the Skeptic Contents Vol 25, No 1 Autumn 2005 ISSN 0726-9897 Regulars

Editor ♦ 3 – Editorial — Who to Blame?— Barry Williams Barry Williams ♦ 4 – Around the Traps — Bunyip ♦ 63 – Letters Contributing Editors ♦ 66 - Notices Tim Mendham Steve Roberts Technology Consultant Features Richard Saunders ♦ 6 - Facing Disasters — Rob Hardy Chief Investigator ♦ 8 - Communication Failure — Peter Bowditch Ian Bryce ♦ 10 - Much Ado ... — Sir Jim R Wallaby ♦ 11 - Nutrition Myth: Artificial Sweeteners — Glenn Cardwell All correspondence to: ♦ 14 - The Skeptic Pt 2 — Karen Stollznow Australian Skeptics Inc ♦ 19 - Pestiferous Laws — Colin Keay PO Box 268 ♦ Roseville NSW 2069 21 - Sensing Nothing — Christopher Short Australia ♦ 23 - Dealt Out — Anon (ABN 90 613 095 379 ) ♦ 28 - One Strange Brotherhood — Brian Baxter ♦ 32 - The Skeptical Potter — Daniel Stewart Contact Details ♦ 36 - Escaping the Gravitational Pull of the Gospels — David Lewis Tel: (02) 9417 2071 ♦ Fax: (02) 9417 7930 40 - Resting on Shaky Ground — Sue-Ann Post new e-mail: [email protected] ♦ 43 - The Good Word: Language Lapses — Mark Newbrook ♦ 46 - Review: An Amazing Journey — Rob Hardy Web Pages ♦ 48 - Review: Where Do We Go From Here? — Martin Hadley Australian Skeptics ♦ 49 - Review: Memoirs of a Country Doctor — Ros Fekitoa www.skeptics.com.au ♦ No Answers in Genesis 50 - Literature v Literalism — Peter Bowditch http://home.austarnet.com.au/stear/default.htm ♦ 51 - Feedback: Self Help Books — John Malouf ♦ 52 - Feedback: Sex Drugs & Rock ‘n Roll — Loretta Marron the Skeptic is a journal of fact and opinion, ♦ 54 - Forum: When the Cheering Had to Stop published four times per year by Australian ♦ 58 - Forum: Society, Medicine & Alternative Medicine Skeptics Inc. Views and opinions expressed ♦ 62 - Branch News: Vic Skeptics Matters in articles and letters in the Skeptic are those of the authors, and are not necessarily those of Australian Skeptics Inc. Articles may Cover art by Charles Rose of Cogency be reprinted with permission and with due acknowledgement to the Skeptic. Skeptics around Australia

Editorial consultants: New South Wales Queensland Western Australia Dr Stephen Basser (medicine) Australian Skeptics Inc Australian Skeptics (Qld) WA Skeptics Dr Richard Gordon (medicine) PO Box 268 PO Box 6454 22 Esperance Street Roseville NSW 2069 Fairfield Gardens QLD 4103 East Victoria Park WA 6101 Dr William Grey (philosophy) Tel: (02) 9417 2071 Tel: (07) 3255 0499 Tel: (08) 9448 8458 Prof Colin Groves (anthropology) Fax: (02) 9417 7930 [email protected] [email protected] Mr Martin Hadley (law) [email protected] Qskeptics eGroup (To subscribe send blank message to: Tasmania Dr Colin Keay (astronomy) Hunter Skeptics [email protected]) Australian Skeptics in Tasmania Dr Mark Newbrook (linguistics) PO Box 166 PO Box 582 Dr Andrew Parle (physics) Waratah NSW 2298 Gold Coast Skeptics North Hobart TAS 7000. Prof Ian Plimer (geology) Tel: (02) 4957 8666. PO Box 8348 Tel: (03) 6234 1458 Fax: (02) 4952 6442 GCMC Bundall QLD 4217 [email protected] Dr Trevor Case (psychology) Tel: (07) 5593 1882 Dr Alex Ritchie (palaeontology) Victoria Fax: (07) 5593 2776 Northern Territory Dr Steve Roberts (chemistry) Australian Skeptics (Vic) Inc [email protected] Darwin Skeptics Mr Roland Seidel (mathematics) GPO Box 5166AA PO Box 809 Melbourne VIC 3001 South Australia Sanderson NT 0812 Branch correspondents: Tel: 1 800 666 996 Skeptics SA Tel: (08) 8932 2194 ACT: Mr Peter Barrett Fax: 03 9531 6705 PO Box 377 Fax: (08) 8932 7553 Gold Coast: Mr John Stear [email protected] Rundle Mall SA 5000 [email protected] Tel: (08) 8272 5881 Hunter: Mr Michael Creech ACT Fax: (08) 8272 5881 Borderline Skeptics Qld: Mr Bob Bruce Canberra Skeptics [email protected] PO Box 17 SA: Mr Allan Lang PO Box 555 Mitta Mitta VIC 3701 Tas: Mr Fred Thornett Civic Square ACT 2608 Tel: (02) 6072 3632 (02) 6231 5406 or 6296 4555 [email protected] Vic: Mr Ken Greatorex [email protected] WA: Dr Geoff Dean Editorial Who to Blame?

Few people could have remained un- This proposed human predisposi- it). But by far the most common re- affected by the tragic events that be- tion to believe, and to invent things in sponse was couched in terms of “Gods’s gan in the Indian Ocean off Sumatra which to believe, has, like most human ways are not our ways and we cannot on the morning of December 26 last institutions, resulted in both sublime know the mind of God”, which might year. The tsunami, caused by the shift- benefits and grave faults. There can have sounded more sincere had it not ing of tectonic plates under the sea, be little doubt that religious devotion issued from the mouths of those whose cut short a quarter of a million lives, has inspired wonderful art, music, ar- lives and livelihoods were precisely ranking it as one of the most lethal chitecture and literature, without dedicated to promulgating and inter- natural disasters in the entire history which the world would be a decidedly preting the mind, actions and words of our planet. poorer place. Nor can there be much of God. That this tragedy touched the doubt that religions can provide com- In passing, several of the more vo- hearts of many in Australia is attested fort to their adherents or can inspire cal clerics chose to chide those of us, by the unprecedented generosity of great acts of kindness and sacrifice. skeptics, atheists, et al, who do not individuals, government and organi- But religion (and similar dogmatic subscribe to their notion of deities, im- sations of all sorts in donating to re- beliefs) also has a dark side, with sec- plying that we could find no comfort lief efforts, and by the dedication of tarian-inspired conflict, war and geno- in our scientific view of the world in those who went to the aid of distressed cide remaining as constants through- the face of catastrophe. It might sur- victims. This generosity shows the out human history. prise them to learn that what rational better part of human nature, however Thus we have seen statements from people derive from science is not com- certain religious issues have emerged clerics of various faiths seeking to jus- fort, but understanding. Part of that that are not so benign. tify how such violent natural acts as understanding is that we live on a dy- Evidence from neurophysiological the tsunami fitted with their concept namic planet where natural forces research indicates that our genetic of their particular deity. The tsunami reign supreme; that these insensate make-up makes homo sapiens recep- was immaculately ecumenical in its forces are neither benign nor malign, tive to abstract beliefs that have no effects, killing tens of thousands of they just are — a natural disaster is rational foundation. This ‘faith’ usu- Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Chris- just that — natural. Sometimes no one ally manifests itself as ‘religion’, but tians, Jews, Sikhs, adherents of many is to blame — not even God. It is not includes various totalitarian political other faiths, sects, new age spiritual- the rationalist who is discomfited by philosophies that emerged during the ity, as well as, no doubt, many skep- such an occurrence, it is those who 20th Century which, while they osten- tics, atheists, agnostics, humanists strive, painfully, to justify the incom- sibly eschewed causes, and rationalists, who were unlucky patibility of a benevolent deity with an nevertheless embraced many of the enough to be in its path. It did this horrific event. trappings and certainly the dogma- without regard to their religious, po- On a personal level, if not comfort, tism of religion in their application. litical or other affiliations, age, sex, I did derive some satisfaction when the Observation tends to support this con- state of health, or whether they were service in which I spent 15 of my clusion; throughout history religions good or bad people. younger years, the RAAF, was first on have emerged from all cultures at all That this caused grave intellectual the ground, carrying aid to Sumatra times and most of them have died out discomfort to the clerics was evident within 48 hours of the disaster, where or evolved with the passing of the cul- in the tortured logic they sought to use it continues to provide assistance to- tures or of time. Simple logic dictates in their rationalisations. To the obvi- day. If any comfort comes, it comes that the beliefs of all religions cannot ous skeptical question “How could any from seeing people selflessly doing possibly all be right; on the other hypothetical omniscient, omnipresent good when other people are in need. hand, it is an impeccably rational and benevolent deity allow such in- In this case such people are many, and proposition that all of them could be discriminate killing?” the answers they come from right across the reli- wrong. There is no evidence to suggest ranged from “punishment for straying gious and non-religious spectrum. that Faith Brand X has a better ex- from the true path” (including new- planation of the inexplicable than does born babies, presumably) to “the Grace Faith Brand Y; there is far more per- of God is shown in the generosity of suasive evidence that all religions, as the response from people” (surely any constructs of the human mind, are deity worth his salt could have found prone to fallibility. a less tragic method of demonstrating Barry Williams

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 3 News and Views Around the Traps

Psychics in the dark power in the auditorium suddenly fluttering in literary dovecotes around went off. The blackout effectively the world, but it was not one that ended the show and after 15 minutes would normally have disturbed the Richard Saunders, whose dedication of waiting in the dark it was time to even tenor of the quotidian round in in visiting psychic fairs goes well be- go. the Bunyip’s lair. yond the call of duty and might even Apart from Sharina, I counted at But, blow me down and call me be considered as cruel and unusual least 15 to 20 other ‘psychics’ and other Isobel, the story had another dimen- punishment, sent us this story. fortune tellers who also totally failed sion that had our skeptical antennae Sunday, February 6 saw yet another to foresee this event which directly and twitching thirty to the dozen (infla- “Psychic and Alternative Fair”, this adversely affected them. tion). It seems Ms Adams is not only a time in the Sydney suburb of Hornsby. Also attending was Sue Vanni, who prominent author of “chick lit’ (what- The usual tarot card readers, clairvoy- passed on her thoughts on this occur- ever that is) she is also a professional ants, readers and alternative rence to Column 8 in the SMH, which astrologer. It hardly requires the lit- healers showed up to provide their published the following on February tle grey cells of M Hercules Porritt for services. (Did you know that you can 9.: anyone to work out that if the ‘stars’ extract the toxins from your body by can send messages, and if astrologers strapping tea bags to your feet?) I at- Avowed sceptic Sue Vanni, of are capable of interpreting those mes- tended a free (after paying $6 general Turramurra, “couldn’t resist” attend- sage, then Ms Adams should never admission) session of a ‘Spirit Healer’ ing Sunday’s Psychic Fair at Hornsby have found herself in her present who did a very slow type of cold read- RSL. “I had the last laugh when half- pickle. ing, involving talking to spirit guides way through the clairvoyant’s show, NB Every word used in this item in order to ‘heal’ volunteers from the parts of Hornsby, including the RSL, has previously been used by someone audience. Strangely, she also ‘cleansed lost power for 90 minutes. Organisers else. So sue and be damned. the aura’ by actually touching and seemed genuinely taken by surprise. stroking the back and arms of the sub- Isn’t it amazing that none of the psy- chics had predicted the power failure? ject — never seen that before. Playing Chicken The ‘highlight’ of the day was the performance of Sharina, the ‘psychic’ During February the good citizens of star of weekend radio. Her act relies Star crossed heavily on tarot cards and numbered Newcastle were subjected to a foul chopsticks, but I’m afraid her brand plague of fowl crashing through the of numerology left the audience totally It was the best of times, it was the roofs of their domiciles. Well, to be ac- confused and she should think about worst of times for Australian author, curate, only two examples were re- simplifying it. As I sat there, mentally Jessica Adams, when she was recently ported, but had it been your roof, you ticking off various tech- accused of plagiarising an Agatha wouldn’t have been so smug about it. niques, (oh, but I’m sure Sharina was Christie short story in one she wrote It was not a case of lost migrating poul- getting her information from a heav- for the magazine, The Big Issue. Cer- try passing-out through exhaustion enly source) to everyone’s surprise, the tainly the affair caused some serious and plummeting to their deaths on the

Page 4 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 tiles below. Oh, no! This was far more thority on complementary medicine, In passing sinister — they were plucked birds and Professor Edzard Ernst. Though almost certainly of the frozen variety. Ernst says he repeatedly offered to cor- We were saddened to learn of the This event caused all sorts of specu- rect the text free of charge, his over- death, last November, of Doris lation, starting with one that it was tures were rejected. The book Leadbetter, one of our longest-stand- an aircraft losing part of its load. As encourages the public to resort to un- ing subscribers. Doris, a teacher and Lady Bracknell might have put it, to proven treatments, and the costs of librarian with the CSIRO, was a great lose one chook might be regarded as production were partly funded by the promoter of science. A staunch Skep- misfortune, but to lose two looks like UK government. One in five Britons tic, her robust good humour and keen carelessness (in any case it is fairly un- now say that they have used herbal or sense of the absurd made her contri- likely, as the two cases happened on homeopathic medicines, and more are butions to the Skeptic and her corre- different days). Others suggested that signing up for physical forms of treat- spondence a source of delight to those someone who worked at a factory ment including acupuncture, head of us lucky enough to have had con- where trains for NSW Railways were massage and aromatherapy. tact with her. She will be sadly missed. constructed, might be using a hypo- Randi’s succinct summation: No- thetical “chook cannon” (allegedly used blesse oblige. to fire bird carcases at windscreens to Found on the Net test their safety) to launch the birds. Oddly, no one se- I’m currently going through a bad period, riously suggested they were Doug Gregory of Adelaide penned the following poem, New Age-wise. My acu- the crew of a UFO. that was inspired by a Skeptic mate of his . We like it puncturist keeps needling At Skeptics Central we and thank subscriber, Rog Cooper, for passing it on. were at first suspicious that me, I don’t see eye-to-eye Hunter Skeptic supremo, The Sceptic with my iridologist, my Colin Keay might have been graphologist can’t read my responsible, but that seems He sees only what he sees through his eyes and his writing, I feel manipu- unlikely, as Col, who origi- telescope lated by my chiropractor, nated in the Shaky Isles No confusion for the sceptic my touch therapist won’t would certainly have used No false horizon from cards and palms and leaves keep her hands off me, I frozen kiwis. It remains a No expectation from stars and dice and dreams can’t count on my mystery, but we have no No lucky stones or for the sceptic numerologist, my homeo- doubt that The Truth is Out No inspirations from anthems, hymns and prayers path doesn’t give me much There. No assistance from all the absent gods of anything, and my psy- No need to fear the words of prophets chic healer makes me sick. With a clear conscience and nothing lives forever he Playing quack wastes no precious time He knows no other truths, the sceptic Acronymically speaking Just the birds who bring his morning and the love of This from ’s Our gratitude to sub- today. site www.randi.org. scriber Doug Irvin of A new book has been issued Townsville for the follow- by the Prince of Wales’ Foun- ing: dation for Integrated New age is an acronym. Health, intended to promote alterna- Home sweet home Now Extract Wallet And Give Every- tive health therapies. It’s titled, Com- thing. plementary Health Care: A Guide for Patients, and offers advice on how to Sometimes here at Skeptics Central, find the twelve most popular non- we feel like we are living in the pages standard therapies, including reflex- of a Jasper Fforde novel. Take the day Anniversary ology, herbal medicine and yoga recently when we opened a renewal In March 1990, Barry Williams volun- therapy and it has been distributed to from a subscriber to find that she had teered to edit one issue of the Skeptic surgeries all over the country. moved to Treasure Island Avenue and as a favour to a friend — this issue is the next one opened was from a sub- his 60th. Despite this proof of his gross The book has been condemned as scriber who lived in (down?) Memory innumeracy, he continues to enjoy the “hair-raisingly flimsy,” “unscientific Lane. We won’t, of course, embarrass task immensely, and thanks those and potentially dangerous,” “frankly our subscribers by naming them, but many readers who have made inaccurate” and “over-optimistically we suspect they get all sorts of snide compli(e)mentary comments over the misleading” by the UK’s leading au- comments from their friends. years. Bunyip

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 5 Essay Facing Disasters

Our regular book reviewer, Rob The urge to find lessons in natural A Skeptic’s views of Hardy, who practices as a psy- phenomena has not died in the cen- natural disasters chiatrist in Columbus, Missis- turies since then. Shlomo Amar, Is- sippi, had the following essay rael’s Sephardi chief rabbi, has said published in his local paper The of the tsunami, “This is an expres- Commercial Dispatch. We sion of God’s great ire with the thought it encapsulated the world. The world is being punished feelings of many Skeptics in the for wrongdoing — be it people’s face of the recent tsunami disas- needless hatred of each other, lack of ter and have Rob’s permission charity, moral turpitude.” to reprint it here. In India, some say that a Hindu religious leader was recently ar- Like everyone else, I have been try- rested and the tsunami is divine ing to make sense of the destruction retribution for that offence. Bill and death brought by the earth- Koenig, who describes himself on his quakes and tsunami. Any disaster website Watch.org as a White House like this makes us wonder about our correspondent who is “very active in place in the scheme of things. How both local and national Christian can such catastrophes happen? We activities,” has explanations. He are better equipped to answer the points out that four of the world’s question now than we were when, largest earthquake disasters have say, the Lisbon earthquake shook the fallen on Catholic holidays, capital of Portugal in 1755. That simultaneities that he thinks are not earthquake is memorialised forever chance, but a message. He writes in the poem Voltaire wrote about it, also that the nations afflicted by the and in his wonderful Candide. current disaster have among the Voltaire was disgusted by those who world’s worst records of persecuting said that the earthquake was sent by Christians. He also says that the God as a lesson. He asked if the citi- Christians in the region were dispro- zens of Lisbon were really any portionately kept from harm, a mira- naughtier than those of Paris or Lon- cle for which he is thankful. don. (Perhaps they were even less so, I can’t help thinking that Koenig contemporaries might have wanted would have approved of the priests to think; Lisbon was highly Catholic, in Lisbon after its earthquake as as was Portugal overall.) He wanted they roamed the streets to point out those who had brought the earth- Rob Hardy, from Mississippi, USA is a to know what sort of lesson could be quake by angering God. Having psychiatrist by profession and a columnist learned by harming people in such found them, they hanged them. I by inclination. an indiscriminate manner.

Page 6 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 would have trouble believing in his tinkered with the natural plate- weather, meteor strikes, and earth- sort of God. This seems to me a terri- shifting process to make it go just so, quakes are all part of that natural bly inefficient way to send a mes- sending a message just where and universe, and that they happen, if sage. Rather than causing huge when he wants it sent. The older not randomly, then without regard to waves, and killing thousands of peo- explanation, that once the fruit of whomever they might inconvenience ple, some of whom, at least, must the forbidden tree was eaten, then or destroy. I realize that many people have been innocents, any omnipotent bad things started happening on believe in a God who sends messages supreme being could have been more Earth, seems to me equally unsatis- by means of adversity, and even take direct. After all, which government factory. I can’t think of a means by comfort in such a belief, but the idea of the region will now look at the which eating a fruit might start the of a God directing such stuff makes numbers of thousands of its dead bowels of the Earth to be set in mo- me far more uncomfortable (and and reason, “Well, obviously, it is tion, and I can’t imagine that a God seems far less credible) than the idea time to stop persecuting those Chris- suddenly thought that this trans- that disasters just happen, with no tians,” and then do so? A God who gression was to be punished by, cause beyond the physics involved. had wanted to send a message might among other things, setting the con- quite a bit more easily have caused tinents adrift to bang into each other Human reactions heart fibrillations in every individual and cause occasional misery. If there is meaning in such disasters, that was doing the persecuting. This it seems to me as if it is up to us to would have had a direct effect of Philosophical questions find it in human terms. It is actually stopping the persecution, it would I don’t have any original questions to a good sign that a week after such a have killed far fewer and far more pose about such issues. Voltaire cov- monumental catastrophe, it is still deserving people, and the message ered that philosophical territory long making headlines. There is a human would have been somewhat more ago. Does the God exist who can concern about such an event, which I obvious. create such tsunamis, or who en- refuse to see as prurient curiosity dorses them to bring us his opinion? about the suffering of others. There Scientific understanding This seems unlikely to me. Of all the has been an outpouring of support, It ought to be harder to make an people I know, if they could have which I refuse to see as any sort of argument about God’s message now pressed a button that would have repayment on guilt. I have sent in than it used to be. When Lisbon kept the disaster from happening, my little contribution to help, and so shook to the ground, for instance, no they would have pressed that button, have millions of others; let us re- one knew what was happening below and unhesitatingly; if there is an member that there is an admirable the Earth’s surface. It was actually omnipotent God, he has plenty of impulse to help complete strangers, quite a reasonable explanation to such buttons, but used none. It looks half a world away, with no prospect think that God was doing the shak- more and more to me as if we live in of recompense. I will be the first to ing; after all, no other known cause a natural universe, one understand- admit that religious feelings may could have unleashed such forces. able (eventually) through physical spark such generosity, but I also The only subsequent puzzle, which laws. It seems to me that bad think that the generosity is there in Voltaire, and also Kant, tried its pure form first, for most to sort out was whether or people, who might put a reli- why God would do such Corrections gious spin on it afterwards. I things. Now, however, we am not able to add anything Lynne Kelly’s report in the last issue was headed know a bit more. Immedi- new to the ancient discussion ‘Fourth World Congress’. It was the in fact the ately after the current disas- of “the problem of evil.” The Fifth. ter, there were explanations. enormous losses those coun- In the report Lynne used present tense im- The ancient process of the tries have suffered cannot be plying that bank accounts are still zeroed and shifting of underground compensated by any lessons people still disappear in Argentina. She received plates had caused a sudden learned, but we still have to a note from Alejandro J. Borgo, Editor of Pensar, earthquake and drop of the take whatever lessons we can. whom she had met at the conference, pointing ocean floor, and the water When others suffer, the natu- out that things had improved in that country simply shifted and made ral human response is to par- and concluding: huge waves in response. We ticipate in that suffering, and didn’t know about plate tec- This is also important because next September to try to reduce it; if we might tonics a hundred years ago, we are holding an Iberoamerican Conference on smile at anything within this but we do now, and we have Critical Thinking here in Buenos Aires, and I sad event, we might do so at good natural explanations for wouldn’t want it that some skeptics from Aus- the human response to it. earthquakes and the tsuna- tralia were terrified to come to Argentina. This mis they spawn. It is hard for is not heaven, but neither is hell. me to imagine that a God has

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 7 Nutrition Myth #8: Artificial Sweeteners are Harmful

More myths masticated Humans have always enjoyed the today. A quick aside: the food indus- taste of sweet foods. If you have a try hates the expression “artificial and spat out ‘sweet tooth’ then you are probably sweeteners” as it immediately im- quite normal. It has been speculated plies that it is a foreign chemical. In that we evolved with a sweet tooth fact, some occur naturally; eg sac- because sweet foods (eg fruit, honey) charin is found in fruit. Some in the were safe for consumption, while food industry preferred the term bitter foods may have contained “intense sweetener” or “non-nutritive harmful compounds or have unpleas- sweetener”, but some sweeteners do ant gastric consequences. not fit either description. There now Sugar, which probably originated seems to be universal agreement as a modified grass in New Guinea that “sugar substitute” adequately approximately 10 000 years ago, has covers the non-sugar sweeteners and been vilified for the last 50 years, makes sense to the public. without justification. There has been an underlying view that sugar is both The beginnings harmful and fattening and fits a com- The first non-sugar sweetener to mon belief system that “If it tastes be discovered was saccharin in 1879. good, it must be bad for you”. We It was commonly offered to the pub- now realise that no disease, apart lic as a sugar substitute during the from tooth decay, is linked to sugar two World Wars when sugar was consumption. In fact, sensible sugar scarce. Although saccharin is 300 consumption suits a healthy diet. times sweeter than sugar, its metal- Cane sugar is the disaccharide lic bitter aftertaste made it more sucrose, comprising a molecule of medicinal than pleasurable. Another glucose joined to a molecule of fruc- sweetener, cyclamate, was discov- tose. During digestion this bond is ered in 1937. Cyclamate is 30 times broken, leaving glucose and fructose sweeter than sugar. As it worked to be absorbed. Honey is of similar synergistically with saccharin by structure, being a mix of sucrose, enhancing its sweetness and reduc- glucose and fructose. You can see ing its bitterness, it became a popu- why the chemists were mystified lar addition to the sugar substitutes. that sugar was presented as inher- Cyclamate was banned in the US ently evil, yet honey and glucose in 1969 after animal experiments, were a healthy source of “instant that used massive doses, caused energy”. bladder cancer. Most other countries Born of the fear of sugar was the considered cyclamate to be safe in artificial sweetener, to replace sugar the amount that most people would in the diet. Of course, it wasn’t too consume daily. In 1977 saccharin long before someone was declaring was to be banned as well, which left Glenn Cardwell, sports dietitian, regular Skeptic the dangers of artificial sweeteners nothing to sweeten the non-sugar columnist and public speaker on meaty matters and the voice is still loud and clear diet drinks that were popular with nutritional.

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 11 Nutrition Myth people with diabetes and weight lose their sweetness. Technically, it is created about its use. The US Food watchers. A moratorium was de- a nutritive sweetener because it and Drug Administration and Food manded and saccharin was permit- yields 4 Cals (17 kJ) per gram, but as Standards Australia New Zealand ted to stay in the food supply. Some so little is required, the energy sup- (FSANZ) have thoroughly checked studies gave animals up to 7.5% of plied is negligible. the research and found nothing of the diet as saccharin, which is the Aspartame was launched onto the concern. Should there have been equivalent of giving a human over market as Nutrasweet or Equal. in concern in the first place? After all, 100g saccharin a day on a modest 1981 and three years later in Aus- we are talking about two amino ac- diet of 6000 kJ. That is about 300 tralia. Diet Coke arrived in 1982 ids, compounds abundant in any food times the Acceptable Daily Intake with saccharin as the sweetener, but with protein. For example, a 250 mL (ADI) and 3000 times the amount it wasn’t long before they changed it glass of milk contains 12g protein, of the average human eats today. More to aspartame and triggered the de- which about 1.5g (1500mg) is pheny- on the ADI later. mise of TaB (remember that drink lalanine and aspartic acid. Compare In May 2000, the National Toxi- and its stable mate Tresca?). By the that to the 187mg the average Aus- cology Program of the National Insti- way, Diet Coke started life as ‘diet tralian gets from aspartame each tutes of Health (US) no longer listed Coke’ with a lower case ‘d’ to empha- day. saccharin as a possible cause of can- sise the Coke-ness rather than the The fuss was more about the me- cer in humans in its 9th edition of the diet-ness. Things have changed with thyl group attached to the two amino Report on Carcinogens. Although waistline expansion, as it is now acids in aspartame, as this gets mo- large amounts had caused bladder spelled with a capital D. mentarily converted to methanol, a cancer in mice, it was realised that potentially toxic compound. Fortu- the tumours arose from mechanisms Phenylalanine warning nately, methanol gets quickly con- not relevant to humans. The ques- There is a warning on products with verted to formaldehyde then to car- tion: “Are you man or mouse?” had aspartame alerting the consumer to bon dioxide. The levels of methanol been answered. Now go into any the presence of phenylalanine. This were too low to pose a problem. In- mall in the country and ask someone has concerned a few people. I was on deed, tomato juice produces six times at random whether artificial sweet- talkback radio, when a caller de- the amount of methanol than diet eners cause cancer and the response manded to know why diet soft drink soft drink. will be a definite “Yes”. Fear, once carried a warning and why should This has not quietened the email established, is hard to eradicate from these products be allowed on the hoaxes and the conspiracy theorists. minds. Only in 2001 did saccharin- market. She was fuming. I explained On a regular basis you are likely to containing products in the US no that the warning only applied to the get an email with the unsubstanti- longer have to carry the warning: 1 in 10 000 people who have a condi- ated claim that aspartame causes “Use of this product may be hazard- tion called Phenylketonuria (PKU). Multiple Sclerosis. (I suspect many ous to your health. This product con- This is a genetic condition in which of the food hoaxes spread by emails tains saccharin, which has been de- the body cannot metabolise phenyla- are generated by a disgruntled indi- termined to cause cancer in lanine properly and the rise in phe- vidual or group to affect sales and laboratory animals”. nylalanine causes mental retarda- profits by big multinational compa- tion. As aspartame contained nies. I’ve never seen a nutrition hoax Aspartame phenylalanine, parents with PKU targeting a small local company). With frightening stories about sac- children needed this information. Some people just don’t like the charin and cyclamate, and with a In western countries newborn concept of a sugar substitute and taste that never matched that of babies have a blood sample taken, would prefer to eat as close to ‘natu- sugar, the search for other sugar usually from a heel prick, to check ral’ as possible. I respect that view, substitutes began. In 1965, for a range of genetic conditions, but it should never be justified by aspartame was found. With no bitter including PKU, cystic fibrosis and clinging onto irrational scare stories. aftertaste and 200 times sweeter galactosaemia. If a child has PKU, As the American Dietetic Association than sugar, this very small protein they are diagnosed within 48 hours. put it in their report on sweeteners: (actually a di-peptide of the amino They cannot have breast milk, so go “The issue of sweeteners can engen- acids phenylalanine and aspartic on a special formula low in phenyla- der emotional feelings, which may acid) became the most thoroughly lanine. The children grow up quite have greater personal meaning than researched food additive in the his- normally without any damage to statistical arguments”. Very diplo- tory of the food industry. It soon dis- their brain. matically put. placed saccharin and cyclamate from foods that did not require heating or Scare tactics Sweetener consumption cooking (eg soft drinks and diet yo- As aspartame is by far the most com- In March 2004 FSANZ released a ghurts). When aspartame is heated mon sugar substitute in the food survey of over 3500 people and their the two amino acids break apart and supply, there are frequent scares consumption of sugar substitutes.

Page 12 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 With two thirds of the population recent sweetener marketed as need to be active and eat low-fat for eating sugar substitutes it was im- Splenda. Sucralose is 600 times successful weight control and you portant to see if any were consuming sweeter than sugar and is made by will still need to brush and floss your very high amounts. On average, all of attaching three chlorine atoms to a teeth. The greatest advantage is the sweeteners were consumed at molecule of sucrose. This stops most probably comes from the diet soft much less than the Acceptable Daily of the sucralose from being absorbed, drinks and cordial, and sugar-free Intake (ADI). making it virtually kilojoule-free. It confectionery. With the body not A brief word on the ADI. Research- is heat stable so can be used in cook- being able to adequately compensate ers determine the lowest dose of any ing and baking. for kilojoules in the liquid form, it is food additive that may cause a health easy to over-consume sugar-contain- Alitame (trade name Aclame), like problem over a lifetime of consump- ing drinks leading to weight gain. aspartame, is a di-peptide, this time tion. The ADI is then set at 1% of That makes diet drinks a better comprising alanine and aspartic that level. In other words, you would choice for weight control. Sugar-free acid. It is 2000 times sweeter than have to consume 100 times the ADI confectionery is friendlier to teeth. sugar and heat stable. every day over a lifetime before scien- Both types of products are better tists believe there is a potential for Acesulphame K (the K is for potas- suited to those with diabetes. Apart harm. Because everyone is different, sium) is 200 times sweeter than from those benefits, the clichés of and the health of the community is sugar and its sweetness is not dimin- ‘balanced diet’ and ‘everything in paramount, the ADI allows a 100 fold ished with heating. Although ab- moderation’ still hold. safety margin. This concept of the sorbed by the body, most is excreted ADI is also followed by the Food and unchanged in the urine. References & Bibliography: Drug Administration in the US. In this survey, even the top 5% Isomalt (trade name Palatinit) is Kretchmer N. A Glimpse into the History biggest consumers of aspartame could formed from sucrose, with only half of Sugar. Sugars in Nutrition, Raven Press 1991 only reach 20% of the ADI (about 500 the kilojoules. It is tooth-friendly times less than the amount that may and an ingredient of sugar-free con- Brand-Miller J. Sweeteners: nutritive cause a problem). This does not seem fectionery. and non-nutritive. Essentials of Human Nutrition 2nd edition. Oxford University to allay the fears of everyone. The Sugar alcohols (sorbitol, mannitol, Press 2002 only ones who got close to an ADI for xylitol, maltilol, isomalt and lactilol). Pendergrast M. For God, Country and a sweetener were people with diabe- Due to poor absorption they provide, Coca Cola. Phoenix 1993 tes who ate a lot of cyclamate-sweet- on average, 8 kJ (2 Cals) per gram ened foods. With the exception of Consumption of Intense Sweeteners in and are less sweet than sugar (16 kJ/ Australia and New Zealand. Evaluation cyclamate, the average consumption 4 Cals per gram). They are often Report Series No.8. Food Standards Aus- of all sweeteners was less than 10% used as a bulking agent such as in tralia New Zealand March 2004. of the ADI. sugar-free confectionery and, as they Raben A, Vasilaras TH, Moller AC, The report concluded: do not promote tooth decay, are used Astrup A. Sucrose compared with artifi- Despite the increased consumption of foods containing intense sweeten- in sugar-free chewing gum. Too cial sweeteners: different effects on ad ers … the majority of Australians much sorbitol (>15g per serve) can libitum food intake and body weight after and New Zealanders consume these have a laxative effect. 10 wk of supplementation in overweight foods that present no appreciable subjects. Am J Clin Nutr 2002; 76: 721- 729 safety risk. However, there was a Are sugar substitutes dangerous? small proportion of the population in DiMeglio DP, Mattes RD. Liquid versus both countries whose to the Overwhelmingly, the evidence sug- solid carbohydrate: effects on food intake sweetener cyclamate was above desir- gests that sugar substitutes, eaten in and body weight. Int J Obes 2000; 24: able levels. the usual amounts, have a benign 794-800 effect on health. The truth is, there Shils ME, Olson RA, Shike M, Ross CA. Other sugar substitutes are far bigger dietary concerns af- Modern Nutrition in Health & Disease All sugar substitutes in food avail- fecting our health, with a lack of 9th edition. Lippincott, Williams & able in Australia and New Zealand fruit and vegetables, and too much Wilkins 1999 have been thoroughly tested and are saturated fat and salt being top of Whitney EN, Rolfes SR. Understanding very unlikely to cause harm. I shall the league. As the public quickly tire Nutrition 9th edition. Wadsworth 2002 briefly mention just some that are on of health messages, any scary diet Position of the American Dietetic Asso- the market. As they are a smaller story is always an attractive distrac- ciation: Use of nutritive and non-nutritive proportion of the sugar substitute tion. sweeteners. JADA 2004; 104: 255-275 market compared to aspartame, they seem to generate less interest. My tip Sucralose, which is much easier to Please don’t think that sugar substi- pronounce than its chemical name of tutes will make you lose weight or be trichlorogalactosucrose, is a more immune to tooth decay. You will still

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 13 Investigation The Psychic Skeptic: Part 2

The conclusion of an intrepid What went before Many were stunned when this came into operation. After all, most read- In the previous issue of the Skeptic investigation into the ers need to hear a voice in order to (24:4) I related how I had responded tune. other side to an advertisement at www.career.com.au seeking a tel- However, they quickly rationalised ephone psychic. The American com- this: pany Absolutely Psychic was offering receiving a via typ- contractual positions for “only the ing and having the reader type back best psychics”. In keeping with the to you does not block the flow of vogue for technologically savvy psy- communication. chics, the position also entailed email and chat room readings. The Or the flow of money! first article revealed how I had (Incidentally, as I write this article, I passed the initial application round have just discovered a new British and was therefore eligible to under- innovation to secure the dependency take an email reading test. After of clients — Text-A-Psychic. SMS successfully completing this task, I psychic, tarot or readings was invited to participate in a 15- for only £1.50 per message! Send an minute online, real-time chat room SMS to one of the many psychics reading test. This sequel continues who suddenly perform this new serv- with this exposé, to investigate ice and they will send continual mes- whether Absolutely Psychic’s “exten- sages, charging per reply, until you sive screening process” would weed send the direction ‘stop’. “Like hav- out a skeptic infiltrator! ing your own psychic in your pocket!” one ad enthuses. It won’t be long Now read on before this new avenue of cash The Internet has encouraged the catches on overseas.) promotion and proliferation of psy- chics and psychic companies, giving The semi-final test Karen Stollznow, a linguist and committee birth to email and chat room read- At the appointed time, and after a member of NSW Skeptics, is presently a ings. Absolutely Psychic fretted: psychic warm (reading) up, I signed Research Associate at UC Berkeley, in the USA in to www.absolutelypsychic.com/

Page 14 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 testreading.html for my chat room angel and have exiled myself from Ann> we usually talk about almost reading debut. The web page noted: love and final peace. everything ,can you tell what we are not communaction about? If we are interested in contracting Ann> thats great you on our Network, we will contact Karenina> Your innermost desires. Karenina> I have a message. I can you after all other applicants have What you need. see possible turmoil ahead for you... been evaluated. We do not give feed- Ann>yes what I need back nor ‘follow-ups’. THANKS Ann> oh VERY MUCH! Good Luck. Karenina>I sense something in you Karenina> Either you are already which is asking to be shared with The following is the chat room read- in a loving relationship or will soon your partner. You must express this, ing test in its entirety; it has not be in one, but be wary... ahead of you lest it fester inside you and you’ll been edited for spelling or grammati- might be something to challenge this. become unhappy. cal errors. Ann> can you tell where? is this a Ann> ok yes true no not want to be Ann> hi someone that brings the problems come unhappy Karenina> Hello about? Karenina> I feel that you are wary Karenina> Yes, my , was Ann> how are you doing of this and won’t let this happen. :) a strong and passionate man and he Karenina> I am very well, thank can feel you through me. He senses Ann> your right i will not you. How are you? your own passion, but sometimes you Ann> let it happend Ann> I will be doing your test with can be too giving to your partner. Karenina> Feel inside your emo- you Ann> yes I know it lol tions and realise the lovely potential Ann> good ty Karenina> There are three things to you can have. I sense you wish some- Karenina> Okay remember. thing a little more from your partner. Something they are unaware of and Karenina> 1: If turmoil does come, Ann> Did you have any problems something you need. They can give it never pass it off. I sense if you do loading the chat room? to you this, you could become mired in Karenina> None at all. something you don’t want. Ann> i will be careful Ann> great great gald to hear that Ann> k Ann> Karenina we need to wrap up ,We have used all our time :) up Karenina> How would you like me Karenina> 2. always share yourself to start? with the one you love. When you cut Karenina> Thank you for your time Ann> Karenina I would like you to off communications, which I feel you Ann. I hope that I have been of some do your reading how you normally do have been doing, you can’t love as assistance. fully. and feel comfortable with. Ann> thank you for sharing your Ann> would like to start with a gen- Karenina> 3. Take care of your time and gifts desires and be with someone who eral reading ,foucusing more on Karenina> I feel great positivity for takes care of themselves. I feel both relaitonships :) you. you and your former partners have Karenina> I like to meditate been too giving in the past. When you Ann> yes TY briefly...to tune into my clients. care for yourself, you come to care for Ann>Positive is good. Ann> great sure thing :) each other more deeply. I admit that, like a TV cooking Karenina> I’m hearing from my Ann> cutting off communactions show, I had prepared some of this Angel Guide. Arthur Fitzroy, a bas- from my partner? reading beforehand. I came equipped tard son of Henry VIII. Karenina> Yes, because in the past with the ‘angel guide’ statement. It Ann> thats good you have been afraid to open up as was amusing to read ‘Ann’s’ noncha- fully as possible because of past trou- lant reaction to this absurd an- Karenina>I have a message from ble. nouncement. But ‘Arthur Fitzroy’ is him. an historically plausible character. Karenina> Always be open when Ann> thats great ‘Fitzroy’, ‘son of the king’, was the you feel frustration or unrest in your surname given to illegitimate royal Karenina> He said: I stay from the relationship. Circumstances may children. Henry VIII did have an final light to rectify wrongs and help have made you afraid to be as open illegitimate son named Henry those who seek truth because of the as you could. Fitzroy with mistress Bessie Blount. injustice done to me. I have chosen Ann> some yes right Henry Fitzroy was at one stage con- not to enter the final light. I am... an sidered for the status of heir appar-

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 15 The Psychic Skeptic ent, above his two legitimate sisters Karenina> Your innermost desires. warm, perhaps even a sweaty read- (the future ‘Bloody Mary’ and Eliza- What you need. ing and I needed to consult a profes- beth I). However, Henry Fitzroy died sional unpsychic — Ian Rowland. As prematurely of consumption at age Ann>yes what I need. we all know, our good friend wrote 17. ‘Arthur’ was the name of Henry’s She seemed to accept this with the definitive book on the subject, elder brother who had died before he her positive response and repetition The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading could accede the throne (incidentally, of my comment. I hate to admit that (available at www.ianrowland.com), Arthur was briefly married to it’s a minor power trip (and could the Bible of Cold Reading! I engaged Catherine of Aragon, who would easily be addictive) to have someone in a cramming session of research later became Henry VIII’s first wife. accept your word as ‘gospel’! until I was equipped with the concise Their son-less union would instigate Again, I made certain to finish on facts of cold reading. I realised that much religious and secular change an optimistic, positive note! the lack of a face-to-face encounter although this is another story alto- could actually act in my favour. All I gether!) Karenina> I feel great positivity for needed was a pleasant voice, a calm, Following this introduction, the you. Ann> yes TY sympathetic demeanour and to make remainder of the reading was im- assertions that would sound mean- promptu, a concoction of conceivable Ann>Positive is good. ingful. I could take comfort in and vague assertions about relation- Overall, my ‘reading’ was a ream Rowland’s advice — offer non-spe- ships. I found some of Ann’s re- of nonsensical advice and warnings cific specific Rainbow Ruses and sponses, eg. “thats [sic] great” and but ‘Ann’ seemed to relate to it. At Fuzzy Facts all washed down with “thats [sic] good” to seemingly praise Absolutely Psychic rates, this effort some Fine Flattery. I was as ready as my bizarre statements as making for would cost the punter $US29.95! I would ever be. a convincing and dramatic reading. This was in contrast to her trusting, A final test Somebody blundered believing responses to my relation- I cringed at the entire experience. I awaited the appointed hour of my ship ‘advice’. It is easy to make gen- Surely this one wouldn’t get past the ‘interview’. It came and went. Had I eral ‘observations’ that people will finishing line! However, just because been the victim of someone’s joke? ‘connect with’, often with self-depre- I know myself to be a skeptic, I Did the ‘job’ really exist? Did the cating humour, eg. shouldn’t misinterpret this privi- ‘psychic panel’ re-assess my perform- Karenina>…sometimes you can be leged knowledge for their insight. ance and decided to cull me from the too giving to your partner. The following day came yet another shortlist? I emailed Absolutely Psy- email. I had passed the third test! I chic hoping to reschedule the test Ann> yes I know it lol was invited to attempt the fearful, and learned why the initial test fourth and final test. The ten minute didn’t take place. Holly, the test co- Fortune cookie-like ‘warnings’ are telephone reading test: ordinator and a psychic, had dialled also effective and often applicable, the wrong number by mistake. In- eg. Our telephone test will be a short 10 sert obvious joke here! minute phone reading. We will not Karenina>…I sense something in Holly did call on time for the sec- tell you on the telephone if you you which is asking to be shared ond appointment and apologised for passed or failed. We have many with your partner. You must express misdialling the country code. After a applicants to test and must conserve this, lest it fester inside you and few pleasantries, Holly asked me to time. We do not provide feedback. If you’ll become unhappy. give her a general reading, and gen- we are interested in you we will con- eral it was. I opined that I could feel Ann> ok yes true no not want to be tact you via email with our contrac- a sense of the ‘circle of life” about come unhappy. tual agreement. her, a “beginning or an end”, a “start or finish”, a “death or a birth”. Per- I thought I’d botched the reading The test was scheduled for the following day. It had all been pretty haps there has been a passing in her at the following point where ‘Ann’ family or the family of a friend or challenged me: easy — until now. I started to feel psychic stage fright. How could I acquaintance? Or a birth? Perhaps Ann> we usually talk about almost possibly pass this confrontational this message was metaphorical. everything, can you tell what we are test? And with no feedback? I Maybe she will commence or finish a not communaction [sic] about? couldn’t ‘fish for details’ or receive project. Start or end a relationship? Or does it mark renewal and rejuve- I realised that, as a believer, she the ‘positive minimal responses’ (as nation? I was starting to confuse was probably more concerned about we say in linguistics), the supportive myself with my circumlocution. what psychic ‘knowledge’ I had about ‘mm hmms’ that would indicate my Holly remained completely silent, no her partner, rather than this query accuracy. Silence would normally be reaction at all. Admittedly, this was being a ‘trap’. So, I ‘empowered’ her interpreted as uncooperative or in a off-putting. I tried to construe this as with the response: reading, inaccuracy. This would be a

Page 16 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 her being engrossed in my reading, I was provided with a website to minute yet still only pay their staff so that I could maintain my momen- download a contract. The website around 20 cents per minute). Their tum. greeted me with: website FAQ’s note: So I continued. Knowing that Ab- CONGRATULATIONS! Only 1% of I live outside North America. Can I solutely Psychic had recently applicants are offered contracting! still use the Phone Network? YES! branched out into international con- In fact, this is our speciality. We are tacts I stated that I sensed that The margin of unsuccessful appli- the only network that has the tech- Holly had embarked on a new cants was ever widening! nology to connect Non North project. I added that this undertak- Another part of their website America Clients to North America ing should prove to be fulfilling and notes: and Non North America readers lucrative. I sensed that she had been OUR SCREENING PROCESS IS without charging you extra and yet very busy of late and had less time to EXTENSIVE All readers are thor- offering this service in an on de- devote to friends and family. Feeling oughly tested. Take a look at our mand fashion. confident about making general, application http:// Let’s hope that their overseas future predictions that couldn’t be www.absolutelypsychic.com/ clients see through this careful word- evaluated then and there, I cau- form5.html. This is only a small ing and realise this rate does not tioned Holly that this state of affairs portion of our screening process. If a include international/long distance could continue for some weeks to Psychic reader is contracted on our rates, when a Non-North American months, after which I ‘saw’ her em- Network, client feedback is a very caller phones North America. A call barking on a trip or journey of some important factor for the duration of to Absolutely Psychic could be a sort. A trip related in some way to tenure. We have published our sta- costly mistake indeed. (At a loose her past or future. tistics in the past. Our clients can calculation, a 15 minute call through Getting into the swing of things, I bear witness to having seen on this company, including psychic fees was actually disappointed when AbsolutelyPsychic: Holly interrupted me to prematurely and call charges, would amount to end the reading. We were only about “July 27,2002: “ 74 Applicants — 43 about $A45.) 5 minutes into the reading. Her clos- Tested — 4 selected” and “Septem- The claims ing words sounded ominous, “I’ve ber 3 “41 Applicants — 23 Tested heard as much as I need to. Thanks.” — 2 selected.” Yet, Absolutely Psychic make much I was a little shocked. I had clearly of their ‘ethical’ business practices: bombed. I might have fooled these Yet they need an automated mes- Many Psychic Networks also mix people with a glowing resume, a sage to inform such a small portion their business with SEX. Most 900 prepared email reading and a gen- of applicants that they have been lines operate phone sex lines. Also, eral, informal chat room reading but successful? My experience leads me many Online Psychic Networks oper- the real test had exposed me, per- to doubt the accuracy of these fig- ate in the adult entertainment busi- haps not as a skeptic but certainly as ures. It is apparent that the com- ness. a novice. The whole premise for my pany has a lengthy and involved, yet investigation was seemingly invali- not stringent procedure and a high Not Absolutely Psychic. Their dated. It was time to put away my turnover of ‘psychics’. bread and butter is love, not sex: crystal ball. The job Jump right in and ask them straight out ‘love life?’ 95% of readings are Success! As a potential employee, I suddenly love readings and 5% work. One of became privy to insider information. Another email awaited me the next our readers with a very good sense of For instance, how much does a tele- day. I could smell the rejection. humor instantly says to clients ‘are phone psychic get paid? Novice read- we checking your love meter today? Thank you for taking time to apply ers are paid 23 cents per minute for and test out for our Network. We a four month probationary period. While Absolutely Psychic offer have purposely constructed this e- Subsequent to this period, readers their new readers a list of helpful mail as we are busy with a million receive a generous four cent per ‘reading tips’, such as these, they duties to keep business flowing. minute pay increase. Using the serv- don’t have a code of ethics. My heart sank…until I read the ice can prove to be an expensive ex- New consultants serve their pro- next line. ercise. Clients phone a 1-800 line bationary period as telephone psy- (the equivalent of our 1-900 num- chics. After successfully passing, We would like to offer you an Inde- bers) and are charged at a rate of contractors may progress to email pendently contracted Psychic job $US1.99 per minute for a phone and chat room readings. This is a with APN. reading (Surprisingly, this rate is lucrative, multi-billion dollar indus- I got the job! This is the most ex- relatively cheap as other comparable try in the United States. A simple cited I could ever be about a job I companies charge $US3.99 per 600 word reading, like my test read- didn’t want!

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 17 The Psychic Skeptic ing, is charged at $US59.95 successfully passing their while a 1300 word reading test system means that I To whom this may concern, is only $US79.95! Online am placed within the top chat room readings rake in In January of 2004 I applied for a position as ‘psy- 1% of psychics! the cash too. From chic’ through your company. I successfully passed What is of concern is $US29.95 for a 15 minute each stage of the Absolutely Psychic screening proc- the overwhelmingly un- reading through to ess, including the application submission, the email critical acceptance of ‘psy- $US89.95 for an hour long reading, the chat room reading and the telephone chic’ as a valid profession reading. Like a psychic test. According to your website, this is an incredible and one through which pyramid scheme, clients feat as, depending on which link I read, only be- people can seek legitimate receive a free 15 minute tween 1-5.7% of applicants are successful. Finally, advice. This is an indus- reading for every two I was offered a contractual position as a ‘psychic’ try with no regulations or friends they ‘refer’ to the with Absolutely Psychic. accountability. While I company. Clients can also The purpose of my contact is to inform you that, undertook some research get ripped off in the lan- despite passing your reputedly stringent series of for this investigation I guage of their choice as tests, I do not profess any psychic ability and am, unearthed several articles Absolutely Psychic offer in fact, a prominent member of the Australian Skep- from prominent newspa- bilingual readers, specialis- tics Inc, where I undertake investigations of this pers that did not examine ing in Spanish and French. nature, to test claims of the . Employ- the phenomenon but ac- But what was my deci- ing ‘cold and ’ skills, amateur psychol- cepted it unquestioningly sion to be? Should I accept ogy and generalisations (and badly at that) were and offered readers a psy- the job and defect to the sufficient for me to infiltrate your ranks and be of- chic shopper’s guide to other side? I could join the fered a position with your organisation. This does ‘choosing the right psychic lofty ranks of John not speak highly of either the legitimacy of your for you!’ Rather than ex- Edward, Sylvia Brown, operation or the practice itself. ploring the legitimacy of Athena Starwoman and the practice these articles who are (or I would be very interested in any feedback you may only distinguished be- were) more famous and have regarding this situation. tween a ‘professional psy- wealthy than most skep- chic’ and what they per- Yours Sincerely, tics. Surely, with my in- ceived to be an sider knowledge I could be ‘unscrupulous psychic’. Karen Stollznow, the best of the worst! But, The only criteria for the wouldn’t I have the skep- former seemed to be a the ‘Psychic Skeptic’. tics on my tail? “She was psychic who offered the one of us!” Aha! I have a best value for money, was shrewd response for that one. “Yes, I skills to my clients! I sent the follow- friendly and provided an appropri- was a prominent skeptic, a public ing email to Absolutely Psychic. ately mystical ambience. The em- and active member, but through this ployee expectations of Absolutely environment of scientific testing and Psychic were no more profound. In research I came to accept the undeni- As of the publishing deadline date hiring a skeptic as a psychic, these able proof that psychics do for this issue, 1/2/2005, I have not companies don’t expect more than a exist…and I am one!” What a selling received any response to my email. credible manner and a ‘gift of the point! Or perhaps I could convince My objective was to see if a sup- gab’. In accepting this, their clients myself with uncritical, faulty logic posedly ethical and reputable com- don’t expect any more either. As Ab- that I am, in fact, a psychic. I pany, with allegedly high standards, solutely Psychic say, “We don’t thought I was a skeptic but passing would hire a person without psychic need to say our Psychics are the these rigorous tests qualifies me as a ability. And they did. They hired a Best, our clients do all day long!” psychic. I simply need to redefine my skeptic as a psychic. In that I ap- concept of psychic. plied for the position, the company presupposed that I am psychic. Their The result tests did not prove psychic ability. I didn’t accept the contractual Any thoughtful person with minimal position. I will remain poor…but advice-giving skills would have ethical. Perhaps I could have ac- passed. And I do not claim to be psy- cepted the offer and spent each read- chic. I have no reason to believe oth- ing disseminating critical thinking ers who claim psychic ability. Yet, by the admission of Absolutely Psychic,

Page 18 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 Report Pestiferous Laws

Reporting on a long- Ten years ago I became aware of a Pest Free manufacturer and the running case new type of gadget on the market Australian Competition and Con- that was supposed to eliminate pests sumer Commission opened an inves- and vermin from the home. Called tigation into the device. Neither au- Pest Free, it did not employ chemi- thority received a satisfactory cals, rather, when plugged into an response and Pest Free Australia P/ electricity outlet it produced weakly L kept on selling their device. Ac- pulsing magnetic fields: cording to the Newcastle Herald (2002 January 16): affecting the sensitive metabolism of pests making your home a no-go ... the family owned and operated zone company has since (it commenced) sold more than 250,000 units in and which Australia. create an environment where things At $79.95 per unit plus $7.50 post- such cockroaches, mice and rats age and handling that’s big bikkies cannot eat, sleep or breed. for a family business! That Austral- These and many other extraordi- ian total presumably omits overseas nary advertising claims were enough sales which, in early 2003, earned to trigger my bulldust detector and, the company a Federal Government with the kind assistance of skeptical Export Market Development Grant friends, I publicly questioned the of $42,336, the second largest grant efficacy of the plug-in device. It was for the Hunter region (Newcastle not long before the manufacturer Post, 2003 January 15). It was reacted and we received formal claimed in the report that every threats of legal action in a contest EMDG dollar granted generated an fully described in Autumn 1999 issue additional 12 dollars in exports, so of the Skeptic (19:1) available on the there’s another half a million. Great Skeptic CDs. However the trade had not all In 1999 the Director of the Hunter been one way. Late in 2001 Mr Ray Public Health Unit, Dr Craig Dalton, Connell, managing director of Pest demanded proof of the validity of the Colin Keay, grand panjandrum of the Hunter Free Pty Ltd, took out a large news- pseudo-scientific claims made by the Skeptics, is a retired (but not retiring ) physicist paper advertisement (NH November

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 19 Pestiferous

10) headed “Let’s keep the real pests posts had been shifted! Instead of refrain from making representations out of Australia” protesting: Pest Free having to prove that its that their devices, when operating claims were NOT false and mislead- within a person’s premises, will .... the flooding of our domestic market ing, now the ACCC was required to with cheap imported products that Here followed a somewhat revised prove that Pest Free’s claims were in are copies of our great Australian list of the advertising claims set out fact false and misleading! There brands. They rob us of income and in the initial press release. Then must have been some fancy footwork much-needed jobs. there were four final paragraphs there on the part of Pest Free’s silks which I quote verbatim. Well, those who export junk can — or breathtaking incompetence on hardly complain if someone else im- the part of the ACCC’s legal team. The court granted leave for the ports similar junk. For three years I was so incensed that I wrote ACCC to discontinue proceedings the wheels of the ACCC slowly ro- formally to the ACCC offering to be against the company and its direc- tated until a press release emerged an expert witness to disprove one of tors. The court noted that the parties on 15 November 2002 announcing: Pest Free’s advertising claims that agreed that the discontinuance was without prejudice to previous costs ACCC Institutes Against Pest Free was based on false physics. It was orders in the respondent’s favour Australia Pty Ltd Over its Plug-in not one of the eleven basically bio- and that each party bear its own Pest Free Device Alleging Mislead- logical claims cited in the ACCC costs since 30 June 2004. ing Conduct. action. To be specific, Pest Free’s print ads asserted that their device: The action, in the Federal Court, ACCC Chairman, Mr Graeme alleged that Pest Free in its adver- ... alters the existing electromagnetic Samuel said the ACCC is pleased tising, made false and misleading field in your electric wiring, reach- the proceedings have been settled representations concerning the per- ing deep into the walls, ceilings, with the company offering undertak- formance and characteristics of its cupboards and crevices affecting the ings to the court. product in breach of sections 52 and sensitive metabolisms of pests. 53(c) of the Trade Practices Act 1974. I don’t know about the sensitive Any claims made as to efficacy or Eleven examples were cited, all of a metabolisms of pests, but the degree performance characteristics of a biological nature, such as (the device of penetration of the feeble magnetic product must be accurate and truth- will): fluctuations of the Pest Free unit is ful. If a company makes a represen- tation as to a future action it must break the breeding and feeding cy- very limited, as I had convincingly have a reasonable basis for making cles of cockroaches, mice, rats and demonstrated in a TV demonstration the claims. other noxious or destructive insects (A Current Affair, January 251996). I and vermin. pointed out that the power conduc- tors in normal household wiring are The ACCC is also aware of similar only a few millimetres apart, so the plug-in devices on the market and is Serious doubts opposing currents produce (by Am- concerned about some of the claims My feeling, backed by opinions of pere’s Law) opposing magnetic fields being made in relation to those de- qualified biologists, was that Pest which effectively cancel out only a vices. Sellers of such devices should Free would have utmost difficulty few centimetres from the cable itself. exercise due diligence to ensure that proving any of the cited advertising Moreover, the current drawn by the any claims made about operation or claims. The press release stated that Pest Free device flows only in the effectiveness have a sound basis in the ACCC sought court orders in- cable between the wall socket (into fact, he said. cluding, inter alia, injunctions, re- which the Pest Free is plugged) and The faint sounds of wrist-slapping funds to customers, corrective adver- the mains supply to the meter box, may be distinctly heard from the tisements, removal of the product and does not flow and create a mag- courtroom. from sale, and costs. Wow! netic effect in any other electrical So I waited. Soon, for reasons that cables throughout the house. were a mystery, the case was trans- I heard no more from the ACCC ferred from Sydney to the Federal until a letter dated December 17 Court in Adelaide where there 2004 arrived thanking me for my seemed to be a protracted series of “assistance in this matter” and in- “discovery hearings”. Every few cluding a press release dated 11 No- months I phoned the ACCC contact vember — Armistice Day. The press person in Adelaide to find out how release was headed “Federal Court much was discovered until in July Accepts Undertakings on Plug-in 2004 I made a discovery that Pest Device”, the undertakings being shocked me. I learned that the goal- that Pest Free will:

Page 20 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 Investigation Sensing Nothing

Taking a look at a shabby It is night in the suburbs. A street- promise of a particularly juicy story lamp pole bears a tattered poster that turns out to be right at the end, and insulting TV show with the photos of three girls, infor- with Sensing Murder you have to sit mation wanted. Under the bright through interminable re-enactments star-lit sky stands an eldritch of the murder. These dramatisations Rebecca Gibney. cover not only the murders, but also take a long time to “set the scene”, Many people are reticent to believe giving the background of the victim in psychic phenomena until there is and other people involved. Snippets scientific proof. What many people of the re-enactments are shown over don’t realise is that there already is. and over throughout the rest of the At this, the stars in the sky coa- show. Some people report that they lesce into the Greek letter ΨΨΨ ‘psi’… found watching these segments quite Psychic phenomena or ‘psi’ has been harrowing and upsetting. shown to exist in thousands of scien- The last third of the show is given tific experiments. Virtually all the over to the work of a team of private scientists who have studied the evi- investigators. They pick over the dence, even the hard-nosed sceptics, bones of the case (which others have now agree that psi merits serious gone over many times before) and attention. The question is now no try to follow up on anything the psy- longer ‘What proof is there?’ but chics have said that sounds promis- rather ‘What does the proof reveal ing — never very much. To present about ourselves and the universe?’ that part of the show they have a clean-cut young man who sits at a (Accompanying photographs show desk and tries to appear suave and tests being performed with the deep, yet professional. Unfortunately words “Princeton University”) he comes across as rather stilted. It’s Despite Channel Ten billing Sens- hard to imagine him with a team of ing Murder as a show in which psy- private investigators in the field, but chics work with police to solve mur- easier as a wannabe actor. der cases, the police are not involved In the psychic part of the show, with the show, and the section with middle-aged women with garish the psychics only lasts for about a dyed hair (wigs?) murmur and gasp Christopher Short is President of the Victorian third of the hour-and-a-half show. as they wander around crime scenes Skeptics, a place where photographs do not Just as current affairs shows lure or are given evidence to hold. work because of low light levels. you through the ad-breaks with the

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 21 Sensing Nothing

To get the psychics for the show, tails. Assuming these psychics are never be turned over looking for this the Sensing Murder team tested over real, what was the point of this body. The psychics said there was a one hundred psychics from around downturned photo stunt? witness to one of the murders — but Australia by asking them to provide It all makes it look like some kind what can you do if that witness details from an obscure murder with of hokey carnival magician’s act. If doesn’t come forward? A murderer only a photograph to guide them. these psychics are really there to was alleged to work for a particular They managed to whittle the num- solve the case, and not play some large hospital — but information bers down to the top five psychics game, they should be given all the about the staff there was unavail- who are used, generally two at a known information about the case able due to privacy laws. time, on each episode. before the episode and then asked to In the episode about the Phillip Sensing Murder details the follow- provide new details. What’s the point Island Murders, self-styled “Psychic ing rules: of getting the psychics to guess the Detective” Scott Russell-Hill is ♦ Psychics have been flown from victim’s name? You wouldn’t treat a brought in. He’s the only male psy- detective like that! If all their psy- chic on the show and is presented in interstate (to minimise exposure to chic power enables these psychics to a different way from the others. He’s the cases); do is to relate known details, it’s more confident and definite about ♦ Psychics have never met; pretty useless, and not a little sus- what’s going on. He talks about ♦ pect. building up ‘psychic profiles’ of peo- Kept separate from each other at Even though the psychics were ple and ‘vibrations’. all times; flown from interstate, these were not Bizarrely Scott does not employ ♦ Filmed non-stop in one day; obscure cases. They were reported in his own psychic powers but instead the media all over Australia and all turns to that most inconsistent of all ♦ Kept under constant supervision of them have had books written New Age arts — numerology. He (so they can’t research the case); about them. Upon being told she is adds up numbers selected from the ♦ to be flown to another state, a fake victim’s birth-date as well as num- No responses during the reading psychic would not find it at all diffi- bers in the death date and notes that (from the crew). cult to pop down to the library to they don’t match! Despite the evi- brush up on her knowledge of that dence being far from conclusive, po- Missing the point state’s infamous unsolved murders. lice and coroner had decided that the So the psychics are shown photo- murder probably occurred on the graphs, pieces of evidence and taken Inside information 23rd September. But Scott’s numer- to crime scenes to “pick up the vibes”. A contact from the crew of Sensing ology convinces him that the murder Uncannily, despite being told nothing Murder has revealed another part of must have occurred on the 22nd — else, the psychics manage to relate all the reason why the psychics did so because on that date the victim’s sorts of information that precisely well at sensing details from the mur- “personal vibration peaks”. matches the details of the case. ders. Apparently the psychics were One piece of evidence — already Wait a moment — the information filmed while they were picking up known to the police — seems to sup- matches the details of the case? The ‘vibes’ about the case and then their port this and is waved about as rules above and the business of not comments were matched up against damning ‘overlooked evidence’ that telling the psychics which case they the known facts. The show was sub- is likely to solve the case. But even are working on seem to be all part of sequently ‘improved’ by editing out before the psychics came on the a “game” where we see how many of the mistakes. The correct statements scene this was known to be a highly the known facts the psychics can were left in, as well as those men- confusing case with witnesses and pick up. Surely this misses the whole tioned by both psychics. The crew other evidence that didn’t fit the point that the psychics are supposed member was very unimpressed by official story. Neither the psychics to be providing new information and the psychics’ abilities and claimed to nor Sensing Murder attempt to solving the cases? feel “morally bankrupt” for having present a theory that links up the In one episode both psychics are worked on the show. evidence, let alone give psychic rev- given a photograph of the victim. Perhaps a minute or two — out of elations. Furthermore, why was One looks at the photo and starts such a long programme — has the Scott doing this calculation? We’re relating details, but the other de- psychics attempting to answer the supposed to believe he is a profes- clares that she can do the same with- big questions to which no-one knows sional “psychic detective” so he out seeing the front of the photo- the answers. Invariably their re- wasn’t just doodling around with graph — so it’s given to her face sponses turn out to indicate answers numbers. He had deliberately set out down. She starts stroking the photo- that can never be verified. In one to compare the accepted day of death graph and is soon rattling off details episode the missing body was said to with the magic number to see if it as well. Later, she is “permitted” to be at the bottom of a waste disposal turn the photo and gives more de- tip, which is so large that it will Continued p 27 ...

Page 22 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 Investigation Psychics Dealt Out

Psychic powers no help in Psychics are rather like moles; they sense, a lot of courage and a mas- exist in their own dark, subterra- sive dose of luck. Tonight, in a winning large sums nean world where, surrounded by psychic experiment we are going to gullible believers, they remain try to eliminate the element of luck largely insulated from reality, rarely because the thing is, no one here emerging to face the light of public knows which amounts are in which scrutiny. Because most psychics go to brief cases, I don’t know, the studio great lengths to avoid public chal- audience doesn’t know, the produc- lenges, it is extremely rare for non- tion team doesn’t know, the models believers to have an opportunity to don’t know, but these people on the see them at work; however such an podium may be able to work it out opportunity occurred on Monday using only their special abilities; August 30 2004, when twenty-six abilities that not even science can psychics, (Angel Intuitives, Animal explain, and if that’s the case we Intuitives, Astrologers, Face Read- should see the two million dollars ers, Reiki Masters, Tarot Card Read- go off. Well that’s the theory any- ers, Mediums, Psychics, a Shaman way. and a White Witch), appeared in a With the twenty-six psychic con- special edition of the Channel 7 tel- testants in place on the podium, evision quiz show, Deal or No Deal: twenty-six female models entered Test of the Psychics. the studio, each carrying a single The Deal sequentially numbered briefcase that contained a nominal monetary Introducing the show, the compare, prize ranging from fifty cents Andrew O’Keefe, explained: through to two million dollars. As you know Deal or No Deal is To select a single contestant to predominantly a game of chance play for the major prize of two mil- .The object of the game is to select lion dollars, the psychics were re- quired to answer five questions, (see This article, which shows just how inept people the briefcase which has the two below). The one scoring the highest who profess a variety of ‘psycic’ powers are in million dollars inside, or at least, and fastest score, was Jacqueline real life situations, was saved without our to keep that briefcase in play for as Frazer, a Reiki Master, who, as noting the author’s name. We apologise for long as possible as we eliminate all Andrew announced, “… will now the oversight, and ask the author to both twenty-six briefcases. Now, nor- play using her psychic abilities for forgive us and let us know his/her identity. mally this requires a bit of common two million dollars!”

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 23 Dealt Out

AO’K: Now tell me this Jacqueline AO’K: Yep? five psychics on the podium had I know that you are a bit of a Reiki taken possession of the briefcases, expert. As far as I understand JF: Yes. and the holder of briefcase #22 was Reiki is the transference of energy identified as Scott Alexander King, through the hands. Is that right? AO’K: Really. So that quickly you an Animal Intuitive. He explained can soak up the energy from…? that since he was eight years of age JF: That’s correct, it’s though your he had been able to see “animal spir- palm chakras and it’s actually a JF: Yes, my palm chakras were its” around people and, since each universal healing energy that is open and were ready, I have asked animal had a certain meaning, this available to everyone. to be receiving anything that could enabled him to ascertain messages come off the scarf, any vibrations, or feelings appropriate to the indi- AO’K: What did you do to prepare or anything. I am feeling some- vidual enquirer. He hoped”… that for today, if anything. thing so we’ll see how we go. Jacqueline was right” that the case contained fifty cents; however, when JF: I invoked a lot of Ascended AO’K: Alright, well the time has opened it was found to contain Masters and Archangels. come then Jacqueline to select the $250,000. Jacqueline next selected case. I want you to tell me what #16. The holder of this case, Yvette, a AO’K: Right. method you are going to employ Psychic, commented that on the pre- and let’s go ahead and select. vious night she had dreamed about JF: I did a meditation last night. #16 and, in her dream, she saw it JF: Okay, I am going to use Reiki contained the two million dollars. AO’K: Yes. again, and just run my palms over the outside of the cases without Yvette: I am going for the big one. JF: And prayed to all those other touching them. beloved people that have passed on AO’K: Two million dollars Yvette Armed with the scarf Jacqueline before me, relatives and family and thinks she has in the bag. Is it a walked amongst the models, momen- anyone else out there who could psychic phenomenally correct an- tarily scanning various briefcases. help. swer? No it’s $75,000; it was a big She walked past briefcase #19 briefly one! before turning back and selecting AO’K: So you think there are some Jacqueline next selected #11. The spirit guides here helping us? this briefcase. Andrew explained that as well as choosing the main holder, Louise, a Clairvoyant, indi- prize the aim of the game was also to cated she believed it contained $50 JF: I think the full room is full of — it contained $100. spirit guides. eliminate the other monetary amounts in a series of rounds. This The next selection was #13. This To ensure the integrity of the test an involved Jacqueline eliminating all was held by Roxanne, an Astrologer. independent auditor, Michael Hill of of the other briefcases, and as long When asked if she could pick the KPMG, had prepared the briefcases as the amount she had nominated contents of the briefcase, she replied, independently of the production remained in play the selection proc- “I have had indications that it might staff. He appeared via a monitor ess could continue. At various times be $750.” She was correct and won linkup to explain how he had ran- during the selection process $1,000 for correctly guessing the domly assigned the respective de- Jacqueline would be offered various amount. nominations to the various brief- cash prizes as an incentive to relin- At this point Andrew mentioned cases. In addition, he explained how, quish the briefcase she had chosen. that it was normal for some of the as part of the experiment, he had Whenever she nominated a particu- participants on the podium to cor- touched the briefcase containing the lar briefcase the psychic holding the rectly guess the amount in their two million dollars with a red scarf, briefcase was asked to independently briefcase. and had then placed this scarf in a nominate the amount they believed We have an average on Deal or No separate briefcase. This briefcase was contained within the briefcase. Deal of three correct guesses on the was given to Jacqueline who re- If they correctly guessed the amount podium. So three people take home moved the scarf and wound it within, they would win $1,000. a thousand dollars in an average around her left hand. game of Deal or No Deal. Hoping AO’K: At this initial stage, I know Round 1 to improve upon that in our psychic it’s very early do you get any sense To commence the first round of the special. selection process Jacqueline was from the scarf, any kind of ener- Jacqueline then chose #17; and asked to nominate the briefcase with getic feelings? Darren divulged that he was a the lowest amount, (fifty cents), and Profiler who used Tarot Cards and JF: Yes. she nominated briefcase #22. spirit guides to assist in locating During the first break the twenty-

Page 24 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 missing people. He stated the brief- second choice was # 9 which Rachael actually contained the two million case contained $200, when opened it Williams, the Shaman, predicted dollars; the next briefcase chosen was found to contain $10,000 contained $50,000 — it actually held was #21, and Joyce (no mention of The next briefcase selected was $7,500; third choice was #20 held by her expertise) predicted it would #10. Leanne an Angel Intuitive, ex- Maureen, a Medium, who had been contain $5 — it contained $2. plained how she energized a deck of receiving messages from her dead AO’K: Do you think that women special angel cards, which she then husband. She correctly guessed her are more intuitive than men gener- shuffled them and selected either briefcase contained $25.00. At her ally? one or three cards that provided her fourth choice, #7, Kerry the White with psychic insights. She had con- Witch appeared somewhat confused. JF: I think, yes, I think women, sulted her cards and “felt” that her She thought her briefcase contained seeing as women are more emo- case contained fifty cents. It actually $750. When it was mentioned this tional, that women are more intui- contained $75. had already been selected she tried tive I think it’s built into us. At the end of the first round again. She nominated the amount of Actually Dr Karl has shown that Jacqueline was offered a deal of $2,000; Andrew pointed out there there is a scientific explanation for $26,700 in place of the case she was was no $2,000 but there was $2,500, that too, that a part in a woman’s holding, however she declined to she agreed, “… that will do”. When brain is actually larger than men’s make a deal and indicated she would this was found to be correct she re- to deal with psychic intuition. keep going. acted with an extraordinary open- At this point the audience was mouthed display of amazement at (We’d be very surprised if Dr Karl asked to vote on whether or not they guessing the correct amount; The (Kruszelnicki), a Skeptic subscriber, believed briefcase #19 contained the final choice of this round was #25 has shown any such thing. Ed) two million dollars. At the conclusion that Robyn, whose expertise was not The bank then made an offer of of the vote Andrew commented: mentioned, suggested it contained $44,444 Jacqueline again used her $1,000,000 — in fact it contained Oh, eighty percent of you are scep- psychic powers to check the briefcase only $200 tics, where is the magic in this and declined to accept the deal. She At the end of the second round world? I guess it will be our job to then proceeded to the fourth round another bank offer was made to change their minds. We want to turn in which she was required to pick Jacqueline, an amount of $57,300, sceptics into believers. three briefcases. which she also declined. Jacqueline stated at this time that she was re- Round 4 Round 2 ceiving a message from her guides Her first choice was #12 held by After the break Andrew observed: to, “… keep going, you have nothing Simon Turnbull, the head of the Aus- to lose.” AO’K: Can’t help but notice that as tralian Psychic Association, a lead- well as the scarf you’ve got some Round 3 ing light in the murky world of psy- crystals in your hand. chics. He predicted the briefcase In the next round Jacqueline had to contained $100,000; it actually con- JF: Certainly have. Yes. select four boxes; Her first choice tained one million dollars. was #1. Brian, a Clairvoyant who AO’K: Oh one million dollars! I AO’K: What are they doing for us? was holding the box, indicated it held $1.00; it actually contained thought you were spot on there for JF: Well they are giving me some $50,000; Next was box #18; held by a moment. One too many zeroes. energy that I’ve asked them before Anita, a Tarot Card Reader who ex- AO’K: What is it Jacqueline that we started. If they could impart plained that everyone was psychic, you sense when you feel the case? Is any of their elemental energy to me but that some are born with their it a general aura of greatness or and let me know if anything is psychic abilities more developed magnitude or are you getting spe- going on with the numbers. than others. She predicted that her briefcase contained $50; in fact it cific numbers? AO’K: Getting any vibes? contained $500; next was #4 held by Astro Girl, an Astrologer and rela- JF: I am not getting any numbers, JF: Yes I’m getting a lot of vibes tive of the late Athena Starwoman, just that the case does contain actually. who confided the incredibly reveal- something that’s worthwhile. ing fact that, “The stars tell us that In round two Jacqueline had to Her next selection was #15 held with the Moon in Aquarius there by Shallabelle whose area of psychic select five briefcases. Her first selec- could be something eccentric or unu- tion was #24 which Kara, a expertise was not revealed. She pre- sual happening.” She predicted her dicted the briefcase contained $1,000 Numerologist, indicated contained briefcase contained $5,000, when it $50,000 — it actually held $25,000; in fact it contained $50; Next was

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 25 Dealt Out

Dadhichi, a Face Reader who pre- The programme revealed firstly guess; the odds improved with each dicted his briefcase, #5, contained their poor level of general knowl- subsequent player. The second $300 — it contained $100,000. edge, especially since the questions player has one chance in twenty-five, At this time a new bank offer was used to select the principal contest- and for each subsequent player the made for the amount of $31,150 — ant were all related to aspects of the odds are reduced until the final Jacqueline accepted the offer. psychic milieu. They performed player has one chance in two. Calcu- This left eight unopened brief- rather poorly, especially with ques- lating the odds for this type of situa- cases and the game continued as she tion 3! As psychics, they all claim to tion, statistically one would expect nominated further briefcases to be clairvoyant, yet only half of them that, on a long run average, the open. Craig, a Medium, held #8; he actually knew what the word meant! number of correctly identified boxes proposed it contained $5,000 — it Even more revealing as to their would be about 2.9* a figure entirely contained $5.00; Dorothy, an Angel complete lack of psychic abilities was consistent with the statement by the Intuitive held #26; she proposed it their disastrous response to the fifth compere that, “We have an average contained fifty cents — it contained question! Andrew stressed that: on Deal or No Deal of three correct $1,000; Brett held #14; he proposed guesses on the podium.” This is the question that will call it contained $300 — it contained This is precisely the same number upon you to exercise your psychic $5,000; Janet, a Psychic, held #23; of psychics who correctly guessed the powers. I have in my pocket, a sym- she proposed it contained $10 — it amounts in the briefcases. The fact bol on a card. I want you to concen- contained $300; Thomas, a Clairvoy- that the psychics scored no better trate on myself, or the card, ant and Medium, held #6; he pro- than ordinary mundane contestants whichever suits your abilities best, posed it contained fifty cents — it clearly suggests that their knowl- and during the ten seconds think- contained $1; Vicki, a Psychic, held edge of hidden information is no ing time give me your answer as to #2; she proposed it contained better than that of ordinary people. what that symbol is. $500,000 — it contained $10.00 These psychics revealed much At this point, with two briefcases Now, even if it had been non-psy- about their real natures during the left, the bank offered Jacqueline the chics being tested in this fashion, on show. When asked specific questions chance to open briefcase #19 and the basis of random choice alone, one about the outcome of events they accept whatever amount it con- would expect that at least one-third were evasive and non-committal, tained, however, after again check- of the group would pick the correct hedging their answers. Thus, early ing the briefcase Jacqueline elected symbol. However, given that these in the show when Andrew asked to stick to her previous deal and take psychics all claim to possess extraor- Rachael Williams, a Shaman, how the $31,150 dinary powers, something that they much would be won on the show, she The final briefcase #3, held by widely advertise as providing them responded by saying, “I think some- Karina, a Clairvoyant was then with access to hidden knowledge, one will go home with a lot of money opened. She intimated it contained then one would expect that, statisti- tonight and I think it will be two fifty cents, in fact when opened it cally, a greater than average number million dollars.” In similar fashion was found to contain $500,000. of them would have picked the cor- when Andrew asked Astro Girl a rect symbol. Yet the fact is they similar question, she gave a rather The denouement scored far below normal expecta- vague, uncommitted response, stat- This meant that the briefcase chosen tions, with only two of the psychics ing that, “… there could be some- by Jacqueline, with the assistance of guessing the correct answer. thing eccentric or unusual happen- her various Ascended Masters, Arch- ing.” angels and spirit guides, actually How they went These were not the responses of contained only fifty cents! So much Statistically the psychics obtained people with special powers to un- for her psychic impressions that the results that would be bettered 399 cover hidden information, or of fu- briefcase “contained something times out of 400 by pure chance.* ture events; rather it was an attempt worthwhile! Clearly the objectives of Their score was so abysmally poor at prevarication. These are the sort Andrew and the show was more that it clearly reveals that these of answers one expects from people about ratings than turning “…scep- psychics are phonies, with no special who, while claiming to have special tics into believers” — yet, despite powers whatsoever. Their complete prescient powers, have no such abili- this, the show did serve a worth- lack of psychic powers is further ties and are seeking to hide this fact! while purpose. It provided a rare evidenced by their overall perform- While these psychics were only too opportunity to see a large number of ance throughout the show. Overall willing to provide verbose and pre- psychics “at work” and, as they stag- the selection process involved tentious explanations of their gered through a comprehensive col- twenty-six attempts to guess what claimed special skills, their body lection of incorrect guesses, revealed was within the individual briefcases. language revealed that many were just how incompetent they really While the first contestant has one rather insecure individuals, uncom- are! chance in twenty-six of a correct fortable when asked to guess the

Page 26 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 amount in the briefcases. Aided by bearers of a degree of intelligence ... Sensing Nothing from p 22 the badinage of the compere, they that is vastly superior to anything made feeble attempts to bluff their attainable by planning, reasoning really was the death date. And lo- way through, covering up their un- and organization.” (p. 18). and-behold, it turns out that it certainties and their glaring errors According to Besant, (1977) the wasn’t! Since the murder was al- when they selected incorrect Ascended Masters included, Osiris, leged to have taken place around amounts. Even more obvious were Mithra, Krishna, Buddha and Jesus, 3am, the claim isn’t particularly the responses of two of those psy- (p.1). In Judaic and Christian belief, outrageous — if the accepted order of chics who actually guessed the cor- archangels are the highest-ranking events was moved around a little the rect amounts within their briefcases. angels, (Guiley, 1991), they are con- death could have taken place before Roxanne responded with wide-eyed sidered the most powerful beings in midnight. surprise, but most noticeable was heaven next to God. One must ask Kerry the White Witch. When, after why with such outstanding beings on Insulting several awkward guesses at the her side, how could she have failed Especially in the Phillip Island epi- amount in her briefcase, she finally to pick the two million dollars? sode, there was real scorn for the chose correctly, her reaction was one As Skeptics we should thank police work that had gone before. For of extremely animated surprise and Channel 7 for this production, for Scott Russell-Hill, it was blindingly apparent shock! These were hardly although it was presented with a obvious that the murder had oc- the responses one would expect from great deal of levity and humour, by curred on a whole different day from skilled practitioners with prescient exposing these so-called psychics to that decided by the formal investiga- powers! public gaze it revealed quite clearly tion. He went on to say that the The compere spent a great deal of that none of them possess even the crime scene had been so obviously time humorously covering up their smallest amount of “psychic powers!” ‘set up’ that evidence had been obvious ineptitude and inability to References: placed around as if it were on an pick the correct amounts in their episode of Murder She Wrote. Per- briefcases. For instance, when Scott Bennett, J.G. (1977). The Masters of haps this scorn is in retaliation for Alexander King, hoped “Jacqueline Wisdom. London, Turnstone Books. the Victorian Police going on the was right” in predicting briefcase Besant, A. (1977). The Masters. record as saying they will not use #22 contained fifty cents, but it was Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical psychic assistance. found to contain $250,000 Andrew Publishing Society. The biggest insult is the show’s laughingly passed over the error by suggestion that the police really Blavatsky, H.P. (1893). The Secret declaring, “Well there was a fifty in should be using psychics. On cases Doctrine. London: Theosophical there, just a few too many zeroes for where the police have worked for Publishing Society, volume 1. our liking.” Likewise when Rachael months, they bring in psychics who Williams, the Shaman incorrectly Deal or No Deal, Test of the Psy- are supposed to crack the case in a predicted her briefcase contained chics, (2004). Channel 7, Monday single day. So all that police time $50,000 when in fact it contained 30th August, videotape. was a waste? Could we have solved $7,500, he commented “Again there the matter in a day? was a fifty in there sandwiched be- Guily, R.E. (1991). Harper’s Encyclo- tween a seven and a zero.” pedia of Mystical and Paranormal The sober truth What are we to make of Experience. Edison, NJ: Castle Unfortunately the truth is sobering. Jacqueline who made so many ex- Books. It’s been many months since these traordinary claims? What happened * Thanks to Jim Snow for his kind shows were actually filmed. It’s been to the powerful supernatural beings assistance in calculating the statis- over a year since the Phillip Island and spirits she was expecting to as- tics on the performance of the con- episode was filmed and at least two sist in her quest? testants. years since the Easey Street pilot She had called upon the assist- episode. Despite the psychic revela- ance of Ascended Masters and Arch- tions, no progress has been made on angels, creatures who are considered any of the cases. Perhaps the broad- to be amongst the most powerful cast of the episodes will trigger some- beings in the spiritual pantheon. one’s memory and they’ll come for- The Ascended Masters are “Celestial ward with vital information — we can beings” (Blavatsky, 1893), which only hope. Despite the bold claims, Bennett (1977) described as, “… a the psychics haven’t solved these special class of men, the Masters of cases — the psychics have helped no Wisdom, who are treated as the one.

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 27 Article One Strange Brotherhood

Searching for sense in an Book-length memoir by ex-members the EB ‘fellowship’, live in the same of the secretive Exclusive Brethren building as a person who is not in eccentric sect. (EB — sometimes known as the Ply- fellowship (semi-detached residences mouth Brethren) sect are few and far are also unacceptable), share a between. I was once shown such a driveway with their neighbour, book by my wife’s grandfather, him- watch television, movies or video, self a former EB member. That book, listen to a radio, go to places of pub- cataloguing the stories of several lic entertainment, own or operate a people, was privately printed in a computer, own a mobile phone (this limited edition. New Zealander is because Satan is ‘lord of the air’), Ngaire (pronounced Nyree) Thomas’s or own a pet (pets are regarded as Behind Closed Doors (2004) is more idols, rather than as mere bosses). freely available and seems from the EB children must not visit non- comments on her website to have Brethren homes. Tertiary education attracted a much wider readership. is not permitted and young people If ever there was a weird mob, the must not leave home except to get EBs are it! Founded in the nine- married. Dating is not permitted at teenth century, this small Protestant all. Women must not cut their hair grouping — around 45,000 world- but must wear a small bow as a to- wide, 9,000 in Australia — has ken of their submission to men. In turned the principle of ‘separation addition, women must not wear from evil’ into an art form. Several slacks or jeans but should wear biblical passages (especially 2 Tim clothing that is ‘comely’ though not 2:19-22) urge believers to have noth- ‘conspicuous’. Men must keep their ing to do with ‘impurity’ and ‘ini - hair short and are not permitted quity’ and EBs take this injunction beards or moustaches. They must to its limit. Several restrictions are remove their watches while attend- listed and discussed in Thomas’s ing EB meetings, although women book, but among other things an EB may keep theirs on. There are no must not eat or drink with non- mirrors in meeting hall washrooms Brian Baxter is a Melbourne-based writer Brethren, belong to a trade union or as they ‘encourage vanity’. Red is with an abiding interest in the far-fringes of professional association, talk with a regarded as a ‘worldly colour’ and is religious thought. person who has been expelled from generally avoided. (Thomas op cit,

Page 28 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 passim; ‘Plymouth Brethren: Exclu- that EBs are a cult, although this You will be leaving school at the sive Raven/Taylor Sect’ - http:// particular question is not examined end of the week’, was his answer. www.cloudnet.com/~dwyman/ here. Ngaire protested, a rather danger- anonymous1.html - accessed 9/08/ EBs generally hold themselves ous tactic against a father who was 2002) aloof from politics and do not vote. inclined to belt her whenever she Astonishingly, EBs actively en- However, in 2004 the sect held displayed signs of ‘independence’, a courage the consumption of alcohol, prayer meetings and donated money quality condemned in all EBs and especially whisky. This counter-in- for the re-election of President especially in females. tuitive rule is referred to several George W. Bush. Wikipedia notes times in Thomas’s book, and was one that ‘in this they are aligned with ‘Dad, I am not going to leave of the reasons my wife’s grandpar- America’s “Religious Right”’. (The school, I don’t care about the Exclu- ents left the sect in the early 1960s. I Brethren are, of course, opposed to sive Brethren and their stupid recall being told of a young EB wife evolution.) By getting the EBs on rules …’ ‘Ngaire, your insolent returning home to find her husband side, Republican organisers seem to behaviour makes your mother and sharing a Scotch with their four have squeezed the last drop out of me very sad’ he said, turning on his year-old, though I don’t know the ultra-conservative Christian ‘poor me, hang-dog’ look … ‘I have whether official instructions went constituency. There is certainly a lot arranged an interview for you at quite that far; the marriage immedi- of upside for the Democrats if they the Commercial Bank next Mon- ately disintegrated. The Brethren can produce a candidate even day. There is no more to be said are led by an individual known as slightly more acceptable to the about it.’ (pp. 75-6) the ‘Man of God’ (MOG) or ‘Elect Christian Right than John Kerry. Ngaire’s teachers tried to per- Vessel’, and one of these, James Hillary Rodham Clinton already suade her father to change his mind. Taylor Jr. (MOG 1959-70), had a seems to have recognised this. (Mel- This only made things worse, but the well-developed taste for whisky. EBs bourne Age, 27 Jan. 2005) story has something of a happy end- were told that alcohol relaxed inhibi- Are the EBs what most people ing, as Ngaire realised that a small tions and that they should drink it would call ‘true Christians’? Ngaire income would increase her independ- and offer it to guests in order to Thomas was a member of the EB ence from her family, and later in life show that they had ‘nothing to hide’. from her birth in 1943 until 1974 even managed to spend some years and has kept in touch with develop- teaching at a school. (p. 235) The ‘Aberdeen Ambush’ ments in the sect since that time. In the later stages of his term as Here I would like to recount three Shamed before the Assembly MOG, Taylor’s behaviour became stories she tells in her book. erratic. At a gathering in Aberdeen I was one who had the unfortunate in 1970 he began to call people Ngaire’s ambition experience of being brought before ‘bums’ and other offensive names the members of the Brethren to be I was fifteen when I knew that one during services. (A transcript and ‘dealt with’ at a [so-called ‘Care’ day I wanted to be a schoolteacher. audiotape of his performance is meeting] myself, when I was only Dad said this would be out of the available at http://peebs.net/ - ‘Peel- about fifteen. It was certainly a question. My school friends were ing the onion’.) At this time Taylor terrifying and horrific experience. going on to university, but I knew was also found in bed with a married that, for us Exclusives, higher edu- One day, a leading Brother from EB woman. These episodes caused a cation was now forbidden. another town visited Ngaire’s home major split in Brethren ranks, some and a few minutes later her father arguing that Taylor’s behaviour was The MOG had recently changed the summoned her to the loungeroom. immoral, while others accepted the rules so that Brethren could no The visitor began to question her official explanation that their leader longer study to become doctors, about her relationship with a male had merely been testing the faith of nurses, teachers, lawyers or any cousin. Not seeing any particular his followers. (Wikipedia — http:// other profession requiring a higher harm in it, Ngaire confessed to the en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ education. Members who already two men that she and her cousin had Exclusive_Brethren) had degrees were expected to re- occasionally ‘experimented with kiss- Arguing that ‘unconfessed sin nounce them (how this is done I’m ing’. remains unforgiven’, EBs require not entirely sure.) ‘But Dad, I want ‘So, are you admitting that you members to both acknowledge and to go to university, I want to be a have committed fornication with a describe their sins to other Brethren. teacher’, I wailed when he told me young man?’, asked Dad. ‘Well, yes, Public confessions in front of assem- of the new edict. ‘Universities are I suppose I must have’, I answered, blies may also be demanded (one dens of iniquity and the Man of nodding my head, not knowing such occasion is outlined below). God has seen fit to prohibit our what he meant by ‘committing This practice is a strong indication young people from entering them.

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 29 Strange Brotherhood

fornication’ … ‘I told you so, and And here comes the super-kicker: a half and Ngaire is not pregnant she’s not even ashamed of it’, said again yet. What are you doing to Although it was a very traumatic the visiting Brother in a smug, self- prevent it? …Have you been dig- experience, something good came satisfied voice. ‘This is a matter ging in the garden at certain times out of it. At fifteen, although still that should be dealt with by the of the month, Ngaire?’ … ‘No’, I rather ignorant of some things, I Assembly in Auckland.’ answered truthfully. ‘The garden is was old enough to know that if it Denis’s responsibility. I’m far too Sex education in EB homes being was wrong for my cousin to hug busy with the children.’ ‘Denis, we close to non-existent, it took some and kiss me, then what my father suspect that Ngaire is doing some- time for Ngaire to discover what was doing to me was very, very thing to prevent another preg- fornication actually entailed. In the wrong indeed … I threatened my nancy. We are reminding you that meantime, her family gave her the father that I would ‘cry out’ and you are responsible [for dealing] silent treatment. cause a public scandal … if he did with this matter.’ not stop his inappropriate behav- As my matter was now under As- iour … The abuse ended there and After the priests left, Ngaire told sembly investigation, no one then; he was careful never to touch Denis about the contraceptives. He wanted to talk to me, not even my me again. (pp. 79-85) asked her to stop taking them but mother, and everyone in the family she procrastinated. The priestly vis- knew I had been unspeakably Apart from the alcohol issue, an- its continued and before long the wicked. other reason that my wife’s grand- family was ‘shut up’. As Ngaire ex- parents left the EB was because of When the night of what she terms plains: stories they heard at the public con- her ‘humiliation’ arrived, an elderly fession meetings. I can still remem- If the priests are suspicious of some Brother who had discussed the mat- ber Grandpa shaking his head slowly sort of unconfessed and unforsaken ter with Ngaire and understood the and saying in his beautiful Welsh sin, then they would visit that per- situation, defended her in front of accent, ‘Brian, some of them could’ve son to take a closer look. If the the large meeting: gone to jail for twenty years for the sinner is unrepentant, or appears … [H]e believed I was still a virgin, things they done.’ My wife later told to be hiding something, then that that I had not committed fornica- me that he was specifically referring person is declared a ‘leper’. Be- tion, and in fact I was somewhat to admissions of incest. cause leprosy is contagious, the ignorant of the meaning of the whole house is ‘shut up’ so as not to word. The contraception issue risk contaminating the rest of the congregation. (pp. 156-8) Rather than let the matter drop, Abstinence was not [my husband the Brethren decided to take things Denis’s] strong point. We found it Essentially, being ‘shut up’ meant further. very hard to practise ‘Vatican Rou- that the family could not attend any Some Brothers were sure that I lette’, the only form of birth control EB meetings (normally held daily), must be guilty of something, so allowed by the Exclusive Brethren. nor could they make contact with they went ahead and read Deut. (p. 142) other EB members. As they were not 22:24, a verse in the Old Testament allowed to maintain friendships with After the birth of her fourth child, non-Brethren this amounted to com- about ‘not crying out’ … I think and in the wake of a serious health they meant that I should have cried plete isolation. problem, Ngaire began taking the After a week, Ngaire confessed out and said ‘No’ when my cousin contraceptive pill. She kept this fact had wanted to kiss me. her ‘sin’ to the priests and the family a secret from Denis. After a few was ‘restored to fellowship’. Throw- Here comes the kicker: years, the Brethren elders (known as ing her pill supplies out, she became ‘priests’) became suspicious. One pregnant again almost immediately, I was given the microphone and night, two priests invited themselves told to say I was sorry for not cry- to her doctor’s alarm. A short time around to discuss another woman’s later, the family found itself ‘shut up’ ing out. I stood up in front of about confession that she once gave Ngaire five or six hundred people … The again over a different matter. The some contraceptive advice, ‘some- priests recommenced their visits and sea of stern and solemn faces was thing about digging in the garden at just a blur in front of me as I this time their insistent probing the right time of the month’. As you yielded a far-reaching result. apologised for something I didn’t read this, keep reminding yourself do. When I had said I was sorry that this happened in New Zealand When [we were being] questioned and had been graciously forgiven in 1974, and not in Calvin’s Geneva. on the subject of intimacy, Denis by the Brethren, I sat down in my confessed to being sexually adven- seat and cried with humiliation ‘Denis’, said one of the priests, ‘we turous at times — within the mar- and shame. are very concerned. Ben is four and riage, of course. We both believed

Page 30 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 that whatever went on between the Ngaire Thomas is a rather good But the taxonomists tend to make sheets, in the privacy of our own example of this phenomenon. She their classifications on the basis of locked bedroom, was our own busi- did not ‘invite the Lord Jesus into stated belief. If your denomination, ness, but they didn’t think so … We her heart’ until some years after she sect or cult calls itself ‘Christian’, weren’t doing anything drastically had left the EBs (at which time she claims to believe that Jesus Christ wrong, but the priests declared began to move between denomina- was the son of God, and particularly otherwise. One of them said, ‘We tions, with a leaning towards experi- if it accepts that he became the sav- always knew there was something ential-charismatic ones; this is a iour of all mankind through his wrong with you Denis, we just common pattern among former sect substitutionary death on the cross, didn’t know what it was, and now members.) She led the first 30 years your church or other grouping will we know’ … of her life immersed in Brethren be listed in texts as ‘Christian’. doctrine and embalmed in the life- However, the secondary, colloquial The priests then informed the pair style, and yet she dismisses their meaning of ‘Christian’ concerns itself of a new EB rule: ‘no sex allowed for theology with barely a qualm: with actions and attitudes rather couples while shut up’. Denis and than stated beliefs. The OED defines Ngaire failed to abide by this condi- For some reason it just didn’t hap- a Christian as a person who ‘shows tion: pen for me. I found their whole the qualities associated with Christ’s concept of Christianity confusing When the priests came to see us the teaching’, and even more precisely, and irrelevant … How could I pos- next week, they didn’t stay long. as a person who is ‘fair, kind and sibly teach my children about the Only long enough to ask the decent’. In recent times, this popular Exclusive Brethren belief system dreaded question. ‘Did you …?’, understanding of the term ‘Chris- when I knew so little about it my- began one of the priests. ‘No’, said tian’ has been thoroughly subverted self, and cared even less? (p. 140, Denis, ‘No, we didn’t.’ Denis had by extremist sects and religiously- pp.142-3) told a lie and I was astounded. I based political organisations. People had never known Denis to tell a lie Nonetheless, Ngaire spends some describing themselves as ‘Christians’ … (pp. 180-1) time considering the question of now invite a degree of suspicion. whether or not EBs are ‘Christian’, Ngaire became so angry that she With certain honourable exceptions, and essentially answers in the af- left the house and tried unsuccess- ‘fair, kind and decent’ Christians firmative: have been replaced in the public eye fully to push the priests’ parked car by rancorous, vindictive and theo- down a hill. Denis, however, had an I don’t want to be unfair to them. cratic ones. attack of conscience and phoned one As individuals most of them are On this basis, EBs are not ‘old- of the priests the next day to confess good, obedient but simple-minded fashioned Christians’ at all. People the lie. On the same evening, he people, and genuinely believe they who can be so cruel to vulnerable received a call to say that the Breth- are doing God’s will … In spite of members of their own community ren could no longer ‘walk with’ either public opinion and media reports, deserve to be called a lot of things. him or Ngaire ie. they were expelled it would be fair comment that gen- But ‘Christian’ is not one of them. from the sect, Denis for lying and erally they live a type of high qual- Ngaire for being ‘contentious and ity Christian life … (p.19) rebellious’. (p. 182) However, priests Note continued to visit Denis regularly for They zealously strive to be worthy the next twenty years, trying to se- Christians, according to their re- Ngaire Thomas’s book is obtainable cure his submissive return to the stricted understanding of the Bible. from www.behind-closed-doors.org fold. (When some elders tried this (pp. 177-8) or from CCG Ministries 50 Carcoola St., Nollamara, WA 6061 with my wife’s grandparents, my Humphreys and Ward, authors of father-in-law turned the hose on Religious Bodies in Australia and them.) z rock-solid Calvinists, raise a query What does the term ‘Christian’ mean about whether the EBs are whole- heartedly Trinitarian, but have no today? problem in classifying them as Since the [James Taylor Jr.] era the Christian. Indeed, I doubt if any extent of religious belief of EB taxonomist of religion would classify members has declined. Member- them as non-Christian, except for ship is now a birthright, with al- other isolationist sects who regard most no religious conviction everyone but themselves as non- required. (Wikipedia op cit.) Christian.

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 31 Article The Skeptical Potter

.

Skepticism and morality not Normally I don’t make predictions Christians oppose the same books. for they are usually wrong. However, That may be a tad unfair on the absent from children’s the following predictions will be skeptics. What is fair to say is that a fantasy. more accurate than those of any problem fundamentalists (of any psychic this year. I predict that on sort) have is that they cannot tell the July 16 (or near then) there will be a difference between a good story and far larger than usual number of peo- the message that the story may be ple buying books. You may even find, delivering. upon going to your local Dymocks or There are two current series of Angus & Robertson, queues of people children’s books that have very dif- eager to procure a book about a ferent styles. Both series are good “half-blood”. I also predict that all yarns that deliver positive lessons four members of my family will want about skeptical thinking, and other to read the same book at the same prosocial behaviours. time. A further prediction is that the A Series of Unfortunate Events by father (me) will more strictly enforce Lemony Snicket (a pseudonym) has homework routines and bedtime a quirky intellectual style, while the rules on children for the lightly cam- Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling ouflaged purpose of reading the are damn good adventure stories. aforementioned book without inter- The sixth Harry Potter book, Harry ruption. Teachers will rejoice that Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is their charges are willingly reading a the subject of my predictions. book of substantial length. On the There are similarities between the other hand, Christian fundamental- two series. Both have orphans as ists and skeptics will join in wailing central characters (Harry himself, and the gnashing of teeth. the Baudelaire children) who have or Okay, the final prediction may be had cruel guardians (Dursleys, a bit too strong, but has a basis of Count Olaf). Inevitably the children some substance. That substance is have to face the forces of evil, deal that some skeptics seem concerned with bumbling adults, and overcome Daniel Stewart has degrees in theology and about a series of books about wizards perilous situations. But the face of science (psychology). A former parish and witches, perhaps because they evil is not always clear cut, and as clergyman, he now is a postgraduate might promote uncritical acceptance each series moves on, there are in- research student at the Queensland Univer- of magic and magical beings, about creasing incidents of ambiguity, and sity of Technology in the area of road safety. the same reason why fundamentalist trickier moral dilemmas to resolve.

Page 32 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 To succeed the children need Violet did a similar thing at to be skeptical as they use night using moonlight (Book good research and planning the Third, The Wide Win- skills. dow): a ridiculous extension The balance of this essay of schoolboy pyromania. But is divided into three parts. there is always a certain The next two parts will logic and Violet always ex- briefly review each series of plains to her siblings the books and note some of the cause and effect relationship skeptical lessons in each that the device is exploiting. should be clear to any reader, Klaus, 12 coming on 13, is adult or child. The final part an avid reader with a great will focus on fundamental- memory. From obscure books ism. Why fundamentalism? of science and poetry he can As books that should bring solve mysteries that will joy to skeptics they have les- help the children escape the sons fundamentalists hate. clutches of Count Olaf. Baby Sunny has four sharp teeth, A Series of Unfortunate Events excellent for any cutting work. Through the series Dear Reader, she learns to walk, begins to Unless you are a slug, a sea talk, and develops her own anemone, or mildew, you skeptical and ingenious probably prefer not to be mind. damp. You might also prefer When Violet was 14 the not to read this book, in which Baudelaire parents died the Baudelaire siblings en- when the family mansion counter an unpleasant burnt to the ground. A amount of dampness as they banker by the name of Mr descend into the depths of Poe is meant to oversee the despair, underwater. children’s affairs and ar- range suitable guardians. So begins the letter from While Mr Poe is honest and Lemony Snicket on the back has the children’s interest at cover of Book the Eleventh, heart, he is incompetent. In The Grim Grotto. As men- when disguised as a detective. But the face of that incompetence the tioned above, the series is quirky. he was a ‘detective’, and the reporter Baudelaires have to defend them- Snicket turns out to be a character swallowed Olaf’s story. Meanwhile selves against Count Olaf. in the story: as the Baudelaires dis- Klaus Baudelaire was pretending to Count Olaf, a distant relative, was cover about Book the Eighth, Snicket murder his “murderous” sister so one the children’s first guardian. But his is creating a file on them so that all of Olaf’s associates would not mur- only interest is getting hold of the people will know they are innocent. der her. Confused? Well, the simple fortune the children will inherit This is necessary because the news- message is that you should not take when Violet turns 18. Count Olaf paper The Daily Punctilio is totally stories at face value. Find out what has disguised himself in many ways incompetent. The reporter’s main really happened, find out the history in an endeavour to trick his way to concern is creating an attention of the incident, don’t just take the the children’s fortune. When he dis- grabbing headline: “I can see the word of a ‘Count’, or a newspaper. guised himself as Captain Sham who headline now: ‘MURDERER AT- Each of the Baudelaire children ran a boat hire business, the chil- TEMPTS TO MURDER MUR- has particular skills. Violet, who is dren were the first to see through DERER.’ Wait until the readers of 14 turning 15, is an inventor. She the disguise (The Wide Window). The Daily Punctilio see this!” (The uses science and ingenuity to create Convincing the adults was a prob- Hostile Hospital, p.209). devices that ensure the children lem. After all, Captain Sham had a The readers of the book know that survive burning buildings, deadly business card to prove his identity! the only reason people think the leeches, and other horrors. At times The Baudelaires used their skeptical Baudelaires are murderers is be- the science is pushed to a ridiculous thinking to see through this ruse, cause it was in The Daily Punctilio. extent. As a child in Brisbane, on hot and the readers are invited to think It was a story created by Count Olaf days I could make paper burn using in the same skeptical way. Because based on shoddy evidence he planted sunlight and a magnifying glass — of the varied experiences where peo-

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 33 Skeptical Potter ple were not as they seemed, research well; some rules the Baudelaires learnt not to need to be bent or broken; make assumptions about and no one is perfect (not people, or when they had to even long dead parents make assumptions, to re- whom you dream about). member that they were as- Divination is tackled not sumptions. only in the Skeptic, but both The Lemony Snicket books series of books attack one or are a great exploration of more forms of that charade. language with many words In Lemony Snicket’s The explained in quirky ways. Carnivorous Carnival, the The same word can have magic lighting in Madam different meanings depend- Lulu’s crystal ball turned ing on how it is said, when, out to be a mirror and pulley and by whom. Popular say- system that Violet pulled ings are also played with. In apart for one of her inven- The Hostile Hospital “no tions. news is good news” is tossed In their third year at around. Because the “Volun- Hogwarts school Harry and teers Fighting Disease” be- his best mates, Ron and lieve that no news is good Hermione, start attending news, the children could take Divination with Professor refuge with them because Trelawney. The first class they had not read The Daily was reading tea leaves. Punctilio. That was a good Harry could see a “load of excuse for the author to soggy brown stuff” (p. 116, spend several pages discuss- Harry Potter and the Pris- ing the shortcomings of the oner of Azkaban) in Ron’s saying. cup, and Ron could see a Book the Tenth (The Slip- bowler hat in Harry’s, per- pery Slope) and Book the haps he was heading for the Eleventh (The Grim Grotto) Ministry of Magic! Professor begin to tackle post-modern- Harry Potter Trelawney decided the ism. The Baudelaires have already bowler hat was actually a falcon, learnt that, for them to escape the When I read the first Harry Potter which meant that Harry had a evil clutches of Count Olaf, rules need book it struck me that Harry was a deadly enemy. Scholarly Hermione to be bent. In the eighth book, instead great example of Christian living! He responded “’But everyone knows of giving Hal the real keys, the chil- risked his life so that, for unselfish that’…. ‘Well, they do. Everybody dren gave him fake ones, so that they reasons, he could fight for good knows about Harry and You-know- could explore the Library of Records against the forces of evil. In the final who (Lord Voldemort)’” (p.117). for the Snicket file (The Hostile Hos- fight in Harry Potter and the Phi- Trelawney then went on to see a pital). But where does one cross the losopher’s Stone (First book) the club, a skull, and the grim, the last line of rule breaking to become like critical factor that brought Harry of which meant death. Hermione Count Olaf? The Baudelaires decided victory was love. Sure, a preacher denied it looked like the grim. that setting a trap to take Olaf’s girl- might need to mention that Chris- The children’s next class was friend hostage crossed that line (The tians are not wizards, but worship- transfiguration. When Professor Slippery Slope). Just as the pers of Jesus: however, fundamental- McGonagall had heard they had just Baudelaires were about to escape ists were too concerned about magic had their first divination class, she Olaf again they had a morally to discover what the story was really said: charged discussion with another or- about. Ah, of course. There is no need to say phan, Fiona (The Grim Grotto). Es- Many of the lessons from the Lem- any more, Miss [Hermione] Granger. sentially, if there is good and bad in ony Snicket books are found in the Tell me, which one of you will be each person, then are there good peo- Harry Potter books by J. K. Rowling. dying this year? [Harry owned up] I ple to side with? Post-modernism may These lessons include: being aware see. Then you should know, Potter, well say no, the Baudelaires decided of the assumptions you make (just that Sybill Trelawney has predicted yes, and made a high risk escape. because Prof Snape is nasty to Harry the death of one student a year since May there be Book the Twelfth to does not mean he wants to kill him she arrived at this school. None of explore the issue further. rather than keep him alive); do your them has died yet. Seeing death

Page 34 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 omens is her favourite way of greet- not see it as a “parable” about God’s Because society believes murder is ing a new class. If it were not for the love and creativeness, and human wrong, we have laws prohibiting it. fact that I never speak ill of my col- specialness. Harry Potter books are However, two problems now arise. leagues - Divination is one of the about witches and wizards, so they First problem: the world is an most imprecise branches of magic. I cannot see it as a story of how the incredibly varied and complex place, shall not conceal from you that I Christian ideals of love, justice, and with shades and colours merging have very little patience with it… sacrifice triumph over evil. Of into one another, there is gradual You look in excellent health to me, course, a skeptical fundamentalist (if change rather than dramatic shifts, Potter, so you will excuse me if I there is such a thing!), will only see and long chains of cause and effect, don’t let you off your homework to- magic rather than the story of how rather than simple start and finish day. I assure you that if you die, you skeptical thinking helps Harry and points. In one town where I was a need not hand it in. (pp.120-121) his mates triumph. preacher we had a monthly evening Fundamentalists believe in black worship which I shared with a lay There is a strong social agenda in and white (dualism): There is good preacher. One month she would the Harry Potter books. The half- or evil, Christian or pagan, freedom preach it was simply “black and blood prince in the forthcoming book lover or terrorist, you are either for white”. The next month I would would likely be a person who has one us or agin us, skeptic or gullible. In preach that what is written is in muggle (non-magic parent), and a this belief system it is not possible to black and white, now we need to parent who is a wizard or witch. The be a bit of both. Shades, colours, and apply it to a world of all shades and forces of evil, led by Voldemort, want in-betweens are out. For Christian colours. In other words: How well a world of pure bloods only. Of fundamentalists this is despite the can a human language, however course, there are ironies galore here. stories of Jesus befriending sinful inspired, fully describe what is out Harry, who is a pure blood, had no women, Roman collaborators (tax there? inkling he was a wizard until he was collectors), pagan women, and un- Second problem: how incidents, 11. Hermione, who has two muggle clean men (“lepers”). Christians, of objects, and forces are perceived, parents, is the brightest student at all people, should know we are nei- thought about, and recorded is im- Hogwarts school and brilliant at ther black nor white, after all, the perfect. As skeptics we know that the doing magic. Ron’s family is full claim is we are made in the image of provides the best blood, but is detested for defending God, but corrupted by sin. Funda- method for overcoming perceptual the rights of half-bloods and mug- mentalists may pay lip service to and conceptual problems. When Pot- gles. Filtch, the school caretaker, is a this, but quickly fall into “them and ter and his mates, or the full-blood who can do no magic, us” incantations. Lemony Snicket Baudelaires, are overwhelmed by which probably explains his foul writes of a world where there are dilemmas and confusing evidence, it temper. As in the real world, no sim- many shades of grey between the is clear, logical, skeptical thinking ple line can be drawn between race, black and the white, while J. K. that clears the way. As a skeptic class, or heritage. Making assump- Rowling has added an array of col- battling fundamentalism I am happy tions on birth and background is ours. Both much better reflect the for my children to read the next in- very risky. Harry, Ron, and dilemmas we face in the real world stalments of both series of books. Hermione succeed when they chal- than any fundamentalist tract I lenge assumptions and use skeptical know. Notes thinking in their research and plan- Fundamentalists describe in black ning to overcome Voldemort. There are currently five books in the and white (legalism): because it is Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling, Fundamentalism written it must be so. Because it is with a sixth due in July 2005. There written that Jesus turned water into In my experience, fundamentalists are to be seven books in the series, wine, it must be so, regardless of the which is published by Bloomsbury. have three characteristics: they can’t meaning of the story. Because it was see the wood for the trees; they be- written in The Daily Punctilio then The Series of Unfortunate Events by lieve in black and white; and they the Baudelaires must be murderers “Lemony Snicket” currently includes describe in black and white. This and arsonists (Harry faced similar eleven books. They are published by assessment comes from five years of problems in Harry Potter and the HarperCollins. theological study, ten years as a par- Goblet of Fire). Because it is written ish clergyman, and six subsequent down as a law, then there must be years enjoying not having to placate gravity. Because there is a law fundamentalists. against murder, murder must be Fundamentalists cannot see the wrong. The error is in the direction. wood for the trees (literalism). For The statements should read more Christian fundamentalists Genesis is like: Because there is gravity, a law how the world came about; they can- has been written down to describe it.

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 35 Investigation Escaping the Gravitational Pull of the Gospels

Challenging the conventional Every Christmas and Easter the could possibly be wrong with that leading media publish “authorita- but the problem that no one seems to wisdom on a controversial tive” articles illuminating aspects of appreciate is that the Gospels are topic the Christian story. So, for example, not our very earliest Christian last Christmas The Times (London) records. Just as we would expect an carried a piece by “the world’s lead- archeologist to dig down to the deep- ing Gospel scholar”, Professor Geza est levels to give us a true picture so Vermes, giving us the “real” story of we should also expect historians or Christmas and in America, Time theologians to consult the earliest magazine devoted their cover story written records of Christianity. How- to the “secrets” of the Nativity. Such ever, almost without exception they pieces are regularly supplemented become fixated on the Gospels and by books and TV documentaries such virtually ignore the very earliest or as the BBC’s Son of God series and independent Christian evidence from any number of others earnestly in- Paul and others and this gives us a vestigating “The Virgin Mary”, “The very distorted and inaccurate pic- Disciples” or “The Mystery of the ture. Wise Men” and “The Star of Bethle- Before examining the implications hem”. Then, last Easter, Mel of this fatal flaw it must be re- Gibson’s maverick blockbuster The marked that even this incomplete Passion of the Christ was released Gospel evidence is often handled in a and has since become one of the big- very careless fashion. For instance gest grossing films ever (in more Gibson’s film shows a flashback to senses than one!). Under such an the famous “woman taken in adul- avalanche of ecclesiastical informa- tery” incident. This moral of “Let tion we should now all be extremely him who is without sin cast the first well informed about Jesus and stone” is an irresistible favourite Christianity. But we’re not! And the with preachers and program produc- reason we’re so ill informed is that ers alike but it takes only the most virtually every book, article, film or rudimentary research to discover documentary suffers from the same that this story does not appear in fundamental fatal flaw — they all any of the earliest manuscripts of David H Lewis is an Ancient History teacher draw their portrait of Jesus almost the Gospel (most annotated Bibles residing in Queensland. He is writing a novel exclusively from the Gospels. tell us this!) so must have been in- based on the issues contained in this article. It may reasonably be asked what vented (or “borrowed” from else-

Page 36 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 where) and incorporated into the readers — sometimes inaccurately! ferent picture of Jesus — the Jesus Bible hundreds of years later! Simi- — and it draws all its Old Testament of the very first Christians. Here we larly, the famous words from the quotations from the Greek must abandon all the assumptions cross, “Father forgive them etc….” “Septuagint” translation which often we’ve gleaned from the gospels rest on very dubious manuscript misrepresents the Hebrew original! (which did not then exist) and come evidence. This leads to the absurd situation at to terms with the eyewitness testi- It is also very striking that sup- 7:1-23 where Mark has Jesus argu- mony of Paul and his contemporar- posedly definitive sources such as ing with the Pharisees using a mis- ies. When we follow this proper the BBC (in their Son of God series), translation of their own scriptures!). chronological line of historical en- the Time article and no less an “au- John rests on similar traditions but quiry and begin at the beginning we thority” than Professor Geza Vermes often varies wildly from the others. should perhaps expect that, if true, himself, all blithely cite the Jewish The first gospel, Mark, can be dated the gospel narratives will be authen- historian Josephus as independent to AD70 at the earliest but, from ticated. If so we are in for a shock evidence of Jesus’s life, but all fail to internal clues, more probably to because the early Christians corrobo- tell us that the authenticity of the about AD90. rate virtually nothing that we have passage has been under suspicion for previously taken for granted from centuries and in the light of modern the Gospels. research, must be dismissed as a clumsy Christian forgery inserted The Ignorance of the Early Christians into Josephus’s work. Amongst many ... all blithely cite the None of the very first Christians other reasons for this conclusion are know anything about an annuncia- the facts that the passage about Je- Jewish historian tion to Mary by the Angel Gabriel sus is intrusive into Josephus’s nar- and they know of no Virgin Birth, rative (where he is discussing mis- Josephus as Star of Bethlehem, Wise Men, fortunes that befell the Jews); that Herod, slaughter of the innocents or an orthodox Jew could not plausibly the flight into Egypt. In fact they have written such a glowing testimo- independent evidence know nothing at all of a Mary, nial to Christianity (which he does Joseph, Bethlehem or Nazareth. not otherwise mention) and that of Jesus’s life, but all They are equally unhelpful about Christians themselves do not begin Jesus’s adult adventures for they to quote the passage until several fail to tell us that the know of no disciples, friends or centuries later, when many of their earthly enemies, nor of any baptism predecessors knew Josephus’s work by John in the Jordan; they don’t well and would have found the pas- authenticity of the mention or quote any teachings, sage very useful. It is also significant parables or sermons or morals in that another Jewish historian of the passage has been under fact they attribute no ethical in- same era, Justus of Tiberias, made struction to the earthly Jesus at all! no mention of Jesus whatever and, suspicion for centuries Nor do they seem to know of any like Josephus, he also came from healings of the blind or lame or lep- Galilee. ers, nor do they mention any of Je- sus’s especially spectacular The Nature of the Gospels like bringing the dead to life, chang- Before applying the proper historical ing water to wine, feeding five thou- method and consulting the records in sand, stilling the storm or walking chronological order we should also be The other synoptic Gospels and on water. They know of no tempta- aware what sort of documents the John would then have been written tion in the wilderness or dialogue gospels are … and are not. Contrary within the last decade of the first with the Devil, no nor evil to popular belief the so called synop- century. They were all originally spirits falling down in fear before tic gospels are not independent eye- anonymous and only acquired their Jesus: in fact quite the opposite for witness accounts written by compan- familiar names sometime in the 2nd Paul taught that Jesus lived a life of ions or disciples of Jesus, but century. such obscure humility that even the essentially copies and elaborations of If we can now escape the appar- “evil angels” who engineered his Mark, which itself was obviously ently irresistible gravitational at- crucifixion failed to recognize him written outside Palestine in a Greek traction of the gospels and consult until too late when they were over- speaking environment (it has only a the very earliest Christian writings powered by his resurrection! These hazy idea of Galilean geography, it of Paul and others we will be aston- are particularly striking contradic- has to explain Jewish customs to its ished to discover a dramatically dif- tions of the gospels where Jesus is

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 37 The Gospels portrayed as a figure of fame, power ances precede his ascension, which from the earthly Jesus. The reason- and authority who inspires respect marks the beginning of an indefinite able inference here is that none of and fear among the spirits and wait for his second coming (some this was available to Paul because whose crucifixion was orchestrated 2000 years so far!). none of it had really happened. by the Jews and or Pilate. Paul famously and proudly de- When we come to the central A Pioneering Theologian going boldly scribed himself as the apostle to the events of Jesus’s whole career, his The one person who has boldly pio- gentiles and was quite relaxed about crucifixion and resurrection the neered and meticulously explored keeping the Jewish law. He could not early Christians again know nothing the pre gospel Christians’ concept of then have known that Jesus suppos- of the times, places or circumstances. Jesus is G. A. Wells, Emeritus Pro- edly told his disciples to “go nowhere They mention nothing of fessor of German at London Univer- among the gentiles” and that Gethsemane, no betrayal by Judas sity (and to whom I am much in- “Heaven and earth shall pass away” (they merely say Jesus “was deliv- debted) and, to paraphrase the crux before “one iota” of the law shall be ered up” for crucifixion), no denial, of his thesis, he argues that the early changed! Elsewhere (also in Mat- no trials, no scourging, no judgement Christians are so completely silent thew!), Jesus says Christianity is to by Pilate, no Roman soldiers, no or in significant disagreement about be preached to all the nations and Golgotha or vigil at the cross, no last the events that were subsequently that the Jewish law can be set aside, words — nothing! In fact the very recorded in the gospels as to suggest but Paul doesn’t cite this as author- first Christians give no indication that these events were unknown to ity for his mission either! whatever even that Jerusalem was them though they could not have Paul sums up the whole rule of the place of Jesus’ execution and been unaware of them had they re- life as “love your neighbour as your- nothing in their evidence requires us ally occurred. self” but he seems unaware that to believe the event occurred in Some striking examples of this Jesus supposedly taught the same Pilate’s time but could have hap- can be seen in Paul’s writings. We maxim. Similarly, Paul urged people pened at any time in the preceding saw, for instance that he does not not to repay evil for evil; to bless several centuries! Certainly none of mention Peter’s denial of Christ, yet those who persecute you and judge them write as if it was a recent event he had ample motive to do so in his not; and to pay your taxes but he within their lifetimes. bitter quarrel with Cephas in never appeals to Jesus’ authority Their concept of the resurrection Antioch (assuming him to be Peter) when he allegedly urged the same also stands in stark contrast to what who he calls a hypocrite over food things! we are normally taught for Paul laws, and citing this incident (or appears to have believed that after Jesus calling him Satan!) would Early Christians or Al Qaeda three days Jesus ascended directly to surely have discredited his opponent. Paul respected Roman law and Heaven without any intervening If we argue (unconvincingly, for he said that Roman governors only pun- time on earth and he certainly elsewhere advocates certain oppo- ish wrongdoers. Could he then have doesn’t cite any empty tomb. Those nents be castrated!) that Paul was believed that Pilate (who he never he appeared to are also very differ- too charitable to stoop to such abuse, mentions anyway) recently crucified ent – “the twelve” (there being only we must ask why he never men- Christ? Furthermore, he reports eleven at that stage in the gospel’s tioned anything to Peter’s credit many years of continuing contact story) and “500” of whom the gospels either: That he was supposedly with the Jerusalem Christians who know nothing. There are even good promised the keys of the Kingdom or were evidently quite untroubled by grounds for doubting the usual as- could walk on water would surely the authorities. Had these authori- sumption that the “Cephas” he ap- deserve at least a passing reference ties recently had to execute Jesus as peared to can be equated to the Gos- but nowhere does Paul give any indi- a dangerous revolutionary it is quite pel’s Peter. cation that Cephas (or Peter) had implausible that his senior lieuten- Just as Jesus’ crucifixion and res- any association with the earthly ants would have then been allowed urrection could have occurred in the Jesus whatsoever! It is also striking to continue the very same work in distant past, so the early Christians that Paul could here have settled the the very same city! It would be like give us no cause to believe his re- argument in his favour by quoting Al Qaeda setting up shop in New appearances occurred immediately Jesus’ words about all foods being York! However, if they worshipped afterwards for he could have stayed clean, but in this matter and others some vague spiritual Jesus who may in Heaven for centuries. What was where he had strong motive to cite have lived long ago then the authori- immensely significant to them was Jesus, he seems utterly unaware ties would have been quite indiffer- their belief that Jesus’ reappear- that His gospel words would have ent to, or ignorant of their activities. ances signalled the imminent end of supported him. Paul characteristi- That they DID worship the same the world — “the end of days”, cally draws support for his argu- Jesus as Paul preached (ie, one who whereas in the Gospels his reappear- ments from the Old Testament NOT once lived obscurely on earth at

Page 38 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 some indeterminate time and place, one” and what words of Jesus may Did Jesus Exist? runs to nearly 450 seemingly not in Jerusalem or be hidden in Paul’s letters “is to a references! His manner of debate is within their lifetimes) can be seen considerable extent open”. Despair- unfailingly urbane and courteous. from the fact they were able to shake ingly Wells remarks, “thus do theolo- Meanwhile, blissfully unaware of hands on their message. Paul could gians casually allude to an issue the seismic shocks that his work never have done this if they disa- which is really of prime importance must eventually unleash, Christian- greed for he was habitually abusive to any study of Christian origins”. ity has been preoccupied with issues to opponents. Other theologians seem not to appre- such as women priests, homosexual ciate the problem at all. So Tom bishops, charismatic fundamental- Theologians’ Response Wright, Bishop of Durham and an ism and abuse scandals. None of In sum, then, it can be seen that indefatigable advocate of the tradi- those seem very important compared when we escape the gravitational tional Gospel story, carelessly and to the issue of whether the gospels’ pull of the gospels and enter the misleadingly maintains repeatedly Jesus ever existed and whether the world of the earliest Christians we that Paul preached “Jesus of Naza- underpinnings of 2000 years of west- are in a foreign country, indeed on reth” when in fact he never once ern thought and culture has all been an alien planet! And one that has mentioned the place! founded on a ! been almost entirely unobserved and Geza Vermes, for all his authority, In the end we must surely ask unexplored except by Professor even makes the extraordinary claim ourselves, “If the very first Chris- Wells. Though Well’s challenging that Paul cannot be treated as a tians knew so little about Jesus, thesis has been either studiously principal witness to Jesus “because what possible grounds do we have ignored or else misrepresented and he did not know him”, but as if Mark for believing he ever existed?” given a straw rebuttal, here and and the other gospel writers knew there some theologians are just be- him either! Even more amazingly he ginning to express some unease at then says Paul “metamorphosed” the Bibliography the dramatic discontinuity between gospel’s picture of Jesus as if Paul Paul and the gospels. (That Paul’s somehow changed records that did My sources for Jesus article are view is typical and pervasive not appear until after his death! mainly the various books of Prof throughout all early Christian litera- Professor Wells (after a stint as a G.A Wells. ture is almost entirely unnoticed as coal miner!) was originally destined yet.) As early as 1938, P. L Couchard for the priesthood but first had to The Jesus of the Early Christians, noted that one of the very earliest decide, “if he could really believe London, Pemberton 1971 “fossils” of Christian belief (the what he was required to preach”. It Did Jesus Exist? London, Penberton hymn fragment in Philippians) con- is perhaps ironic that his journey 1986 tained “no historical Jesus the from Christianity to atheism has Nazorean”. However, only much made him into one of the world’s The Historical Evidence for Jesus, more recently has the problem again foremost authorities on early Chris- Buffalo, Prometheus 1982 been fleetingly confronted, thus Pro- tian history! Theology is notorious Who Was Jesus? A Critique of the fessor E Kasemann (Professor of for the obscurity of much of its theo- New Testament Record, La Salle, New Testament at Tubingen) re- rizing but his many books are re- Illinois: Open Court 1989 marks perplexedly that Paul’s si- freshing beacons of clarity. With a lence about the circumstances of the hint of humour he approvingly The Jesus Legend, Chicago: Open crucifixion, which is the core of his quotes one of his own inspirations, Court 1996 whole mission, is “positively shock- the German theologian Wrede, who The Jesus Myth, Chicago, Open ing”. Another German theologian, in echo of the Beatitudes remarked, Court 1999 Erich Grasser also admitted “the “Blessed are the unpretentious in Can We Trust the New Testament? thoroughly enigmatic fact” that early speech, for they shall be under- Chicago, Open Court, 2004. Christianity appeared to have no stood”! Wells has himself written real hold on the Jesus of history. widely on language eg, Critique of More commonly, however, theolo- Pure Verbiage, The Origin of Lan- gians exhibit indifference or compla- guage, What’s in a Name? and exhib- cency about the dramatic discord- its little patience with untouchable ance between the concepts of the icons of linguistics like Professors first Christians and the gospels. Stephen Pinker or Noam Chomsky. Martina Jansen, for instance, admits His works encompass an amazing the “question of the continuity be- breadth of scholarship — for in- tween Jesus and Paul … is a difficult stance the bibliography for his 1986

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 39 Extract Resting on Shaky Ground

This is an extract from my new version of history you read, it was A personal investigation book, The Confession of an Unre- either a tied vote and Constantine of faith pentant Lesbian Ex-Mormon. As cast the deciding vote that Jesus was well as telling the story of my trip the actual Son of God, or to Utah (the Mormon Zion), it also Constantine held the vote, smoked explores some of my internal out the dissenters and then sent wrestling with the theological them away for a while. While they wrongness I was raised with. It is were away he held the vote again my fond hope that this book will and was able to claim that the vote offend equally across the spiritual for Christ’s divinity was unanimous. spectrum from Atheist to Zealot. Either way, it served Constantine’s political ends to have Jesus emerge The New Testament as we know it as a divinity, not a prophet. was only put together in AD325 at I almost fell off my chair when I the Council of Nicea. Before that read this. If opinion was so divided time, all the various Christian con- way back then, so much closer to the gregations had their own gospels time that Jesus lived, how on earth that they used. It’s thought that could people in the twentieth cen- there were up to 200 gospels floating tury be so unshakably sure that Je- around before that time, and that sus was the Son of God? How could some of them asserted that Jesus you be sure of anything, when you was the Son of God, whereas others read about that council? Wouldn’t said that he was merely a mortal that put a few question marks next prophet. At the Council of Nicea to your deeply held beliefs? If the those gospels were culled down to whole structure of institutional the four we know today, and the homophobia rests on the shaky Church tried to gather up and de- ground of four little verses within stroy all the rest. Anyone who the Bible, the Bible itself rests on doubted the new orthodoxy was de- even shakier ground. Sue-Ann Post is a popular Australian stand-up clared a heretic and killed. At that Just quietly, ever since I read that comedian. A speaker at the 2004 Skeptics same council, legend has it that they I’ve been amused by the seeming Convention, she drew high praise from many actually put it to a vote to determine contradictions that it imposes on the members of the audience for her forthright whether Jesus was the Son of God or Protestant faiths. Some of them are and challenging performance. just a prophet. Depending which more than happy to rail against the

Page 40 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 Church of Rome and call it Christianity including the all sorts of rude names over eggs at Easter and the tree the centuries, up to and at Christmas were ripped including denouncing it as off from the pagans and The Great Whore Of adapted by the Church for Babylon, but none of them their own ends, in order to seem to have ever ques- keep their early converts tioned the validity of the happy. These are some of Bible itself. They may have the currents and influences their own interpretations of swirling beneath the sur- the Bible, they may see face of Christianity, and things in a very different until they are acknowl- way to the edged, none of it really but they use essentially the makes any sense. same book and don’t seem In fact the further you to have minded the fiddling step back from Christian- with the gospels that was ity, the more you look at done in AD325. They are in the overarching sweep of effect, accepting the judge- God’s eternal plan, the ments made by the very more illogical and cruel it people they profess to de- seems. Christians are for- spise. Illogical, is it not? ever banging on about how You’d think they would Jesus Died For YOU! have made some sort of About His divine sacrifice attempt to go back to origi- and how if it hadn’t been nal sources and reconstruct for Him taking upon Him- a version of the Bible more self all our sins, we’d all be amenable to their new ver- condemned to Hell. But the sion of the faith. I know the more questions you ask, early Church tried to de- the murkier the theology stroy all those remnants, gets. So Jesus died for my but in the twentieth century sins. Okay, so that means they started getting access that if I believe in Him, all to earlier forms of the gos- the naughty things I’ve pels in the shape of the Nag goddess worshipping sex cults that done in this life are wiped away? Hammadi and Dead Sea scrolls. preceded it. The Biblical admonition Well no. You’re still held accountable Plenty of material to work with against homosexuality only becomes for them, Jesus actually died to re- there, but they don’t seem to have understandable when you realise move the taint of Original Sin. And taken up the challenge. they were written by members of a where did original sin come from? small nomadic tribe who were des- When naughty Eve ate the forbidden In whose image? perately trying to build up their fruit in the Garden of Eden. But All in all these arguments suited me numbers and become more powerful. hang on, wasn’t that actually part of much better. By standing back from The virtues of embracing self-denial the plan? If Eve hadn’t eaten the the Bible and seeing it as a complex, and suffering only make sense when fruit, Adam and Eve would still be in contradictory, myth-ridden document you find out that early Christianity the Garden of Eden and God’s plan written by mortal, fallible men with was affected by eastern asceticism would be stalled. They had to eat the an agenda, at a specific point in our courtesy of Jainist monks from India fruit, get expelled and then start history, it made a lot more sense. who travelled to courts in Syria, having babies or none of us would be Believers may say that we have been Egypt, Macedonia and Persia. The here talking about all this crap. Eve made in the image of God, but in Jainists believed that desire only was effectively forced into Original truth it is much more accurate to say leads to suffering and that desire, Sin. It was a necessary step but then that we have made God in the image pleasure and ambition are all mi- she and everyone else was punished of us, with all our pettiness, jealousy rages anyway. The only way forward for it. Bit of a nasty trick don’t you and vengefulness intact. All the was through self-discipline, self- think? And just like poor old Judas’ venom and hatred directed towards denial and control over the flesh and dilemma. For the Crucifixion to take women and sexual freedom only the noblest way for a Jainist to die, place, Jesus had to be betrayed by makes sense when you see it as a was through self-imposed starvation. one of his followers. But when Judas late Stone Age reaction against the Many of the festivals and rituals of betrayed Christ and did exactly what

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 41 Shaky Ground

God had intended, God then deed, a bit like how Satan and turned around and Judas was God were amiably chatting sent straight to Hell. It’s re- together in the Book of Job. In ally not fair at all. God’s eter- either case, evil isn’t our fault. nal plan seems to contain all We didn’t create it, we didn’t sorts of doublebinds, tricks let it loose and it’s not our and traps. He wrote the rules employee. I don’t object to of the game; surely it could being held responsible for my have been played so that peo- own petty sins and bad behav- ple could perform their di- iour but I refuse to be account- vinely appointed tasks with- able for the existence of some out them then being punished mythical Primeval Evil. for achieving exactly what Over the years I managed God wanted in the first place? to get my own personal denun- It makes no sense. ciation of Christianity down to a cool twenty seconds. It runs Rationalsing the irrational something like this; ‘Most peo- I feel the same sense of frus- ple forget that Jesus wasn’t tration when I hear religious actually a Christian. That only types try to rationalise appar- started with St Paul after Je- ently senseless deaths. No sus’ death. Jesus was a Jew. As one seems to want to believe far as he knew, he was fulfill- that good people can die in ing Jewish law. Now the Jews car accidents, or from cancer, Casting a coin into the Reflecting Pool in Salt Lake City didn’t believe him, so why or from accidental overdoses should we?’’ Pretty impressive without some good reason. Random gry for a very long time. But I think eh? Again, it’s a pity it only works for chance just doesn’t fit in to a you’ve already guessed that. people who already agree with me. worldview where God determines By now some of you might be Sadly, my choice of profession seems everything and everything has a thinking, ‘Ah the aged and hoary to work against me when I formulate reason. If they died tragically, it “Why is there Evil in the world?” such thoughts and try and present must serve some unknown aim of argument. That old thing’. And you’d them seriously. People just look at God. It may hurt the people who get be right. This argument is usually me and say things like, ‘Oh you’re left behind, but some comfort can be answered in the short form by the such a comedian. You would say taken from the fact that God doesn’t existence of free will. That by our things like that wouldn’t you?’ let things like that happen without a conscious choices we allow evil into divine purpose. Every time I hear the world. My question is this: are Notes that sort of thing, I can’t get the im- these great, supernatural and infi- The Confession of an Unrepentant age out of my head of a vast, shiny nite powers of Good and Evil of equal Lesbian Ex-Mormon is published by meat grinder being attended to by power or is Good ultimately more ABC Books and is available at all hundreds of angels, feeding in all powerful that Evil? If they are of good bookstores. those poor dead souls. I can almost equal power, then why have they hear them shouting out orders, decided to fight their eternal battles Skeptics in Melbourne can catch ‘Quick, we need another dozen junk- through disposable meat-monkey Sue-Ann Post’s live show Jesus ies and a few dozen car accident vic- puppets like us? Couldn’t they sort Loves Me, He Just Hates What I’m tims, a gross of famine babies and this out like grown-ups? And if Good Doing at the Melbourne Comedy just a handful of teenage cancer suf- is ultimately more powerful than Festival from March 25 to April 17 ferers or this recipe will be never be Evil, existed prior to the creation of (Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays ready on time!’’ This is an ugly image Evil and in fact created Evil in the only) at the Melbourne Town Hall. I know, and it always grosses people first place, then I don’t care how you There will be an Auslan interpreter out, but I just can’t accept that every dress it up, Evil is in the service of on Sunday April 3. ugly thing that happens in this Good. If the presence of Evil is a Bookings through Ticketmaster7: world can somehow be made pretty necessary part of God’s eternal plan, 1300 660 013. by the simple addition of God and then Evil is essentially an employee His remarkable, illogical and totally of Good. A bit like a faithful old re- unbelievable plan. I don’t buy any of tainer who allows himself to beaten the necessary bastardry that it at chess by his master, yet again. seems to entail and it made me an- ‘Good game sir. Well played’. Or in-

Page 42 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 The Good Word Language Lapses

Further reports from the Fun in France! lieves that many words in all human languages can be analysed into sylla- Since the days of ‘numerophonology’, linguistic fringe bles with one consonant and one several more pieces of linguistic vowel (all these consonants and vow- weirdness arising out of France have els being common in French!). These come to my attention (thanks to syllables exist in pairs, each having Jacques Guy for some of this). One the same vowel and consonant, one involves some ideas put forward by with the vowel first and one with the Henri Boudet in the context of the consonant first (eg [ab] and [ba]). background to Dan Brown’s much- The members of each such pair have discussed novel The Da Vinci Code. partly opposed primeval meanings, Boudet thought that English was a eg [ab] means ‘separated by differ- ‘pure’, sacred ancestor language from ence’, ‘contrasting’ etc, while [ba] pre-Babel antiquity, and indeed also means ‘separated by space’, ‘far a Celtic language like Gaelic, Breton apart’. There are many other claims and Welsh, which it is not, of course of this kind (see earlier instalments). (but if it predated Babel, how could Like all such authors, Locquin gives it be Celtic specifically in any case?). himself every chance of finding bo- Both Tracy Twyman in her journal gus cognates by using such short on these matters and Brown himself items, but he still has to fudge in echo these claims, suggesting that places! Of course, most of his ety- English is especially ‘pure’ and fits in mologies conflict with well-estab- very well with the codes allegedly lished ones. Overall, he gives us no used by the Templars in connection good reason to accept his claims, with the relevant sites. The idea that although they seem — alarmingly — English is ‘pure’ is even stranger to be taken seriously by some in than the idea (partly shared with eg France, which has been a major cen- MJ Harper) that it is very ancient. tre for serious linguistics. (Locquin The vocabulary, the phonology and also grossly misuses the basic term even the grammar of English are phoneme – again, as do many). very mixed because of the wide-rang- A third French writer with very ing activities and the sociolinguistic odd ideas was Fernand Crombette attitudes of its users. Mark Newbrook, who resides The Wirral, UK, (1880-1970), who held that the Earth Another ludicrous French theory is a regular Skeptic correspondent on is the centre of the universe after all matters linguistic. is that of Marcel Locquin, who be-

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 43 The Good Word and that this can be demonstrated a new accent. While intriguing, this of criticism was that grammar and not only through science but also is not especially controversial per se. other abstract aspects of language through the wholesale reinterpreta- In some special cases, however, cannot have arisen (directly) from tion of the Hebrew scriptures and the accent is said to be a specific musical hallucinations, and this various other ancient texts via known accent to which the new user stands. Gordon instead raised the Coptic, the language which devel- has never been much exposed. But issue of whether any universally- oped out of Ancient Egyptian. accents — like all specific features of shared features of human language (Shades of ‘Dave’ and such!) Merci- languages — are learned in interac- at these levels of analysis are geneti- fully, these ideas do not seem to be cally inherited, either by way of a respected in France. Chomsky-style language acquisition device or by way of a more diffused Lexi-linking! set of mechanisms. He believes that The very strange thinker ‘Doc’ ...everything we know all such features are instead derived Shiels promoted the notion of ‘lexi- from experience. This issue is one linking’, which involves words and which I did not address and upon corresponding types of real-world about language which linguists (including psycho- entities somehow coming to be logically-trained psycholinguists) genuinely associated across a range remain divided. of locations and situations on the acquisition suggests Many non-Chomskyan linguists basis of repeated usage. In other would essentially agree with Gordon words, if people use a given word here; others believe that there are enough in connection with some that speaking with an relevant linguistic universals which concept (often not apparently con- involve inherited general psychologi- nected), this gathers its own mo- cal mechanisms (for analysing expe- mentum; the world changes and the identifiable accent rience); etc. Of course, and as an word-thing nexus arises again and example given by Gordon and involv- again, seemingly by coincidence. ing the deaf illustrates, the acquisi- Lexi-linking is thus a type of without learning it is tion of the specific grammars of indi- ‘consilience’. Of course, how this vidual languages (spoken or signed) could happen is not clear (though requires exposure to suitable data Sheldrake would have suggestions). impossible. (so too the acquisition of their spe- I came across this idea in Shiels’ cific phonologies). But not even a cryptozoological writings while re- hard-line Chomskyan would dispute searching an article on that, and it is not the point here. and linguistics. But it (See above on accent acquisition.) applies more widely. tion; and, although some real lin- And until the more abstract gram- Loren Coleman’s ‘Fortean’ col- guists have come embarrassingly matical (and phonological) systems league Jim Brandon decided that eg close to saying otherwise, everything and structures did emerge, by what- the place-name (La) Fayette(-ville) we know about language acquisition ever means, phonetic systems per se had become linked with a whole suggests that speaking with an iden- — arising out of musical hallucina- range of ‘weird’ phenomena in the tifiable accent without learning it is tions or from any other source — USA. Part of this effect involves the impossible. (Compare alleged cases would not qualify as languages. The stem fay or fey in its sense ‘fairy’, of ‘xenoglossia’, knowledge of entire emergence of the more abstract sys- ‘enchantment’ etc. Brandon wrote languages that one has not learned tems is crucial for any theory of the an entire book on this notion (The — in this life at any rate!) It is no origin of language itself. Rebirth Of Pan). I must say that I surprise that there are no properly doubt if the stats would support such confirmed cases of the special type. Sealspeak a proposal. In such cases it is all too At best the idiosyncratic new accent As reported in the popular press, easy to be inadvertently tendentious is somewhat reminiscent of a known Tecumseh Fitch (Uni of St Andrews, once one has formed the idea of a one — or else the patient had been Scotland) has been working on ani- link. exposed to a known accent at an mal communication suggestive of earlier date. pre-linguistic ability and thus of Accents interest in the context of the evolu- Talking foreign, see Fortean Times More on musical hallucinations tion of human language. The most 180 on ‘foreign accent syndrome’, the Anthony Gordon (Fortean Times 180) promising material so far involves rare phenomenon in which adults — responded to my comments (173) on seals, which are able to imitate often after a head injury — manifest his earlier material (170). My point speech sounds to a surprising de-

Page 44 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 gree. Fitch clearly knows linguistics that it is derived from the syllabic some of the territory was at one time to a high level, and it appears that Linear B script used to write Greek Greek, the entire identity of the his conceptualisation and theorising around 1500 BCE (which of course Slavic speakers is sometimes treated are sound; but non-linguists should contradicts the view that it was used as fraudulent, in a very provocative note that even some of the scholarly much earlier!). manner. (But this is not to say that summaries of this work arguably do The profound intellectual achieve- Macedonian sources have necessar- not adequately distinguish between ments of ancient Greek civilisation ily reported the relevant history phonation (the production of speech encourage other extreme viewpoints. truthfully and fairly — or that the sounds) and spoken language. The Nonsensically, Greek is said (here hellenophone minority in the coun- former is a necessary but by no and elsewhere) to be the only lan- try has been dealt with in a wholly means a sufficient condition for the guage in which there is an ‘aetiologi- ideal manner. Such is not always latter; it is manifested by eg mynah cal’ (natural) relationship between the way in post-Warsaw Pact East- birds, which surely have no linguis- words and the things to which they ern Europe.) tic ability/potential. Fitch is, in fact, refer; in all other languages, such concerned to study the various as- relationships are largely arbitrary The search for the Ursprache pects of human language one at a (as in fact they are in Greek too). continues (2) time from his comparative stand- Greek is thus supposed to be Patrick Ryan is a ‘stronger’ version point. We await further results ea- uniquely suited to logic, computing, of John McWhorter: working from gerly. (There are also reports involv- etc. Indeed, computer scientists are the inevitable Sumerian, recon- ing alleged language use by — quite wrongly — cited in support structed Proto-Indo-European and prairie-dogs; watch this space!) of these claims. (Of course, similar other ancient languages, he believes claims have been made for other The search for the Ursprache that he can reconstruct many fea- languages, eg Aymara.) tures of ‘Proto-Language’, a world continues (1) Most of these claims are actually Ursprache. The work is quite schol- I am grateful to Cyn Witkus for refuted by evidence. Also, the ‘evi- arly but involves a number of spe- bringing to my attention another dence’ in favour of the central claim cific (often non-standard) decisions fringe claim involving the identifica- is of the usual unsystematic, superfi- on controversial issues (eg, the real- tion of a known ancient or contempo- cial and speculative kind and is ity of Nostratic), upon which Ryan’s rary language as the common ances- largely confined to vocabulary rather pronouncements are more forthright tor of all human languages. Polat than structure; it is totally inad- than the state of the arguments per- Kaya thinks the Ursprache was equate. In addition, Yahuda et al mits (eg, he simply accepts Turkish, Edo Nyland says Basque, criticise some mainstream positions Manaster-Ramer’s criticisms of etc, etc. without adequate understanding. Ringe; but the centre of gravity of Joseph Yahuda, supported by Testimonials regarding the authors’ scholarly opinion remains close to Konstantinos Efstathios-Georganas linguistic expertise (as opposed to Ringe’s position). Of course, the and others, thinks it was (Ancient) language-learning ability) are clearly standard view is that Proto-World (if Greek. Initially (1982), Yahuda’s meaningless. As usual, ‘bigoted’ or- there was one such language) existed claim was that Hebrew specifically is thodox scholars are accused of sup- so early — and Ryan accepts an ap- disguised Greek, almost all of its pression; but they have simply ig- proximate date of 100,000 BCE words being composed of one or more nored palpable nonsense. Greek is a which is widely regarded as not un- distorted Greek roots. This was later great language with a great litera- reasonable — that its specific fea- extended to the identification of ture, and Greeks are rightly proud of tures are irrecoverable (at least with Greek as an overall Ursprache and it, and of their history. But Greek is any methods currently known). And, thus to denial of the existence of still only one more normal language so far, the world of linguistic scholar- Proto-Indo-European as an ancestor when all is said and done, and ludi- ship has not accepted Ryan’s propos- for Greek and other languages. In crous exaggeration can only harm als to the contrary, any more than addition, examples of early pre-lin- things. those of Swadesh or Landsberg in guistic symbolisation from the This also applies to various ex- the 60s and 70s. Aegean area are (not for the first treme Greek attacks on the Slavic- time) reinterpreted as involving the speaking ethnic group and state Greek al phabet. The undoubted which calls itself Macedonia(n) and Phoenician origin of this alphabet is has its capital at Skopje. Because also denied and it is wrongly stated the name is of Greek origin and

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 45 Review An Amazing Journey

Clarity and style from a The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage that took different paths from us, to the Dawn of Evolution , Richard but who in a backwards flow join us master craftsman Dawkins, Wiedenfeld & Nicolson again, rodents, shrews, birds, am- phibians, fish, insects, worms, corals, A few years ago, Martin Amis wrote fungi, plants, all the way back to Time’s Arrow, a novel in which much bacteria and to the very start of mo- of the action went backward, from lecular replication that created our present to past. In the 2000 movie living world. For all Dawkins’s scien- Memento, the climactic scene was at tific astuteness, this is a pleasing the beginning, and subsequent ones romantic conceit, telling a lesson of went further and further into the unity in living things that can only past to explain what had happened. increase our admiration for how far Now Richard Dawkins has written a we and all of our fellow creatures fine, big book of backwards natural have come. history, The Ancestor’s Tale: A Pil- Nonetheless, there is, within the grimage to the Dawn of Evolution. book’s 600 pages and 39 reunions, In it, he starts with humans. He plenty of scientific pedagogy, deliv- makes clear in these pages that all ered with the clarity for which the living things now on the planet Dawkins is famed. At each of the 39 are just as ‘advanced’ as we are, and steps, we meet the “concestors” who by starting with humans he is not are joining us; this is Dawkins’s coin- making the mistake of insisting that age for “common ancestors”, and we evolution has produced humans as get to hear their stories. This is as in the aim and the culmination of any Chaucer, except here we have “The sort of directed effort. He is taking Lungfish’s Tale,” “The Sponge’s an “arbitrary, but forgivably pre- Tale,” and so on. Dawkins has, ferred, starting point.” Then in a thankfully, declined to write these in grand narrative, he goes back three a fictive first person, but instead has billion years as a pilgrimage. Indeed, used the tales to impress us with he has taken Chaucer as a model, nature’s versatility, to illustrate starting with today and going back points made by Darwin himself, or to to a primordial Canterbury. Along explain genetic drift, the importance the backwards path, we pilgrims are of sex, or the role plate tectonics joined by the branches that are also played in evolution. marching back in time. He often gives specifics about the First, the chimps and bonobos join animals involved. You know, for in- us six million years ago, then the stance, that our stomachs use acid to Rob Hardy, from Mississippi, USA, is a regular gorillas, then orang-utans. In 39 start the digestion of what we have book reviewer for the Skeptic. steps, we meet all the living things eaten, and this is true for anteaters

Page 46 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 as well. However, anteaters don’t our language of specific, discontinu- few black and white photographs. make their own acid. They don’t ous categories. We are an amazingly The graphic at the beginning of each need to make it, and so have lost the uniform species if you take into ac- of the 39 steps shows how far we capacity to do so. The acid they use count all our genes, and we are also have come in the pilgrimage, its tim- is the formic acid, from the swal- amazingly variable “in superficial ing, and who is joining at that par- lowed ants themselves. “This is typi- features which are trivial but con- ticular rendezvous. cal of the opportunism of natural spicuous: discrimination fodder.” In a way, it is a shame that selection,” Dawkins writes, and Dawkins has to deal with being there are countless other examples probably the most famous and given here. In explaining how dodos productive atheist on the planet. lost their power of flight, or cave Once The Ancestor’s Tale was fishes their ability to see, he shows released, reviews praising it on that the resources saved can be Amazon immediately started spent on other activities that would accumulating “unhelpful” votes, make it more likely to get progeny a response that is relatively into the future. Natural selection muted whenever other biologists “... is always tinkering, here shrink- produce books about science, not ing a bit, there expanding a bit, faith. Religious fundamentalists constantly adjusting, putting on consistently misrepresent his and taking off, optimising immedi- views; more than once he chid- ate reproductive success.” ingly addresses creationists, With the unification of the dif- asking them to refrain from tak- ferent lines back into the past, this ing what he has just written out is a story of biological unity. Of of context. There are a few pages course everyone knows how closely devoted to debunking “intelligent related we are to chimpanzees, but design”, and in a fascinating for some genes, like blood type, you aside, Dawkins explains that the might be related more closely to “gaps” in the fossil record seized some chimps than you are to some upon by creationists not only are humans. This sort of unsettling insubstantial, there are no gaps closeness is all through the book. in the genetic sequences of spe- The “hox” genes that instruct a cies, the sorts of descent that the human body to make an eye, for pilgrims traverse here. We could instance, are the same genes that now study evolution without instruct a fly body to do so. The eyes Another theme of the tales here is fossils at all. are vastly different, but the genetic that our fellow species are not in It is too bad that literalists cannot instruction “place eye here” could be anyway primitive “lower” organisms. agree with the many believers who swapped from one species to another. Once the pilgrims get back over five see no real contradiction between Each gene of any organism has million years ago, they meet the evolution and the Bible, but this is branched along its own tree, not cnidarians, which include the jelly- not a book of polemics. It is just a necessarily the same as the branches fish, among our most distant animal unique way to explain how wonder- of descendents in the tree of life, but cousins. The tentacles dangle “har- fully well science has come to under- in astonishing continuity. poon” cells, with the harpoon being stand how evolution works. Part of This gives Dawkins a chance to “probably the most complicated piece that lesson is that we don’t nearly lecture us on the “tyranny of the of apparatus inside any cell any- understand everything. In yet an- discontinuous mind” within “The where in the animal or plant king- other frequent theme, this time re- Grasshopper’s Tale”. It might be a doms.” A literal hair trigger will ex- marking on (of all things) why jelly- tale of grasshoppers, some of whom plode the cell, shooting a coiled fish on a lake in the Palau Islands go differ only in the frequency of their strand with injection needle into from one side to the other during the mating songs but will happily and whatever caused the explosion, and day, he says there isn’t a good expla- successfully breed together if they delivering poison. Snakes, spiders, nation. This is not an admission of can be fooled to take an off-frequency and others have organs to inject poi- defeat, but of delight: “The lesson of mate. All human races (a term that son, but the jellyfish has it down to the tale must be that the living biologists cannot clearly define) can thousands of individual cells operat- world offers much that we don’t yet interbreed between themselves, pro- ing independently. understand, and that is exciting in ducing a spectrum, not This book is beautifully laid out, itself.” discontinuities, of racial characteris- although for most of the animals tics, but we are reluctant to give up there are only line drawings, with a

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 47 Review Where Do We Go From Here?

Looking to the future with Going Native, Michael Archer & dency to continue how it was done ‘at Bob Beale; Hodder, 358 pages home’. There was little time for re- optimism, if.... search. Paddington received the ar- “…many Australians continue to chitecture of Yorkshire because the live, manage their land and exploit builders already had those plans. their natural resources entirely in The approach to agriculture was the here and now, as if there were equally unquestioning but more de- no tomorrow and no yesterday… structive. With the imported domes- closeted in de-natured suburbs and tic animals and crops came pests, high-rise apartments, many pathogens and weeds in “a grunting, Aussies have lost most sense of link- lowing, neighing, crowing, chirping, age with the grand and rich web of snarling, buzzing, self-replicating life and time.” and world altering avalanche.” The message of this book is that we have damaged our environment In January 1788 Captain Arthur so much that we must get moving Phillip ordered the ships of the First with practical measures immedi- Fleet to anchor in Sydney Harbour. ately. We must not let sentimentality He must have thought to himself, or self indulgence get in the way. The something like a weary ‘so far, so path that these authors describe is good’. We can imagine the mixed not cluttered with sacred cows. Take emotions of the native onlookers. the widespread taboo against ex- Whether they were amazed or ploiting kangaroos and other native afraid, they were soon to learn that animals. (Note that few extend this when two civilizations meet, it is ban to the yummy native things like rarely to the advantage of the less yabbis and lobsters.) Because they advanced. belong in our countryside, native The Fleet appeared like a time animals are exactly what we should machine. Gunpowder and chronom- be raising. eters faced a culture that had been How does this sit with notions of in place long before the Pyramids, animal welfare? The authors are but was still in the stone age. The certainly not supporting the inter- natives could not stop the massive pretation of Genesis whereby ani- experiment that was about to begin mals are here at our disposal ‘by the — the widespread application of grace of god’ for any purpose includ- Martin Hadley is a barrister and secretary of English ways to a very different ing entertainment. The suffering of Australian Skeptics in no particular order. place. We can understand the ten-

Page 48 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 animals must be minimised, but the feed the world by organic means. preserves it. The answer is not to harvesting of kangaroos must be Prepare for a test of your beliefs on think by way of two categories — evaluated fairly and not through many issues, from genetic engineer- exploited land here and National misinformation proliferated by some ing to fire management. And prepare Parks there (usually the leftovers). animal liberationists: for new ideas — eg that the most We’re not talking about ultimately potent symbol of our alienation from …animal rights is an unnatural turning farms into conservation the environment is the bushwalker’s intellectual construct that has no zones, but rather multiple-use rucksack! counterpart in the real world of areas where nature conservation This book is about the need to healthy functional ecosystems… an goes hand in hand with more understand our environment; to get echo of an imagined Edenic world traditional farming, the sustain- the most out of it; to avoid pointless where no creature was eaten by any able harvesting of natural re- damage; and to stop missing oppor- other because there was no death sources, safe mining practices and tunities. Why can’t we value our before Adam sinned. ecotourism. land like we revere sport? We have The answer is not as simple as Thorpie and Warnie but it is foreign- It would take some space to go turning vegetarian and growing eve- ers who are way ahead in benefiting through the numerous well justified rything organically. There are good from macadamias (USA), eucalypt recommendations in this book. I say: reasons why we evolved to be om- oil (Portugal), breeder’s rights on buy it; read it; and keep it where you nivorous. It’s possible to be a veg- waratahs (New Zealand) etc etc. We keep other literary milestones. The etarian and stay healthy but it re- have done damage by farming the ABC and especially ABC Radio regu- quires a lot more focus on the diet wrong things and the solution lies larly gives us documentaries of high and a lifestyle that is relatively with the native plants and animals quality. My prediction for say, 20 privileged by world standards. Do that we have ignored. Native ani- years hence, is that there will be a you know a vegetarian who does not mals and native plants. documentary about the Australian take supplements? The only vegan I The authors oppose attempts to environment and we will hear it know requires vitamin B injections quarantine our forests. Unfortu- begin with a reference to this book, more often than I get a haircut. Or- nately, too many people confuse land followed by discussion of how its ganic farming is a nice idea but such clearing, with harvesting and man- lessons were heeded or ignored. tucker costs a lot more and there is agement of a forest. Clearing de- simply not enough arable land to stroys the forest but management

Memoirs of a Country Doctor

Death of a Slaughterman And formative experiences, growing up in He relates many interesting, illu- other stories by a Doctor from the rural Australia, will strike a chord minating and colourful experiences, country; Brian T. O’Sullivan. Avail- with anyone of a similar vintage spanning nearly fifty years, about able from the Author from a similar background. the vast spectrum of human nature, [email protected] Most of the stories arise from his medical emergencies and conditions. 10 years in Monto District Hospital His compassionate way of dealing where he lived with his family and with many of the situations that Brian T.O’Sullivan’s book touches on was the Medical Superintendent and his experiences from childhood in the arise makes one reminisce back to “ only Doctor. Monto was a primary the good old days” when the local GP 1930s, where he grew up on a prop- producing area, having mining of erty in Western Queensland, to did a bit of everything, while at the coal, copper and gold, five sawmills, same time being very glad that the boarding school, University and two and extensive forestry plantations in years as an intern at Brisbane Gen- scientific side of medical practice has the mountains, population of 5,000 progressed in the past 50 years. eral Hospital. Then 10 years in a and the highest birthrate per capita District Hospital in Upper Burnett, in Australia at that time. Some of and finally in a group practice in the Brian’s experiences have already Ros Fekitoa Western Suburbs of Brisbane. His been published in the Skeptic

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 49 On Language Literalism v Literature

Darwin’s birthday seemed like a The other two anthologies are old, or an astronomy paper with the good time to reflect on how the non- similar to each other. Both contain calculation that the universe is sense of creationism still infects our stories about historical figures, both 12,000 light years in diameter and to society. Like those moles in holes at have stories which illustrate how base these claims on the contents of the fun fair, every time you think morality can work and how people the Bible, we would be encouraged to you have whacked it on the head it can (and should) behave in various accept these as being examples of pops up again somewhere else, some- circumstances, and both contain the predictions of a scientific theory times with another name like “intel- wonderful literary passages with the which demands fair consideration in ligent design”. force to generate spontaneous and the classroom. There was a period of less than powerful mental images in the read- I have been questioned several seventy years from the middle of the er’s mind. Both address the idea that times by friends and acquaintances 16th century until the start of the 17th people have the power to choose be- about why I would ever have both- during which three literary antholo- tween good and evil, and both talk ered to read the Bible. My answer is gies were produced. These three about how conflict can be resolved what I said above about the literary works of art are so fundamental to and redemption achieved. One of canon. Sometimes they will go on to the way that the English language is these books is the Works of William ask why I would bother with the spoken today that it is impossible to Shakespeare, the other is the King Bible if I don’t believe the contents. imagine how we would talk to each James Version of the Bible. A passing My reply to that is that I can appre- other if these works had not existed. knowledge of both is a requisite ciate Missa solemnis in C by Mozart, They provide an enormous number quality of anyone claiming to be a Pieta by Michelangelo or Madonna of the cliches and expressions which literate, educated English speaker. dell Granduca by Raphael without we use in everyday speech and The big difference between these having to believe in the literal exist- which allow us to use short-cuts in two works is that nobody thinks that ence of the subject matter. Two of my language without having to explain all the words and stories in Shake- favourite films are Casablanca and everything we say in words of one speare are true, but millions believe Terminator II, but I don’t have to syllable. The first of these books was that everything in the Bible is true. believe in the literal existence of an instruction manual, but it con- If a history student were to quote Rick Blaine or John Connor to detect tained what is probably the best Shakespeare in an essay about Rich- the ways in which both stories ad- known poem ever written in the ard III or one of the Henries and the dress the issues of morality and the English language. The book was The teacher marked him down for it choices people can make about right Book of Common Prayer. there would be no outcry, no picket and wrong. lines outside the school, and no de- The Bible with its stories and mands for balance and equal time myths is part of the collective con- for opposing theories of history. Any- sciousness of our civilisation. So are one who tried to complain would be the works of Shakespeare. It is a pity looked at kindly and dismissed as a that so many people are seduced by fool or an attention seeker. School the siren call to unshakeable belief boards would not even put the mat- in the unbelievable. If only there was ter on the agenda. If, however, that a way to stop their ears with wax, same student were to submit an but maybe I have strayed into an- essay in biology saying that dogs are other set of myths. There are so in no way related to cats because many of them around, and all they are of different created kinds, equally true. But that’s just a theory or a geology assignment stating that of mine. the Himalayas and the Grand Can- Peter Bowditch yon were both less that 10,000 years

Page 50 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 Feedback requested Do Self-Help Books for Psychological Problems Actually Help?

If you start experiencing a psycho- supplement to treatment (Adams & listen to her and summarize what logical problem like depression or Pitre, 2000; Pantalon, Lubetkin, & she says before I say anything else”). marital discord, you might think Fishman, 1995). Studies of the value Do the books help when no pro- about reading a self-help book spe- of self-help books recommended to fessional is involved in selecting or cific to your problem. There are a an individual by a mental health recommending the book for a par- wide range of books from which to professional show that on average ticular individual? No one knows choose. The Authoritative Guide to they help people significantly; fur- that. How helpful self-selected books Self-Help Materials in Mental Health ther, they typically help as much as are may vary with the problem, the by Norcross and colleagues (2003) psychotherapy does (McEndree- person, and the book. groups hundreds of self-help books Smith, Floyd, & Scogin, 2003). Think In seeking answers to these ques- by problem (eg, obsessive-compulsive about that for a moment. Reading a tions, psychology student Fiona disorder) and gives a summary and book helps as much as seeing a psy- Green and I are soliciting personal rating for each. Some self-help chologist several times! experiences from individuals who bestsellers of recent years include Self-help books can have great have read a self-help book with the David Burns’ Feeling Good: The New advantages over psychological or aim of overcoming a psychological Mood Therapy (1999) and John medical treatment in that they (a) disorder. We want to start answering Gray’s Men are from Mars, Women are cheap or free (if borrowed from a questions about whether self-help are from Venus: a Practical Guide to library), (b) are convenient — you books help in the absence of a profes- Improving Communication and Get- can read them any time, with no sional, and, if so, how they help. ting What You Want Out of a Rela- waiting, (c) can be obtained quickly, tionship (1992). eg, by post if necessary, and (d) are Self-Help Books for a Weighty and Self-help books typically include a often written by specialists or even Somewhat Psychological Problem description of a problem, examples of world leaders in treatment of a par- people who have overcome the prob- ticular problem. Self-help books can Diet and weight-loss books are lem, and strategies to use when at- also have some disadvantages in among the most popular self-help tacking the problem. For instance, that they do not provide the indi- books. Who hasn’t heard of the Overcoming Shyness and Social Pho- vidualized treatment and social sup- Atkins diet? This diet, made popular bia by Ronald Rapee uses actual port a mental health professional by various best sellers written by Dr case histories to illustrate social might. Atkins, including Atkins for Life: The phobia and then recommends dozens No one knows exactly how self- Complete Controlled Carb Program of strategies such as testing anxiety- help books help. There could be a for Permanent Weight Loss and Good provoking thoughts, setting small placebo effect (“Finally I’m getting Health, involves eating a great deal improvement goals initially, and the help I need to stop smoking”), of protein and little carbohydrate. using realistic, positive thoughts to the many examples of people with Some physicians consider the diet gradually expand social behaviour. the same problem may help a person dangerous because it can increase Mental health care providers of- feel better (“I’m not the only de- cholesterol and decrease calcium, ten suggest a self-help book as a pressed person on earth”), the exam- among other undesirable effects ples of people overcoming the prob- (Physician’s Committee for Responsi- lem may provide inspiration or ble Medicine, undated). After Dr John Malouff, PhD, JD, is a NSW registered increase self-efficacy in the reader Atkins died in 2004 while clinically psychologist and a senior lecturer in the (“If she can walk out of her house obese (Bone, 2004), the South Beach University of New England School of Psychology. alone, so can I”), or the reader may His email address is [email protected]. use the strategies suggested (“I’ll Continued p 53 ...

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 51 Feedback requested Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll

In mid-2004, we were contacted shock of being diagnosed with can- How a brave woman set out by a new subscriber from cer. A year that started with really to cut through the Queensland, who sought our bad news has ended with something misinformation assistance in exposing the many really good: two great new informa- medical and other myths that tion sources that I believe will help undergrowth were being published in fea- GPs, their patients and their fami- tures and advertisements in lies. magazines aimed at Seniors in The journey started when a well- the population. She particularly meaning friend (an agricultural asked for advice on a booklet scientist, no less) told me she had she was producing for Seniors read a book Sharks Don’t Get Can- that would alert them to vaious cer, and that shark cartilage shrank dubious products and services cancerous tumours. I was in the offered to them.The Skeptic’s middle of radiotherapy following medical experts were delighted cancer surgery, and like anyone in to give her advice and to review that situation, eager to get well. But her publication. I had heard of the author, William Loretta Marron has perse- Lane, and his fake claims. I’m vered with her quest and we grateful that my friend cared have asked her to tell us about enough about me (misguided though her activities, for which we she was) to offer the suggestion, so I have the utmost admiration. promised myself that I would deal She has done so below and she with this issue when I was in a bet- asks for feedback from inter- ter frame of mind. ested Skeptics. A few months later when my life started again, I posted my friend a The events and opportunities of bulky package, along with a short 2004 led me on an evolutionary note thanking her for her support, Loretta Marron has degrees in science and journey that was fuelled by my pas- and suggesting that she might find business and hails from Burpengary in sion for ‘seeking medical evidence’. the contents interesting. I had in- Queensland. It also helped me cope with the cluded several printouts, one from a

Page 52 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 Quack Watch website, which states fact from fiction; I was Don Quixote set up an easy-to-use directory con- that in December 1999 the US Food against the windmill, David against taining a selection of over 300 evi- and Drug Administration sought a Goliath, St George against the dence-based health websites from permanent injunction against Lane dragon, and undoubtedly a very Australia and overseas, covering for unproven claims, and another boring individual. both orthodox medicine and natural printout detailing the research that When I finally finished the book- therapies. I also added two research shows sharks do get cancer. The let, being quite pleased with the libraries and an encyclopaedia link. next time we met she thanked me final result, I showed my months of Major sections include ‘Sexual and she apologised for her earlier hard work to my own GP, Dr Joanne Health’ and ‘Drugs and Alcohol’. advice. Her response supported my Woodford. I also sent a few copies to I sent out the prototype to every- belief that most people do want to my local library and copies to my one I know and many others, and know the facts. surgeon and my oncologist — both while I was waiting for feedback, I I find the Internet a great source whom will see me regularly for set up www.senioryears.com.au, a of information if you can find it many years to come — and the website which includes information amongst the quackery and sales. To webmasters of the links I used. on most topics people might have an help other people like myself, I put My GP immediately asked for interest in, from fun to finances, my computer skills to work and 100 copies of the booklet. My local when heading for retirement. produced a booklet called Handy library asked me to co-partner in a By the way, if you look carefully Health Hints for Seniors. It con- training course for seniors and a in the ‘Activities – Indoor’ section tains some brief medical advice Melbourne psychiatrist, Dr David you will find dancing. Hence the (mostly common sense — I’m not a Horgan, suggested that I should title, ‘Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll’ doctor), backed up by some great widen the scope of my booklet to — it’s all there and much, much health websites. I received consider- include families, and change my more. able advice and guidance from fam- training medium to the internet. He ily, friends, several enthusiastic offered me the website You can contact Loretta and provide skeptics and some amazing GPs. www.healthinformation.com.au. The her with feedback at her web sites: It took my mind off my medical journey continued. condition and gave me a new focus. The latter part of 2004 was spent www.healthinformation.com.au I became a woman with a mission. learning, searching and making Spending many hours on the choices as I scanned through thou- www.senioryears.com.au internet I selected a range of well sands web links. Under the guid- researched medical websites sorting ance of my GP, I now believe I have

...Self Help from p 51 one year) of only one or two kilo- meta-analysis. American Journal of grams of weight loss (Norris et al., Medicine, 117, 762-774. Diet, promoted by Dr. Agatston’s The 2004). Pantalon, M. V., Lubetkin, B. S., & South Beach Diet: The Delicious, Fishman, S. T. (1995). Use and effective- Doctor-Designed, Foolproof Plan for References ness of self-help books in the practice of Fast and Health Weight Loss, seized cognitive and behavioral therapy. Cogni- the limelight, with its suggestions to Adams, S. J., & Pitre, N. (2000). Who tive & Behavioural Practice, 2, 213-228. eliminate bad carbohydrates such as uses bibliotherapy and why? A survey Physician’s Committee for Responsible from an underserviced area. Canadian Medicine (undated). Atkins diet alert. those in highly processed foods and Journal of Psychiatry, 45, 645-649. soft drinks. Retrieved January 10, 2005, from h. Bone, J. (2004, February 11). After a life Unfortunately, there appears to be Womble, L. G., Wang, S. S., & Wadden, T. of dieting, Dr Atkins died at 18st 6 lb. A. (2002). Commercial and self-help no evidence that diet books actually TIMESONLINE. Retrieved February 28, help people lose weight over the long weight loss programs. In T. A. Wadden & 2005, from http://www.timesonline.co.uk/ A. J. Stunkard (Eds.), Handbook of obes- run unless combined with an in- article/0,,9829-997399,00.html. ity treatment (pp. 395-415). New York: person treatment program (Womble, McKendree, N. L., Floyd, M., & Scogin, Guilford. Wong, & Wadden, 2002). While it is F. R. (2003). Self-administered treat- easy to read a book, it is hard to ments for depression: a review. Journal of Feedback to: make the lifelong changes in calorie Clinical Psychology, 59, 275-288. intake and calorie burn-up essential Norris, S. L., Zhang, X., Avenell, A., [email protected]. to losing weight and not regaining it. Gregg, E., Bowman, B., Serdula, M. et al. In this regard, in-person psychologi- (2004). Long-term effectiveness of life- cal treatments for obesity tend to style and behavioral weight loss interven- produce long-term benefits (beyond tion in adults with type 2 diabetes: A

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 53 Forum When the Cheering Had to Stop

In the last issue (24:4) we carried was unsuccessful. I was informed ferred by TAFE authorities for ac- a piece by Jon Jermey “Two from ‘the top’ that a course had only creditation. We were right in the Cheers for Alternative Medicine” to be able to provide the learning latter assumption but wrong in the in which he questioned why outcomes that the industry views as former. Of course, these criteria had Skeptics and medical practition- essential to tasks of the job; not that to serve all industry sectors, not ers were so dismissive of some those tasks be credible or ethically just the health and other science- such claims. We hoped this sustainable. based ones. So defining, for the pur- would generate a response from At the time, federal and state poses of accreditation, what consti- our readers. As the following governments were looking to ex- tutes a sound body of knowledge will indicate, we were not disap- pand vocational education and would perhaps have been pointed. training through, inter alia, im- unachievable had we attempted it. proved provision for sections of in- Notwithstanding, I believe that dustry that had traditionally had we should be challenging accredit- little formal training, and to give ing bodies, both across and within private training providers, along- education and training institutions, Need for proper accreditation side TAFE, the potential to access to require for accreditation that public funding and award nation- health industry-related courses be Sonnie Hopkins ally recognised qualifications. Given centred on scientifically-demon- these aims, there was little enthusi- strated, efficacious treatment. Tascott NSW asm for causes which would go Whilst on the subject of alterna- against them. Since that time the tive medicine I take this opportu- pressure for ‘bums on seats’ espe- nity to comment in response to Jon Last December, as a first-timer to cially self-funding ones — across Jermey’s article (24:4 pp 59-60). an Australian Skeptics national post secondary education, has in- Many of the substances on phar- conference, I was pleased to note creased the potential for practition- macy and supermarket shelves are the level of concern regarding the ers of alternative medicine to claim not alternative medicines but are credibility of claims by some mem- legitimacy based on the status of pharmacological agents for which bers of the ‘alternative medicine’ their course provider. scientific judgment has been made industry. I feel partially responsible. In the that they are safe enough not to In the early nineties when, in eighties I contributed to the devel- require medical supervision. Some Victoria, I headed vocational educa- opment of a set of criteria for a others are dietary supplements tion and training Applied Science, I TAFE course to be accredited in rather than drugs. Unless false fought hard to have accredited only Victoria. With little modification, claims are being made, these can be those health-related courses that these criteria later became the na- viewed as falling under mainstream deliver scientifically-supported out- tional ones. We assumed that only medicine/dietetics. Of the rest I comes (accreditation delivers na- courses supported by a sound body would guess that some of the tionally recognised credentials with of knowledge, and which are for ‘herbals’ contain active substances the potential for public funding). I legitimate purposes would be re- — plants historically have been the

Page 54 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 main source of effective drugs. But Medicine”. Actually, I do disagree the alternative products are only of they constitute alternative medicine with much of what he writes when placebo value to start with!!!! because the claims made for them he advocates trying alternative The placebo effect is well known lack adequate scientifically-estab- medicine for the placebo effect. In in medicine and useful. It may be as lished support. fact, if he were a doctor, what high as 40% of any given treatment Jon refers to the variability in he suggests is considered frankly of any type (including no treatment, effectiveness of medications be- unethical and may well lead to legal just reassurance). One should be tween individuals. This does not action, depending on the outcome. most careful how one uses it as a suggest something unscientific Why on earth doesn’t doctor. The same should apply to lay about them. Rather, research shows he approach conventional medicine people, and the way Jon Jermey us that therapeutic effects — and in the same way when he seeks the is approaching real bioactive prod- toxic ones — vary across individuals placebo effect? Even if he doesn’t ucts is stupid and irrational. Use for a host of reasons, like differences match the conventional treatment alternative products, not because in ‘receptors’ which could be as a to the disease in any way at all, at you assume they don’t work, but consequence of variation in things least he knows about the docu- because you think they do have like density, numbers and chemical mented side effects! Instead of as- some benefit and the side effects constituency, differences in blood suming, and asking the reader to and risk profile of trying something supply, in enzyme-induced break- assume, that all non-pharmaceuti- unknown are acceptable to you. down, in absorption and excretion, cal preparations are totally inactive, And don’t classify charcoal in etc. Indeed, this variability under- I would suggest he tries with alternative treatments for irri- scores the importance of scientific thinking the opposite. It is much table bowel, please. Considering jaw study, where self-medication takes more scientific and safer for him, disease in cases of tinnitus is also place; dosages must be ones that are too. not “unconventional”, even if you effective for almost everybody with- To be fair to the alternative medi- weren’t aware of it after seeing a out serious toxicity for anybody. For cine industry, these herbs and specialist. When you are those substances for which this is “natural” treatments often are next looking for placebo effect, Jon, not possible the clinician may ad- “bioactive” — in other words there try some of the harmless old rem- just dosage on an individual basis. is an effect other than placebo. The edies (like warm drinks with Nor is the placebo effect unscien- problem is, this effect may or may lemon for colds) that have been tific. We know that some of those not be what you are hoping around centuries longer than manu- who seek treatment will get better for. Sometimes the bioactivity is too factured alternative anyway, whilst some others will do weak (eg the anti-infective effect of medical preparations or conven- so if they believe they are being garlic tablets). Sometimes it is not tional products. These don’t cost you treated because, presumably, of relevant (eg foul smell from using $35 a pop, but I guarantee you as a stepping up of their own healing yoghurt to treat thrush in the doctor that they will work — don’t mechanisms or a psychosomatic vagina). Sometimes it is idiosyn- burn yourself, though. While you factor in their condition. It would cratic (rare and unpredictable — eg are trying them, please donate the not be alternative medicine were a fatal fulminant hepatitis from tak- financial difference to the starving properly qualified clinician on occa- ing a dose of echinacea). in the Third World. sions to draw on this knowledge as I think the author has fallen into a ‘first resort’, either to withhold the trap of feeling the topics of treatment or to prescribe a medicine and alternate medicine pharmacologically-inactive sub- are far simpler than they are. He Skeptical stance? stance. confuses variable genetic expression with biochemistry. He tells me “per- haps your genes are different”. Well, Jon, luckily they are. Examples of William Verhoef, Muddled thinking his silliness include comparing his Mooroolbark, VIC daughter’s severe IGE mediated reaction to one peanut and his mild discomfort after eating 50, to justify Jon Jermey (“Two Cheers...” 24:4) Davida Kiernan trying alternative products in order says that the common view to gain any old unknown and Balgowlah NSW of among skeptics seems to be that unquantified biochemical Alternative Medicine is useless junk reaction, hoping for one of benefit. produced and marketed by ruthless Is the man mad or just stupid? No, I am very disappointed in the qual- profiteers taking advantage of sick wait, to be fair, he assumes that ity of thinking exhibited by the au- and anxious people. which was his thor of “Two Cheers for Alternative

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 55 Forum own view originally treatment, just be repeated at a later date with the errors means that they need to be reassurance.). I would challenge same subjects and with the same repeated before the evidence sup- this assertion. Most skeptics would treatment but the subjects not told porting the treatment can be ac- consider the purveyors of Alterna- that the same treatment was being cepted. tive Medicine as being mostly intel- used, very likely a different set of Jon’s previous skeptical stance ligent, but deluded about the useful- five subjects would show improve- was unjustifiable and, contrary to ness of their products (sometimes, ment. what he says, my impression is that however, they are downright nutty). He also backs self-experimenta- it is not the average skeptic’s If Jon held that unjustifiable view tion. This is essentially a trial of stance. But his realization of this previously, it seems his pendulum one. It is anecdotal evidence and fact has caused him to now look at has now swung a bit too far to the this is extraordinarily unreliable. alternative medicine in a less than other side. He proposes going through a whole skeptical light to say the least. Jon makes a poor start by string of treatments that have been suggesting that we should not ex- promoted for the ‘flu’ until one is clude preparations just because found that works. Does he not un- they are totally ineffective — be- derstand confounding variables? cause they could still have a valu- Each episode is different: different Anecdotal support able placebo effect! I am hoping, at virus, different circumstances, dif- the very least, that he will require ferent prior state of health, concur- that they be shown to be harmless rent illnesses etc. How could he ever as well as useless. come to a reasonable conclusion Ron Marke In any case, if the placebo effect about what helps and what doesn’t Bellingen NSW is to be accepted as a reason to use help? Also, does he have any idea of a product, we may as well accept all the extraordinarily large number of forms of quackery. Why should ho- treatments that have been pro- In response to Jon Jermey’s inter- moeopathy be excluded? He adds moted as a treatment for the ‘flu’? esting article “Two Cheers for Alter- that skeptics “have a lot of trouble Jon is willing to try ten to find one native Medicine!” in the last issue, coming to terms with the placebo that works. Even a hundred! But, my following points may be of inter- effect”. Again, what is the basis of can everyone, individually, really go est to readers. his assertion? He seems to be just through the whole list of possible I know people who have resorted assuming that most present day treatments? If not, which ones to ‘alternative’ medicine to either skeptics are thinking like he used to should we choose and which should cure themselves or control symp- think ten years ago! Most skeptics, we leave out? Which should we try toms of ill-health. One lady I know in fact, use the placebo effect to ex- first and why? In any case, how quite well, after being diagnosed plain how alternative medicine often does the average person get with breast cancer, and having re- preparations can, at times, seem to the ‘flu’ in a lifetime? My last epi- fused surgery and chemotherapy, have a beneficial effect. It is also sode was more than ten years ago. put herself on the alternative stuff why skeptics require that placebo Maybe he actually meant such as green barley, multivitamins controlled trials are used to evalu- “the common cold”. And charcoal and a number of herbal prepara- ate alternative medicine prepara- tablets for IBS. Let me guess tions. Within six to nine months the tions. Also, it seems that placebos that his main symptom is diarrhoea tumour in her breast had shrunk can be used to trick Jon’s subcon- — if so, it will be no surprise that and later her specialist pronounced scious mind. Well, I suppose as long charcoal tablets help. that she was cancer free. That was as they don’t tell him it’s a placebo Finally, he has found that exer- ten years ago. Can one say that she — sugar pills called “horny goat cises and a plate to hold his jaw had spontaneous remission? The weed”, with an appropriate spiel, straight at night has reduced his placebo effect? Coincidence? Or should do just fine. tinnitus by 80%. Perhaps it did. what she was taking did cure her? Next he reveals his misunder- Perhaps he was going to get better The lady is still around. standing of the statistical analysis anyway. Perhaps it was a placebo A retired friend of mine con- of medical trials. He gives the exam- effect (actually, this would be ac- tracted lung cancer. His father-in- ple of 50 patients: 40 are not af- ceptable to him wouldn’t it?) That’s law, who did not believe much in fected by the treatment, five are the problem with anecdotes; you orthodox medicine, persuaded him made worse, and five are improved. never know what’s going on. Even not to have chemotherapy or radia- He then states his opinion that the double-blind placebo controlled tri- tion treatment but instead brewed five who were improved should con- als require a great deal of caution pawpaw leaves and got him to drink tinue to take the treatment. The regarding interpretation of results. the bitter juice. The last I heard of problem is that, if this trial were to The possibility of methodological him that he was in remission. I was

Page 56 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 somewhat skeptical about this but chance? I think the chemotherapy be deceived by others, if it makes concluded that the evidence for this worked in her case. him feel better. While I will not ar- is inconclusive. I never found out A lot of older men experience gue with his right to live that way if because I lost touch with the fellow. enlarged prostates with the result he chooses, it is amazing that he I have heard of similar stories that they have to get out of bed apparently expects such an attitude and, indeed, I possess published three or four times a night to have a to catch on among skeptics. testimonials in my file, of people pee. I read that a herbal tea called Jermey employs a tactic common curing themselves of cancer by eat- Epilobium (from a willow herb among those who defend the inde- ing pawpaw fruit and drinking paw- named Epilobium parvilorum), fensible, drawing an inappropriate paw juice made from the plant’s drunk about twice a day, settles this analogy by favourably comparing leaves, or of one documented case of problem. I tried it and it seems to alternative medicine to a passer-by’s a Queensland man who cured him- work. Zinc is also good for the pros- smile regarding therapeutic effect. self of cancer by radically changing tate. In doing so he even calls the effect his diet and taking quite a number My present position in relation to of the smile irrational. The analogy of natural preparations. He almost ‘alternative’ medicine is this: fails for several reasons, not least of died from his cancer after receiving yes, I think that some of the ‘al- which is the fact that there are real chemotherapy and radiation. This ternative’ medicine is beneficial evolutionary and biochemical rea- man is an active business person to good human health; but most sons why smiling makes us feel and enjoys excellent health. Was likely the majority of it could be better. Delusion and deceit are not this man’s self-medication the effect sheer nonsense and wishful involved - I have never heard of of a placebo, spontaneous remission thinking. anyone being duped out of $39.95 or just lucky? I am quite convinced for a smile. It seems that most doctors are that his ‘alternative’ self-medication Jermey also gives his approval to unaware about the drugs they pre- pulled him away from death’s door. exaggerated and dishonest claims scribe have on affecting nutrition. However, I would like to stress and high pricing on intrinsically Quite a number of drugs prevent, or here that most testimonials I have useless products, as such a tactic deplete, the absorption of vital nu- read in books and leaflets are com- makes a buyer think that they are trients in food, and hence people pletely inconclusive and not very really getting the ‘good oil’, making have trouble being restored to good convincing. it a more effective placebo. He ei- health. A case can be argued for I presently know a lady with lu- ther has very loose ethics or he is supplements to be prescribed when pus disease. Every day she treats simply unaware that not everyone patients are taking certain drugs. her disease with massive doses of is as eager to be deceived as he ap- We do need more thorough re- Vitamin C, 1000mg cod liver oil and parently is. I know - and I am sure I search to test the efficacy of the multivitamins. She doesn’t have any can speak for many others here - ‘alternative’ stuff. Who is going to problems and has the lupus under that I would be furious if I paid finance and test it? That is the control. Her doctor knows about this good money for a medical product, question. and he approves. She won’t take based on its proponent’s claims, pharmaceutical drugs because they only to find that the claims were do not work. She tells me that if she A bit of integrity needed lies and the manufacturers were goes off her natural medicine, she using those lies to grow fat on my gets into trouble. I think her case is money. For people posing as health quite convincing — and conclusive. professionals to take it upon them- Orthodox medicine works for Matthew Birmingham selves to deceive others “for their some, not for others. For example, a North Nowra NSW own good” and to receive payment close friend of mine told me about for that deceit is reprehensible. her friend who was told by her spe- That Jon Jermey is comfortable cialist there would be no point in with such a situation suggests that her receiving chemotherapy for her I must take issue with John his health concerns are not very advanced cervical cancer and that Jermey’s suggestion (24:4) that as serious or that he has more money she only had about four weeks to skeptics we should give alternative than sense. live. She immediately demanded medicine our approval. His article More evidence of muddled think- chemotherapy, got it, and within contains a number of examples of ing can be seen in the lessons he twelve months she was clear of can- muddled thinking, including some takes away from clinical research. cer. She died seven years later, not that are not only scientifically un- He gives an hypothetical example of from cancer but from something sound but ethically unsound as a trial involving fifty people receiv- else. Did she have spontaneous re- well. He makes it clear that he is ing “Treatment X”, which results in mission? The placebo effect? Or quite happy to deceive himself, or to five getting worse, five getting bet-

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 57 Forum ter and forty remaining the same. The control group yields the same result. Jermey’s verdict: Treatment Society, Medicine and X really worked for five people due to their unique biochemistry, and if he was one of those five he would want to know where he could get more of the stuff! He appears to be Alternative Medicine unaware of the implications of this conclusion. Since the treatment and control groups both reported the same improvements, the magically selective Treatment X managed to select the five people in the group Reader questions whether The Skeptic has recently published that would have got better anyway. articles criticising Alternative Medi- That’s pretty tricky stuff! orthodox medicine is cine, but leaving mainstream (allo- But then there’s the question of immune to pathic) medicine looking like a saint. why Jermey would want more of it. Hence, a need for a critical review of Having established that he was one mainstream medicine. of the lucky few (that would have Mainstream medicine may well be got better anyway) he can quit the more effective than alternative medi- treatment and save his money. But cine, but it is not without its prob- that could be risky; there were five lems. Refusing to acknowledge those people taking nothing who got problems means that we not only worse. Hmm, what to do? give its critics ammunition to use in This farce only serves to show their arguments, but we let these that, in discovering truth, there problems persist. really is no alternative to sound scientific reasoning and honest dis- Alternative vs. Mainstream Medicine closure. Of course, Jermey’s conclu- Many criticisms of mainstream sion cannot be absolutely ruled out, medicine are shared with alternative but there is nothing in his example medicine, but each has its own prob- to propose such a conclusion. lems. Roland Seidel’s question “How can Frequently it’s better to let a dis- we tell from make believe”, posed ease run its course rather than inter- often in the Skeptic, comes to mind. vene. “Treating” diseases becomes a The society in which Jermey’s knee-jerk reaction. In fact, much of suggestions can work is a society the previously identified placebo that causes skeptics to shudder. His improvement has been suggested to suggestions are reliant on the con- be the result of the natural history of tinued existence of dishonesty, igno- the disease (including ‘regression to rance and gullibility - the very the mean’). This does not deny that things skeptics are trying to eradi- there is a placebo effect — but it cate. informs us that the real word is not I have not exhausted the errors so simple. and confusions in Jermey’s article, Alternate practitioners might but I think I can rest my case. claim to “emphasise the body’s abil- ity to heal itself”, but invariably “help the process along” — otherwise there would be no need for their in- volvement. But AltMed and Main- stream medicine both abuse defini- tions of “healing” and “treatment” — both have an incentive to define more and more things as needing “treatment”. Both mainstream and alternative medicine are businesses, pushed John August

Page 58 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 along by the profit motive — and They’ve pointed out to the Govern- Fatigue has also been identified as a have comparable turnovers. Main- ment the economic size of the indus- significant contributing factor in the stream medicine includes not-for- try — it’s not something which just administration of wrong drugs in profit hospitals, and there does not Skeptics point out. So when I point anaesthesia. seem to be anything comparable in to the lack of accountability in The Tito report says that the AltMed. However, these not-for- AltMed, keep in mind not all AltMed medical culture contains an unreal- profit entities are serviced by profit- practitioners like it that way. istic expectation about work during making firms, and their employees But it was hard to figure out how fatigue, one that it is better off with- are remunerated for their efforts. So, to register alternative practitioners, out. This sort of argument is used by while there are differences, the urge given their great diversity and the the alternative medicine movement. to turn a profit influences both main- lack of a single body able to speak for It has some validity. (But I am told stream and AltMed. them. Even if they were registered, by Dr Peter Arnold that the Euro- The criticisms of mainstream mainstream medicine would still pean Economic Community have medicine are quiet but discernible in have its “priesthood” — becoming an brought in restricted hours and this its own press. “Success stories” and alternative practitioner would in- is beginning to be implemented in “breakthroughs” are promoted by variably involve less time, with the Australia. ) drug companies and others through extra hurdles needed to become a However, it’s worse for AltMed. both paid promotion and whatever mainstream practitioner serving to People sometimes die as the result of free coverage they can obtain. The control supply and maintain the bad advice received from alternate Medical Journal of Australia pro- priesthood (and just maybe, increas- practitioners; but more frequently, a motes its reports to the mainstream ing the quality of service ...) treatment is not successful. The media — both its good and bad re- practitioner will say “You’ve come to views, but this relies on the main- Surgeons, Experts and Airline Pilots me late, but I’ll do what I can” — stream media itself, and the “success AltMed have criticised mainstream and so they have an out. But there’s stories” are heard more loudly. But, medicine as being an elite, and Skep- no single event which can be identi- in contrast, the only critical review tics have replied by saying we would fied. from within alternate medicine is of not want amateurs flying passenger But, the analogy to pilots has a mainstream medicine — not of itself. aircraft and similarly medicine as a problem in that pilots are a lot more There’s no “critical analysis” to even expert profession is justified. regulated than the medical profes- get lost in the morass. However, whatever happens to the sion. George Bernard Shaw said “all While we can imagine improving passengers will almost certainly professions are a conspiracy against the regulation of mainstream medi- happen to the pilot too. When the the laity”. It’s an issue, certainly. But cine, alternative medicine does not future of the provider and the cus- with AltMed, you are leaving things even have something comparable to tomer are so intimately linked, to a group which is even less ac- this basic (if problematic) regulation. there’s no hazard. It’s different for countable. Mainstream medicine has a doctors. priesthood, endorsed by law. Alter- The effectiveness of pilots is care- The net effect of medicine nate Practitioners do of course try to fully regulated and reviewed, along Intervention where you would die portray themselves as experts, and with the number of hours a pilot can otherwise, such as severe burns, perhaps use obscure jargon to im- fly before rest. It’s similar for long motor vehicle accidents or terminal press; but it’s a definite contrast to haul truck drivers. illness has to provide a reduction in the legal monopoly, structures and Some doctors tell you stories mortality. Further, there are many the imposing jargon of mainstream about their internships, going with- cases where a heart bypass has medicine. out sleep for ridiculous periods of given people many additional years There has been an inquiry into time, and seem to celebrate it. Their of life they would otherwise not have the registration of Alternative Medi- initiation into the priesthood. But its had. cal Practitioners. It’s a distortion to a helluva contrast to people who fly Things become more problematic tar all alternative practitioners with aircraft. as we depart from these clear exam- the same brush. Some do claim to be The Tito report noted a claim that ples. The more we justify interven- able cure all diseases — they are the: perhaps at the lunatic fringe. But tion in terms of a risk of a mishap in some label themselves as “comple- ... performance handicap on a doctor the future rather than a clear cur- mentary” practitioners rather than who had been working continuously rent problem, the more obscure the “alternative” practitioners, not for 24 hours was about equivalent to benefit becomes. Then there’s an claiming to cure the “serious” stuff the performance handicap from intervention which improves the — at least, not by themselves. And having a blood alcohol level of 0.1% quality of life, rather than reducing some have advocated registration of or twice the legal limit for driving. mortality — such as cataract surgery - or indeed, Barry’s knees. (There is their own profession to Government. Also: some analysis which is done in terms

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 59 Forum of “QUALYs” - QUality Adjusted Life mation they used to uncover Chelms- with the number of doctors per Years). ford (At least in NSW). capita. Japan, with the smallest It is possible for many problems to There’s the claim that the analogy number of doctors, has the lowest be hidden below the surface — to airline pilots is quite close, be- infant mortality and highest life profiteering, distortion, and cover- cause a mistake can cost a doctor his expectancy; Spain with the most ups — and it is also possible that or her career. This is still short of the doctors has comparable infant mor- these negatives might be masked by pilot’s life — but regardless, we still tality and life expectancy to Aus- other positives. need to uncover the mistake and tralia (according to a WHO study take action — and recent history reported in Australia’s Health 1990'). Regulations, Improvements? does not inspire confidence. There’s In Australia, we have disadvan- It is claimed that things have re- less ambiguity when a pilot makes a taged groups such as aborigines who cently gotten better, the regulation of mistake. have an increased mortality in spite doctors, the commitment to educa- Dr Peter Mansfield, of ‘Healthy of the benefits of medical interven- tion and other factors mean we have Skepticism’, a group which scruti- tion in other population groups. a new situation. However, if you go nises the promotion of medicines by Much as medical intervention such back a few years, people were saying drug companies as motor vehicle accidents and heart exactly the same thing — “It was (www.healthyskepticism.org), says bypass is positive, poverty can also bad, but we’ve sorted it out now”. that while there may have been have a significant effect on mortality. Nobody ever seems to say “It’s bad some shift towards “evidence based It’s a matter of definition of whether now, maybe we’ll get it sorted out in medicine” (an improvement), this poverty which impacts on health a few years”. (1) has been dwarfed by the increasing might be more properly called a This is the “arrogance of the size of the drug market, with the health or poverty issue. present” — that these times are the associated increase in marketing and Internationally, it could be that most crucial times in history, and promotion. health resources are unevenly dis- we’ve finally got it all sorted out. In tributed and increased mortality contrast, there’s also nostalgia for Doctors and their overall effect on results from factors unrelated to better times (2). It depends on who is mortality health care. It’s clear that other fac- talking. Sometimes you hear about “Doctors tors than health expenditure (as Professor Nik Bogduk (Newcastle going on strike and mortality rates evidenced by doctors per capita) University) has noted that as soon as declining”. This has been observed, must have a significant impact on one dodgy process is put to rest, an- but it is a measurement artifact mortality. other springs up. Looking at Chelms- rather than anything representative. Resource allocation and priorities ford and the recent Campbelltown- Doctors do not seem to have ever Liverpool (hospital) fatalities, it gone on strike on all services, includ- within medicine seems it has not been the processes ing emergency services, and the ef- Frequently we cure a problem which of improving regulation which un- fect was the result of critical health could have been avoided in the first covered these critical problems, but problems being temporarily delayed. place. For example, campaigns to rather whistle blowers applying The most recent example I know keep people fit, so reducing heart pressure through the media. Fur- of was in Israel in 2000; Avi attacks. Only a handful of dollars ther, the Medical Consumer’s Asso- Yisraeli, director general of the goes towards prevention for each ciation claim that changes to legisla- Hadassah Medical Organization, hundred towards cure (Too Much tion mean that members of the commented in the June 2000 issue Medicine, p 243). public can no longer access the infor- of BMJ: There are problems with priorities and the lack of follow through. One Mortality is not the only measure of example was the preparation of clini- harm to health. Lack of medical cal guidelines on lower urinary tract Footnote 1 : Some other asymmetries in intervention can lead to disability, symptoms which were not then dis- non-medical life include people worrying pain, and reduced functioning. Elec- about what happens after they die, while tributed. tive surgery can bring about a great no-one puzzles over where they came In the novel Enigma by Robert improvement in a patient’s condi- from. Also, people tell you to turn off your Harris, set at the Bletchley Park tion, but it can also mean disability mobile at the start of a talk, but don’t code-breaking establishment, people and death in the weakest patients. remind you to turn it back on. contemplated that a shortage of pen- And patients who do not undergo Footnote 2 : Two statements along cils would mean that servicepeople’s diagnosis or surgery now could de- these lines from non-medical fields in- lives would be lost. It was an exam- clude : “We could get to the Moon back cline or die in a few months due to ple of how cost cutting in particular then, but couldn’t do it now”, and “The the postponement. founding parents were able to get their places could have a disproportionate head around the relevant constitutional Interestingly, life expectancy and effect. issues, but we couldn’t do it today”. infant deaths show no correlation Resources must be applied with

Page 60 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 care in order to be cost-effective. But Acknowledgements but the scientific approach (clinical the manner in which costs seem to trials, double blind testing, etc) is one have been cut is disturbing. Cer- Thanks to Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, which allows mistakes, or their ef- Dr Peter Arnold and Andrew Alan of the tainly, ongoing almost finished posi- fects, to be corrected as further re- Medical Consumer’s Association for as- tive initiatives should not be cut in sistance in developing this article. search reveals further information. favour of new ones. In orthodox medicine, diagnosis and An important reference was Too Much In addition, powerful drugs can Medicine, Ray Moynihan, ABC Books, treatment are entirely separate enti- reduce the health of someone who 1998, in addition to other references cited ties, each requiring particular skills suffers from a mild version of the within the text. and knowledge. disease, because the drug itself is an Alternative medicine, on the other assault on the body. Misapplied, hand, relies to a very large degree on medicine can reduce health. Perhaps anecdote, testimonial and in many this happens through naive good cases the “antiquity effect” (ie, ‘my intentions; but equally there could Editor responds grandmother swore by it’, or ‘it has be profiteering through over-servic- I don’t think the Skeptic has ever been around for centuries’). As such, ing. claimed that the practice of medicine there is no in-built corrective mecha- nism to prevent errors or preclude Medicine as a proportion of GDP; its in Australia is either perfect or be- yond criticism. Indeed, one only their recurrence. Furthermore, alter- place in society and the economy needs to take note of the print and native medicine, even when it works Medicine, while useful, can take electronic media over a period to be as a treatment (as herbal treatments, away from the other parts of our life. made aware of many problems in the for instance, sometimes might) has If we were taxed heavily and had practice, and more especially the no diagnostic ability whatever. There long lifespans, we might find that administration, of health care serv- is little or no science in the field of our lives were barren with nothing ices in most states. The factors caus- alternative medicine and, in fact, its to do ... ing this may be economic, political, practitioners frequently decry science Dr Lionel Wilson, a former presi- bureaucratic or any of a number of (or ‘western’ science as they mislead- dent of the AMA, commented in the similar problems or combinations ingly term it) as a proper method of 1995 book Quality Management in thereof, all of which lie outside the determining the efficacy or otherwise Health Care, noted that: remit of the Skeptic. of their claimed treatments. This assertion is disingenuous, to say the Paradoxically, increasing health We are only peripherally concerned with the administration and some- least. care expenditures may soon become Finally John draws a false anal- one of the greatest threats to people’s what more so with the regulation of such practices. For example, both ogy between medicine and aviation. quality of life and even to their It is not that Skeptics would worry health. orthodox and alternative medicine claim to be addressing the same about flying with a pilot whose per- In the cut and thrust, of everyday problems, but whereas the practice of sonal beliefs might tend towards the life, we can focus on this crisis or orthodox medicine is highly regu- mystical that concerns us; as long as that crisis, and lose track of the lated and practitioners can be called the pilot is competent and conscien- broader truth that health takes to account for any failings in their tious, his personal beliefs are irrel- away from the things that we could practice, little such regulation is evi- evant. The analogy Skeptics draw is in principle enjoy if we were healthy. dent with the practice of alternative to flying in an aircraft designed ei- medicine, and where it exists it is not ther by someone skilled in the field of Conclusion pursued with much rigour. Our com- aeronautics or by someone who firmly believes that all one needs to My main conclusion is that main- plaint is that the same standards of do to keep it flying is to propitiate the stream medicine is problematic, and accountability should apply to any- demons. not without its sins. But even being one purporting to carry out the same Both forms of health care suffer susceptible to vagaries of individual functions. from problems, but they are dis- and corporate selfishness, abuse of However, our real concerns with tinctly different problems. To a large definitions, errors of convenient per- alternative v orthodox medicine lie extent the problems of the orthodox ception and the vagaries of regula- not with the practices of health care, are those rooted in the mundane tion and resource allocation, it still but with the science that underpins world of politics, economics and hu- makes some attempt to be scientific. each modality. Medical science, as man fallibility. The problems of al- Alternative Medicine rarely even with any other, is an imperfect disci- ternative practice are much more approaches the flawed standard set pline, but it has a methodology which fundamental and lie in the nature of by mainstream medicine. But this is allows some degree of confidence in belief unmoderated by evidence. no reason to ignore the problems of the results it proposes, which find (or mainstream medicine. should) their way into medical prac- tice. Of course mistakes will be made, Barry Williams

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 61 Branch News Vic Skeptics – Events of 2004

The busy Victorian branch copiable class material on year began with the visit of topics of mutual interest to to Australia. Skeptics and science teach- Mentalist magician, Mark ers. This is mailed out as an Mayer, launched an official insert in 1200 copies of each objection to Mr Edward’s edition of the journal Lab publicity under the Trade Talk, and thus gives us a Descriptions Act. It had the direct interface with desired effect of focusing schools. The latest edition of critical media attention on Lab Talk was an exception; the visit. Vic Skeptics sup- we provided twelve pages of ported Mark with TV and Darwin Day activities radio responses and with within the magazine itself. our own publicity. Our public speakers for We also took a stall at the 2004 included Bob Nixon City of Yarra Community Robyn and Mark Abrahams, with Rosemary Sceats and Peter Hogan (Water Divining), Dr Steve Day among tarot card read- ard Saunders, Barry Williams and Basser (Alternate and Or- ers, reflexologists, naturopaths and the Sydney mob, we cooperated with thodox Medicine), Lynne Kelly (The the like. The bed of nails and Mark STAV in a variety of ways, including Human Face of Skepticism), Barry Mayer’s baffling “mind illusions” a repeat appearance at the annual Johnson (Gold Detecting Scams) and drew crowds of appreciative, inter- Primary Science Teachers’ Confer- Marc Abrahams (The Ig-nobel esting and engaging people to the ence. Events like this convince us Prizes). We are continuing with our stall. that not only are most of the teach- Public Events program in 2005. Another early 2004 engagement ing participants “on side” and sup- The Victorian Skeptics website was a psychology teachers’ confer- portive of the Skeptical message, but www.keypoint.com.au~skeptics/, ence; Lynne Kelly and Vic Commit- that the commercial presenters — launched in 2004, together with the tee had supported teachers in their booksellers, planetarium operators, Vic News yahoo group http:// objections to an unfortunate and now classroom equipment entrepreneurs groups.yahoo.com/group/ infamous VCE Psychology exam and the like, are intelligent and as- vic_skeptics_news/ provides a reli- question which postulated that to tute people, often with fascinating able guide to our activities. survive the bed of nails or backgrounds and a well-developed For Victorian readers who are firewalking unharmed, an altered knowledge of Skeptical issues. interested in meeting and talking state of consciousness was required. Courtesy of the Skeptics Science with other Skeptics, our pub social is We said categorically “tain’t so”. The and Education Foundation, we or- always held on the Third Monday of Science Teachers’ Association of Vic- ganised sponsorship for sixty bursa- each month. For March 21 and April toria (STAV) invited us to demon- ries awarded as a result of STAV’s 18 2005, the venue will be The Bee- strate. Lynne Kelly gave the best annual Science Talent Search. Aus- hive Hotel, Barkers Rd, Hawthorn possible practical exposition of Cold tralian Skeptics is one of three major from 6 pm . Reading to the youngish crowd of sponsors of this event, to which it Victorians interested in taking a practising psychology teachers. She has an on-going commitment. more active interest in Skeptical provided numerous intimate one-to- At STAVCON, Victoria’s annual activities: one readings, using her prop of science teachers conference, we rep- *consult either of the links above, “Tauromancy”. At all stages, her resented the skeptical view to 1000 *Email: [email protected] clients were made aware that Lynne Victorian science teachers from gov- was employing psychological and ernment and independent schools. *Phone: 1800 666 996 communicative, rather than Psychic With our Australian Skeptics show- *Mail: Vic Skeptics skills. They were still very im- bags we distributed a lot of useful pressed. stuff to a lot of schools, including GPO Box 5166 Melbourne 3001 We’ve had an increasing involve- about two hundred of the Water ment with science education. During Divining DVDs. Ken Greatorex the year, with the enthusiastic as- We also responded to an invitation sistance and logistic support of Rich- from STAV to provide original photo-

Page 62 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 Letters

Good education Fooled by an expert We all know that matters of science are decided by the evidence rather than by voting per se. However, in Leonard Colquhoun Guy Burns Devonport TAS many cases, including this present Invermay TAS case, experts and other careful com- Among the stories from the South and Anthony Wheeler put together a pretty mentators are seriously divided on the SE Asian tsunami catastrophes, there interpretation of the evidence. This are some of the “We’re survived only good story in “How Reliable is our Con- sciousness?” (24:3) There I was read- situation should be acknowledged by because So’n’so was with us” genre; the those who comment further, especially link below tells one of them: ing p23, “Count the number of ‘F’s in this sentence... Don’t read on until you where they are not themselves quali- Hundreds of people owe their lives to have counted for yourself.” In my pe- fied in the relevant subjects. Clark the fact that an 11-year-old schoolgirl riphery vision I could see a new para- talked as if only a very few of the rel- was fortunate enough to attend a graph coming up with a box around it evant experts would disagree with his school which still taught geography, and I assumed there lay the answer assessment of this present case and as instead of the current fad for the ideo- and explanation. So I carefully avoided if it was clear that this disagreement logically-raddled, content-free SoSE looking ahead and as instructed was badly motivated; I accurately ob- courses which take up time and space counted the number of ‘F’s in the sen- served that all of this was misleading. in so many schools: tence, “Count the number of ‘F’s in this For his part, Gerrand naively talks as http://www.smh.com.au/text/arti- sentence.” Nothing difficult about that if the evidence is conclusive and dis- cles/2005/01/02/1104601245551.html — answer one. When I came to the misses alternative interpretations, Full marks to the teacher involved, boxed paragraph I realised that that however expertly grounded. Andrew Kearney — sounds like my was the sentence I was supposed to It is obvious that my comment kind of teacher. And an elephant read. Again, no difficulty. But it turned about the one-sided view of this mat- stamp for the schoolgirl Tilly. out I got the wrong number both times. ter which many Melbourne Skeptics Of course, were this letter published Mr Wheeler got me twice. had received before the 1999 debate in many other forums, there’d be pre- was not intended as a criticism of that dictable howls of outrage about “cram- debate, as Gerrand suggests, or indeed ming young people’s minds with use- as a criticism of any person, but sim- less facts instead of teaching them how More about Mead ply as a true statement about the situ- to think”, but readers of “The False ation which (in my view very unfortu- nately) had previously come to prevail. Bits from Humbug” in the latest vol- Mark Newbrook ume the Skeptic (24:4 pp 22-31) would Despite Gerrand’s strong record of see it immediately as a False Di- Wirral UK skeptical activity (which I admire), chotomy; they’d understand that it is most people I spoke to after the debate entirely feasible for schools to teach James Gerrand (24:4, pp 64-65) con- shared my view that in this case he culturally significant knowledge AND tinues to misdirect and overstate his had to be seen as a fervent supporter to “teach students to think” at the comments on Freeman and Mead: I of Freeman, a view which I think con- same time. They’d know it is not at all stand by my judgement that Clark’s tinues to be borne out every time he an either/or, gum-chewing or walking earlier article was one-sided and in- comments. (I do accept that thing. deed by my view that Freeman seri- Rubinstein appeared no less fervent ously over-interpreted some of the evi- than Gerrand; in fairness, I should dence. have stated that.)

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 63 Letters

Most people also shared my view best forum for communicating these man-made ones. He points to the that the debate had been rather even, ideas, but perhaps a lot of it was Prof greater life that would result from a with neither party clearly winning. Plimer. He was attacking the person, greenhouse effect, but seems to con- There was in fact a swing against not the ball — I saw it and so did sev- fuse a settled equilibrium state with Freeman between the initial and final eral others at the convention. The the change along the way to reach it. straw polls, which (perhaps ironically) strange thing is, if Prof Plimer did We may well be on a knife edge for were instigated at Gerrand’s sugges- perceive himself as correct, why was natural dramatic temperature tion. (I grant that the audience was he not gracious enough to avoid ad- changes — but that’s no reason to want smaller by the end, but I know of no hominem attacks? Sure, the guy from to push our luck ... reason to think that Freeman support- Greenpeace lost it, but you can’t blame The influence a greenhouse effect ers would be more likely to leave early.) him. I don’t plan to question Prof would have on life on earth generally Rubinstein’s case was based in large Plimer on the geological facts he put is different to the impact on human part on his view that Freeman had forth. But there were a lot of inciden- society along the way. Its a selfish con- clearly misinterpreted existing evi- tal points he made, together with the cern for humans as compared to life dence, rather than on new evidence; interpretations he put on the geologi- at large, but its a very natural concern. Gerrand’s comment on evidence is cal facts, which I challenge. It does point to a ruberiness in the thus unfair. Gardner is fully entitled He spoke of the risk of nuclear war, definition of what is a “green” issue — to his view, which has to be taken se- which was rapidly replaced by concern the future of life generally or disrup- riously, but he himself is not expert in about the greenhouse effect. Well, if tions to our particular human society? this area, and his presentation too you assume both were of concern, and (But heck — a lot of ideas are rubbery appears one-sided (note his wording as you worry about the most pressing when you look closely.) quoted). problem at any time, it makes perfect There are several possibilities for a I can recommend some even- sense. slight man-made temperature rise handed accounts of this controversy, Before the Great War, opinion was triggering a much larger temperature eg that of Hellman in Great Feuds In the different sides would be held in increase — the release of methane hy- Science (John Wiley, 1998). peace through their firepower aimed dride from the ocean depths, or a de- at each other. That didn’t happen. It cline in the Amazon rainforest biomass was an important precedent, a warn- which becomes linked with climate ing for the age of nuclear deterence change in a vicious circle (The Ama- After the Conference which would follow. zon is not a static system, it is grow- And we got close to nuclear war sev- ing each year, a net absorbtion of car- eral times. On 26 September 1983, the bon from the atmosphere. If this were Some thoughts on the convention. USSR control centre had a false alarm, to stop or reverse ...). We must give one cheer for Crea- and it was only the actions of Colonel Certainly, the evidence of a tem- tionists and promoters of the Moon Stanislav Petrov who prevented war. perature rise is difficult to find — and hoax. The Creationists have prompted And then we have the Cuban missile Prof Plimer did have a point about the biologists to come up with models crisis, and several other close calls. the gases released by volcanoes, of how something as complex as an eye This is clearly an issue for histori- though I’d imagine they would be more could have evolved, (and also the “bom- cal debate, and not something I can chemically reactive and wonder how bardier beetle”). Never mind that the do justice to in this letter; it was long they would persist, or what the Creationists would probably ignore strange to see Prof Plimer so casually chance is of them triggering other this in their own presentations, but I dismiss these concerns. events. Of all Prof Plimer’s points, it don’t imagine the biologists would He criticised the Greens for speak- was the only one that has a chance of have developed these models without ing in terms of media grabs. But, who surviving examination. I don’t think prompting. is to blame for this? I think more the that’s positive. Phil Plait illustrated just what an superficial media for making causes But, we do know that burning fos- amazing world we live in, with shad- operate this way. It points to a broader sil fuels is going to put more carbon ows and reflections doing strange problem with society. And it doesn’t dioxide into the atmosphere (which things we would never notice. And its necessarily mean their points are might be partly absorbed by the ocean only the efforts of the Moon Hoaxers, wrong — it just underlines the com- and increasing vegetative biomass), in identifying supposedly odd things munication difficulties they operate and that this is a greenhouse gas. on the Moon, that open our eyes up to under. While it is difficult to find a tempera- the fascinating world around us. Certainly, we’ve had significant geo- ture increase, I seem to recall there But the thing which got my goat logical temperature changes. But Prof being evidence for an increase in car- was Professor Ian Plimer and his criti- Plimer’s argument seems a lot like bon dioxide in the atmosphere ... cism of the Greenhouse effect and saying that because there are natural What sense are we to made of this Greens generally. The last Skeptic bushfires we don’t need to worry about logical link in the absence of an ob- commented that a debate was not the served temperature increase? That’s

Page 64 - the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 Notices an issue for discussion. What are we to be skeptical about? New claims, or things taken for granted? Regardless, Eureka Prizes maybe we’d be better off attacking the ball and not the person. This issue contains a flyer promoting the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes which will be announced in August. Among the Prizes is the Australian Skeptics Eureka Prize for Critical Thinking. Readers are invited to Sins nominate for consideration those people whose research or teaching methods promote the aims listed under our Prize. Nominations close on May 13, and Gary Goldberg more details can be obtained from the Australian Museum web site: Silver Spring, MD, USA www.amonline.net.au/eureka.

I would add another sin to Lynne Kelly’s list of skeptics’ sins in 24:4, “Preaching to the Choir”. Blatant Plug What good is skepticism if we keep it to ourselves? To continue with the religious metaphor, we need to evan- gelize. Spread the word. Complain to Jef Clark, with his son Theo, has writ- the media when they get it wrong. ten a number of articles published in I note with gratification that the Aus- past issues on the topic of how to spot tralian Skeptics seem to be able to get in thinking. Readers will re- the media’s attention. Here in the US, member the trouble jef had with his I wonder if our skeptical organizations university in publishing his book, even try. I rarely read of any com- Humbug! We are pleased to announce plaints made by CSICOP, its sister that Jef has succeeded in his endeav- skeptical organizations, or affiliated ours and his book is now in print. skeptics. The book identifies, discusses and ex- plores (with examples of 35 fallacies in thinking. Each fallacy is treated with an underlying seriousness, which is leavened where appropriate with irony, whimsy, sarcasm and liberal doses of satirical commentary. The au- Warning thors’ intention was to entertain as well as to inform. They take their ideas seriously, but not themselves y (a bit A warning has been received from our like the Skeptic in fact). Nigerian correspondent, Leo Igwe. We will be purchasing a supply of the books and they will shortly be Dear Barry available from our online shop at Just to inform you that 419ers have $16.50 infiltrated the Nigerian postal sys- tem They steal and alter cheques So in case theres any ‘ donations’ in re- sponse to our appeal the cheques should be concealed very A Gift to You well or preferably the amount should be sent by WESTERN UNION. As promised in past issues, we will soon be dispatching a gift to all Leo our current subscribers (apart from the four who specifically asked not to be included) one handy cloth bag with Skeptics logos and in- spiring messages inscribed thereon. We hope you will display them at every opportunity to alert others to the great benefits of Skepticism.

the Skeptic, Autumn 2005 - Page 65 Notices The Great Skeptic CD2

We all knew it had to come to an end similar sum to get this new and im- No you don’t — if you don’t already sometime, and now that day is upon proved version, even if you are includ- have one it will still cost $55, but if us — the Great Skeptic CD, that won- ing a set of steak knives? you were one of those adventurous in- derful compilation of all issues of the dividuals who got in on the ground Skeptic from 1981 to 2000 (plus floor, then we will let you have much more) has ceased to be. We the new improved Great Skep- have sold out. (No, not our princi- tic CD 2 (with hexachlorophe ples — the disc.) enhancers and polarised the- Don’t despair if you missed out, odolites) for only $25. however, because the good news How will we know if you is that the Great Skeptic CD 2 is have the old version? We could NOW on sale (detils on the web ask you to send it back — but site). It contains not only all the we’d rather you donate it to a text of the previous best seller, but local school or library — so another three years of the Skep- we’ll simply leave it to your tic, plus even more extra works, conscience. Trusting Skeptics, and it has been made even more aren’t we? user-friendly. (So friendly, in fact, And don’t forget, you can that it will almost certainly wag still get the Skeptics Water Di- its tail and lick your face.) vining Video Tape for $20 and Ah, we hear you cry, but do you the DVD for $30 (reduced to expect me, having forked out $55 clear). to buy CD 1, to again cough up a

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