SKEPTICISM . SCIENCE . SOCIETY Vol. 36, No 4. December 2016 Uncritical Thinking Dangers and Solutions +Problems with Prophets Ghost Gear & EuroScary Australian Skeptics . www.skeptics.com.au Skeptic_TESTCover_Dec16.indd 1 6/12/2016 11:38 am The Skeptic December 16 Skeptical Groups in Australia NSW VIC Australian Skeptics Inc – Eran Segev Australian Skeptics (Vic) Inc – Chris Guest www.skeptics.com.au GPO Box 5166, Melbourne VIC 3001 PO Box 20, Beecroft, NSW 2119 Tel: 1 800 666 996 [email protected] Tel: 02 8094 1894; Mob: 0432 713 195; Fax: (02) 8088 4735 Skeptics’ Café – Third Monday of every month, with guest [email protected] speaker. La Notte, 140 Lygon St. Meal from 6pm, speaker at 8pm Sydney Skeptics in the Pub – 6pm first Thursday of each sharp. More details on our web site www.skeptics.com.au/vic month at the Crown Hotel, cnr Goulburn and Elizabeth Streets in the city (meeting upstairs) Dinner meetings are held on a regular basis. Ballarat Skeptics Currently being re-activated. See Facebook for details Hunter Skeptics – John Turner Tel: (02) 4959 6286 [email protected] Citizens for Science - Mornington Peninsula (formerly Peninsula Skeptics, aka The Celestial Teapot) Meetings are held at the Club Macquarie, Lake Road, Argenton Contact: Graeme Hanigan 0438 359 600 on the second Thursday of each month, excepting January, http://www.meetup.com/Citizens-for-Science/ commencing 7.00pm, with a guest speaker or open discussion www.facebook.com/groups/peninsula.skeptics/ on a given topic. Visitors welcome. Further information from the secretary at: [email protected] Great Ocean Road Skeptics (Geelong) Contact: Carolyn Coulson [email protected] ACT https://www.facebook.com/groups/147741491945391/ Canberra Skeptics – Lauren Kelly PO Box 555, Civic Square ACT 2608 Meets on the last Wednesday of each month from 6pm, City http://www.canberraskeptics.org.au Tel: 0410 382 306 Quarter, Cunningham Pier East Geelong [email protected] (general inquiries), The Surfcoast Summer Skepticamp is run annually by members [email protected] (Canberra Skeptics in the Pub). A free monthly talk, open to the public - check website for details Melbourne Eastern Hills Skeptics in the Pub Skeptics in the Pub gather at 1pm on the third Sunday of each Contact: Andrew Rawlings [email protected] month at King O’Malleys Pub in Civic. For up-to-date details: http://mehsitp.codenix.org www.meetup.com/ SocialSkepticsCanberra/ https://www.facebook.com/pages/Melbourne-Eastern-Hills Skeptics-in-the-Pub/19241290737690?ref=ts Meets second Monday of each month at The Knox Club, Wantirna South. Melbourne Skeptics in the Pub http://www.melbourneskeptics.com.au/skeptics-in-the-pub/ Meets on the fourth Monday of every month from 6 pm at the Mt View Hotel in Richmond. Mordi Skeptics in the Pub http://www.meetup.com/Mordi-Skeptics-in-the-Pub/ Meets at 7.30pm on the first Tuesday of each month at the Mordialloc Sporting Club. ($4 to cover website costs) For details on Skeptical groups in other states and territories, see inside back cover Volume 36 • No 4 December 16 Contents REPORTS 2016 Convention 10 10 Jessica Singer and Martin Hadley FEATURES That’s a Good Reason 20 28 Tim Harding Uni Daze 24 Diana Lucia Tertiary Thinking 28 24 Martin Davies Tools of Thought 30 Sharon Hill 20 32 39 ARTICLES It Ain’t Necessarily So 32 Colin Groves and Simon Brown 44 Daniel Come to Judgement 39 Colin Groves and Simon Brown The Reasons Behind It All 44 Colin Groves and Simon Brown Broken Tech Ghost Hunting 46 46 Colin Dickey Apps for Apparitions 49 Appolicius Old Stories of Old Europe 51 Listverse.com 51 REGULARS Editorial 4 Around the Traps 5 Them! 9 56 Puzzles page 27 The logical place 53 What goes around 54 Book reviews 56 Forum 58 Letters 60 54 EDITORIAL Think, think, think! ecent events on the political thinking and science education? You bet! R scene – OK, be upfront, we mean But where should that education the election of Donald Trump – have come from? Scientists from academia given support to the fear that there is perhaps - independent, informed, critical a lowering of science literacy and an thinkers all? ISSN 0726-9897 increasing anti-science attitude among Hopefully so, but there might still Quarterly Journal of the population. be issues there. Apart from the fact that Australian Skeptics Inc Just a few claims by The Don: there are tertiary institutions teaching (ABN 90 613 095 379) • Vaccines cause autism. (“We’ve had and, in some cases, practising woo, Editor so many instances … A child went there is also the surprising reality that Tim Mendham to have the vaccine, got very, very academics are not quite the free-thinking sick, and now is autistic.” He gets bunch we might assume. Editorial Board endorsement from disgraced anti- In 1998, the US National Academy Steve Roberts vaxxer Andrew Wakefield: “For the of Sciences found that 93 per cent of Eran Segev first time in a long time, I feel very its members were atheists (actually, Martin Hadley positive about this, because Donald 93 per cent of those who bothered Barry Williams Trump is not beholden to the to respond to a survey). This figure Design Services pharmaceutical industry.”) was quoted by a lot of people to show Nova Consulting P/L • The concept of global warming was how independent and informed these created by and for the Chinese in critical thinkers are. All correspondence to: order to make US manufacturing Unfortunately it may not be true. Australian Skeptics Inc non-competitive. In 2009, the Pew Research Centre PO Box 20 • Trump has argued for downsizing the reported that 51 per cent of US scientists Beecroft NSW 2119 Department of Education and said believe that God or some higher power Australia that the US invests too much money exists; only 17 per cent of scientists Contact details in K-12 schooling. identify themselves as atheists. Tel: +61 (0)2 8094 1894 • He has suggested that he might While that means scientists are a Mob: +61 (0)432 713 195 appoint Ben Carson - a young-Earth, much less religious group than the Fax: +61 (0)2 8088 4735 anti-evolution creationist - to advise general US population, the Pew figure him on educational reform. hardly encourages you to believe that [email protected] And Trump’s Vice President universities are a hot bed of paganism. www.skeptics.com.au Mike Pence hedges on whether he Heaven knows what the figures might acknowledges evolution. be for primary and secondary school The Skeptic is published four times We have our own home-grown teachers. But we have to start somewhere per year by Australian Skeptics Inc. versions, of course, including a few if we are ever to have a population that Views and opinions expressed in articles creationists among the lot in Parliament treats pronouncements like Trump’s with and letters in The Skeptic are those of House in Canberra, not to mention the derision they deserve. the authors, and are not necessarily Federal Health Minister Sussan Lay In this issue, Martin Davies raises those of Australian Skeptics Inc. who apparently added the extra-S to her serious doubts that critical thinking is Articles may be reprinted with first name for numerological reasons being taught, or is even an outcome, of permission and with due acknowledge- (http://tinyurl.com/htntrvb). tertiary education. Maybe primary and ment to The Skeptic. Are these truly signs of anti-science secondary schools are the best prospect All effort is made to ensure correct and ignorance at the top or are they of getting at least a modicum of critical acknowledgement of all contributions. ‘merely’ demagoguery appealing to the thinking in the agenda. This writer We are happy to update credit when so lowest common denominator? will soon be addressing a high school informed. With Australian school kids’ philosophy class on critical thinking – standards in science and maths 20 kids out of 1400 students. But at Editorial submission deadline apparently stagnating, and enrolments least it’s a start. for the next issue: in those subjects similarly moribund, January 31, 2017 is it time for a hefty dose of critical - Tim Mendham, editor 4 NEWS The Skeptic December 16 Around the traps ... Australian Skeptics awards – politicians, complainers and dodgy doctorates Celebrity winners of the 2016 awards from Australian Skeptics included a Victorian Government Minister, a Melbourne academic and “serial complainer”, and a controversial anti-vaccinationist and her Australian university. The awards were made at the formal dinner on November 26 for the Skeptics’ Annual Convention, which this year was held in Melbourne. Thornett Award for the Promotion of Reason Skeptics of the Year AUS: The Victorian Health Minister “Ms Hennessy has received all of AUS: Another positive award from Jill Hennessy was awarded the Skeptics’ those, and courageously faced down the Skeptics is “Skeptic of the Year’, Thornett Award for the Promotion those who misrepresent and mislead given to those in the Skeptical of Reason. Colloquially called “The the public in their promotion of dodgy community whose efforts go above Fred”- it commemorates Fred Thornett, medical claims and practices, in this and beyond what can reasonably be a Tasmanian Skeptic who died in 2009 case anti-vaccinationists and rogue expected of committed campaigners. - this award acknowledges a member chiropractors. This year the award was issued of the public or a public figure who “She was as forthright in her jointly to Dr Ken Harvey and Mal has made a significant contribution public criticism of claims that are not Vickers (pictured above) for their to educating or informing the public supported by science and, in the case continued and highly effective work regarding issues of science and reason.