach is me to elicit cues to quickly identify critical technically inaccurate. The ten Rorschach interview leads. I commend the authors for and posturings which are opaque to all but these shamans and their testing proce­ cards are remarkably similar to those first an insightful paper that was long overdue. dures. Among the professionals its mag­ produced by Herman himself. What Exner netic qualities are equally strong. The liter­ did was to cull the most empirical pieces of George A Ulett ature on the Rorschach is simply enor­ each of these five major scoring/interpretive Clinical Professor of mous and literally dozens of other projec­ systems, shake them up, conduct his own Psychiatry tive devices have been developed based on research, and produce a norm-referenced Univ. of Missouri similar theoretical principles. Yet, in the scoring and interpretive system. If used midst of all of this activity, devotion and School of Medicine fascination, there is little evidence that the properly, the administrator has little room St. Louis, Missouri for subjective interpretation.

64 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

The authors' criticism of blind analyses is or genitalia, etc. This made the psychologist that appears on page 31 of the July/August justified. However, no professional organiza­ so angry that he berated the patient and issue in the article on Rorschach Inkblot tion that I am aware of advocates blind inter­ called him a hopeless sex Rend. The patient Tests. You should be ashamed of yourselves. pretation of any form of assessment, projective just shrugged and said, "Hey, you're the one Keep up the good work. or otherwise. The criticism leveled at practices showing all the dirty pictures." employed in the 1940s and 1950s is mis­ Charles F. Hruska guided in the context of today's training envi­ Fritz Held Brooklyn, New York ronments. At no time in my training, educa­ San Diego, California tion, or experience at professional conferences have I ever seen this practice employed. I sus­ Chasing Champ pect that most scientist/practitioners arc aware We would all agree that a shaman peering of its shortcomings and seek to elevate the into the entrails of a chicken does not see In Benjamin Radford's article on the Lake work they perform above this criticism. anything that predicts the future; but he may Champlain monster (July/August 2003), The attempt to tic Rorschach Wizards to still be right. The guts provide a screen for filmmaker Richard D. Smith is quoted as the practices of charlatans is inviting, espe­ intuitive projections which may be informed saying that a hoax monster would be "highly cially to someone who is interested in draw­ by his client's body language, knowledge of expensive in terms of expertise and materi­ ing associations between Rorschach users circumstances, etc. Additionally, the client's and the practices and groups of people about belief in the shaman may actually encourage als." He also suggests that a monster couldn't whom society tends to take dim view. As him to succeed at a risky enterprise—a self- be smuggled to a lake, assembled, and enticing as this practice is, it is a cheap and fulfilling prophecy. maneuvered out onto the water without a security leak. As Ann Richards, former easy way of discrediting the profession. A Similariy the Rorschach test may be suc­ more useful manner of challenging the prac­ cessful regardless of objective truth. We all Governor of Texas, once said on Bill Mahr's tice would be to cite and explain the current know that a client's faith in his or her therapist talk show, "As someone who actually knows body of empirical literature that is favorable is a powerful force. Furthermore, treatment of something about the subject, may I say a few and unsupportivc of this type of assessment mental illness often depends very little on the words." You see, I may not have put the practice. Assuming that the authors' method diagnosis. This occurs in medications, for monster in Loch Ness but I certainly helped is a valid approach, all they have done is dis­ instance: if the first drug doesn't work, keep put a monster in Loch Ness. credit those Rorschach Wizards, and not the tinkering until you find one that does. In the interest of maintaining my credibil­ instrument itself.... "Traditional" psychotherapy? Experi­ ity as a skeptic I hasten to point out that this enced therapists, no matter their theoretical was a long time ago. 1 was an undergraduate John M. Laux orientation, all seem to end up practicing at the time, and our monster was not a hoax Dept. of Counseling pretty much the same way. How you get but a publicity stunt. There is a difference. Mental Health Services started is only important because it initiates For a few hours on the morning of March University of Toledo movement, after that things invariably unfold 31, 1961, a very convincing forty-seven foot Toledo, Ohio on their own—especially if the client thinks monster graced the waters of Loch Ness. the therapist knows what he or she is doing. About a dozen witnesses saw it and it was pho­ True, the Rorschach test is bullshit, but it tographed by myself and a pressman. Putting I felt that Wood et al.'s article on the may be useful bullshit. it there required little expertise and virtually no Rorschach Inkblot Test was a straw mar. expense. Security was no problem, as the cast George F. Gjelfriend argument. It spends most of its argument on shore of Loch Ness is a lonely place. If we had­ refuting the impressionistic interpretations Asheville, North Carolina n't called in die press no one would have of the Rorschach. Of all of the testers I know, known how the monster got there. not one single psychologist uses the We didn't expect to fool anyone, although The article on the Rorschach brought back Rorschach in such a fashion. a distant and unprepared viewer might have memories of my days in a Clinical It is overwhelmingly the case that Exner's had quite a shock. Since die object was to Psychologist doctoral program at a major method is used, which the authors devote publicize Aberdeen University's Charities university in the early 1950s. It seems I was only a single paragraph to. I would be far Week we had painted our slogan on the mon­ way ahead of the times, because I disputed more interested in die refutation of this more ster's humps. Our reward was a story and pho­ the value of the Rorshach so vigorously (as scientific (or perhaps scientistic) approach to tograph on the front page of the Aberdeen well as the uncritical acceptance of Freudian the Rorschach than some obviously dubious Evening Express. (A sight gag in a past doctrines—meaning the swallowing whole method of interpreting the test. Simpsons episode may allude to this monster.) of Otto Fenichel on Freud), and I queried I have not read their book and hope that my professors about these matters enough This project was conceived and executed it provides more relevant criticisms. that they dropped me from the program and in two or three days by five Aberdeen University students. We prefabricated our Scott Shimabukuro. I never did get my Ph.D. monster from chicken wire covered with black San Leandro, California dodi. It comprised a neck, a very alarming Jerome Gordon looking head, two humps, and a stubby tail. Winnetka. California The sections were linked by six-foot lengdis of Reading about the Rorschach reminded me thin steel rod. Each hump was based on a of an old story of the psychologist giving the four-foot by six-foot frame of two-by-fours test to one of his patients. As he flashed each I was shocked, really shocked, that with empty oil cans for floatation. The only card, the patient replied that each reminded SKEPTICAL INQUIRER would use the sugges­ material not scrap or donated was die adhe­ him of a sex object, or some sort of sex act. tive, erotic, and just plain dirty, illustration sive that glued the black clodi in place.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 65 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

We travelled the 100 miles to Loch Ness surprised to find a rather basic error by the these particular semantic possessions are in a borrowed panel truck and re-assembled normally astute Ben Radford and Joe Nickell most emphatically not what is needed if doc­ our monster overnight by the light of a full as well (assuming they checked each other's trines of the possible independent existence moon. As soon as it was light enough, two of material). In discussing the photo taken dur­ and perhaps the immortality of souls or of my co-conspirators towed the monster out ing July "around noon," Radford states that minds arc to be cognitively meaningful. on the loch. As Sir Peter Scott, the late great at noon the Sun would be direcdy overhead, The crux is that, in their everyday under­ British naturalist and authority on the Loch thus casting shadows straight down. standings, the words "minds" and "souls" arc Ness Monster, wrote, tongue firmly in cheek, The Sun is never directly overhead, or not words for sorts of what philosophers call "Seldom can a more dramatic photograph even close, on Lake Champlain. The lake is substances. They are not, that is to say, words have been taken showing the creature in pur­ approximately 44 degrees north longitude for entities which could significantly be said suit of its potential prey." and the furthest the Sun ever gets is to the to survive the deaths and dissolutions of Too often the "hoax" explanation is ruled Tropic of Cancer, 23.5 degrees (some 20 plus diose flesh and blood persons whose minds out on the grounds that a hoax would have degrees to the south), and that only on June or souls they were. For to construe the ques­ been too complex, would involve too many 21. Therefore the Sun could only be 69 tion whether she had a mind of her own, or people, or couldn't have been done by the sup­ degrees or less from the horizontal. This the assertion that he is a mean-souled man, posed hoaxers. This is a mistake; creating means there would be a shadow cast to the as a question, or an assertion, about hypoth­ monsters is much easier than you might think. nordi and the directional orientation of the esized incorporeal substances is like taking picture would come into play. the loss of the Red Queen's dog's temper as if Tom Napier this was on all fours with the loss of his bone, North Wales, Pennsylvania Sid Gladstone or like looking for the grin remaining after Ridgefield, Connecticut the Cheshire Cat itself has disappeared.

Benjamin Radford appears to have missed Benjamin Radford responds: Antony Flew the obvious in his investigation of the Reading, United Kingdom Champ photo. The height of the "monster" I am pleased that Arthur Kohl and I came up can be estimated quite accurately by consid­ with similar estimates regarding the size of the ering perspective. Assuming, as Radford did, (Profissor Flew is author of Merely Mortal? "monster. " While he arrived at his conclusions that the camera lens was 8 ft. above water Can You Survive Your Own Death?, level, the creature would reach the horizon from a figurative (or literal) armchair, I believe Prometheus, 2002) line if it extended 8 ft. above the water no there is no substitute for actual field work, and matter how far out it was. The dimensions I took a different but equally valid approach. It on the Mansi photo were measured with a is true—but irrelevant—that certain features Bensley's article was certainly a fascinating millimeter (mm) ruler with the following of the Mansi photo did not appear in my photo. contribution to the debate over OBE and results: the head reaches about 5 mm above The distant shore and the plants in the fore­ NDE. His arguments certainly give a plausi­ the water and the height to the horizon is ground were not being measured; the object in ble alternative explanation to the migration about 18 mm at the same location. Thus the the lake was. An object of a claimed height at of souls from bodies, but not an absolute animal protrudes 5/18 X 8 = 2.2 ft. Even if a given distance and focal length is the same refutation of that hypothesis. Consider. .. . the camera lens were 12 ft. above the water, size regardless of what is in the foreground or Electrical or pharmacological derangement the animal would be only about 3.3 ft tall. background. We labored to find Mansi s origi­ of brain function can create very believable As a check of this method, measurements nal site, a feat even she could not accomplish. I experiences of all sorts of sensory experience were made on figure 4. The "creature" is fail to see any "problem" with either my analy­ (be it being burnt, stabbed, or whatever) but measured to be about 11.3 mm high and the sis or our selection of a site. that does not prove that one never can expe­ vertical distance to the horizon is about 15 I appreciate Sid Gladstone's point about the rience such experiences in reality. Likewise, mm at the same location. Therefore, the arti­ various insults to the brain may well give die ficial creature of figure 4 is calculated to be Sun's position. Gladstone's correction that the sensation of a "soul" leaving the body, with­ 11.3/15 X 8 = 6 ft. high, which is the actual shadow would cast to the north fits my hypoth­ out actually proving that such an event is height given by Radford. esis just as well The photo was taken from the eastern shore facing west. The "monster" is thus truly impossible. Another problem with Radford's work is facing north, and the neck would be casting a As always in die end, the burden of proof his selection of a site. Clearly tiic site he shadow north—under the head, exactly where rests with die proponents of the fantastic selected does not match die one shown in I described. Show us an example of OBE or NDE dial the Mansi photo based on die configuration provides the recipient with solid information and apparent proximity of the opposite truly outside of normal bodily experience, and shore. Note also that the Mansi photo shows Can Minds Leave Bodies? it's settled. No absolute judgments 'til then. some evidence of die near shore (plant stalks, etc.) and a white line (sandy beach?) on the Julius Wroblewski Alan Bensley's negative answer to the ques­ far shore, neither of which appear in the Vancouver, British Columbia tion "Can Minds Leave Bodies?" (July/ Radford photo. Canada August 2003) is surely correct. But it could be strengthened by some philosophical sup­ Arthur L. Kohl plementation, inspired by Alice in Wonder­ Woodland Hills, California land and Alice Through the Looking Glass. I absolutely loved "Can Minds Leave Certainly the familiarity and die intelligi­ Bodies?" as it answered a lot of questions bility of talk about minds and about souls that I've had on rhe issues of OBEs. In reading your articles on "Champ," the does entide us to infer that we possess both a 1 h.ivc accidentally discovered, as a conse­ supposed monster in Lake Champlain. I was concept of mind and a concept of soul. But quence of my paramedic experience (see my

66 Novembet/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

letter on page 67 of the March/April 2001 that stimulating the physical brain produces self- most undergraduates in our philosophical SKEPTICAL INQUIRER), a way to create a cred­ reported OBEs especially when the subjects are issues of psychology course, anyway). ible OBE on demand without using brain shown to be truthful and are tested under con­ The spherical cow comes from an apoc­ surgery or strange drugs. trolled conditions. No, we will never prove that ryphal account of die problems in making The major requirement is an elevator nonphysical "minds" or souls cannot leave the simplifying assumptions in order to fit an with a mirrored ceiling. body but we may accumulate good evidence that applied question (e.g., how much methane The experimenter (an assistant is also makes such a conclusion implausible. do cows produce?) into an existing analytical helpful for the timing) must spin around like Levites makes an excellent point not fully framework (e.g., reaction vessels of known a dervish until he or she is thoroughly dizzy, developed in my article, that is, that the OBE volume). Cow stomachs arc irregular, so hard at which point the experimenter promptly should be studied experimentally By being able to do in.ii lis with, but if you approximate to lays down on the elevator floor. This is the to induce OBEs experimentally, we may study a sphere with the same mean diameter the moment when the assistant should press the them more carefully to identify their causes. plusses and minuses will cancel out, so you button on the ground floor. Moreover, using natural means to experimen­ could legitimately consider a cow's stomach tally induce OBEs provide evidence relevant to as spherical (there may be four, but perhaps The combination of reduced weight (from the question of whether such phenomena are only one produces methane?). This approxi­ die downward motion of the elevator), dizzi­ themselves natural or paranormal. As a matter mation is not used to derive properties "irrel­ ness, and die contemplation of one's reflection of fact, McCleery and Claridge (1996) evant to real cows," because it does lead to an while lying stretched out on the floor reliably recently induced OBE-like experiences in sub­ accurate estimate of methane production. creates die illusion of an OBE. This illusion jects and found that those who experienced The point now is in the public communica­ may be shattered—at least for me—if I see going out of the body were more susceptible to tion of science: non-experts who are unfa­ print that is backward. I don't know why. hallucinations than were those not reporting miliar with the techniques used may be dis­ Perhaps the OBE issue can be better ex­ out-of-body like experiences. Studies like these tracted from the experts' valid conclusions plored with the structured experiments if these provide further support for natural and psycho­ unless you express yourself in terms that they ideas can be used to create OBEs on demand. logical explanations of the OBE. will understand. This problem is currently Kevin Levites Lastly, I ivould like to comment on the issue apparent in the debate over die safety of the West Palm Beach, Florida of survival of the soul mentioned by Flew and triple MMR vaccine, for example. two other correspondents who e-mailed me Jon May Alan Bensley responds: about the article. My conclusion that the mind does not leave the body in an OBE may imply Senior Lecturer that a soul or mind cannot survive death of the Department of Psychology Flew has rightly noted that the use of common- University of Sheffield sense terms like mind and soul creates confu­ body but it need not imply this. Recall that the Sheffield, England sion in discussions of OBE and in cognition, in OBE and NDE are similar but not identical general 1 might add. Psychology suffers from experiences. Consequently, determining whether the mind can leave the body during continued use of the commonsense term mind In his "Consider a Spherical Cow," Massimo life may not yield an answer to the question of as a technical term. To avoid dualism, I prefer Pigliucci completely misinterprets what the whether it can after physical death. Given the the term mind/brain to refer to this naturally philosophical consideration of consciousness psychological similarities of the two phenom­ occurring junctional ensemble. As a way to refers to as a "zombie." While die term is bor­ ena, however, I think the more parsimonious deal with the traditional baggage the term rowed from usages in which a dead person conclusion is that the mind cannot leave the mind carries with it, I sometimes make the fol­ could be brought back to life, the philoso­ body either before or after death. lowing distinction for traditional dualists. I pher of consciousness certainly is using it in suggest to them that in religious or philosophi­ no such manner. What it does refer to is die cal discussions they use the term soul to refer to consideration of a normal person, going from a nonphysical entity that can leave the body, Thought Experiments womb to tomb, and not diereafter, as only a and that they reserve use of the word mind for physical object, taking its analogous use of psychological and scientific discussions to refer Massimo Pigliucci's critique of thought the word from idea of soullessness. The idea to that which is produced by the functioning of experiments (SI July/August 2003) rests on is that a person, so considered, as physico- the physical brain. Because the mind depends two weak examples, for neidier the zombie chemical machine, feels, say, die cold, and on functioning of the physical brain, it cannot nor the spherical cow arc really thought responds by shivering, only in the same man­ leave the body. experiments, and tiiey are actually good ner as a thermostat feels the cold and Wroblewski noted that just because a distur­ examples of what they really are. responds by turning on the furnace. bance in brain function produces some strange The point of the zombie argument is to perceptual experience does not imply that such an show i h.u there are no special features of your The point is to contrast this widi our innate experience might twt have some 'reality " That is own, first-person, state of consciousness dial feelings that we do indeed fed, in a more sub­ true, but one must be careful with this line of rea­ are perceivable to an external, third-person jective way than rhcrmostats, and thus are not soning. If one accepts tlyat mentalistic explana­ observer. If you imagine a creature that has all zombies. But, of course, we can fed this only in tions ofplrysiological events can always be offered die cognitive and mental properties that you oursdves, and for all we know everyone else is a for the results of brain damage and can never be do except consciousness, how could you tell zombie. But that does not mean a revivified corresponded to physical events in the brain, then it was missing? You can't. It isn't an experi­ corpse but rarhcr a body acting soldy on the die question becomes unresolvable because of pre­ ment as such, in which you ask 'what would rules of physics and chemistry. sumed mind-body dualism. Rather, I believe that happen if . . .', but a reductio ad absurdum it becomes increasingly less likely that minds can argument diat has been common in philoso­ Charles Kluepfel leave bodies as more studies like Blankes's show phy for millennia, and it is successful (for Bloom field. New Jersey

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 2003 67 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Pigliucci cites a Galileo thought experiment said experiment had to wait until we put human Gresham's claim that he invented the word which purports to refute Aristotle's position beings on the moon. However, that is exactly why geek with skepticism, and investigated. I was that heavier bodies fall faster than lighter Galileo's suggestion of doing a thought experi­ right. He may have stretched the basic mean­ ones: a composite of two bodies of unequal ment was so crucial in the history of physics. ing ("dupe," "fool," "crazy," etc.) into an weight should be expected to both fall faster About the zombies, of course Charles autobiographical cut ("addict out of his head (because it's heavier) and slower (because the Kluepfel is correct that philosophers of mind all the time") but he certainly didn't invent it. It's a very old word, with cognates in most motion of the heavier component is slowed don't mean to refer to creatures that actually Germanic languages. Variant spellings are by the dragging effect of the lighter and come back after having been dead. In my col­ listed in die OED: geck(e), geke, geek(e). The slower component). umn I may have confused the reader on this earliest English reference is 1515; the earliest Aristotle didn't believe in the vacuum, point. The term is inspired by said non-natural U.S. geek is 1876. Shakespeare has geek in and envisioned objects falling through a entities, but it is meant to ask on what basis twelfth Night V.i.351 and (in a perhaps spu­ resisting medium. He was correct in main­ one thinks that other people have internal rious passage) geeke in Cymbeline V.iv.67. taining that heavy objects fall faster under thought processes and feelings, a perennial Webster has geek in his 1828 dictionary. these circumstances. A small steel sphere falls problem in philosophy of mind. My point was Well, Gresham was creative, faster than one half its size in a jar of that we cannot gain much insight from this molasses. A composite sphere formed by fus­ particular scenario because the idea of such an Richard van Frank ing the two falls even faster, thus refuting entity implies an impossibility in terms of neu­ Montclair, New Jersey Galileo. The addition of the smaller sphere robiology and common experience. doesn't retard, but actually enhances, the I do disagree with Jon May, though 1 see his speed of the larger sphere. point. The term thought experiment is an For Galileo's argument to have validity, example of what Ludwig Wittgenstein referred Butterflies and 'MacGuffins' one has to explain why his reasoning should to as a "family resemblance concept," i.e., it can In "The Butterfly Theory of Truth" (July/ not be expected to apply to motion through take a gradation of meanings under different August 2003), Robert McHenry claims that resisting and resistance-free mediums alike. circumstances (e.g.. in philosophy as distinct to for Self-Helpers and New Agers, "[i)t is not His assumption that the components retain biology), and yet it retains enough coherence to even necessary that [the truth] have any con­ their properties in the composite (the drag­ be a useful term. So, in philosophy the zombie tent, that there be any there there. Its func­ ging effect of the lighter body) is contra­ example is a thought experiment in that it asks tion is simply to beckon, like the maguffin dicted by observation. The underlying us: if there were zombies around (i.e., creatures [sic] in an Alfred Hitchcock movie." assumptions of thought experiments, even with no internal thought processes, but all the As a contributor to The MacGuffin, the those which support positions we accept, external behavioral attributes of human Web site for Alfred Hitchcock scholars, I was should be examined carefully. beings), then how would we go about separat­ naturally disappointed to see the term mis­ ing them from beings such as ourselves? In spelled; as a former employee of Britannica I Joe Ryan physics, the spherical cow is an ideal approxi­ was even more disappointed that the publica­ Wallingford, Pennsylvania mation that one considers in order to solve an tion's former editor-in-chief might make such otherwise horribly complicated problem. This a gaff. But more to die point, in evoking also can be recast in if-then terms: if cows had MacGuffin to describe the New-Age/Self-Help I agree that thought experiments can be use­ these geometrical characteristics, then their pro­ view of "die truth" as something ever-elusive ful tools, and indeed I have used them many duction of methane would be X. It is possible (like a butterfly), McHenry seems to have mis­ times myself. However, the experiment that this stretches the definition of thought understood what is generally meant (at least described in Massimo Pigliucci's "Thinking experiment a bit too much, but it made for a among Hitchcock scholars) by this term. About Science" fails to mention the need for very catchy title for the column. . . . Coined by writer and Hitchcock collabo­ performance in a vacuum. Absent a vacuum, rator Angus MacPhail, the MacGuffin, as it is often the case that heavy bodies fall Hitch himself liked to say, is the thing that all faster than light ones. As a diought experi­ the spies are after but about which the audi­ ment counter to Pigliucci's. consider two Gresham and 'Geek' ence doesn't care. Examples include the equidimensioned spheres: Sphere A is made smuggled secrets in North By Northwest, the of lead; Sphere B is made of balsa wood. I Massimo Polidoro's article "Blind Alley: The hidden uranium cache in Notorious and the don't think there is any question that Sphere Sad and 'Geeky' Life of William Lindsay Air Ministry plans in The 39 Steps. The A would fall faster than Sphere B if the Gresham" (July/August 2003) was fascinat­ MacGuffin is dius a device to get the plot moving and to propel it forward. By defini­ experiment were performed in air. ing. I am glad that Polidoro is continuing tion, it cannot "beckon" the audience because Martin Gardner's tradition of exploring the audience doesn't care. Paradoxically, it William Corcoran some of the odder byways of the culture. A does beckon the film's protagonists, but not Woodside, California future column perhaps could focus on this as some abstract concept devoid of content, question: How did the word geek evolve to as McHenry suggests. Rather, to the film Massimo Pigliucci responds: its current meanings from its revolting, characters, the MacGuffin is very real and chicken-biting (and worse) circus origins? very important, something over which diey Let me start by addressing the comments about arc quite willing to fight and die. I wonder Galileo's thought experiment. Indeed I agree Kenneth Silber how many of the crowd McHenry so rightly with both Joe Ryan and William Corcoran that New York, New York skewers would be willing to risk everything a real experiment like the one proposed by Galileo on their elusive butterflies. would fail, if performed in a medium that Enjoyed Polidoro's article on William opposes resistance to die falling bodies. That is Lindsay Gresham. Despite my admiration Gary Giblin why the most spectacular actual performance of for his Nightmare Alley and Houdini, I took Aurora. Indiana

68 November/December 2003 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Robert McHenry responds: studies in biology or medicine, I must be satis­ because he threatened the ruling elite of fied that the student can do more than merely Israel, or that he had a brother named James I am obliged to Mr. Giblin for correcting my explain the theories of modem biology. (Jacob, etc.). Critical examination of the spelling of "MacGuffin. A quick Google search 1 do so out of concern for my reputation, James Ossuary is interesting and worthwhile, reveals that the spelling I used is not unknown and the reputations of my department, my but it's of less importance than, say, the but is pretty uncommon, and 1 yield to the university, and my profession. I do so out of Shroud of Turin. The Shroud purports to Hitchcock scholars. concern for the integrity of science. I must be have some paranormal significance; the As for how I used the term, I think it a rea­ satisfied that the student respects and employs James Ossuary, even if authentic, is simply a sonable extension of the original and techni­ the criteria commonly accepted by scientists to physical artifact. cally limited meaning. The elusive "truth" that gauge the validity and reliability of evidence. I suggested is a MacGuffin is certainly the Lacking this satisfaction, a student will not Karl Sutterfield engine of much activity some of it cynical and receive a recommendation from me. That has Eastlake, Colorado some of it merely deluded: but in any case that been, and remains, my policy. "truth, "having in fact no content, cannot be of (Yes, an artifact whose inscription has since genuine value to anyone. It is only its power to beat proved a fraud see News & Comment, induce or exploit certain beliefs in certain peo­ Michael Dini September/October 2003.—EDS.) ple that gives it its notional existence. Texas Tech University Lubbock, Texas Joe Nickell responds:

I think it is not I who has "missed the point." Professor Clarifies Policy True Positives My investigation was never predicated on whether the ossuary would or would not offer Regarding the U.S. Justice Department's In the July/August SI, page 7, top of middle something new. It cenainly sparked profound decision (o drop its investigation into my column, you say that the polygraph "can pro­ interest and that justifiably raised the question policy for writing letters of recommendation duce false positives far in excess of any possi­ of authenticity (News & Comment, July/August 2003), I ble true negatives (catching a spy)." Did you I approached it the way sensational "finds" offer what I hope will be a clarification. mean to say "true positives" rather than "true should always be addressed: letting the evidence Ralph Boyd, Jr., assistant attorney gen­ negatives"? True positives would be the spies. lead to a solution, rather than being driven by eral for civil rights, is quoted as saying, "a The usual problem with diagnostic tests people's agendas, pro or con. That is the point, state-run university has no business telling is the lack of specificity so that false positives and I hope no one misses it. students what they should or should not are too numerous. believe in." I agree. It should be stated, moreover, that Irwin Tessman nowhere in my Web site's original letter-of- Purdue University Compliment recommendation policy was the word believe ever used to describe how students should (Yes, we sliould have said "true positives."—EDS.) I wish to compliment your good work! Keep mentally deal with the theory of evolution. I it up and call me a fan! myself do not believe in evolution, and I Mary Man inn would not require anyone else to do so. I do Ossuary Assertion Ottawa, Ontario, Canada not believe in evolution because evolution is not a matter for belief. Similarly, I do not I always appreciate Joe Nickell's investigative believe in gravity. One properly believes in reports and I especially enjoyed reading things for which there is insufficient evi­ about his efforts to tease out the history of The letters column is a forum dence, such as the existence of the supernat­ the James Ossuary, but he seems to have for views on matters raised ural. There are, however, mountains of evi­ missed the point in Steven Dutch's criticism in previous issues. Letters dence that evolution is a powerful agent that in the July/August Letters to the Editor. should be no more than 225 shapes life on Earth. I can understand his taking exception to words. Due to the volume of I do not concern myself with students' Professor Dutch's remarks concerning cranks letters not all can be pub­ religious beliefs. They arc no business of and conspiracies, and about "skeptics lished. Address letters to mine, and I do not inquire about them. I rcact[ing] with something close to panic Letters to the Editor, am, however, very much concerned with die .. .", but Nickell's response fails to address SKEPTICAL INQUIRER. Send by science of those who wish me to recommend Dutch's central assertion: even if it could be mail to 944 Deer Dr. NE, them to graduate school or professional proven that this ossuary once contained the Albuquerque, NM 87122; by school in the biomedical sciences. bones of that James who was a half-brother fax to 505-828-2080; or by e- of that Jesus who is accepted as the Messiah mail to [email protected] As Taylor reports, my courses have a repu­ by Christians, it would tell us nothing new. (include name and address). tation for rigor. Thus, the first criterion of my More important, it would not validate the recommendation policy—that a student myths of Christianity. should have earned an "A" from me—satisfies my concern that the student sufficiently On this I agree with Professor Dutch. understands modern biology to request a rec­ There's little doubt that there once was a ommendation. Before I consent to do the political firebrand named Jesus (Joshua, favor of recommending him/her to advanced etc), that he was executed by the Romans

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/Decembe'2003 69 THE COMMITTEE FOR THE SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF CLAIMS OF THE PARANORMAL AT THE CENTER FOR INQUIRY-INTERNATIONAL (ADJACENT TO THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO) AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION Network of Affiliated Organizations International

AUSTRALIA. Canberra Skeptics, Canberra Australia. Beijing China. Hong Kong Skeptics. Hong Kong. Brad (KCIAP) Kazakhstan. Dr. Sergey Efimov, Scientific Peter Barrett. President. PO Box 555. Civic Square Collins. P.O. Box 1010. Shatin Central Post Office. Secretary. E-mail: cfimOafi.south-capital k/ Astro- ACT 2608 Australia. Australian Skeptics Inc., Shatin NT China. physical Institute Kamenskoye Plato Alma-Ata. Australia. Barry Williams, Executive Officer. Tel. 61- COSTA RICA. Iniciativa para la Promocidn del 480020 Republic of Kazakhstan. Committee for the 2-9417-2071; e-mail: skepticsOkasm.com.au. PO Pensamiento Critico (IPPEC) San Jose. Victor Quiros Scientific Expertise of Claims of the Paranormal Box 268. Roseville NSW 2069 Australia, www.skep- V. Tel.: 506 275 43 52; e-mail: victorcreracsa.co.cr. (CSECOP) tics.com.au. Australian Skeptics—Hunter Region A.P. 1513-1002 Paseo de los Estudiantes San Jose. KOREA. Korea PseudoScience Awareness (KOPSA) Newcastle/Hunter Valley. 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SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL CONSULTANTS George Agogino. Dept. of Anthropology, Eastern New Laurie Godfrey, anthropologist University of Massachusetts Massimo Pigliucci. professor of evolutionary biology, Mexico University Gerald GoJdin, mathematician, Rutgers University New Jersey University of Tennessee. Knoxville Gary Bauslaugh, educational consultant Center for Donald Goldsmith, astronomer; president Interstellar Media James Pomerantz. Provost and professor of cognitive and Curriculum. Transfer and Technology, Vktona. 6 C, Canada Alan Hale, astronomer. Southwest Institute for Space linguistic sciences. Brown Univ. Richard F Rerenrlren. Astronomer. Washington. D C Research. Alamogordo. New Muxieo Gary P. Posner. M.D.. Tampa. Flo Martin Bridgstock. Senior Lecturer, School of Science, Clyde F. Herreid. professor of biology. SUNY, Buffalo Daisie Radner. professor of philosophy, SUNY. Buffalo Griffith University Brisbane Australia Terence M Mines prnfe«nr of psychology. Pare I Infversfty, Robert H Romer, ryo*es«o' o* phys'cs A™""?**- Co"e<;c Richard Busch, magician/mentalist. Pittsburgh, Penn Pleasantville. NY Karl Sabbagh, journalist Richmond. Surrey, England Shawn Carlson. Society for Amateur Scientists, East Michael Hutchinson, author; SxtPiiCAi Iwxiinm representa­ Robert J. Samp, assistant professor of education and med­ Greenwkh, Rl tive, Europe icine. University of Wisconsin-Madison Roger B. Culver, professor of astronomy, Colorado Stats Univ PhSp A. lama, assoc professor of astronomy. Unrv. of Virginia Steven D. Schafersman. asst. professor of geology, Miami Felix Ares de Bias, professor of computer science, William Jarvis. professor of health promotion and public Univ, Ohio University of Basque, San Sebastian, Spain health. Loma Linda University, School of Public Health Bela Scheiber,' systems analyst Boulder. Colo. Michael R. Dennett writer, investigator. Federal Way. I. W. Kelly, professor of psychology, University of Chris Scott statistician, London, England Washington Saskatchewan Stuart D. Scott Jr.. associate professor of anthropology, Sid Deutsch, consultant. Sarasota, Fla. Richard H. Lange, M.D., Mohawk Valley Physkian Health SUNY, Buffalo J Dommanget astronomer, Royale Observatory, Brussels. Plan, Schenectady, NY Erwin M. Segal, professor of psychology, SUNY. 8uffalo Belgium Gerald A. Larue, professor of biblical history and archaeol­ Carta Selby, anthropologist /archaeologist Nahum J. Duker. assistant professor of pathology. Temple ogy. University of So California Steven N. Shore, professor and chair, Dept of Physks and University Wttam M. London, professor of hearth sciences, Touro Unrv Astronomy. Indiana Univ. South Bend Barbara Eisenstadt psychologist, educator, clinician. East Rebecca Long, nuclear engineer, president of Georgia Waclaw Szybalski. professor. McArdle Laboratory, Greenbush, N Y Council Against Hearth Fraud. Atlanta. Ga University of Wisconsin-Madison William Evans, professor of communication. Center for Thomas R. McDonough, lecturer in engineering, Caltech, and Ernest H. Taves, psychoanalyst Cambridge. Mass. Creative Media SET! Coordinator of the Planetary Society Sarah G. Thomason. professor of linguistics University of John F. Fischer, forensic analyst Orlando. Fla. James E. McGaha. Maior. USAF, pilot Pittsburgh Robert E. Funk, anthropologist New York State Museum & Joel A. Moskowitz. director of medical psychiatry. Tim Trachet journalist and science writer, honorary cha r- Science Service Calabasas Mental Health Services. Los Angeles. man of SKEPP. Belgium Eileen Gambnll, professor of social welfare. University of Jan Willem Nienhuys. mathematician. Unrv. of Eindhoven, David Willey. physics instructor, University of Pittsburgh California at Berkeley the Netherlands Sylvio Garattini, director, Mario Negri Pharmacology John W Patterson, professor of materials science and engi­ •Member, CSICOP Executive Council Institute. Milan. Italy neering. Iowa State University "Associate Member. CSICOP Executive Council

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Close Encounter of the Mars Kind Mars shines brightly in the southeastern sky above Albuquerque as SKEPTICAL INQUIRER Editor Ken Frazier views it through his eight-inch telescope (inset photo at right). Ken took the time exposure, using a time delay, the night of August 31, the last day of a month that brought Mars closer to Earth — 34,646,418 miles, c August 27 — than at any time in nearly the last ijjffflSBiifl close approach of Mars and its brightness in the south nitude -2,9) has set off a new wave of intere eel Planet. Mars comes almost this close every 15 to 17 years, whenever it passes closest to Earth (opposition) within a few weeks of the date it is also nearest the Sun (perihelion). This year opposition and Mars perihelion (which was on August 30) were very close together in time. Calculations show Mars has not been so close to Earth since 57,617 B.C. and will not again be closer until August 28,2287. Several K new spacecraft missions are already on their way to explore Mars.

Photo Credit: NASA, S. Lee (University of Colorado). J. Bell (Cornell University), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute) Inset Photo Credit: Kendrick Frazier Skeptical Inquirer THE MAGAZINE mi: SCIENCE AND REASON

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