Roswell Slides Fiasco | Wikipedia Skepticism | Haunting Handprints | Dawkins & Collins | Challenge to Heartland

the Magazine for Science and Reason Vol. 39 No. 5 | September/October 2015

‘Post-Materialist’ Science? CONFERENCE SPECIAL: A Smokescreen for Woo Quacks, GMOs, Climate, Science and the Dawkins, Science, and God Pope’s Encyclical

Evidence-Free Enterprise: NCCAM’s Business Grants The Future of CFI

Published by the in association with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Ronald A. Lindsay, President and CEO Massimo Polidoro, Research Fellow     Bar ry Karr, Ex ec u tive Di rect or Benjamin Radford, Research Fellow Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow Richard Wiseman, Research Fellow

Fellows www.csicop.org

James E. Al cock*, psy chol o gist, York Univ., Tor on to Mur ray Gell-Mann, pro fes sor of phys ics, San ta Fe In sti tute; James E. Oberg, sci ence writer Mar cia An gell, MD, former ed i tor-in-chief, No bel lau re ate Irm gard Oe pen, pro fes sor of med i cine (re tired), New Eng land Jour nal of Med i cine Thom as Gi lov ich, psy chol o gist, Cor nell Univ. Mar burg, Ger ma ny Kimball Atwood IV, MD, physician; author; David H. Gorski, surgeon and re searcher at Barbara Lor en Pan kratz, psy chol o gist, Or e gon Health Newton, MA Ann Kar manos Cancer Institute and chief of breast surgery Sci en ces Univ. Steph en Bar rett, MD, psy chi a trist; au thor; con sum er ad vo cate, section, Wayne State University School of Medicine. Robert L. Park, professor of physics, Univ. of Maryland Al len town, PA Wendy M. Grossman, writer; founder and first editor, Jay M. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Willem Betz, MD, professor of medicine, Univ. of Brussels The Skeptic magazine (UK) Astronomy and director of the Hopkins Ir ving Bie der man, psy chol o gist, Univ. of South ern CA Sus an Haack, Coop er Sen ior Schol ar in Arts and Observatory, Williams College Sus an Black more, vis it ing lec tur er, Univ. of the West of Sci en ces, professor of phi los o phy and professor John Pau los, math e ma ti cian, Tem ple Univ. of Law, Univ. of Mi ami Eng land, Bris tol Clifford A. Pickover, scientist, au thor, editor, IBM T.J. Watson Sandra Blakeslee, science writer; author; Times Harriet Hall*, MD, physician; investigator, Puyallup, WA Re search Center. science correspondent David J. Helfand, professor of astronomy, Columbia Univ. Massimo Pigliucci, professor of philosophy, Mark Boslough, physicist, Sandia National Laboratories, City Univ. of New York–Lehman College Albuquerque, NM Terence M. Hines, prof. of psychology, Pace Univ., Stev en Pink er, cog ni tive sci en tist, Harvard Univ. Hen ri Broch, phys i cist, Univ. of Nice, France Pleasantville, NY. Doug las R. Hof stad ter, pro fes sor of hu man Mas si mo Pol id oro, sci ence writer; au thor; ex ec u tive Jan Har old Brun vand, folk lor ist; pro fes sor emer i tus di rect or of CI CAP, It a ly of Eng lish, Univ. of Utah un der stand ing and cog ni tive sci ence, In di ana Univ. Anthony R. Pratkanis, professor of psychology, Univ. of CA, Mar io Bunge, phi los o pher, McGill Univ., Montreal Ger ald Hol ton, Mal linc krodt Pro fes sor of Phys ics and pro fes sor Santa Cruz Robert T. Carroll, emeritus professor of philosophy, of his to ry of sci ence, Har vard Univ. Sacramento City College; writer Ray Hy man*, psy chol o gist, Univ. of Or e gon Benjamin Radford, investigator; research fellow, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Sean B. Carroll, molecular geneticist; vice president for science Stuart D. Jordan, NASA astrophysicist emeritus; education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Madison, WI science advisor to Center for Inquiry Office of Public James “The Amazing” Randi, magician; CSICOP founding Thomas R. Casten, expert; founder and chairman, Policy, Washington, DC member; founder, Educational Foundation Recycled Energy Development, Westmont, IL Barry Karr, executive director, Committee for Mil ton Ro sen berg, psy chol o gist, Univ. of Chic a go John R. Cole, an thro pol o gist; ed i tor, Na tion al Skeptical Inquiry, Amherst, New York Am ar deo Sar ma*, chairman, GWUP, Ger ma ny Cen ter for Sci ence Ed u ca tion Law rence M. Krauss, foundation professor, School Richard Saunders, president, ; educator; K.C. Cole, science writer; author; professor, of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Dept.; investigator; podcaster; Sydney, Univ. of Southern California’s Annenberg director, Origins Initiative, Arizona State Univ. Joe Schwarcz, director, McGill Office for Science and Society School of Journalism Harry Kroto, professor of chemistry and Eu ge nie C. Scott*, phys i cal an thro pol o gist; chair, advisory Fred er ick Crews, lit er ary and cul tur al crit ic; pro fes sor emer i tus biochemistry, Florida State Univ.; Nobel laureate council , Na tion al Cen ter for Sci ence Ed u ca tion of Eng lish, Univ. of CA, Berke ley Ed win C. Krupp, as tron o mer; di rect or, Rich ard Dawk ins, zo ol o gist, Ox ford Univ. Grif fith Ob ser va to ry, , CA Rob ert Sheaf fer, sci ence writer Ge of frey Dean, tech ni cal ed i tor, , Aus tral ia Law rence Kusche, sci ence writer Seth Shostak, senior astronomer, SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA Cor nel is de Ja ger, pro fes sor of as tro phys ics, Univ. of Utrecht, Le on Le der man, emer i tus di rect or, Fer mi lab; the Neth er lands No bel lau re ate in phys ics Simon Singh, science writer; broadcaster; UK Dick Smith, entrepreneur, publisher, aviator, adventurer, Dan i el C. Den nett, Aus tin B. Fletch er Pro fes sor Scott O. Lil i en feld*, psy chol o gist, Emory Univ., Terrey Hills, N.S.W., Australia of Phi los o phy and di rect or of Cen ter for Cog ni tive Stud ies, Atlanta, GA Tufts Uni v. Keith E. Stanovich, cognitive psychologist; professor of Lin Zix in, former ed i tor, Sci ence and human development and applied psychology, Uni v. of Ann Druyan, writer and producer; CEO, Cosmos Studios, Tech nol o gy Dai ly (Chi na) Ithaca, NY Toronto Je re Lipps, Mu se um of Pa le on tol o gy, Univ. of CA, Karen Stollznow*, linguist; skeptical investigator; writer; Sanal Edamaruku, president, Indian Rationalist Berke ley podcaster Association and Rationalist International Eliz a beth Loft us*, pro fes sor of psy chol o gy, Jill Cor nell Tar ter, as tron o mer, SE TI In sti tute, Moun tain View, CA Edzard Ernst, professor, Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Univ. of CA, Ir vine Car ol Tav ris, psy chol o gist and au thor, Los Ange les, CA Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, Da vid Marks, psy chol o gist, City Univ., Lon don Exeter, UK Da vid E. Thom as*, phys i cist and math e ma ti cian, Socorro, NM Mar io Men dez-Acos ta, jour nal ist and sci ence writer, Mex i co City Ken neth Fed er, pro fes sor of an thro pol o gy, Neil de Gras se Ty son, as tro phys i cist and di rect or, Cen tral Con nec ti cut State Univ. Kenneth R. Miller, professor of biology, Brown Univ. Hay den Plan e tar i um, Barbara Forrest, professor of philosophy, SE Louisiana Univ. Marv in Min sky, pro fes sor of me dia arts and sci en ces, M.I.T. Indre Viskontas, cognitive neuroscientist, tv and podcast host, An drew Fra knoi, as tron o mer, Foot hill Col lege, Los Al tos Hills, CA and opera singer, , CA Da vid Mor ri son, space sci en tist, NA SA Ames Re search Cen ter Kend rick Fra zi er*, sci ence writer; ed i tor, Ma ri lyn vos Sa vant, Pa rade mag a zine con trib ut ing ed i tor S    I   Rich ard A. Mul ler, pro fes sor of phys ics, Univ. of CA, Berke ley Joe Nick ell, sen ior re search fel low, CSI Stev en Wein berg, pro fes sor of phys ics and as tron o my, Univ. of Christopher C. French, professor, Department Tex as at Aus tin; No bel lau re ate of Psychology, and head of the Anomalistic Psychology Jan Willem Nienhuys, mathematician, Waalre, The Netherlands E.O. Wil son, Univ. pro fes sor emer i tus, organismic and evolu- Research Unit, Goldsmiths tionary biology, Har vard Univ. College, Univ. of London Lee Nis bet, phi los o pher, Med aille Col lege Luigi Garlaschelli, chemist, Università di Pavia (Italy); *, MD, assistant professor Rich ard Wis e man, psy chol o gist, Univ. of Hert ford shire, England research fellow of CICAP, the Italian skeptics group of neurology, Yale Univ. School of Medicine Benjamin Wolozin, professor, Department of Pharmacology, Maryanne Garry, professor, School of Psychology, Bill Nye, sci ence ed u ca tor and tel e vi sion host, Boston Univ. School of Medicine Univ. of Wellington, New Zealand Nye Labs Marv in Zel en, stat is ti cian, Har vard Univ.

* Mem ber, CSI Ex ec u tive Coun cil (Af fil i a tions giv en for iden ti fi ca tion on ly.)

The S    I   (ISSN 0194-6730) is pub lished Director, CSI, P.O. Box 703, Am herst, NY 14226-0703. Tel.: au thors. Their pub li ca tion does not nec es sa ri ly con sti tute an bi month ly by the Center for Inquiry in association with 716-636-1425. Fax: 716-636-1733. Email: bkarr@center- en dorse ment by CSI or its mem bers un less so stat ed. the Com mit tee for Skeptical Inquiry, P.O. Box 703, Am- forinquiry.net. Cop y right ©2015 by the Center for Inquiry and the Com mit- herst, NY 14226. Print ed in U.S.A. Pe ri od i cals post- Man u scripts, let ters, books for re view, and ed i to ri al tee for Skeptical Inquiry. All rights re served. age paid at Buf fa lo, NY, and at ad di tion al mail ing of- in quir ies should be sent to Kend rick Fra zi er, Ed i tor, S - Sub scrip tions and chan ges of ad dress should be ad- fi ces. Sub scrip tion pri ces: one year (six is sues), $35;   I  , EMAIL: [email protected]. Mail: dressed to: S    I  , P.O. Box 703, Am herst, NY two years, $60; three years, $84; sin gle is sue, $5.99. 944 Deer Drive NE, Al bu querque, NM 87122. Be fore sub- 14226-0703. Or call toll-free 1-800-634-1610 (out side Cana dian and for eign or ders: Pay ment in U.S. funds drawn mit ting any man uscript, please con sult our Guide for Au- the U.S. call 716-636-1425). Old ad dress as well as new on a U.S. bank must ac com pa ny or ders; please add US$10 thors for style and ref er en ce requirements and submittal are nec es sa ry for change of sub scrib er’s ad dress, with six per year for ship ping. Cana dian and for eign cus tomers are instructions. It is on our website at www.csi cop.org/pub- weeks ad vance no tice. S    I   sub scrib ers may en cour aged to use Vi sa or Mas ter Card. lications/guide. not speak on be half of CSI or the S    I  . In quir ies from the me dia and the pub lic about the work Ar ti cles, re ports, re views, and let ters pub lished in the Post mas ter: Send chan ges of ad dress to S    of the Com mit tee should be made to Barry Karr, Executive S    I   rep resent the views and work of in di vid u al I  , P.O. Box 703, Am herst, NY 14226-0703. Skep ti cal In quir er September/October 2015 | Vol. 39, No. 5 CONFERENCE REPORT COLUMNS 12 FROM THE EDITOR ‘Reason for Change’: ‘Reason’ Topics and Real Science Quacks and Cranks, GMOs vs. False Mysteries ...... 4 and Climate, Science and Philosophy—CFI Conference NEWS AND COMMENT Dawkins, Collins, and the Science- Covers It All Religion Debate: A New Sociological Study / AMA Tries to Rein in TV Doctors FEATURES Spreading Misinformation / Physician Wallace Sampson, Expert on False 38 Medical Claims, Dies at Eighty-Five / ‘Post-Materialist’ Science? Ninth Annual IIG Awards Honor Going A Smokescreen for Woo Clear, Houdini, Wiseman, Lampoon Dr. Oz / California Passes Cell Phone SADRI HASSANI Warning Law / Wellness Guru Who Promoted Cancer-Curing Diet 42 Admits Hoax ...... 5 The 1848 ‘Enormous Serpent’ of the Daedalus Identified INVES TI GA TIVE FILES The Black Madonna: A Folkloristic GARY J. GALBREATH and Iconographic Investigation JOE NICK ELL ...... 26

47 PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS Encouraging Evidence-Free The ‘Roswell Slides’ Fiasco: Enterprise: Business on UFOlogy’s Biggest Black Eye ROBERT SHEAFFER ...... 30 a Bed of Sand BRIAN D. ENGLER AND SKEPTICAL INQUIREE EUGENIE V. MIELCZAREK Playing with Past Lives: The Virginia Boy and the Dead Marine SPECIAL REPORT BENJAMIN RADFORD ...... 33 22 NEW AND NOTABLE ...... 58 The Pope’s Encyclical on Climate and the Planet: LET TERS TO THE ED I TOR ...... 63 Will It Change the Debate? KENDRICK FRAZIER THE LAST LAUGH ...... 66

25 REVIEWS Is the Pope Catholic? KENNETH R. MILLER The Case of the Haunting Handprints SPECIAL ESSAY JOE NICKELL ...... 56

35 The Hand on the Mirror: A True Story The Future of the of Life Beyond Death Center for Inquiry by Janis Heaphy Durham Ronald A. Lindsay A Textbook Case in FORUMS Georgia Remembered 52 GLENN BRANCH ...... 59 Is Wikipedia a Conspiracy? God Sent Me: A Textbook Case Common Myths Explained on Evolution vs. Creation by Jeffrey Selman Susan Gerbic World-Changing Genius, 54 Creativity, and Teamwork Correlations: How Do KENDRICK FRAZIER ...... 60 We Ever Establish The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Definite Causation? Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution Morton E. Tavel by Walter Isaacson Committee for Skeptical Inquiry ™ “... promotes scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use Skep ti cal In quir er of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims.” THE MAG A ZINE FOR SCI ENCE AND REA SON EDI TOR Kend rick Fra zi er DEPUTY EDI TOR Ben ja min Rad ford MANA GING EDI TOR Julia Lavarnway [ FROM THE EDITOR ASSISTANT EDITOR Nicole Scott ART DIRECT OR Chri sto pher Fix

PRODUC TION Paul E. Loynes ‘Reason’ Topics and Real Science vs. False Mysteries WEBMASTER Matthew Licata PUBLISH ER’S REPRE SENT A TIVE Bar ry Karr

EDI TO RI AL BOARD James E. Al cock, Harriet Hall, his issue is packed with topical material. We begin with coverage of our Ray Hy man, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Elizabeth Loftus, Joe “Reason for Change” conference. Highlights include New Yorker writer Nickell, Steven Novella, Am ar deo Sar ma, Eugenie C. Scott, Karen Stollznow, David E. Thomas,

T Michael Specter’s blunt talk on GMOs, a live on-stage interview with Leonard Tramiel Richard Dawkins, panels on and climate change, philos- CONSULT ING EDI TORS Sus an J. Black more, Ken neth L. Fed er, Barry Karr, E.C. Krupp, ophers Rebecca Goldstein and Stephen Law on God and science, and CFI Jay M. Pasachoff, Rich ard Wis e man President and CEO Ron Lindsay on the future of CFI (it’s good). We report CONTRIB UT ING EDI TORS D.J. Grothe, Harriet Hall, on our challenge to the Heartland Institute on climate change and the pope’s Kenneth W. Krause, David Morrison, James E. Oberg, Massimo Pigliucci, Rob ert Sheaf fer, David E. Thomas encyclical on climate and the health of our planet. (Don’t miss biologist Ken- neth R. Miller’s short essay about that.) Published in association with In our lead feature article, physics professor Sadri Hassani takes on a new “manifesto” by a group of known pseudoscientists declaring the end of science CHAIR Edward Tabash CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Ronald A. Lindsay and the start of “post-materialist science.” He gives them a little history of sci- CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Barry Karr ence lesson, tearing apart their implication that the great scientists who’ve made CORPO RATE COUNSEL Brenton N. VerPloeg, revolutionary discoveries were “not mainstream.” They most decidedly were. Nicholas J. Little He calls them “mainstreamers who bent the mainstream.” Brian Engler and BUSINESS MANA GER Pa tri cia Beau champ Eugenie Mielczarek continue their series of SI investigative articles revealing FISCAL OFFI CER Paul Pau lin SUBSCRIPTION DATA MANAGER Jacalyn Mohr the federal government’s spending on dubious alternative and complementary COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR Paul Fidalgo medicine, this time via small-business grant programs. And a sea-serpent claim DIRECT OR OF LIBRAR IES Tim o thy S. Binga from 1848 is finally solved. DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Martina Fern DIRECTOR, COUNCIL FOR SECULAR HUMANISM * * * Tom Flynn DIRECTOR, CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMS We are nearly through our thirty-ninth year examining pseudoscientific, fringe, Debbie Goddard paranormal, and other extraordinary claims that fascinate and confuse the pub- DIRECTOR, SECULAR ORGANIZATIONS FOR SOBRIETY lic. The S I has always stood for the most reliable, most au- Jim Christopher DIRECTOR, AFRICAN FOR HUMANISM thoritative scientific and scholarly information about all the dubious claims that Debbie Goddard attract and assault us. When the facts aren’t yet known, we investigate. When BOARD OF DIRECTORS R. Elisabeth Cornwell, Kendrick Frazier, Barry A. Kosmin, Hector Sierra, we already know the answers, we educate —and explain . When the issues and Edward Tabash (chair), Leonard Tramiel, Judith Walker. claims and counterclaims are complex (as is often the case), we analyze . Always, (Honorary): Rebecca Goldstein, Susan Jacoby, Lawrence Krauss. we do our best to promote good science and scientific thinking. And we seek

to help everyone better understand and interpret what they see, hear, and read Roswell Slides Fiasco | Wikipedia Skepticism | Haunting Handprints | Dawkins & Collins | Challenge to Heartland and to encourage them to think more critically. By “we,” I mean hundreds and thousands of scientists and scholars in vir- the Magazine for Science and Reason Vol. 39 No. 5 | September/October 2015 tually every field, worldwide, plus a smaller number of incredibly tenacious investigators who go into the field to find the truth about the latest popular mysteries. It is a remarkable set of skills and perspectives all these people have. We have helped form a real community for scientists, scholars, and investigators worldwide to investigate and to discuss the important issues these topics raise. All of us do our best to nudge everyone to a more rational, evidence-based view ‘Post-Materialist’ Science: of the world. CONFERENCE SPECIAL: A Smokescreen for Woo Quacks, GMOs, Climate, Science and the Overall, I think SI and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry have together Dawkins, Science, and God Pope’s Encyclical Evidence-Free Enterprise: been a major force helping to contain the influence of self-deception, gullibility, NCCAM’s Business Grants and uncritical belief. We’ve helped keep alive among the public the idea that the The Future of CFI Published by the Center for Inquiry in association with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry wonders of science and nature far exceed the false mysteries of

and bogus science. And we have championed the view that the remarkable Cover image: An iconic drawing of the Daedalus methods of science are in themselves a cherished treasure of modern civilization animal, as published in The Illustrated London News. This was produced by a professional artist with advice very much worth defending, preserving, and nurturing. from Captain Peter M’Quhae.

—K F [ NEWS AND COMMENT Dawkins, Collins, and the Science-Religion Debate: A New Sociological Study

D F

A new study appears to dent zoologist Richard Dawkins’s influence as a pub- lic intellectual, arguing that he does not persuade new readers that science and religion are in conflict. But the researchers concluded that biologist Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health and an evangelical Christian, could persuade audiences that science and faith can be compatible. The sociological study, published in Public Understanding of Science, sur- veyed 10,000 Americans to assess in part how scientists who write popular Zoologist and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins (left) and Francis Collins, director of the National books influence public views of reli- Institutes of Health and an evangelical Christian. gion. It identified citizens’ views about the relationship between science and nent stars. In the second, as scholars of religion and tested whether these views Dawkins, in effect, religion have long recognized, atheists changed after learning about Dawkins, gave atheism a have attracted significant personal and author of The God Delusion, and Col- social stigma and have been granted a lins, author of The Language of God: A place in public life. limited space in U.S. public life. Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. Dawkins had earned cultural promi- The study, funded by the philan- nence and a devoted following since the thropic John Templeton Foundation, lead author, said public attitudes to- 1976 publication of The Selfish Gene, which promotes dialogue between ward atheists could explain why Col- but with the 2006 publication of The science and religion, found that more lins had more power than Dawkins to God Delusion he became the embodi- than 21 percent of citizens had heard of sway opinions. Scheitle said in a media ment and chief articulator of an aggres- Dawkins, while just over 4 percent had release: “Research has shown that the sive atheism. The book’s call-to-arms heard of Collins. U.S. public is generally distrustful of for atheism—its appendix listed atheist Researchers conducted an exper- atheists and views them more nega- support groups—connected with citi- iment within the survey, telling those tively than most other ethnic, religious, zens worldwide, selling more than one people who had not heard of Daw- and minority groups. On the other and a half million copies and remaining kins—almost 79 percent—about his hand, religious individuals are often on The New York Times best seller list life and opinions and then asking them perceived as more trustworthy, espe- for more than fifty weeks. if their views about science and reli- cially as viewed by other religious in- In his review of the book for Science, gion had changed. After learning about dividuals.” writer and publisher of Skeptic maga- Dawkins and his views, citizens re- But the study did not address what zine Michael Shermer pinpointed the ported their opinions had not changed. has been Dawkins’s central function as reason for the book’s popularity. He They instead retained their existing a public intellectual in modern science argued its success showed a “market views that science and religion were ei- and religion debates: his catalytic role as testimony to the hunger many peo- ther in conflict, in collaboration, or in- the figurehead for a new social move- ple—far more, I now think, than polls dependent realms. By contrast, citizens ment of atheists. reveal—have for someone in a position who had not heard of Collins—almost As I argue in my recent book on of prestige and power to speak for them 96 percent—and were then told about celebrity scientists, Dawkins’s major in such an eloquent voice.” his worldview shifted away from con- social importance comes at the inter- Indeed The God Delusion became an flict and independence views toward a section of two cultural trends. In the iconic text, a foundational book for the collaborative view. first, our media-driven fame culture de- turn-of-the-century new atheist cul- West Virginia University sociolo- mands that abstract issues and ideas and tural movement, along with Sam Har- gist Christopher Scheitle, the study’s worldviews are personified by promi- ris’s The End of Faith, Daniel Dennett’s

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 5 Breaking the Spell, and Christopher Hitchens’s God Is Not Great . A global AMA Tries to Rein in TV Doctors Spreading Misinformation community of atheists used the books D H. G to express and deepen their identities. Dawkins gave atheism its public face, Dr. Mehmet Oz, a.k.a. “America’s Doctor,” Benjamin Mazer, a medical student who wrote one of its modern core texts, and is a serious problem for science-based has spearheaded Doctors in Oz, a blog and built a community around his personal medicine. Although he started as a prom- project whose purpose is to highlight and brand of atheist advocacy, centered on ising academic surgeon, over the past few publicize the harm caused by bogus medi- the Richard Dawkins Foundation for years he has featured psychic mediums cal advice given by Dr. Oz, and Joy Lee, an- Reason & Science where followers could like John Edward and Theresa Caputo, a other medical student and member of the faith healer, homeopaths, dubious dietary AMA-Medical Students Section Committee build a network of alliances, friendships, supplements, and even an anti-vaccine on Legislation and Advocacy. and social support. activist like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on The This resolution (http://www.doctorsinoz. With these endeavors, Dawkins en- Dr. Oz Show, his syndicated television com/blog/medical-students-take-action/) sured new atheism demonstrated what show. Certainly, there have been attempts states that the AMA will issue a public state- sociologists identified as the core char- to counter the medical misinformation Dr. ment reiterating the importance of transpar- acteristics of social movements: they are Oz promotes, but they have been largely ency to the profession and resolves to craft in conflict with identifiable opponents, ineffective. When Senator Claire McCaskill guidelines on how doctors can ethically use linked by informal networks, and feature (D-Missouri) hauled him in front of her media to help the public. In addition, the a collective identity. Senate committee in June 2014 over his AMA will issue a report on what disciplinary The Public Understanding of Science unethical promotion of diet supplements pathways might exist for doctors who con- study underlines the enhanced importance as miracle weight loss aids and humiliated tinue to abuse their access to the media to spread medical misinformation. of elite figures in influencing how citizens him, skeptics rejoiced (SI, September/ October 2014). Even though this resolution is definitely come to understand science, religion, and a move in the right direction, it should be the interactions between the two. noted that the AMA cannot actually enforce To be fair, the study also notes that anything because it is not a regulatory or citizens surveyed who already knew about [The AMA’s] position governmental body. However, despite its Dawkins were more likely to view science membership having fallen from approxi- and religion as being in conflict. “If a statements do still carry mately 75 percent of American physicians person is already familiar with Dawkins,” considerable weight. in the 1950s to less than 20 percent of wrote Scheitle and his coauthor, Rice physicians today, it is still the single largest University’s Elaine Howard Ecklund, medical association in the United States; in their study, “it could be because they its position statements do still carry con- siderable weight. Thus it is still important are sympathetic with his views and have Unfortunately, Dr. Oz was soon back to that the AMA has taken a position on this sought out or regularly consume informa- his usual antics, just a little more circum- issue because it still represents the single tion where his views would be covered.” spect about supplements. Then in April, a largest megaphone that physicians have Yet this does not give a full account group of physicians and scientists wrote a to the public. As such, it could potentially of Dawkins’s driving role in forging a letter to the Dean of the Facul ties of Health pioneer new ethical guidelines for how phy- new social movement. He became the Sciences and Medi cine at Columbia Univer- sicians should disseminate information in embodiment of atheism that gave the sity to complain that Dr. Oz’s extracurricu- the media and online. worldview its necessary public, celebrity lar activities reflected poorly on Columbia, It is also never a bad thing for such a face. Moreover, he gave atheism an in- where Oz is faculty. Predictably, the dean prominent doctors’ group to reiterate for- tellectual core, an informal network, and invoked academic freedom in response, mally that a physician has an ethical obli- a collective identity. Dawkins, in effect, and Dr. Oz did a whole show attacking the gation to his patients and profession to be gave atheism a place in public life. That group as industry shills (SI, July/August evidence-based in all medical information that he or she promotes in public. It is just remains his chief and perhaps lasting in- 2015). Unfortunately, Dr. Oz is far from alone. very unfortunate that such a resolution fluence in the ongoing debate between There are, for instance, Internet celebrity pe- needed to be issued in the first place. science and religion. diatricians, such as Dr. Bob Sears and Jay Declan Fahy teaches at Dublin City Univer- Gordon, who spread anti-vaccine misinfor- sity’s School of Communications and writes mation. Where medical boards, universities, David H. Gorski, MD, PhD, FACS, is in the and other regulatory bodies have largely Departments of Surgery and Oncology at about Dawkins as well as other scientific failed to address this problem, a medical Wayne State University School of Medicine intellectuals in The New Celebrity Scien- association has stepped in. In June, the and a surgical oncologist at the Barbara Ann tists: Out of the Lab and into the Limelight American Medical Association (AMA) fi- Karmanos Cancer Institute. A CSI fellow, he (2015), excerpted/adapted as the cover nally took a stand against celebrity quacks writes regularly for SI and blogs on medi- article in the July/August 2015 S  when it passed a resolution coauthored by cal-related pseudoscience. I.

6 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT

Physician Wallace Sampson, Expert on False Medical Claims, Dies at Eighty-Five H H

The skeptical community has lost a editing. He persuaded me. I chafed at shining star. On May 25, 2015, Wallace the constraints of writing formally for Sampson, MD, died in California at a scientific journal, so I wrote another, the age of eighty-five from complica- irreverent version of my findings and tions of heart surgery; he had been in submitted it to S I as the hospital since February. He is sur- “Oxygen Is Good, Even When It’s Not vived by his wife of fifty-nine years, five There.” sons, and nine grandchildren. And so my career as a writer was Wally was an oncologist and profes- launched. As I continued to write, sor emeritus at the Stanford University Wally continued to provide encourage- School of Medicine. He started looking ment, praise, and support. His emails into false medical claims after he saw pa- validated my work and motivated me to tients resorting to the bogus cancer cure keep going. Over the years, a pattern de- Laetrile. He soon became an expert in veloped. At the Toolbox or in an email, dissecting false claims both in conven- tic’s Toolbox. At the time, I knew next Wally would say something that would tional medicine and in unconventional to nothing about alternative medicine strike me as questionable or overly pes- practices such as and ho- or about how to critique a scientific simistic. I would investigate and would meopathy. An indefatigable crusader study. As part of his presentation, Wally invariably find that he was accurate and for science and reason, he seemed to be showed a video of the Scientific Ameri- that the problem was even worse than everywhere. He wrote for medical jour- can Frontiers episode on in he said. I developed a high respect for nals and popular publications, appeared which Alan Alda said that chiropractic his judgment. on television and in podcasts, testified neck manipulation was associated with When Wally retired from the Tool- in court, taught a course on alternative a significant percentage of strokes. I box in 2008, I was chosen to replace medicine at Stanford that emphasized questioned that, and when I got home him. I could never hope to fill his its unscientific aspects, spoke at con- I did my own research and determined shoes, but by then I had some shoes of ferences, and was often quoted in the that the claim was true. In the process, my own. media. I stumbled upon a lot of other things I wish I could have gotten to know He was one of the founders of the about chiropractic that intrigued me him better. He was kind, gentle, grand- National Council Against Health Fraud, enough to make me read everything fatherly, professorial, approachable, the Science-Based Medicine blog, and the I could find on it, both pro and con. modest, and a true gentleman. My Institute for Science in Medicine. He One thing led to another. You might daughter attended the Toolbox with was also a member of many other sci- say chiropractic was my gateway drug me when she was a teenager, and she entific and skeptical organizations such to critiquing alternative medicine, and was quite fond of Wally. When we as the Friends of Science in Medicine. it might never have happened if Wally chanced to see him being interviewed He was a fellow of CSICOP, contrib- hadn’t sparked my interest. on television, she would say, “Look, uted articles to S I, When I came across a really stupid there’s Grandpa Wally!” and was part of the second CSICOP pseudoscientific study that was being Wallace Sampson was my mentor. delegation to China that investigated used to promote the bogus product “Vi- He was responsible for launching my and pseudoscience tamin O,” I felt comfortable enough writing career and for making me who in that country. He founded and edited with Wally to complain to him about I am today. He is gone, but his work The Scientific Review of Alternative Med- it via email. He replied, “You know, in science and skepticism will never be icine under the auspices of the Center for no one takes studies like that seriously forgotten. Thank you, Wally. Requies- Inquiry. He was on the faculty of CSI’s enough to critique them. Why don’t cat in pace. Skeptic’s Toolbox workshop in Eugene, you write up a formal critique and we’ll Oregon, from 1998 to 2008. publish it in The Scientific Review of Al- Harriet Hall, MD, writes about questionable I never really got to know Wally that ternative Medicine.” I protested that I medical claims. She is an SI contributing ed- well, but he changed my life forever. I wouldn’t know how to do that, but he itor and a fellow and a member of the Exec- didn’t meet him until I was in my late insisted, saying he was confident that utive Council of the Committee for Skeptical fifties, when I attended the 2002 Skep- I could do it and he would help with Inquiry.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 7 Ninth Annual IIG Awards Honor Going Clear, Houdini, Wiseman, Lampoon Dr. Oz

O H

On June 28, 2015, at the Steve Allen erful” appeared on the video screen. derful opportunity he gave me and the Theater in Hollywood, the Independent The omnipotent floating head (actu- great time that we had together putting Investigations Group (IIG)—a net- ally actor Ron Lynch) declared in the this movie together . . . [T]he icing on work of skeptical organizations affili- third person that Oz had become su- the cake . . . is this award, which we ated with the Committee for Skeptical per-powered by his great medical ad- were far from expecting, so thank you Inquiry—presented its ninth annual vice. However, once the video screen all very, very much.” IIG Awards recognizing the promo- was retracted, it turned out that “Oz” Forster remained on the stage to tion of science in the popular arts. was sitting in a wheelchair, breathing present our last award—induction into The “Iggies ” are the only such awards from an oxygen tank, and transmit- the Houdini Hall of Honor (HHH). offered in North America, and the ting his image through an iPad cam- The HHH also includes Carl Sagan, event drew the usual unique crowd of era. Taking pity on the decrepit man, James Randi, Joe Nickell, Martin Gard- artists, scientists, and fans. Hannah handed him the certificate, ner, Isaac Asimov, Ray Hyman, Neil Photos by Mark Johnson. Academy Award–nominated actor Robert Forster Hannah Gansen presents “Oz” (Ron Lynch) with the Truly Nicholas Meyer and Gerald W. Abrams accepting addresses the crowd about the miniseries Houdini. Terrible Television Award. the IIG award for Houdini and making an impas- sioned plea for reason in human affairs.

The first award was presented by and “Oz” promised to put it on his wall deGrasse Tyson, and Eugenie Scott. comedian Jim Coughlin to the docu- “where his medical license should be.” This year the honor went to Richard mentary feature Going Clear: Scientology The third award returned us to a Wiseman, whose Quirkology website and the Prison of Belief. The movie was more serious tone. Academy Award– features endlessly entertaining videos particularly relevant at CFI–Los Ange- nominated actor Robert Forster pre- that challenge viewers’ preconceived les in Hollywood, which is close to a sented an award to Houdini—Lions- notions by using clinical psychology number of Scientology buildings. gate Television’s exhaustive mini-series and good old magic tricks. Wiseman The second presentation was the chronicling the life and times of the accepted the award via a pre-recorded Truly Terrible Television Award pre- great-great-grandfather of skepticism. video in which he denounced psy- sented to those shows that display a There to accept the award was Hol- chics—as paranormal events seemed to shocking lack of skepticism. This year lywood legend Nicholas Meyer (Star be occurring all around him. there was no contest; it was won by Trek, The Day After), who wrote the The IIG is proud to present this The Dr. Oz Show. Comedienne Han- screenplay, an adaptation of his father’s one-of-a-kind event every year. More nah Gansen presented the framed cer- biography of Houdini. Also in atten- surprises are planned for the tenth an- tificate printed on “genuine imitation dance was Gerald W. Abrams, execu- nual awards show. parchment.” Of course, no one from tive producer of Houdini and accom- The Dr. Oz Show was in attendance . . . plished producer of historical dramas. Owen Hammer is a filmmaker and IIG mem- or so we thought. Said Meyer, “I am extremely grateful to ber living in Hollywood. The face of “Oz the Great and Pow- Gerry [Abrams] . . . for the really won-

8 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer [ NEWS AND COMMENT

California Passes Cell Phone Warning Law

In May, Berkeley, California, became around for decades, fueled by alarmist the first American city to pass a mea- news stories and celebrities expressing sure requiring that cell phones be sold concerns. (Singer Sheryl Crow, for ex- with a health warning about the expo- ample, has claimed that her cell phone sure of users to radio frequency radia- use may have contributed to her brain tion. A May 13 article by Brian Wu for tumors.) Sciencetimes.com reported that: As a practical matter, the Berkeley The proposal was passed by a vote law will likely have little effect other of 9-0 and when it goes into effect than to falsely suggest that cell phones this summer it will be the first are dangerous. There’s no harm done safety ordinance of its kind in the in reminding consumers about the country. Cellphone retailers will be required to include a city-prepared recommended use of cell phones, but notice along with the purchase of of course warning labels are routinely any new cellphone, informing con- ignored on countless products from sumers of the minimum separation Q-tips (don’t use them to clean your distance a cellphone should be held ears) to tires (check the air pressure in from the body. all four tires and the spare at least once The measure, which has been called a month). The measure is unlikely to local campaigns against mobile phone a “right to know law,” may be chal- masts highlighted in the media, phone lenged by the cell phone industry on the Public concern over cell sales remain buoyant” in the United basis that it violates free speech by forc- Kingdom (and indeed around the ing retailers to include warnings they phones has been around world). Thus while many people claim may not necessarily agree with. Con- for decades, fueled by to be concerned about cell phones, few sumers certainly have a right to know alarmist news stories are willing to give them up—though about potential dangers of the products some consumers have chosen to use they use, but in this case the scientific and celebrities earpieces instead of holding the cell evidence overwhelmingly supports the expressing concern. phones against their heads as they idea that cell phones are harmless. The speak; others have purchased special Centers for Disease Control and Pre- so-called “EMF shields” that can be vention, for example, has found no evi- inserted into cell phones and allegedly dence that cell phones cause cancer. deter anyone from buying or using cell block harmful electromagnetic waves Scientists doubt that cell phones can phones, which have become ubiquitous. (though consumer groups say there’s harm the body for several reasons, in- Indeed, one interesting aspect to the no evidence they are effective). In fact, cluding that there is no known mech- concerns over the health dangers of cell the main effect of the Berkeley warning anism by which radio frequency radia- phones is that the widespread fear has will likely be to benefit the manufactur- tion or electromagnetic fields (EMFs) done little to stem the popularity of the ers of ineffective “cell phone radiation can cause cancer. Not all radiation is product. Typically when the public is shields.” equally harmful; radio waves (such as concerned about the safety of a prod- Though there’s little evidence that those emitted by cell phones), like sun- uct, they reduce (or completely stop) cell phones cause cancer, they are a light, are a form of non-ionizing radia- their use of it—for example when fears significant health threat because of tion and are considered harmless. Ion- of bovine spongiform encephalopathy the role they play in distracted driving izing radiation, such as that found in (mad cow disease) hit Great Britain in accidents and deaths: “At any given X-rays, can cause cancer. Furthermore, 1996, beef consumption more or less daylight moment across America, ap- the electromagnetic fields generated stopped. proximately 660,000 drivers are using by cell phones are not strong enough In a 2006 study of cell phone con- cell phones or manipulating electronic to break the molecular and chemical cerns published in the journal Public devices while driving,” according to the bonds in human cells and therefore Understanding of Science, Frances Drake U.S. Department of Transportation. can’t damage human cells the way ion- noted that “a curious exception to this izing radiation can. Nonetheless, pub- pattern is the mobile phone. Despite Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of the lic concern over cell phones has been various health concerns and numerous S  I.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 9 Take action with us.

You can help promote science, reason, and secular values. Imagine a world where religion and pseudoscience do not influence public policy—a world where religion no longer enjoys a privileged position. The Center for Inquiry is working toward these goals and educating the public to use science, reason, and secular values rather than religion and pseudoscience to establish public policy. The Center for Inquiry advances its mission through advocacy, education, and outreach programs. No other organizations advance science and secularism on as many fronts as CFI and its affiliates, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism.

Donate today. When you make a donation to CFI, you become a member of a worldwide movement of humanists, skeptics, atheists, and freethinkers—all working together to promote the secular worldview and give voice to your values. Our major goals include: I Protecting the rights of nonbelievers I Advocating for science-based medicine I Sustaining and expanding the secular movement Make your most generous gift today, or request information on planned giving or making a bequest. To receive a brochure elaborating on what we are doing to achieve our important goals and how you can help, please complete and return the attached card or contact us at: Center for Inquiry Development Office PO Box 741 Amherst, NY 14226 1.800.818.7071 [email protected] www.centerforinquiry.net/donate [ NEWS AND COMMENT

Wellness Guru Who Promoted Cancer-Curing Diet Admits Hoax B R

An Australian woman named Belle over $20,000 for her treatments, but ciation’s Diagnostic and Statistical Man- Gibson claimed in 2013 that a special Kirilow eventually admitted that she ual of Mental Disorders, the prevalence diet, along with alternative medicine never had cancer. She had shaved her of factitious disorders is unknown. therapies, cured her terminal brain can- head and eyebrows to fake the signs of Many cases go undetected due to the cer. Shunning chemotherapy and other chemotherapy and had spent much of deceptive nature of the patients. Often proven cancer treatments, she claimed the money given to her on personal ex- the person successfully ends their hoax to have healed herself through holistic penses. She was charged with fraud but by telling friends, family, and other medicine and proper nutrition. Gibson spared jail time. She claimed she faked supporters that they are cured, so their started a wellness app based on her having cancer because she wanted atten- deception is never discovered. breakthrough discovery and wrote a tion from her family. The manual notes that “Among cookbook with cancer-curing recipes. patients in hospital settings, it is es- She became a rising star in the well- timated that about 1% of individuals ness and alternative medicine indus- have presentations that meet the crite- try and won Cosmopolitan magazine’s ria for factitious disorder. The course “Fun Fearless Female” award for social of factitious disorder is usually one of media. intermittent episodes.” In other words, However, questions were raised it’s not merely one incident, such as a about Gibson’s story and cancer di- broken leg or a bout with the flu; po- agnosis in March 2015 after she told tentially terminal illnesses such as can- Australian News that “she believed she cer are often claimed by the patient, al- was misdiagnosed by a medical team in lowing them to carry on the deception Germany—by someone who she now for many months and even years. thinks wasn’t a medical doctor. She Belle Gibson claimed that a special diet and alterna- In some cases the factitious disorder was now seeking treatment from a con- tive medicine cured her cancer. She later admitted it begins with a genuine health scare or ventional medical team, which she de- was a hoax. preexisting condition that is then ex- clined to name.” This curious explana- aggerated over time. Patients will often tion only raised more questions—such go to great lengths to make their fake as why she wouldn’t reveal the name illness seem real to both doctors and of the person who allegedly misdiag- supporters, including feigning seizures, nosed her and how she could not know whether or not that person was really a Patients will often go to manipulating lab results (for example doctor—and she eventually came clean. great lengths to make by adding blood to a urine sample), and In an April interview, Gibson ad- their fake illness seem even physically injuring themselves. mitted that she made up the whole It’s not illegal to lie about having story: she never had cancer in the first real to both doctors a disease, but if the person receives place, and her claim that a special diet and supporters. donations or free services under false or therapy cured her cancer was false. pretenses, he or she may be charged “Speaking out about the controversy in with fraud. Whatever Gibson’s mo- an exclusive interview with The Austra- tives were in this case, she turned her lian Women’s Weekly, Gibson was asked inspiring “true” story into not only sym- outright if she has, or has ever had Often cancer fakers do it for atten- pathy but profits. She had promised to cancer. ‘No. None of it’s true,’ she con- tion and sympathy, not because they are donate $300,000 from the sales of her fessed,” according to an April 22 story necessarily trying to scam people out of app to charity, though the charity re- in The Washington Post. money. Some people really do have a portedly never got it. Despite questions Gibson is only the latest and high- disease—not cancer but a mental illness about the donations, authorities have est-profile person to falsely claim to have known as a factitious disorder. People declined to press charges against Gib- been gravely ill. In 2009, for example, a with this disorder pretend to have an son. The biggest concern is that cancer young Canadian woman named Ashley illness (usually a terminal one) and patients desperate for a cure might have Kirilow made news for fighting bravely often go to great lengths to maintain followed Belle Gibson’s diet and alter- against breast, ovarian, brain, and liver the hoax. According to the latest edi- native medicine suggestions instead of I . She and her supporters raised tion of the American Psychiatric Asso- seeking proven medical treatments.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 11 CONFERENCE REPORT

Quacks and Cranks, GMOs and Climate, Science and Philosophy—CFI Conference Covers It All KENDRICK FRAZIER Photos by BRIAN ENGLER

The Center for Inquiry returned to its founding and headquarters site, suburban Amherst, New York, outside of Buffalo, for its 2015 conference, June 11–15, and by any measure the event was a fine success. The confer- Reason for Change saw a sell-out crowd of 500 attendess. ence sold out with close to 500 reg- istrants packing the various ballroom sessions and participating in lively intellectual and social interchanges. “Reason for Change” was its multiple-mean- ing theme, which seemed to serve the confer- ence well. It was the second consecutive annual conference combining the work of both the Com- mittee for Skeptical Inquiry (copublisher of the S  I) and the Council for Secular Rebecca Goldstein signs copies of her book. Humanism (copublisher of Free Inquiry ) as well Ken Frazier opens the conference with a as CFI’s overall mission. But it was the first since quick history of CSI and SI. those two entities became programs of CFI rather than separate nonprofit organizations. Scientific skepticism and secularism/human- ism blended fairly seamlessly, with numerous plenary sessions where these interests over- lapped (about two-thirds of the conference) and some parallel separate-track sessions where the interests seemed distinct (often posing difficult choices for some attendees who wanted to at- tend both). There were optional pre-conference tours to the Center for Inquiry headquarters building (only about a mile away) and its extraordinary library of 72,000 books on freethought and scientific skepticism. The library includes a first edition of Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason and the note- and SI contributor Brian books and files of famed skeptics such as Mar- Engler at the opening reception. tin Gardner and Steve Allen and early UFO critic Ron Lindsay with Morgan Romano of Thornton Page (plus papers Keay Davidson used Atheizm Dernegi (Association of Atheism). in his biography of Carl Sagan). And there were

12 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer CONFERENCE REPORT

The opening session of the conference with Barry Karr, Ken Frazier, and Tom Flynn. Susan Jacoby on the secular conscience during the Friday night reception and awards ceremony.

post-conference bus tours to nearby Niag- conference on “The New Irrationalisms” est that over the next few months SI’s cir- ara Falls and to the home of “The Great and announced the founding of CSICOP. culation nearly doubled. (The article also Agnostic” Robert Ingersoll, a three-hour I told the story mainly through the had a ripple effect in other countries, such drive away. way others (especially outside media) re- as Germany when published two months The Board of Directors of CFI also met ported on us in our early years. Articles later in the German-language edition of for the better part of three days before the in the New York Times, Time , Science Scientific American .) conference, with a few impromptu sessions News , Smithsonian, Reader’s Digest (then Hoftstadter later reprinted the article during the conference itself. The Executive translated into dozens of foreign language in his book Metamagical Themas, with a Council of the Committee for Skeptical editions), Psychology Today, and the Wall lengthy epilogue commenting upon reac- Inquiry (after being featured at a confer- Street Journal heralded the creation and tion to it and providing further thoughtful ence Skeptic Track public session Sunday early work of CSICOP. One such example consideration of the issues SI struggles morning) met in a business meeting for was Carl Sagan’s famous “The Fine Art of with. I told the audience that I considered five hours on the Sunday afternoon imme- Baloney Detection” article in Parade , the Hofstadter’s article “the most substantive, diately following the conference’s end. I am national Sunday newspaper supplement. detailed, and positive article ever written The article included a box about CSI- on both, so it made for a long if stimulating about us. It may still be.” week; it also required my missing a few COP and the S  I, calling I then jumped ahead to recent times conference sessions I wanted to see. SI “cheerful, irreverent, instructive, and and the present. “Overall,” I concluded, “I Ronald A. Lindsay, CFI’s president and often very funny.” This was early input to think SI and the Committee for Skeptical CEO, welcomed participants at an informal Sagan’s later book about pseudoscience Inquiry have been a major influence help- Thursday evening reception. He would later and irrationality, The Demon-Haunted ing to contain the influence of [pseudo- point out that the two strains that unite all World , published the year he died. aspects of the now-combined organization An even more important article was scientific and antiscientific] impulses and are a respect for critical, evidence-based cognitive scientist (and later CSICOP fel- to keep alive among the public the idea thinking and a disdain for dogma. low) Douglas Hofstadter’s March 1982 that the wonders of science and nature The next morning things got underway Scientific American article thoughtfully far exceed the false mysteries of pseudo- in earnest, with Jim Underdown of CFI–Los contrasting the two modes of inquiry of science and bogus science.” Angeles beginning his conference emcee the S  I and the National Tom Flynn, editor of Free Inquiry and duties. I opened things with a twelve-min- Enquirer , the era’s best-known sensation- director of the Council for Secular Human- ute illustrated overview of some historical alist tabloid. Hofstadter had clearly read ism, followed with a similar illustrated over- highlights of CSICOP (now CSI) and SI. The the S  I deeply and care- view of their history and recent influence. fully. He quoted at length from key arti- organization got its start thirty-nine years * * * ago, almost exactly across the street from cles. He strongly recommended CSICOP the conference hotel at the then-new Am- and SI. He called us “a steady buoy to Here are just a few highlights from the herst campus of the State University of which one can cling in the sea of [irratio- conference that struck me as of particular New York at Buffalo in May 1976, when nality] that all of us are drowning in.” This interest for our readers. (Again, I couldn’t philosophy professor Paul Kurtz called a wonderful article prompted so much inter- get to all sessions.)

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 13 GMOs: Potential and Promise New Yorker writer Michael Specter “Over the next spoke on one of the hottest and most surprisingly controversial thirty-five to topics of recent times: GMOs forty years, we must (genetically modified organisms). Specter’s book Denialism won grow more food CSI’s 2009 Balles Prize for Critical Thinking, and he applied the same than through critical thought to the GMO topic. He said he’d tried not to write all of history.” about GMOs for twenty years but can no longer avoid the topic, as —Michael Specter society’s unfortunate view seems Michael Specter chides opponents of GMOs. to be that scientists are con- cocting “some Martian-like differ- ent species.” He emphasized that GMOs can help fulfill global short- ages of food and said to think they are more a danger than a boon to addressing hunger is a “big disconnect” from reality. “These are important tools,” he said. “Over the next thirty-five to forty years, we must grow more food than through all of history.” He chided opponents of GMOs living in wealthy enclaves in the United States and Europe who shop at expensive health food stores (“which no one should ever do”), think “natural” is somehow a meaningful and meritorious term, and seem unaware of how serious the problem of feeding and providing necessary nutrients such as vitamin A to less-developed parts of the world is—and will become, unless the potential of GMOs can be realized. “We have been modifying food for 10,000 years,” Specter noted. Adding or modifying genes to make key crops have bigger yields or be more resistant to pests is along that same continuum of progress. “What GMOs really can do, they are not being allowed to” because of fear-mongering opponents, he said. He said he likes Monsanto, one of the main companies making GMOs and a target of GMO opponents. Nevertheless, he said, “There are tons of [GMO] products that have nothing to do with Monsanto. Some include a gene that kills pests, so the farmers don’t need to spray insecticides.” That, he implied, should be considered a good thing. As for the Roundup brand spray that is also a frequent target of GMO opponents, “Roundup replaced two other products that were far more toxic.” Critical thinking and better appreciation of the science is needed, he said. Perhaps it would help, he said, to point out that (injected) insulin is a GMO. When you say that, he said, people get it and may realize, just perhaps, that GMOs can be useful.

Crank Anthropology For her lecture, anthropologist Eugenie C. Scott, the longtime fearless defender Eugenie C. Scott speaking on crank anthropology. of teaching evolution in schools, shifted gears (“back to my roots,” she put it) and addressed a topic of classic pseudoscience: crank anthropology. She gave a little primer on the differences between science and pseudoscience. One of her comments CSI Fellow Dave Thomas later put on as a nicely designed Internet “Thought for the Day”: “Pseudoscience claims the mantle of science, but fails to earn it.” She described a few examples of pseudoscience in her field,

14 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer CONFERENCE REPORTREPORT including the Aquatic Ape hypothesis, alleged human/ET hybrids (she outlined the barriers evolution provides to hybridization of vastly different creatures), and a num- ber of fake Bigfoot claims. “All passed the test of being pseudoscience,” she said.

Alternative Medicine Panel Steven Novella, Harriet Hall, and (all physicians and fellows of CSI) took part in a panel exploring the troubling trends in popular and institutional encourage- ment of non-science-based medicine. Novella began by lamenting that alterna- tive practitioners are promoting a double stan- dard, “literally carving out an alternative uni- verse.” He ended answering a question from the audience about critical thinking. “Once they are true believers, evidence doesn’t help,” Novella said. “You have to do it earlier.” Hall emphasized that there is no such thing as alternative medicine, only medicine sup- ported by science. The term is nevertheless used for what used to be called “,” “folk medicine,” or “fringe medicine” and “in- cludes fanciful things that couldn’t possibly The alternative medicine panel: Harriet Hall, Steven Novella, David Gorski, work.” Troubling signs of it are uncontrolled, and moderator Leonard Tramiel. poorly designed, never replicated experi- ments, statements from physician propo- nents beginning “In my experience” (she calls that “a very dangerous phrase), and anecdotes. Another problem is that propo- nents use the same word evidence that sci- entists do “but with a totally different mean- ing.” (This is why Novella and colleagues are promoting the concept of science-based medicine; see Novella’s recent SI column “It’s Time for Science-Based Medicine” May/ June 2015.) David Gorski sharing on “quackademic” medicine. Gorski gave an overview of “quacka- demic” medicine, noting (as have a number of recent SI investigative articles) that the U.S. government is spending close to half a billion dollars a year on “complementary and alternative medicine.” “Medicine should be based on science,” he emphasized. He noted one prominent proponent of alternative remedies at Yale has called for “a more fluid concept of evidence” than “Once they are true typically demanded by science, meaning one where controlled experiments aren’t required. “Integrative medicine” is now the new faddish term for the same thing as believers, evidence before. Gorski calls it “integrative quackery.” He ended with a pungent equation: “Integrative Medicine = Medicine + Myth.” doesn’t help,” Novella said. Two Philosophers, on Science . . . and the God Argument Philosopher, novelist, and MacArthur Fellow Rebecca Goldstein gave a spirited “You have to luncheon keynote talk about what she calls “mattering.” That night she received CFI’s Morris D. Forkosch Award for Best book for her Plato at the Googleplex: Why do it earlier.” Philosophy Won’t Go Away (2014). Mattering starts with questions. The question “What is ?” is our trying to get our bearings. And that captures something very distinc- tive about our species. It has resulted in science, philosophy, and religion. Religion’s

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 15 answer to that question is “God is.” If that were true, if “God is,” Goldstein said, “that would change the entire decor of the universe.” “What matters?”—including whether we ourselves matter—is a second universal question. Both religion and secular reason have distinctive approaches to these two questions. Religion says, “God matters, and we matter to God,” since we are made in his image. In this view, Goldstein says, “He appears to take us almost as seriously as we take ourselves—which is gratifying.” The problem is some people matter more. “And that leads to terrible atrocities.” A seeming corollary to this view is that “If God isn’t”—if there is no God—then human life doesn’t matter. And if life doesn’t matter, it’s a “moral free-for-all.” This is an invalid inference, she notes; it’s the fallacy of denying the antecedent. With the ancient Greeks, mattering didn’t depend on gods. “They kicked the gods out of mattering.” They were intent on “keeping the terrible gods out of it.” And that created the preconditions for philosophy and then science. The tools of science are powerful, but “there’s nothing simple about the scientific methodology. Even calling it a methodology—as if there are simple step-by-step rules—is misleading.” Science makes use of observation, theory, in- Rebecca Goldstein gives a spirited luncheon duction, deduction, abduction, intuitions, prediction, experiment, modeling, and keynote speech on “mattering” and questioning. computer simulations. “Science is not a simple follow-the-rules procedure. But the most essential fact about science is that it always leaves open the possibility that we’re getting ‘What is?’ wrong, even at the most fundamental level.” Science “directs its ingenuity to trying to get nature to correct us when we are wrong.” Says Goldstein, “We need fellow knowledge-seekers to show us the blind spots in our thinking.” “We need fellow The two arms of reason—what used to be called natural philosophy and is now called science and moral philosophy—have made progress over the course knowledge-seekers of the centuries, expanding our points of view both scientifically and morally. Goldstein praised the conference theme, “Reason for Change,” with its “de- to show us the liberate ambiguity, the kind of semantic gestalt switch it forces the mind to blind spots in make.” And she concluded: “Why shouldn’t we get to be inspired, reasonably inspired, by reason itself?” our thinking.” * * * In a Sunday morning lecture, Stephen Law, senior lecturer in philosophy at —Rebecca Goldstein Heythrop College, University of London, and provost of the Centre for Inquiry–UK, described what he calls The Evil-God Challenge. He wrote about this previously in the S  I in an article titled “The God of Eth” (SI, September/ October 2005, available on our website at csicop.org). It was an interesting complement to Goldstein’s talk. He called it “a simple argument.” It began with most believers’ sense of God as omnipotent and all good. He asked, Is belief in this God reasonable? He found that the typical argu- ments “provide no grounds to suppose that this being is all good or all powerful.” He then brought up the question of gratuitous evil. “If gratuitous evil exists, God does not. But gratuitous evil exists. Therefore, God does not exist.” “It is a great argument,” Law said, “but Christians are ready for it.” They sim- ply say, “God works in mysterious ways.” They say God gave us free will, and it follows that suffering results. Bad experiences can make us suffer, “but no pain, no gain.” Anyway, free will leads to more good than suffering. He restated this view as, “It’s arrogant of us to suppose we can understand the mind of God—an infinitely wise being. . . . So belief in God is not so unreasonable.” He then proposed an alternative hypothesis: “There is a God. He is all pow- erful and all evil.” “This is just as well-supported as the other arguments,” Law said, “Yet Christians would reject it out of hand as ludicrous.” Why, they ask, would an evil god give us sunsets and mountains, healthy bodies, children, and Stephen Law offers the Evil-God Challenge. good deeds and bestow on many of us good fortune and wealth?

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“We can reasonably rule out an evil God,” Law argued. But, using a similar CSI Dares Heartland argument, “Then why can’t we rule out a good God?” The argument is the same. Institute to Take Up “The real mystery is, why do so many fail to see this?” The first question from the audience following Law’s talk came from Richard $25,000 Climate Dawkins. Dawkins said if he believed that way he’d just say, “The God I believe in Change Challenge is unconcerned, indifferent.” Law’s quick answer to that was, “Then why should I worship—and be eternally grateful to—this being?” And the lively discussions went on from there.

Climate Change Panel A big gap continues between the abundant scientific evidence for climate change and global warming and the public’s perception that even if true (which many in the United States doubt), humans aren’t responsible for it. The S  I has been reporting on the scientific evidence and these issues of troubling anti- science since 2007. Ron Lindsay giving his conference-concluding remarks Sunday. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry has offered a $25,000 challenge to The Heartland Institute concerning the reality of climate change. The Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based conservative and libertarian public policy think tank, is a well-funded bastion of sci- ence-denial. It sponsors conferences and writings aggressively promoting positions Jim Underdown introducing the Climate Change panel: Ken Frazier, Mark Boslough, Scott Mandia, Jan Dash, and Joshua Rosenau. contrary to widely accepted scientific con- sensus, most recently contending that global warming stopped in 1998 and parrot- ing other popular memes of climate science As moderator of an afternoon panel on climate change, I offered one new data denialism. point: The alleged hiatus in global warming that opponents have made so much CSI has offered to pay an education of doesn’t exist. Using newly developed and more accurate data sets of land and charity designated by the Heartland Insti- ocean surface temperatures, and two additional years of data, scientists at the tute $25,000 if a widely accepted measure National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that the hiatus vanishes. of climate warming, the thirty-year-moving The rate of warming from 1998–2014 is almost identical to the rate of warm- average of global land surface tempera- ing from 1950–1999. (See theconversation.com/improved-data-set-shows-no- tures, is not higher on December 31, 2015, global-warming-hiatus-42807.) This announcement came just a few days before than it was the previous year. On the other our panel and is now published online in Science (http://scim.ag/TKarl). Yet, I hand, if this measure of global warming is cautioned, don’t expect this to sway contrarians, because factors other than the higher at the end of 2015, the Heartland scientific evidence, such as whom one trusts and identifies with, tend to carry Institute must pay $25,000 to a science more weight. education nonprofit designated by CSI. Scott Mandia, professor of earth and space sciences at Suffolk County Com- The challenge was announced by Cen- munity College and cofounder of the Climate Science Rapid Response Team, ex- ter for Inquiry President and CEO Ronald A. panded on that point in his presentation “Sometimes It’s Not about the Science.” Lindsay at the end of a panel on Climate Mandia outlined a number of factors other than the science that influence opinion Change at CFI’s “Reason for Change” con- about climate change. Public confusion is being driven by “merchants of doubt” ference in Amherst, New York, on Satur- who have very deep pockets and a desire to maintain the status quo. Numerous day, June 13. The following Monday, June conservative “think tanks” with “experts” (a significant proportion of whom have 15, he sent a letter to the Heartland In- no scientific training) result in a loud megaphone, with 108 climate change denial stitute presenting the challenge. CSI/CFI books written just through 2010 linked to them. Ninety percent undergo no peer issued a news release later the same day. review, allowing authors to recycle scientifically unfounded claims. Political ideol- As of this writing, the Heartland Insti- ogy plays a big role. tute has not responded. The text of that release is on page 18.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 17 Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 17 CSI Dares Heartland Institute to Take Up $25,000 Climate Change Challenge

Text of the CSI news release: “Republicans are motivated to deny climate change and other en- A leading science advocacy group is throwing vironmental problems because of their aversion to the perceived solu- down the gauntlet to the Heartland Institute, a tions which may infringe on their ideological values,” Mandia said. He group that claims that global warming stopped described Dan Kahan’s research indicating that “individuals subcon- in 1998, with a stark, simple challenge: If the sciously resisted factual information that threatened their defining val- 30-year average global land surface tempera- ues.” Other research by Kahan shows that the message (in this case ture goes up in 2015, setting a new record, the about climate change) is trusted when the messenger is from the same Heartland Institute must donate $25,000 to a peer group. Climate scientists are not in most conservatives’ peer group. science education nonprofit. So what to do? Use examples that relate to that audience’s world- The challenge is presented by the Commit- view. Point out that the evidence for climate change is accepted not just tee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), a program of by scientists and science academies but also by the U.S. military, health the Center for Inquiry, which held its “Reason officials, and insurance companies. for Change” conference last week in Buffalo, All consider it a serious problem. at the same time as Heartland’s own climate None are considered liberal tree-hug- conference in Washington, D.C. Heartland’s gers. Putting it all together, Mandia gathering opened with a keynote address by counsels to lead with the facts, keep Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), who believes that arguments simple, warn the listener global warming is “the greatest hoax ever per- before stating the myth, align the petrated on the American people.” message with the person’s cultural Among the key findings of a 2013 report worldview, and provide a more cred- published by Heartland was that “The level of warming in the most recent 15 year period ible alternative. [since 1998] is not significantly different from Jan Dash, Climate Initiative Chair zero” and “natural variability is responsible for Jan Dash on the risks of climate change. and managing editor of the Climate late twentieth century warming and the ces- Portal website for the Unitarian Uni- sation of warming since 1998.” While the re- versalist United Nations Office, is an port’s authors dismissed global warming fore- expert on risk management. He spoke on managing the risks of climate casts published by mainstream scientists, they change and of contrarian obstruction. The risks are higher in the future have avoided making any testable predictions (the next fifty to 100 years) than they are now, and that is one problem; of their own. we’re not good at assessing future risks. Economic risks include break- “If anyone really thinks that human-caused down of supply lines and markets via increased political instabilities and global warming is a hoax, and that the climate other serious impacts. Energy risks include a collapse of the fossil fuel has stopped heating up, they must also be- sector. Financial risks include over-leveraging by our descendants for lieve that temperatures will now stabilize or future borrowing to cope with climate impacts. But there are also risks drop,” said Mark Boslough, a physicist and CSI to the oil industry, a loss of reputation and possible legal risks. Underap- fellow who devised the challenge. “Well, that’s preciated are the positive opportunities to business in mitigating climate a testable claim, so let’s test it.” change. Dash offered no silver bullet: he said we need innovative strat- “It’s time for the Heartland Institute to put egies by individuals, business, its money where its exhaust pipe is,” said and all levels of government. Ronald A. Lindsay, president and CEO of the Joshua Rosenau, programs Center for Inquiry, home of CSI. “If Earth’s cli- and policy manager for the Na- mate gets hotter, and keeps getting hotter, the tional Center for Science Educa- naysayers at Heartland should publicly own up tion (NCSE), said climate change and pay up.” is a critical part of science edu- If CSI’s prediction proves incorrect, and the cation and warned that deniers, 30-year average global temperature does not just like antievolutionists, are tar- go up, CSI agrees to donate $25,000 to an geting the schools. More science educational nonprofit designated by the Heart- Scott Mandia on what influences public opinion and better education matter, and land Institute. on climate change. there’s a lot scientists and skep- CSI offered the following challenge: tics can do on that front. But he The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) suggested we can’t just win with better education or by throwing more hereby presents to the Heartland Institute a science at people; we need to forge effective cultural and social con- challenge as to whether the Earth’s climate nections to diffuse this fight. He said NCSE can help folks find the best will set a new record high temperature this ways to make those connections and get involved.

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year. The challenge will be settled using Albuquerque computational physicist and CSI Fellow Mark the NASA GISS mean global land sur- Boslough, another panelist, was the primary mover behind the De- face temperatures for the conventional cember statement “Deniers Are Not Skeptics” signed by fifty-two climate averaging period (defined by the World Meteorological Organization as 30 Committee for Skeptical Inquiry fellows (SI, March/April 2015) and years) ending on December 31, 2015. more than 28,000 others so far (see http://act.forecastthefacts. If the global average temperature does org/sign/skeptics/). At the panel he spoke on his proposal to not exceed the mean temperature for an create climate futures markets, a way to “bet” on future climate equal period ending on the same date in any previous year for which complete trends. This would allow businesses at risk from global warming, data exist, CSI will donate $25,000 to a such as agriculture, to hedge against climate-related losses and nonprofit to be designated by Heartland. would provide a market-based consensus on the rate of change Otherwise, Heartland will be asked to that could be used as an index for a carbon dumping fee that donate $25,000 to a science education nonprofit designated by CSI. It is CSI’s would increase automatically with future temperature. His interest intent to repeat this challenge every year in climate futures markets led him to propose a challenge to de- for the next 30 years. niers based on that concept. Immediately following the planned “The theme of Heartland’s climate con- presentations by the climate change panelists, CFI President Ron- ference was ‘Fresh Start,’” observed Lindsay. ald A. Lindsay came up to the lectern and announced the Com- “By predicting that a new record average mittee’s challenge to the Heartland Institute. It is described in the temperature will be set every year for the sidebar on page 17. next 30 years, we are in effect giving them 30 ‘fresh starts.’ I fear that what we’ll all Conclusion find, however, is that as temperatures rise and the crisis deepens, each ‘fresh start’ will Lindsay concluded the conference Sunday morning on a moving grow more and more stale.” note, describing the recent history, role, and future of the Center Last December, fifty-two fellows of CSI— for Inquiry as he sees it. His brief remarks are published as a which includes noted scientists, journalists, special essay on page 35. It was a fitting end to a stimulating and other luminaries such as Bill Nye, Ann conference that took us back to the founding roots of the modern Druyan, Richard Dawkins, David Morrison, , examined where we are now, and looked Sir Harold Kroto, Joe Nickell, Eugenie C. ahead to the challenges to come. I Scott, and Lawrence Krauss—signed and cir- culated a widely noted open letter, drafted by Boslough, calling for the news media Kendrick Frazier is editor of the S  I. He is both a to refrain from referring to those who deny board member of CFI and a member of the Executive Council of the scientific consensus on climate change CSI. All photos by Brian Engler. as “skeptics.” Learn more at http://bit.ly/ SkepticsDeniers.

The Executive Council of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry held a public skeptic track ses- sion at the conference Sunday morning, prior to its business meeting that afternoon. From left: Leonard Tramiel, Dave Thomas, Ray Hyman, Eugenie C. Scott, Ken Frazier, Harriet Hall, Scott Lilienfeld, Amardeo Sarma, Steve Novella, and Barry Karr.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 19 Dawkins Delights in Live On-Stage Interview

One of the big highlights, which brought in additional, one-day-only registrants to a fully opened ballroom for a Saturday evening event, was a public on-stage interview with famed zoologist and author (and CSI fellow) Richard Dawkins. (At the awards banquet the evening before, CFI President Ron Lindsay had presented Dawkins with CFI’s Lifetime Achievement Award.) In the Saturday night event, Josh Zepps, cohost of CFI’s Point of In- quiry podcast, conducted the eighty-minute interview. Dawkins was in good form as usual as they roamed over a wide range of topics. Here are a few points Dawkins made:

■ He likes his book Unweaving ■ A related problem is exempting the Rainbow (Zepps had said it religion from criticism, including Richard Dawkins is interviewed live on stage by CFI Point of Inquiry podcast cohost Josh Zepps. was his favorite Dawkins book) criticism of radical Islamic sects because it is the only one he has that approve and even direct the written that deals with literature. killing of those who don’t share It speaks of the poetry of science their brand of religion. “The lib- and responds to Keats who mis- eral left in Europe and the U.S. takenly saw science as diminish- has betrayed its own principles ing, not increasing, one’s sense of bending over backwards because wonder about the world. of the fear of being thought Islamophobic,” Dawkins said. ■ “Don’t let anyone say ‘Catholic child’ or ‘Muslim child,’” Dawkins ■ On our treatment of animals: said. “We have to break the auto- He referred to “our species-ist matic assumption that religion morality” and emphasized, “There is automatically transmitted like is no deep, fundamental princi- genes down to the next genera- ple that separates humans and tion. . . . You don’t say ‘postmod- chimpanzees.” He would like to ernist child’ or ‘Keynesian child.’” give rights to sentient beings. But he quickly pointed out that The audience awaits the highly anticipated live interview ■ Is he “spiritual”? “I wouldn’t that doesn’t apply to embryos, with Richard Dawkins. use that word,” Dawkins said, that being species-ism: “A human “but . . . I get an almost mystical embryo is not sentient.” feeling when I contemplate the Milky Way” or the microscopic ■ Are he and other prominent world within us. . . . “I take my New Atheists “militant” atheists? stand against any kind of super- “I prefer not to say we’re militant. naturalism.” He called supernat- I prefer to say we are rational.” Dawkins particularly uralism “an incoherent concept” and “an evasion.” He particularly ■ Does he have free will? struck out against struck out against the way society Dawkins thought about that tends to hold up “faith” as a high carefully. “I give Christopher the way society and praiseworthy thing. “Faith Hitchens’s answer to the question without evidence is regarded as a of do I have free will: ‘I have no tends to hold up virtue. Faith is very, very danger- choice.’” ous. Educating children to have “faith” as a high and faith is a very wicked thing to do. praiseworthy thing. Faith is a menace and one of the great evils in this world.”

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‘The War against Scientific Illiteracy Continues’ JOE SCHWARCZ

Below are remarks prepared by Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University’s Office of They must have liked the way I explained Science and Society, accepting the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s $2,500 Robert P. the matter because a couple of weeks later Balles Prize in Critical Thinking for his 2014 book Is That a Fact?: Frauds, Quacks, and I was again asked to go on air and discuss the Real Science of Everyday Life (ECW Press, Toronto). The award was presented at some chemistry related issue that had the CFI “Reason for Change” awards banquet on June 12 by Kendrick Frazier. He called arisen. Soon this evolved into a series of Schwarcz “a master public science educator” and Is That a Fact ? “a wonderful book” spots and eventually culminated in a regu- with seventy-two separate, short pieces, “all witty, direct, knowledgeable, informed by lar weekly phone-in show titled “The Right good science.” He read Schwarcz’s acceptance remarks (below) in his absence due to Chemistry,” which continues to this day. a family medical emergency. The radio program spawned requests to give public lectures, numerous televi- I would like to thank everyone at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry for this sion appearances, and invitations to write recognition and am extremely sorry that I newspaper columns and books. Finally, all cannot be there to accept the Balles Prize. these activities were centralized in 1999 Unfortunately, last week a lightning bolt with the creation of the McGill Office for struck out of the blue and we are in the Chemistry and Society, a unique universi- midst of meeting a large medical challenge ty-based venture aimed at increasing the with my wife. Had I been able to attend, I understanding of and the appreciation for would have entertained the audience with science among the public. Our goal is to stories of my battles with the “Food Babe” provide accurate, unbiased scientific infor- and other scientifically illiterate bloggers. mation on various issues of public concern, than a little hot under the collar. True, there And I would have described how scientific and we welcome all kinds of queries about illiteracy jump-started my career. was concern at the time about urea-form- scientific matters, particularly those per- Way back in 1980, two colleagues, Drs. aldehyde, an insulating material which taining to everyday life. David Harpp and Ariel Fenster, and I were can release toxic formaldehyde if improp- approached to mount some sort of a sci- erly applied. But we were not dealing with Interacting in this fashion with the public ence display at the annual “Man and His urea-formaldehyde! We were demonstrat- over so many years has been a fascinating, World” exhibition, a descendant of Expo ing the properties of polyurethane, a dis- exciting, fulfilling, and sometimes frustrat- 67, the hugely successful Montreal World’s tinctly different material. The only common ing experience. Above all, it has afforded Fair. One of the featured demonstrations feature was that these were both foams. insight into the public’s fears, concerns, was the making of some polyurethane By nine o’clock that morning, I had hopes, and dreams, both rational and ir- foam. This involved mixing two reagents delivered a letter to the newspaper, along rational. Anyone in this business quickly in a cup and generating, within minutes, with a large egg formulated out of poly- realizes that there are numerous miscon- a mountain of foam that hardened into urethane, which I suggested the columnist ceptions about science out there that need a mushroom-shaped blob. It was a neat hang around his neck for penance. After all, to be addressed. It also becomes painfully demo. We had a lot of fun with it until a fly he had laid a large egg by not appreciating clear that whenever science cannot provide fell into the ointment one Monday morning. the difference between urea-formaldehyde an adequate answer, charlatans rush in to I remember it well. and polyurethane! He had also created un- fill the void. The war against scientific illit- I picked up my morning newspaper and necessary concerns. Much to his credit, the began to glance through it in the usual columnist wrote a “mea culpa” retraction, eracy continues. I don’t think we can win it, fashion. The “city column” immediately got explaining that he had leaped to an inap- but we can win some battles. my attention because it was all about our propriate conclusion because of his scien- Thanks again for this amazing award. I chemical escapades. It described how in tific illiteracy. I was satisfied, and thought spite of the great anxiety about urea-form- the case to be closed. But then I got a call aldehyde foam insulation, some chemists from a local radio station asking if I would Joe Schwarcz is director of the McGill Office were brewing the stuff in public and were like to comment on this controversy—which for Science and Society, Montreal, Quebec, singing its praises. Well, that got me more of course was really a non-controversy. Canada.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 21 [SPECIAL REPORT MEDICAL MISINFORMATION

The Pope’s Encyclical on Climate and the Planet: Will It Change the Debate?

KENDRICK FRAZIER

ope Francis’s encyclical on “caring for our common home” set off a frenzy True, the document may well be of discussion and reaction that most science-minded people welcome. the most scientifically oriented papal PEspecially so since this much-anticipated document comes from a globally encyclical, but the language in much of known and respected figure (polls show he is one of the most trusted persons in it is nevertheless largely theological and the world) who has already shown abundant signs of his intention not only to couched in moral terms. That should shake up the Catholic Church hierarchy but also to address larger planetary issues only be expected. And that is part of its that affect everyone. power. But Francis’s forthright under- This one deals with the degradation ing, and he sought scientists’ advice. It standing and acceptance of the insights of our planet—including pollution, shows in this document. He is aware of modern science inform the docu- loss of biodiversity, and the problems of the scientific evidence for how we ment throughout. of human-caused climate change. Fran- are changing the climate and accepts Several key excerpts from the encyc- cis, quite remarkably, provides a scien- it. He goes on beyond that to speak of lical appear in the box on the next page. tific-ecological perspective, noting the addressing these global problems as a How should scientific skeptics, interrelationships of different forms of moral issue that confronts us all. many of whom have serious reserva- life on the planet, not just humans and The overarching issue he addresses tions about religion, feel about this? other mammals but down to “fungi, is the misconceived notion that man They have been generally welcoming algae, worms, insects, reptiles and an has “dominion” over the Earth rather regarding the document’s scientific innumerable variety of microorgan- than responsibility as its stewards. content and appeals, but not so fully isms.” He calls for “a new dialogue A Washington Post article said the toward other aspects. The pope had about how we are shaping the future of encyclical reads in many places like a an opportunity here to address one big our planet.” scientific document, commenting that root cause of all these issues—unre- Francis, a Jesuit (the most science- “It is sort of a combination between strained population growth and a need and intellectual-minded Catholic Saint Augustine and a National Acad- for birth control and family planning to order), has had some scientific train- emy of Sciences report.” slow these increasingly severe pressures

22 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer Key Excerpts from the ‘Climate’ Encyclical

■ Although change is part of the working of complex sys- struction of ecosystems, with serious consequences for tems, the speed with which human activity has devel- all of us. A rise in the sea level, for example, can create oped contrasts with the naturally slow pace of biological extremely serious situations, if we consider that a quarter evolution. Moreover, the goals of this rapid and constant of the world’s population lives on the coast or nearby, change are not necessarily geared to the common good or and that the majority of our megacities are situated in to integral and sustainable human development. coastal areas.

■ The climate is a common good, belonging to all and ■ Climate change is a global problem with grave implica- meant for all. At the global level, it is a complex system tions: environmental, social, economic, political and for linked to many of the essential conditions for human life. the distribution of goods. It represents one of the prin- A very solid scientific consensus indicates that we are cipal challenges facing humanity in our day. Its worst presently witnessing a disturbing warming of the climatic impact will probably be felt by developing countries in system. In recent decades this warming has been accom- coming decades. Many of the poor live in areas particu- panied by a constant rise in the sea level and, it would larly affected by phenomena related to warming, and their appear, by an increase of extreme weather events, even if means of subsistence are largely dependent on natural a scientifically determinable cause cannot be assigned to reserves and ecosystemic services such as agriculture, each particular phenomenon. Humanity is called to rec- fishing and forestry. They have no other financial activities ognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and or resources which can enable them to adapt to climate consumption, in order to combat this warming or at least change or to face natural disasters, and their access to the human causes which produce or aggravate it. It is social services and protection is very limited. true that there are other factors (such as volcanic activity, variations in the earth’s orbit and axis, the solar cycle), yet ■ It may well disturb us to learn of the extinction of mam- a number of scientific studies indicate that most global mals or birds, since they are more visible. But the good warming in recent decades is due to the great concen- functioning of ecosystems also requires fungi, algae, tration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, worms, insects, reptiles, and an innumerable variety of nitrogen oxides, and others) released mainly as a result microorganisms. Some less numerous species, although of human activity. Concentrated in the atmosphere, these generally unseen, nonetheless play a critical role in main- gases do not allow the warmth of the sun’s rays reflected taining the equilibrium of a particular place. Human be- by the earth to be dispersed in space. The problem is ings must intervene when a geosystem reaches a critical aggravated by a model of development based on the in- state. But nowadays, such intervention in nature has tensive use of fossil fuels, which is at the heart of the become more and more frequent. As a consequence, worldwide energy system. Another determining factor has serious problems arise, leading to further interventions; been an increase in changed uses of the soil, principally human activity becomes ubiquitous, with all the risks deforestation for agricultural purposes. which this entails.

■ Warming has effects on the carbon cycle. It creates a vicious circle which aggravates the situation even more, affecting the availability of essential resources like drink- ing water, energy and agricultural production in warmer regions, and leading to the extinction of part of the plan- et’s biodiversity. The melting in the polar ice caps and in high altitude plains can lead to the dangerous release of methane gas, while the decomposition of frozen organic material can further increase the emission of carbon diox- ide. Things are made worse by the loss of tropical forests which would otherwise help to mitigate climate change. Carbon dioxide pollution increases the acidification of the oceans and compromises the marine food chain. If present trends continue, this century may well witness extraordinary climate change and an unprecedented de-

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 23 on the global environment. He chose and population control are not appro- People have just about always seen not to do so, and that earned some de- priate strategies to help a planet with such questions through a religious served criticism. limited resources.” lens, or at least through a lens of ethics and philosophy—if the former “There is one very practical measure, NASA planetary scientist David isn’t a subset of the latter. People immediately realizable and eminently Morrison, a CSI fellow and SI con- reject science that they think is at feasible that is, as it were, staring the tributing editor, was more positive odds with their philosophical or eth- pope right in the face,” Center for In- overall: “I welcome the papal statement ical or religious principles, so we quiry President and CEO Ronald A. on environmental stewardship and the might hope that the encyclical opens Lindsay wrote in a Huffington Post threat posed by climate change,” he up more people to accepting the blog. “The pope should not only end told the S I. “I am science. More importantly, it should the Catholic Church’s morally absurd not a Catholic or a Christian, but I re- motivate more people to take the necessary actions. and repugnant opposition to contra- alize how widely respected Pope Fran- To me the irony lies in the sur- ception, but should urge all families to cis is. We should put aside the parts prising number of people (myself engage in responsible family planning.” of the encyclical that might offend us included) who would normally not give a fig what the Pope thinks, who have nonetheless been gearing up for the encyclical with such anticipation. And the number of people, on the other hand, who normally use papal Recent social science research shows that people proclamations as a cudgel to advance tend to base their acceptance or nonacceptance of their political agenda who have sud- denly decided that politics and reli- certain areas of science not so much on any gion should never ever overlap. assessment of the evidence but according to This was a reference to several Re- whom they trust—or don’t trust. publican presidential candidates, in- cluding Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, who are Catholic and have questioned or denied the established science of human-caused climate change. Clearly the encyclical has made them squirm. Physicist and CSI Fellow Lawrence and focus on his message about global “I hope I’m not going to get casti- Krauss lauded the scientific and empir- warming. Climate change is such an gated for saying this by my priest back ical sections of the encyclical, which he overriding threat to our future that we home, but I don’t get economic policy compared favorably to a report of the need to work with allies from a broad from my bishops or my cardinals or my Intergovernmental Panel on Climate spectrum of belief systems.” pope,” Bush, the Florida governor, was Change (IPCC). Recent social science research shows quoted as saying in a New York Times He also praised its emphasis on how that people tend to base their accep- news article on the encyclical. “And I’d the impacts of climate change are dis- tance or nonacceptance of certain areas like to see what he says as it relates to proportionately affecting the poorest of science not so much on any assess- climate change and how that connects parts of the world and thus those least ment of the evidence but according to these broader, deeper issues before able to make adaptions. Krauss called to whom they trust—or don’t trust. I pass judgment. But I think religion these “timely and welcome remarks by People who may not personally know ought to be about making us better as someone who is viewed as a spiritual any scientists or, for whatever reason, guide by billions of Catholics.” suspect certain scientific statements, people and less about things that end “Francis ruminates poetically on may accept scientific information from up getting in the political realm.” the nature of man, the mystery of the a trustworthy figure who is not a sci- The S I invited cosmos (my own area of study) and the entist—in this case a noted religious noted Brown University professor of special duty Christians have to respect leader. From a scientific viewpoint, that biology Kenneth R. Miller to share his nature, humanity and the environ- obviously is not the ideal situation, but thoughts with SI readers. Miller is a ment,” wrote Krauss in his blog on Sci- it is a fact of reality. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry fellow entificAmerican.com. “It’s beautifully Joshua Rosenau of the National and a strong and effective advocate for presented and sounds good in principle. Center for Science Education, which evolution. He is also a Roman Catholic. However, his biblical analysis leads to added climate change to its science His comments appear in the accompa- I the false conclusion that contraception mission a few years ago, told SI: nying essay “Is the Pope Catholic?”

24 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer SPECIAL REPORT]

The SKEPTICAL INQUIRER asked noted biologist and CSI Fellow Kenneth R. Miller, a Roman Catholic, for his take on the encyclical. Is the Pope Catholic? KENNETH R. MILLER

e all know the answer to the world’s most obvious question, which is “yes, has not yet corrected Pope Paul VI’s of course.” But Pope Francis’s new encyclical, Laudato Si’, is Catholic tragic error with respect to contracep- Wtwice over: “Catholic” in the religious sense to be sure, but also “catholic” tion. I am disappointed as well. More in the sense of universal. Much of his writing is directed toward an audience than four-fifths of American Catholics within the Church, but unlike many papal encyclicals, it aims to set the agenda regard birth control as morally accept- for a discussion of issues that envelop the entire planet. able, and the Church’s stance on this The striking coherence of Francis’s concern for the environment is but a issue has only exacerbated environmen- young papacy runs throughout this cynical extension of unconcern for our tal problems in many areas of the world. document. A scientifically trained Je- fellow human beings. As such, this en- But to expect such a profound reversal suit who took the name of Saint Fran- cyclical is a profoundly political docu- of teaching in a document devoted to cis of Assisi, this pope has woven the ment as well as a scientific one. Along the environment would be politically beautiful language of his namesake those lines, it is particularly striking to naive. Had the pope in fact done so, into a narrative that speaks of science, hear some critics already insisting that reaction within the Church would now economics, social justice, and human Francis should stick to “religion” and be focused entirely on the issue of con- dignity. Francis displays an impressive understanding of the depths of envi- ronmental degradation loosed upon the world by the technological age. To Francis, faith in the rationality of creation is the While offering strong support to those who see this crisis in purely human and very basis of science itself, a point that should not social terms, he Christianizes the issue be missed by those who might otherwise dismiss in powerful language, quoting Eastern Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew that pronouncements from the Chair of Peter. “to commit a crime against the natu- ral world is a sin against ourselves and a sin against God.” Nonbelievers may see no need for such language, but it keep his nose out of science. Unlike traception, and the encyclical’s profound is essential to the pope’s message in most of his climate-denying critics, environmental statements would be all every sense. Acutely aware that many I have no doubt that Francis actually but ignored. I do not pretend to know Christians have taken the creation story understands the meaning of an infra- whether Francis will be able to collect of the Bible to justify human “domin- red absorption spectrum, knows the the wisdom and strength to revisit this ion” over the Earth and its creatures, he difference between methane and car- critical issue in the remainder of his roundly rejects that viewpoint. The true bon dioxide, and has a firm grasp on papacy. But I do know that by issuing Christian message is stewardship, not the forces that drive long-term climate this encyclical he has forever placed the dominion, and Francis drives home the change. Indeed, a deep respect for sci- Catholic Church, with respect to the lesson that “the Bible has no place for ence and scientific reasoning is at the Earth’s environment, on the side of the I a tyrannical anthropocentrism uncon- very heart of this encyclical, something angels. cerned for other creatures.” Amen. that may surprise those who see faith The Gospel of social justice, which as the antithesis of science. To Fran- Kenneth R. Miller is professor of biology we have seen in other messages from cis, faith in the rationality of creation is and Royce Family Professor for Teaching this pope, is everywhere in Laudato the very basis of science itself, a point Excellence at Brown University, Providence, Si’. To Francis, the “cry of the earth” that should not be missed by those who Rhode Island. His books include Only a The- and the “cry of the poor” are one. This might otherwise dismiss pronounce- ory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s non-European pope knows firsthand ments from the Chair of Peter. Soul, Finding Darwin’s God, and Biology by the slums and slag heaps of the de- It is true that many have expressed Miller & Levine, the nation’s leading high veloping world and realizes that un- disappointment at the fact that Francis school biology textbook.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 25 [ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL Joe Nickell, PhD, majored in art and English for his undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky, and his later graduate studies in literary investigation included folklore (both coursework and independent studies) and iconography (under Guy Davenport)—subjects frequently addressed in his many investigative books.

The Black Madonna: A Folkloristic and Iconographic Investigation

ne of the most famous of true the “two thieves” crucified with Jesus icons (traditional religious panel (Mark 15–27). As well, there were Opaintings) is the so-called Black nails from the crucifixion, the crown Madonna of Czestochowa, Poland of thorns (Matthew 27:29), the chal- (Figure 1). Its notoriety was boosted ice known as the Holy Grail, and more when, following his election to the (Nickell 2007, 57, 77–95, 102). There, papacy, the “Polish Pope” John Paul or elsewhere, she supposedly found the II prayed before it on a visit in 1979. table-top portrait. For an international History Channel In other words, no one had any idea series, Miracles Decoded, I was asked to where such bogus items actually came look into the icon’s origins. I found that from. The claimed Titulus, for exam- it has an intriguingly legendary history, ple, has been radiocarbon-dated not to an iconography that repays study, and a the first century but to 980–1146 , reputation for many miracles. fully consistent with the actual time (1144–1145 ) it had been acquired Folkloric Origins by a church in Rome. As to the True Cross, fragments were distributed as According to legend, the panel for relics so frequently, noted Protestant the dark-skinned Madonna and Child John Calvin (1543, 67), that there were came from a table that had been made enough for “a whole ship’s cargo.” A by Jesus himself while apprenticing supernatural explanation was provided to his carpenter father, Joseph. After Figure 1. The Black Madonna of Czestochowa, by St. Paulinus of Nola (353–431 ), Jesus’s crucifixion, his mother allegedly Poland, is the subject of many pious legends. who claimed that no matter how many took the table with her when she pieces were removed, the cross never di- went to live in the home of a disci- then almost eighty-year-old Helena minished in size! (See Cruz 1984, 39.) ple, St. John. Upon the top of this, by divine visions. She is said to have One piece has been radiocarbon-dated according to fanciful tradition, St. to 1018–1155  (Finding Jesus 2015). uncovered nothing less than the Holy Luke himself painted her portrait. Nevertheless, continues the Black Sepulchre and found that it not only It was subsequently discovered by Madonna saga, Helena returned with contained the True Cross of Jesus but Helena, the mother of Roman emperor the picture to Constantinople, where it Constantine the Great (274–337 ), that it was an incredible storeroom remained in a church until the eighth among a remarkable group of treasures of Christian artifacts. In addition to century. Then, threatened by war, it on a trip to Jerusalem—or so it is said the Titulus Crucis—the Cross’s head- was carried for safekeeping to (curiously in pious tales (Aradi 1954, 62; Mullen board (on which was inscribed, in enough) Eastern Poland. In 1382 the 1998, 135). three languages, “This is the King of Tartars invaded but failed to discover The locations of the reputed trea- the Jews” [Luke 23:38])—the disciples the Holy Virgin’s portrait because “a sures were allegedly revealed to the had thought to include the crosses of mysterious cloud enveloped the chapel.”

26 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer Later, a local prince “was ordered in a As we shall see presently, there were portrait of her head only. Its circular dream by an angel to take the picture to many black Madonna icons that were shape is unusual, and it may have in- an insignificant, obscure village named claimed to be the original. According to deed been painted on a table top or a Czestochowa” (Aradi 1954, 63). Scheer (2002, 1421–1422), “All share a semblance thereof. A tradition holds A contradictory legend tells how the common set of recurring motifs.” These that in the first half of the fifth century icon was being transported for safe- include “the refusal of an image to leave it was discovered—not by Helena but keeping when it was stored overnight a certain spot,” “the resistance to or re- (in this variant tale) by Eudokia (wife in Czestochowa’s monastery of Jasna venge taken for damage or ‘wounding,’” of Byzantine emperor Theodosius II) Gora. On the following morning, when and others. She adds: “Only one motif and sent by her from Palestine to Con- the image was returned to the wagon, can be said to come up relatively often stantinople. There it was fitted into a the horses refused to move—a miracu- in connection with black madonnas: great rectangular full-length picture of lous sign, it was thought, that it should that of the prestigious artist—in most Mary holding the infant Christ. It was remain there (Mullen 1998, 135–136). cases, St. Luke the Evangelist.” reportedly this composite that became In yet another tale, the balking horses known as the Hodegetria (“She who are those of invading Hussites who in Iconography shows the Way”)—a representation of 1430 were attempting to take the icon There are as many as perhaps a few the Theotokos (“Mother of God”). In as plunder. When the horses unac- hundred black Madonnas in Europe. this type, the Holy Mother holds the countably stopped at the village limits, In addition to small statues (commonly Christ Child while gesturing to him however, and no amount of beating about thirty inches tall and mostly of as the salvation of humankind (Guar- could get them to move, the Black polychromed wood), they consist of icons ducci 1991; Grabar 1968, 84; Hodeget- Madonna was abandoned (Aradi 1954, 63). Such variants (differing versions of a narrative), together with common motifs (story elements), are indicative of the folkloric process at work. In the latter tale, the Hussites were so riled that they angrily grabbed Byzantine-style icons were produced up the icon, which had already been in quantity in Italy during the thirteenth pierced by an arrow in the Madonna’s and fourteenth centuries. throat during the siege, and cast it on the ground, where it broke into three pieces. Moreover, one of the thieves struck the image with his sword, inflict- ing two gashes. As he started to strike a third time, he fell down and writhed in agony until his death (Cruz 1993, either imported from Byzantium (which ria 2014). As we shall see, this portrait 400). It must have been embarrassing Constantine renamed Constantinople) set—now presumed lost (Hodegetria to the faithful that the icon—reputed or rendered in Byzantine style. This 2014)—probably had dark-complex- to protect all of Poland (Aradi 1954, style was influential across Europe for ioned figures. It was doubtless the pro- 63–66)—could not even protect itself. a millennium, and in icon painting it totype of subsequent Hodegetria-type It could, however, inspire a tale about continued until the seventeenth century, “black” Madonnas. how it nevertheless exacted retribution. traces of it surviving in paintings by El The Black Madonna of Czesto- A further magical tale relates that Greco (ca. 1545–1614). Byzantine-style chowa is a late evolutionary example after the Holy Picture was abandoned icons were produced in quantity in Italy of this type.1 According to anthropol- by the Hussites and found covered in during the thirteenth and fourteenth ogists Leonard W. Moss and Stephan dirt and blood, the monks wanted to centuries (Scheer 2002, 1413–1416; C. Cappannari (1953, 320), it is “dis- clean it. However, all the wells were Levy 1962, 25). tinctly thirteenth to fourteenth century dry from putting out the fires set by the Now, distinctly Christian images Byzantine in form.” Various additional invaders’ torches. Therefore, “It was had begun to appear about 200 . sources agree that it is of “Byzantine at this time that a miraculous foun- By the beginning of the fifth century origin,” that its “Byzantine style is ob- tain sprung up, a spring that has since there had developed “a cult of portraits vious,” and so on (Leonard-Stuart and healed thousands and thousands of sick of saints, including the Virgin,” in dif- Hagar 1912; Duricy 2013). However, and has supplied water to millions of ferent parts of the Christian Empire Pasierb (1989, 6) cautions that “In fact pilgrims” (Aradi 1954, 63; for a discus- (Grabar 1968, 7–30, 84). Apparently even today neither stylistic nor icono- sion of “miracle” healings see Nickell the earliest icon of Mary reputedly graphic analyses are of much help.” 2013, 175–222). painted by Luke was a large circular That is because the icon was repainted

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 27 [ INVESTIGATIVE FILES JOE NICKELL in 1434.2 Pasierb insists that therefore the Anjou dynasty, 1308–1386 (Black Cappannari 1953, 319) and the dark- it is only possible to say that it was a Madonna 2014). That time period is skinned Image of Guadalupe in Mexico prototype of the fifth-century one in supported by the fact that the monas- (alleged to have appeared miraculously Constantinople and therefore “it could tery was established in Czestochowa but in fact painted by an Aztec artist have been made some time between the about 1382 (Leonard-Stuart and Hagar [Nickell 1988, 103–117; 2013, 31–34]). 6th and 14th centuries.” 1912), and the icon arrived there “most Moss and Cappannari (1953, 324) go Nevertheless, there are indications probably on 31 August 1384” (Pasierb further, suggesting that “The black ma- that the repainting was faithful to the 1989, 6). I would emphasize that the donnas are Christian borrowings from original (Pasierb 1989, 6), and the icon has no provenance before that earlier pagan art forms which depicted image does actually contain a number time. Ceres, Demeter, or Isis as black in the of iconographic clues relating to its Art scholar Ernst Scheyer (2013) color characteristic of those goddesses dating. Even as a work of imagination, studied the image and concluded that of the earth.” it is anachronistic for the first century. “the present image was restored in the It may also be true that a dark com- For example, the infant Jesus holds in nineteenth century and painted some- plexion was simply thought appropriate his left hand a codex (a bound book, as what darker than previously.” This for a Jewish woman, as one Dominican opposed to the earlier scroll), said to be brings us to the persistent question: scholar insisted in the sixteenth century (de Barletta 1571). Also, as early as the sixth century appeared allegedly mi- raculous self-portraits of Jesus (termed acheiropoietos or “not made with hands”) This [analysis] brings us to the persistent that were actually painted (Nickell 2007, 69), and these were likewise question: Why is the Madonna of dark-complexioned presumably for the Czestochowa black? same reason (Scheer 2002, 1425, n. 36).

Conclusions The Black Madonna of Czestochowa is a traditional, Hodegetria icon, of a type that evolved from its probable proto- a book of gospels. But there could be Why is the Madonna of Czestochowa type in fifth-century Constantinople. no such texts until, decades after Je- black? Some have claimed the picture The claim that it was painted by Luke sus’s crucifixion, they were separately darkened over time—either from the on a table-top made by Jesus in his written and eventually collected. That smoke of “innumerable candles” or the father’s carpentry shop derives from did not take place until the late second age-darkening of pigments used for that prototype—and, of course, is or even third century  (Bible 1960; the skin color (Beissel 1909)—or from nothing more than pious legend. The Price 2003, 40), long after the deaths the flames and smoke of a burning image was apparently rendered with of the supposed painter and his portrait chapel (Broschart 1961). (In the case original dark flesh tones (there being subject. of one similar icon restored in 1799, no evidence that the “black” coloration One motif is of particular interest. the “thoroughly black” faces of mother resulted later from smoke, fires, or the The Madonna’s blue garment is stud- and child were attributed to the smoke discoloration of age). It is probably of ded with gold fleurs-de-lis, the lily of centuries after examination of the fourteenth-century manufacture, con- being symbolic of the Trinity as well paint flakes revealed underlying light sistent with the lack of provenance as of the Virgin (Webber 1938, 178). flesh tones. In his restoration, the artist before 1384 when the icon appeared at The combination of colors and motif chose to repaint the faces black because the Jasna Gora monastery. also echo the royal French coat of that was what churchgoers expected As to the claims of miracle healings arms—d’azur, semé de fleurs de lis d’or [Scheer 2002, 1435].) and protection, the sad fact is that it (“blue, interspersed with gold lilies”)— An alternate view is that many of the was unable to heal or protect itself— which was not officially adopted until numerous black Madonnas (icons and despite the best efforts of further pious the twelfth century (Black Madonna statues) were intentionally created black legend-making. It does stand as a tes- 2014; Hall 1979, 124; Fleur-de-lis (i.e., dark-skinned). That is in fact true tament to the faith of its countless dev- 1960). From this, it has been suggested of certain Madonnas whose features otees. that the icon was probably produced at and skin color match that of the native It remains for the Black Madonna of the Jasna Gora monks’ founding mon- population—for example, various “Ne- Czestochowa to be radiocarbon dated. astery in Hungary, during the reign of groid madonnas” in Africa (Moss and A tiny sample of wood could be taken

28 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer JOE NICKELL INVESTIGATIVE FILES] from the edge,3 specially cleaned to re- Encyclopedia Britannica. Hodegetria. 2014. Online at http://en.wikipedia. Black Madonna of Czestochowa. 2014. Online org/wiki/Hodegetria; accessed January 20, move contaminants, and then subjected at http://en.wikipedia.org/Black_Madonna_ 2014. to the carbon-dating process—just as of_Czestochowa; accessed January 15, 2014. Levy, Mervyn, ed. 1962. The Pocket Dictionary of was done for the Titulus Crucis and Broschart, Charles B. 1961. Call Her Blessed; Art Terms. New York: Graphic Society. cited in Duricy 2013. Leonard-Stuart, Charles, and George J. Hagar. piece of the True Cross (albeit with the Calvin, John. 1543. Traite des Reliques; reprinted 1912. Everybody’s Cyclopedia. New York: devastating result of disproving their in English as Treatise on Relics (transl. by Syndicate Publishing Co., vol. 2, n.p. (.. authenticity). The icon’s custodians Count Valerian Krasinski), Amherst, New “Czenstochau” [sic]). York: Prometheus Books, 2009 (with an Moss, Leonard W., and Stephen C. Cappannari. should commission this test or admit, introduction by Joe Nickell). 1953. The black Madonna: An example of by their refusal, that their faith in its Cruz, Joan Carroll. 1984. Relics. Huntington, culture borrowing. The Scientific Monthly, I authenticity is weak. Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor. June, 319–324. ———. 1993. Miraculous Images of Our Lady. Mullen, Peter. 1998. Shrines of Our Lady. New Charlotte, North Carolina: Tan Books. York: St. Martin’s Press. Notes de Barletta, Gabriel. 1571. Cited in Scheer 2002, Nickell, Joe. 1988. Secrets of the Supernatural. 1. The wood panel measures (without the 1425. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. frame) about 13” wide by 19” high and is nearly Duricy, Michael. 2013. Black Madonnas: Our ———. 2007. Relics of the Christ. Lexington: ½” thick (Cruz 1993, 401). Lady of Czestochowa. Online at http://cam- University Press of Kentucky. 2. When the Black Madonna was repainted pus.udayton.edu/mary/meditations/olczest. ———. 2013. The Science of Miracles. Amherst, in 1434, two pen slashes were made to the right html; accessed January 2, 2014. New York: Prometheus Books. cheek to commemorate the previous vandalism Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery. 2015. CNN Pasierb, Janusz S. 1989. The Shrine of the Black (Black Madonna 2014). documentary, episode “The True Cross” Madonna at Czestochowa, 3rd ed. Warsaw: 3. The back of the panel is illustrated with aired March 29. Interpress Publishers. scenes from its legendary history, rendered in Fleur-de-lis. 1960. Encyclopedia Britannica. Price, Robert M. 2003. The Incredible Shrinking 1682 (Pasierb 1989, 210). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica. Son of Man. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Grabar, André. 1968. Christian Iconography: A Books. References Study of Origins. Princeton, New Jersey: Scheer, Monique. 2002. From majesty to mys- Princeton University Press. tery: Change in meanings of black Madonnas Aradi, Zsolt. 1954. Shrines to Our Lady Around Guarducci, Margherita. 1991. The Primacy of the from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. the World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Church of Rome. San Francisco, California: The American Historical Review, col. 107, no. Young. Ignatius Press, 93–101. 5 (December), 1412–1440. Beissel, Stephan. 1909; cited in Scheer 2002, Hall, James. 1979. Dictionary of Subjects and Scheyer, Ernst. 2013. Quoted in Duricy 2013. 1418. Symbols in Art, rev. ed. New York: Harper Webber, F.R. 1938. Church Symbolism. Bible. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1960. Chicago: & Row. Cleveland, Ohio: J.H. Jansen.

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Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 29 [ PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS ROBERT SHEAFFER Sheaffer’s “Psychic Vibrations” column has appeared in the S  I for nearly forty years; its highlights have now been published as a book (Create Space, 2011). Sheaffer blogs at www.BadUFOs.com, and his website is www.debunker.com.

The ‘Roswell Slides’ Fiasco: UFOlogy’s Biggest Black Eye

ometime during 2012, video pro- reconcile when the slides turned up. be expected, curiosity about them was ducer Adam Dew obtained a Randle stuck his toe into the water building, along with a properly skepti- Scollection of Kodachrome slides (or perhaps his whole foot), but didn’t cal “wait and see” attitude. Then at a reportedly taken during the 1940s. The like what he saw and withdrew from public forum in November 2014, Tom slides were said to have been taken by the effort. (In early 2015, as the slides Carey announced: the late Bernard and Hilda Ray, a well- fiasco gathered intensity and momen- We have come into possession of a to-do couple who led an active tum, Randle sent me an email essen- couple of Kodachrome color slides life with much travel and left behind no tially saying, “I hope you realize that of an alien being lying in a glass family. Two of the slides were of partic- I have nothing at all to do with these case. What’s interesting is, the film is ular interest: they seemed to show the Roswell slides!” I assured him that I dated 1947. We took it to the official historian of Kodak up in Rochester, body of a small being laid out on a shelf. did.) Rutkowski says that he was ap- New York, and he did his due dil- It looked like it might be an alien, Dew proached about being a member of the igence on it, and he said yes, this thought. So he contacted “Roswell Dream Team, but when he expressed filmstrip, the slides are from 1947. experts” Donald Schmitt and Tom some reservations about the slides, his It’s 1947 stock. And from the emul- sions on the image, it’s not some- Carey, authors of Witness to Roswell. At “membership” offer was withdrawn. thing that’s been Photoshopped like that time, those authors were involved The remaining members of what today. It’s original 1947 images, and in putting together something to be should now be called the “Slides Team” it shows an alien who’s been partially called the “Roswell Dream Team,” apparently had no reservations whatso- dissected lying in a case. intended to bring together expert inves- ever. The slides were supposedly being He described the being as: tigators to do a fresh evaluation of the investigated by the best photographic Roswell incident, and hopefully obtain and other experts, who said they ap- three and a half to four feet tall, the head is almost insect-like. The long-elusive proof that the crashed sau- peared to be authentic. The cardboard head has been severed, and there’s cer story was real. mountings of the slides were said to been a partial autopsy; the innards UFO investigator Anthony Braga- prove that they must have been pro- have been removed, and we believe lia was a member of this team, as were cessed during the 1940s. The only the cadaver has been embalmed, at Kevin Randle, a prominent Roswell problem was that nobody outside that least at the time this picture was taken. The owners of the slide—it’s proponent and author of many UFO group had actually seen the slides and an amazing story. The woman was a books, and the Canadian investigator the details of the supposed investiga- high-powered Midland, Texas, law- and author Chris Rutkowski. However, tions were hazy. We were assured that yer with a pilot’s license. We think the harmonious Roswell dreaming was when the time was right and the inves- she was involved in intelligence in soon interrupted. Randle and Schmitt tigations were complete, this “smoking World War II, and her husband was a field geologist for an oil company. had been partners in earlier Roswell gun” evidence of the Roswell crash investigations during the 1990s. But would be released to the world (a theme This was widely reported in the press. when it was discovered that Schmitt familiar to veteran skeptics). For about Dew released a professionally pro- had falsified his credentials, among two years, the existence of the slides was duced teaser for his in-production other things, Randle denounced him known mostly just to those who follow documentary motion picture titled and severed all cooperation. After about UFO-related blogs and such, and their Kodachrome to hype the slides. Blurry twenty years, they were beginning to content was only rumored. As might images of the two slides were leaked,

30 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer perhaps intentionally. A loosely orga- like a mummy in a museum exhibit? moted a skinned dead squirrel monkey nized group of independent investiga- What would such a placard say? “Dead as an alien creature, and even published tors, calling itself the Roswell Slides alien from Roswell. Top Secret—Don’t a photo of what is supposed to be “un Research Group, came together. But Tell Anyone!”? Was it possible to read caballo en el cielo”—a horse flying it is difficult to investigate something the writing on the placard? Tom Carey across the sky. The Mexican website that one is not allowed to see except as said: alcione.org lists “more than 40 frauds a small, low-resolution icon. Anthony There’s a placard, very fuzzy, that of a pseudo-journalist and charlatan,” Bragalia wrote: can not be legibly read by the naked Maussan. eye, yet we’ve had everyone from Dr.

Why would a top-secret dead alien hidden away in Area 51 sport a placard, like a mummy in a museum exhibit?

One of the Kodachrome slides showing a small being on a shelf with a placard next to it.

David Rudiak, to Studio MacBeth, Of the many scientists, PhDs, pho- Maussan hyped the slides shame- even the Photo Interpretation De- lessly, promising to reveal a Roswell tography experts and other research- partment of the Pentagon, as well as ers who are among the very for- Adobe have all told us that it’s be- “smoking gun” on May 5. This was tunate to have viewed the “alien yond the pale, that it cannot be read, your opportunity to witness an event slides” – not one has ever at any time it is totally up to interpretation. that would change history! About mentioned that the 3 foot thing depicted in the 1947 photographs A date was finally set to reveal the 6,000 tickets were sold priced between resembles a mummy. This includes slides: May 5, 2015, in Mexico City. A US $20 and $100 (according to Ticket- KODAK experts, a NASA scientist big extravaganza was being planned to master in Mexico); some accounts of international standing who has reveal the slides on the holiday Cinco claim that up to $350 per ticket was left comments on his impressions paid. Thousands paid $15 or $20 to of the creature on this blog and de Mayo, and it was organized by Mex- several UFOlogists. The creature ico’s best-known UFO huckster, Jaime watch the bilingual event on stream- depicted in the slides (owned by an Maussan. If the slide promoters were ing Internet video (which did not work Oil Exploration Geologist in NM in seeking credibility (as opposed to a well, angering many). The Twitter feed the 1940s) in no way even remotely quick buck), they could not have made of those watching the streaming video appears like any creature known on (#RoswellSlides) was overwhelmingly Earth. (See http://goo.gl/IfbmOa). a worse choice. A well-known sensa- tionalist journalist, Maussan is Mex- negative, with most commenters mock- Surprisingly, the “alien” body seems ico’s very own P.T. Barnum, having ing the presentation. to have a placard on the shelf next to made a lucrative career peddling dodgy Promises to release high-resolution it. Why would a top-secret dead alien photos and videos of UFOs, alien be- copies of the slides after the presenta- hidden away in Area 51 sport a placard, ings, and the like. He previously pro- tion did not materialize. However, at

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 31 [ PSYCHIC VIBRATIONS ROBERT SHEAFFER least one “high enough” resolution copy agree,” and he blamed Dew for with- general, there were nonetheless some of the slide showing the placard did holding the high-resolution scans from hopeful aspects of it. Many well-known leak out. The French skeptic Nab Lator independent analysis. Considering that pro-UFO researchers were very skep- of the Roswell Slides Research Group Bragalia had earlier called the detrac- tical of claimed “smoking gun” photos quickly used the commercial software tors of the yet-unseen slides “rabid of unknown origin and content, includ- Smart Deblur to read the placard. slide-skeptics” and even worse, some ing Stanton Friedman, Kevin Randle, The first line clearly read, “MUMMI- think that he has a lot more apologiz- and Nick Pope. More encouraging still FIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD ing to do. was the excellent cooperation between BOY.” Others quickly confirmed that Amazingly, in the same posting in skeptics and UFO proponents, instead finding. Researcher and satellite orbit which Bragalia switched sides on this, of the usual acrimony. Skeptics such as guru Ted Molczan commented, “You he claims to have identified the specific Tim Printy, Nab Lator, Gilles Fernan- folks solved in no more than 2-3 days mummy trumpeted as the “Roswell dez, and Lance Moody worked along- what the promoters claimed not to have alien”: it is a child mummy from Native side open-minded UFO proponents

Instructions were soon posted by slide debunkers showing how to take the copy of the placard from Dew’s own website, and de-blur it to read at least the top line in less than two minutes using a trial copy of Smart Deblur.

been able to solve in 3 years!” Perhaps American cliff dwellings in Colorado, such as Paul Kimball, Curt Collins, the slide promoters had an incentive not at one time on display in a museum Isaac Koi, and Chris Rutkowski to co- to be able to read the placard. in Mesa Verde National Park. About operatively solve the riddle of the Ros- When the de-blurred copy of the a week later, Donald Schmitt seemed well Slides. Both skeptics and “skeptical placard was released on the Internet, to throw in the towel by saying he had believers” agree that the UFO field, as Dew was furious. He called the Ros- been “overly trusting,” but then later it now stands, is filled to the brim with well Slides Research Group “a group made other statements suggesting that rubbish. The latter group expects that, of internet UFO trolls, claiming to the slides might still be genuine. Tom when the rubbish is cleared away, there be searching for truth but repeatedly Carey said that the matter “is still open will be a signal in the noise, while the spreading lies.” He claimed that they to debate.” As of this writing, there former expects that nothing will be left. created a “fake placard” using Photo- is no mea culpa from slide promoters But both are natural allies in clearing shop and hastily posted a copy of the Maussan, Dew, and Richard Dolan. away UFOlogical rubbish. It also allows “authentic” blurred placard on his own Maussan is still insisting that the slides us to identify those UFO researchers website, removing all doubt as to the show an alien, and he is joined by other who are hopelessly mired in delusion provenance of the placard image. How- UFO delusionists such as Linda Moul- and still insist that the “Roswell Slides” ever, instructions were soon posted by ton Howe and Whitley Strieber. The do not show a mummy, even after de- slide debunkers showing how to take most interesting rationalization thus ciphering the placard proclaiming that the copy of the placard from Dew’s own far comes from Richard O’Connor, they do! The real fault line in UFOlogy website, and de-blur it to read at least MD, who acknowledges that the plac- lies between “UFO realists”—skeptics the top line in less than two minutes ard does indeed read “MUMMIFIED and skeptical proponents who are will- using a trial copy of Smart Deblur. As BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY,” ing to look for weaknesses and prosaic for Bragalia, he quickly issued a some- but he says it is a deliberate deception. explanations for UFO claims—and the what tepid mea culpa, saying “I must be So while the fiasco of the Roswell “unrealists” who are ready to accept less trusting, more discerning and less Slides was a huge embarrassment to practically any exciting UFO claim on I accusatory of those with whom I dis- “Roswell research” and to UFOlogy in very little evidence.

32 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer [ SKEPTICAL INQUIREE BENJAMIN RADFORD Benjamin Radford is a research fellow at the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and author or coauthor of seven books, including Mysterious New Mexico: Miracles, Magic, and Monsters in the Land of Enchantment.

Playing with Past Lives: The Virginia Boy and the Dead Marine

Have you heard about this recent case of a young boy who says he : lived a past life as a Marine? What do you make of it? Q —A. Stoker

In November 2014, news stories circulated about a four-year-old Virginia : boy who was claimed to A have had a past life as a Marine killed in 1983. The claim was prompted by his parents and—somewhat disturb- ingly—profiled on a new reality TV show called Ghost Inside My Child. The boy, Andrew Lucas, made comments to his mother suggesting (to her) that he’d lived in a past life and died in a fire many years earlier. Many people believe in reincarna- tion, from Shirley MacLaine to the Andrew Lucas, the four-year-old boy who claimed to have a past life as a marine killed in 1983. Dalai Lama, but there is no scientific evidence for past lives. Usually alleged largely anecdotal and falls far short of eras. Other times people glean infor- memories of past lives emerge during the mark. mation from films and television shows psychotherapy or hypnosis when peo- Skeptical research and investigation and unconsciously incorporate them ple are encouraged to fantasize about into their memories in a process psy- other lives they may have led (often by authors such as Paul Edwards (in his chologists call confabulation. of famous or important people such as book Reincarnation: A Critical Example) Cleopatra or Caesar). Despite many handily debunk most of the “best cases” Bridey Murphy books claiming to offer solid scientific offered by proponents such as Ian Ste- evidence for past lives (such as Old Souls venson and Brian Weiss. Reincarnation The most celebrated case of a per- by Tom Shroder; Many Lives, Many remains scientifically unproven largely son claiming to have lived a past life Masters by Brian Weiss; Reincarnation because those who claim to have had is that of Bridey Murphy. Murphy and Your Past-Life Memories by Gloria past lives are unable to give historically was a nineteenth-century Irishwoman Chadwick, and so on), the evidence is accurate, provable details from other who Colorado woman Virginia Tighe

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 33 [ SKEPTICAL INQUIREE BENJAMIN RADFORD

claimed to have been in a previous people believe Tighe purposely faked the fire?” she interpreted it as a ques- life. Tighe’s amazing claim came the story; more likely, she simply (and tion coming not from her four-year- about in 1952 during a session with unconsciously) created it using her old son but instead from Sgt. Lewis. amateur hypnotist Morey Bernstein. imagination and scraps of early memo- Yet Sgt. Lewis was a twenty-eight- Under hypnosis—and through an Irish ries. Decades of psychological research year-old Marine, so why would he be accent—Tighe related memories of her has demonstrated that people under asking Michele Lucas (who he’d never previous existence in the early 1800s in hypnosis can create realistic, detailed, met and who wasn’t there at the time Cork, Ireland, including being born on first-person accounts of events they of his death) why she “let” him die in December 20, 1789, her life and mar- never experienced. The person comes a bombing? Andrew is clearly speaking riage, and death in 1864. At first glance, to believe their own fantastic fictions, as a young boy to his mother, not as an Tighe’s story seemed very compelling. often under the encouragement of mis- adult military officer. She had never been to Ireland and pre- guided therapists. The same psycholog- Andrew also mentioned an address sumably could not have known many ical process helps explain many “eyewit- on Main Street in Sumter, Georgia. of the details she remembered except ness” alien abduction stories. The Lucases were unable to find any- by having lived them a century earlier. thing confirming their son’s informa- tion and reached out to the producers of the TV show about ghost-haunted children. They then found several pos- Decades of psychological research has sible “matches” for Andrew’s informa- tion, including Sgt. Lewis. demonstrated that people under hypnosis can The origin of this story isn’t hard to create realistic, detailed, first-person accounts decipher when you examine the many clear examples of flawed investigation of events they never experienced. techniques used by Andrew’s parents and the producers. For example, at one point Andrew is shown large photo- graphs of six soldiers who served with Andrew Lucas and Val Lewis Sgt. Val Lewis and died in the same Bernstein wrote a best-selling book In the case of Andrew Lucas, his par- bombing. His mother then asks An- about the case, and Bridey Murphy drew, “Were these your friends?” An- became a worldwide sensation. ents believe he has factually reported the death of “U.S. Marine Sgt. Val drew nods and says yes. “Which one The story of Bridey Murphy began was your friend? Which one were you to collapse when investigative journal- Lewis [who] died in a bombing explosion October 23, 1983 in Beirut, friends with a lot?” his mother asks. ists went to Ireland to verify Tighe’s The four-year-old replies, “I was friends story. While a few general statements Lebanon. Yet 4-year-old Andrew, who lives in Virginia Beach, remembers with them, a lot—all of them.” (It may were proven true, the researchers found be significant that Andrew parrots back virtually no evidence for the vast major- it as his death. ‘He just starts crying hysterically and I say “What’s wrong the same phrase his mother uses in her ity of Tighe’s “memories.” There were question to him, “a lot,” suggesting that no records of a Bridey Murphy who Andrew?” and he says, “Why did you let me die in that fire?” says Michele he is taking cues from her.) had been born or died on those dates; Andrew also notes that the photos of the people Tighe said she encountered Lucas, Andrew’s mother. . . . Michele says he is saying things and recalling the people he was shown are dead. He as Bridey Murphy, including Murphy’s may have been tipped off by his moth- husband, never existed. And so on. memories that no one his age should er’s use of the past tense when referring It seems that Bernstein and his pub- know” (Ciara 2014). to them (“were they your friends?”) but lishers, in their rush to exploit the case How could Andrew be remember- at any rate this information, even if it for fame and profit, had neglected to ing things that never happened to him? were truly coming from the ghost of check Bridey Murphy’s account against The most likely explanation is that he Sgt. Lewis, raises other questions, such the historical facts. It was later revealed isn’t remembering anything unusual as how Lewis could know that all the that as a young child Tighe had spent at all. There are several red flags sug- other Marines caught in the same blast time with an Irish immigrant neighbor gesting that Andrew’s “memories” are had also died. After all, just because (not coincidentally named Bridie Mur- not evidence of a past life but instead he was killed doesn’t mean that others phy), from whom she likely picked up misunderstood or over-interpreted nearby might not have survived their a few details about Ireland, along with comments. When Andrew asked his an exposure to an Irish accent. Few mother, “Why did you let me die in Continued on p. 62

34 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer The Future of the Center for Inquiry Fostering critical thinking across the board is the fundamental mission of CFI. The need is greater than ever. We will be there.

RONALD A. LINDSAY

efore I begin my discussion of our organization’s fu- rabbi is preposterous, so it’s a bit ironic if we build organizations around a cult ture, I have some questions. After all, this is the Cen- of personality. Bter for Inquiry. I’ve been accused of a number of different things while I’ve been presi- How many of you have heard of the strongly identified with one individual. dent of CFI. I’ve been accused of car- American Civil Liberties Union, or the There may be some short-term advan- rying out some sort of coup to obtain ACLU? How about Doctors Without tages to such an approach—depending this position. I’ve been accused of being Borders? Same question for Amnesty on the individual—especially perhaps both a militant atheist and of being an International. How many have heard with respect to name recognition. But accommodationist with respect to reli- of Amnesty International? in the long term this cannot be a good gion; I’ve been accused of being both Okay, now I have some follow-up strategy because, among other things, a socialist and a libertarian; and, of questions. How many of you can name what happens when that individual is course, I’ve been accused of being un- the executive director of the ACLU? How many of you can name the inter- national president of Doctors Without Borders? How about the U.S. executive director for Amnesty International? A truly successful nonprofit organization is known So, most people are familiar with for its work, for its ability to achieve the objectives these organizations but cannot name their current leaders. These responses of its mission, and not for those who happen to be are not unexpected and confirm the leading the organization at a certain point in time. point I’m about to make. All these or- ganizations are well known. All these organizations are considered successful. To me, your responses indicate that a truly successful nonprofit organization is known for its work, for its ability to no longer around or is no longer fit to willing to stand up for the rights of men achieve the objectives of its mission, lead? Moreover, skeptic or secular or- and of hating women. But I think it’s and not for those who happen to be ganizations should be especially leery safe to say that no one has accused me leading the organization at a certain of building an organization around one of trying to create a cult of personal- point in time. individual as such an approach is anti- ity. I have my doubts about whether I This is the sort of status or repu- thetical to our philosophy. We are the would’ve been successful if I tried, but tation that CFI should be aiming for. ones who don’t believe there is anybody in any event, I had no desire to do so. I And it is the status that I’ve tried to who has God-given authority to make find personality cults repugnant. begin to obtain for the organization decisions for us, who can tell us what Moreover, one of the strengths of during my tenure. I think it can be a to do; we think the idea of deferring to CFI is that it has so many talented detriment to an organization if it is too a pope or bishop or ayatollah or chief people on whom it can rely. One of the Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 35 first things that struck me after I be- ganization is on solid footing—thanks the use of blasphemy laws. This con- came president was how underutilized to you, our supporters, and thanks to tinues to be a pressing problem; some our staff and volunteers were in terms of our superb staff. This organization did may say it has even gotten worse. gaining public recognition for the orga- not fall apart when its first leader de- But there’s a more basic reason why nization. I made it clear that although parted, somewhat abruptly, and it is not the decline in religious belief, if it does as president I obviously would be the going to fall apart now. continue, does not signify the end of lead spokesperson for the organization And that is a good thing, not just for CFI’s work. CFI’s mission is not primar- on many occasions, I wanted other staff the survival of the organization but for ily to increase the number of atheists. We to act as spokespersons, to be quoted our society, for our world. The mission are not an atheist missionary organi- in press releases, to get on the road to of CFI is as vital as it ever was—maybe zation. I’m not saying that, all things make speeches, go to conferences, meet even more so. considered, the decline in religious be- our donors, meet our supporters, and Some may dispute this because they lief is not a good thing. It is a welcome so forth. And in fact, Debbie Goddard, think that organized religion is on its development that people are becoming Tom Flynn, Michael De Dora, Nick way out, that it is fading away on its less committed to religious beliefs, es- Little, Paul Fidalgo, Ben Radford, and own. It is true that more and more peo- pecially fundamentalist religious be- others, including our world-renowned ple are simply unwilling to accept the liefs. But CFI doesn’t exist primarily investigator, Joe Nickell, have done just doctrines and myths of religion, espe- to promote disbelief in God. We work that. In addition to our staff, we also cially fundamentalist religion. What at a deeper level. We promote critical thinking, which includes critical ex- amination of religious beliefs and crit- ical examination of pseudoscientific or fringe-science claims. Contrary to what some may assert, including some athe- ists, rejecting belief in God does not We promote critical thinking, which includes always mean one is a critical thinker. If you will indulge me for a mo- critical examination of religious beliefs ment, permit me to reminisce about and critical examination of pseudoscientific an exchange I had with another atheist shortly after I had given up my belief or fringe-science claims. in God. I was a young man then—so it was a very long time ago—and the only secular organization with which I was acquainted happened to be Ameri- can Atheists, then under the leadership of Madalyn Murray O’Hair. In any event, around the fall of 1981, Jerry Falwell, the notorious founder of the have great resources among our direc- need is there then for an organization Moral Majority, made some disparag- tors and our associated fellows, many like CFI? ing remarks about atheists and gays, of whom are among the most distin- Well, to begin, I’m not as sanguine and some of us went to Lynchburg to guished scholars in their fields. We are as others may be about the decline of protest. After the protest, we socialized not an organization composed of one organized religion. First, even in the and talked a bit about various topics. individual; we are an organization of developed world, especially in the One gentleman was telling me how many skilled individuals with expertise United States, religion remains a very atheists, because they see through the in their particular areas who work in strong force that continues to have falsehoods of religion, are also more collaboration with a core of committed far too much influence on our public inclined than most people to detect donors and supporters to advance our policy and in our educational system. other false claims. I nodded in agree- mission. We are an institution, and al- Furthermore, as the current troubles ment. This person then went on to as- though the Center for Inquiry may not in the Middle East and Africa remind sert that the United States government be a household name yet, that is some- us, fundamentalist religion is still very was conspiring with Big Pharma to thing I’m confident we can achieve. attractive to hundreds of millions of prevent cancer patients from receiving As you may have guessed, one rea- people. CFI’s work is not confined to appropriate and inexpensive treatment. son I’m discussing the topic of leader- the United States or even to North I said, “Really? What evidence do you ship is that there is a transition coming America. We work on global issues, have?” His answer: “Laetrile.” soon. I think most everyone is aware I and one of the issues we have focused Yes, unfortunately, being a skep- will be leaving CFI at the end of the on in recent years is the repression of tic about religion does not neces- year. But there’s every reason to expect free speech and freedom of conscience sarily imply a firm commitment to this transition will be smooth. This or- in many countries, especially through evidence-based reasoning. I see confir-

36 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer mation of this even today, in my posi- obtained a measure of religious free- risks punishment for expressing her or tion as president of CFI. As you know, dom—the ability to decide for one- his views about religion, there will be a CFI lobbies not just with respect to self what to believe about the gods (if need for CFI. And CFI will be there. Not church-state issues but with respect to anything). After the domination of the only is our work not over, but we face public policies that should be informed church and the supporting connections many daunting challenges. by sound science. Whenever we issue between the church and absolute mon- As we confront the daunting chal- an alert or announcement about is- archies were broken, we then acquired lenges that face us, however, we have sues such as regulation of alternative political freedom—the right to choose one factor that works in our favor. Be- medicine or climate change, I receive what laws to impose on ourselves. Next cause we know there are no deities—or a few emails from some of our atheist came an enlargement of civic and social magic crystals—to provide for us or to supporters claiming I don’t understand freedom by, among other things, the guarantee us success, we also know that how alternative medicine works or I elimination of slavery, the emancipation every action we undertake has great sig- don’t recognize that claims about cli- of women, and the removal of formal nificance. We have to rely on ourselves mate change are part of a gigantic hoax. barriers to upward mobility generally, and each other to get the work done. And please don’t ask me about the 9/11 all of which would have been unthink- Some claim that a godless world is conspiracy theorists! able in the rigid social structures that bleak and empty because it is deprived Yes, fostering critical thinking is prevailed in the cultures of the past— of “meaning.” I vigorously disagree. In more fundamental than religious skep- social structures that were justified by fact, as one learns to distance oneself ticism and, as I said, CFI promotes religious tradition, and in cases of racial from the supernatural, one begins to re- critical thinking across the board. and sexual oppression, also by pseudo- alize that it is precisely because our lives Critical examination of religion and of science. Then, in the last fifty to sev- are finite and that we are ultimately pseudoscience both constitute import- enty-five years, we have seen autonomy responsible for what we accomplish ant parts of our work, because both are expanded in the sphere of our personal or fail to accomplish, that our lives as- required if we are to fulfill our mission. relations, such as marriage and divorce sume significance. What we do matters and reproductive options—again with Critical thinking is not just “negative” because we do not get second chances. of course; we are not simply a commu- all these advances being made possible We have both the burdens and nity of debunkers. When we promote because we live in a society that has in- the satisfaction that comes with this critical thinking we are at the same creasingly rejected religious or ideolog- self-knowledge. We understand the time promoting the scientific method ical dogma. If someone claims marriage obstacles we face. But we also realize and evidence-based reasoning. Our “must be” only between a man and a that if we work together, we can over- mission is not limited to achieving a woman, we don’t simply accept this as- come these obstacles. secular society, but as I hope everyone sertion, we ask “why?” and then we look So there is a need for an organiza- knows, a secular society founded on sci- at the relevant evidence, in this case, for tion like CFI—an organization that can ence, reason, freedom of inquiry, and example, evidence about the stability of bring us together and unify our efforts, humanist values. All of those elements same-sex relationships and the record are important. You can have a secular of same-sex couples as parents. that can give direction to our work. society without these elements, but I So critical thinking, the unwilling- It’s been my privilege to lead CFI for don’t think you’d want to live in it. ness to blindly bend to tradition and seven years now. In a few months I will Moreover, the importance of criti- accepted ways of thinking, has been re- be stepping down, but our work will cal thinking is not only validated by its sponsible for much of human progress. continue. CFI will continue to work relevance today; it is also validated by a But though much has been accom- toward a secular society founded upon review of history. Critical thinking is the plished, much remains to be accom- science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and acid that dissolves dogma, and human plished—which is why we need orga- humanist values, not only in the United progress in the last two centuries has nizations like CFI to continue to fight States but throughout the world. I sub- mit to you that there is no more mean- resulted in large part through the rejec- for progress. As long as religious dogma I tion of dogmatic thinking, whether pro- is invoked in the halls of Congress—or ingful task than this. moted by the church, tradition, or pseu- in any legislature—as a basis for public doscience. In particular, enlargement of policy, there will be a need for CFI; as Ronald A. Lindsay is the president and our personal freedom has come about long as religious institutions are given chief executive officer of the Center for largely through rejection of dogmatic privileged status and are regarded as a Inquiry (which includes the Committee thinking. This may seem like a bold source of moral authority, there will be a for Skeptical Inquiry). He is also a senior claim, but I think history bears me out. need for CFI; as long as scientific find- research fellow. A philosopher and bio- With the Enlightenment there ar- ings are misunderstood, manipulated, or ethicist, his latest book is The Necessity rived a critical attitude to religious suppressed and politicians, the media, of Secularism. This article is based on his dogma and, in particular, the notion and the general public accept magical, that the church in combination with pseudoscientific thinking, there will be talk concluding CFI’s “Reason for Change” the state could dictate what individ- a need for CFI; as long as there is any conference in Amherst, New York, on June uals should believe. Accordingly, we country in the world where someone 14, 2015.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 37 ‘Post-Materialist’ Science? A Smokescreen for Woo A group of influential pseudoscientists have recently written a “manifesto” declaring the end of conventional science. Are they “mavericks,” on a par with Einstein, as some prominent advocates claim?

SADRI HASSANI

seudoscience has been rapidly gaining ground in Complementary and Alternative Med- icine of the NIH to create the Center the past few decades. Dietary supplements and ho- for Frontier Medicine in Biofield Sci- Pmeopathic preparations, advertised by the disgraced ence (CFMBS) at UA. As the findings at the center were “too controversial for Dr. Oz and his ilk, now constitute a multi-billion-dollar mainstream journals,” Schwartz com- industry. Major universities house centers of integrative piled them in a trade book in 2007, health, which offer courses in acupuncture, , Thera- the same year that CFMBS was closed down (Schwartz 2015)! Now Schwartz peutic Touch, qigong, and Vedic medicine, and are funded is the director of the Laboratory for generously by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Advances in Consciousness and Health (Mielczarek and Engler 2013). Elsevier, a reputable sci- (LACH, online at http://lach.web.ar- izona.edu/center_frontier_medicine_ entific publisher, is publishing journals devoted to pseu- biofield_science_cfmbs), an alleged doscience (Beauregard et al. 2014). Pop culture icons such research lab in which mind-body and alternative medicines are investigated. as (“the Food Babe”) have gathered armies of LACH boasts its publications on its uninformed citizens, ready to sign petitions in hundreds website. Clicking on the publications of thousands to force their anti-scientific demands on the tab brings a page showing Schwartz’s trade books such as The G.O.D. Exper- food industry (Godoy 2014; Alsip 2015). iments. Curiously, under Published Ar- The destructive strength of such the rank of quantum mechanics (QM). ticles (as of the writing of this article), misinformation stems from profession- The document is signed by four psy- there is only a promise: “List added als in whom the public places its trust: chologists, one social anthropologist, soon …”! The websites of the other two medical doctors and scientists, some one medical doctor, one neuroscientist, preparers and the five remaining signers with impressive credentials. It is there- and one biologist, none belonging to of the manifesto show similar out-of- fore imperative to lay bare the message the mainstream of their disciplines the-mainstream accomplishments. of these professionals and show that, (Beauregard et al. 2014). They include After extolling their credentials, despite their credentials, their message names that will be familiar to long- Pruett writes: “The authors of the man- contradicts the very science they once time SI readers for their advocacy of ifesto are all scientific mavericks whose practiced. fringe-science, including psychologist viewpoints are not mainstream. . . . It’s Mavericks or Quacks? Gary Schwartz, Marilyn Schlitz of the worth noting, however, that neither David Pruett, a regular contributor Institute of Noetic Sciences, mind- were Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, or to the Huffington Post, has posted a body medicine proponent Dr. Larry Einstein mainstream.” This is a typical laudatory tribute to the “Manifesto Dossey, and Rupert Sheldrake. degradation of “mainstream” deployed for a Post-Materialist Science” (Pruett Schwartz is one of the three prepar- by pseudoscientists to promote woo. 2014), a document purporting a new ers of the manifesto. He is a psycholo- Those who follow mainstream science, paradigm of science in which the study gist at the University of Arizona (UA), they say, cannot produce any revolu- of spirituality, , and who in 2002 received a $1.8 million tionary ideas. Pseudoscientists argue near-death experiences are elevated to award from the National Center for that the real geniuses, the ones that

38 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer change the course of our understanding Mavericks of astronomer Tycho Brahe made obser- of nature, are outside the mainstream. the Mainstream vations with unprecedented accuracy. In fact nothing can be further from the Heliocentrism was discovered by the He continued in the tradition of the truth. Greek astronomer and mathemati- Greek astronomers Hipparchus and There are three categories of scien- cian Aristarchus of Samos, who cal- Ptolemy and was essentially the main- tists (MDs included): culated the sizes of the Moon and stream, as he was one of the very few Sun and their distances from Earth who observed the stars. 1. Those who do mainstream science. using data from the observation of Brahe’s precise observations of the 2. Those mainstreamers who bend the the eclipses and phases of the Moon. planets showed disagreement with the mainstream. By carefully examining the arc of the two prevailing theoretical models: nei- 3. Those who leave the mainstream Earth’s shadow on the Moon in a lunar ther Ptolemy’s geocentric model nor and turn into crackpots. eclipse, Aristarchus determined that Copernicus’s heliocentric model agreed The overwhelming majority of sci- the Moon’s diameter is about one-third with his data. As in all good science— entists belong to the first category. of the Earth’s; from the observed angu- and contrary to pseudoscience, which Scientists including Galileo, Newton, lar size of a full moon, he found that is based dogmatically on beliefs—if Dalton, Crick and Watson, Planck, and the Earth-Moon distance was about a theory does not agree with accurate Einstein belong to the second category. thirty times Earth’s diameter. observations, it needs to be modified. People in the third category may once have been accomplished scientists in the first category; however, for various rea- As in all good science—and contrary sons, they left the mainstream science, to pseudoscience, which is based and with it, science itself. People like Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, Dr. Oz, dogmatically on beliefs—if a theory Rupert Sheldrake, Fritjof Capra, and the authors of the “manifesto,” by their does not agree with accurate own admission, are no longer main- observations, it needs to be modified. stream scientists. And certainly they don’t belong to the second category! Since Pruett’s main argument for the extolment of the post-materialist Aristarchus’s (grossly underesti- Brahe, not well-versed in mathematics, “science” is his characterization of the mated) solar measurements showed was not in a position to make the modi- authors of the manifesto as “mavericks” that the Earth-Sun distance was about fication. So he invited Johannes Kepler, on par with Copernicus, Kepler, Gali- twenty times the Earth-Moon distance. a well-known mainstream mathemati- leo, and Einstein, it is crucial to debunk And since both have approximately the cian and physicist at the time, to his ob- this characterization and to demon- same angular size in the sky, the Sun, servatory in Prague to analyze the data strate that these four scientists, as well being twenty times farther, must be he had collected. as all other giants of science, were in twenty times bigger than the moon, The decision of which theory to fact mainstreamers. or about seven times bigger than the choose for modification was clear to There is a huge difference between Earth. Aristarchus concluded that the Kepler. Ptolemy’s geocentric model had introducing revolutionary ideas within Earth, being smaller, must be going already gone through myriad fine tun- the confines of the mainstream science around the Sun! This conclusion was ings over many centuries. Copernicus’s and irresponsibly throwing in nonsense based entirely on the observations done heliocentric model, on the other hand, and calling it “revolutionary” simply by mainstream astronomers (Hassani was much simpler: the Sun is at the because the mainstream scientists don’t 2010, 8). center and all planets move around it accept it. The mainstreamers’ opposi- Whether Copernicus knew of Aris- in circular orbits. It took Kepler almost tion to both types of ideas is a healthy tarchus’s calculations is a matter of twenty years to revise the heliocentric reaction to the subversion of cherished controversy (Evans 2014). What is not model to make it agree with Brahe’s and experimentally tested prevailing controversial is that the data on the data. Kepler replaced the circular orbits theories. The same mainstreamers who lunar eclipse and Earth-Moon distance with elliptical ones. His work was an oppose a new idea eventually become its were available to Copernicus in the improvement on an existing theoret- supporters once evidence verifies its va- mainstream astronomical books of his ical framework to accommodate Bra- lidity. That is how the mainstream bends! time, most notably Ptolemy’s Almagest. he’s mainstream observations (Hassani On the contrary, a pseudoscientist’s ad And he used those data to invent his 2010, 40). hoc gibberish gets thrown out of the heliocentric model. Galileo’s greatest contribution to mainstream—along with its proposer, Like all other scientific activities, science was his emphasis on—and re- if the latter insists on the unproven, observational astronomy lay sults obtained from—experiments. untested, and unsubstantiated idea. dormant after the Greeks until Danish But he was by no means outside the

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 39 mainstream as Pruett claims. There who discovered an equation for the is the article for which Einstein won was no mainstream science in Galileo’s brightness of a BBR; and it was further the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. time, because there was no stream! The advanced by Wilhelm Wien, who came • The second article on the Brownian stream of Greek science began to dry up with a formula describing detailed motion involved the atomic theory up when a Roman soldier murdered behavior of a BBR. Planck discovered of matter and statistical mechanics, one of the greatest scientists of all time, a new derivation of Wien’s formula which by now had become a main- Archimedes. and published his result in the main- stream subject. Archimedes was well known not stream journal Annalen der Physik in • The third article was on electrody- only as a great mathematician but also November 1899. In the same month, namics, which was one of the main- as an equally great inventor. While all two experimentalists reported discrep- stream areas of study after Maxwell’s of his finished works were of a theo- ancies between the formula and their prediction of the electromagnetic retical nature, his investigations in me- observations to the meeting of the Ger- waves in 1865 and their subsequent chanics and liquids deeply influenced man Physical Society (GPS) in Berlin. discovery and production in 1887. his mathematical thinking (Heath When Wien scrutinized his formula, 2002). Archimedes’s use of “mechan- he concluded that it was valid only for One area of research, in which many ical” methods to arrive at some of his short wavelengths. experimental and theoretical physicists key theoretical discoveries comes very In the meantime, one of Planck’s ex- were engaged, focused on the behavior close to the modern scientific process perimental colleagues reported to him of electromagnetic waves in moving of designing theories based on observa- a recent observational finding concern- media. In order to explain this phe- tional measurements. ing the long-wavelength behavior of nomenon, Einstein invented the special Sixteenth-century Europe saw the BBR and its agreement with a formula theory of relativity. revival of science after a 1,800-year derived by the British physicist Lord Pruett is therefore utterly wrong in hiatus. There emerged two schools of Rayleigh. Upon receiving this news, saying that Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, thought. One school followed Plato Planck, whose re-derivation of Wien’s and Einstein were not mainstream sci- and Aristotle and advocated the pri- formula gave him advantage over other entists! macy of the mind. The other empha- theorists, succeeded in finding a new Without going into as much detail, I sized the importance of observation, equation that agreed with both ends of list the mainstream contributions of the and in this respect followed Archime- the BBR spectrum, and presented his five principal founders of quantum me- des, whose works had been translated result under the modest title An Im- chanics because of their importance in into Latin and made available to the provement of Wien’s Spectral Law to the the “manifesto”: scientists of post-Renaissance Eu- GPS in October 1900 (ter Haar 1967, • Bohr Model of the Hydrogen Atom: rope, including Francis Bacon, who 79). For Planck, the urgent question Neils Bohr published his quantum promoted empiricism; Galileo Galilei, now was why the new equation worked. theory of the hydrogen atom in three who applied the method to motion; and Planck had used purely thermo- papers in the mainstream journal William Gilbert, who applied it to elec- dynamic reasoning to reach the new Philosophical Magazine, which had ear- tricity and magnetism. Bacon, Galileo, formula. However, there was another lier published groundbreaking articles Gilbert, and others restarted Archime- mechanistic and materialistic school of by J.J. Thomson and Ernest Rutherfor des’s mainstream. thought, which used statistical tech- (Bohr 1913a, 1913b, 1913c). There is arguably no idea more rev- niques in thermodynamics. Planck did • Wave-Particle Duality: In 1923, Louis olutionary in science than the notion not belong to this group, and, in fact, de Broglie presented three communi- of quantum. The last decade of the was opposed to such a line of thinking. cations to the mainstream scientific nineteenth century saw an upheaval in However, after the success of his new organization Paris Academy, where mainstream physics as physicists tried formula, he started to lean more and he outlined the basics of a wave the- to understand how a heated object pro- more toward statistical mechanics. In duced electromagnetic (EM) radiation. ory of matter. These communications his Nobel lecture, Planck recalled this Such an object was idealized to a black- became his PhD thesis in 1924 and proselytism and how it led to the prin- body radiator (BBR). A brief history of an article in a mainstream journal in ciple of the quantization of electromag- Max Planck’s discovery of quanta from 1925 (de Broglie 1925). netic radiation (Planck 1920). a careful analysis of a black-body radia- • Uncertainty Principle: Werner Hei- Einstein came to prominence in tor helps to see the mainstream charac- senberg, working on the mechanics 1905 for publishing three articles in the ter of the discovery. of the hydrogen atom, came up with same journal that Planck had published The study of BBR started with this principle and published it in the his, Annalen der Physik (Einstein 1905a, Gustav Kirchhoff—the same Kirch- mainstream journal Zeitschrift für 1905b, 1905c). hoff whose laws of electric circuitry are Physik (Heisenberg 1925). Heisenberg taught in introductory (mainstream) • The first article on the photoelectric was noted for inviting other phys- physics courses; it was continued by effect was based on Planck’s idea of icists to join his research. Among Joseph Stefan and Ludwig Boltzmann, the quantization of EM waves. This the physicists who collaborated with

40 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer Heisenberg were Felix Bloch, Rudolf not human because they cannot laugh Hassani, S. 2010. From Atoms to Galaxies. Boca Peierls, I.I. Rabi, Edward Teller, and cry. Raton: CRC Press. and Victor Weisskopf, all prominent The deeper question of “what exactly Heath, T. 2002. The Works of Archimedes. New York: Dover. mainstream physicists. is a (material) particle” was answered in Heisenberg, W. 1925. Quantum-theoretical • Schrödinger Equation: Schrödinger Eugene Wigner’s Nobel Prize–winning re-interpretation of kinematic and mechanical published his equation in 1926 in paper of 1939, published in yet another relations. Zeitschrift für Physik 33: 879–893. Annalen der Physik, the same journal in mainstream journal (Wigner 1939). Mielczarek, E.V., and B.D. Engler. 2013. which Einstein and Plank published Wigner proved mathematically that Nurturing non-science. S I their papers (Schrödinger 1926). His anything with energy and momentum, 37(3)(May/June): 32–39. See also http:// equation described the mechanics of whether a subatomic particle or a truck, www.imconsortium.org/members/members. cfm. the hydrogen atom and the quantiza- can be described by two numbers: its Planck, M. 1920. Nobel lecture. June 2. Online tion of its energy levels. mass and its spin, either of which could at http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/ • Relativistic Quantum Mechanics: In be zero. Therefore, with mathemati- physics/laureates/1918/planck-lecture.html. 1928, P.A.M. Dirac published his cal precision, we can conclude that all Pruett, D. 2014. Toward a post-materialist sci- paper that unified the special theory of particles—including atoms, subatomic ence (blog entry). Huffington Post Religion relativity and quantum mechanics and particles, and (massless) photons—are Blog (December 1). Online at http://www. predicted antimatter in yet another material, and any science that studies huffingtonpost.com/dave-pruett/toward- a-postmaterialistic-science_b_5842730.html. mainstream journal (Dirac 1928). them is, by its very nature, materialistic. Schrödinger, E. 1926. Quantization as an eigen- The quantum mechanics that “un- It is important to keep in mind the value problem. Annalen der Physik 384(4): dermines the classical assumption of role of the hydrogen atom in the devel- 273–376. materialism” is fabricated by fringe and Schwartz, G. 2015. Biography. Online at http:// opment of QM. paranormal “scientists” who have been www.drgaryschwartz.com/Biography.html. thrown out of the mainstream and find ter Haar, D., ed. 1967. The Old Quantum Theory. Quantum Mechanics: satisfaction in writing a “manifesto” to London: Pergamon Press. A Materialistic Theory I Wigner, E. 1939. On unitary representations of attract “comrades!” the inhomogeneous Lorentz group. Annals of Quantum mechanics is a favorite sub- References Mathematics 40(1): 149–204. ject of all varieties of pseudoscience. It is portrayed with a halo of mysticism Alsip, M.A. 2015. The ‘Food Babe’: A taste Sadri Hassani is pro- of her own medicine. S I that bears the signatures of , Taoism, fessor emeritus of 39(3)(May/June): 39–41. physics at Illinois , Karma, and many of the Beauregard, M., G.E. Schwartz, L. Miller, et al. other Eastern mystical concepts that 2014. Manifesto for a post-materialist science. State University. He Explore 10(5): 272–274. is the author of sev- the promoters of woo can concoct. Bohr, N. 1913a. On the Constitution of Atoms eral books at gradu- Pruett, echoing the manifesto, says, and Molecules (Part I). Philosophical Magazine ate, undergraduate, “Quantum mechanics, however, super- 26(151): 1-24. ———. 1913b. On the Constitution of Atoms and introductory sedes Newtonian mechanics and under- and Molecules (Part II). Philosophical levels. His blog at skepticaleducator.org is mines the classical assumption of mate- Magazine 26(153): 476-502. devoted to exposing pseudoscientific mis- rialism.” This is a complete distortion ——— 1913c. On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules (Part III). Philosophical Magazine conceptions and distortions of science. of truth! The fact that quantum theory 26(155): 857-875. was developed around the behavior of de Broglie, L. 1925. Research on the theory of the hydrogen atom is a testimony to its quanta. Annales de Physique 10(3): 22–128. Dirac, P.A.M. 1928. The quantum theory of From Our Archives materialistic nature and a falsification of the electron. Proceedings of the Royal Society of These related S  I articles are the claim of post-materialist scientists London. Series A 117 (778): 610–24. on our website, csicop.org: that “QM has questioned the material Einstein, A. 1905a. On a heuristic viewpoint concerning the production and transformation foundations of the world by showing of light. Annalen der Physik 322(6): 132–148. “Gary Schwartz’s Energy Healing that atoms and subatomic particles are ———. 1905b. On the motion of small particles Experiments: The Emperor’s New not really solid objects” [my emphasis] suspended in a stationary liquid, as required by Clothes?” by Harriet Hall, March/ the molecular kinetic theory of heat. Annalen April 2008. (Beauregard et al. 2014). What does der Physik 322(8): 549–560. this statement even mean? That only ———. 1905c. On the electrodynamics of “How Not to Test Mediums: Critiquing the Afterlife Experiments” by Ray Hyman, solid objects are material? That as soon moving bodies. Annalen der Physik 322(10): 891–921. January/February 2003. as ice melts its materiality evaporates? Evans, J. 2014. Aristarchus of Samos. December “A Critique of Schwartz et al.’s After- Solidity, liquidity, and gaseousness— 10. Online at http://www.britannica.com/ Death Communication Studies” by the three temperature-dependent states EBchecked/topic/34377/Aristarchus-of- Samos. Richard Wiseman and Ciaran O’Keefe, of matter—are all bulk properties of a Godoy, M. 2014. Is the Food Babe a fearmon- November/December 2001. ger? Scientists are speaking out. December large aggregate of atoms or molecules, “Quantum Weirdness: An Analogy from themselves having none of the proper- 4. Online at http://www.npr.org/blogs/the- salt/2014/12/04/364745790/food-babe-or- the Time of Newton” by Paul Quincey, ties of the bulk material. The statement fear-babe-as-activist-s-profile-grows-so-do- November/December 2008. is similar to saying that human cells are her-critics.

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 41 IDENTIFIED

A famous sea serpent sighting has been an enduring mystery of the sea since 1848. However, new information suggests a solution.

GARY J. GALBREATH

he sea serpent was once little more than a monster of Norwegian folklore. During the nineteenth century, various supposed sightings of the creature—mainly in Tthe Atlantic—lent it some public and scientific credibility as a real animal (Heu- velmans 1968). A particularly influential sighting occurred from the British naval vessel Daedalus in 1848. There is no doubt that something remarkable passed by that ship on an August afternoon, and the Daedalus case has remained one of the most famous and puzzling maritime mysteries. We have the advantage today of greater knowledge of to The Log of Mystic Seaport (Dash 2010). These drawings large marine vertebrates than was available at the time, and provide important clues about the Daedalus animal. we have two important contemporary drawings by a Daeda- So, exactly what did the witnesses describe? M’Quhae lus witness that were not published until 1997. The Daeda- (1848a) wrote that: lus animal can finally be identified. . . . in latitude 24° 44’ S., and longitude 9° 22’ E., the weather dark and cloudy, wind fresh from the N.W., with The Monster Mystery a long ocean swell from the S.W., the ship on the port tack heading N.E. by N., something very unusual was seen by On August 6, 1848, at about 5 , the frigate H.M.S. Mr. Sartoris, midshipman, rapidly approaching the ship Daedalus encountered what its captain, P. M’Quhae, later from before the beam. . . . described in a published official report (M’Quhae 1848a) as On our attention being called to the object it was dis- covered to be an enormous serpent, with head and shoul- an enormous serpent, at least sixty feet long. This occurred ders kept about four feet constantly above the surface of the in the South Atlantic, some 300 miles from the coast of sea, and as nearly as we could approximate by comparing it present day Namibia. Three professional drawings of the with the length of what our maintopsail yard would show animal (The Illustrated London News 1848; reproduced in in the water, there was at the very least 60 feet of the animal à fleur d’eau, no portion of which was, to our perception, Figures 1 and 2 here), authorized by Captain M’Quhae, used in propelling it through the water, either by vertical or were published. An excerpt for the day of the encounter horizontal undulation. It passed rapidly, but so close under from the diary of Lt. E.A. Drummond (1848) was also our lee quarter that had it been a man of my acquaintance published, and a correspondent claiming to be an officer I should have easily recognized his features with the naked of the Daedalus later gave a basically confirmatory account eye; and it did not, either in approaching the ship or after it had passed our wake, deviate in the slightest degree from (‘An Officer . . .’ 1858). Finally—and unexpectedly—in its course to the S.W., which it held on at the pace of from 1997, M. Drummond provided drawings (Figure 3) of the 12 to 15 miles per hour, apparently on some determined creature from Lt. Drummond’s diary, via a communication purpose.

42 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer The diameter of the serpent was about 15 or 16 inches behind the head, which was, without any doubt, that of a snake; and it was never, during the twenty minutes that it continued in sight of our glasses, once below the surface of the water: its colour a dark brown, with yellowish white about the throat. It had no fins, but something like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of seaweed, washed about its back.

Three professional drawings of the animal, authorized Figure 1: An iconic drawing of the Daedalus animal, as pub- lished in The Illustrated London News. This was produced by a by Captain M’Quhae, professional artist with advice from Captain M’Quhae. were published.

M’Quhae (1848b) later added that the animal had a flat head. It would have been difficult to write a report much more effective in public impact. The phraseology is rather concise, yet not without drama; “On our attention being called to the object it was discovered to be an enormous serpent” engenders the same sort of shivery feeling as does Arthur Conan Doyle’s (1902) famous line “Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!” And consider the convincing power of “had it been a man of my acquaintance I should have easily recognized his features with the naked eye.” Drummond (1848), for his part, wrote that: . . . we observed a most remarkable fish on our lee quarter, crossing the stern in a S.W. direction: the appearance of its head, which, with the back fin, was the only portion of the animal visible, was long, pointed, and flattened at the top, perhaps ten feet in length, the upper jaw projecting consider- ably; the fin was perhaps twenty feet in the rear of the head, and visible occasionally: the captain also asserted that he saw the tail, or another fin, about the same distance behind it: the upper part of the head and shoulders appeared of a dark brown colour, and beneath the under jaw a brownish white. It pursued a steady undeviating course, keeping its head hor- izontal with the surface of the water and in rather a raised position, disappearing occasionally beneath a wave for a very Figure 2: Two more drawings (“A” above and “B” below) by brief interval, and not apparently for purposes of respiration. M’Quhae’s artist, as published in The Illustrated London It was going at the rate of perhaps from twelve to fourteen News. Note the ridges on the head. miles an hour and when nearest was perhaps one hundred yards distant: in fact it gave one quite the idea of a large snake or eel. No one in the ship has ever seen anything similar, so it is at least extraordinary. It was visible to the naked eye for five minutes, and with a glass for perhaps fifteen more. The weather was dark and squally at the time, with some sea running. One Drummond drawing (Figure 3B) includes annotations of a length of seven feet for the visible anterior part of the an- imal, and of thirty feet for the distance between that portion

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 43 and the top of the dorsal fin. Note that the “tail, or another fin” shown in the drawing is based on hearsay from M’Quhae. The anonymous ‘Officer’ (1858) wrote that the animal was moving at probably not less than ten miles per hour, that water was surging under its chest, that it was not more than 200 yards away at its closest position, that it was in sight for about ten minutes, and that “the eye, the mouth, the nostril, the co- lour and form” were all distinctly visible. It should be noted that he was writing nearly a decade after the event, and may have been influenced by the writings and authorized drawings of his captain. Figure 3: Drawings (“A” above and “B” below) of the Daedalus animal from the diary of Lt. Drummond, as published in The Monster Candidates Log of Mystic Seaport. Note the long, flat head. Suggestions as to the identity of the Daedalus entity have included an adult of a deep sea teleost fish (referenced to an unnamed source by Cogswell 1848), a land snake swim- ming at sea (Ibid.), a surviving plesiosaur (‘F.G.S.’ 1848), an undiscovered chondrichthyan fish (Mantell 1848), more specifically an undiscovered elongate shark (Melville 1848), an elephant seal (Owen 1848), a giant seaweed (The Geelong Advertiser 1849), an oarfish (Hawtaigne 1860), an undis- covered giant eel (Gosse 1864), an undiscovered greatly elongated whale (Gosse 1864), more specifically a surviving zeuglodont (Wood 1880), a giant squid (Lee 1883), an Figure 4: A sei whale in lateral view during surface skim feeding, undiscovered long-necked seal (Oudemans 1892), an undis- from website Shetland Environment. Note similarity in profile covered giant salamander (Burr 1934), and an abandoned to the Daedalus animal as depicted by Drummond. This photo canoe being towed by a harpooned, submerged whale shark was taken by George Graham and is his intellectual property. (de Camp and Crook de Camp 1968). None of these authors had access to the revelatory Drum- mond drawings (Figure 3) that depict a quite long-snouted creature with a dorsal fin. Drummond’s drawings nicely match his description of the animal’s head as “long, pointed, and flattened at the top.” As noted by Dash (2010), the data derived from Drummond’s diary are of particular importance due to contemporaneity. In contrast, M’Quhae’s report was written more than two months later, during which stretch of time memories can change. M’Quhae referred to a sketch made shortly after the sighting, but the iconic drawings in Figure 5: The same sei whale viewed from behind, from website Shetland Environment. Note the ridges on the head. This photo The Illustrated London News were not produced until Octo- was taken by George Graham and is his intellectual property. ber, and we do not know to what extent they resemble the original sketch, or how detailed that sketch was. M’Quhae’s account seems to imply that the animal came very close to the ship, as indeed is shown in one of the draw- ings he authorized (Figure 1). But another of those drawings (Figure 2B), and the accounts of both Drummond and the “Officer,” are in agreement that the animal was much far- ther away at closest approach. (Drummond wrote that it was perhaps 100 yards away; the “Officer” wrote that it was not more than 200 yards away.) Moreover, there was poor light during the sighting; the weather was described as “dark and cloudy” by M’Quhae and as “dark and squally” by Drum- Figure 6: The same sei whale in lateral view during skim feeding, from website Shetland Environment. Note the long, flat upper mond. Thus M’Quhae’s comment on naked-eye observable head. This photo was taken by George Graham and is his intel- detail was surely an exaggeration. Nonetheless, the witnesses lectual property. had substantial time to view the animal and had telescopes to magnify the view.

44 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer Drummond did not perceive the expanse of body surface M’Quhae’s close-up of the head (Figure 2A) depicts a shown in M’Quhae’s drawings (Figures 1 and 2B); rather, ridge that seems to run parallel to the midline anteriorly he saw the “head, which, with the back fin, was the only and then splits posteriorly into two branches, producing a portion of the animal visible.” M’Quhae wrote that the an- Y shape overall. This ridge (actually located right on the imal’s head was never beneath the surface; this is contra- midline) is found in rorquals, the blowholes being located dicted by Drummond’s statement that the head occasionally within the two angled posterior branches (Figure 5). No disappeared “beneath a wave.” But their accounts agree that spouting was mentioned by the Daedalus witnesses. How- the animal was swimming along with its head fully out of ever, exhalation during surface skim feeding can produce the water much of the time. This behavior is not typical of merely a low cloud of droplets, potentially mistakable for large marine vertebrates swimming in the open ocean. spray from movement or from wave impact. But suppose that what seemed to be the whole head was The rather different Drummond and M’Quhae depic- actually only partial, with the mouth open and the lower tions of the Daedalus animal can be reconciled reasonably jaw underwater. Some baleen whales swim in this manner under the rorqual hypothesis. In lateral profile in surface while skimming small organisms from the ocean surface; the skimming stance (Figures 4 and 6), a rorqual upper head whale’s body and lower jaw are beneath the surface, while looks long, flat, and pointed, greatly resembling Drum-

The rather different Drummond and M’Quhae depictions of the Daedalus animal can be reconciled reasonably under the rorqual hypothesis.

the upper jaw projects at an angle. In true skim feeding, at mond’s contemporary drawings (Figure 3). But when seen or below the surface, there is unidirectional water flow be- from behind (Figure 5), as when the Daedalus animal was tween the two baleen racks (located beneath the upper jaw) moving away from the ship, a rorqual upper head can look over much of their length, with filtration by baleen bristles, relatively short and blunt, and somewhat constricted at and with outward water flow between baleen plates. In the the back, a perspective that may have influenced the later Daedalus case, the baleen, or part thereof, may have been M’Quhae depictions (Figures 1 and 2). mistaken for the lower jaw. Drummond mentioned, and il- Can the type of rorqual seen from the Daedalus be iden- lustrated (Figure 3A), that the apparent upper jaw was over- tified? One species should be considered mainly due to the shot, which can also be seen in M’Quhae’s close-up view shape of its dorsal fin. M’Quhae mentioned a seaweed-like (Figure 2A). This aspect conforms nicely to the relationship mane on the Daedalus animal (reminiscent, notably, of the between the tip of a whale upper jaw and the forward limit sea serpent’s mane in Norwegian folklore), and his artist de- of the baleen beneath it (Figure 4). picted (Figures 1 and 2B) two low, narrow ridges of shaggy Perhaps, then, the Daedalus creature was a rorqual ba- material, one being located at the posterior end of the vis- leen whale feeding at the surface. It is easy to understand ible part of the creature. Drummond referred to an occa- how the flat, triangular rorqual upper head (Figures 4 to sionally visible “back fin” presumably corresponding to the 6), with its more reptilian than mammalian general appear- more anterior ridge shown by M’Quhae’s artist, and drew ance, could have been mistaken for the head of a snake by this (Figure 3B) as a low dorsal fin with a gently concave M’Quhae. And his conviction that the animal was a snake rear edge. The fin drawn by Drummond is most similar to may have influenced aspects of his artist’s drawings (Figures the “stepped” dorsal fin of the humpback whale (Megaptera 1 and 2). The snake-like eye depicted may have been based novaeangliae), a species that could easily have been present on some blemish or shadow effect seen on the whale’s head; in early August at the Daedalus location. the real eye would have been located at the extreme lateral There are, however, difficulties in attempting to iden- extension of the head, and often underwater. On the other tify the Daedalus animal as a humpback. The large sensory hand, M’Quhae may have glimpsed the real eye, without nodules adorning the head seem unlikely to have gone un- accurate clarity as to its placement. noticed (though one of them could have been mistaken for

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 45 an eye). The behavioral difficulty is greater. Humpbacks con- on the evolving manuscript. The wonderful sei whale photographs suming fish have been observed slowly and briefly moving in Figures 4 to 6 were downloaded from Shetland Environment forward with the upper jaw above the surface and the mouth (shetlandenvironment.createaforum.com); they are the intellectual property of the photographer, George Graham. widely open (Stamation et al. 2007). But a humpback mov- ing steadily for a lengthy period, in a position like that of References the Daedalus animal, would seemingly have been engaging in ‘An Officer of Her Majesty’s ship Daedalus.’ 1858. The Times (February 16). maladaptive behavior. The baleen racks, with their relatively Brodie, P., and G. Vikingsson. 2009. On the feeding mechanisms of the short plates, would have been largely out of the water, ruling sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis). Journal of Northwest Atlantic Fishery out true surface skim feeding on tiny organisms. Perhaps a Science 42: 49–54. Burr, Malcolm. 1934. Sea-serpents and monsters. Nineteenth Century humpback was engaging in anomalous behavior that day in 115(684): 220–230. 1848, but the humpback is not the preferred candidate for Cogswell, C. 1848. Pages 2316–2323 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, the Daedalus creature. edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. Dash, Mike. 2010. Our artist pictures what the witness saw . . . Dry as Happily, there is a rorqual species of appropriate size Dust. A Fortean in the Archives. A Charles Fort Institute Blog (May 24). and color that possesses an appropriately contoured head, Online at blogs.forteana.org/node/121. that sometimes engages in steady surface skim feeding, and de Camp, L. Sprague, and Catherine Crook de Camp. 1968. The Day of that could easily have been present at the sighting location the Dinosaur. Modern Literary Editions Publishing Co., New York. Doyle, Arthur C. 1902. The Hound of the Baskervilles. George Newnes, in early August: the sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis). The Ltd., London. sei (pronounced “say”) whale has anatomical adaptations for Drummond, Edgar. 1848. Pages 2306–2307 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” opportunistically feeding in skimming mode (Brodie and Vi- section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. kingsson 2009). The typical angle the upper head makes with Engblom, Gunnar. 2011. Online at kolibriexpeditions.com/birdingperu/ blog/whale-watching-in-peru. the ocean surface during surface skim feeding (Figures 4 to ‘F.G.S.’ 1848. Page 2311 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. 6) is that drawn by Drummond (Figure 3) for the Daedalus Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. creature. The sei is a slender whale, usually between forty Gosse, Philip H. 1864. The Romance of Natural History. Gould and and fifty-five feet in length when fully grown, and dorsally Lincoln, Boston. Hawtaigne (Captain). 1860. A sea serpent in the Bermudas. The Zoologist mainly gray to dark brown in color. Most of the baleen plates 18: 6934–6935. are mainly dark (Figure 4), but many can be distally whit- Heuvelmans, Bernard. 1968. In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents. Hill and ish, and all the bristles are whitish or white, which explains Wang, New York. Lee, Henry. 1883. Sea Monsters Unmasked. William Clowes and Sons, the reported color of the underside of the Daedalus creature’s Ltd., London. “under jaw.” M’Quhae, at least, seems to have taken the Mantell, Gideon A. 1848. Page 2310 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, darker proximal parts of the plates to have been part of the edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. upper jaw. Melville, A.G. 1848. Page 2310 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. A sei whale usually possesses a sickle-shaped dorsal fin, M’Quhae, Peter. 1848a. Pages 2307–2308 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” small but prominent. The dorsal fin (unlike the head) of the section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. Daedalus animal was only occasionally visible, and viewing ———. 1848b. Pages 2323–2324 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, conditions were far from ideal; perhaps only the tip of the edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. Oudemans, A.C., Jr. 1892. The Great Sea-Serpent. E.J. Brill, Leiden, fin was dragging at the surface, making its shape difficult Netherlands. to ascertain. Alternately, the fin may have been in damaged Owen, Richard. 1848. The great sea-serpent. Pages 2312–2316 in “The or otherwise unusual condition. An interesting photograph Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. (Engblom 2011) shows a possible sei whale with a low, flat Stamation, Kasey A., David B. Croft, Peter D. Shaughnessy, et al. 2007. dorsal fin. Many baleen whales bear damage of one sort or Observations of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding another from past orca attacks. If a more stereotypical ceta- during their southward migration along the coast of southeastern New cean dorsal fin had been noted, perhaps the Daedalus whale South Wales, Australia: Identification of a possible supplemental feed- ing ground. Aquatic Mammals 33(2): 165–174. would never have been reported as a giant serpent. The Geelong Advertiser. 1849. The great sea snake. In The Geelong Advertiser A classic maritime mystery seems solved: The animal seen 9 (1015). Geelong, Victoria, Australia. from the frigate Daedalus on that fateful winter day in 1848 The Illustrated London News. 1848. The great sea-serpent—evidences of the was almost certainly a rorqual whale feeding at the surface former appearances of the sea-serpent—the great American sea-ser- pent. (October 28). with its mouth open. That would presumably constitute a Wood, Searles V., Jr. 1880. Order Zeuglodontia. Nature (November 18). puzzling sight for many mariners of either the nineteenth or I the twenty-first century. Gary J. Galbreath, PhD, is associate direc- tor, biological sciences, Northwestern Uni- Acknowledgements versity, Evanston, Illinois, and research This research has involved a confluence of mystery investigation associate in paleomammalogy, Field Mu- and science. It is therefore particularly appropriate to dedicate seum of Natural History, Chicago. He is an this paper to my mother, Ruthie E. Weber Galbreath, who loved evolutionary biologist specializing in the mystery stories and their solutions, and to my father, Donald H. study of tropical and subtropical placental Galbreath, a fine engineer with scientific training. I thank the noted natural history writer Sy M. Montgomery for comments mammals.

46 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer Encouraging Evidence-Free Enterprise: Business on a Bed of Sand The former National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine’s use of two U.S. government grant programs for small businesses is examined and found to lend legitimacy to the lucrative business of non-evidence-based medicine.

BRIAN D. ENGLER AND EUGENIE V. MIELCZAREK

and Development (R/R&D) that has ur previous analyses of awards to medical schools the potential for commercialization” and alternative medicine schools by the former Na- and to expand “funding opportunities Otional Center for Complementary and Alternative in the federal innovation research and 1 development (R&D) arena,” respec- Medicine (NCCAM) and its parent National Institutes tively. Each has similar goals, with of Health (NIH) revealed that, from 1999 to 2013, more the SBIR program focusing on meet- than $2 billion in taxpayer money was used to convince ing federal research and development (R&D) needs while fostering “inno- Americans that non-evidence-based protocols, such as vation and entrepreneurship by so- acupuncture and chiropractic spine manipulation, are med- cially and economically disadvantaged persons” whereas the STTR program ical procedures. Our analyses also showed that violations of focuses on fostering “technology trans- the laws of basic science, such as the claims that underlie fer through cooperative R&D between and distance healing, are considered accept- small businesses and research insti- tutions” and “private sector commer- able interventions even within a hospital structure and fall cialization of innovations derived from under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). federal R&D.” Grants are divided into phases, Our previous analyses covered schools of oriental medicine and natu- with Phase I “to establish the techni- awards designed by NIH’s NCCAM ropathy (Mielczarek and Engler 2014), cal merit, feasibility, and commercial to install non-evidence-based medicine another pair of federal programs has potential” of the effort usually limited courses into respected academic schools been active in the alternative medicine both in duration and funding, and such as Harvard, Michigan, and Yale, sphere. These two are the U.S. gov- Phase II “to continue the R/R&D ef- and to beef up schools of alternative ernment’s Small Business Innovation forts initiated in Phase I” allowing more medicine such as the College of Orien- Research and Small Business Technol- time and funds for promising work. tal Medicine and Bastyr. The fact that ogy Transfer (SBIR/STTR) grant pro- For health-related funding, Phase III the staff at a center at NIH does not grams. NIH is one of the five federal usually requires a clinical trial (further distinguish between fantasy and evi- agencies that collectively account for details on both programs, including the dence is troubling at best and represents nearly all SBIR funding (National Re- phases defined for each, can be found ignorance and misuse of scarce health search Council 2009), and NCCAM, at http://www.sbir.gov/). In 2003, the resources at worst. along with other NIH centers and in- SBIR/STTR programs reached a peak In addition to the nearly $3 billion stitutes, actively participates in the pro- with over 7,400 grants totaling in ex- spent on complementary and alterna- gram (see http://grants.nih.gov/grants/ cess of $1.8 billion. In 2013, the last tive medicine (CAM) research grants funding/sbir.htm). year reported, the number of grants (Mielczarek and Engler 2012), and The two business grant programs, was nearly 5,100, but the total cost the nearly $76 million spent on CAM SBIR and STTR, were created to en- approached $2.0 billion (https://www. training and education (Mielczarek courage “domestic small businesses to sbir.gov/sbirsearch/award/all). Ap- and Engler 2013), and the funding of engage in Federal Research/Research plications exceeded grants universally

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 47 across all federal agencies authorized rather remarkable devices, to search data were available to the authors. Eas- to make them. Success stories for both for medically useful botanicals, and to ily recognizable are fifteen companies programs abound online, and both are archive data and develop media presen- that received funds of over $1 million. popular. tations. Thus SBIR/STTR programs Focusing on these fifteen recipients The very nature of these programs present an opportunity for the busi- of NCCAM’s largest SBIR/STTR means that individual grants tend to ness community to take advantage of awards, we find all three broad catego- rely on cutting-edge technology. This NCCAM’s tendency to provide legiti- ries represented: three recipients (Ad- isn’t a bad thing as long as the tech- macy to non-evidence-based medicine vanced Medical Electronics, Bahr, and nology is grounded in some evidence of in nourishing a $33.9 billion annual Stromatec) are publicized on their own efficacy. However, scientific substan- business (Nahin et al. 2009) itself fed websites as medical device companies; tiation seems to be in short supply in by current societal mythologies. eleven sell botanical supplements; and many of the projects we examined. We reviewed all NCCAM-funded one (Sociometrics) is a social research Using the publicly available NIH small business grants since 2000 and institution. Much of the money shown RePORTER tool (http://project discovered that the majority tend to in Figure 1 is dedicated to developing reporter.nih.gov/reporter.cfm), we fall into three broad categories that as devices to monitor adherence to Tai found that over the past fourteen years, shorthand we term Devices, Botanicals, Chi, measuring the incidence of hot NIH has awarded 167 SBIR/STTR and Data. In this article, we address a flashes, quantifying acupuncture nee- grants to seventy-eight organizations few of what we consider to be the least dling, and searching botanicals in an totaling over $40 million via NCCAM, justifiable grants to shine a light on attempt to discover natural products largely for questionable (to put it char- yet another area in which the NIH’s that can be marketed as supplements. itably) endeavors. Our research reveals NCCAM is wasting taxpayer dollars. Because the data-focused grants were that small companies received awards Figure 1 displays only those organi- unremarkable and not CAM-specific, focused on alternative medicine for zations that have received $500,000 or this paper will concentrate on the de- a variety of reasons: to invent some more over the period of time for which vices and botanicals categories.

Figure 1. NCCAM SBIR/STTR Totals to organizations near or over $500k (2000–2013)

$3,000,000

$2,500,000

$2,000,000

$1,500,000

$1,000,000

$500,000

Figure 1. A graphic representation of individual organizations that received $500,000 or more in NCCAM SBIR/STTR grants between 2000 and 2013.

48 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer We used data from NIH RePORTER Figure 2. Examples of NCCAM-Funded Device SBIRs (Millions of Dollars) to track selected NCCAM SBIR/STTR Hot ash monitors Acupuncture devices Wearable exercise monitors grants to learn whether any had produced inventions or pharmaceutical discoveries.

Devices Imagine you are a concerned scientist or physician hoping to affect American health. Your expertise and concerns have been noted, and you are asked $3.0 Million $3.6 Million to serve on a federal committee. The committee’s function? Prioritizing funding of NCCAM’S SBIR/STTR grant proposals for devices. Match your concept of appropriate funding for proposed devices with those of $2.5 Million NCCAM’s SBIR awards. 1. Hot flash monitor devices measur- ing menopause symptoms: a) Over $3 million Figure 2. A graphic depiction of $9.1 million in NCCAM SBIR/STTR grants for three types of de- b) Between $2 and $3 million vices—specifically, those designed for hot flash monitoring, wearable exercise monitoring, and acupuncture needling. c) Less than $2 million 2. Wearable devices measuring adher- ence to mind-body protocols of Tai demic medical schools list acupuncture NIH has indulged in a tenacious Chi and Yoga positions: as an elective, offering a prospective sales pursuit of medical credence for a pro- market for Stromatec’s Acusensor 2. tocol based on the concept that mam- a) Over $3 million Our search of NIH NCCAM re- mals are threaded by undefined “energy b) Between $2 and $3 million cords from 1999–2014 shows an ex- meridians.” Criticisms of NIH’s stud- c) Less than $2 million penditure of $188 million for 561 proj- ies of and endorsements for acupunc- 3. Devices measuring acupuncture ects by NCCAM to study the efficacy ture, and of acupuncture itself, have 2 torque: of acupuncture. Over this same time been posted in numerous places online period, for all NIH centers, NIH Re- (e.g., http://edzardernst.com/2013/12/ a) Over $3 million PORTER lists expenditures for acu- acupuncture-its-a-placebo-isnt-it/; b) Between $3 and $2million puncture totaling $251 million (760 http://theness.com/neurologicablog/ c) Less than $2 million awards). NCCAM’s active projects (as index.php/another-acupuncture-fail/; See Figure 2 for the answers. of this writing) related to the efficacy http://www.sciencebasedmedicine. of acupuncture total thirty-one projects org/reference/acupuncture/) as well Two “device” firms have received at $12 million. NIH’s clinical center as in books (Novella et al. 2013; Offit funds exceeding $2 million: Stromatec employs an acupuncturist (http://www. 2013; Singh and Ernst 2009). Even and Advanced Medical Electronics. acupuncturesolution.com/index.html); so, NIH incorporates acupuncture as Stromatec’s website advertises its Acu- however, studies that compare the part of its online education, although sensor 2 for teaching and quantifying success of trained acupuncturists with when accessed July 15, 2014, its web- acupuncture needling (see http://www. untrained ones finds no difference be- page was annotated as “. . . an histor- stromatec.com/acusensor2/). Presum- tween claims of success by trained over ical document . . . that may be out of ably this invention was possible through the untrained (http://www.science- date” (https://nccam.nih.gov/training/ the SBIR awards Stromatec has been basedmedicine.org/nc/). videolectures/acupuncture.htm). given for three clinical trials testing its sensors. The test for its torque sensor was to have involved 169 persons. It’s Studies that compare the success of trained not clear whether the device tested in acupuncturists with untrained ones finds this clinical trial is its web-advertised Acusensor 2 or something similar. The no difference between claims of success trial is listed as completed, but no study by trained over the untrained. results are posted. Some respected aca-

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 49 Botanicals NIH’s continued examination and m=tai+chi+AND+spaulding&rank=1). even endorsement of acupuncture in Popular hopes for medically effec- To be clear, we do not find fault in the face of all scientific evidence to the tive “alternative” protocols drive SBIR general with appropriate research into contrary is an inexplicable use of tax- awards that include examining the mis- medical uses of botanicals. The prob- payer funds for questionable medical conception that physiologically gener- lem we noticed during our SBIR/ research. ated electrical phenomena are a sepa- STTR research has been that many The mystique of a Tai Chi exercise rate field of study unrelated to known of these grants to small businesses to program is reflected by 118 awards physical science. These misconceptions commercialize plant products for med- from NCCAM that total $38 mil- ical or health purposes seem to pre- of electromagnetism continue to fuel lion. The awards include Research suppose efficacy that either has not yet hopes of CAM practitioners and have and Training and SBIR grants total- been proven or that has been disproven. generated millions of dollars of grants ing $400,000 (2012–2014) to develop As shown in Figure 3, conditions a three-sensor inner sole attached to a from NIH’s NCCAM. It is surprising considered for botanical focus include wireless platform that is supposed to that in view of the National Academy cancer, mental disorders, and even record adherence to Tai Chi exercises. of Sciences report (National Research sickle cell disease, an inherited anemia. The device is currently being tested in Council 1997) and the FTC’s Opera- Products advertised by the businesses a clinical trial at Spaulding Memorial tion CURE.ALL that an SBIR review to combat these conditions include fe- Hospital in Boston (https://clinicaltri- committee could ignore established verfew, goldenseal oil, red lettuce, black als.gov/ct2/show/NCT01687023?ter- science. raspberries, green tea, saw palmetto, various Alaskan plants, and Chinese Figure 3. $8.8M in NCCAM-Funded SBIRs/STTRs for Botanicals (2008–2013) herbs. (By Condition and Botanical Focus, awarded over $300K) One example of a botanical that was claimed to have medical potential is goldenseal oil (Hydrastis canadensis). SBIR/STTR awards total $1.4 million, the majority of which was awarded to a $1,400,000 single source (http://www.prweb.com/ releases/2012/6/prweb9652644.htm). Goldenseal, or more correctly some alkaloids in it, most notably berberine, $2,787,592 is purported to combat inflammation $1,161,000 and infection. Goldenseal also is one of the most popular dietary supple- ments in the United States. However, NCCAM’s own website states: “Few studies have been published on golden- $998,000 $364,000 seal’s safety and effectiveness, and there is little scientific evidence to support $397,000 using it for any health problem” (https:// $747,000 nccih.nih.gov/health/goldenseal). $402,000 NCCAM has spent more than $1 mill- $524,000 ion in SBIR/STTR funds principally for “development of research-grade goldenseal” ostensibly “to facilitate Migraine (Feverfew) clinical studies.” NCCAM-funded re- Alzheimer’s (Herbs and vitamins) Sickle Cell disease (Botanical extract) search projects received a total of over Prostate cancer, immune system (Golden Seal Oil) $700,000 in 2013 and 2014 to “ex- Breast cancer natural estrogen (Plants) plore an alternative strategy for com- Female obesity and estrogen (Chinese plants) bating bacterial infections” employing Schizophrenia (Glycine amino acid) goldenseal as a potential “treatment HIV Prevention (Natural products) or preventative for bacterial infections Remainder (Various) such as methicillin-resistant–Staphylo- Figure 3. A graphic depiction of $8.8 million in NCCAM SBIR/STTR grants for botanicals, broken coccus aureus (MRSA)” (http://projec- out by the condition for which the research was intended and its botanical focus, where these treporter.nih.gov/project_info_history. were discernable from the NCCAM project descriptions. cfm?aid=8443080&icde=0). We have yet to see those studies bear fruit.

50 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer A general search of clinical trials “complementary” medicine—so, once 2007: National Health Statistics Reports, Number for botanicals, irrespective of funding more, why does NIH need a separate 18. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. Online at http://nccam.nih. source, listed sixty-six trials, apparently center for CAM? gov/news/camstats/costs. none of which demonstrated any effi- You are invited to test your socially National Research Council. 1997. Possible Health cacy (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/re- informed perceptions against the results Effects of Exposure to Residential Electric and Magnetic Fields. Washington, D.C.: The sults?term=botanical). Of the sixty-six, of the clinical trials by visiting the Clin- National Academies Press. only two report that they “Have Re- icalTrials.gov home page (https://clin- ———. 2009. An Assessment of the Small Business sults.” Of these two, one has published icaltrials.gov/ct2/home) and searching Innovation Research Program at the National negative results (http://www.ncbi.nlm. for your favorite brand of woo (http:// Institutes of Health. Washington, D.C.: The I National Academies Press. nih.gov/pubmed/23553159?dopt= rationalwiki.org/wiki/Woo). Novella, Steven, David Gorski, and Mark Crislip, Abstract) and the other only a trial bul- editors. 2013. Science-Based Medicine: Guide letin to date (http://trialbulletin.com/ Notes to Acupuncture and “Eastern” Medicine. Kindle lib/entry/ct-00556504). Some of the 1. Last December, NCCAM changed its name Edition. James Randi Educational Foundation. Offit, Paul A. 2013. Do You Believe in Magic? The more non-surprising results: Don’t de- to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NCCIH (see “NCCAM’s Sense and Nonsense of Alternative Medicine. New pend on a handful of herbs to eliminate Name Change Fails to Impress,” SI, May/June York: Harper Collins. a blood clot or red lettuce to control 2015). Since all our previous analyses and this Singh, Simon, and Edzard Ernst. 2009. Trick insulin levels. This is a discouraging in- new one were completed while the center went or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts about under its previous name, in this article we will Alternative Medicine. New York: W.W. dicator for commercial success. continue to refer to “NCCAM.” If you prefer, you Norton & Co. Again, we do not claim that such may substitute “NCCIH.” Brian D. Engler is affil- research cannot be useful, but we do 2. The numbers cited regarding efficacy of acupuncture include all grants, including iate faculty at George question, as we have in previous arti- research and training, not solely SBIR/STTR. Mason University. A cles, why a separate “alternative” thera- retired U.S. Navy Com- References py-focused center, namely NCCAM, is mander, his fields of needed when so many other disease- or Mielczarek, Eugenie V., and Brian D. Engler. study are operations infection-specific institutes and centers 2012. Measuring mythology: Startling con- cepts in NCCAM grants. S I research and busi- within NIH already can do the work. 36(1)(January/February): 35–43. ness administration. For example, the half billion dollars ———. 2013. Nurturing non-science: Startling of NIH research related to MRSA concepts in physician education. S Eugenie V. Mielczarek very logically has been placed under I 37(3)(May/June): 32–39. is emeritus professor ———. 2014. Selling pseudoscience: A rent in of physics at George the direction of the National Institute the fabric of American medicine. S of Allergies and Infectious Diseases I 38(3)(May/June): 42–51. Mason University. Her (NIAID). If goldenseal or extracts from Nahin, Richard L., Patricia M. Barnes, Barbara J. background is in ma- Stussman, et al. 2009. Costs of Complementary terials research and it prove to be of value against MRSA, and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Frequency it will be considered medicine—not of Visits to CAM Practitioners: United States, biological physics.

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Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 51 [ FORUM MEDICAL MISINFORMATION

Is Wikipedia a Conspiracy?

Common Myths Explained SUSAN GERBIC

his past June, the Guerrilla dia did not consider the man to be an with an agenda (pro-skeptic or other- Skepticism on Wikipedia (GSoW) expert on himself, she got a nice laugh wise) is just unwarranted. Tproject celebrated its fourth anniver- from the audience and lots of agree- We hear a lot about editors having a sary. The project has been a great suc- ment that there must be a conspiracy. bias. Most people who edit Wikipedia cess. Wikipedia is the default source of So allow me to set the record straight. are interested in specific topics: butter- information for hundreds of millions of First off, Wikipedia is an online ency- fly enthusiasts, for example, edit pages people around the world. Over the years, clopedia that is trying to be the reposi- about butterflies. It’s just human nature I’ve heard many myths and misconcep- tory of all knowledge; it is not Tumbler to want to work on pages that interest tions about editing Wikipedia. or Reddit or some other social network. you. There is nothing wrong with that, At almost every Q&A, I hear the but a problem arises when someone story of someone who attempted to comes to Wikipedia with the idea that edit Wikipedia and “they” deleted their they are going to work on one specific edits. I’ve heard how people tried to page to the exclusion of all others. edit the evolution page, the home- These are known as “single-purpose opathy page, and the astrology page, Single-purpose editors editors,” and I see it a lot on contro- and every time they could not get the versial pages. These people are not try- content to stick. Often I hear that are not trying to ing to improve Wikipedia content as a they were suspended or banned from improve Wikipedia whole; they are typically trying to push editing Wikipedia. Often they tell the content as a whole; one specific agenda. story as if it is evidence of a conspiracy Furthermore, you do not own a by the paranormal community to con- they are typically Wikipedia page; even if you spent trol content on Wikipedia. trying to push one weeks researching every detail for fair- I’ve heard many stories of how they ness and accuracy, once you publish the wrote an amazing Wikipedia article specific agenda. page and it’s live, it’s fair game. Anyone for a subject and then it was deleted can make edits. Large changes should for no good reason or was marked as be discussed on the talk page first, but not being noteworthy and “they” didn’t you have no recourse once it is deter- even bother to look for sources. I’m mined that changes should be made. told “of course the person was notewor- Let’s next break down the story I thy; they are an author or have a ton Wikipedia has rules. Some of them are mentioned earlier, about the man who of followers on YouTube, it must be open to interpretation a bit, but for the tried to edit his own Wikipedia page the anti-skeptics who are deleting the most part the rules are discussed within and was told he was not allowed to pages.” One video I’ve had drawn to my the community of editors and usually make the changes. What most people attention was from a TEDx talk where enforced evenly. do not realize is that even if your name the speaker was talking about the bias There is no “they” on Wikipedia, is on the title of the page, it is not your on Wikipedia. She recounted the story only a “we.” There are a few admins page. It is a page about you, but you of a man who tried to correct informa- and senior editors who usually have the are very biased and should not make tion on his own Wikipedia page and last word on an issue, but more often changes. If there is a problem with fac- was told he was not allowed to do that. rules are enforced by consensus. The tual information, you can make a com- When the lecturer stated that Wikipe- idea of a conspiracy of people who edit ment on the “talk page” asking for the

52 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer change to be made and giving strong of view. They reported on how they had taken my advice and had finished reasons along with a citation to sub- were being harassed by the atheists, the the page calmly. stantiate the change. Wikipedia editors importance of their involvement hand- The rules apply equally to the para- don’t run background checks on other ing out free water, and how mean-spir- normal and the skeptic communities. editors. How do they know that you are ited the signs were the atheists were This is not a game or a joke. Wikipedia who you say you are? It’s easy to make carrying. She was so incensed that she is too important for people not to take a username, and just as easy to pretend stormed in and made accusations and seriously. First learn to edit and start you are someone you are not. deleted content without discussion. She on non-confrontational pages. Improve Controversial pages such as astron- was banned, and probably rightly so. I pages by fixing grammar and spelling. omy, scientology, evolution, and ho- did look at the page and was able to Work on many topics, which shows the meopathy are not pages for a beginner calmly clean it up. By that time, more editing community that you are there to editor. You should first learn the rules, neutral secondary sources had been help. Create a username that does not make edits on less controversial pages, published in noteworthy places, which show your bias: handles like “Chopra- and prove to other editors that you are made it much easier to fix. isaidiot” and “TeamRandi” shout to trying to improve Wikipedia in general the world that you are a skeptic and are not just a specific page. The changes needlessly confrontational. you are trying to make might be legiti- Wikipedia is the sixth-most viewed mate changes, but if you barge in with website in the world. It is the closest an aggressive attitude, then yes, people You should first learn thing we have to a repository of all are going to be a little worried about the rules, make edits knowledge. In my opinion, it is ex- your changes. If you have something on less controversial tremely important to make sure that important to add or change on a contro- content concerning scientific skepti- versial page, then go to the “talk page” pages, and prove to cism is accurate and well-cited. When that exists behind every entry and start other editors that you people are looking for reliable answers a discussion. Better yet, read through to their questions about paranormal past discussions, as it’s likely that your are trying to improve topics or are trying to determine the suggestion has already been discussed Wikipedia in general not competency of a specific person, it is and a consensus has been agreed on. most likely they will turn to Wikipedia. We see trolls and well-meaning just a specific page. It is our responsibility to make sure the editors vandalize Wikipedia all the answers they are getting are the clos- time. Changing a psychic’s page to est we can get to being accurate. This say “alleged” is considered vandalism. is the goal of the Guerrilla Skepticism Adding South Park’s epithet “The Big- on Wikipedia project. You do not have gest Douche in the Galaxy” to John Recently, another person approached to join our team to improve Wikipedia Edward’s page is also vandalism. The me wondering why he was having so content; anyone can edit. Instructions South Park show referring to Edward much trouble adding content to a page on how to do so are all over the Inter- is already mentioned on the Wikipedia he was working on. I started looking at net. If you like working on projects with page about him, so it does not need to the history of the page and found that other like-minded people and would be added again. “IdoWhatIWant” was working on only like hands-on training, GSoW might One woman who had just attended one specific page and nowhere else on be the best solution for you. Write to I the Reason Rally contacted me several Wikipedia. (Not only can you see every us at [email protected]. years ago. From the hotel room the next edit made on a specific page, you can day she had attempted to edit the brand also see every edit that username has new Reason Rally Wikipedia page. ever made.) It turns out that he was Susan Gerbic is the What people don’t realize is that edi- getting some push-back from other ed- cofounder of the Mon- tors rarely use primary sources. Instead itors. We had a long chat; I suggested terey County Skeptics we rely on notable secondary sources. a few changes to his editing patterns and leader of the Guer- Since it had only been one day, the only and how to talk to other editors. He rilla Skepticism on Wiki- noteworthy secondary sources to come laughed and said it had not occurred to pedia project. You can out were from Christian reporters writ- him that he had looked like the aggres- learn more at SusanGer- ing in Christian news outlets. Of course sor and was editing like a troll. He has bic.com. their coverage was biased by their point since written me again saying that he

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 53 MEDICAL MISINFORMATION

Correlations: How Do We Ever Establish Definite Causation? EDITOR’S NOTE: We thought the following question from a reader interesting and important enough to provide a response. We asked Morton E. Tavel, MD, author of the lead article in our recent special medical misinformation issue, to answer.

: I have read several times in previous issues and in the medical misinforma- non-smokers and divide them equally Qtion issue that “correlation is not causation.” As a student skeptic, I am per- and randomly into two groups. One plexed about why so much health research is done in the correlation realm, and group is instructed to begin smoking it seems to me that much of the health advice given by both alternative medicine and the other to remain smoke free. and western medicine (science-based we would hope) derives from correlation After perhaps a twenty-year period of studies. If my sense of this is true, how do we as the public ever know when there observation, we would compare the is a definite causation and that we should certainly follow the advice? Or are there rates of cancer in each group to form actually times when the correlation evidence is so compelling that it should be definite conclusions. But this form of seriously considered? Headline-grabbing correlation studies can be very seductive. proof is, for obvious reasons, not only Some guidance here would be helpful. impossible but ludicrous! Thanks for all the excellent work. Jim Jackson How Do We Proceed in the ‘Real World’? W. Townshend, Vermont Environmental questions noted above are difficult because proof of cause is : The questions raised by “correla- ing and lung cancer: We begin by ob- seldom available. In a classic report, Ation is not causation” are of enor- serving that cigarette smokers in high Hill (1965) presented guidelines for mous importance. In the attempt to numbers succumb to lung cancer. Ap- assessing likely causation. He pointed determine underlying causes of any plying simple statistical methods, we out the following: outcome, we often necessarily begin by note that this high incidence of cancer studying an entire population for dis- cannot be explained simply by chance There are, of course, instances in which we can reasonably answer proportionately prevalent factors, such alone, thus establishing a “correlation.” these questions [about cause and as an environmental exposure associated But what can we then conclude? Does effect] from the general body of with those individuals suffering from a the smoking itself cause the cancer? Or medical knowledge. A particular, and given illness. Media reports constantly are there other independent factors in perhaps extreme, physical environ- bombard us with the purported dangers smokers linked to cancer? Perhaps a ment cannot fail to be harmful; a particular chemical is known to be of exposure to noxious outside forces, physical or genetic predilection to can- toxic to man and therefore suspect on from radio waves to cell phones to all cer also causes one to desire cigarettes. the factory floor. Sometimes, alter- sorts of chemicals. Statisticians and Or perhaps the actual presence of can- natively, we may be able to consider epidemiologists can inform us there cer produces the desire to smoke. In what might a particular environment may be a significant correlation be- these latter two instances, even though do to man, and then see whether such consequences are indeed to tween an environmental exposure and there is correlation between smoking be found. But more often than not a given disease, but does that mean the and cancer, it does not prove the smok- we have no such guidance, no such environmental event is the cause? Are ing itself is the underlying cause of the means of proceeding; more often there rules that can help us determine malignancy. than not we are dependent upon whether a given preceding event may Ideally we could answer such ques- our observation and enumeration of defined events for which we then actually be the cause? tions of causation by designing a rig- seek antecedents. In other words we To demonstrate, let’s explore the orous prospective scientific study: For see that the event B is associated relationship between cigarette smok- instance, we could take a few hundred with the environmental feature A,

54 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer FORUM]

that, to take a specific example, some an inexplicable reaction to an already the likely benefits if preventive mea- form of respiratory illness is associ- established cancerous condition. sures are successful, and the strength ated with a dust in the environment. of evidence supporting a causal rela- In what circumstances can we pass 5. Biologic gradient—whether there from this observed association to tionship. In other words, evidence or a verdict of causation? Upon what is a dose-response curve. As implied in belief that a causal relationship exists basis should we proceed to do so? example 1, the death rate from lung is not itself sufficient to suggest taking cancer rises linearly with the number Hill then presented a series of guide- action. Conversely, uncertainty about of cigarettes smoked daily. This fact, in whether there is a causal relationship, lines; the major ones are listed below in itself, is quite incriminating. order of importance. Again, we refer to or even an association, is not sufficient to suggest action should not be taken. the example of cigarettes and cancer: 6. Biologic plausibility and coherence— Each circumstance may dictate a differ- the existence of other biologic evidence 1. Strength of association—the degree ent response. Clearly, there are no easy that supports a causal explanation. We to which a certain disease is increased answers. know that exposure to agents contained following a given exposure. Hill noted We cannot escape the overwhelm- in cigarette smoke can cause cancer that prospective inquiries established ing evidence establishing cigarettes as a the death rate from lung cancer in in other organs, thus implicating the likelihood of the same effect on cause of lung cancer. Similar evidence, cigarette smokers was nine to ten times not detailed here, links smoking almost the rate in non-smokers, and the rate the lungs. Cigarette smoke has been associated with cancers in skin, urinary as convincingly to cardiovascular dis- in heavy smokers was twenty to thirty ease. Nevertheless, when bombarded times that of the base value. This would tract, oral and nasal cavity, esophagus, larynx, pancreas, stomach, cervix, and by alleged relationships between other be considered a strong association as environmental exposures, the reader is opposed to a twofold rise in incidence. colon, and it is even related to certain types of leukemia. Moreover, cancer cautioned not to accept them without serious skepticism. One must usually 2. Consistency of association—whether can be induced in laboratory animals by insist at least upon confirmation from the association has been repeatedly exposure to cigarette smoke. However, multiple sources under differing cir- observed by different persons and the argument for biologic plausibility cumstances. in different places, circumstances, is not always possible because it These guidelines, as established by and times. The relationship between often depends on the experimental Hill, remain appropriate to this day and smoking and cancer is the same in information available in the same era. can provide us all with a basis for under- hundreds of studies derived from a wide Thus we may seek and obtain biologic standing all the allegedly “scientific” infor- variety of situations and techniques. confirmation in the laboratory after Repeated exposure to smoke in non- the fact. mation constantly surrounding us daily. smokers also increases their risk of Morton E. Tavel, MD cancer. 7. Experimental confirmation—by intervening to eliminate the suspected Reference 3. Specificity of association—whether offender, we can show that the disease Hill, Austin Bradford. 1965. The environ- a specific disease is related to a single in question is prevented or eliminated. ment and disease: Association or causation? Repeated studies have shown that Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine type of exposure. Even though exposure 58: 295–300. to cigarette smoking is associated cessation of smoking reduces the rate with other maladies, most notably of cancer. cardiovascular disease, it is by far best correlated specifically with lung cancer. Hill goes on to recognize that sta- Morton E. Tavel, MD, And although lung cancer occurs in tistical significance between an envi- is Clinical Professor individuals lacking such exposure, ronmental factor and a given disease Emeritus, Indiana Uni- it is quite rare. does not provide proof of causation. He cites interference by confounding versity School of Med- 4. Temporal relationship of association— factors such as selection bias or inad- icine, and author of whether the unfavorable outcome follows equate sample sizes. Finally, he con- Snake Oil Is Alive and the suspected noxious culprit. Which is siders what level of evidence might Well. He wrote “Bias in the cart and which is the horse? A rather justify preventive actions. He admits, Reporting of Medical far-fetched example of this would be to as have many others, that this complex Research: How Dangerous Is It?” in our ask whether smoking preceded the onset challenge requires the consideration of medical misinformation issue (May/June of cancer, or was smoking taken up as such issues as the cost of interventions, 2015).

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 55 [REVIEWS

The Case of the Haunting Handprints JOE NICKELL

he Hand on the Mirror: A True Story of Life Beyond Death, by for- The Hand on the Mirror: A True Story of Life Beyond Tmer Sacramento Bee publisher Janis Death. By Janis Heaphy Durham. New York: Grand Central Heaphy Durham, tells how the loss Publishing, 2015. ISBN: 978-1-14555-3130-1. 268 pp. of her husband transformed her from Hardcover, $26.00. “skeptic” to New Age proselyte. CBS Sunday Morning asked me to assess the

book’s claims and appear on a show segment (which aired April 26, 2015). This is a much more extensive analysis of my findings than what appeared on the show. on the second anniversary of the death, hypothesis, that seemed too good to be After Heaphy Durham’s second some odd powdery images appeared, true. husband, Max Besler, died (at 12:44 “this time in somewhat indistinguish- I approached the images-on-the- , Saturday, May 8, 2004), she began able form”—although one “looked mirror phenomena with an open to encounter mysterious phenomena like an angel” (73–74). And just two mind, but the old skeptical saying that she believes may have represented days before the third anniversary, there “Extraordinary claims require extraor- “messages” from Max: lights flicker- appeared another powdery handprint dinary evidence” prevails, and Heaphy ing, chimes sounding without apparent (this time of the right hand) with what Durham’s belief that they were super- wind, a church door slamming, and “looked as if energy was flowing out of natural remains woefully unproved. clocks stopping at the exact time of his the fingertips” (89–91). That on three occasions in as many years death (pp. 36–42). If some of the oc- I wondered whether the handprints she did not take samples of the powdery currences may have had mundane ex- and the “angels” (little more than substance is astonishing. Was it unlike planations, others sounded suspiciously smudges) might have been accidental— anything known to science? Or was it, like pranking (a possibility we shall re- someone possibly having placed a hand for example, perhaps a common brand turn to). on the glass inadvertently (for example of bath powder? We will never know, to lean in to look closely at one’s image). and she will never be able to support Handprint Non-Evidence My fingerprint training1 suggested that her claim. The phenomenon that gave the book such a latent print might become ac- Likewise, she failed to have forensic its title was the appearance of an unex- cidentally developed if someone was a photographs taken of the handprints. plained powdery left-handprint that, bit heavy handed with a powder puff, Her amateur snapshots fail to show Heaphy Durham reports, appeared on and the powder—acting like finger- friction ridge details that would prove the mirror in the bathroom of her print powder—adhered preferentially them to be actual handprints (and house’s guest suite (where Max stayed to the traces of oil and sweat. Tested, not, for example, simulations or rub- during his illness). The handprint was however, this possibility proved better ber-glove prints). Moreover, the ridge discovered on Sunday, May 8, 2005— as a hypothesis than it did in my actual detail could have shown the features— the first anniversary of Max’s death— experiments. But the real problem was the cores and deltas and the minutiae whereupon, says Heaphy Durham, the dusty prints having appeared at the (such as ridge endings and bifurca- “My reality changed” (1). Interestingly, time of each death anniversary. Like my tions)—that allow fingerprint classifi-

56 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer cations and identifications to be made. changing” (89). Again about three days Other Phenomena (See Joe Nickell and John F. Fischer. later, she rubbed off the imprint (91). Pranking might best explain some of the 1999. Crime Science, University Press of In fact, the second handprint looks other mysterious phenomena. Heaphy Kentucky.) Her snapshots also did not different from the first in an interest- Durham writes (apparently without show scale. ing way. It appears to have been delib- realizing the significance): “After the In short, we might have been able erately made to look more mysterious: summer of 2007”—that is, after Tanner to establish that the handprints were the hand first being placed flat against went away to college—“no more images genuine and that they were made by the mirror, then the palm lifted, and appeared, no more lights flickered, and someone we could identify. At least the fingertips pushed up in a curving no more clocks stopped at my home three of the numerous New Age “ex- gesture as they are lifted off the glass. in Sacramento. It was over, at least at perts” Heaphy Durham interviewed for This adds to the fingertips a taper- that location” (93). (On a later occa- her book questioned her evidence (164, ing extension that teenager Tanner sion when she checked the time on her 184, 213). One fuzzy thinker even sug- describes as “Like tiny flames from a iPhone, it was the magic time—“12:44 gested, “Maybe on the anniversaries birthday candle” (90). exactly” [235]—but one learns by read- you are filled with spirit and you some- ing her book that she tends to count how produce the effects” (184). Yet she the hits and ignore the misses [i.e., en- insists, “I knew the powdery images gages in confirmation bias]. Moreover, were real even if I wasn’t certain what of course an unstopped timepiece, like they were” (74). If someone were pranking, hers then, will show a given time twice a day, every day—like clockwork.) Mysterious Force? given the nature of the events Heaphy Durham is invariably on Why did she not properly preserve the motive must have been the lookout for seeming messages from the evidence? She says of the first a well-intentioned one: Max, and of course she finds them: a instance, “But I was so stunned, it just boat named Max, a bridge ditto, and didn’t occur to me” (5). Well, she had to give her what she seemed an industrial sign with Max’s surname three days to reconsider, and on each so desperately to want. (56–57, 260, 261). She regards the of the two other instances she had, odds for these occurrences as amazing respectively, a year and two years to and calls them synchronicity (Carl Jung’s have reflected on her missed opportu- term for “meaningful” coincidences). In nity. Yet each time her response was to fact, the extraordinariness of the coin- take largely useless snapshots and wipe cidence may be misjudged due to the the prints away. Why? As I told CBS “selection fallacy.” Ruma Falk, in “On News’ Tracy Smith, I suspect she did Could Tanner have made the images Coincidences,” S I, not want them tested because she was on the mirror? He was at home, or had Winter 1980–81, explains: “Instead of afraid of what she might learn. It is dif- been at home, prior to each of the three starting by drawing a random sample ficult to come to any other conclusion. occurrences (3, 73, 89). I wondered at and then testing for the occurrence of Her immediate reaction to the ap- length why the third appearance oc- a rare event, we select rare events that pearance of the first handprint had been curred two days before the anniversary happened and find ourselves marveling to wonder, “Had someone snuck into of Max’s death. I had to consider that at their nonrandomness. This is like the the house to play a trick?” And then she the teenager (now seventeen and with archer who first shoots an arrow and called her fourteen-year-old son, Tan- a much larger hand than two years be- then draws the target around it.” ner, to the bathroom: “‘Look,’ I cried fore) would be going to school the next Heaphy Durham has also seen ap- out. ‘You didn’t do this, did you?’” But day (91). It is unclear whether he would paritions of Max (119, 125) as well as she convinced herself that “The image then be at his father’s home, but in any of her dead father (87), but these have was much larger than his hand and event he could have seized an oppor- occurred just after waking. They are shaped differently” (3). However, this tunity to make the print, considering, obviously simple hallucinations called handprint and the even “much larger” perhaps, that his mother was not ex- “waking dreams” that occur in the one left two years later are shaped dif- pected to find it, in the guest bathroom, state between being fully asleep and ferently, yet rather than conclude that until she would be sure to go looking awake (see my 2012 book The Science of at least one of them is not Max’s—or for it two days hence. If someone were Ghosts, Prometheus Books, 353–354). that handprints can look quite different pranking, given the nature of the events One such admittedly “dreamlike state” due to pressure and other factors—she the motive must have been a well-in- began with her waking into an out-of- decides the second handprint indicated tentioned one: to give her what she body experience in which she then saw that “Perhaps, if this was Max, he was seemed so desperately to want. Max (118–119).

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 57 [ NEW AND NOTABLE

She also visited psychics and was sometimes impressed with their offerings. She thought she Listing does not preclude future review. understood the fortune-teller’s technique of “cold KIDS GONE WILD: From Rainbow Parties reading” but was—in my opinion—an easy mark to Sexting, Understanding the Hype (perhaps significantly, her high school graduating Over Teen Sex. Joel Best and Kathleen class had voted her “most naïve” [18]). For example, A. Bogle. Joel Best, a professor of sociol- one psychic used the simple expedient of describing ogy and criminal justice at the University a type of person and letting the sitter provide an of Delaware, is perhaps known best to identity: “What I’m feeling is somebody who was in skeptics as the author of several books their [sic] own little world,” and Heaphy Durham on statistics, including Damned Lies and obligingly fits this to her late mother (252). One Statistics; he’s also the world’s foremost medium came up with “handprints” but only after authority on Halloween candy scares and legends. Here he teams up with Kathleen Bogle (associ- prompting, being asked if he saw anything “with ate professor of sociology and criminal justice at La Salle hands” (207–208). University) to cast a skeptical eye on sensationalized and Almost anything she experienced could become alarmist accounts of a variety of supposedly common teen a mystery. A bare footprint on the arm of a sofa activities from sexting to “pregnancy pacts” with their friends (where someone might have stood to reach some- to all become teen mothers at the same time. Despite the thing) is claimed to have slightly shifted its posi- fact that teen sex and pregnancy rates are at a historic low, tion during a lapse of forty-eight hours (149–150). these stories have circulated widely and been taken at face However, the two photographs supplied only re- value by many concerned parents and social justice organi- veal the simple illusion caused by viewing the print zations. The authors examine these stories in the context of from two sharply different angles. Even one New folklore and moral panics about the sexualization of children Age consultant was unconvinced by the report of and explore how these contemporary legends affect society. Combining media literacy with skepticism, this book is a wel- incrementally moving rugs, suggesting the possi- come response to an alarmist news media. NYU Press, 2014, bility of floor vibrations (164). 176 pp., $24.95. Janis Heaphy Durham has shown how grief can send a vulnerable, impressionable person into the ATLAS OF KNOWLEDGE: Anyone Can airy reaches of New Age belief, where there is no Map. Katy Börner. The computer such thing as death, and where consciousness exists age has allowed vast amounts of without the brain—as supposedly proved by ghosts, raw data to be collected; terabytes out-of-body experiences, and other illusions. of information on every conceiv- Hers could be a textbook on how not to pro- able subject are added daily to the ceed. She avoids skeptics; listens only to “scien- Internet and published in journals, tific” mystics, philosophical mystics, and pretend newspapers, and elsewhere. But as information becomes available it becomes more and more mystics; and—when evidence suggests she is on a important to understand that information and assess its sig- completely wrong track—she resolves “I was not nificance. Researchers are finding that visual representations about to give up” (175). “Learning” (i.e., believing) of data (charts, graphics, maps, etc.) can be crucial tools for things that are unfounded becomes “expanding my helping people understand complex subjects. With Atlas of thinking and assisting my growth” (71). Coinci- Knowledge, visualization expert Katy Börner (author of the dences are interpreted as otherworldly signs and 2010 book Atlas of Science) makes the case for a systems messages, and hallucinatory experiences are held to science approach to science and technology studies and reveal occult realities. “Why,” the Queen remarked explains different types and levels of analysis. Using forty to Alice, “sometimes I’ve believed as many as six large-scale and more than 100 small-scale full-color maps, impossible things before breakfast.” n Börner introduces a framework to guide readers through user and task analysis; data preparation, analysis, and visualiza- Note tion; visualization deployment; and the interpretation of sci- See “Fingerprint Recorder,” online at http://www.joenic- ence maps. She also discusses the effects of science maps kell.com/FingerprintRecorder/fingerprintrec1.html; accessed on the practice of science. The book is an interesting and April 30, 2015. innovative tool for skeptics, scientists, and science literacy educators. The MIT Press, 2015, 224 pp., $39.95. Joe Nickell, PhD, is CSI’s senior research fellow. He —Benjamin Radford is author of numerous books such as The Science of Ghosts: Searching for Spirits of the Dead and coauthor (with John F. Fischer) of the textbook Crime Science (University Press of Kentucky).

58 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer REVIEWS ]

A Textbook Case in Georgia Remembered GLENN BRANCH

he year 2015 is the tenth anniver- sary of the decision in Kitzmiller v. God Sent Me: A Textbook Case on Evolution vs. TDover, in which a federal court in Creation. By Jeffrey Selman. Marietta, Georgia: ruled that teaching intel- Blossom Press, 2015. ISBN 978-0578152554. ligent design creationism in the pub- 288 pp. Softcover, $17.76. lic schools violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. But 2015 also marks the tenth anni- versary of the decision in Selman v. Cobb County, in which a federal court ruled that a disclaimer about evolution ing his concerns to the board, Selman the board advanced a settlement offer affixed inside the science books used in contacted the ACLU of Georgia and in which the disclaimers would be re- a Georgia public school district sim- was connected with a lawyer, Michael tired in six years, when the textbooks ilarly violated the First Amendment. Manely, who filed the complaint in would be taken out of commission. He In part because the decision was later Selman v. Cobb County in August 2002. describes the depositions taken in the vacated on appeal and the case was The wheels of justice turn slowly, case, including his own, on the basis settled before a new trial was held, and the trial would not commence until not only of the transcripts but also of Selman v. Cobb County is not as famous November 2004. In the meantime, Sel- his attendance; he reveals how, on the as Kitzmiller v. Dover. God Sent Me, a man received untold numbers of crank eve of the trial, the expert witnesses for memoir by the lead plaintiff in Selman calls and letters, was interviewed by the plaintiffs were disqualified from v. Cobb County, is a vivid and personal local and national media, and spoke testifying on a “tiny but apparently account of the case that helps to rectify at civic organization and board meet- important technicality,” forcing the its comparative obscurity. ings. There was a learning curve here, plaintiffs to reconfigure their strategy A liberal Jew from the Bronx, a child he ruefully observes: in one interview, so that the expert witnesses would tes- of the 1960s who marched on Wash- he exclaimed, “It’s a duck and the em- tify as material witnesses instead. “The ington, D.C., and served in the VISTA peror is naked!” (p. 91). Part of the ac- entire up and down experience of my program, Jeffrey Selman moved to tivity was due to a further controversy involvement with the courts was trans- Cobb County in the suburbs of Atlanta over the board’s newly revised policy formative,” Selman writes (191). in 1993, where he became increasingly on “theories of origin”; Selman sent a Eventually, the trial came. A high aware of attempts to impose religious letter asking for clarification about the point occurred when Selman was on doctrine in the local schools. In March policy and received a response that, in the stand undergoing cross-examina- 2002, responding to pressure from its prolix evasiveness, rivals the routine tion. Using a visual aid juxtaposing the a local creationist activist, the Cobb of “Professor” Irwin Corey, the World’s disclaimer with the hundred-odd pages County School Board decided to affix Foremost Authority, as Selman aptly of the textbook that discuss evolution stickers to the science textbooks used observes. Later guidelines clarified the in order to minimize the significance in the district reading: “This textbook policy, so Manely and Selman decided of the disclaimer, the defense attorney contains material on evolution. Evolu- not to challenge it but to focus only on Linwood Gunn asked Selman, “View- tion is a theory, not a fact, regarding the disclaimer. ing this statement in context, is it your the origin of living things. This mate- Selman’s account of the pre-trial pre- testimony that the Cobb County board rial should be approached with an open liminaries is especially interesting, since of education is disparaging evolution- mind, studied carefully, and critically these are events that were not widely ary theory?” “Absolutely,” Selman re- considered.” After unsuccessfully voic- covered by the media. He discloses that sponded. “A small .22 bullet can kill

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 59 someone if shot in the heart.” It was the which had already been removed fol- perfect riposte. Selman writes of Gunn, lowing the original decision. World-Changing “He didn’t blink, breathe deeply, or God Sent Me is self-published, and move a muscle, and that’s what proba- the lack of a firm editorial hand is in- Genius, Creativity, bly let me know that I had him” (232). termittently detectable. Generally fol- It probably impressed the district court lowing a straight chronological nar- and Teamwork judge, too, who in his decision referred rative, Selman’s writing is serviceable KENDRICK FRAZIER to the “overwhelming presence” of the and often engaging, although there are disclaimer. occasional patches of purple prose: for Subsequently, the school board de- example at one point he writes, some- cided to appeal the decision. It is dis- what ridiculously, “The life I was living appointing that Selman’s account of the was in a comfortable but contaminated following events is comparatively unde- Petri dish where the leprosy of theocracy tailed. On May 25, 2006, a three-judge was threatening to break out and become panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of epidemic” (17). Fans of Leo Rosten will Appeals vacated the district court’s judg- be amused by Selman’s pervasive use of ment because of concerns about the evi- expressions from Yiddish, accompanied dence and remanded the case for further by helpful glosses, although “farblond- evidential proceedings. Selman accuses jet” is oddly spelled as “fablunjet” (175). the panel of bias but provides no expla- There is no index and no bibliography, The Innovators: How a Group of Hack- nation of his reasoning—although it is and references appear variously in foot- ers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the true that Judge Ed Carnes, who wrote notes and in running text, which is mildly Digital Revolution. By Walter Isaacson. the decision, was (and is) one of the frustrating. Simon and Schuster, 2014. ISBN 978-1- most conservative judges on the court. Kitzmiller v. Dover was a success: it 4767-0869-0. 542 pp. Hardcover, $35. Similarly, Selman hints that the decision is increasingly rare for anyone to pro- for the appellees to be represented not pose a formal policy that would require by their trial lawyer, Michael Manely, or even allow the teaching of creation- but by “attorneys with vast amounts of ism—whether biblical creationism, cre- appeal experience” (presumably Jeffrey ation science, or intelligent design—in Bramlett in particular) was misguided, alter Isaacson’s The Innovators the public schools. As a result, a new but again provides no explanation of his is his fascinating narrative wave of antievolution activity, in which Whistory of the digital revolu- reasoning. Selman also understates the role policies are proposed to belittle evolu- tion—focusing on the people (“hack- of Kitzmiller v. Dover in forcing the tion—as “controversial” or as “a theory, ers, geniuses, and geeks”) who created school board to settle. Richard Katskee not a fact”—is in the ascendancy, and the digital age we all live in now. and Eric Rothschild, who successfully disclaimers like Cobb County’s are Even more so than in his Ben- litigated the Kitzmiller v. Dover case in traditionally a favored way of imple- jamin Franklin (2003, excerpted in 2005, joined the Selman v. Cobb County menting such policies. Selman v. Cobb the March/April 2004 S team in 2006 and brought with them County was not the first challenge to I), Einstein (2007), and his two of their expert witnesses—Kenneth the constitutionality of evolution dis- best-selling Steve Jobs (2011), Isaac- R. Miller and Brian Alters—as well as claimers, but it was the most recent, son here synthesizes huge amounts of Eugenie C. Scott. Additionally, a host and the decision in the case was the published and online material (plus in of amicus curiae briefs from scientific, most compendious. So God Sent Me is this case dozens of his own interviews educational, and religious organiza- especially welcome as a timely reminder with all the key contemporary figures) tions were submitted supporting the of the resilience of the antievolution in reader-friendly ways and then de- plaintiffs. Thus reinforced, and with movement and of the necessity of con- scribes the people and their works in n the Kitzmiller v. Dover victory under tinued vigilance and resistance. his own vivid, personal style. their belts and available as precedent, The chapter organization is a the Selman v. Cobb County team was model of chronological clarity: the Glenn Branch is deputy director of the ready to pose a formidable challenge computer, programming, the tran- National Center for Science Education. He in a retrial. Seeing the writing on the sistor, the microchip, video games, recently reviewed Kostas Kampourakis’s wall, the school board caved, signing a the Internet, the personal computer, broad settlement agreement in Decem- Understanding Evolution for The American software, online, and the Web. This ber 2006 not to restore the disclaimers, Biology Teacher. blandly disguises the human drama

60 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer REVIEWS ]

contained within. The perhaps sur- Usually these innovators worked electronic digital computer built in the prising hero with which he bookends in teams, which proved crucial. From late 1930s never fully worked and, trag- this elegant work is Ada, Countess of Babbage and Ada Lovelace; to John ically, was left forgotten in a basement Lovelace (1815–1852), the daughter of Mauchly and J. Prosper Eckert and storage room.) Lord Byron. As a self-driven mathema- their ENIAC computer (the latter Plenty of individual genius is in ev- tician, she worked with Charles Bab- two top Isaacson’s list of people who idence in the digital revolution (Alan bage, envisioned much about the mod- deserve credit for inventing the com- Turing and John von Neumann are ern computer, and is still revered today. puter); to John Bardeen and Walter other important examples), but even Another hero is Vannevar Bush, who Brattain (transistor, William Shockley more important is the necessity of sur- pushed for government-industry-uni- being a rare example of a non-team- rounding oneself with colleagues of versity collaborations after World War complementary skills and personalities II and conceived of a world-brain com- to bring innovations from idealized puter that anticipated the modern net- concept to actual fruition. Theoreti- worked digital age. Even more important is the cians need pragmatic engineers; vision- CEO of the Aspen Institute and a necessity of surrounding aries need detail-oriented managers. former managing editor of Time, Isaac- Another subtheme is the marriage of son is a master at humanizing whatever oneself with colleagues of science and the arts to make comput- topic he writes about. That is especially complementary skills ers and networks usable and interactive important dealing with a topic that and personalities to bring and attractive to the human eye and could, if not handled adroitly, be overly innovations from idealized mind. Still another is the demonstrated technical and cause eyes to glaze over. In just a few sentences or paragraphs, concept to actual fruition. repeated fruitfulness of focusing on hu- he vividly reveals what makes each of a man-computer interactions, combin- hundred or so brilliant contributors to ing the strengths of both, in compar- the digital age different and unique. ison with the less-successful endeavor Isaacson finds ways to bring person- of artificial intelligence (trying to get alities to life and illuminate the inno- player); to Gordon Moore, Robert computing to mimic or replace human vators’ passions, vision, creativity, and Noyce, and Andy Grove (Intel); Steve thinking). drive. The Innovators is scientifically Jobs and Steve Wosniak (Apple); Bill For those fascinated with the history and technologically substantive (his Gates, Paul Allen, and Steve Balmer of ideas and the human creativity and explanation of transistor is one of the (Microsoft); Larry Page and Sergey teamwork required to convert inven- clearest I’ve ever read) and yet highly Brin (Google); and countless others— tions to world-changing innovations, I readable—and that’s a rare combina- over and over the team concept proves think you will find, as I did, The Inno- n tion. And he has an uncanny ability to essential to bringing new ideas to frui- vators a remarkable book. understand and connect all the many tion. ARPANET and the Internet were technological, historical, and personal also designed by collaborative teams. strands of the story and weave them (John Atanasoff had no team with him Kendrick Frazier is editor of the S  into one fine tapestry. at Iowa State and therefore his partly I.

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Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 61 [ SKEPTICAL INQUIREE BENJAMIN RADFORD continued from p. 34

injuries. Unless before his death Lewis terest at heart, but just as nonscientific misunderstandings and faulty investi- somehow confirmed that all the other ghost hunters who use pseudoscientific gation. In this case, it seems likely that soldiers were dead before succumbing equipment and poor investigation tech- Andrew’s offhanded comments were to his own wounds, this information niques find bogus “evidence” of ghosts taken literally and encouraged by his makes no sense. (see, for example, Radford 2010, 113), parents and the TV producers. Though Andrew’s parents seem to take this poor researchers can find bogus “evi- it’s fodder for reality TV shows, there as a sort of confirmation or validation dence” of past lives. may be psychological repercussions for of his story, but as any police detective It’s not clear exactly why the Lu- the child, who’s being told by his par- can attest, that is exactly the wrong way cases or the TV show settled on Sgt. ents and other authority figures that the to investigate whether or not a person Val Lewis as the most likely source for ghost of a dead stranger is in his body recognizes photos presented to them. Andrew’s “memories.” Even if the boy and mind—a scary idea for someone of I What they should have done is show were truly experiencing someone else’s any age. him a dozen or more photos of vari- burning death from a past life, surely ous people, some associated with Sgt. there are many thousands of people References Lewis and some not, and asked An- who might fit the bill or have some Chadwick, Gloria. 1988. Reincarnation and Your drew, “Do you recognize any of these connection to an address on Main Past-Life Memories. New York: Gramercy. people?” Better yet, ask Andrew to Street. According to the Huffington Ciara, Barbara. 2014. Scared mother: ‘Is there a ghost inside my child?’ WTKR News give the first and last names of his six Post, “How [Michele Lucas] made that (November 7). Online at http://wtkr. friends—something Sgt. Lewis would connection is a bit of a mini-debate be- com/2014/11/07/scared-mother-is-there-a- certainly know but the boy would not tween the participants, according to re- ghost-inside-my-child/. Edwards, Paul. 1996. Reincarnation: A (unless he’d been coached). There are porter Barbara Ciara, who interviewed Critical Examination. Buffalo, New York: countless other questions and sim- the Lucas family for WTKR-TV. It’s Prometheus Books. ple tests that would help determine not clear whether the show’s produc- Moye, David. 2014. Michele Lucas believes her whether or not the consciousness of a ers came up with the whole story for 4-year-old-son is a reincarnated Marine. The Huffington Post (November 13). dead Marine inhabits Andrew’s mind Andrew. ‘The publicists told me that Online at http://www.huffingtonpost. and body, including presenting the the family discovered the connection com/2014/11/13/michele-lewis-reincarna- boy with an (unloaded) standard mil- through their own research, but the tion_n_6140052.html?1415905459. itary-issue M16 rifle and asking him mom, Michele, told me that the pro- Radford, Benjamin. 2010. Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained how to dismantle and reassemble it. ducers came up with it,’ she told Huff- Mysteries. Corrales, New Mexico: Rhombus This is a perfect example of why Post” (Moye 2014). Books. experienced, skeptical researchers are Whatever the source, it’s unlikely Shroder, Tom. 1999. Old Souls: The Scientific that this is a hoax or that anyone is try- Evidence for Past Lives. New York: Simon needed to validate claims such as this. & Schuster. Parents and TV show producers may ing to fool anyone else. Instead it seems Weiss, Brian. 1988. Many Lives, Many Masters. (or may not) have the child’s best in- like a mystery created by a series of New York: Simon & Schuster.

There’s much more Skep ti cal In q uir er available on our website!

Here’s just a sample of what you’ll find: Vaccines and the Anti-Vaccination Movement: An Interview with Dr. Paul Offit In an interview with Lindsay Beyerstein on the Point of Inquiry podcast, Dr. Paul Offit spoke about the early 2015 measles outbreak at Disneyland, the anti-vaccination movement, and the importance of vaccination.

Truth, Trouble, and Research Exposing Alt Med Renowned anomalistic psychology researcher Chris French reviews A Scientist in Wonderland: A Memoir of Searching for Truth and Finding Trouble, by Edzard Ernst.

For more online columns, features, and special content, visit www.csicop.org.

62 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer INBOX ]

founded on producing it hasn’t of overreliance on p-values in ical profession in doubt regarding made it in about fifty years and research.) While no one tech- whether acupuncture provides now produces more modern nique is free from limitations, anything more than an elaborate meta-analysis is a valuable tool pharmaceuticals. and expensive placebo (as I be- in our methodological toolbox Although the sale of these lieve). In this instance, mere ac- multiherb cure-alls may have to aid in our endeavors to reach sound scientific conclusions. ceptance of a meta-analysis does faded, the promotion of un- anything but clarify this issue! proven remedies still flourishes. Nora A. Murphy Also with social and political Associate Professor and interests pushing for alternative Associate Chair Your recent issue on medical mis- medicine to be treated as equal Department of Psychology information was interesting. You to science-based medicine in Loyola Marymount may be interested to know that Federal research and Eastern University the Chinese government is look- medicine to be treated as equal to Los Angeles, California ing into traditional Chinese med- Western medicine by the World icine. They have, in fact, set aside Health Organization, we have a Morton E. Tavel, MD, responds $1.7 trillion for research to get a Medical Misinformation: lot to struggle against. to Nora A. Murphy: better understanding as to what A Special Issue David W. Briggs works and what doesn’t. One of I should begin by stating that I Marion, Massachusetts the most recent bits of research The S I has am in basic agreement with Dr. was into what is considered the outdone itself with the May/June I was disappointed in Dr. M.E. Murphy’s comments. By pool- “immortality” herb: Tian Shan 2015 issue on medical misinfor- ing numerous studies on a single Xue Lian (Herba Saussurae In- mation. Certainly issues regarding Tavel’s dismissal of meta-analysis doubtful issue, we can improve volucratae). It has been used for medical beliefs and treatment are as a scientific endeavor (“Bias in the accuracy of conclusions, even centuries to relieve “heart flutter” more important to most of us than Reporting of Medical Research: without resorting to so-called “p or Atrial Fibrillation (A Fib). haunted houses and folklore crit- How Dangerous Is It?” SI, May/ June 2015). Dr. Tavel argues values.” Also as I indicated, I agree What research has found is ters. The efforts to define science- that there are even sophisticated based medicine in terms of what that “so-called” meta-analyses that the flavome acacetin, which should be distrusted because they and statistical means to help iden- is in this flower as well as in other fits scientific theory and is evi- tify and eliminate substandard dence-based are most enlightening. rely on the same studies prone to herbs and even honey, is what has studies, thus improving the like- When this issue of the S- publication bias. Yet his critique a strong effect on A Fib. Recent lihood that conclusions drawn are  I arrived, I was read- overlooks several meta-analytic research in the United States has really accurate and representative ing on my Kindle The Complete techniques that assess the po- shown that acacetin can cause tential influence of publication of an overall population. There- Short Stories of Mark Twain and apoptosis in certain types of can- biases within the meta-analysis fore, in the absence of completely came across his essay, “A Majes- cer cells (especially breast and itself. Furthermore, a thorough definitive data, I personally often tic Literary Fossil,” in which he prostate cancers). More research meta-analysis includes a com- rely heavily on the results of me- describes the change he witnessed is being done on this molecule. prehensive approach to litera- ta-analyses in my attempt to man- in medical viewpoint during the I thought the article “Bias in ture location—including “grey” age patients most effectively. This 1800s. He notes the old attitude Reporting of Medical Research: literature (unpublished stud- means that I am not “dismissing as for centuries was to revere the How Dangerous Is It?” was quite ies or those published outside a whole” information gained from beliefs of famous ancient doctors traditional scholarly journals). meta-analyses, as Dr. Murphy interesting. Bias in scientific re- and reject novel ideas; the mod- While some meta-analyses are suggests. search itself is a problem. But in ern medical attitude is to reject published without accounting Where I disagree, however, medical research it can be seen in the old and favor new ideas. He for grey literature, dismissing is that no matter how rigorously drug companies wanting to get describes an old medical concoc- meta-analysis as a whole ignores we attempt to eliminate sources of a drug on the market before all tion of many herbs and human its very useful contributions to bias, we cannot totally account for of the “bugs” have been worked and animal body parts similar scientific endeavors. Meta-anal- possible research protocol violations out. How often is it found out to the witches brew described in ysis determines an estimated and publication biases as sources of that the mathematics is incor- Shakespeare’s Macbeth and notes effect size (i.e., magnitude of an skewing of findings derived from rect when researching something that such concoctions combined effect) using all available data. multiple original studies. As a re- (e.g., the effect of prayer on heal- with bloodletting were more It requires numerous studies on sult, we must always remain skep- ing). It seems the initial process likely to kill than cure the pa- a topic, thus reinforcing replica- tical of conclusions based upon me- of drug testing is Drug 1.0 and tient. He concludes that the tion as an essential component of ta-analyses that combine originals, its release to the public is Drug minimalism of homeopathy may science. Meta-analysis also shifts especially when conclusions appear 2.0 with the public working out have curbed the excesses of allo- attention away from p-values be- to run counter to biologic plausi- the “bugs.” Hence bias can, in pathy. Perhaps one of the last of cause all studies are entered into bility. For instance, as I presented many instances, be dangerous. It these multiherb medicines was analysis, thus the significance in the example of acupuncture, the can lead to misdirection and im- Gray’s glycerin tonic compound, of any one finding is rendered issue of confounders surrounding proper outcomes. which my mother used to give us meaningless. (See “It’s Time for this latter subject may never allow to help recuperate from an ill- Science-Based Medicine” in the us to arrive at firm conclusions, Alex Holub ness. I gather that the company very same issue for a discussion leaving the entire public and med- [email protected]

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 63 Two articles in our medical misin- Daniel Boyle children by encouraging them to the levels of artificial pesticides formation issue explicitly reported Evanston, Illinois be religious. After all, many reli- in today’s foods.” Fine. I’ll cast on the Chinese government’s ag- gions promise a glorious afterlife my lot with the natural pesticides gressive promotion in the West Dr. Paul Offit responds: only if their practitioners remain that evolution has conditioned of traditional Chinese medicine in the faith. Some religions pun- my body to handle. The National Vaccine Informa- ish members who leave the faith (“WHO’s Strategy on Traditional Wayne Orlicki tion Center can reasonably be la- with ostracism. When religion and Complementary Medicine” Murrieta, California beled as anti-vaccine because they considers our mortal lives to be and “Science Sells Out: Advertis- promote misinformation about but a brief preparation for what The May/June 2015 issue of ing Traditional Chinese Medicine vaccines that might cause parents D is to come after death, and apos- S I read like in Three Supplements”). —E . to make bad decisions for their tasy is punished with eternal tor- an advertisement for the chemi- children that could result in harm. ment, an early death for a child cal industry. As an environmen- Despite NVIC’s claims to the con- In “Vaccines and the Anti-Vacci- who dies as a result of religious tal chemist, I have seen numer- trary, vaccines don’t cause , nation Movement: An Interview practice probably doesn’t seem ous cases of real, quantifiable multiple sclerosis, asthma, aller- with Dr. Paul Offit” by Lindsay all that terrible. After all, they problems caused by the misuse Beyerstein (May/June 2015), the gies, diabetes, or a variety of other will all be reunited in heaven— of chemistry, damaging people National Vaccine Information chronic diseases. Although vaccines they believe. and the environment. On the Center (NVIC) was character- certainly have side effects, NVIC’s Carol Mathews other hand, I’ve also had to con- ized as one of “the biggest players exaggerated claims of harm have Redwood City, California front people’s unfounded fear in the anti-vaccine movement done virtually nothing to advance and misbelief. Skeptics and their now.” the argument for better, safer vac- opponents, true believers, exist According to the NVIC web- cines. As such, it is a stretch to label in equilibrium. There is a psy- them as advocates for safer vaccines site, the organization’s mission Pesticide Myths chological equivalent to Chat- includes “. . . the prevention when their claims of harm have lier’s principle, where a system of vaccine injuries and deaths nothing to do with vaccines. For “Myth” 3 in her article in chemical equilibrium, when through public education and to “Pesticides: Just How Bad Are disturbed from that equilib- rium, pushes back to re-establish defending the informed consent Overall, the interview of Paul They?” (May/June 2015), Har- the equilibrium. Skeptics, when ethic in medicine.” And, they Offit by Lindsay Beyerstein was riet Hall states, “. . . 99.99 per- confronted with misbelief, often “. . . support the availability of very good, but I question the cent of all the pesticides in our over-react to that misbelief. The all preventive health care options, assumption in Ms. Beyerstein’s diet are natural components of complete skeptic needs to be including vaccines, and the right comment, “There are people the food. . . .” (By volume? By skeptical of the biases inherent of consumers to make educated, who recruit their children to be weight? By molecular count? By in skepticism. voluntary health care choices.” suicide bombers.” I doubt if that list entry count?) “Any synthetic Characterizing NVIC as “an- is supported by any evidence. pesticide residue is a drop in the David Weber bucket compared to the much ti-vaccine” might be useful for ar- Is there any? It seems far more Paonia, Colorado larger concentrations of natural gument’s sake. They do advocate likely to me that the people who plant pesticides.” And yet the ag- for those of us who want a voice arrange for children to become Harriet Hall, MD, responds: suicide bombers actually recruit riculture industry finds this 0.01 about vaccine choice. However, percent essential for maximizing educating the public that vac- other peoples’ children rather Orlicki asks about the 99.99 per- crop yields? How about we argue cent of pesticides in our diet that cines have risks, and that vaccines than their own. Of course, the that since they’re only 0.01 per- are natural. He could have an- [should] be made safer, is not the Middle East also seems to have a general cultural attitude that cent, we just leave them out al- swered his own question by con- same as opposing vaccine use. devalues women, and in some together? sulting the reference provided in Vaccine injuries are real. I cases encourages multiple wives Further on, Hall cites a study the article. The 99.99 percent was injured by employer-man- and many children. I can see claiming “. . . total mortality has figure is by weight. The synthetic dated flu vaccines in 2009. I still why having a large family would been found to be consistently pesticide residue of 0.01 percent suffer significant effects, despite detract from the parent’s ability lower among pesticide manufac- in our food doesn’t mean we can the flu vaccines being deemed to provide individual attention turers. . . .” (This reminds me of “just leave them out altogether.” It “safe.” Medical exemptions are and could result in encouraging the arguments in favor of attend- says nothing about the usefulness not enough to protect individuals one of many to become a suicide ing church regularly.) What are of pesticides in agriculture, where from unwanted procedures. No bomber. we to conclude from this? Could they obviously increase crop yields physician I know could have pre- Of course, Ms. Beyerstein’s the safety precautions imposed in by far more than 0.01 percent. The dicted my immune system would use of “their children” could the workplace to limit exposure quotation from the study about the have reacted in the way it did. simply mean children who hap- to the pesticides be so frightening health of workers exposed to pesti- Demanding the right to in- pen to be available in their village to the workers that they insist on cides explains that it is likely due formed consent without coer- or city, or who are being raised organic foods at home? “Further to the “healthy worker effect” and is cion, and advocating for safer, in the same religion, rather than study is indicated.” seen worldwide. The point is that more effective vaccines will be their own biological children. Then, “. . . evolution has if pesticides were as bad as Leu needed until we better under- Do a lot of people put their equipped the human body to thinks they are, we would expect stand the mechanisms of vaccine own children at risk for religion? thrive while eating foods with to see a higher mortality among injuries and can design vaccine In general, I think people think levels of natural pesticides several workers, and we don’t. technologies to prevent them. that they are protecting their orders of magnitude greater than Evolution made us adaptable.

64 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer It equipped our bodies to defend a “. . . must read . . . astonishing Why Belief? They have really interesting lan- and necessary interdisciplinary guage and don’t have numbers, themselves not just against the Having just recently re-sub- book.” After reading the book I natural pesticides our ancestors scribed to SI, I missed Gary but most importantly they don’t emailed the publishers: had already been exposed to, but Bakker’s article “Why Do Peo- believe in any kind of supernat- ural power. Anything that can’t against new ones not previously I bought Christine Ken- ple Believe in Gods?” (January/ encountered. Defense mechanisms neally’s book The Invisible February 2015), but I read the be seen is meaningless to them are not targeted to one specific History of the Human Race Letters section of May/June and they aren’t interested in it. toxin, and the distinction between (Viking Penguin, 2014) 2015 in which some of your Christian missionaries have tried natural and artificial is a mean- after reading a very positive readers responded to the article. to convert them for decades with review of it in S All of those letters were written no progress whatsoever. The Pi- ingless one. I’ll cast my lot with I (March/April my body’s ability to protect against 2015). by people who are obviously in- raha actually converted one of toxins in general, especially con- In the last paragraph telligent, literate, articulate, all of the missionaries, Daniel L. Ever- sidering that pesticide residues in of page 301 of the book is whom have labyrinthine specu- ett, to atheism. He wrote a book food are 1,000 times less than the the following statement: lations about something that is about it called Don’t Sleep, There “There was much contro- lowest levels ever shown to have a fundamentally simple. Are Snakes: Life and Language in versy in recent years when harmful effect in humans. As a person approaching the the Amazonian Jungle. I certainly agree with Weber it was announced that a Pa- end of life who has rejected the kistani community of two that chemicals can cause harm and absurdities of religion, I can say Filip Dania million people in Bradford, [email protected] that over-concern and under-con- England, had a one-hun- that my fear of death is based on cern are both to be avoided. But dred-times greater fre- the apprehension that my “con- I would argue that skeptics and quency of genetic disease sciousness,” as I understand it, true believers don’t “exist in equi- than the general popula- will cease to exist, possibly for tion.” librium” because positions based You might be interested eternity. Even though I can’t [FEEDBACK on evidence and positions based to know that the population imagine any unpleasantness on belief can never be weighed on of Bradford at the last census about it (I won’t even be aware The letters column is a forum on mat- the same scale. I don’t think there was, according to Wikipe- that I’m not aware), contem- ters raised in previous issues. Letters are any “biases inherent in skep- dia, http://en.wikipedia.org/ plating it from this side is a real should be no longer than 225 words. wiki/Bradford, 522,452 of ticism.” Good skeptics and good bummer (a word left over from Due to the volume of letters we receive, whom Asian and Asian Brit- scientists are “biased” only in favor the days of my feckless youth). not all can be published. Send letters ish, accounted for 26.8%, as email text (not attachments) to of scientific evidence, reality, and i.e., 140,149 people. Human beings are the only [email protected]. In the subject line, critical thinking. There is no bias When I first read this I creatures on Earth (as far as we provide your surname and informative involved in asking for adequate assumed that the statement know) who know that life is identification, e.g.: “Smith Letter on evidence before accepting a claim. was a spin-off from the re- temporary and brief. You may Jones evolution art icle.” In clude your cent furore about a so-called construct elaborate theories and terrorist expert who, on Fox name and ad dress at the end of the let- News, made a series of ludi- brace them with convoluted and ter. You may also mail your letter to the Among the pseudoscience in crous assertions about im- erudite language, but it isn’t that editor to 944 Deer Dr. NE, Albuquerque, medicine, the website Natural migrant populations in En- hard to understand. Most people NM 87122. News: Nature Health News & gland; but no, that was (or who are forced to confront the Self-Reliance (http://www.natu- rather wasn’t) Birmingham. imminence of death are afraid. ralnews.com/) is way out there. The origin of Ms. Ken- In desperation, to assuage the I find it highly entertaining, to neally’s assertion is unclear; there are no footnotes as misery of that certainty, religions say the least. such, but a note referring to are invented, with the promise of I was amazed when I read p. 302 suggests that it might eternal life. And that’s why peo- today in my mail that the vac- have come from the author’s ple “believe” in gods. cination industry is on its last interview with (Prof) Alan Too simple? I don’t think so. legs, gasping for breath, as if in Bittles. Whatever its origin a short while vaccines will dis- it would appear that, if it Gene White actually has any truth at all, Santa Fe, New Mexico appear. I suppose if you print the size of the population de- enough outrageous stories long scribed has been exaggerated I have a comment on the article enough, eventually out of pure by a factor of a hundred, if “Would the World Be Better luck you will hit the target and not a thousand, an error Off without Religion” (SI, July/ get one right. which, on a topic which is becoming ever more politi- August 2014). I’m impressed Daniel Barker cally sensitive, should never with the amount of research put Lakeland, Florida have been allowed to slip into this and all your articles, through the book publisher’s and I’d just like to point out a Book’s Big Error editing process. fun fact. The last citation in the I am disappointed to have article states “. . . there is no In your March/April 2015 edi- received not even an acknowl- human society where religion is tion you published a very posi- totally absent so we really have edgement. tive review of Christine Kenneal- never tried this experiment.” ly’s book The Invisible History of Geoffrey Taunton That actually isn’t true. Have the Human Race, which called it Montmorillon, France you heard of the Piraha tribe?

Skeptical Inquirer | September/October 2015 65 [ THE LAST LAUGH BENJAMIN RADFORD, EDITOR

SKEPTICAL ANNIVERSARIES by Tim Farley

September 3, 1965: A UFO sighting occurs in Exeter, New Hampshire; it is later recounted in the best-selling book Incident at Exeter. September 3, 1975: “Objections to Astrology,” an open letter signed by 186 scientists, including eighteen Nobel laureates, is covered in the New York Times and other newspapers. September 16, 1950: An Associated Press story titled “Sea’s Puzzles Still Baffle Men In Pushbutton Age” is the earliest published list of Bermuda Triangle-related incidents, though that term would not be coined until 1964. September 18, 1895: Magnetic healer D.D. Palmer allegedly cures a deaf man, thereby originating the practice of chiropractic. September 24, 1950: The term brainwashing first appears in a news article by Edward Hunter, who also wrote a book on it. It is later revealed that Hunter worked for the U.S. government. September 28, 1885: Enforced vaccination during a smallpox epidemic leads to anti-vaccine rioting in Montreal, Canada. The fif- teen-month disease outbreak took 5,864 lives and disfigured thousands more. October 1, 1990: Canada issues a set of four stamps depicting the legendary cryptids Sasquatch, Ogopogo, Kraken, and Loup Garou (werewolf). October 7, 1905: The first installment of “The Great American Fraud” by Samuel Hopkins Adams exposes patent medicines in Collier’s magazine. The ensuing public reaction leads to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906. October 13, 1990: The first of several alleged Marian apparitions appears in Conyers, Georgia. At their peak, tens of thousands of pil- grims clogged the area around Nancy Fowler’s farm on the thirteenth of each month. October 20, 1975: A television movie about the Betty and Barney Hill abduction titled The UFO Incident airs. The claimed Travis Walton abduction (the basis for the Fire in the Sky film) occurs two weeks later, and at least one person involved admits to having watched the program.

Tim Farley is the creator of the website whatstheharm.net and blogs at skeptools.com. He is a past fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation.

66 Volume 39 Issue 5 | Skeptical Inquirer Scientific and Technical Consultants CENTERS FOR INQUIRY www.centerforinquiry.net/about/branches Gary Bauslaugh, John F. Fischer, I.W. Kelly, Daisie Radner, writer and editor, forensic analyst, Orlando, FL prof. of psychology, Univ. of Saskatch ewan, prof. of philosophy, SUNY Buffalo Victoria, B.C., Canada Canada TRANSNATIONAL Eileen Gambrill, Robert H. Romer, 3965 Rensch Road, Amherst, NY 14228 Richard E. Berendzen, prof. of social welfare, Richard H. Lange, prof. of physics, Amherst College Tel.: (716) 636-4869 astronomer, Washington, DC Univ. of California at Berkeley MD, Mohawk Valley Physician Karl Sabbagh, AUSTIN Health Plan, Schenectady, NY Martin Bridgstock, Luis Alfonso Gámez, journalist, Richmond, Surrey, England PO Box 202164, Austin, TX 78720-2164 senior lecturer, School of Science, science journalist, Bilbao, Spain William M. London, Robert J. Samp, Tel.: (512) 919-4115 Griffith Univ., , Australia California State Univ., Los Angeles Sylvio Garattini, assistant prof. of education and CHICAGO Richard Busch, director, Mario Negri Pharma cology Rebecca Long, medicine, Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison [email protected] magician/mentalist, Pittsburgh, PA Institute, Milan, Italy nuclear engineer, president of Geor gia INDIANAPOLIS Steven D. Schafersman, Council Against Health Fraud, Atlanta, GA 350 Canal Walk, Suite A, Indianapolis, IN 46202 Shawn Carlson, Laurie Godfrey, asst. prof. of geology, Miami Univ., OH Tel.: (317) 423-0710 Society for Amateur Scientists, anthropologist, Univ. of Massachusetts Thomas R. McDonough, Chris Scott, LOS ANGELES East Greenwich, RI astrophysicist, Pasadena, CA Gerald Goldin, statistician, London, England 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90027 Roger B. Culver, mathematician, Rutgers Univ., NJ James E. McGaha, Stuart D. Scott Jr., Tel.: (323) 666-9797 prof. of astronomy, Colorado State Univ. astronomer, USAF pilot (ret.) Donald Goldsmith, associate prof. of anthropology, MICHIGAN Felix Ares de Blas, astronomer; president, Interstellar Media Joel A. Moskowitz, SUNY Buffalo 3777 44th Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512 prof. of computer science, director of medical psychiatry, Calabasas Tel.: (616) 698-2342 Alan Hale, Erwin M. Segal, Univ. of Basque, San Sebastian, Spain Mental Health Services, Los Angeles NEW YORK CITY astronomer, Southwest Institute for Space prof. of psychology, SUNY Buffalo Nahum J. Duker, Research, Alamogordo, NM Matthew C. Nisbet, 33-29 28th St. Astoria, NY 11106 Carla Selby, assistant prof. of pathology, associate professor of communication SAN FRANCISCO Clyde F. Herreid, anthropologist /archaeologist Temple Univ. prof. of biology, SUNY Buffalo studies, public policy, and urban affairs at email: [email protected] Northeastern University Steven N. Shore, TAMPA BAY Taner Edis, Sharon Hill, prof. of astrophysics, Univ. of Pisa, Italy 4011 S. Manhattan Ave. #139, Tampa, FL 33611-1277 Division of Science/Physics John W. Patterson, geologist, writer, researcher, creator and Tel.: (813) 505-7013 Truman State Univ. editor of the Doubful News blog prof. of materials science and Waclaw Szybalski, en gineering, Iowa State Univ. professor, McArdle Laboratory, Univ. WASHINGTON, DC Barbara Eisenstadt, Michael Hutchinson, of Wisconsin–Madison 1020 19th Street., NW, Suite 425 psychologist, educator, clinician, author; SKEPTICAL INQUIRER James R. Pomerantz, Washington, DC 20036 East Greenbush, NY representative, Europe prof. of psychology, Rice Univ. Sarah G. Thomason, tel.: (202) 629-2403 prof. of linguistics, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA William Evans, Philip A. Ianna, Gary P. Posner, ARGENTINA prof. of communication, assoc. prof. of astronomy, MD, Tampa, FL Tim Trachet, Buenos Aires, Argentina journalist and science writer, honorary Center for Creative Media Univ. of Virginia Tim Printy, [email protected] chairman of SKEPP, Belgium Bryan Farha, William Jarvis, amateur astronomer, UFO skeptic, former www.cfiargentina.org prof. of behavioral studies in prof. of health promotion and public health, Navy nuclear reactor operator/division chief, David Willey, CANADA education, Univ. Loma Linda Univ., School of Public Health Manchester, NH physics instructor, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA 55 Eglinton Ave. East, Suite 307 Toronto, Ontario, M4P 1G8, Canada CHINA China Research Institute for Science Popularization, NO. 86, Xueyuan Nanlu Haidian Dist., Beijing, 100081 China Affiliated Organizations | United States Tel.: +86-10-62170515 EGYPT 44 Gol Gamal St., Agouza, Giza, Egypt ALABAMA D.C./MARYLAND MISSOURI Association for Rational Thought (ART) FRANCE Alabama Skeptics, Alabama. Emory National Capital Area Skeptics NCAS, Skeptical Society of St. Louis (SSSL) Cincinnati. Roy Auerbach, president. Dr. Henri Broch, Universite of Nice, Faculte des Kimbrough. Tel.: 205-759-2624. 3550 Maryland, D.C., Virginia. D.W. “Chip” St. Louis, Missouri. Michael Blanford, Tel: (513)-731-2774, Email: raa@cinci. Sciences, Parc Valrose, 06108, Nice cedex 2, Water melon Road, Apt. 28A, Northport, Denman. Tel.: (240) 670-6227. Email: President. Email: [email protected]. rr.com. PO Box 12896, Cin cinnati, OH France Tel.: +33-492-07-63-12 AL 35476 [email protected]. PO Box 8461, Silver Spring, 2729 Ann Ave., St. Louis, MO 63104 45212. www.cincinnati skeptics.org GERMANY MD 20907-8428 http://www.ncas.org www.skepticalstl.org ARIZONA OREGON Arheilger Weg 11, 64380 Rossdorf, Germany Tucson Skeptics Inc. Tucson, AZ. James FLORIDA St. Joseph Skeptics Oregonians for Science and Reason Tel.: +49-6154-695023 P.O. Box 8908 Mc Gaha. Email:[email protected]. Tampa Bay Skeptics (TBS) Tampa Bay, (O4SR) Oregon. Jeanine DeNoma, Florida. Rick O’Keefe, contact person. St. Joseph MO, 64508-8908 5100 N. Sabino Foot hills Dr., Tucson, president. Tel.: (541) 745-5026; Email: 46 Masi garh, New Friends Colony AZ 85715 Tel.: 813-505-7013; Email: NEVADA [email protected]; 39105 Military Rd., [email protected]. c/o O’Keefe, 110025 Phoenix Area Skeptics Society (PASS) Reno Skeptical Society, Inc., Monmouth, OR 97361. www.04SR.org 4011 S. Manhattan Ave. #139, Tampa, Tel.: 91-9868010950 http://phoenixskeptics.org Brad Lutts, President. PENNSYLVANIA FL 33611-1277. www.tampabayskept LONDON Email: [email protected] Tel.: (775) 335-5505; Philadelphia Association for Critical Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, ics.org Email: [email protected]. 18124 Phoenix Skeptics, Phoenix, AZ. Michael Think ing (PhACT), Bob Glickman Pres- ILLINOIS Wedge Parkway #1052 Reno, Nevada London WC1R 4RL, England Stack pole, P.O. Box 60333, Phoenix, ident. 653 Garden Road Glenside PA Rational Examination Association 89511. www.RenoSkeptics.org 19038. 215-885-2089 E-mail: Presi- NEPAL AZ 85082 Humanist Association of Nepal, of Lincoln Land (REALL) Illinois. Bob NEW MEXICO [email protected]. Website: www.phact.org CALIFORNIA Ladendorf, Chairman. Tel.: 217-546- PO Box 5284, Kathmandu Nepal New Mexicans for Science and Reason TENNESSEE Sacramento Organization for Rational Tel.: +977-1-4413-345 3475; Email: [email protected]. PO (NMSR) New Mexico. David E. Thomas, Thinking (SORT) Sacramento, CA. Ray Rationalists of East Tennessee, East Box 20302, Springfield, IL 62708 www. President. Tel.: 505-869-9250; Email: NEW ZEALAND Spangenburg, co-founder. Tel.: 916-978- Ten nessee. Carl Ledenbecker. Tel.: reall.org [email protected]. PO Box 1017, email: [email protected] 0321; Email: [email protected]. PO Box (865)-982-8687; Email: Aletall@aol. Chicago Skeptics Jennifer Newport, Peralta, NM 87042. www.nmsr.org NIGERIA 2215, Carmichael, CA 95609-2215 http:// com. 2123 Stony brook Rd., Louis ville, contact person. Email: chicagoskeptics@ PO Box 25269, Mapo, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria home.comcast.net/~kitray2/site/ NEW YORK TN 37777 gmail.com. www.chicagoskeptics.com New York City Skeptics Michael Feldman, Tel.: +234-2-2313699 Bay Area Skeptics (BAS) San Fran- TEXAS LOUISIANA president. PO Box 5122 New York, NY PERU cisco—Bay Area. Eugenie C. Scott, North Texas Skeptics NTS Dallas/Ft Baton Rouge Proponents of Rational 10185. www.nycskeptics.org D. Casanova 430, Lima 14, Peru President. 1218 Miluia St., Berkeley, CA Worth area, John Blanton, Secretary. Inquiry and Scientific Methods email: [email protected] 94709. Email: [email protected]. www. Tel.: (972)-306-3187; Email: skeptic@ (BR-PRISM) Louisiana. Marge Schroth. Central New York Skeptics (CNY Skeptics) OLAND BASkeptics.org ntskeptics.org. PO Box 111794, Carroll- P Tel.: 225-766-4747. 425 Carriage Way, Syracuse. Lisa Goodlin, President. Tel: ton, TX 75011-1794. www.ntskeptics.org Lokal Biurowy No. 8, 8 Sapiezynska Sr., Independent Investigations Group (IIG), Baton Rouge, LA 70808 (315) 636-6533; Email: info@cnyskeptics. 00-215, Warsaw, Poland Center for Inquiry–Los Angeles, 4773 org, cnyskeptics.org PO Box 417, Fayett- VIRGINIA MICHIGAN ROMANIA Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027. ville, NY 13066 The James Randi Educational Great Lakes Skeptics (GLS) SE Michi- Fundatia Centrul pentru Constiinta Critica Tel.: 323-666-9797. www.iighq.com Foun dation. James Randi, Director. gan. Lorna J. Simmons, Contact person. OHIO 2941 Fairview Park Drive, Suite 105 Tel.: (40)-(O)744-67-67-94 Sacramento Skeptics Society, Sacra- Tel.: 734-525-5731; Email: Skeptic31 Central Ohioans for Rational Inquiry Falls Church, VA 22042 email: [email protected] mento. Terry Sandbek, President. 4300 (CORI) Central Ohio. Charlie Hazlett, @aol.com. 31710 Cowan Road, Apt. Email: [email protected] RUSSIA Auburn Blvd. Suite 206, Sacramento CA President. Tel.: 614-878-2742; Email: 103, West land, MI 48185-2366 Telephone: 571-318-6530 Dr. Valerii A. Kuvakin, 119899 Russia, Moscow, 95841. Tel.: 916 489-1774. Email: terry@ [email protected]. PO Box 282069, Tri-Cities Skeptics, Michi gan. Dr. Gary sandbek.com Columbus, OH 43228 Science & Reason, Hampton Rds., Vorobevy Gory, Moscow State Univ., Peterson. Tel.: 989-964-4491; Virginia. Lawrence Weinstein, Old Philosophy Department Asso ciation for Rational Inquiry e-mail: [email protected]. Dominion Univ.-Physics Dept., Norfolk, SENEGAL (SDARI) President: Tom Pickett. Email: www.tcskeptics.blogspot.com Cleveland Skeptics Joshua Hunt, VA 23529 PO Box 15376, Dakar – Fann, Senegal [email protected]. Program/ Co-Organizer, www.clevelandskeptics.org general information 619-421-5844. WASHINGTON Tel.: +221-501-13-00 www.sdari.org. Postal ad dress: PO Box 623, MINNESOTA South Shore Skeptics (SSS) Cleveland Skeptics La Jolla, CA 92038-0623 St. Kloud Extraordinary Claim Psychic and counties. Jim Kutz. Tel.: 440 942- www.seattleskeptics.com Teaching Investigating Community 5543; Email: [email protected]. PO CONNECTICUT (SKEPTIC) St. Cloud, Minne sota. Jerry Box 5083, Cleveland, OH 44101 www. New England Skeptical Society (NESS) Mertens. Tel.: 320-255-2138; Email: southshoreskeptics.org New England. Steven Novella M.D., Presi- [email protected]. Jerry Mer- dent. Tel.: 203-281-6277; Email: board@ tens, Psychology Department, 720 4th theness.com. 64 Cobblestone Dr., Ham- Ave. S, St. Cloud State Univ., St. Cloud, den, CT 06518 www.theness.com MN 56301

C Y E The organizations listed above have aims similar to those of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry but are independent and autonomous. N I R T U E Q Representatives of these organizations cannot speak on behalf of CSI. Please send updates to Barry Karr, P.O. Box 703, Amherst NY 14226-0703. R F O R I N International affiliated organizations listed at www.csicop.org.

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