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A Look at the Underside of Science

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A Look at the Underside of Science BOOK REVIEWS paranormal beliefs. Goode's goal is to to everyday hopes and fears, aspirations two of college biology or chemistry will understand rather than to debunk such and anxieties. Many of these everyday "convert" a person to the scientific way beliefs. Yet this is exactly the goal that concerns are matters that science does of thinking. scientific investigators of beliefs in para- not and cannot address. In tins regard, Goode's study also normal phenomena must hold, whether Third, most paranormal beliefs sup- presents comparisons between scien- or not they disapprove of such beliefs. port anti-elitist sentiment against the tific and paranormal epistemology and Goode suggests that skeptics of para- dominance of scientists and the scien- belief systems. He explains how believ- normal beliefs should follow the same tific belief system. Scientific truth is not ers in the paranormal and scientific prescriptions that they demand of one in which everyone's personal "truth" skeptics arrive at their conclusions via believers in paranormal phenomena— is on an equal footing, and the commu- very different and incompatible ways of to conduct careful, empirical research nity of scientists is structured around a thinking. Most important, die believ- to test their assumptions. More specifi- prestige hierarchy of authorities. In con- ers' way of thinking is consistent with cally, he cautions skeptics to avoid trast, paranormal "truths" are personal the everyday ways of thinking of most jumping to conclusions about believers and accessible to everyone. people, while that of scientists is not in paranormal phenomena, without Fourth, the dissemination of para- easily acquired and must be learned adequate scientific evidence. normal beliefs brings benefits to through disciplined effort. This is A social constructionist study of many diverse groups in society, some- another reason why belief in the para- paranormal beliefs focuses investigation times in the form of income, or by normal can be expected to persist far upon how such beliefs are communi- increasing membership strength, or into the future. cated and publicized in society, sup- by gaining influence. Goode's writing avoids sociological ported by the money and power of par- Goode's study questions a commonly jargon and is accessible to anyone with ticular social groups, and learned by held assumption among skeptics that by some college education. He presents each new generation. Paranormal (and providing more and better science edu- fundamental epistemological assump- scientific) beliefs are socially con- cation in schools, the general public will tions about how and why people believe structed and not simply products of abandon their beliefs in paranormal what they believe in an easily readable innate mental processes, in isolation phenomena. I personally agree. As a col- manner. The book's extensive references from the world of people. lege professor, I can't see how a year or can also be a valuable resource. To come to conclusions about rea- sons for the popularity and persistence of paranormal beliefs, Goode examines A Look at the research on social group variations in paranormal beliefs, their relation to reli- Underside of Science gious beliefs, their dissemination in die TOM NAPIER mass media, and their involvement in politics and social movements. Goode The Undergrowth of Science. By Walter Gratzer. Oxford notes, for example, that die cognitive University Press, 2000. ISBN 019-850707-0. 328 pp. processes leading to paranormal beliefs Hardcover, $27.50. are promoted by certain religious groups to attract members, and by the enter- tainment media to make money. t might seem odd that the Oxford dieir contents overlap, diese books are Goode concludes diat mere are several University Press should publish quite different in aim and style. sociological reasons for die persistence of IWalter Gratzer's The Undergrowth of Park's book discusses aberrations of belief in paranormal phenomena. Science within mondis of publishing science without regard to their source. First, paranormal stories and expla- Bob Park's Voodoo Science [reviewed in Crackpots and hucksters with no nations are much more dramatic and SI, July/August 2000] since at first knowledge of science are tarred with the entertaining dian are scientific explana- glance they are bodi concerned widi sci- same brush as professional scientists tions for most people, regardless of their entific delusions. As it turns out, though who have let dieir critical guard slip. educational level. Scientific explanations This is useful since it is the crackpots are frequently abstract, complex, and Tom Napier, a former physicist and engi- who have more direct influence on the boring for nonscientists. neer, has been a long-time skeptic. He ic and are more likely to do actual Second, paranormal stories and helped found the Philadelphia Association physical or monetary damage. There is explanations embody very ancient and for Critical Thinking and edited its no establishment checking and correct- enduring symbolism and themes relative newsletter for five years. ing dieir results as there is within die SKEPTICAL INQUIRER January/Ftbruary 2001 61 BOOK REVIEWS formal sciences. The media mostly James Randi get due credit. How John to select for desirable characteristics ignore crackpots. Only the skeptical Taylor was fooled by "telekinetic" rather than letting unselective breeding movement (and, very rarely, the law) schoolchildren is also described and the take its random course. This essentially comes between the gullible public and page or two about Uri ("I am not a magi- reasonable idea has become so mired in the crooks, nuts, and charlatans who cian") Geller will no doubt draw the ire controversy and so confused with prey on them. By exposing crackpots to of diat litigious gentleman. (Geller has racism that it is now difficult to discuss fierce ridicule Bob Park performs a been recendy granted British citizenship it rationally. public service. and now wishes, according to his letter Unfortunately, the early enthusiasts Gratzer, by contrast, is mainly con- in The Times on September 8, to be for eugenics were blinded by their prej- cerned with the follies of professional known as "die alien Uri Geller.") udices. They encouraged forcible steril- scientists. His book is more serious Fans of homeopathy will probably be ization of die "unfit" and categorized and thorough than Park's; his prose dismayed to see it lumped with such infectious diseases such as tuberculosis more stolid, albeit leavened by occa- medical oddities as phrenology and the and syphilis as heritable traits. Hitler's sional flashes of wry humor. While implanting of monkey glands. As least Germany used the banner of eugenics to accessible to a lay audience—tricky homeopathy, if not efficacious, is safer justify the widespread sterilization or points of science are explained in end- than the formerly fashionable imbibing elimination of undesirables. It encour- notes—this is a book as much for the of ultimately lethal doses of radioactive aged SS officers to have many children, historian of science as for the skeptic. compounds—the appalling death of provided their brides were acceptable to Unlike Voodoo Science, Undergrowth is socialite Eben Byers is cited—or the the SS Race Office. Lamarckism pro- no call for action. With the exception equally fashionable and destructive tected the USSR from similar measures; of cold fusion (which still counts lobotomy fad. after all, if heredity was a myth, better a dwindling handful of die-hard sup- In the second half of his book breeding could have no effect. porters) and homeopathy, the cases Gratzer turns to the links between sci- Today, Gratzer asserts, eugenics is a Gratzer addresses are dead and gone. ence and politics, how political ideol- dead issue except in China. He catego- Despite his similarity to Tesla, ogy has influenced what research is rizes it as pathological science yet Blondlot of N-ray fame has attracted acceptable and how bad science has acknowledges that the nature versus no latter-day disciples. been used to justify government policy. nurture question is still being debated, The classic lapses of twentieth cen- An amusing chapter reveals the influ- but widi positions based more on poli- tury science are covered in detail. ence of chauvinism. The N-ray affair tics dian on the scientific facts. As he N-rays, polywater, and cold fusion each continued longer than it should says, the issue may never be resolved. I have their own comprehensive chapters. because dissenting work by German would add that if we shy away from it, Mitogenic rays, the midwife toad, and scientists could be ignored; only it never will be. Our increasing ability the flatworms that acquired memories French scientists had the necessary to detect genetic problems in utero through cannibalism share a chapter. sensitivity to observe N-rays. (How means we can no longer sweep this Irving Langmuir rates his own chapter, like today's therapeutic touch and topic under the rug. not as a kook but as a physical chemist dowsing debates where skeptics are At the end of die book Gratzer draws who investigated odd scientific claims. scorned for lacking the ability to sense die unremarkable conclusion that even He is remembered for Langmuir's rules, what is, after all, not there.) scientists can err or lose dieir objectivity. criteria to distinguish pathological sci- The Germans, for their part, He fails to note that his entire book con- ence from real science.
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