S k e p t i c i s m . S c i e n c e . S o c i e t y

Vol. 30, No 2. June 2010 Truth on Trial simon singh, the BCA, Skeptics & the LAW

Memory j brains j houdini j wellness

Australian Skeptics . www.skeptics.com.au The Skeptic June 10

Skeptical Groups in Australia

Australian Skeptics Inc – Eran Segev Queensland Skeptics Association Inc – Bob Bruce www.skeptics.com.au PO Box 1388 Coorparoo DC 4151 PO Box 262, Roseville, NSW 2069 Tel: (07) 3255 0499 Mob: 0419 778 308 [email protected] Tel: 02 8094 1894; Mob: 0432 713 195; Fax: (02) 8088 4735 Hear Bob on 4BC Paranormal Panel - 9-10pm Tuesdays [email protected] Sydney Skeptics in the Pub – 6pm first Thursday of each month Meeting with guest speaker on the last Monday of every month at the Crown Hotel, corner of Goulburn & Elizabeth Streets in at the Red Brick Hotel, 81 Annerly Road, South Brisbane. Dinner the city (meeting upstairs) from 6pm, speaker at 7.30pm. See our web site for details: www.qldskeptics.com Dinner meetings are held on a regular basis in Chatswood Next dinner: July 24 - guest speaker comedian Sue-Ann Post Bookings online or contact [email protected] Canberra Skeptics – Michael O’Rourke & Pierre Le Count PO Box 555, Civic Square, ACT 2608 Tel: (02) 6121 4483 [email protected] (general inquiries), Hunter Skeptics Inc – John Turner [email protected] (Canberra Skeptics in the Pub). Tel: (02) 4959 6286 [email protected] Monthly talks usually take place on the 13th of each month at We produce a 4-page e-newsletter six times a year; contact the the Innovations Theatre at the ANU. Dates and topics are subject newsletter editor ([email protected]) to add your to change. Canberra Skeptics in the Pub gather from time to email address to receive the e-newsletter. time at King O’Malleys Pub in Civic. For up-to-date details, visit Meetings are held upstairs at The Kent Hotel, Hamilton on the our web site at: http://finch.customer.netspace.net.au/skeptics/ first Monday of each even-numbered month, commencing 7.30pm, with a guest speaker on an interesting topic. Skeptics SA – Laurie Eddie 52B Miller St Unley, SA 5061 Tel: (08) 8272 5881 [email protected] Australian Skeptics (Vic) Inc – Terry Kelly Thinking and Drinking - Skeptics in the Pub, on the third Friday GPO Box 5166, Melbourne VIC 3001 of every month. Contact [email protected] Tel: 1 800 666 996 [email protected] www.meetup.com/Thinking-and-Drinking-Skeptics-in-the-Pub/ calendar/10205558 or http://tinyurl.com/loqdrt Skeptics’ Café – Third Monday of every month, with guest speaker. La Notte, 140 Lygon St. Meal from 6pm, speaker at 8pm sharp. WA Skeptics – Dr John Happs More details on our web site www.skeptics.com.au/vic PO Box 466, Subiaco, WA 6904 Tel: (08) 9448 8458 [email protected] All meetings start at 7:30 pm at Grace Vaughan House, 227 Stubbs Terrace, Shenton Park Borderline Skeptics – Russell Kelly Further details of all our meetings and speakers are on our PO Box 17, Mitta Mitta, Victoria 3701 website at www.undeceivingourselves.com Tel: (02) 6072 3632 [email protected] Meetings are held quarterly on second Tuesday at Albury/ Australian Skeptics in Tasmania – Leyon Parker Wodonga on pre-announced dates and venues. PO Box 582, North Hobart TAS 7002 Tel: 03 6238 2834 BH, 0418 128713 [email protected] Skeptics in the Pub - 2nd Thursday each month, 6.30pm, Prince Gold Coast Skeptics – Lilian Derrick of Wales Hotel, Battery Point PO Box 8348, GCMC Bundall, QLD 9726 Tel: (07) 5593 1882; Fax: (07) 5593 2776 [email protected] Darwin Skeptics – Brian de Kretser Contact Lilian to find out news of more events. Tel: (08) 8927 4533 [email protected] Volume 30 • No 2 • June 10 Contents re p o rt S 8 Atheists and Skeptics 8 Kylie Sturgess Religion in Africa 12 12 Leo Igwe

FEATURES

Truth on Trial 14 Martin Hadley Brain Food - Big Ideas 18 18 Martin Bridgstock & Kylie Sturgess False Memories 22 Krissy Wilson & Chris French Chris French Interview 26 Kylie Sturgess 14 26

art i c l es The Phoenix Project 30 Michael Wolloghan Houdini & the Hoaxers 32 Russell Bauer Wellness Centres 34 40 Loretta Marron 34 The Vegetative State 38 Chris Borthwick 32 The Future of SETI 40 Rex Newsome Sweet Reason - Response 44 54 David Gillespie 38 F o ru m The Universe etc 54 57 Attitude to Science 57

REGU L ARS 48 Editorial 4 Around the Traps 5 Puzzles page 37 What goes around 46 Book reviews 48 5 Letters 58 Astrology column 62 EDITORIAL From the Editor

It’s the people … n the huge number of issues of good. You can make your point, but you IThe SkepticI have edited since my should be aware of the consequences of recent enthronement – all three of how you phrase it. Martin reports from them – I have tried to avoid singling the factory floor, so to speak. out specific articles in this column. Thirdly, there’s the interview with ISSN 0726-9897 The effectiveness of articles, letters, Chris French by Kylie Sturgess (again! Quarterly Organ of fora, etc are often in the eye of the just one of three pieces she’s authored Australian Skeptics Inc beholder, and far be it from me to or co-authored this issue). Prof French (ABN 90 613 095 379) suggest that this one is good, and this is the editor of The Skeptic magazine one not so (not that we would ever (UK version) as well as head of the Editor publish any of the latter in these pages). Psychology Department of Goldsmith’s Tim Mendham But breaking with that loosely and College in the University of London, Editorial Board briefly-held tradition, I cannot help where he is also head of the Anomalistic Eran Segev but recommend a few articles in this Psychology Research Unit. Prof French Steve Roberts issue, all of which revolve around the comments on the growing sense of Barry Williams nature of skepticism. community within the Skeptical Michael Wolloghan First of all, there is an excellent movement: “I think that for a long article (there, I’ve done it) by Martin time ‘community’ was something that Design Services Bridgstock and Kylie Sturgess on a religious people had, but skeptics and Nova Consulting P/L couple of the key figures in the world of atheists and humanists didn’t have so All correspondence to: skepticism who are looking at the big much.” No longer so, and that sense Australian Skeptics Inc picture of the future of the movement of community often manifests itself in PO Box 262 and the promotion of the same. There pubs and clubs as much as meeting halls Roseville NSW 2069 are some thought-provoking suggestions and lecture theatres. Australia in the article, some of which might [Just as a side note, Prof French make a few Skeptics uncomfortable, appears elsewhere in this issue as co- Contact details and make a few others smile with author with Krissy Wilson; another Tel: +61 (0)2 8094 1894 recognition while nodding their heads example of how individual Skeptics, Mob: +61 (0)432 713 195 in agreement. sometimes serendipitously, pop up Fax: +61 (0)2 8088 4735 Another article to be noted is that all over the place to put their varied by Martin Hadley. Martin is a barrister points of view.] [email protected] who also speaks English - very plain With people such as these – both www.skeptics.com.au and blunt English if you say something the authors and their subjects – not The Skeptic is published four silly or ill-advised. He has prepared a to mention the many others who times per year by Australian summary of the recent Simon Singh v have contributed to this edition of the Skeptics Inc. the British Chiropractors Association magazine, the Skeptical movement is in Views and opinions expressed in confrontation. The BCA was finally for exciting times indeed. articles and letters in The Skeptic manipulated into conceding defeat, There are many who support the are those of the authors, and are and all praise to Simon for fighting Skeptics in one way or another. Some not necessarily those of Australian a good fight. But Martin takes that are willing to offer their expertise in a Skeptics Inc. story further, and looks at the issues of private capacity; some do likewise in Articles may be reprinted slander, libel, how Skeptics sometimes public; and there are many who simply with permission and with due step over that delicate legal mark and want to add their support through their acknowledgement to The Skeptic. how they might avoid the fate that befell combined number. Long may that Simon without losing their dignity or continue, and long may the individual Editorial submission deadlines the point they wish to make. This is a members – all of them – thrive and July 15, 2010 very salutary piece, as most (all?) of us continue to drive the movement to October 1, 2010 (early issue) at one time or another may have been bigger and better things. . January 15, 2011 a tad intemperate and engage in a little April 15, 2011 too much plain English for our own - Tim Mendham, editor 4 N e w s The Skeptic June 10

as far as they were concerned, was proved; end of story. Around the traps ... The upshot of the release of Wakefield’s paper was a great deal of media coverage outlining the supposed Wakefield “erased” dangers of MMR vaccine leading to autism in patients. What has been Dr Andrew Wakefield, the researcher described as “panic” ensued, with at the centre of the 1998 Lancet paper vaccination rates immediately dropping which outlined a supposed link between in the UK. This lead to an increase in the childhood MMR (measles-mumps- diseases that the MMR vaccination was rubella) vaccine and autism, has been designed to prevent. Vaccination rates found guilty of “serious professional have apparently still not fully recovered to misconduct” and his name will be the levels before the scare. “erased” from the UK medical register, The GMC also investigated two other pending any appeal. medical professionals who were involved The UK General Medical Council, Andrew Wakefield: now you see him ... in one way or another with Wakefield’s which made the recent decision, had research. Prof John Walker-Smith, who earlier this year found Wakefield to be clear that several elements of the 1998 was a co-author of the Lancet paper and “dishonest”, “irresponsible” and guilty paper by Wakefield et al are incorrect. ... involved in the research practices, was of putting children through painful and Therefore we fully retract this paper from found to have made “serious and repeated unnecessary tests, following the lengthiest the published record.” departures from good medical practice”. such case in its history. Wakefield’s findings were picked up by He will also be “erased” from the medical Wakefield’s original paper, as published anti-vaccination groups as evidence of the register, pending any appeal. Prof Simon in The Lancet, had 12 co-authors, 10 of dangers of vaccination. That this research Murch, another co-author, was found to whom later disassociated themselves from was not duplicated by others, and that have “acted in good faith albeit ... he was the paper’s conclusions. On January 2, the co-authors disassociated themselves in error”, and therefore the GMC has not The Lancet itself issued a full retraction from it, seemed to be of no consideration sanctioned him and has decided he is free of the paper, stating that “It has become to the movement – the anti-vaxers’ case, to continue unrestricted medical practice.

Church and babies night’s meeting. ... We will be more suitable venue for such presentations, the reject the AVN closely examining the ethos and values of seminar went ahead. all groups that seek to use our space in the But in April, the AVN received The Australian Vaccination Network future.” another knock-back when it was denied has suffered a couple of setbacks to its AVN president Meryl Dorey and Judy advertising space in Copeland Publishing promotional activities. Wilyman, a PhD candidate at Murdoch magazines. Copeland is the publisher of Last month, the Uniting Church in University, were scheduled to speak at the monthly publications distributed free in the City of Perth cancelled a booking AVN seminar titled “Flu Vaccines and Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, the AVN had made to speak at a church Informed Choice”. Canberra and Perth via childcare centres venue, citing that “The message promoted Dorey expressed frustration in her and baby shops and targeted to Australian by the Australian Vaccination Network newsletter at the late change – she was parents. is not in line with the ethos and values of about to board a plane to Western Australian Skeptics understands that the Uniting Church in Australia.” Australia when she was contacted by the the AVN applied to purchase a 1/3 page The move by the Church was Church to inform her of their decision. ad in three publications – Sydney’s Child, prompted by concerns raised by a number She implied a conspiracy against her Melbourne’s Child and Brisbane’s Child of prominent Church members, experts freedom of speech: “Why would you – at a total estimated cost of $8000. But in the field of ethics and public health, even make the booking for the venue the publication denied their request, on who had advised that the Church’s and then cancel at such short notice – as the grounds that their material was not premises were not an appropriate place for the facilitators could have arranged an suitable. the AVN to spread its misinformation. A alternative venue instead, if they had more Both organisations were commended spokesman said that, after consultation notice. hmmmm?” for taking such a stance, particularly with the chair of the Church council, The AVN later rebooked its Perth in the case of the publishers of the “No Uniting Church in the City venue seminar for June 1 at the State Library of Child magazines which denied itself is being made available to the Australian Western Australia. While that institution, advertising income in favour of an Vaccination Network for tomorrow too, received suggestions that it was not a ethical decision. 5 N e w s

Noah’s Ark resurfaces A group based in Hong Kong Briskepticon DVDs called Noah’s Ark Ministries It never rains but it floods. Two more International made the latest The DVD set of the recent Briskepticon Noah’s Arks have risen from the discovery claim only a couple of Skeptics conference is now available for depths this year. weeks after Huibers unveiled his purchase from the Queensland Skeptics Johan Huibers, a Dutch version. Association. creationist, unveiled (if that’s the In 2007, the joint Turkish-Hong The price is $25.00, which includes right word) his life-size (if that’s the Kong expedition claimed to have postage within Australia. However, if right word) replica of Noah’s Ark in found an unusual cave with fossilised you would like pick up a copy at the the city of Schagen in early April. wooden walls on Mount Ararat, well monthly meeting in Brisbane, then place Full scale models of giraffes, above the vegetation line. The sample an order and the price is a discounted elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, was declared by the Department of $20.00. bison and other animals greet visitors Earth Sciences at the University of Methods of payment: as they arrive in the ark, which also Hong Kong to be petrified cypress • By cheque made payable to Qld features a 50-seat theatre and a cafe, wood. In April of this year, members Skeptics Association Inc, PO Box the latter probably not an accurate of the group reported carbon dating 1388 Coorparoo DC, Coorparoo replication of Noah’s on-board suggesting the wood is approximately QLD 4151 entertainment facilities. 4800 years old. Yeung Wing-cheung, • Direct debit: BSB 484-799 Account Huibers did most of the work with a filmmaker accompanying the No. 036529666. As payment his own hands, using modern tools explorers, told The Daily Mail “It’s reference to the bank, please provide (sounds like cheating) and help from not 100 per cent that it is Noah’s your surname and first name and his son Roy (only one son, so that Ark, but we think it is 99.9 per cent email transaction details to mkittson@ probably makes up for the modern that this is it.” That’s what we like to optusnet.com.au. tools). see in Arkaeologists – a passion for Please clearly print your full name Huibers said he hoped the project complete accuracy. and address to ensure successful delivery. would renew interest in Christianity Some have cast doubt on the Unfortunately, there is no credit card in the Netherlands, where church- authenticity of the find. National payment facility available for purchasing going has fallen dramatically in the Geographic magazine quoted Paul the DVD. past 50 years. Zimansky, an archaeologist from Thanks go to Richard Saunders Meanwhile, in traditional Arkish Stony Brook University in New from Sydney who recorded proceedings territory, a team of evangelical York State specialising in the Middle and who has provided us with a high Christian explorers claimed they’d East, as saying “I don’t know of any quality professional product. Note that found the remains of Noah’s Ark on expedition that ever went looking for because of contractual obligations, Turkey’s Mount Ararat. the ark and didn’t find it.” the presentation made by Dr Karl Kruzselnicki was not recorded and therefore is not included on the DVD.

Alternative medicine is costly witchcraft A meeting of the British Medical Association’s ‘junior doctors’ sub- group passed a motion at its annual conference in May denouncing the use of homeopathic medicine. The UKTelegraph reports that Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chair of the Association’s junior doctor’s committee, told the conference “Homeopathy is witchcraft. It is a disgrace that nestling between the National Hospital for Neurology and Great Ormond Street [London], there is a National Hospital for Homeopathy which is paid for by the NHS [National Johan Huibers and his Ark: tourists can only enter in couples Health Service].” The motion was supported by BMA 6 The Skeptic June 10

chairman Dr Hamish Meldrum, though to dissing evolution (and science in it will only become official policy of the general) there’s no lack of volunteers. TAM AUSTRALIA whole association if it is agreed by its full How to decide which among them November 26-28 conference this month. is the worst? The UpChucky Award Meanwhile, in an article in recognises supreme achievement in the Tickets on sale Australasian Science magazine, Dr Ken field of persistently rejecting evolution Harvey of LaTrobe University’s School in the most stomach-turning way from 10 June, 2010 of Public Health, said health insurance imaginable.” go to: www.tamaustralia.org premiums are being driven “higher than And which creationist was thrilled to they need to be because the insurers receive the award, and no doubt thanks Exclusive early bird price involved fund alternative therapies Jesus at the award-giving ceremony? for Skeptic subscribers that lack an evidence base, such as The winner was Don McLeroy, homeopathy, reflexology and iridology. former chair of the Texas Board “As the government substantially of Education. As indication of his An amendment to the Earth and subsidises private health insurance, this worthiness to receive the award, a space sciences curriculum requires the means that all taxpayers are contributing notable quote from an address to the teaching of different theories of the to therapies that lack evidence of their Board in 2009: “Somebody’s got to origin, age and history of the universe. effectiveness.” stand up to experts!” The board voted to remove from Luhn reports that Texas voters the standards the statement that the recently voted McLeroy off the Board, universe is roughly 14 billion years old. Creationist but that hasn’t stopped them making School textbooks are required to winners and losers a number of amendments to their comply with a state’s science standards, state science standards. Seen by some so all changes to the science standards The US-based National Center for as a back-door method of getting translate into changes to textbooks. Science Education (NCSE) has creationism or ‘intelligent design’ And because Texas is a large market for announced its first UpChucky Award, onto the syllabus, New Scientist reports textbooks, its buying-power influences given to the creationist “whose efforts that one of the amendments requires what books are available in other states. in the preceding year would inspire students to “analyse and evaluate In two years, the Board will meet Darwin (or any rational person) to scientific explanations concerning to review the state’s textbooks, so ‘drive the porcelain bus’.” any data on sudden appearance and creationists have been eager to slip in Robert Luhn, NCSE’s director of stasis and the sequential groups in the changes to the standards ahead of time, communications, says “When it comes fossil record”. New Scientist says. .

— VALE Martin Gardner & Jef Clark — The Skeptical community lost two well-known and highly I first met Jef Clark around eight years ago, when he visited influential figures in the last few months. Past editor and me at the Skeptics’ editorial office with ideas for some articles executive officer, Barry Williams, reminds us of their on how to spot popular, though fallacious, arguments. I liked contributions: the ideas and I liked Jef, and so we published a number of One of the cant terms that has gained wide currency in recent his pieces which later became part of the book he co-edited years is that of the ‘public intellectual’, a broad canvas that with his son, Theo, under the titleHumbug! The Skeptics field all too often refers to those who see it as their public duty guide to spotting fallacies in thinking. This book became a best to tell us what we should think. Fewer in number, but more seller through the Skeptics on-line shop and has more recently applicable to the Skeptical enterprise, are those who tell us that become an on-line guide in its own right. we should think, and, sadly, the last few weeks have seen the I respected Jef for his energy and forthrightness in exposing loss of two exemplars of this approach. humbug wherever it appeared, and I liked him a lot for the Of Martin Gardner, who died at 95 in late May, what can sort of bloke he was - frank, friendly and with a ready wit. I be said? He wrote extensively and learnedly on many topics knew he had suffered bad health for a long time, first from MS - mathematics, magic, philosophy and much more. I still which was in remission and later from the cancer that took have his first skeptical book,Fads and Fallacies in the Name of him from us at the tragically young age of 61, only a few weeks Science, which he first published almost 60 years ago, and I ago. I know that Jef’s family will miss him, as will I. You don’t have been a fan ever since. He was one of the founders of the meet enough good blokes in life and their loss is deeply felt. modern Skeptics movement and his contribution has been It is an honour to belong to a movement that has fostered immeasurable. He was a Titan of Skepticism and we are much the intellectual talents of people such as Martin Gardner and the better for his life and saddened by his loss. Jef Clark. They have truly made a difference. Barry Williams 7 r e p o r t Atheist Convention Down Among the Unbelievers Kylie Sturgess took a trip to the Atheist Convention, and found considerably more than token skepticism.

Right, Phillip Adams realises he must be in the ast year I was approached by the Before the convention wrong seat. Atheist Foundation of Australia, The book launch ofFifty Voices of L Below Richard Dawkins spares a moment for the as a member of the Skeptic Zone and Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists, edited photographer. Token Skeptic podcasts, to present by Russell Blackford, was scheduled at and MC at the 2010 Global Atheist the Nova Cinema in Carlton, a tiny All photos are copyright Geoffrey Cowan (KEB Photography) and received with much thanks. Convention - the GAC - held in theatre tucked away among tram-tracks Melbourne on March 12-14. Touted and fashion stores. It is there that both as the biggest atheist event in Australia’s Blackford and the philosopher AC history, it was even rumoured to be the Grayling held forth on a discussion of biggest such convention yet to be held secularism and atheism, to a packed in modern times. crowd. I’d say it was completely unmissable It was an excellent introduction to by anyone’s standards, considering not only the passionate and charismatic the line-up of presenters - Australian Grayling, but many of my fellow and internationally acclaimed atheists, attendees of the GAC. Clinging to skeptics, humanists, rationalists the rails and handholds of a crowded and academics. Advertising for the tram, I ended up shouting jokes with convention proclaimed that “The Chrys Stevenson and Warren Bonett bigger we can make this convention, of the Sunshine Coast Atheists, before the stronger the signal it will send enjoying an impromptu dinner at a to Australia’s religious and political Federation Square hamburger bar. institutions that atheism and The first full day, the Saturday, was secularism are forces to be reckoned to be held in a convention room seating with.” I think the overall response from 1500. Sunday’s sessions required us critics prior to and during the event to move to a larger segment of the was a fervent hope on their convention stadium to seat 2500. part that it wouldn’t be so – which However, the bloggers breakfast on hardly discouraged anyone who Friday morning, with opinionated planned to go! biologist and cult-online science blogger 8 The Skeptic June 10

PZ Myers, featured a dozen fellow experiences. Sue-Ann Post, in particular, commentary’ of nearly every minute online commentators laughing at how had a stand-up routine that set the that passed. he couldn’t quite handle a communion scene for the rest of the convention, It was the radio broadcaster and cracker spread with salty Vegemite! urging us to critically evaluate the elder statesman of atheism in Australia, The Young Australian Skeptics (or ramifications of unquestioning faith Phillip Adams, who started off the YAS), who run the youth-orientated and the mainstream assumption that conference with a distinct message about podcast The Pseudo-Scientists, were they benefit society. I’m delighted to skeptical activism and his views on its involved in a variety of activities get a signed copy of her book The success – his talk, The Atheist Delusion – they were spotted proudly wearing Confession of an Unrepentant Lesbian is replicated on the ABC’s The Drum volunteer shirts, directing the crowds Ex-Mormon and learn that she’s a website: and helping backstage during the keen Skeptic and reader of The Skeptic “Twenty years ago, [actually event. YAS team-member Jason Ball magazine. I hope that she’ll contribute thirty – Ed] Dick Smith and I aided launched the Freethought University to future editions. and abetted the creation of the Alliance with the help of Myers. It was wonderful to see so many young and enthusiastic representatives from different universities, from across the country, all dedicated to creating and sustaining campus activism through various projects. The Friday night started off with dealing with stage-fright by running around with fellow MC and President of Atheist Alliance International, Stuart Bechman. He’s a wry and gentle-humoured man who was as wide-eyed as I am at the hundreds of people rolling in to collect their tickets. “Is this real? Where did these people come from? They’re really going to be listening to the likes of us?” I quietly counted the numbers of women lining up and came up with a ratio of about 60/40 male to female. The night started off with David Nicholls, the convention committee chairman and president of the Atheist The main days Australian Skeptics, the local branch Foundation of Australia, pointing When presenting a short opening- of CSICOP, the Committee for the out that we are “part of the majority address on the Saturday, I acknowledged Scientific Investigation of Claims for a change”! Backstage, I greeted the power of the internet in helping a of the Paranormal. CSICOP deals the energetic new generation to with displaced religiosity… Far from and articulate network and attend winning, the Skeptics and CSICOP comedians and “ Millenarian and Shirley the convention, have lost ground to Millenarian and writers Catherine Macleanish madness ... including European Shirley Macleanish madness. Turn on Deveny and Sue- back-packers, cable or free-to-air telly and you’ll see Ann Post - women John Edward ... astrology ... rural and remote an ever increasing number of programs whose careers I We live in a parallel region Australians based on paranormal detectives while have followed universe to these people. - and even a John Edward and his fellow frauds talk since I was a ” honeymooning to the dead. And the amount of space teenage Doug couple, Patrick and in newspapers given to astrology has Anthony All Stars fan and dreamed Grace from the Charlotte Atheists and by no means decreased. We live in a of attending a Melbourne Comedy Agnostics of North Carolina! With over parallel universe to these people. The festival. Their accounts, while drawing five-thousand Tweets documenting beliefs and behaviours that came from from two different religious upbringings every lecture and every joke about AC the Baptismal font in mainstream faiths (Catholic and Mormon), were both Grayling’s gravity-defying hair, this was have simply deformed and reformed.” hilarious and vulnerable and we’re both a real-world and cyber-convention, Despite this sobering summation all completely engrossed with their with the audience providing a ‘director’s of the ‘lost ground of skeptics’, the 903 r e p o r t Atheist Convention

Among the Unbelievers Continued...

dominant themes of his and other presentations were primarily of atheism, human rights, injustice and activism – as you might have expected for an atheist convention. While science and rationalism does overlap with skeptical thought, as Adams indicated, they are not one and the same. The booths and the promotional materials for the GAC foyers during the breaks featured no ‘skeptic’ groups beyond the Young Australian Skeptics. I did spot representation by the Australian Sex Party (with their pro-choice and pro- sex-education flyers), and a great many atheist groups both official (the Atheist Foundation of Australia, the Atheist Robyn Williams fronts up to the convention ... Alliance International who reworked their flyers for an Australian audience) and unofficial (various Facebook and entanglement (or “embranglement” introduce, I knew that most people in Meetup.com groups). I was later angrily as he put it), according to Grayling, the audience would have no idea who challenged by Bangladeshi presenter is more about different ends being she was and that they were going to be Taslima Nasrin as to “Why are Deepak achieved in different ways. It was completely blown away by her story Chopra’s books on sale at the bookstand certainly not an encouraging message when they did hear her. in the foyer?”’ and had no idea what to for future skeptical-group involvement The result was a solid minute and a respond! with the Templeton Foundation after his half of applause for her presentation, Having met AC Grayling earlier summation. “On my Struggle for Secularism, during his tour of Australia, I was One of the stand-out presentations Human Rights, Freedom of Expression interested in the part of his presentation was the women’s panel, with bioethicist and For Women’s Freedom”. It was that criticised people who are funded Leslie Cannold, author and social incredibly engrossing to hear her by the Templeton Prize, which worker Tanya Levin, secular education account and rather daunting to be on presents money to scholars who can advocate Jane Caro and rationalist a stage with bodyguards surrounding demonstrate “a substantial record Meredith Doig. I it because of the of achievement that highlights or heard many people threats to her life. exemplifies one of the various ways urge organisers to “ It was daunting to be on Photos were in which human beings express their consider having a stage with bodyguards snapped of PZ yearning for spiritual progress”. I later more of the female Myers bemusedly remembered where I had first heard of perspective, surrounding it because chatting to less the Templeton Foundation. It was at the particularly of the threats to Taslima than a handful Skeptics Society annual conference at considering how few Nasrin’s life. of protesters Caltech in 2008. Dr Michael Shermer opportunities there ” outside the venue, wrote at length on the level of their were to challenge the who could only involvement and how they helped stereotype of the ‘bearded, white male’! produce “irreducible complexity” as out with the travel expenses for the The greatest honour that I had, their reason for belief in creationism. It afternoon colloquium speakers on the however, was to introduce the author was a disappointing show in comparison Big Question topic. While the rest of Taslima Nasrin, who was born in to the numerous philosophical and Grayling’s lecture outlined how past Bangladesh, raised as a Muslim and scientific arguments that were being Templeton Prize-winners have worked has long been targeted by Muslim debated on the stage and in the corridors to bring science and religion together in extremists. When I started researching of the convention! His presentation a form of mutual comprehension, this all the presenters that I was going to on the Saturday afternoon featured his 10 The Skeptic June 10

starring role in the YouTube comedy Maley from Melbourne’s The Age continue to speak out despite the death video Mr Deity and the Science Advisor. newspaper. She interpreted the answer to threats, even as he recommended from “We shouldn’t criticise religion because suit herself when writing her article, and the stage to say instead that one is silenced it is evil,” he summarised, “but because it was picked up by other commentators. in the face of religious fundamentalism it’s wrong and it makes you stupid”. Such is the nature of journalism, you due to “fear, not respect”. The Saturday night dinner had me might be thinking. As Steve ‘Non-Stamp Collector’ and take part in a magic trick on the stage by However, the general feeling among I stood waiting for a taxi at the end of a regular on the Victorian skeptic scene, those who attended, as opposed to the Sunday, we reflected that we were, Simon Taylor, as he wowed us all with some journalists who clearly didn’t, were just briefly, fellow travellers rather than his illusions and mind-reading tricks. largely praising of the conference. Even tourists on the journey that many It was a great opportunity to secure an now, with protests against ethics classes of these presenters have taken with interview with one of the Chasers, Julian in NSW and the creation of a new their careers. Both of us are currently Morrow who, with team-member Craig ‘Reason Australian’ group to unite as employed in a teaching capacity - one Reucassel, fired through a hilarious many different rationalist groups across in Japan teaching English, the other in routine that mocked as much as it the country as possible, there is a sense of Western Australia, teaching philosophy. celebrated atheism. I’ll never look at the ‘not being alone’. While we in no way compared ourselves Atheist bus-posters quite the same way I think the lesson that will remain to the intellectuals like Grayling or again after seeing what they did to a with me is that of Taslima Nasrin’s Adams, Singer or Dawkins, it was London double-decker! continuing struggle to not only be heard gratifying to know that we were reaching Despite Richard Dawkins’ lecture but to survive under the threat of a a growing rationalist audience that being about “Gratitude for Evolution Fatwa. How, despite the ease of cracking extended well beyond the traditional and the Evolution of Gratitude” (as you open a laptop and reading the blog- print text, let alone our classrooms. might have expected), it was his views accounts and Twitter-stream backstage, I also concluded that I didn’t think on religion and not science that he was technology was no answer for her people that skeptics should rest on their laurels, grilled upon during the question and answer session. Introduced to the stage with the beginning of an evolution-themed music video Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim (that he’d never seen before and commented that he wanted to see it in its entirety!), he touched upon the notion that an “atheistic, scientific and skeptical world view” did not necessarily mean a “joyless and dull” one. He emphasised that evolution is “not chance” but is instead a highly predictable process driven by natural selection and accidents causing separation of populations. He posed the notion that what perhaps led people to the desire for religion was a “lust for gratitude” and pondered whether his gut-feeling that life was rare ... while Sue-Ann Post takes a well deserved break. in the universe (that he admittedly does not put much stock in) was true? Despite this presentation being very in the remote areas of India whom she as Adams concluded at the start of the science-oriented rather than a religious needed to reach with her message of convention. Clearly many who attended critique, around about the point when resilience under religious oppression. did not know what it was to be a he covered the notion of a “divine knob- Professor Dawkins and I soberly skeptically-minded person, and probably twiddler” in charge of the universe, I considered how we very much rely on wouldn’t identify themselves as such. But had to stifle my giggles. I’m certain that the internet to help us express points of I would certainly rethink how despite the he wasn’t unfamiliar with that reaction view freely, especially after he offered to differences in ‘isms’, that skeptics cannot though, considering the grin he shared host not only Taslima’s banned work on ignore the potential power of these kinds with the audience. What made it his site, but the spiked newspaper article of organisations to capture and sustain particularly newsworthy was how during about the convention by Catherine the media’s attention, or the efforts they the official question time, one was posed Deveny. Dawkins concluded that make to support each other when they by a media representative, Jacqueline Taslima was brave and courageous to are silenced. . 11 r e p o r t Letter from Nigeria Why Africans are religious

Leo Igwe reports on religion in Africa – Islam, and sometimes economic price of Christianity and no alternatives. leaving religion, renouncing religion or criticising religion is high. So Africans are religious willy-nilly. Africans are new study conducted by the Caliphate beyond what we have been obliged to profess all sorts of religious A Washington based Pew Forum experiencing since September 11, nonsense even when they know it is on Religion and Public Life says that 2001. I have never experienced divine nonsense. Africans are among the most religious healing and I don’t think those who At home, religious indoctrination is people on earth. The study, titled claim to have experienced it are honest the first form of orientation an African Tension and Tolerance: Islam and with themselves. I have not seen a child receives. At a very early and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa, was devil being driven out of any person, impressionable age, infants are taught based on more than 25,000 interviews but have seen self-induced hysteria by to recite meaningless syllables called conducted in more than 60 languages some Pentecostal con artists. I have prayers. Children are brainwashed in 19 countries. According to the not received any revelation from God by parents with various religious study, at least half of all Christians in – unless one day some godly people and spiritual myths. Their minds Sub-Saharan Africa believe Jesus will claim that their god revealed this piece are infused with all sorts of religious return in their lifetime. One in three to me. I don’t believe that sacrifice dogma. Parents ensure that children Muslims in the region expect to see to the ancestors will protect people are brought up in their faith – the the re-establishment of the Caliphate from harm, otherwise their ancestors faith of the family and the faith of – the Islamic golden age – before they would be alive today. I think charms their fathers. Children are taught to die. At least three out of 10 people and amulets are useless, and consulting believe and follow, and not to question across much of Africa said they have traditional healers and clerics is a waste religious teachings even when there experienced divine healing, seen the of time. Devil being driven out of a person, or The reasons why Africans are the have received a direct revelation from most religious people in the God. About a quarter believe that world are not difficult to sacrifices to their ancestors can protect see. Africans go through them from bad things happening. religious indoctrination Sizeable percentages believe in charms from cradle to the and amulets. Many consult traditional grave. Africans are religious healers, and sizable minorities not allowed by keep animal skins and skulls in their family, society homes. The study found that in many or the state to countries across the continent roughly think, reason or nine in 10 people say religion is very live outside the important in their lives. religious box. In Do these findings surprise anyone? Africa religion Surely they shouldn’t for anyone is by force not familiar with the situation in Africa. by choice, by These findings do not surprise me at compulsion and all. not according to I am an African. I was born in one’s conscience. Africa, I live and work in Africa, I Africans are brought am non-religious though I was born up to believe that there into a religious home. I attended is no alternative to religion, religious schools. I had a typical when in fact there is. So, in (African) religious upbringing. I do Africa, either you are religious or not believe that Jesus will return again. you are nobody, you are not a human I do not think that the Biblical Jesus being, you are nothing. There is too existed and even if he did, I think he’s much social and political pressure gone – and gone forever. I can’t see on Africans to be religious and to the world coming under an Islamic remain religious. The social, political 12 The Skeptic June 10

is every reason to do so. Some of the people are made to believe that Another reason for the high level findings of the Pew Forum describe professing their faith is the mark of a of piety in Africa is because most Why Africans are religious the ‘sacred’ teachings that African kids good student, and that education is Africans do not think for themselves. receive and are told not to challenge, not complete without religion or belief They allow clerics to think for them. examine, criticise or renounce. African in God. So why should anyone be Africans consult their priests, bishops, children are brought up to believe surprised that most Africans attach so sheikhs, marabous, traditional them and to swallow them hook, line much importance to religion? medicine men and women whenever and sinker. Not questioning one’s This religionising continues in they have problems or want to embark family religion is seen as virtuous and politics and in the state houses across on a major project. And they accept the mark of a good child. This religious Africa. State power is used to endorse, whatever they are given, such as tradition is upheld and handed down promote and privilege religion. In charms like holy water, and olive oil unchallenged from one generation to Africa, prayer, piety and politics go as solutions and remedies. They do another in Africa. together. Religion and politics mix. whatever they are told to do, including The religious brainwashing States are not separate from churches carrying out ritual killing and continues in schools. Most African and mosques. So there is immense sacrifices. colleges are centres of religious political pressure on individuals to Lastly Africans are deeply religious indoctrination. Western missionaries be religious, and to remain religious because of the lack of human rights and Arab jihadists brought formal and faithful even when they are not and particularly religious freedom education (the model widely used convinced of religious teachings or in Africa. This may sound like a today) to the continent. They would prefer to be faithless. Many contradiction, and some might argue established schools to win converts African countries have adopted one or that the high level of religiosity in and recruit new members, not really to more religions as their official religions. Africa is due to too much religious educate Africans. So schools in Africa For instance in Morocco, the King is freedom, but this is far from the case. are covert churches and mosques. not only the president of the country, There is no guarantee of religious Education is faith based. And this but also the commander of the faithful. freedom, and no protection for religious tradition is still upheld in So every Moroccan is under political freedom of conscience. Africans have most schools across the continent. pressure to be an Islamic faithful, no freedom of religion or belief and Some of the findings of the study particularly Sunni Islamic faithful. The are denied this basic human right by cover what African pupils are taught president of Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, is both state and non state actors. They every day in schools – what they addressed as Dr, Alhaji, Sheikh, among are forced to be religious and to remain recite and memorise as part of their other titles. Some years ago he added religious. Mechanisms to protect and compulsory morning devotions. Pupils praying for the citizens to the list of defend the human rights of those who at one Islamic primary school near my his presidential duties, as well as trying change their religion, who renounce or house in Ibadan sing this song everyday to heal the sick – including those who criticise religious beliefs, or who do not as part of their morning devotion: “We have HIV/AIDS – by reciting verses profess any religion at all, are weak or are soldiers. We are soldiers. Fighting from the Koran. In the self-styled non-existent. for Islam. Fighting for Islam. In the Islamic republics, no-one who is not Religious believers and non believers name of Allah, we shall conquer, we a Muslim can be president. What are not equal before the law. Many shall conquer.” special value does being a Muslim Africans are religious because they don’t Every morning these children are add to the post of the president? want to be in the minority. They don’t made to recite that they are Muslim None. In Gambia, the government want to renounce what the majority children and that they believe erected magnificent mosques in all upholds. They don’t want to denounce in Allah and Mohammed as his public schools in the country - schools what the state or society reveres. Many messenger. What can we expect from without good classroom blocks, no Africans are religious because they just these children as adults after going libraries or laboratories. want to play along. through this religious drilling and In Africa, politicians have created Africans are among the most being brainwashed with superstitious a climate where to be a good citizen religious people on earth because of messages? Will they ever grow to say one must be religious or expressly the failure of family upbringing, the that religion – in this case Islam – is pious. African politicians have made it failure of human rights and the rule of not important in their lives? So in appear that theocracy, not democracy, law, failure of the educational system, school, as at home, African students is the best form of government, and social and political pressure, and bad are taught to blindly accept so called the Bible and the Koran are the best governance. divine revelations without question. constitutions. African politicians strive Africans are religious because for They are induced to try and have some to ensure that state legislation is based them there is no alternative. . encounter with God or to have some on these ‘holy books’ and that any spiritual experience as a manifestation policy, program or proposal not in line of faith or piety. Children and young with the sacred texts is thrown out. 13 F E AT U R E Law Truth Trial Sydney barrister Martin Hadley gives a plain English report on the issues raised by the BCA v Simon Singh libel case.

he charismatic science presenter Dr There was a preliminary TSimon on Singh has won his case. The hearing over whether British Chiropractic Association which Simon was stating a fact sued him for libel has now thrown in the that the reader should towel. They will pay Simon’s legal costs accept; or only expressing ‘as agreed or assessed’. If he gets his costs an opinion for the reader who want to assessed his lawyers believe he will end to consider for themselves. get sued for up about £20,000 behind out of a total That was determined up defamation bill for his costs of about £200,000. We front because it would affect so that they can expect any agreed figure to reflect Simon’s choice of possible can expose an issue. that predicted shortfall. The BCA pays defences. Could he argue that he had Elsewhere in the article, Simon had all of its own costs on top of what it pays expressed an honest and reasonable stated grounds for saying why certain Simon. opinion based on various facts that treatments, promoted by the BCA, The BCA pays all of its costs on top of were set out in the article for the reader were bogus. However, proving that the what it pays Simon. to evaluate? Or was he confined to treatments were ineffective and that We mostly think of court cases as one- showing that what he had stated was the BCA knew that, would have been off events. Early on, there may be a few substantially true – usually a much more an expensive exercise involving days ‘mentions’ – short hearings to administer difficult defence to make good? in court and the expense of Queens how the parties will exchange documents It was a blow to Simon when the Counsel representation. Perhaps Simon and prepare their cases. Eventually we judge decided that Simon’s text read decided that he could not afford even to expect a trial which is basically sudden as a statement of fact. The defence of win such a case, let alone lose it. death, unless an error of law gives rise to honest opinion was closed off. It was Simon decided to appeal the an appeal. By contrast, defamation cases, clear that the BCA as plaintiff would preliminary decision that had gone here and in the UK, often involve a series get to first base by proving the elements against him. Three judges overturned of hearings as allegations and defences of its cause of action – discussed below the decision and ruled in Simon’s are refined. The determination of – and Simon would then have to return favour, opening the door to a defence ‘preliminary points’ can profoundly affect service by proving the truth of what he of fair comment while leaving truth a party’s chances in the final hearing. had said. still available. As luck would have it We shall see how Simon wrote an Some onlookers might have expected for us, the announcement came as article for The Guardian newspaper. Simon to embrace that task with relish about 80 Sydney skeptics gathered for It mentioned chiropractors and because it would have put the BCA and their monthly meeting at the Crown their representative body, the British the lore of chiropractic at the centre of Hotel, near to our own District Court. Chiropractic Association or BCA. They the case. Celebratory libations were expedited. took exception to part of the article. As Whether Simon was stating a fact We were delighted to spread the far as they were concerned, Simon was about the BCA or making a comment news on our website. The optimistic stating, as a fact, that the BCA promoted about what they promoted, you might wish expressed in this summary has treatments which it knew were bogus think that his language was of the come true: “This result could be like and ineffective. combative kind we see from people the breakthrough try that puts a team 14 The Skeptic June 10

ahead just before half time, but such know that the founder of chiropractic attempt a basic classification. metaphors are problematic when there therapy, Daniel David Palmer, wrote • It is Chiropractic Awareness Week is so much uncertainty about how much that ‘99 per cent of all diseases are caused – fact. During what is presumably work lies ahead. The appeal victory by displaced vertebrae’. In the 1860s, a marketing exercise by the could provoke a settlement within weeks. Palmer began to develop his theory that chiropractors, Simon ironically urges Or we could see a long trial, in which the spine was involved in almost every us to be aware of what is really going chiropractic itself becomes the accused illness because the spinal cord connects on. That we need to engage is clearly as Singh’s team show why the expression the brain to the rest of the body. his opinion. ‘bogus treatments’ was rightly used.” Therefore any misalignment could cause • Then there are some statements about But let’s take a step back and see a problem in distant parts of the body. Palmer and we take those as facts. exactly how this situation came about in “In fact, Palmer’s first chiropractic • Then: chiropractors do not confine the first place. intervention supposedly cured a man themselves to back problems – another who had been profoundly deaf for 17 apparent fact. Why Simon Was Sued – The Details years. His second treatment was equally • Some have the idea they can cure On April 19, 2008, The Guardian strange, because he claimed that he anything – possibly a fact but it newspaper published the article on a treated a patient with heart trouble by sounds exaggerated – and this is a page labelled “Comment and Debate”. correcting a displaced vertebra. whacky idea – opinion. The BCA complained toThe “You might think that modern • The BCA makes various claims about Guardian and Simon. The newspaper chiropractors restrict themselves to what their members can “help treat” offered a right of reply, but the treating back problems, but in fact they – fact. BCA opted for court instead of ‘the still possess some quite wacky ideas. • “There is not a jot of evidence for marketplace of ideas’. The Guardian took The fundamentalists argue that they this”, ie no evidence that the members the article off its website and the BCA can cure anything. And even the more can help treat those ailments. That focused their attack on Simon alone. moderate chiropractors have ideas above looks like an assertion of fact, provided A party who alleges they have been their station. The British Chiropractic we have some mutual understanding defamed is not obliged to accept an Association claims that their members can about what constitutes “evidence” opportunity to reply. They do not have help treat children with colic, sleeping and and what “help treat” means. Is it an to accept even a generous apology or feeding problems, frequent ear infections, assertion of fact, or is Simon saying retraction. They have the option of asthma and prolonged crying, even that it is his opinion that they are ‘going legal’ immediately (though that though there is not a jot of evidence. This bogus? Does context help? The next entails a risk of appearing unreasonable organisation is the respectable face of the paragraph – remember it was in the and that can lead to reduced damages chiropractic profession and yet it happily article but the plaintiff did not include in the end). If a newspaper article is promotes bogus treatments. it in the statement of claim – could be defamatory, then the author and the “I can confidently read as justifying newspaper can both be liable. The label these treatments an adamant injured party, the plaintiff, usually sues as bogus because I “ I was never ruined but insistence that both, or sometimes the newspaper only. have co-authored a twice; once when I lost a the treatments It is very rare to sue only the author in book about alternative are bogus. Or person and that unusual action by the medicine with the lawsuit and once when I do we take Dr BCA has led to allegations of stifling world’s first professor won one. - Voltaire Singh’s reference discussion of the issue. of complementary ” to “confidently” It is common for a plaintiff to cite medicine, Edzard Ernst. He learned as indicating only an opinion, albeit a the nastiest bit of an article. In contrast, chiropractic techniques himself and firm one. the publisher will often say the meaning used them as a doctor. This is when he • The BCA “happily promotes” these is much more balanced and fair if you began to see the need for some critical treatments. Again there is room for look at the whole thing. The law seeks to evaluation. Among other projects, he both the ‘fact’ and ‘opinion’ schools re-create the experience of the reasonable examined the evidence from 70 trials of thought, depending on what the reader. Here is the relevant section of the exploring the benefits of chiropractic words mean. We can see how this led article – the first four paragraphs. The therapy in conditions unrelated to the to much of the argument so far. highlighted words are what the BCA sued back. He found no evidence to suggest From this list, covering just part of the on. The rest is what Simon says should be that chiropractors could treat any such article, we see how issues can proliferate. read to put that passage in context: conditions.” Dr Singh argued that his words meant “This is Chiropractic Awareness that [the author’s extrapolation] “Since Week. So let’s be aware. How about The legal arguments there is no evidence for the treatments, some awareness that may prevent harm A critical thinker will see a number I think they are bogus. The BCA is and help you make truly informed of issues raised by the article, as well happily promoting treatments which I choices? First, you might be surprised to as a mixture of fact and opinion. Let’s think are bogus.” 0315 F E AT U R E Law

and more satisfactory models Truth – not larger awards of damages – mark the path towards Trial superior understanding of the world around us.” Continued... on Repercussions The BCA argued that the words These comments vindicate meant that “It is a fact that the many blogs posted by Simon’s treatments are bogus, ie ineffective. supporters. However, some of The BCA knows this but continues the bloggery would catch in our to promote these treatments. That is skeptical filters. It is drawing a irresponsible if not dishonest.” long bow to say that the legal Justice Eady found for the BCA on and non-legal aspects of the this argument but his judgement was Singh case show that English reversed by the Court of Appeal. The libel laws must be reformed. We appeal judges’ main reason for that will look briefly at two of the view – that there is so much difference contentious issues. of opinion about what is or what Much has been said of the is not scientific evidence, that any ‘reverse onus of proof’. Whoever statement about the state of the evidence has an onus has an obligation necessarily incorporates an opinion - to prove something. When a might offend some scientists. “Not a jot” plaintiff asserts a cause of action, of evidence was like saying “nothing that they take on the task of proving I would call evidence”. each element of that cause. They It is common for judges to make must prove it “on a balance comments that go beyond what is Simon Singh takes a closer look at of probabilities” which is like necessary to decide that individual case. bogus treatments 51 per cent. Similarly, when Such obiter dicta are coded to vary in the Crown mounts a criminal intensity and significance from gracious to that trouble when a fact is asserted, prosecution, it bears the onus of proving bon mots to thunderbolts as from angry not an opinion – paragraph 22. each element of the offence, but this ancient gods. Here are the rumblings • If the court required a defendant to time to the higher criminal standard of from the Court of Appeal: prove their assertion of opinion, then “beyond reasonable doubt”. • A need to protect reputation has not the court has become like Orwell’s A plaintiff in a defamation case been served by public debate being Ministry of Truth (a reference to bears the onus of proving a number of chilled for two years. The questions 1984) – paragraph 23. things, failing which they lose before raised by Dr Singh have a direct • The conclusions to be drawn from the defendant has any obligation to resonance for patients but they are data are a matter of scientific debate say anything. A plaintiff must prove unresolved – paragraph 11. and value judgements. To say there is publication of defamatory material • The current law has allowed the BCA no evidence for something is therefore which identifies them. Only once to sue Dr Singh an expression of the plaintiff has done all of this, is it only and not Comments from judges opinion – paragraph necessary for the defendant to make The Guardian. “ 26. out one of the defences, including This creates vary from gracious bon • The judges those raised by this case – truth or fair the unhappy mots to thunderbolts as adopted this quote comment. impression that from a US Appeals A defamation plaintiff does not the BCA wanted from angry ancient gods.” Court: “[Plaintiffs] have to prove that the words are false. to silence one cannot, by simply They must be damaging – and there of its critics, rather than refute his filing suit and crying ‘character are many judgements that develop that contentions or put them in a proper assassination!’, silence those who concept – but truth is there as a possible perspective – paragraph 12. hold divergent views, no matter defence for the other side to use, if they • There are times when the court will how adverse those views may be can. It would have been excellent to have to act as historian or investigative to plaintiffs’ interests. Scientific see the BCA show why the treatments journalist in determining the truth of controversies must be settled by the that Simon mentioned are not bogus. an asserted fact, when the assertion is methods of science rather than by Unfortunately, the law required Simon highly damaging and truth is relied on the methods of litigation. … More to show that they are bogus, if he as the defence. The court will only go papers, more discussion, better data, wanted to make good a defence of 16 The Skeptic June 10

truth. Bloggers have loudly condemned would hardly expect a British association, Justice Eady, at trial, applied a ‘verifiable this situation and it might strike you as which had been defamed in a British fact’ test as a means of distinguishing fact incredible that the individual bears an newspaper, to sue in a jurisdiction other (verifiable) from comment (unverifiable). onus of proof against the well-resourced than England. True libel tourism is when This approach, of course, suggests industry body. a plaintiff sues in one place when they that fact and comment are much less The power balance is usually the should be suing elsewhere. Plaintiffs intimately connected than is truly the opposite. The ‘victim’ is one person choose London because a win in that case. The Court of Appeal’s decision, suffering at the hands of a media empire. court is often more prestigious than a on the other hand, is very light on However, a better reason is the logic of win in their home town or where the explaining the proper principle to be the situation. The victim will complain: publication was more widespread. applied. But without the presentation of “They have accused me of [some If libel tourism has any relevance to facts upon which to base the opinion that positive statement]. How can I prove the Simon’s predicament, it is said to be the BCA knowingly promoted ineffective contrary?” For example, “Martin Hadley that the inflow of plaintiffs increases treatments, I find it difficult to see how has been a practising scientologist since the costs for everyone including local the statement could be interpreted as his teens and his infiltration into the defendants like Simon. If English legal anything other than a statement of fact.” Australian Skeptics to committee level representation comes at a premium now, represents one of the most successful then the market should allow lawyers to Editor’s Note: exercises of its kind.” How can I disprove move into that area to meet the demand We will continue to monitor this case. that? It is clearly defamatory, so if I can and bring fees down. Dr Singh will be present at the Skeptics’ also prove publication to people who convention TAM Australia in Sydney, know me, such that my reputation will be The Right Result November 26-28. . damaged, then that should be enough to for the Right Reasons? entitle me to hand over to the publisher We conclude with the opinion of and say: “You prove that is true.” Jason Bosland, lecturer, Faculty of Law, Another issue raised by the case, University of New South Wales: “This About the author: which has agitated the bloggers, is ‘libel case demonstrates how reasonable minds Martin Hadley is a Sydney tourism’. This is a real issue but I query might differ in the interpretive process barrister and treasurer of the relevance of the Singh case to it. One of distinguishing fact from comment. Australian Skeptics Inc.

Skeptics and Free Speech yourself this question: “Would I be prepared to hand this to f you read this magazine regularly then it is a safe bet that them, face to face across a table, and sit here while they read Iyou often see situations that make you hope someone it?” A ‘yes’ answer leads to a second safeguard: “Would their will speak out. What’s on the net frequently gets some of us reaction be to respond dispassionately on the issue, or would as mad as hell. And then we realise, we have the means of they feel abused and start abusing me back?” redress at our fingertips….. If you are really determined to give someone a serve, do For those of you who are sick of Chinese proverbs, it to them and to them alone. You can’t defame someone remember at least this one: “Once put in writing, words have by communicating with them alone. However brutally you a life of their own.” A lot of scepticism is done in writing. have injured their feelings, you have not defamed them until What we speak is often recorded. All of these are the same you ‘publish’ to someone else. On the other hand if you do in the eyes of the law. A hasty blog entry can be as actionable communicate widely, it is possible to defame a person even as a book. though you had no intention of insulting them. I know people who are smart and articulate but who have Among skeptics there has been huge support for Dr Singh, impaired perception of the consequences of their actions. but this should not blind us to the interests at stake in a I hope a few tips will not offend. We are battling the fact that defamation case – a fair balance between freedom of speech our desire to go into print may rise without a corresponding and the protection of reputation. For any of us, the boot improvement in judgement. How much would you pay could be on the other foot one day. Most skeptics I know are for software that would retrieve and delete an email you not wealthy. Their integrity is their most prized possession. If sent last night if it had not been read? The problem you any of us were attacked for something like scientific fraud or might have with your emailing is the same as I have seen plagiarism, we would value a system that offers some legal from many people who have recorded correspondence for redress. sending later. The common factor is I have met litigious peaceniks who fail to realise that the sender is not present when litigation is like a private war. So, please don’t start a fight, the message is received. As I unless you really want one and you are ready to finish it; or have counselled solicitors, ask you will have your own Gallipoli. Martin Hadley 17 F E AT U R E Skepticism

Brain Food

Martin Bridgstock and Kylie Sturgess examine some of the key ideas of two of skepticism’s recent impressive thinkers.

here have always been skeptics movement. We think you should know curers and the whole legion of misguided Twho thought big, who wanted about them. and dishonest paranormal practitioners. to change the way the world works. He raised the troubling question: if David Hume (1964[1777]: 89), in the The role and format of Skepticism skeptics don’t do this, who will? introduction to his famous essay ‘Of Let’s start with the editor of the Junior It’s a good point and, to our Miracles’ was not in the least modest Skeptic magazine, Daniel Loxton. He knowledge, one that has not been about his goal when he wrote, “I flatter was born in Victoria, the most ‘British’ answered. We know that many people myself, that I have discovered an part of Canada, and has edited the every year suffer because they trust argument . . . which, if just, will . . . be Junior Skeptic since 2002. He made a alternative healers to cure their illnesses. useful as long as the world endures. For major contribution to skeptical thought People – including children – die because so long, I presume, will the accounts of in his essay ‘Where do we go from here?’ of this. We know that psychics prey upon miracles and prodigies be found in all This was published inSkeptical Briefs of bereaved and depressed people, conning history, sacred and profane.” Modern September 2008, but a more accessible them out of large sums of money by the philosophy regards his argument as version is online (Loxton 2009). pretence that they have psychic powers. If flawed, but many of its components live Loxton was writing in response to the skeptics do not investigate and expose on in the modern skeptical movement. CSICOP’s decision to change its name these swindlers, who will? Paul Kurtz (2001:12), too, thought and also to broaden its mandate. Instead Looked at from this viewpoint, big when he convened the first of focusing on the paranormal, the new skepticism is really a form of consumer conference of skeptics. He wanted to CSI would seek to promote science and protection. We discover and propagate generate some informed criticism of the reason more generally. Loxton notes that the information which will enable tidal wave of paranormality which was many leading skeptics seemed fed up people to make reasoned judgments swamping the Western world. with investigating the paranormal and about who to trust. It’s important work, In this article, we want to talk about wanted something more. CSI leaders and someone needs to do it. As Loxton two recent big thinkers in the skeptical assured us that this would not prevent puts it succinctly: “No one else does movement. Both are unassuming, and the analysis of paranormal claims, but what we do. We are the world experts would probably shrink from being Loxton raised a troubling point. Skeptics, on the paranormal, pseudoscience, compared to Kurtz or Hume. On he pointed out, are the only people and critical thinking. Moreover, that the other hand, both have important who investigate – and, where necessary, expertise is vitally needed.” (Loxton, insights and ideas about the skeptical debunk – the fake psychics, the quack 2008:6) 18 The Skeptic june 10

Judging by opinion polls, it’s quite has a number of consequences which where needed on every relevant claim. clear that skepticism is not going to Loxton spells out. In perhaps the most It sounds great – and it may well be vanquish the paranormal – at least not memorable passage, he argues that any – but the obvious question is, how for a long while. But, argues Loxton, idea of unity – such as a single skeptical do we ensure it happens? It would be someone has to tackle the scams and organisation in each country – has useless having, say a hundred experts on the suffering caused by the armies of become completely outdated. Instead, the Loch Ness monster and nobody to the night. He takes encouragement there will be many organisations of monitor the latest paranormal healing from the fact that young people are various sizes, a veritable skeptical fleet: fad. How do we ensure that ‘black holes’ now flooding into the movement, “The reality we are faced with is a flotilla of inattention do not develop in this and they are interested in analysing of national, regional and local skeptical network? the paranormal skeptically. So, he organisations ... moving independently Neither of these questions poses concludes, quoting the TV show, Angel, and chaotically yet roughly in parallel. insurmountable problems, but we “Let’s go to work.” Some groups are larger and more think that attention should be focused By itself this is an important influential than others of course – there on them. A third question is more contribution to skeptical thought. are aircraft carriers as well as rowboats— troubling. We know that the vast Loxton urges us not to forget our core but the variety of organisations, efforts, majority of skeptics today are inactive. business – after all, it is important – and projects, and mandates is dizzying.” They do little beyond subscribe to the not to confuse individual exhaustion (Loxton, 2009:24-5) magazines and perhaps come to the with the need to change the movement. Several consequences follow from occasional meeting. Loxton’s picture However, Loxton wasn’t finished. these new trends. One is that talk of the future is optimistic if we can In a recent issue of the Skeptical of unity is outdated: skepticism mobilise our membership and make it Inquirer (November/December 2009), is becoming a networked popular more active. But can we? That is a much he charted out the changing face of movement, and old-fashioned ideas of more fundamental problem. skepticism itself. This article is so unity are irrelevant. On the other hand, dazzling that we are going to spend the potential benefits are immense. The contribution from Skeptics some time summarising its key points. For a start, if we have enough skeptics, At this point, Reed Esau’s thinking Loxton’s stepping-off point is the we might reach a situation in which about skepticism fits in logically. Esau’s fact that computer and information every paranormal manifestation has background is that he is a software technology is changing the whole experts in the skeptical network who engineer in Denver, Colorado, and he has basis of skepticism. He puts it in can comment on it. There are already adapted an IT industry concept called one paragraph: “It takes funded specialists in some areas (have a look at the BarCamp. BarCamp is a conference organisations to promote skepticism www.sciencebasedmedicine.org for one format aimed at distributing knowledge through expensive, high-risk means example) and there can be many others. within the technical community. As such as magazines and printed books. Loxton says a good deal more – all of we shall see, it may be applicable to By contrast, the past decade (and it worth reading – but we might pause skepticism. the past five years in particular) have there and note a couple of questions. Esau begins with the well-known brought digital communication tools First, if we accept the image of observation that, in many fields and that make publishing and networking skepticism as a flotilla of assorted craft, organisations, a huge proportion of the easy and cheap for grassroots skeptics what keeps them work is done by a everywhere. No longer restricted to from drifting apart? handful of people. specialist organisations, the trail is now A fleet or convoy has “ Someone has to tackle One recent theorist shared by the thousands of amateur direction-finding the scams and suffering – writer Chris enthusiasts, social networks, and equipment – a caused by the armies of Anderson (2004) - independent projects that make up compass in the old has dubbed this the the popular movement of skepticism.” days, or GPS now the night. - Loxton Long Tail. Indeed, (Loxton, 2009:24) – and also some ” there is a ‘law of Is Loxton saying that the older sort of place that they want to reach. effort’ which states that in many fields, skepticism, with its books, magazines Granting that there is going to be a about 80 per cent of the contributions and formal organisations, is doomed? good deal of diversity, how do we keep come from about 20 per cent of the Definitely not. He thinks that there this varied flotilla moving in roughly the people. are quite a number of functions that same direction? You might be a little skeptical about only formal organisations can perform. The second question is closely linked this result. What exactly, you may ask, However, the explosion of skeptical to this. Loxton raises the fascinating are these contributions? After all, there involvement at the computerised grass- prospect of having experts on every are many ways one can contribute to roots level is an exciting growth point bizarre claim in existence. Presumably a movement such as skepticism. There for the entire movement. these experts could be easily accessed are indeed, and the measure can apply The eruption of this new skepticism through the net, and could comment to any of them. Reed Esau uses the 0319 F E AT U R E Skepticism

However, we risk squandering this the revolutionary aspect – there are no Brain Food windfall if we cannot provide good guest speakers. Instead, the speakers are Continued... opportunities to engage and build upon the attendees themselves, and everyone that enthusiasm.” (Esau, 2008:1) is expected to contribute, even as an He points out that churches are often organiser. example of blogging activity, but you good at involving people in voluntary That last point is the key one could measure organisation work at the work: join some congregations, and you for BarCamps and SkeptiCamps. local level, contributions to magazines, will rapidly find The traditional or speeches at skeptical meetings. Derive yourself singing format for most a summary measure of all of these, if in the choir or “ Provide a path for the skeptical activities you wish. Every measure would exhibit helping to run a individual to grow through is a few people something like the Long Tail, with a fund-raising stall. communicating minority of people making most of the Esau points out that meaningful opportunities to the many. contributions. organisations which for involvement - Esau SkeptiCamp breaks The phenomenon applies in many do this benefit both ” away from this fields, and has been noted many times. themselves and the by inducing rank Before Chris Anderson, historian people concerned. Indeed, his general and file members to contribute their Derek de Solla Price analysed a similar rule is the carefully-stated proportion thoughts, ideas and activities to the asymmetry among scientists. So did that the crucial consideration is “To discussion. mathematician Alfred J. Lotka in the provide a path for the individual to grow Esau is perfectly aware that there first half of the twentieth century. Esau’s through meaningful opportunities for are potential problems with this contribution is to apply the idea to involvement.” (Esau 2009:4. approach. In the first place, attendees skepticism, and to better understand Esau’s italics) at BarCamps are likely to be well- how the larger skeptical community can How can this apparently simple informed professionals, whereas some contribute to skepticism. precept possibly benefit skepticism? skeptics know very little. In addition, Obviously, there are reasons why this What Esau wants to do is thicken what guards are there against a fixated asymmetrical distribution occurs. Some the tail. That is, he wants to involve nut-case turning up, and droning on people are able to be full-time skeptics. more of the less-active skeptics in and on about his own hobby-horse? People like Michael Shermer, Daniel the skeptical movement, and so both And won’t many people find the Loxton and Joe Nickell are able to devote increase their overall involvement and prospect of standing up and talking all of their effort to skepticism, and so spread the workload within skepticism. quite terrifying? their contributions are enormous. Other He points out that the Pentecostal There are answers to these. A key people may have to fit skeptical activity churches have been especially good at point about a SkeptiCamp is that around work and family commitments this, and their total numbers now stand criticism and comment is absolutely – which may leave little time or energy at around 400 million members. If the permissible. If an attendee thinks that for anything else. Esau thinks that the activities of all skeptics in the long tail someone else is talking drivel, a hand current structure of skeptical activities (and Esau modestly includes himself can be raised and the point made – or is a contributory factor. Most skeptical in this category) increase, even by a a pointed question asked – there and meetings consist of a speaker and an little, then more will be done by the then. In short, there can be fair and audience. If the audience is lucky, it membership at large, and less by the constructive criticism of exactly the kind might get to ask a few questions at overworked people in the core of the which scientists and academics have been the end. Magazines and newsletters organisation. used to for years, only now it is being are other methods for a few people to Yes, but how do you do this? Esau extended into skepticism. communicate with many. In all these, believes that there are many ways. What sort of things do people talk most people are reduced to passivity. However, the one he has pioneered about at SkeptiCamp? Reed Esau Whatever the reasons, there is little comes directly from his own work in the gives some examples: “Of the nine doubt that something like the long IT industry. This is the concept he calls SkeptiCamp events held since 2007, tail effect does operate in the modern SkeptiCamp. there have been more than eighty talks skeptical movement. What should we One key point to make at the outset covering a wide range of topics, from do about it? Esau is aware of a number is that SkeptiCamp does not involve the hilarious to the deadly serious. of solutions. In particular, he thinks, any camping. Reed Esau imported Topics on the lighter side have included there are new methods which can help: the idea from the IT industry, where theatrical superstitions as well as an “We are entering an exciting new era the sessions are known as BarCamps. inquiry into the New World Order where emerging social technologies How do these ‘camps’ work? Well, conspiracies surrounding the Denver and new methods of outreach hint at an event is organised – usually over a International Airport. Serious topics an abundance of newbie enthusiasm single day, at a convenient location, and have included an academic presentation the likes of which we have never seen. attendance is free. However – and this is on the evolutionary basis of morality 20 The Skeptic June 10

and a pediatrician presenting evidence Right Reed Esau - software engineer, long tailer of the effectiveness of vaccination in and skeptical camper preventing infectious disease.” (Esau, Below Daniel Loxton - editor of Junior Skeptic 2009:29) and campaigner for core business One rule that has been added to SkeptiCamps (in addition to the eight applying to BarCamps, body of knowledge of what works in available at http://barcamp.org/ SkeptiCamps, and what does not. TheRulesOfBarCamp) is that evidence for assertions must be available: if you’re Some skeptical going to say something, you should be concluding thoughts able to back it up! Although a presenter Loxton and Esau are clearly looking to a may not be a domain expert, they skeptical future radically different from should be informing and informed on that of the past few decades. Neither key material. wants to destroy or downgrade existing References So far a scattering of SkeptiCamps features of skepticism, but both take the Anderson, Chris (2004) have been held across North view that the movement must adapt if it The Long Tail.Wired 12.10 October America. The general verdict seems is going to prosper. Esau, Reed (2008) Raising our game: to be that they are very successful, Obviously, every statement made the rationale to embrace SkeptiCamp. and a wonderful way of inducing by these two skeptics could be wrong. http://skeptic.com/downloads/raising- inactive members to take part in the The movement toward a networked, our-game-oct-2008.pdf. Accessed organisation. Esau suggests starting multi-centric skepticism perceived by January 2010. small, gaining a little local sponsorship Loxton might just be a passing fad. Esau, Reed (2009) Reinventing the And the SkeptiCamps pioneered by Skeptic Conference. Skeptical Inquirer Esau and his colleagues might turn 33, 6 November/December 28-29 out to be unsuccessful. Still, our own Hume, David (1964[1777]), ‘Of observations do convince us that Miracles’ in T. H. Green and T. H. these thinkers could well be right. We Grose (eds) Essays Moral, Political have seen younger skeptics coming and Literary by David Hume Scientia to skeptical activities and looking Verlag Aalen, London. Pp. 88-108. uncomfortable. They are wondering Kurtz, Paul (2001) Introduction in P. where they belong. And we have met Kurtz (ed) Skeptical Odysseys, Amherst, hundreds upon hundreds of skeptics NY, Prometheus. pp. 9-18 of all ages and backgrounds. In Lotka, Alfred J.(1926) The frequency general, they are very bright people distribution of scientific productivity. with much knowledge. We would Journal of the Washington Academy of like to tap some of that ability, Science 16, 317-323. and enable it to work within the Loxton, Daniel (2008) Where do movement. we go from here? Accessible at In sum, although nothing is guaran- http://www.skeptic.com/downloads/ teed, we think Loxton and Esau present WhereDoWeGoFromHere.pdf. and keeping initial numbers low. important ideas, and that it is well worth Accessed January 2010. As the movement develops, increase thinking them through and deciding on Loxton, Daniel (2009) The Paradoxical the numbers and begin to offer food courses of action. Even if they are not Future of Skepticism. Skeptical in the SkeptiCamp, and also give precisely right, something important is Inquirer 33, 6, November/December each participant a tee-shirt or other happening in skepticism, and we need to 24-27. memento of the experience. Hopefully understand and respond to it. As Loxton Price, Derek J. de Solla (1965) Little also it deepens the participants’ says, “Let’s go to work.” . Science, Big Science. New York, understanding of skepticism, and will Columbia University Press. help integrate some of them into the ongoing work of the movement. About the authors: To ensure success and avoid repeating Martin Bridgstock is a senior lecturer in the mistakes, sharing the experiences and School of Biomolecular and Physical Sciences at learning is ongoing. Collaboration is key, Griffith University and the author ofBeyond Belief. which is why the SkeptiCamp Wikipedia Kylie Sturgess is an educator, writer and a prolific exists and is a part of organising a podcaster on the Skeptic Zone, Token Skeptic and SkeptiCamp. The idea is to build up a PodBlack Cat. 21 F E AT U R E Psychology Thanks for the Memory Krissy Wilson and Chris French investigate the psychology, science and politics of the recovered memory debate and the implications for belief in the paranormal

alse memories are apparent allegations of child sexual abuse. In incidents. It became of national interest Fmemories for events that never many of these cases it was shown that and had massive media coverage and led occurred. Over the last two decades material that had supposedly been to one of the most divisive debates ever there has been considerable interest in brought back into conscious memory within psychology (McNally, 2003). On studying false memories from a variety by the use of so-called ‘memory the one hand were the clinicians and of different perspectives. The interest recovery’ techniques, such as hypnosis therapists who claimed that (mostly) in this phenomenon has mainly been and guided imagery, was not based women were coming into therapy for due to the explosion, in the upon events that had actually common problems such as depression 1980s and 1990s, of legal taken place. This finding and sexual dysfunction and, with the cases involving sparked a furious debate in guidance of a sympathetic therapist, the 1990s concerning the were bringing into conscious awareness veracity of memories allegedly horrific but supposedly accurate ‘recovered’ during therapy. memories of childhood sexual abuse at Recently, a more systematic the hands of (mostly) male relatives. and less emotive approach to Many endorsed this view, claiming the study of false memory has that high proportions of abused victims prevailed and there is now a had spent large periods of their lives considerable body of research in which they did not remember the examining developmental, abuse but during therapy were able to clinical and cognitive aspects unlock the ghastly secrets that had lain of false memory creation (eg hidden for so long (eg, Brown, Scheflin Brainerd & Reyna, 1998; Melo, & Hammond, 1998). Meanwhile, on Wincour & Moscovitch, 1999; the other side of the debate, cognitive Seamon, Lee, Toner, Wheeler, psychologists were suggesting that Goodkind & Birch, 2002). these memories were not real but In the light of experimental were fabrications created as a result of evidence, which has refuted some suggestive techniques used by therapists. of the more controversial claims, Therapists, not surprisingly, were the ferocity of the debate has cooled up in arms at the suggestion that these somewhat. However, the subject of the memories were created in the charged creation of false memories remains an atmosphere of therapy under the important topic for researchers. influence of the therapist themselves and furthermore have accused critics Psychology, Science, and Politics of recovered memory therapy (RMT) The recovered memory controversy of being essentially in denial with began to emerge in the late respect to what they believe to be the 1980s with the first court widespread, almost epidemic, nature of cases involving allegations childhood abuse. of childhood sexual abuse The scientific community claimed made long after the alleged that RMT was little more than some 18 The Skeptic June 10

kind of quack new age therapy. repress traumatic memories. However, tried to recall the words contained in it. Meanwhile, more and more legal cognitive psychologists would argue that Many participants falsely recalled the cases became headline news as alleged the problem for genuine abuse victims critical word (eg needle) as having been victims accused family members of is far more likely to be their inability to included in the list even though in fact Thanks for abuse committed many years previously. forget such trauma (eg Loftus, 1997). it was not. A bevy of celebrities lined up to appear The main culprit is the Freudian theory The Deese/Roediger and McDermott on chat shows to reveal how they had of repression which many believe is an (DRM) paradigm has been used been abused as children and the debate example of pseudoscientific thinking extensively across many different testing turned into something of a media on Freud’s part procedures and the circus. An entire cottage industry of (Crews, 1995). In conditions with Memory The polarisation of support groups, encounter groups a working party “ levels of false recall and organisations have been set up for report published in opinion over the false being among the ‘victims’ from both sides. In the US, the the UK by Brandon memory debate was so most robust in False Memory Syndrome Foundation and colleagues, the experimental was established for families who had the conclusion on divisive it was referred to literature been wrongly accused of abuse and the the likelihood that as the ‘memory wars’ (Roediger, Watson, British False Memory Society was set memories of trauma ” McDermott, & up to deal with the growing number of can be repressed Gallo, 2001). cases of false memories in the UK. is quite unequivocal: “No evidence Consequently, false memories have been The entire episode has been, exists for the repression and recovery of investigated using the DRM in children justifiably, likened to a “hysterical verified, severely traumatic events, and (eg Ghetti, Qin, & Goodman, 2002), epidemic” (Showalter, 1997). But their role in symptom formation has in older adults (eg McCabe & Smith, where did it come from? McNally yet to be proved.” (Brandon, Boakes, 2002), and in clinical populations (2003) has suggested that the rise of Glaser, Green, MacKeith, & Whewell, such as older adults with dementia of RMT may have emerged as a feature of 1997, p. 298). the Alzheimer’s type (DAT; eg Balota, the feminist movement; an erroneous Cortese, Duchek, & Adams, 1999). and misapplied expression of female Experimental techniques The DRM has also been used to emancipation in an attempt to rebel An enormous amount of experimental examine individual differences in false against a patriarchal society. research on this topic has consistently memory creation (eg Blair, Lenton, Any historical review of the false shown how easy it is to implant false & Hastie, 2002), the effects of mood memory debacle will always include memories in a laboratory situation on the creation of false memories (eg reference to the contribution made employing simple techniques. This Wright, Startup, & Mathews, 2005) by popular books on the subject of has finally allowed both sides of and in a study that examined false incest. By far the worst example is the the debate to come to some level of memories of the DRM type among a now notorious self-help book, The mutual respect. One technique for group of women who reported having Courage to Heal by Bass and Davis exploring false memories involves giving recovered memories of childhood sexual (1988). Essentially, this is seen by information that is highly associated abuse (Clancy, Schacter, McNally, & many as an invitation for depressed with an item not presented in a to- Pitman, 2000). The findings from the and vulnerable women to blame their be-remembered list (eg Deese, 1959; latter study showed that women who emotional problems on childhood Roediger & McDermott, 1995). This reported recovered memories of abuse sexual abuse at the hands of a close male procedure has proved to be extremely tended to falsely recognise more critical relative even when they entered therapy popular for studying false memories lure words, compared to women who with no conscious memories of such for various reasons not least of which is claimed never to have forgotten their abuse. Fierce critics of the recovered the fact that it does not infringe on any abuse. memory movement have condemned ethical considerations (Wright, Startup, As can be seen from the above such literature as being misapplied, & Mathews, 2005). The technique review, the DRM is a useful tool in misinformed, and ultimately damaging is heavily based on a study by Deese demonstrating false memory creation in to the suggestible and vulnerable who (1959) who initially constructed several a laboratory setting and it is a procedure come to believe that they have been lists each comprising 12 words. Each known to first year undergraduates. abused. list consisted of the most common However, the technique has been The polarisation of opinion with word association test responses to a described as merely a cognitive trick regard to the false memory debate critical word that was not included in that can in no way be equated to the was of such a divisive nature that it the list. A typical example would be kinds of traumatic memories falsely has been referred to as the “memory the word “needle”, from which Deese recalled in therapy. In recent years wars” (Crews, 1995). At the epicentre constructed a list, including “thread”, many more experimental procedures of the debate was the contention by “pin”, “eye”, “sewing”, “sharp”, etc. to implant false memories have been therapists and clinicians that individuals Participants studied each list and then designed. 0323 F E AT U R E Psychology

Thanks for the Memory Continued...

Loftus and Pickrell (1995) set about trying to find a way to prove that entirely false memories of a mildly susceptibility to false memories. traumatic event from childhood could Often theX DRM task has been used, be implanted using similar techniques but some critics have suggested that to those used by therapists. They falsely recalling a word from a list is focused on the plausible scenario of very different to falsely recalling entire having once been lost in a shopping episodes. mall, being subsequently found and French (2003) reviewed the relevance looked after by an elderly lady. Twenty- of this line of research with regard four participants were told that a to the reliability of reports of various parent, older sibling or similar close anomalous experiences. For example, relative had given the experimenters the most likely explanation of reports four accounts of events from the Furthermore, these studies suggest of alien abductions and past-life participant’s childhood. A booklet that even false memories can provoke regression is that these reports are due was prepared for each participant powerful emotional responses. to false memories (see, eg Baker 1992; containing four one-paragraph accounts During the years after the Loftus Holden & French 2002; Spanos, 1996). of these four events. Three of these and Pickrell study was published, Furthermore, evidence has shown that accounts were in fact true and one (the dozens of studies drawing on the a number of psychological variables shopping mall scenario) was false. Each ‘lost-in-a-shopping-mall’ paradigm that correlate with susceptibility to participant read the booklet and was have repeatedly replicated the basic false memories (eg imagery ability, then asked to write down anything they finding that completely fabricated Dobson & Markham, 1993; hypnotic could recall from any of the events. autobiographical memories can be susceptibility, Barnier & McConkey, Participants were seen in two follow- implanted in a sizeable minority of 1992; dissociativity, Hyman & Billings, up sessions in which they were once participants. Similar studies have shown 1998) in turn correlate with the again asked to recount any additional that false memories can be implanted tendency to believe in the paranormal memories of the events. Seven out for a wide range of plausible childhood and to report anomalous experiences of the twenty-four participants on events such as an accident that occurred (eg Diamond & Taft, 1975). This first reading the booklet were able to at a family wedding (Hyman, Husband, would tend to support the suggestion ostensibly recall the false event. In & Billings, 1995), almost drowning that many reports of ostensibly the follow-up sessions, six out of the and being rescued by a lifeguard (Heaps paranormal experiences may be based twenty-four continued to claim they & Nash, 2001), being the victim of on false memories (French, 2003). could recall the memory and in fact an animal attack (Porter, Yuille, & It also suggests that believers in the were able to give additional details Lehman, 1999), choking on a small paranormal may be more susceptible about the event. object (Mazzoni, Loftus, & Kirsch, to the creation of false memories Critics, not unjustifiably perhaps, 2001) and being diagnosed with having compared to non-believers, a hypothesis have claimed that being lost in a low blood sugar (Ost, Foster, Costall, that has received support in recent shopping mall as a child cannot & Bull, 2005). It seems that almost studies (eg Wilson & French, 2006; possibly equate to the unspeakable any plausible event from childhood can Dagnall, Parker & Munley, 2008). . trauma of repeated sexual abuse. be turned into a memory using these Loftus (1997) points out, however, techniques. References that this paradigm is not about real experiences of being lost, but concerns False memories and the paranormal Baker R.A. (1992). Hidden memories: Voices and visions from within. Prometheus, Buffalo, NY. how false memories of being lost A range of individual differences Barnier A.J. and McConkey K.M. (1992). Reports of can be successfully implanted. The have been studied in terms of their real and false memories: The relevance of hypnosis, Loftus paradigm, and those that have potential involvement in susceptibility hypnotizability, and test control. Journal of Abnormal followed, in no way attempt to dilute to memory distortion and to the Psychology, 101, 521-7. or undervalue the horror of child abuse. creation of false memories. Generally Balota, D. A., Cortese, M. J., Duchek, J.M., Adams, D., Roediger, H. L., McDermott, K. B., & Yerys, B. E. (1999). The intention of Loftus and others is to the findings have been mixed. Part of Veridical and false memories in healthy older adults highlight how false memories might at the problem may be in the particular and in dementia of the Alzheimer’s type. Cognitive least be instilled in a real life situation. procedure generally used to measure Neuropsychology, 16, 361-384. 24 The Skeptic June 10

Barnier, A. J., & McConkey, K. M. (1992). Reports of of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 7, 51-59. words during study is unnecessary for false memory real and false memories: the relevance of hypnosis, McCabe, D. P., & Smith, A. D. (2002). The effect of in the Deese, Roediger and McDermott procedure. hypnotisability, and context of memory test. Journal warnings on false memories in young and older adults. Psychological Science, 13, 526-531. of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 521-527. Memory and Cognition, 30, 1065-1077. Showalter, E. (1997). Hystories. New York: Columbia Bass, E., & Davis, L. (1988). The courage to heal: A McNally, R. J. (2003). Remembering trauma. University Press. guide for women survivors of child sexual abuse. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Spanos, N. P. (1996). Multiple identities and false New York: Harper and Row. Melo, B., Wincour, G., & Moscovitch, M. (1999). False memories: A sociocognitive perspective. New York: Blair, I. V., Lenton, A. P., & Hastie R. (2002). The reliability recall and recognition: An examination of the effects of American Psychological Association. of the DRM paradigm as a measure of individual selective and combined lesions to the medial temporal Wilson, K., & French, C. C. (2006). The relationship differences in false memories. Psychonomic Bulletin lobe diencephalons and frontal lobe structures. between susceptibility to false memories, dissociativity, and Review, 9, 590-596. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 16, 343-359. and paranormal belief and experience. Personality Brainerd, C. J., & Reyna, V. F. (1998). Fuzzy trace Ost, J., Foster, S., Costall, A., & Bull, R. (in press). False and Individual Differences,41, 1493-1502. theory and children’s false memories. Journal of reports of childhood events in appropriate interviews. Wright, D. B., Startup, H. M., & Mathews, S.A. (2005). Experimental Child Psychology, 71, 81-129. Memory. Mood, dissociation and false memories using the Brandon, S., Boakes, J., Glaser, D., Green, R., MacKeith, Porter, S. Yuille, J. C., & Lehman, D. R. (1999). The Deese-Roediger/McDermott procedure. British J., & Whewell, P. (1997). Reported recovered memories nature of real, implanted, and fabricated memories Journal of Psychology, 96, 283-293. of child sexual abuse: Recommendations for good for emotional childhood events: Implications for practice and implications for training, continuing the recovered memory debate. Law and Human professional development and research. Psychiatric Behavior, 23, 517-537. Bulletin, 21, 663-665. Roediger H.L. and McDermott K.B. (1995). Creating false Brown, D., Scheflin, A. W., & Hammond, D. C. (1997). memories: Remembering words not presented on lists. About the authors: Memory, trauma, treatment and the law. Norton: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Dr Krissy Wilson is a lecturer at the University of New York. Memory, and Cognition, 21, 803-14. Tasmania, and Professor Chris French is head of the Clancy, S. A., Schacter, D. L., McNally, R. J., & Pitman, Roediger, H. L., Watson, J. M., Anomalistic Psychology R. K. (2000). False recognition in women reporting McDermott, K. B., & Gallo, Research Unit at Goldsmiths, recovered memories of sexual abuse. Psychological D. A. (2001). Factors that Science, 11, 26-31. determine false recall: A University of London and a Crews, F. (1995). The memory wars: Freud’s legacy in multiple regression analysis. member of the Scientific and dispute. New York: New York Review of Books. Psychonomic Bulletin and Professional Advisory Board Deese, J. (1959). On the prediction of occurrence Review, 8, 385-405. of the British False Memory of particular verbal intrusions in immediate recall. Seamon, J. G., Lee, I. A., Society. See an interview with Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 17-22. Toner, S. K., Wheeler, R. H., Diamond, M. J., & Taft, R. (1975). The role played by ego- Goodkind, M. S., & Birch, A. Prof French elsewhere in this permissiveness and imagery in hypnotic responsivity. D. (2002). Thinking of critical issue of The Skeptic. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 23, 130-138. Dobson, M., & Markham, R. (1993). Imagery ability and source monitoring: Implications for eyewitness memory. British Journal of Psychology, 84, 111-118. French, C. C. (2003). Fantastic memories: The relevance of research into eyewitness testimony and false memories for reports of anomalous experiences. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 10, 153-74. Ghetti, S., Qin, J. J., & Goodman, G. S. (2002). False memories in children and adults, age, distinctiveness, and subjective experience. Developmental Psychology, 38 (5), 705-718. Heaps, C., & Nash, M. (1999). Individual differences in imagination inflation. Psychonomic Bulletin &Review, 6, 313-318. Holden, K. J., & French, C.C. (2002). Alien abduction experiences: Clues from neuropsychology and neuropsychiatry. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 7, 163-78. Hyman, I.E. Jr., & Billings, F. J. (1998). Individual differences and the creation of false childhood memories. Memory, 6, 1-20. Hyman, I. E. Jr., Husband, T. H., & Billings, F. J. (1995). False memories of childhood experiences. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 9, 181-197. Loftus, E. F. (1997). Dispatch from the (un)civil memory wars. In J. D. Read & D. S. Lindsay (Eds.), Recollections of trauma: Scientific evidence and clinical practice (pp.171-194). New York: Plenum. Loftus, E. F., & Pickrell, J. E. (1995). The formation of false memories. Psychiatric Annals, 25, 720-725. Mazzoni, G. A. L., Loftus, E. F., & Kirsch, I. (2001). Changing beliefs about implausible autobiographical events: A little implausibility goes a long way. Journal 25 F E AT U R E Skepticism The Informed Skeptic Skepticism – in the real world – runs the gamut between blunt nay-sayers and serious investigations into claims and reasons for belief. Chris French takes that latter path, and says Skeptics need to look to their role. Kylie Sturgess has a chat.

rofessor Chris French often appears experiencing telepathy, seeing a ghost, A It has. I should point out, by the Pon British radio and TV in the seeing a UFO or whatever it may be, way, that I’ve not always been a skeptic. role of an “informed skeptic”. He is we can explain those things in other I mean, when I was a teenager and the editor of The Skepticmagazine, a terms and typically, we’re talking about when I was going through university as publication of the British and Irish psychological terms. So, we’re actually an undergraduate, I actually tended to Skeptics, produced and distributed starting with the working assumption believe in most of this stuff, and for the by CSI. He is head of the Psychology that paranormal forces don’t exist. reasons that I think that most people do. Department of Goldsmith’s College in Now, most parapsychologists put I’d read the books, I’d seen the films, and the University of London, where he is most of their effort into trying to prove I’d had the occasional spooky experience also head of the Anomalistic Psychology that paranormal forces do exist. Again, myself. It just seemed more sensible to Research Unit. Professor French spoke what you find in practice is that at the me to believe that these things really to Kylie Sturgess about how people Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, did exist than if they didn’t. It was only think about anomalies, attitudes to the we do spend some of our time doing when I read one particular book – it was paranormal, the role of Skeptics, libel parapsychology, we do test psychics - we Jim Alcock’s Parapsychology: Science or and how the Brits are developing their always get negative results – and we do Magic? - when I was doing my PhD that Skeptical role. test psychic claims and, again, we’ve suddenly I kind of realised that there was never produced any positive results. But another way of looking at all these things. Q Firstly, what is anomalistic we think it’s important to be open- That was the early 80s. I started at psychology, and how does it differ from minded in approaching these things and Goldsmiths in ‘85. Initially, I just did parapsychology? some parapsychologists are interested a couple of lectures on parapsychology in the kind of cognitive illusions where from a very skeptical point-of-view, and A Basically, what anomalistic people believe something paranormal has the students clearly enjoyed it, whether psychology focuses on is starting from happened even if it hasn’t, so it’s more a they were believers or skeptics themselves. the working hypothesis that paranormal matter of emphasis than anything else. People do find these topics really forces don’t exist - are there other But if I had to bet my house, I’d bet interesting and fun to talk about. It wasn’t ways that we can explain ostensibly that paranormal forces don’t exist. And until 1995 that I actually realised that I paranormal experiences. Now, it’s therefore, as a psychologist, I’m really was really very interested in this stuff and important to point out that we’re not interested in why so many people think I could put on a whole course. So, I now saying that “No, paranormal forces don’t they do. put on a final year option as a part of our exist”. We’re just saying that given that BSc Psychology program, on anomalistic the wider scientific community isn’t Q What led you to becoming psychology. Increasingly, the research I convinced by the evidence put forward interested in this particular aspect of was doing was in that area, and eventually by parapsychologists, then is it possible psychology anyway? This has been going it really became my prime focus of we can explain the weird experiences that on for quite some time, hasn’t it, the interest, so it was a fairly gradual thing. people have, when they think they’re work that you’ve been doing? What started off as a kind of side-interest 26 The Skeptic June 10

Left Prof Chris French, head of the Anomalistic interesting about human psychology. Psychology Research Unit, University of London: We should definitely take these claims “There’s a tremendous increase in the skeptical seriously and try to understand what’s movement over the last two years.” going on. Q I guess what we have now is not certainly played a part. only an overlap of consumer affairs One of the things that I’m most awareness with skepticism, but also excited about is that, from this year, one science communication? Has there been of the three options in the Psychology much consultation with formal science A-Level which is taken by kids in schools communication groups in the UK? from 16-18 is anomalistic psychology. That’s fantastic, because there are going A Things have tended to grow a bit to be thousands of kids every year who organically to this point, but they are are going to be reading about anomalistic certainly getting a bit more organised psychology and going “wow, that stuff these days. Thanks to the internet, it’s a is really interesting”, and wanting to do lot easier to have organised campaigns, it at university. I think that’s going to to have networks and so on – that’s very have ripple effects with more and more much a feature of skepticism in the UK universities putting on courses like this. at the moment. At the moment, there are a handful of There are groups like Sense about them, but now and then you hear of two Science, which organised the campaign and hobby, I just realised that I found it or three new places offering a course like in support of Simon Singh. One of fascinating and I still do. this. The students, as I said, find it really the things they did in regards to the interesting, it tells you about human effect that libel laws have on science Q I’ve noticed that the Research nature, but it also teaches you critical communication is to join forces with two Unit is very proactive when it comes thinking, which applies beyond the other groups who are also campaigning to lectures and outreach. I get regular realm of just the paranormal to all kinds against the laws – that’s English Pen email updates from the ARPU email of other areas, whether you’re assessing (www.englishpen.org) which represents list, for example. Has it influenced alternative medicines or any other kind of the literary world, and Index on numbers of students taking the course? controversial claim that’s out there. Censorship (www.indexoncensorship. When I first wrote for my online org). A I’d say there’s certainly a tremendous column in The Guardian on anomalistic There’s now a very strong coalition, increase in the general skeptical psychology in schools, I thought it was with a huge array of very big names movement in the UK over the last two a very innocent, unprovocative little – Jonathan Ross, Stephen Fry, all these years. I think it’s hard to say exactly what’s piece. But it was amazing. Some of the people coming together, lots of MPs and caused that, but you could speculate that comments I got from people who clearly cross-party support. There’s a very big there are a number of factors that are had not bothered to read beyond the first chance that this will have an effect on important. I’d say that Richard Dawkins couple of sentences and the nice picture having English libel laws reformed. That and The God Delusion, Christopher of Uri Gellar holding a bent spoon. Yet would be a fantastic achievement. The Hitchens and people like that have made they were up in arms about it! This kind view from those in science, with people it much more acceptable for atheists to of topic, whether you’re talking to people like Singh and Peter Wilmshurst who is express their atheism. Skeptics in the Pub who do believe or who don’t believe in it, also a victim of these unfair libel laws, is in London, which has been going now just arouses such emotion in people. that the way people have been treated has for ten years, has become so successful I was quite taken aback by some of drawn attention to the fact that there is over the last couple of years that they’re the comments from people, even from this big problem in the UK, insofar that now drawing in well over two-hundred some of those who saw themselves as scientists are quite cautious about what people every month and they’ve had to being as very scientific and very skeptical they’ll put into writing and what they’ll introduce a booking system. but even then did not think that anything say in lectures. And that’s not the way Also, there are branches of Skeptics like this should ever be taught in schools. science is supposed to work! in the Pub popping up all over the I think that’s a ridiculous position to The campaign in itself is a very just country; there’s well over a dozen in take. The point is that opinion poll after campaign, with implications beyond the different cities up and down the UK now. opinion poll shows that the majority of world of science. It has also been very So, there’s definitely something in the air the population, one way or another, do useful insofar as it highlights just how over here. I wouldn’t like to claim that express belief in the paranormal, and science works. Science is all about putting anomalistic psychology is the only reason do endorse at least one claim. Either ideas out there, having them criticised, people get into skepticism, but it has they exist, or it’s telling us something testing them against the evidence and 27 F E AT U R E Skepticism

and Carols for Godless People - shows Dawkins, Elizabeth Loftus - the list goes The Informed that he organises around Christmas? It’s on and on. absolutely great. One of the things that is very nice Skeptic One of the nice things is the growing and rewarding is their enthusiasm. I sense of community. I think that for a mean, it wasn’t just a matter of saying Continued... long time ‘community’ was something “Yes, I’m fine with my name being that religious people had, but skeptics attached”; it was “What can I do to trying to refine your theories and come and atheists and humanists didn’t have so help?” It’s a fantastic resource we can up with better ideas; letting the evidence much. draw on, and with people we can ask speak rather than any kind of appeals to to write articles too – so, it’s gone from authority or to divine truth, or whatever Q It’s also reflected in the relaunch of strength to strength. Good stuff! . else it might be. the (UK) Skeptic Magazine, isn’t it? Note: The official UK Skeptic site, Q There’s a real intersection of pop A Yes, our magazine has been going where you can subscribe to the culture, politics and science now in the on for over twenty years and we have a magazine, is found at www.skeptics. UK in regards to skepticism, isn’t there? hard core of loyal readers – and now we’re org.uk. The ARPU (Goldsmith’s taking it to the next level. College) site is at www.gold.ac.uk/ A Yes! We have your Tim Minchin, a We’ve gone from twenty-eight to apru. complete genius! And that is just such an forty pages, with lots of new effective way of getting skepticism across columnists. We’ve got an well. We’ve got comedian Dara Ó Briain editorial board that’s just to About the author: and Stephen Fry - for a long time people die for, basically. We’ve got a Kylie Sturgess is an educator, writer and have known that he’s a card-carrying couple of Aussies; we’ve got a prolific podcaster – not to mention a skeptic, but it’s getting out more now. Tim Minchin and Dr Karen prolific writer of articles. See her report Robin Ince does a fantastic job in terms Stollznow, for example. There’s on the Atheist Convention and her co- of organising events – I’m sure you’ve Stephen Fry, Robin Ince, authored article on Skeptics with Big Ideas, heard about the show called Nine Lessons Richard Wiseman, Richard both in this issue.

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TAM_280x210_fin_bw02.indd 1 2/6/10 9:24:06 AM a r t i c l e s Cults

hearing me speak about my group experience said it sounded exhausting; and it was - constant, relentless, internal. So having produced something external to one’s self is a pleasure. Another positive aspect of From the producing art that might have to do with therapy (and note The Phoenix Project that I am not a psychologist, so this is speculation) is the notion aims to help former cult of being able to see the particular followers through art, problem as being outside of one’s self. In responding to a problem by creating music and literature. Ashes a particular artwork, whether visual, musical or literary, and placing it out Michael Wolloghan talks there for view, in a very literal sense, one somehow the photography class and the has externalised it. with the organisation’s philosophy of the arts class just worked I think that the sense of being able director. together with my recollections of what to communicate and also to externalise Dr Martin had said, and I thought that one’s conception of what happened, perhaps the arts could be a good tool to must be helpful and healthful. reating art can be therapeutic for help ex-members to communicate the But, finally, the production of Cpeople recovering from destructive reality of their cult affiliation to the outside something might also be healing because cults. The negative after-effects of cults world. My hope was that, as a result of this you are breaking your group’s taboo in cannot be underestimated, and artistic communication, there might be additional several ways. First, by speaking out or self-expression can help people to resolve places for ex-members to go in order to writing or creating a work of art at all, in problems, reduce anxiety, depression and get cult-specific counseling, and additional a sense one is telling tales out of school, increase self-esteem. funding as well, to assist ex-members to telling the truth of what happened, Diana Pletts, MA, directs and get the help that they needed. breaking the “don’t feel, don’t talk” taboo. coordinates the Phoenix Project, an art So, to me, the Phoenix Project was Next, if one’s group was, as was mine, exhibition that showcases challenging, communication with a goal: the ex- against the use of the arts, saying that it imaginative work done by ex-cult member communicating his or her reality is egotistical and likely to lead to spiritual members. While the success and acclaim to an uncomprehending world and, death, then to act in a manner contrary of the exhibition is often overlooked hopefully, a response from that world to those dictates is an act of righteous by the mass media, it still continues to to assist this generally unseen yet often rebellion and, I would argue, freeing. receive tremendously positive reviews. hurting and often struggling person. But Dr Martin also saw the value I spoke with Diana about the Project, of the individual - he celebrated her remarkable past and the ability of art Q What do you believe are the diversity in nature, and believed it to to enthrall, to capture a moment in time benefits of art for ex-cult members? be important for the individual to be and to take us to places we’ve never been. allowed diversity of expression, as well A My sense is that art itself is a benefit - to not be clones. So, too, the Phoenix QFirstly, could you please tell me to ex-members first of all by the simple Project is a celebration of the return of about the origins of the Phoenix virtue of communicating their experience the individual, and is a rebellion against Project – how did it come about? to someone else, not unlike the therapy the cultic notion of the necessity of experience. In this case, however, one is the death of the self, the destruction of A The Phoenix Project really was communicating to more than one person, individuality, and the creation of clones. a result of my time at Wellspring. so the hope is for a greater impact with In a sense the Phoenix Project is an [Wellspring Retreat is an accredited this increased audience. I understand event appropriately honoring Dr. Martin, residential counseling center specializing that the therapist is an audience in a very for his assistance to me, and to many in the treatment of individuals who have different sense, with a different goal. others, in the retrieval and resurrection of suffered in abusive cults.] Dr Martin Next, in the creation process, there our unique, creative selves. [the director of Wellspring] encouraged is the satisfaction of seeing something me to reacquaint myself with my artistic produced, of having a concrete finished Q You’re an ex-member of The Path, pre-cult self. Afterward, when I returned product. Having a finished product is an apocalyptic Christian sect. How to college to complete my undergraduate healing because so much of one’s group did art help you overcome the trauma degree, following my time at Wellspring, experience is in one’s head. Someone of being involved in that group? 30 The Skeptic June 10

A I don’t know that I would say Left: One of Diana Pletts, director and that art helped me overcome that coordinator of the Phoenix Project, trauma - getting exit counseled and own liberating artworks, appropriately getting help at Wellspring helped of a phoenix. me, as did the love and care of my husband and children, among other I have found it a wonderful family and friends. Also, completing pleasure and delight to work on college and attempting to help with the Phoenix Project, bringing the cult recovery movement. together people’s works, getting The artwork I have produced to read and view and hear them has answered the call, or the items and trying to come up with a way I have previously mentioned - the to showcase them. I find it very feeling that I am talking out of exciting to be able to interact with school, speaking up and not being the creators and find a way to get silent about the abuse that occurred, their works out there. Opening the and therefore shedding light on a Phoenix Rising © Diana Pletts boxes and files is like Christmas! situation. Also the sense of seeing some of my issues externalised. communication. It is my attempt to have Q What are your future goals and I would say, however, that sometimes someone else have a better understanding ambitions for the Phoenix Project? when I have created a work of art of what I am trying to get across. It really or writing, the completed work has is not about releasing anything other A A future hope for the Phoenix helped me to better understand that than the image or concept I am trying to Project is that it will someday take particular aspect of my cult situation. For convey. place at times and places other than the example, I did a painting representing annual ICSA conference, so that people my conceptualisation of the results of Q When was the first public other than those already close to the cult the so-called ‘healings’ - more truthfully appearance of the Phoenix Project? recovery world would become informed ‘harmings’ - from my group, as I saw about this reality. them during the time of my recovery. A The Phoenix Project debuted at Another dream is that of putting Seeing them on the canvas helped to the ICSA (International Cultic Studies together a book of works by the depict them to others, and gave me a Association) conference in Denver participants, with some commentary, better sense of what they were for me, as in 2006. We had over two dozen again, for the same reasons as that well. participants from several countries and already mentioned - that others might Also, sometimes someone else a number of different groups, and it was know, and in knowing might care to sees it and responds, and comments, and well received. It consisted of an exhibit help relieve those under bondage to their their comments help me to understand room, and two sessions of sharing in cult leaders and mindsets. that aspect in a new or better way. readings, video and music created by And, of course, my interaction with ex-members. The exhibit room presented Q How can ex-cult members get the artwork of others helps me to gain visual art works in two and three in contact with you if they wish to a better grasp of some aspects of cult dimensions, literary works and a music contribute? affiliation and of their situations. score. The Phoenix Project was held again Finally, the act of creation has helped on a smaller scale in Brussels, Belgium, in A They can e-mail me at in terms of regaining my individuality, 2007 and again in 2008 in Philadelphia, [email protected]. especially by going against our group with a very large number of participants Participants need not be present at dictates telling the artistic among us not from the international scene, including exhibitions, they may be anonymous or to be the way we were created. Pretty multiple works by various artists, and a use a pseudonym, and may send a jpeg much in my group the notion was that ‘Wall of Pain’ of literary contributions. attachment of the work. All rights are anything you wanted or liked was likely Three musicians shared their cult-related retained by the artist. Hopefully we can to be the opposite of what ‘God’ wanted compositions with us as well. help others to understand some of the for you, so one was always enjoined to The Phoenix Project will take place realities of cult affiliation.. step away from what was desired, and to again this year at the ICSA embrace that which was not. conference outside of NYC in early July, and is again looking Q Do you find the production of the for works by ex-members or About the author art, how you feel while making it, is of those raised in cults, which will Michael Wolloghan is a member of the more importance than its final form? help to shed light on the life of NSW committee of Australian Skeptics cult and ex-cult members and and an investigator of cults and strange A No - really not. For me art is about their recovery. religions. 0331 a r t i c l e s Spiritualism Houdini & the Hoaxers Harry Houdini, communicating with spirits? And at right, communicating with Spiritualism Harry Houdini was more than a famous supporter Sir Arthur Conan Do yle. magician; he was also a famous debunker of following their first meeting in 1920, Spiritualists and their supporters, including his friend, with each professing an admiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Russell Bauer reports. the other’s talents. Conan Doyle had lost his son Kingsley to pneumonia during the war, while hen asked why he wasn’t content turned to alleged psychics for comfort, Jean Doyle (his second wife) was still Wwith merely being a stage with messages from dead soldiers being recovering from the death of her own magician, Harry Houdini is reported to something of a specialty among the brother during the Battle of Mons. The have replied, “Shake any tree in America, soothsayers of this era. The repertoire Doyles turned to some of London’s most and fifteen magicians fall out.” By the of tricks used by mediums changes popular ‘mediums’ to receive not only time Houdini turned 50, he would have generationally, and usually mirrors messages from the grave, but updated thought the same thing about psychics and advances in technology. While modern family photographs. mediums operating in New York City. practitioners favour digital apparatus for Over time, Jean Doyle discovered that The man who was born Ehrich Weiss ‘electronic voice phenomena’ and ‘orb she had an ability to sit in front of large went on to become an escapologist, photography’, psychics in pre-Depression sheets of butcher’s paper and write down author, magic researcher, historian, film America were producing ghostly messages words that floated in and out of her producer, actor and pilot. Most people on chalkboards and slates, while spirit subconscious thoughts - this skill became would assume that his greatest aerial photographers were ‘capturing’ the faces known as ‘automatic writing’, and helped achievement involved escaping the bonds of dead relatives (which always bore a cement Sir Arthur’s belief in all things of a strait-jacket while suspended upside- striking resemblance to studio portraits connected to Spiritualism. down twenty storeys from the ground, and were invariably shrouded by smoke, So it was that, in 1922, the Scottish- but Houdini was actually the first person fog or gossamer cloth). But for the born author and the Hungarian-born to make a powered flight in Australia world’s most accomplished illusionist, magician began sharing their particular (this year marks the 100th anniversary of these were mere parlour tricks which beliefs in the afterlife, with Conan Doyle his flight at Digger’s Rest in Victoria). Houdini replicated easily and often. inviting Houdini to join them at their Three years later (in 1913) it would be While public debunkings of scam hotel suite in Atlantic City, near the end the death of his beloved mother Cecilia operators was to become something of of a lecture-tour that the author had been that would have Harry searching beyond a pastime for Houdini in the final years conducting through the United States. the restrictions of earth’s gravity, and of his life, in the decade immediately During the now infamous sitting questioning what mysteries lay beyond following the death of his mother a (which would mark the beginning of a the ultimate ‘great unknown’. friendship flourished between himself strained relationship between the two With the coming of the First World and England’s most vocal advocate for men) the medium chose to begin by War, belief in spiritualism began to the Spiritualist movement, Sir Arthur drawing a large cross - the universal flourish worldwide (but particularly Conan Doyle. The men maintained symbol of Christianity - in the centre across America) as grieving families a correspondence across the Atlantic of her writing paper, while offering a 32 The Skeptic June 10

prayer. Houdini’s mother, Cecilia, was move across the paper, writing the name Houdini ... with music Jewish, but nevertheless allegedly made “POWELL” in large, easy-to-read letters. enowned Australian poet, an appearance (courtesy of Lady Doyle’s Sir Arthur was beside himself. He told RBruce Dawe, and Queensland spirit guide, Pheneas) and proceeded to Houdini that only that same week, he musician and composer, Russell compose her thoughts using the King’s had learned of the sudden passing of his Bauer, have written a new musical, English. When Houdini pointed out dear friend, Ellis Powell, and that surely Houdini: the Man from Beyond, in that his mother could speak barely three the appearance of his name must have celebration of Houdini’s life. The words in English, this fact was summarily been evidence enough that Powell’s spirit musical follows Houdini’s final and dismissed by Sir Arthur, who informed was working through Houdini’s own most successful years, from his his now-suspicious friend that languages hand. Harry would explain months later history-making powered flight over knew no barriers in the spirit realm. (in a letter to Conan Doyle) that he had Australia through some of his most At one point during the séance, instead been thinking of his own friend, famous stunts and to his legendary Houdini was invited to pose a question Eugene Powell, who had been struggling showdowns with spiritualists. to the spirits who were ‘controlling’ Lady financially (and with his health) on the Doyle’s hand, to which he asked what, if day of the Atlantic City meeting. Date: August 20, 21, 27 and 28 (eve) anything, was special about the particular Why had Houdini chosen to write and 22, 25 and 29 (matinees). day on which the session was taking place. anything at all? The most likely answer is Venue: University of Southern Harry Houdini, communicating with spirits? Unable to inform her son that it was, in that he was trying to show that automatic Queensland Arts Theatre, And at right, communicating with Spiritualism fact, Cecilia’s birthday, Houdini’s doubts writing, if not purely fabricated in a Toowoomba campus supporter Sir Arthur Conan Do yle. in the abilities of Jean Doyle were almost manner to deceive, is nothing more than Bookings: USQ Artsworx box office, the dictating of thoughts and images 07 4631 1111, or www.boxoffice. that pass through one’s mind while in a usq.edu relaxed state. With the friendship now scuttled irreparably, each man took turns to send her entire face or, on other occasions, letters to major newspapers, proclaiming appeared from regions south of her naval. that the other was in denial of what Houdini relished the challenge that she had really happened on that day in the presented, and persuaded the magazine Doyles’ hotel suite. Houdini decided to abandon any talk of awarding the prize to devote the rest of his life to publicly to the Crandons on the grounds that he denouncing mediums and psychics as was able to replicate all of the phenomena frauds, even agreeing in 1924 to sit on that took place during the sessions. The a panel of investigators organised by usually-demure Margery left Houdini with Scientific American. a threat to send her friends to beat him A precursor to James Randi’s million- up should he choose to embarrass her on- dollar prize, the magazine put up a stage during any of her demonstrations. bounty of several thousand pounds for Although she continued to practise as any psychics passing a series of tests. a psychic, she pushed her luck a little too While most hopefuls were debunked by far when she began to produce ‘ghostly Houdini in the first few minutes of being handprints’ in hot wax during her investigated, he was to find a tougher séances; investigators for a Boston centre opponent in the form of Margery ‘Mina’ of psychical research determined that the confirmed. With the sharpened response Crandon, wife of a prominent Boston prints belonged to Margery’s dentist. of a mystery writer, Conan Doyle assured doctor. The paranormal world was The threat to give Houdini a sound his younger colleague that there were no abuzz with the talk of a woman who beating was never carried out. However, birthdays on the other side; it seems that had progressed from mere flashes of the Spiritualists of America claimed spirits only celebrate their ‘death’ days. psychic intuition to full-blown displays something of a victory when, within only Had the séance ended there, the of toppling tables, the mysterious ringing a few years of the initial Margery tests, Doyles may have simply resigned of electronic bell-boxes, the voice of Houdini died suddenly from a ruptured themselves to the fact that Houdini was a long-dead brother and the appendix on Halloween, October not buying into their beliefs, and given production of rubbery-looking 31, 1926. He was 52 years old.. up the notion that they might ever ‘extra’ limbs that she termed convert the celebrated escape-artist to the ‘pseudopods’ (which tended About the author world of Spiritualism. However, before to resemble off-cuts from the Russell Bauer is a lecturer at the Lady Jean had a chance to pack up her local butcher), and which could University of Southern Queensland and tools of the telekinetic trade, the magician emanate from her nostrils co-author and composer of the musical, took a pencil and allowed his hand to and ears, sometimes covering Houdini: The Man From Beyond. 33 a r t i c l e s Alternative medicine The oo of ellness Loretta Marron opens the door to wellness centres, and finds that despite some good intentions there are also some very strange approaches.

rom that shock of their initial Australians are happy to admit that Fdiagnosis to the completion of their they trust her1. We have followed her last scheduled treatment, cancer patients well-publicised adventures most of our put their lives on hold. OnW an emotional lives, watching the shy teenager in those rollercoaster ride they may have feelings early days when she was a TV songstress of confusion, anger, grief and despair, so who bravely entertained the troops in for many of them, when the treatment is Vietnam, to her work today. Over the over, it is difficult to know where to place years we have basked with Australian recently married John Easterling, who is those first faltering steps into their new pride in the glow of her well-deserved the CEO of the US-based Amazon Herb life after cancer. For the lucky ones, it can career successes and we continue to Company, a successful herbal remedies be a speedy journey along a smooth road share in the ups and downs of her many business. Easterling has his own to recovery, but for others a little help real-life dramas. In more recent times, objectives for the wellness centre which can make a bigW difference. For those who we have followed her battle with cancer is to “incorporate and showcase leading can’t be cured, it is a time of preparation and we continue to be delighted at the natural protocols that help influence and comfort. success of her treatment. healing responses in the body”4. ‘Wellness’ centres can have an After Olivia recovered from breast Australians are still mourning the important role in helping cancer patients cancer, she worked tirelessly to raise loss of Professor Chris O’Brien. He during and after their treatments, but funds for a ‘wellness’ centre which will was a household name for many of us most of them leave be part of the who regularly watch RPA (Royal Prince the door open to Austin Hospital, Alfred Hospital, NSW), a case-centred quackery. Two “ Vitamins and supple- Victoria. She has medical program where, for over a new Australian ments complicate cancer already raised decade, he was often seen treating his ‘Wellness’ centres over $2 million patients. During his career O’Brien, a attached to treatments and can make by organising a neck and head surgeon, had conducted hospitals are due drugs ineffective or toxic 21-day trek along over 4000 operations to remove other for completion ” the Great Wall of people’s tumours. Tragically in 2006, early next decade. China where she he was diagnosed with a terminal brain We are now well into the 21st century so was joined by many celebrities2. When tumour and he died in 2009. He was shouldn’t they only be offering evidence- interviewed on the ABC TV’s Talking honoured with an Order of Australia based care? Heads program, she stated that her (OA) and a state funeral. His family Olivia Newton-John is undeniably vision was to have “homeopathy, herbs, continue to raise funds for the centre and justifiably a popular Aussie super massage, acupuncture, meditation & that will bear his name. star. Loved by all, year after year, spirituality”3 under one roof. Olivia During his treatment, when 34 The Skeptic June 10

interviewed on Channel 9’s 60 Minutes, The consortium selected to conduct symptom control, very little is said O’Brien stated that he had become the study was led by a team of about the implausibility of some CAM “a big believer in complementary pharmacologists who run the Adverse therapies that defy the laws of physiology, and alternative treatment”5. While he Medicines Events (AME) Line15, a free physics and chemistry and the growing continued to have his conventional service operated by the Mater Hospital, body of scientific evidence that continues therapy, he also chose to be treated by Queensland, where both consumers and to confirm the failure of these therapies a naturopath. He was having a “special health professionals can report problems when tested. The BCNA website makes form of electrical acupuncture”6 which with all drugs, including prescription no attempts to discourage the CAMs that was supposed to energise him. He spent medication and herbal remedies. The do not provide any benefits over placebo many hours practising transcendental team consisted of 20 complementary such as homeopathy, reiki, reflexology meditation, was on a “very strict diet medicines experts and a host of other of fruit and vegetable juices with from across implausible therapies. many vitamin supplements” including Australia including “ Only interventions for Rather, it states that “selenium, evening primrose oil, representatives which a good evidence “for some of these omega-3 oil and an antioxidant called from the treatments, there is glutathione”. He also took homeopathic University of base exists will be evidence that they remedies. Queensland, offered” - LifeHouse are effective and for You can also find a reference to him Bond University spokesperson others there is either on Ian Gawler’s website where there is a (evidence-based conflicting evidence photo of him alongside this controversial medicine), or more research alternative cancer therapist7. naturopaths and consumers. While is required to make claims about their Any drug that can change the way the recommended resources have been benefits”. your body works, whether prescription listed on the NPS website, they include Local cancer support groups follow or complementary, comes with risks. subscription websites. But with no their lead and poor quality information According to Professor Ian Olver, funding available, over a year after the and inappropriate advice continues to head of the Cancer Council of completion of the study sadly these sites be provided on a regular basis to these Australia8, vitamins and supplements remain inaccessible to the general public. vulnerable patients throughout Australia. complicate cancer treatments and “can It is not just high profile cancer In the UK, cancer centres offer change the way the body metabolises patients who are promoting inappropriate homeopathy, sound healing and many other drugs and either makes those complementary and alternative therapies other implausible treatments. In the drugs ineffective or makes them and medicines (CAM). Breast Cancer US, even the Memorial Sloan-Kettering toxic”. Other research has shown that Network Australia (BCNA) frequently Cancer Centre, considered the gold antioxidant supplements have no invites alternative therapists, including standard in wellness centres, offers preventative effect on cancer but actually naturopaths, to their conferences. With courses on reiki17 and reflexology which increases the risk of bladder cancer9. an attitude of “as long as it does no are now well-known to be disproven, Patients with heart disease treated harm, why not have it?” and stating that placebo therapies. with folic acid plus vitamin B12 were complementary therapies and medicines also “associated with increased cancer “can be a good option”16, cancer patients outcomes and all-cause mortality”10 and are being given advice at these BCNA high dose vitamin A supplements can conferences, that may well waste their “increase the risk of lung cancer”. Also time and money and that has the “some other vitamins and minerals may potential to compromise or delay their also be harmful”.11 treatments. Selenium does not cure cancer and While a small number of there is no evidence that it can “reduce complementary therapies such as side effects of chemotherapy, radiotherapy massage, tai chi, yoga, painting and music or the effects of surgery in cancer are proven to help some cancer patients, patients”12 and some misguided cancer after decades of research and many patients have taken it with tragic results13. millions of dollars spent on high quality Professor Edzard Ernst is the editor In early 2009, to help consumers make clinical trials there is good evidence now in chief of Focus on Alternative and informed decisions on their choices of available on the effectiveness, or lack of Complementary Therapies18, a quarterly complementary medicines, the National it, of many heavily promoted therapies review journal that aims to present the Prescribing Service (NPS)14 announced and remedies which is never mentioned evidence on CAM in an “analytical the completion of a six month study to by the speakers at the BCNA conferences and impartial manner”. He is also the identify appropriate resources that can and continues to be ignored by them. world’s first Professor of Complementary be used by both health professionals and While most people use CAM to Medicine from the University of consumers “with confidence”. improve their quality of life and for Exeter in the UK. Ernst is so respected 35 a r t i c l e s Alternative medicine

6. The Australian, Living with cancer: A surgeon’s story, February 25, 2008 http://www.theaustralian. The Woo com.au/news/health-science/living-with-cancer-a- surgeons-story/story-e6frg8y6-1111115636776 7. Professor Chris O’Brien & Dr Ian Gawler on of Wellness the Conversation Hour , Gawler Foundation Media http://gawlerfoundationmedia.com. Continued... au/2008/05/27/prof-chris-obrien-dr-ian-gawler- on-the-conversation-hour/ 8. Vitamin Supplements Complicate Cancer, ABC that in 2007 he was invited by the News, November 21, 2009 http://www.abc.net. Complementary Health Care Council au/news/stories/2009/11/21/2749582.htm (CHC) to speak at their Sponsor 9. Antioxidant supplements raise risk of bladder Obligations Conference19. A representative from LifeHouse said cancer (Annals of Oncology, doi:10.1093/annonc/ When asked about wellness centres, that “there will be in place a robust mdp286/). Ernst recently stated that “centres offering credentialing process for individuals 10. JAMA, Cancer Increase and Mortality after interventions to improve the length and and their disciplines” and that “only treatment with Folic acid and Vitamin B12 quality of survival of cancer patients have interventions for which a good November 18, 2009 http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/ a duty of care to ensure that what they evidence base exists will be offered”. A content/abstract/302/19/2119 offer is evidence-based.” In relation to representative from Austin Health said 11. Cancerhelp, UK Vitamin Supplements, Smoking disproven therapies, he added that he that “cancer therapies must be based and Lung Cancer Risk http://www.cancerhelp. would caution “against the inclusion of on evidence” and that they are “actively org.uk/about-cancer/cancer-questions/vitamin- reiki, reflexology and homeopathy in involved in implementing evidence- supplements-smoking-and-lung-cancer-risk any centre that is striving for effective based care”. 12. Selenium supplements for alleviating the side healthcare”. Despite these reassuring words, effects of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and His statements are backed up by without an appropriate code of conduct surgery in cancer patients http://www.cochrane. Professor Michael Baum, whose research and with ongoing pressure from their org/reviews/en/ab005037.html into tamoxifen “has contributed to respective financial donors and from 13. eMJA Accidental death from acute selenium the 30 per cent fall in breast cancer many pushy misguided CAM supporters, poisoning. http://www.mja.com.au/public/ mortality”20. In May 2006 he led I am yet to be convinced. . issues/185_07_021006/see10169_fm.html a campaign calling for a 14. National Prescribing Service, March 16, homeopathy boycott21. In a 2009 http://nps.org.au/news_and_media/ letter published in The Times, media_releases/repository/Highest_quality_ About the author supported by leading scientists complementary_medicines_resources_identified and his medical colleagues, Loretta Marron – the “Jelly Bean Lady” 15. Adverse Medicines Events Line, Reporting he stated that homeopathy is – is a crusader against quackery, as well as problems with medicines http://www.mater.org. “an implausible treatment for winner of the 2007 Australian Skeptic of au/ame/ which over a dozen systematic the Year award. 16. Breast Cancer Network Australia http://www.bcna. reviews have failed to produce org.au/content/view/386/407/ convincing evidence of effectiveness”. 17. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, Reiki When asked about the inclusion of References Professional Workshop http://www.mskcc.org/ unproven or disproven CAM in wellness 1. Readers Digest, Australia’s Most Trusted People mskcc/html/58341.cfm?EventView=details&EventT centres, Baum said that “It is unethical http://www.readersdigest.com.au/content/ ype=&CategoryID=all&SelectedDate=10%2F16%2 for modern medical practitioners to printContent.do?contentId=76692 F2009&EventID=5526 sink to this kind of deception that 2. ABC News, Olivia Newton-John to trek Great Wall 18. Pharmaceutical Press, Focus on Alternative denies the patient his autonomy. ... I for charity, Feb 20, 2009 http://www.abc.net. and Complementary Therapies http://www. have little doubt that we share the same au/news/stories/2008/02/20/2167636.htm pharmpress.com/shop/journals.asp?sitelanguage= motives and compassion for our fellow 3. Talking Heads, transcript, Olivia Newton-John, July &pagetype=&cid=27 citizens at the time of their sickness and 13, 2009 http://www.abc.net.au/tv/talkingheads/ 19. CHC News September 2007, Tackling the Burden vulnerability, but promoting placebos txt/s2617909.htm of Disease September 19, 2007 www.chc.org. above the milk of human kindness will 4. The Great Walk to Beijing, John Easterling au/view/document.shtml?r33063-yvlwkiy not help your cause.” http://live.greatwalktobeijing.com/index. 20. Wikipedia, Emeritus Professor Michael Baum I have been given assurances from php?act=walker&wID=7792 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Baum health professionals from both RPA 5. Sixty Minutes, Never say die, Chris O’Brien’s Story, 21. Times letter, Use of Alternative Medicines in the and Austin Health that their wellness April 29, 2007 http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com. NHS, May 19, 2006 http://www.senseaboutscience. centres will only provide evidence- au/webchats/269920/never-say-die-chris-obriens- org.uk/PDF/Baum%20letter.pdf based complementary cancer therapies. story 36 PUZZLES The Skeptic June 10

Across Brain testers 1. Creepy places for domesticated spirits. (7,6) cryptic crossword no 6 9. An ogre alarm I ring if it’s too much running around. (10) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10. Put your moniker on the indication. (4) 12. Osmium found overseas (1,1) 13. 9 10 With sulphur it needs cleaning, which is something you must do. (4) 11 14. Talismen for what seems to be the last emu. (7) 12 13 14 16. I’d contract to change it, but it would go against 15 everything I’ve said. (10) 18. 16 17 18 Michelle Obama is not the First Lady. (3) 20. Has been wood but is no longer. (3) 19 21. In spite I can’t turn to fight infection, but it could 20 21 22 almost be against me. (10) 23 24. Ruler as per Rome. (7) 24 25 26 25. Are these Charles’ emanations? (4) 26. Beryllium exists! (2) 27 28. The bad are not vile. (4) 28 29 30 29. Global conspirators caught in the spotlight? (10) 31 32. Conservatives fill up with the necessary ingredients for 32 the job. (3,5,5)

Tim Mendham + Steve Roberts Down 1. Fear of hot or right alternative. (6) PUZZLES In honour of Martin Gardner (1915-2010) 2. Encourage the surgeon to exhort his son. (4) On a clock with sweep hour, minute and second hands: 3. Thanks, must include article for this major event. (3,4) A. How many times does the minute hand pass over the hour hand 4. There’s something fishy about this anti-vaxer. (5) between midday and midnight? 5. The good info on fossil fuel? (3) B. All three hands overlap at 12:00 - is there another time when all 6. Senior sort of strontium. (2) three hands overlap? C. If the clock stops, at least it is accurate twice a day. Can it be accurate 7. The genius’s ire is strange and unique. (3,7) more often than that? 8. And on the left, the evil act tries to be evil. (8) + Define the value of 26 algebraic numbers a...z as pi raised to the 11. Religious group reaches one hundred, at last. (4) powers 1,2,3,4 ... 26. What is the value of the expression 14. Something wrong with a girl. (5) (x-a)(x-b)(x-c)....(x-y)(x-z)? 15. Direct direction for the headland. (2,3,5) 17. Don’t change the votive table. (5) trivia quiz 19. There’s no foundation for such false claims. (8) 1. What was Lord Kelvin trying to do when he discovered the 21. Heard to be an alternative to a circling light. (4) principle of convection of heat? 22. Psych is nothing like a science that matters. (7) 2. When Isaac Newton hit upon the principle of gravity, he was a 23. Your religion would give a false impression that is student at Trinity College, Cambridge. Why was he sitting under strong. (6) an apple tree in his father’s orchard, when he was supposed to be at 25. university? You’re not even uncultured! (5) 3. What was Bob Dylan doing while he composed the epic song Sad 27. Can you bat? Are you up to it? I thought it was Eyed Lady of the Lowlands? forbidden. (4) 30. Would I lie about a garland? (3) Answers on page 61 31. Man made of helium! (2) 0337 a r t i c l e Medical Science Term of life Chris Borthwick looks into the so-called persistent vegetative state, and notes that the definition is often used

here has recently been a number be, anyway? Well, it’s another bit of Tof cases, mainly from Belgium, evidence that the public view of this area where people who have been diagnosed was set pretty much once and for all knew they couldn’t be conscious, you as being in a vegetative state have shown when the original name was suggested didn’t look for consciousness, and you signs of conscious communication. See, by doctors Jennet and Plum back in weren’t going to find it. for example, Monti et al in the New 1972. Which is hardly surprising, The stats were always pretty dicey, England Journal of Medicine (www. because the needs that called forth the and a number of studies over the years nejm.org February 3, 2010 (10.1056/ definition in the first place are still just showed that, for example, recovery NEJMoa0905370)). as vivid. rates went up by 15 per cent if you It’s worth glancing at the way this We don’t want to think that people employed the extraordinary diagnostic development is being reported because are undergoing unimaginable suffering, technique of having a new doctor it shows up relatively clearly the way and we listen without any great pressure walking through the ward looking at that medical research is interpreted (by of skepticism when someone tells us that the patients concerned. The final straw both laypeople and medical scientists) they aren’t. We don’t want to pull the was, or should have been, the study by in ways that fit into pre-existing slots in plug on someone who’s still conscious, Andrews et al (1996). This was reported our beliefs. and we listen without any great pressure as saying that 40 per cent of the people The report on theNEJM study in of skepticism when someone tells us that in the study had been misdiagnosed as the New York Times, for example, begins we’re not. Jennet and Plum told us that PVS when they weren’t. This was true “This week, theNew England Journal the diagnosis was immutable, insentient, enough, but it rather underplayed the of Medicine reports on a fascinating incurable, and unmistakeable, and that situation. On top of that 40 per cent, study involving a car accident victim was what we wanted to believe. We have another 35 per cent of the original who remains in a persistent vegetative no motive to probe deeper into the data, cohort recovered communication later. state [PVS]. Using magnetic resonance and we don’t. In total, three out of every four people imaging technology, The evidence in with diagnoses of PVS were eventually doctors have front of Jennet and able to communicate. PVS should at been able to The stats were always Plum wasn’t very that stage have been an ex-diagnosis. communicate with “ strong, and they No such luck, and the Schiavo him.” pretty dicey. Recovery rates didn’t pretend that case came along to show us why. You’d have to be went up by 15% if a new it was – “the criteria Particularly in America, this became a PVS tragic like me needed to establish caught up in the Liberal/Conservative to notice that the doctor walked through the that prediction [of (Secular/Religious) struggle. Liberals New York Times uses ward looking at patients irrecoverability] believed that conservatives were using the term ‘persistent ” reliably have still Terri Schiavo as a right-to-life proxy vegetative state’. to be confirmed and opposed them instinctively. This That particular term has been out of …. [and] Exactly how long such a state involved them in saying that Ms Schiavo favour in the professional community must persist before it can be confidently should have been allowed to die. since at least 1996, and since then declared permanent will have to be There are, of course, a number of researchers generally follow the usage determined by careful prospective good arguments for decisions such as of the Royal College of Physicians studies.” this. You can believe that such a life (RCP) (1996) which refers only to The statistical problem here was that might well be thought worse than death. the “vegetative state”, the “continuing the number and proportion of people You can believe that resource allocation vegetative state”, and the “permanent diagnosed with PVS who recovered is an issue. You can believe that the vegetative state”. consciousness depended, among other people closest to Ms Schiavo should be Why is it in the least important things, on how many people with PVS allowed to make the decision. However, whether PVS means “permanent had their plugs pulled, and once it had all those arguments are complicated and vegetative state” or “persistent vegetative been authoritatively put forward that uncertain and involve not only the risk state”, I hear you ask? Just how accurate these people were never going to recover of looking heartless or even murderous do you expect a busy journalist to that number could only go up. If you but the unsettling possibility of not 38 The Skeptic June 10

Rather, new technology has forced us to recognise that the evidence was never there in the first place. It’s also worth us skeptics asking ourselves, what other as yet unrefuted aspects of medicine may also have been distorted in this way by societal assumptions, and worth reflecting that the words “Science being utterly in now bringing the issue back into says….” and “Medicine says….” are the right. How much contention, and it will be interesting sometimes simply a rephrasing of “What simpler to say that Ms Schiavo to see what direction the debate I’d like to believe is….”. . had no consciousness, would never takes from now on. I’ll believe we’re recover consciousness, and could be making progress when both permanent For the references to this article, and disregarded as a factor – simpler and vegetative state and persistent vegetative for further discussion, see my article more self-reassuring, which is why that state give way to the NH&MRC’s in Neurorehabilitation (Borthwick position was adopted. suggested ‘post-coma unresponsiveness’. CJ, Crossley R., Permanent vegeta- My view, for what little it is worth, It is still worth noting, though, that tive state: usefulness and limits of a is that the deeper questions should for at least thirty-five years the vast prognostic definition. NeuroReha- arise only when all efforts to establish bulk of the medically-educated world bilitation.2004;19(4):381-9), online communication have failed. With has believed in an immutable, at http://home.vicnet.net. Ms Schiavo, they were hardly tried. If insentient, incurable and au/~borth/Neurorehabpvs. we knew what she wanted we might unmistakeable vegetative state, html. feel we wanted to override it – the something that now appears to conservatives would hardly have been be highly dubious. This is not About the author happy if she’d asked to die – but at a case where new technology Chris Borthwick works for Our least we’d know what we were doing. has uncovered evidence than Community, a support organisation for The Laurys team in Belgium is that previously unavailable. Australian not-for-profit groups.

3903 a r t i c l e Extraterrestrials Set to fail? Rex Newsome finds three problems with the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence – the search, the extraterrestrial and the intelligence.

by SETI enthusiasts may not be as by the system to whatever questions sustainable as they claim. In this article, they might put from those that would earch for Extra-terrestrial we will examine these assumptions. be given by a human. Basically, all SIntelligence, or SETI, is an intelligence tests are a kind of Turing test organisation that involves amateur What is intelligence? with the questions being put by paper and professional scientists in many But before we continue there are two or some other mode of communication. countries sweeping the sky for radio big questions to be considered: “What is However, whatever we accepted, pro signals emanating from outer space. intelligence?” and “What should we take tem, as an indication of ‘intelligence’, it SETI enthusiasts believe that somewhere as a sign of intelligence?” Many papers seems most possible that alien beings, if out in space among the billions of stars and books have been written in an such exist, could be intelligent in many in our galaxy there must be intelligent attempt to define intelligence, especially other ways than is a human, an animal beings that are at least as advanced as us recently in discussing how we might or computer. who will be generating radio signals that apply the term to animals and computer So our problem is “how do we judge bespeak of intelligence and, furthermore, systems. Psychologists tend to duck the if electromagnetic phenomena from that such intelligences may have the problem by defining intelligence simply outer space are a sign of intelligent desire to communicate with us. The as “what intelligence tests measure”. action?” Can we take signals that make SETI program sets out to detect and However, can such an approach assess a complex pattern as an indicator of identify such signals (if such exist!). the intelligence of an extraterrestrial ETI? Some time ago our hopes were The argument goes that if we assume being? “What is an orange?” and “Name raised by the reception of a series of that all things in our universe are four past presidents of our galaxy?” are even pulses from outer space. However, governed by the same physical laws and typical of questions that might be asked this was eventually identified as a chemical processes that govern us we in a typical local test. However, such pair of rapidly rotating binary stars. can reasonably expect that there will test items are hardly Could even more be many other planetary systems like applicable to an complex patterns our own that are capable of supporting extraterrestrial since “ What might look like be produced by and nourishing life forms. Assuming the items are language high intelligence may be a series of these that there are possibly millions of dependent and refer that happen to intelligence-sustaining worlds out there to things and events due to to circumstances line up with it seems reasonable to search the radio of our own Earthen external to the being sup- Earth? We can be spectrum for evidence that there is environment, and posed to be intelligent fooled, as when sentient, intelligent life out there beyond refer to ideas that are ” we first observed our solar system. peculiar to our way of that constantly While initially it may seem thinking and running affairs. repeating pattern that turned out to be improbable that other worlds could have Basically, what we appear to binary quasars. evolved life forms somewhat similar mean by ‘intelligence’ is that there is Sometimes we take ability to take to and compatible with ourselves, something unexpected or unpredictable part in interactive behaviour as a sign SETI enthusiasts argue that the huge about the way a system interacts with of intelligence, but such a procedure number of star systems similar to our environmental circumstances to bring also has problems. We can see stars own solar system that must be out there about outcomes we would call ‘smart’ interacting with each other and to reduces that improbability to virtual in human terms and which cannot be the sudden appearance of stray or certainty. While recent press releases by explained by mechanistic or systematic wandering celestial bodies. Could not cosmologists suggesting that there are processes. Alan Turing suggested that some observer, ignorant of Newtonian many more planets of similar size and one way of deciding if a computational gravitational mechanics, say that the composition to Earth appears to support system is a good simulation of human celestial body that adjusts its orbit to their argument, some of the assumptions intelligence is to ask if a jury can accommodate to a wandering intruder made either explicitly or implicitly discriminate between answers given is displaying intelligent interactive 40 The Skeptic June 10

behaviour? If we look, Left: We come in peace! we may even find signals The plaque placed on in the form of magnetic Pioneer 10 designed waves from that body to give information Set to fail? to aliens that humans that could be interpreted as saying, in effect, “I see are friendly. But would you and I am moving out aliens understand the of your way.” message? The plaque The difficulties of was designed by Carl defining intelligence Sagan and Frank Drake will not be laboured and drawn by Sagan’s further. But the fact ex-wife, Linda Sagan. that difficulties exist leaves the SETI project with problems of that are audible to us. exclusion and inclusion. Familiarity with these On one hand we environmental features may be restricting has conditioned our our perception of the thinking about things, possibilities far too and our ideas of what much by thinking may be possible. of intelligence in terms of our scales. It is within these tolerances that In stellar space, in contrast, many other own experience and limited terms we evolved more-or-less by a sequence of possibilities exist. Temperatures can be of reference. It would be ironic marvellous coincidences and accidents, from -273oC to millions of degrees, and indeed if we were to reject a signal each of which were of astronomical pressures can be from high vacuum to from a superbeing as unreadable improbability if we were waiting around, millions of kilopascals, or whatever, and garbage because of our own limited at any particular stage, for such a precise there are gravitational fields that would understanding of what constitutes set of events to happen. It is only because crush a steel cube into a minute dot. intelligence. And what to us might they did happen to happen that human While light is almost ubiquitous, look like high intelligence may be civilisation exists in its present form today. sound, in our terms, is not. Although we due entirely to circumstances external We humans can survive without primarily use sound and electromagnetic to the being that is supposed to be special devices such as space-suits only energy to communicate, there are other intelligent. if the temperature stays within about forms of radiated energy that could carry a 20 degree range, and if pressure does communications, eg gravity waves. Estimating the likelihood of ETI not vary much from 101 kilopascals and Assuming that each environmental We have been told by cosmologists that an atmosphere that is about 21 per cent space or aperture for an extraterrestrial, there must be billions of star systems in oxygen. Because our flora and fauna and regardless of form, would be of the universe that have planets of earth the total supporting wherewithal have approximately the same size as that we size. However, this does not necessarily all evolved more or less within the same have on Earth, we may gain a ballpark mean billions of earths with similar bounds, our own bodies have co-evolved estimate of the possible different forms environments and state of development. to work efficiently within these bounds that could exist by dividing each of How many of such would be likely and, by and large, only within these the seven or eight relevant dimensions to have a world of ETI beings that bounds. by aperture size. First, dividing the are at least sentient, curious about the We have also evolved sensitivities to total temperature range that exists in existence of possible neighbours and certain wavelengths of electromagnetic extraterrestrial space by 20, the range we have the capacity and technology to waves and to pressure waves that work can exist within, yields about 50,000 slots. communicate with us on our terms? best in the environment that has been (or, more conservatively, about 10,000 or Assuming that such worlds would have created within a very thin and peculiar 104 if we scale the slots proportionally). to have environments and supportive layer of atmosphere of this one special Summing over a similar division of the conditions somewhat similar to our planet which we call Earth. These seven or eight other dimensions yields own, we can estimate roughly the conditions have formed and guided the between 1011 to 1012 environmental proportion of planets that meet this way we and other animals move and niches in which a life form might requirement. communicate. We thus do not naturally conceivably evolve, or indeed could have We Earthlings live in an respond to electromagnetic radiation evolved. It is thus possible, if this analysis environmental space, or niche, that is outside the band of frequencies we call is near correct, that life forms could have remarkable in that it keeps within fairly light, or to pressure waves outside the developed in a way that is as various as close tolerances in terms of celestial 20 to 20,000Hz band of frequencies those found on Earth within each of the 4103 a r t i c l e Extraterrestrials

ourselves, to communicate it must have ETI, practicable communication Set to fail? developed to roughly the same stage as with such seems only possible within ourselves. Of the 400 million years our a limited envelope of space, say, out Continued... planet has had some higher life-form to about 15 light-years radius, for extant, we humans have only been to have any surety that the signal we 1011 or 1012 niches. around for less than one hundredth have picked up is indeed from an The question is that, of all these of that time, and had the ability to ETI we will need to perform at least possibilities, how many ETs could there communicate beyond Earth for about one ‘handshake’. That is, at least one be that would be compatible enough 1/100,000th part of that. Given that we message must pass each way for one with us to bridge the communications persevere with our search for another 60 party to know that a message has been gap? If we expect to be able to understand years before losing interest, as we surely interpreted correctly. The figure of messages from an alien intelligence, and will if we have no decent results, then 25 years arises for us because twice to communicate back perhaps, we will our search-time aperture will only be that, the time for our handshake need a fair degree of system compatibility 1/100,000th of our existence. If there to be confirmed, would be about with not only the alien signalling system, is at least one ETI world out there, the maximum working life of the but also the alien’s physical world, for we what are the chances of overlapping handshake sender. It seems unlikely will only be able to make sense of any endeavours to communicate? that successors to present senders would message if semantic references are similar Time has a further relevance in that be terribly interested in a handshake to ours. That is, the physical structure our signals relate to our attention transaction initiated a century or and constraints of their world and their span which, in turn relates to so before them, especially if the environmental referents will have to be our size and adaptation to next round was not expected reasonably like ours. If it is otherwise, our environment. We are to arrive until they themselves their signs and codes would have little or thus likely to attend only would be long gone. no meaning to us, and vice versa. to signal properties that A signal horizon of Considering that we are talking of fit within a human-sized about 25 years would 1011 to 1012 possible environmental attention span, that is, leave all but about niches that are each different in some those that modulate within 1/3000 millionth of way from our own, and mostly in very minutes or even, at best, the posited universe out big ways. Without limiting in any way an hour or so – a further of reach. This, of course, the possibility that any or all of the niches aperture limit which would cuts down the possibility could have developed intelligent systems, ignore a simple “hello” that of establishing contact with the number of niches that will have some takes a month to say. an extraterrestrial drastically. overlap with our own that will meet our However, if the considerations criteria will be small indeed! Restricting Distances discussed below are valid, it our survey to earth-size planets changes One further problem for SETI may be that it does not matter nothing, since that simply reduces the is the distance we must suppose anyway. number of candidate worlds. a signal must travel to reach us. While It thus can be argued that this some possible sources may be a matter Why bother saying hello? will drastically reduce the number of of a few light-years away, others are Except the possibility that in receiving a possible sources for SETI-type signals as far out as 15 billion light-years. If signal from outer space that is significant that would be in any way meaningful we did detect the arrival of a suitable of an intelligent sender is simply to us. Any sustainable arguments to complex signal, it could be that the eavesdropping on communication the effect that only few of these would signal was sent anywhere between four between parties that are known to each be appropriate and stable enough to or five decades and several billion years other, or the chance encounter with a develop intelligent forms would reduce ago. Without an agreed time code wandering alien ‘star trek’ ship, why that number even further. Thus, even if to peg the time of sending, we will would an alien being send a message there were ten billion - or 1010 give or have only our guesses as the age of the to us? For what purpose, or for what take a few orders of magnitude - solar message and its distance of origin. We motive would an alien wish to be systems out there, dividing through would then have the possibility that known, and possibly to communicate? with the niche estimates leaves very few the message sender, and perhaps even While humans seem to have an inbuilt candidate worlds indeed. the species, was long since extinct. desire to talk to each other, and even to Reception and eventual decoding of other animals, it is most possible that time such a message from a more distant this is just a peculiarity created by our A further consideration is that, even if source than, say, more than one own social evolution. Would or should there is a planet out there in space that hundred light-years away, would be a non-terrestrial intelligent life forms offers a similar environment to our own pyrrhic victory indeed. share this characteristic? and bears a life form comparable to Apart from mere detection of an The usual purpose of any 42 The Skeptic June 10

communication is to receive some a possible motive, our best option would catch must be very small but potentially return response that is meaningful - “I be to stay very quiet. One never reveals very dangerous. want you to do something,” or “Tell wealth to strangers who might then me something.” For example, “We are try to take it from you. Besides, how Trick or treat? about to demolish your planet to make would we handle meeting a being that Finally, if we do manage to detect, way for a hyperspace bypass. Please turns out to be vastly and intimidatingly and perhaps communicate with, an vacate it immediately” or “Do you have superior in intelligence than us? Would extraterrestrial, where does it leave us? a ... ?” One must they even bother If we do connect, it will mean that to wonder for what to be civil to us, or do so the ETI will have to be at least purpose someone “ For an ETI, there is sure simply step on us as advanced and as intelligent as us some tens of light- to be material sources like we do to ants? and, because the truncated Gaussian of years away may Colonisation possibilities are all on the greater than wish to exchange more readily to hand than raises problems side, the probability is very much biased communications on the third rock from a of environmental towards their being greater than ours in with us, even given small dying star compatibility again, both aspects. our world systems ” and of getting If it should turn out that they are are in some way here at any speeds about the same level in both, then, ho- compatible. short of that of light. Trade seems out hum, it would not be terribly exciting. If Exploration is one possible motive, for the same reasons. The immense they are more intelligent, or we suspect with a payoff in terms of materials, costs of interstellar or intergalactic that they are, then it is likely that we colonisation, or trade. While we have travel also puts all above motives for will not want to know that. Besides explored new worlds in the past for such communication into the very, very constituting a real threat to us to know purposes, these were on our own planet. unlikely bracket. that there is actually something out Contrary to the traditional stories about As to the eavesdrop possibility, while there that could make us seem mental sailors believing that they were in danger it may confirm our suspicion that we idiots, it would be an unbearable blow of sailing over the end of the earth, the are not alone in the universe, it would to our collective ego to discover that we principal explorers knew pretty well that be about as exciting as discovering from are not the superior beings we would whatever new lands they might discover hard listening outside our bedroom like to believe we are, but mere minor would be pretty much like back home. window that somewhere in the extensions of the ape species. In contrast, a would-be explorer neighbourhood there are people who As Stephen Hawking has recently several tens-of-light-years away would shout to each other in a language we suggested, we ought to be very, very have little idea of how our terrain might don’t understand. afraid indeed, especially if we consider be arranged, the extant geothermal This still leaves the possibility that just what we did as aliens landing in the conditions or of life-form possibilities, there are aliens that, like humans, have new world of South America. just as we, respectively, would have little this desire or curiosity to know if there Perhaps then, in essence, the SETI idea of their world. If they do happen to is anyone beyond their world that is as program is really an attempt to reify have some information from a returned intelligent as they, and who, moreover, our image of ourselves as the supreme space probe, because of the delay, it is wish to be friendly. No argument beings - apart from the Almighty - in the possible they may conclude that the against this can be offered here. If SETI intelligence stakes. The SETI project, I Earth is dominated by 20-metre-long enthusiasts have fun while exploring this suspect, is one we all secretly hope will things with long necks and vicious possibility it is their prerogative to do so. fail, and it could even be argued that the incisors, or by green slime. In any event, It has the added attraction way it has been conceptualised and set stepping between interstellar worlds of providing a mass of recorded up guarantees that it most surely will. . is considerably more difficult, and information on electromagnetic much more hazardous than is stepping radiation from outer space for scientific between continents on planet Earth for analysis. However, while friendliness to Editor’s Note: See the review of Prof Paul us, and for aliens. strangers is a cultural trait in humans, Davies’ recent book, The Eerie Silence, in Establishment of communication it may not be a universal one. The this issue. Davies chairs SETI’s Post-De- with Earthlings as a prelude to a possible chance of finding an alien having tection Taskgroup. expedition seems also an untenable such a human characteristic proposition. For any ETI at many is thus very open. While light-years remove, there is sure to be fishing in unknown waters an abundance of material sources more can result in a surprising and readily at hand than on the third rock exciting catch, in this case the About the author from a small, dying star, and one that is waters are very different from Rex Newsome lectured at the University not even visible from home base. If we anything we have found fish of Queensland on psychology. He has now were to suspect that material mining was in before and the prospect of a retired to another planet. 43 A R T I C L E Health Sweet Reason — a response David Gillespie responds to Chris Forbes-Ewan’s comments on his book, Sweet Poison.

y book Sweet Poison is a plain Chris’ first concern thathe MEnglish guide to the biochemistry deemed “worth checking” (more of how fructose (one half of table sugar) than a quarter of the waythrough is killing us. The book traces the history the book) was that I hadmisreport- more complete and more recent human of our state of knowledge about our ed a 1985 fructose feeding study conducted trials and I’ve mentioned some of them in metabolism of sugars. After detailed by the United States Department of the postscript below. examination of the research, it concludes Agriculture (USDA). The study -Indices Chris then claimed to have found a raft that there is strong evidence that: of copper status in humans consuming a of studies, which he says I didn’t mention, • The fructose half of sugar has a unique typical American diet containing either suggesting fructose was actually beneficial. metabolic pathway that results in the fructose or starch - was abandoned on The studies he discovered were a line of immediate creation of circulating fat ethical grounds because after 11 weeks, research first started in 1976 by Phyllis and uric acid; four of the participants developed heart Crapo, discussed on pages 59 and 60 • Among other things, the fat results problems. Chris says copper deficiency of the book. Crapo had discovered that in severe dysfunction of our appetite caused the problems, not fructose. fructose, unlike glucose, does not produce control system which can in turn lead The USDA researchers had been an insulin response. She speculated that to weight gain; and studying the effect of copper on rats for a might make it a good choice for Type II • The cumulative effects of increased few years. They had observed significant Diabetics. circulating fat and elevated uric acid pathologies produced by fructose feeding, Her research and that of those that include (at the very least), Type II including severe cardiac abnormalities. followed her (in the papers that Chris Diabetes, Heart Disease, hypertension, Fructose seemed to interfere with copper ‘found’) showed that diabetic patients stroke, fatty liver disease, kidney disease metabolism to such an extent that it did indeed enjoy a better glycemic and even some forms of cancer. caused often fatal enlargement of the response after a meal if their food had But Chris Forbes-Ewan has criticised heart and liver. been sweetened with fructose rather than my books and its contents on boththe The researchers obtained permission normal sugar. ABC’s Ockham’s Razor and in The Skeptic to repeat the experiments with humans, The American Diabetic Association (30:1, p14). He has decidedthat he doesn’t but the study was stopped early because (ADA) was so impressed by the work need to understand the bio-chemistry in of the heart related incidents. Even so, that in 1984 it recommended diabetic order to critically review it. the authors felt confident that the same patients use fructose instead of sugar. But On my blog (www.raisin-hell.com), effect had been observed in humans in the decades that followed, an increasing Chris was asked what he thought of before abandonment. In the abstract they volume of research (documented in the these conclusions above. His answer was say: “These results suggest that the type book) showed that fructose was directly illuminating. He said “The main reason of dietary carbohydrate fed [fructose or responsible for creating circulating fats for not answering immediately is that I starch] can differentially affect indices of that are significantly implicated as a cause simply don’t know the correct answer. It copper status in humans.” of Type II Diabetes. These discoveries led is 40 years since I studied biochemistry So I guess you’re right, Chris. Copper the ADA to quietly reverse its position. In formally, and I haven’t kept up with the did cause the problems. That, after all, was 2002, the ADA said that added fructose literature enough to be in a position to the point of the study. But it’s also clear should be completely avoided because give an expert opinion.” Notwithstanding that this was only because the subjects of the observed effect on plasma lipids that the vast majority of the book was were fed fructose. (circulating fat). apparently opaque to Chris, he managed All of that aside, it’s an abandoned So, yes, there is research that shows to find some points of contention which study from 1985 and I never suggest it’s that fructose has a lower glycemic index he raised in the article. probative of anything. There are much than sugar, but even the ADA now 44 The Skeptic June 10

there is currently 63.55kg of cane sugar I don’t know if we are eating exactly one available for consumption per person per per cent more every year after 1988, and year in Australia. Not all of that is going to nobody else does either, but whatever the get to our mouth, but even assuming 30 true number is, it’s likely to be a lot more Sweet Reason per cent doesn’t (the Australian Bureau of than Chris and Rosemary’s estimate (0 per Statistics uses 20 per cent but the USDA cent). I guess the other explanation might — uses 30 per cent), consumption should be that some miracle occurred in 1989. a response be at least 44.5 kg per annum each, We uncoupled ourselves from the US for every man, woman and child. trends (which kept climbing at a similar After we add fructose from fruit rate all the way up to the present) and juice, honey and fruit juice concentrate stopped eating more each year, but still got - increasingly used instead of sugar significantly fatter by some other means. - we are well over 50kg of sugar or Magic, perhaps? sugar equivalent per person per year. Chris has admitted he has no The fructose half of this equates to 16.4 per understanding of the primary biochemical cent of the recommended adult male’s diet concepts discussed in Sweet Poison and of 2000 calories per day or 18.2 per cent of it’s clear that he’s misguided on even the acknowledges that questionable an adult female diet of 1800 calories. That’s things he thinks he understands. So why benefit is far outweighed by the other a lot more than the “6-7 per cent” Chris would he presume to critically review potential downsides of consuming it. calculates. Sweet Poison? Chris then skipped straight to the But even if he were absolutely right, it Thankfully he takes the time to explain notes section of the book for the only wouldn’t change my argument one little that conundrum. He says his employer, other error he detected. As a small aside I bit. Unlike Chris, I don’t believe (and the Defence Science and Technology mentioned that the International System there is no credible research to suggest) Organisation, has been providing ration of Units’ (SI Unit) measure of energy that there is any safe level of fructose packs with “relatively large quantities can be derived from Einstein’s famous consumption beyond that which is of [sugar] ... If Gillespie’s claim ... is not equation E=mc2. contained in two pieces of fruit per day. challenged, then DSTO could be accused It’s not an important point, which Chris asked Rosemary Stanton to weigh of poisoning every ADF member” Well yes is why it’s in the notes. It’s just a little in when it came to shooting down my Chris, that’s right - what good lawyering. tid-bit on how the unit which we know outrageous claim that we are all eating But saying it isn’t so won’t change the as a Joule, the metric equivalent of a more of everything and she obliged with science, no matter how much you or your calorie, can be derived. Clearly I needed “there is no evidence for an increase [in employer want it to. . to explain it more plainly, because Chris, calorie intake] among adults”. with all his talk of howling nuclear And, in a way, Rosemary is right. There POSTSCRIPT reactors, appears to have completely is no recent data on what Australians • Johnson, R.K., et al. 2009. Dietary misunderstood it. actually eat. But there’s some prettygood Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Having demolished all my shoddy circumstantial evidence. In 1980, twoin five Health: A Scientific Statement from science (well, at least the bits he thinks he Australian adults were either overweight or the American Heart Association. understood), Chris moved on to some obese. By 2008, only two in five weren’t. Circulation 2009;120;1011- other things I said in my Ockham’s Razor In just 28 years the number of people with 1020. DOI: 10.1161/ presentation (in July last year). I said a weight problem increased by over 50 CIRCULATIONAHA.109.192627 we are all eating way more sugar than per cent. While that’s not strictly evidence • Stanhope, K.L., et al. 2009. we should. As a result we are all eating of increasing food consumption, that’s an Consuming fructose-sweetened, much more food than we have in the awful lot of lard to conjure out of thin air. not glucose-sweetened, beverages past (because of the way fructose affects Prior to 1988, we at least have some increases visceral adiposity and lipids appetite control). direct evidence. Australian Institute and decreases insulin sensitivity in When it comes to the consumption of of Health and Welfare (AIHW) data overweight/obese human. J Clin sugar (or any food) in Australia, a lot of shows that between 1963 and 1988, Invest. 2009;119(5):1322–1334. guessing is required because there hasn’t Australians increased their DOI:10.1172/JCI37385 been a national consumption survey for apparent energy intake from • Lustig, R., 2009. Sugar: The decades. But there is some data from approximately 2600 calories Bitter Truth. www.youtube.com/ which educated guesses can be made. per day to 3250 per day (25 watch?v=dBnniua6-oM The Australian Bureau of Agricultural per cent in 25 years). The and Resource Economics keeps detailed numbers would have to be About the author: statistics on sugar production and adjusted for wastage, but it’s David Gillespie is a lawyer and the author domestic availability. Doing the maths still going to be a significant of Sweet Poison: Why Sugar Makes Us Fat on those figures, it’s easy to calculate that increase. (Penguin, 2008). 45 r e g u l a r s

The cycle of life A SECOND MERYL’S SKILLS Prognostications – actors – dancers – beer Another Meryl is internationally acclaimed Meryl Tankard, a leading Australian and barrels ... And so it goes, the almost choreographer. Tankard works around the world, with recent projects ranging from a sell-out Sydney inevitable realisation that all knowledge Festival collaboration with Taiko drummers to a Broadway musical. She was born in Darwin, but moved is connected and connectable. frequently across the region due to her father’s Air Force career. She spent her early years in Penang (Malaysia), Melbourne and Newcastle, acquiring a taste for change and adventure which was to pattern her entire career. Tankard has ONE MERYL’S WORDS created work for some of the world’s finest companies and “There will come a time - I her large scale commissions, such as the opening ceremony pray to God that it will happen in for the Sydney Olympics in 2000, bear testimony to her my lifetime - when those who have imaginative range. Work in film and opera accompanies pushed vaccines upon innocent, helpless her choreographic research and ongoing engagement babies - doctors, pharmaceutical companies, with contemporary dance theatre on the world government officials - will be proven to have stage ensures that Tankard is an internationally lied and cheated these instruments of death into famous name. our children’s bloodstream. When that occurs, the outcry will be heard around the world and there will not be enough hiding places on the globe for these murderers to hide or enough money to pay for compensation.” (Newsletter, 2008). The following admission is interesting: “While we are already seen as rabid, idiotic fringe-dwellers by so many in the mainstream, it does our argument no good at all to bring in conspiracy theories which, though we may subscribe to them, are unprovable.” goes around ... (Yahoo Group, 2009). These statements What were made by Meryl Dorey, immediate past president of the Australian Vaccination Network. ... AND HOW THAT’S APPLIED Due to the traditional barrel’s distinctive shape and construction method, the term has been used to describe a variety of other related or similar objects, such as the gun barrel (with the term growing out of the fact that early Meryl Dorey: “We have cannon were built from staves of metal hooped together, similar to a barrel) and barrel organ. The idiom “over a barrel” means to be in mountains of articles a predicament or helpless situation where others are in control. Some that prove our case. Why kinds of food, such as pork, were stored in barrels in larders before weaken it by bringing the era of refrigerators. This practice generated a political term, pork barrel, in which earmarks for particular people or locations up [conspiracy theories] were labelled ‘pork-barrel’ spending. Finally, there is perhaps that will turn 99.9% of the the best known and widely applicable saying: “Empty barrels make the most sound”. population off what we are saying?”

46 The Skeptic June 10

NOT A MERYL ... BUT NEAR TO BEER Tankard is also the name of a ‘thrash metal’ band from Germany, founded in 1982. After losing their guitarist because of their image as a bunch of drunks, they moved on to issue their first record in 1986. From that point on, the band has continuously made songs and records in the same style they started out with - fast metal songs in honour of alcohol. They claim to have invented a new genre called ‘alcoholic metal’. Tankard are self-proclaimed Kings of Beer. Naturally, they are named after the more traditional tankard, a form of Meryl Dorey: “We are drinkware consisting of a large, roughly cylindrical, drinking cup with a single handle. Tankards are usually made of silver, pewter, or glass, already seen as rabid, but can be made of other materials, for example clay or idiotic fringe dwellers leather. A tankard may have a hinged lid, and tankards featuring glass bottoms are also fairly common. by the mainstream.” Tankards are generally used for drinking beer.

... AND HERE’S THE BEER Tankard: Cylindrical Beer is the world’s oldest and drinkware for holding most widely consumed alcoholic beverage and the third most popular drink overall after beer, a German thrash water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and metal band and an fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cereal grains, most commonly malted barley, although wheat, Australian dancer. maize and rice are widely used. Most beer is flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, though other flavourings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally be included. Some of humanity’s earliest What goes around ... known writings refer to the production and distribution of beer: the Code of Hammurabi included laws regulating beer and beer parlours, and The Hymn to ... AND HOW TO HOLD IT Ninkasi, a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, served as both a prayer and as a method A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical of remembering the recipe for beer in a container, traditionally made of vertical wooden culture with few literate people. Beer staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. is normally transported in Traditionally, the barrel was a standard size of measure barrels. referring to a set capacity or weight of a given commodity. For example, a beer barrel was originally a 36 gallon capacity while an ale barrel was a 32 gallon capacity. German ‘thrash metal’ band Wine was shipped in 31.5 gallon barrels. Barrels are one size of cask. Tankard invented ‘alcoholic Other cask sizes include, but are not metal’. One member left the band limited to, pins, firkins, kilderkins, as his conservative father did not puncheons, rundlets, tierces, pipes, butts and tuns. Someone who makes want him “hanging around with a barrels is a cooper. Modern barrels bunch of drunks”. are also made of aluminium, stainless steel, and plastic. Sources: Wikipedia, AVN newsletters, etc

47 R E V I E W S Extraterrestrials + Divine Presence

of issues, from the technical operations of SETI’s Is anybody there? use of various facilities to the plans developed to cope with either overheard alien conversations or dialogue directed at Earth. We aren’t talking The Eerie Silence – Are We Alone in the Universe? random radio emanations from pulsars and the By Paul Davies like, we’re talking conscious transmissions from apparently intelligent and perhaps even advanced Allen Lane, A$49.95 lifeforms (and there had better be intelligent lifeforms in space because there’s bugger all down hat do you do if, after 50 years, you still here on Earth). Whaven’t found even the slightest inkling He gets into the major problem of SETI on of the thing you seek? If you were looking for the page 2 – where’s the evidence? “SETI astronomers source of the Nile, the Holy Grail, or the Loch say the silence is no surprise: they simply haven’t Ness Monster, in some circles you’d be described looked hard enough for long enough,” Davies as noble, in others as an obsessive verging on the says. The universe is a big place, he says, and nutty. You might easily be derided as a religious searches to date have only covered a miniscule part crank. in only a relatively local area. This justification is And what if that search involved noted worryingly similar to hunters after Nessie, except scientists with a long list of qualifications. Does they at least have had some ‘evidence’, though that make the search largely (entirely?) hoaxes and misinterpretations. any more respectable? Davies does stress that he thinks SETI is science Is this less of a religion and not pseudo-science, and compares its bona and more of a justifiable fides with that lacking in telepathy, for instance. scientific experiment, But does he believe that there is intelligent life albeit a very long one? (or even unintelligent life) out there somewhere? Such is the Sort of. The scientist in him says no, the dilemma facing those philosopher says why not, and the little boy hopes involved in the Search it’s true. Does he believe we’ll find it? You’d think for Extraterrestrial so, as he doesn’t dwell on the negatives too much, Intelligence (SETI). And but spends much time on what do we do if/once such is the challenge to we find Them. This is not surprising on two Paul Davies, physicist, counts – he has devoted much time to SETI, so writer and broadcaster, you wouldn’t do that unless you thought there was currently a professor at a good chance or at least an interesting time; and Arizona State University his role in post-detection directs the major issue of as well as the director the book. of the BEYOND How would such a discovery affect our Center for Fundamental everyday lives? Very little, he suggests, but it Concepts in Science. would have a major impact on our worldview. He has held previous How would it affect religions, especially those academic appointments with a leaning toward special creation? Drastically, at the University of he says, though religions have a tendency to Cambridge, University adapt and, once the initial shock is over, claim the of London, University newcomers as one of theirs, albeit unsaved, and of Newcastle upon Tyne, thus prime targets for conversion. University of Adelaide and Macquarie University. Which raises the question of whether SETI Davies, among that lot, for the last five years itself is a religion. He has a bit each way on this, he has also been chair of SETI’s post-detection and only covers the topic in a couple of pages. taskgroup, which looks at what we do with alien But overall it is the philosophy behind the search transmissions when we find them. which is most interesting, despite the results being SETI has celebrated its 50th birthday this so disappointing, to say the least. And that makes year, and Davies has written a book outlining the this book interesting and worth a dip, even if you history of the organisation and the issues it faces don’t believe. (or might face). Despite the book’s somewhat naughty title, which seems designed to attract - Reviewed by Tim Mendham the UFOnuts, perhaps for extra sales, the tome is Postscript: For a contrary view on SETI’s raison d’etre, well-written, interesting, and covers a multitude see Rex Newsome’s article in this issue. 48 The Skeptic June 10 Someone to watch over you

Angels: A history analogous to angels, in many religions, including By David Albert Jones Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. Jones, however, is covering the three Abrahamic religions - Judaism, Oxford University Press, A$29.95 Christianity, and Islam - whose holy books testify to the existence of angels. Indeed, one of the first ngels are all around us. They flutter in mentions of angels is of three of them visiting A stained glass windows, of course, and in Abraham, a story in the Old Testament that is cemeteries, but little ones shoot arrows into alluded to in the New Testament and is also related hearts, especially around Valentine’s Day, and in the Quran. These angels are described as men; they show up in movies like It’s a Wonderful Life it took a while for Abraham to realise that they or Wings ofDesire. Something like 70 per cent of were angels, as it would not have if they had come Americans believe in real angels, not just the ones equipped with wings and halos. shown in art, and they believe that angels are busy Making images of angels has been the work of doing things and helping us along. Belief in angels Christian artists, because of a reluctance of Jews seems to be increasing when our age is proud of and Muslims to depict them, a reluctance traced its science and rationality. Why are we infested back to the fear that people will make images and with these celestial beings, or at least with those then worship the images rather than the higher who are certain of their existence? inspiration for them. There are answers in an agreeable little book The earliest depictions of angels go back to the Angels: A History by David Albert Jones. Jones 3rd century CE and show no halos or wings. In has been a friar, and is a Professor of Bioethics the next century, they started getting their wings, in the School of Theology, Philosophy, and probably influenced by pagan depictions of Nike History at St Mary’s University College in or Eros, although the Bible alludes to cherubim Twickenham, England. He thus knows angels and seraphim having wings. The Quran states that up and down. He’s not going to tell you if they angels have wings, perhaps not just one pair of exist or not, advising that it is foolish to try to wings, but two or four, and tradition says that the prove or disprove their existence; but since he archangels have 600. Somewhere around the 5th advises keeping an century, angels got halos, which were originally open mind about used for depictions of the head of Jesus; halos, the existence of too, were borrowed from pagan art to show the immaterial spirits gloriousness of a god, or of an emperor. Angels got (just as others their harps from a confusion of angels and saints. might advise us to An angel gets a trumpet solo in both the New keep open minds Testament and the Quran, going to play when about fairies or time ends and the last judgement comes, but no alien abductions), angel is described as using another instrument, it might be clear although they sing and praise a lot. Depictions upon what side he of angels playing music tend to show them using leans. Nonetheless, whatever instruments were played at the time of there are reasons the painting. (This is just one of countless ways we think of angels this book shows that angel behaviour reflects that the way we do, of humans. Jones jokes, “In the 15th century, on and depict them, an altarpiece by Jan van Eyck, the angels are even for instance, with seen reading music. Before this time the angels wings or with harps presumably played by ear.”) or arrows. Jones’s In Revelation, saints get harps, and since people book is a welcome have a confusion between angels and dead souls examination who have become saints, angels popularly are of millennia of depicted with harps as well. Scripture, however, religiously-approved makes clear that humans and angels are different folklore, true or not. creatures completely and do not turn one into There are the other. ‘Secular angels’ became popular in angels, or beings Rococo art, the chubby cherubs or putti, used for 49 R E V I E W S Divine presence + Skepticism

Someone to watch over you They have no birth, death, appetite, or weight. Continued... Those who saw angels, he said, were seeing a body that an angel made by some nonce process of condensing air. Aquinas also taught that at decoration without explicit religious context. birth, a particular guardian angel is appointed to We can’t know much in detail about the lives every person; he did not think this appointment of angels, but we ought to be able to tell at least happened before birth because the mother was if they are male or female. It’s easy in the Bible; in charge until then, with her guardian angel in those angels that appeared to Abraham were male, charge of the pregnancy, too. Aquinas also tried and the angel that came to Mary Magdalene to answer the questions of how angels can sin. had the appearance of a young man, and angels Humans can sin pretty easily, since we have greed as members of the spiritual army of God were and desires, but angels are supposed not to have presumed male. But Jesus said they didn’t marry, such drives, plus they are supposed to know about and if they are pure beings without bodies, it right and wrong better than humans can know. would make sense that they are sexless. The Quran Angels can be bad, Aquinas said, by being too says they are neither male nor female, but also prideful; for instance, the Devil (a former angel) specifically condemns the idea that angels were had pride manifested by a desire to be like God, females. When angels started being depicted as and although angels are like God in many ways, child-like cupids, their adult varieties started taking the Devil seems to have the problem of trying to on feminine characteristics. If you call someone make himself like God on his own. This might “an angel,” it’s a good assumption the person is be a little difficult to understand, and it is hard to female. You could assume that Charlie’s Angels was figure out how we could be sure that a particular about females even if you never saw the show. guardian angel might avoid making the same One feminist has said that angels used to be mistake. Who is to say that a prideful guardian intellectually respectable, but are now taken less angel might not start some sort of mischief in the seriously, and when such a shift happens there is a life of the individual over whom the angel has change from regarding them as male to regarding charge? The naughtiness of angels, remember, was them as female. It might also be that angels have enough to make a war in heaven. taken on a different sort of role. The main job of Jones can’t resolve such issues, but of course angels in the Quran and Bible is to send messages; no one can; not even believers would insist that there are fewer stories of the angels intervening, the actions and impulses of angels are always guarding or helping. The nurturing parts of an subject to our rational understanding. His book is angel’s job might more naturally be depicted with a welcome history and gathering of cultural facts a female angel. People who get messages from God about angels. It is not much bigger than the little these days tend to do so in some sort of direct line booklets that you can pick up in the line for the to him without an angel intermediary - the idea of cashier at the supermarket, with titles like How guardian angels seems to have more appeal. to Contact Your Guardian Angel. I have seen such Philosophers discuss such things as souls and books, but I admit that I have not read them. life after death still, but angels don’t have as Even so, I am willing to bet that the current much intellectual appeal as they used to. Thomas volume is much more intellectually satisfying. Aquinas said that angels were real but not physical. - Reviewed by Rob Hardy

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50 The Skeptic June 10

CSICOP/CSI is the oldest skeptical association in The Skeptic’s view the world. (Australian Skeptics is the third oldest, after the Brits.) Kurtz is also professor emeritus of philosophy at the State University of New York Exuberant Skepticism and a fellow of the AAAS. He’s written hundreds By Paul Kurtz of articles, and written or edited more than fifty books. Prometheus Books, US$19.00 So what’s this one like? Let John Shook, the book’s editor, fill us in: “For the first time, Paul irst of all, it must be said, that this book has one Kurtz’s most important and influential essays Fof the least attractive and most inappropriate advancing reason and skepticism have been collected covers I have ever seen. Exuberant can mean two together in one convenient volume. Kurtz has long things – lively and cheerful, or growing profusely. been the world’s leading philosophical skeptic, but Far from Paul Kurtz looking exuberant, as the book’s he is much more than just a skeptic. Extending title would suggest, he looks more like an old man insights from the philosophies of American tapping his pockets and wondering where he left his pragmatism and scientific naturalism Kurtz has keys, hopefully not dropping them in the snow. constructed a comprehensive philosophical system. Now, Prometheus Books is to be commended This volume’s concentration on skepticism does for its efforts in promoting skepticism. Founded not obscure, but rather illuminates, Kurtz’s overall by Kurtz himself in 1969, it has been a pioneer in commitments to secular humanism and the ethical the field of publications on and exuberant life. For that reason, the chosen skeptical and critical thinking, title of this volume, Exuberant Skepticism, is quite and has published some of the accurate and timely.” leading lights in this field. But That pretty much sums it up – a wide- eye-catching cover design, at ranging series of essays covering skepticism and least in most cases, has never the paranormal, religion, politics, ethics and been a strength, and this is one eupraxsophy (look it up). of those. Actually, that last word pretty much sums up But can you tell a book by the tone of the book. These are not essays for the its cover? faint-hearted. They are certainly serious discussions Paul Kurtz has an impressive of some serious issues, but they are also often dense pedigree. Apart from and, while not necessarily impenetrable, certainly Prometheus, he is the founder somewhat dour in tone and content. For those who of the original Committee for like that sort of thing, you’ll like it. For others, it the Scientific Investigation might be heavy going. Learned, the essays definitely of Claims of the Paranormal are. The work of an experienced thinker? That too. (that mouthful later shortened, Sometimes even passionate, in an intellectual sort of along with a reorganisation way. But exuberant? No. of the body, to the cheekily Sometimes you can tell a book by its cover. titled Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, or CSI – no relation). - Reviewed by Tim Mendham

the review to “the complementary medicine Correction & Addendum program funded by the University of Maryland National Institutes of Health” and the n the previous issue of The Skeptic (30:1, page relationship between the two bodies: I49), the review of the book Snake Oil Science “The information is from two different was incorrectly attributed to John Cameron. places in the book. The wording is slightly The actual author of the review was Dr Charlie different in the two places, and the best sense I Carter. Our apologies to Dr Carter for so cruelly can make of it is that R. Barker Bausell, author denying him his rightful fame. (Also, possibly, of the book, is a professor at the University of our apologies to John Cameron in case he didn’t Maryland, and was the research director of the like the book). NIH-funded Complementary and Alternative Taking advantage of this correction, Dr Medicine Specialised Research Centre at the Carter would like to clarify the reference in University of Maryland.”

51 R E V I E W S Conspiracy + Cryptozoology Knocking down the conspiracy Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why Conspiracy Theories McCain which states: “Any explanation for the tragedy of 9/11 must start and end with the facts. Can’t Stand Up To the Facts The evidence, the data – only then – can conclusions By David Dunbar and Brad Reagan (editors) be drawn as to what happened.” Hearst Books, US$14.95 McCain then states his feelings to the ‘Truthers’: “They ignore the methods of science, the protocols of investigation and the dictates of logic. The ince the attack on the United States by 19 conspiracy theorists chase any bit of information, no Sterrorists in September 2001, a cottage industry matter how flimsy and use it to their preordained of conspiracy has spawned and grown. Personally, I conclusions” took little interest in these theories as the facts were I could not have put it better. The book does pretty straightforward. I remember being woken address all the main theories that have been peddled late one night by a short terse phone call and my by the Truthers into four separate chapters, being brother who just screamed “Turn on the TV” and the planes, the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon I saw to my horror the second plane hit the second and Flight 93. This separates each of the incidents in tower. It was evident by the television coverage, a manner that allows for each of the theories to be media and internet that a terrorist attack had been addressed and discounted. committed against the United States. I remember The first question is, does the book achieve this Osama Bin Laden actually taking credit for the aim? I believe it does, in an excellent straightforward attacks and other terrorists being arrested in the way. Each of the claims is stated and referenced largest criminal investigation ever to be conducted. to a person or website. Then each of the claims is The approximately 2600 people who died that dissected to its basic points and facts. One claim is day came from over 100 countries and comprised that one of the aircraft that hit the first WTC Tower people of various religions, careers, ages all going had no windows. Thus, the Truthers claim it was a about their daily activities. It is here that my personal military aircraft. But when the editors state that the distain for the ‘9/11 Truthers’ starts to take hold. person who made the statement was standing in The conspiracy theories that have been developed point A and the aircraft was banking (turning) at a show little respect for the victims of that day and the 30 degree angle, yes, you would not see any windows families of those victims. either. Yet, the Truthers fail to outline the hundreds With that in mind, of witness statements that saw a civil aircraft fly into I decided to buy the the tower, with windows, markers, etc. Also, aircraft book Debunking 9/11 wreckage was located with windows, but that does Myths edited by the staff not stop the Truthers! at the magazine Popular Another claim is that the building was Mechanics. The magazine deliberately demolished; which was ‘evident’ by the has been in print for over puffs of dust seen as the building collapsed. When 50 years and the editors a building collapses, dust, debris, fire proofing, etc decided to address the get squeezed out and this was evident in the videos conspiracies of 9/11 of both Towers collapsing. Surprisingly, I read that ‘truth movement’ in a the WTC was built to be “full of air” to lower special edition in 2006, dead weight or the weight of the building. The subsequently expanded construction was also unique as most of the stable into a book with a columns were in the centre of the buildings. Thus, forward by Senator John when the building collapsed, it ‘pancaked’ and the McCain. While this dust left at the most appropriate points. is not exactly a recent These were just two of the examples that are given publication, its content in this excellent book. The editor-in-chief ofPopular and pedigree still place Mechanics, James Meigs, provides an afterword to it as an important the claims and evidence which would be of interest contribution to the to all skeptics. As a skeptic, I do look for patterns ‘debate’. in conspiracy theories and Meigs has delivered an I was very much appropriate list of techniques used by such theorists. moved by one statement This list can be applied to just about all groups from in the foreword by anti-vaccination groups to crystal healers to ghost 52 The Skeptic June 10

hunters to psychics. A short summary of the list the outstanding approach to this issue which has includes discussion on “marginalisation of opposing continued in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. views”, “argument by anomaly”, “slipshod handling As I write this review, one of the terrorists has of facts” and other such patterns used by conspiracy been committed for trial to a New York Court. I theorists and others. can only hope that the trial will demonstrate the I commend this book to all skeptics, but I will complete silliness of the 9/11 Truth Movement. also expand this recommendation to include all people who have an interest in the facts and truth. - Reviewed by Geoff Cowan The book is a fitting example of how to address a Editor’s Note: The original article in Popular Mechanics upon which the conspiracy theory in a rational and logical manner. book was based can be found at: www.popularmechanics.com/tech- Dunbar and Reagan should be commended for nology/military/news/1227842

The authors ofShock! go far beyond debunking Beware the dog! this myth, going into great detail to explain how it came about and why it has endured. The Shock! The Black Dog of Bungay history of the town may seem the least interesting By Dr David Waldron and Christopher Reeve part of the book but significant cultural events, such as the Reformation and the Depression, are Hidden Publishing, UK£9.99 instrumental to understanding why the myth has been reinvented time and again. hock! is a small Today, people still visit Bungay for its Sbook, but like the paranormal past, and this has not gone unnoticed quaint English town by the locals who have adopted the Black Dog like of Bungay, central to a lost puppy. This is a part of their identity now, this investigation, it is taken less seriously by most, but cherished. We surprisingly rich in detail, get the impression that as long as nervous night history and culture. travellers jump at shadows, the Black Dog will keep The book investigates returning. By reading this book, people can at least one of the most pervasive appreciate where the Dog comes from and why it myths of folklore and isn’t going away. cryptozoology. According To be fair, the book does have its limitations. to a pamphlet written The investigation is, by definition, only concerned by Abraham Fleming in with one incident and one town, though other 1577, the town of Bungay events are frequently mentioned and thoroughly was visited by a murderous referenced. No book of this size can hope to explain Black Dog “or the Devil all anomalistic big cat and black dog sightings in in such a likeness”. People Britain, but it does a fantastic job of explaining this were killed and one of the one. By doing so, it shines a light on how people local churches was badly think, making this case relevant to any folk mystery, damaged. At the time, and even to the nature of folklore itself. the locals attributed the Cryptozoologists would find this book carnage to a lightning invaluable for the wealth of detail on this incident. strike during a ferocious It is extremely well referenced for anybody game storm (validated by to walk those dark country streets conducting their accounts from all over Britain) but this was to own investigation, even if only from the comfort change with Fleming. of an armchair. The book is written for the general Within a month of the fatal storm, Fleming public, even though academics would find it wrote a sensationalised account from his home equally useful and interesting. in London. As an ambitious Calvinist, the facts I would recommend this small book to anybody were not as important as the message he wanted with an interest in history, folklore, cryptozoology to impart. The pamphlet seems designed to shock and the nature of belief. As a definitive account of the wicked back to the path of righteousness by the Bungay Black Dog mystery, it should be on invoking a genuine fear of prescient evil. In the every monster hunter’s bookshelf. context of the period, late in the Reformation, it was bound to be a success. - Reviewed by Philip Peters 53 f o r u m Life, the Universe and ... Atheism, big bangs, Kalam

& the Universe system is always increasing. If the universe is past eternal, then the universe should now be in a state In which is discussed the beginning of the universe, of heat death. It is not, so the universe cannot be and what went before, and how past eternal. The third argument is based on the Big Bang. The Standard Big Bang Model claims that the universe began to exist just over 13 billion years What matters ... ago. There are several conclusions that can be n my response to “Getting out of drawn about the nature of the cause. The cause ICults” [The Skeptic, 29:4, page 60], must be non-physical, immaterial, transcendent, I cited the response of various atheistic timeless and powerful. William Lane Craig also philosophers - Daniel Dennett, Quentin argues that, since the creation entailed a choice, Smith and Mario Bunge - to the Kalam that the cause must also be personal. The Kalam Cosmological Argument as examples argument is not necessarily an argument for the of desperation and cognitive dissonance. Christian God. The Kalam argument is also used The essence of the Kalam Cosmological by Muslims and Jews. Argument is: Wayne Robinson cited the example of the 1. Anything that begins to exist has a cause. Paricutin volcano. He parodied the Kalam 2. The universe began to exist. argument to suggest that Paricutin had a 3. Therefore the universe has a cause. transcendent cause and that cause must have I did not present the arguments supporting the been the god Vulcan. Now this is clearly not first two premises, as my intent was to highlight the case, as a volcano has a physical cause, but the response of atheists to the argument, not to this is not so with the universe. If the universe defend the argument itself. is all that is physical, then if the universe had a However, in The Skeptic, [30:1, page 59] Wayne beginning, then its cause must of necessity be non- Robinson and Len Bergin attacked the Kalam physical, ie transcendent. Thus Wayne’s parody argument. is fallacious. It is an instance of the false analogy In the Kalam argument the universe is fallacy. Wayne says he has no problem with the interpreted in the broadest possible sense. It is all Kalam Cosmological Argument; it is just that he that is physical, ie the cosmos. If it is either the believes that the cause of the universe was natural. observable single universe or an unobservable However, if the natural had a beginning, then multi-verse, then so be it. Wayne has a problem. It would take too long to provide a thorough He suggests an eternal ‘multi-verse’. This has explanation of the supporting arguments for some initial problems in that it is unobservable the Kalam argument and so I will just give a and the physics is highly speculative. It also has sketch. Premise 1 has traditionally been seen as a fatal flaw that is common to all pre-Big Bang intuitively obvious and the conclusion logically scenarios. In 2003, cosmologists Borde, Guth follows. Premise 2 is where most of the debate has and Vilenkin demonstrated that any inflationary been. The arguments supporting premise 2 are as scenario cannot be past-infinite. It had to have follows: a beginning. The initial argument for premise 2 was Len Bergin is hoping that there is past-eternal developed by Muslim philosophers in the material world prior to the Big Bang. The Middle Ages. It is impossible to create an actual Standard Big Bang model is that the Big Bang is infinite set, as it leads to absurdities. According the start of matter, energy, space and time. There to mathematician David Hilbert, “The infinite is was no ‘before’ before the Big Bang. There was nowhere to be found in reality … The role that absolutely nothing natural. The Big Bang is only a remains for the infinite to play is solely that of description of what happened after the beginning. an idea.” A past eternal universe would entail an It does not explain the cause of the beginning. actual infinite number of events, which is absurd. There have been various alternative theories for Thus the universe cannot be past eternal. unobservable worlds prior to the Big Bang. Len’s The second argument is based on the second suggestion does not correspond to any of the law of thermodynamics. The entropy of a closed major metaphysical theories. It also is not possible 54 The Skeptic June 10

that any pre-existing worlds can be past-infinite in ... and antimatters the light of the Borde-Vilenkin theorem. Unlike Wayne and Len, both Quentin Smith ayne Robinson discussing the origin and Daniel Dennett accept that premise 2 is Wof the universe [The Skeptic, 30:1, page correct. They know too much. They don’t enjoy 59] has faith that science will eventually find an the intellectual freedom offered by ignorance. explanation. Just as other sceptics and atheists Thus they are forced into bizarre rationalisations in would like to know of a creation that produces order to maintain their atheism. matter and energy by physical means, not Wayne also made some brief comments about supernatural. Well, there is a physical reaction the fine tuning argument that completely missed which can explain it. The Big Bang does not the point. The constants in physics and initial fulfil the desires of these people because matter conditions in the Big Bang are finely tuned and energy appear without logical physical to allow what Paul Davies calls “interesting explanation. It was devised by a Jesuit priest, outcomes” anywhere in the universe. If it wasn’t Georges Lemaitre, and is accepted by some of finely tuned, you would not get basic stuff the main religions because the supernatural like large elements, molecules, stars, galaxies seems to be the only explanation. etc. According to physicist Roger Penrose, the What is required of a non-supernatural probability that the universe was life-permitting creation is a normal physical process. Whatever if the initial parameters were chosen by chance is goes on around us are natural processes that do approximately 1 in 10^(10123). This is the number not require anything but the right conditions. 1 followed by 10123 zeroes and has 1040 more zeros Any physical process that we know of is like than there are atoms in the universe. this. So all we need do is find a physical process The probability for being initially dealt four that can proceed in the original condition of aces in a poker hand is just over 1 in 50,000. If the nothingness. There is a physical process, that has universe was life-permitting by chance, then this is been carried out, that involves ‘nothing’. equivalent to being dealt four aces in a poker hand Physicists at the Department of Experiment 2x10118 times in a row; on your first attempt! What Physics, UCD, have isolated atoms of matter sane person would bet on those odds? The universe and anti-matter, brought them into contact is a stacked deck. The fine tuning is far more and they have annihilated to produce nothing. plausibly explained if it was by design rather than And energy. Most physical and chemical occurring by chance. Former atheist Fred Hoyle processes can be reversed. All that is needed is stated, “The universe is a put up job” and, “A to change the conditions. For instance, matter common sense interpretation of the facts suggests expands when heated. Change the conditions by that a super-intellect has monkeyed with physics.” removing heat and matter contracts. Hydrogen Both Wayne and Len appeal to the argument and oxygen can be combined to produce water. from ignorance. Even though we don’t know now, This process can be reversed so that water can maybe one day we will know. Even if we never change to hydrogen and oxygen. know, then there still can be a natural explanation. In conditions of the presence of matter, The problem with this argument is that it can energy and gravity, that annihilation was be used to explain anything; and is therefore achieved. In the original conditions of complete meaningless. absence of matter, energy and gravity, perhaps Wayne claims there is no evidence. He rejects matter and anti-matter were generated in a the beginning of the universe and the fine tuning reversal of the annihilation process. of the universe as evidence because, since he That annihilation process produced nothing believes naturalism is true, therefore a naturalistic plus energy according to Einstein equation reason must exist, even though he has no idea E=mc2: what it is. This is clearly begging the question. Wayne has a blind faith belief in naturalism, no matter what the evidence. The traditional arguments for the existence of God have been based on the creation and design of the universe. Atheists have attempted to deny a creation event and to explain away the apparent design. Both attempts appear to have failed.

Kevin Rogers Modbury SA 55 f o r u m Life, the Universe and ...

Atheism, big bangs, Kalam & So there it is! A completely non-supernatural possibility. the universe Robinson touches on time scale too. Continued... Nothingness existed as far back as one can imagine and before that, infinitely. It extended to unimaginable distance too, and beyond that, • matter + anti-matter → nothing + energy infinitely. So if the suggested process occurred, Reversal of this would be: it occurred everywhere and an infinitely long • nothing + energy → matter + anti-matter time ago. So a universe created this way must be In the case of the first simple matter, it would, infinite in size, but not necessarily in age. Our like known quantum particles, have had no mass universe is expanding and will go on till the and so, according to the equation, E would have galaxies are dead and almost infinitely spaced been zero. so that gravity in the space between would be So the simple physical reaction, needing no virtually zero and all energy will be attenuated help from the supernatural, could have been: to nothing. Our universe will die but in these • nothing → matter + anti-matter conditions a new universe will form just as zillions These new particles would have appeared of universes have in the infinite past. So our wherever there were the appropriate conditions, universe is not infinitely old, but the cosmos is. so they would have been closely packed and One last thing. Astronomers explained the at absolute zero temperature. The pairs of expansion by suggesting an explosion, a big particles of matter and anti-matter would have bang, that generated velocities up to the speed of had no influence to affect their orientation, light. In my ‘silent whisper’, when interactions so they would have been absolutely random between the particles expansion began and in their relationships so that some would have continued, a speed of separation between two annihilated, leaving voids. These voids would particles a kilometre apart of only one fourteen have resulted in the development of potential millionth of a metre per year would result in energy when the particles interacted to develop particles fourteen thousand million light years physical characteristics including mass and apart separating at the speed of light, with no powers of repulsion and attraction. This potential explosion! energy would have enabled conversion into kinetic energy and eventually heat and radiation, Brian a’B Marsh including cosmic background radiation. St James WA

R U in the Zone? www.skepticzone.tv Where else would UB?

56 The Skeptic June 10

science and technology of the vaccine industry. Science adored, So many people think themselves to be experts whose opinions are supposed to be of equal value to those of Nobel Prize winners. They form science abhorred lobby groups of self-appointed ‘experts’ and lobby politicians, the media, doctors and, more importantly, parents, to denigrate vaccines and In which our correspondent is perplexed by the mainstream health industry. inconsistency in attitudes to science When you next board a Boeing 747, rest assured that Boeing has continued to research the science and engineering involved in building post on Facebook where this magnificent machine, 40 years after it Aa correspondent said “I entered service. Yes, occasionally problems are thought the vaccines go through found with components, the matter is researched vigorous testing before we inject and improvements are introduced without fuss. children,” got me thinking. She was Hardly a day goes by without Boeing issuing implying that vaccines are dangerous engineering instructions to its customers. This because product surveillance had is not taken by those involved as a failure of detected a problem in one of them. Of the design and manufacture, but it is taken course, vaccines go through an extensive as a recognition that all human activities are testing process before introduction, flawed and so diligent attention must be paid and continue to do so afterwards. So why is to detecting and correcting problems and it that when continuous product surveillance improving the product so that the best possible reveals a need for action in one industry product goes to market. (pharmaceuticals), that is a cause for worry, but Exactly the same process goes on within when continuous product surveillance reveals a the pharmaceutical industry, but without the need for action in another industry (aviation), jet-setting glamour. Behind the scenes, research that is welcomed as standard operating and development continues, with the aim of procedure, no less. detecting problems and improving the product. I am often intrigued by the difference in This is not taken by those involved as a failure attitudes to the pharmaceutical industry and of the design and manufacture, but it is taken attitudes to my industry, aviation. People are as a recognition that all human activities are quite content to board a Boeing 747 and fly flawed and so diligent attention must be paid to around the world to London. They put their detecting and correcting problems and improving complete trust in the crew, the engineers, the the product, so that the best possible product air traffic controllers, the people who designed goes to market. and built the plane, and so on. They never go So why is it that one industry has the through the blueprints before buying the ticket. confidence of the public, even the adoration, but I very rarely see criticism of the people involved, the other seems to attract so much contempt? the science and engineering, the continuous Why does one industry have a customer base research and development and product that has faith in it and the other has a customer surveillance and improvement. base in which so many people are armchair In my many years in the aviation industry, experts ready to use any perceived flaw to ‘prove’ I never saw the aviation equivalent of Meryl that the whole industry is a con and a diabolical Dorey marching up to the cockpit to lecture the conspiracy? pilots on EPR settings, nor blogging about how Why are anti-vaxxers so ready to pronounce Boeing doesn’t understand the science behind themselves experts on vaccination, and at the hydraulic pressure requirements in elevator same time ready to board a Boeing 747 and screw jack assemblies. Yes, I did see criticism of flit off to London never claiming any expertise the aviation industry’s contribution to noise and in how it is done, nor criticise the people who CO2 pollution, fair enough, but I never saw take them there so safely? Why is one branch of armchair experts form lobby groups tell Boeing science adored and another branch of science how to build their planes better, or to warn abhorred? travellers to avoid flying machines or face death. Why is that? On the other hand, I see no end of criticism of doctors and researchers, the companies Ken McLeod who research and develop vaccines, and the Moruya NSW 57 l e t t e r s To the Editor

of specialists would have understood exactly what he was saying. I was What you think ... astonished that he had not done this, since he claimed to be in touch with scientists, who could surely have given The Fructose expected to be aware of both these him guidance. people’s work and to not simply dismiss Please note that this viewpoint does Debate the issue with a hand wave and a quasi- not prejudge the quality of Gillespie’s legal parody. argument. My concern is that this was n The Skeptic, (30:1, page 14) Chris Fructose is a controversial sugar a wildly inappropriate forum for this IForbes-Ewan writes an article titled with some serious issues surrounding particular idea and, quite literally, a “Sweet Reason”, in which his main its consumption in all but very small waste of time. target is the cheerleader David Gillespie, doses and it deserves serious attention Having said that, let me add that who is responsible for a book titled and educated debate, not the defensive, the rest of Briskepticon was both Sweet Poison. poorly researched and self-interested enlightening and great fun. Margaret Chris has been, at best, lazy in writing article presented by Chris. worked hard, and it showed in the this article. He fails to address the root excellent quality of the organisation and issues that the book discusses, which is Carl Brewer presentations. the claim that fructose is ethanol without Vermont Vic the buzz and that it is technically a toxin Martin Bridgstock that short-circuits the body’s appetite Nathan Qld controls, is only metabolised in the liver was one of the people who spoke where it is converted to triglycerides and Ito Margaret Kittson after David is a very significant contributor to type Gillespie’s presentation at Briskepticon Santa’s role II diabetes and obesity. Chris’s space- [see Margaret Kittson’s Forum piece, The filling attempts at humour fall flat and Skeptic, 30:1, page 50]. I did refer to the o Ho Humbug” [The Skeptic30:1, his boast of a infantile post on Gillespie’s presentation as “not appropriate”, and “Hpage 44] reminded me of living blog have no place in a journal such as hope that my comment did not distress in a mining town in central Queensland. The Skeptic. her. A twelve year old girl there was adamant Chris along the way plays the Gillespie’s claim focused on a link that ‘Santy’ existed. My wife and I, as ‘natural’ card, as if there’s some deity- between fructose and obesity. To be able new parents, decided that our children driven purpose for fructose that makes to understand and evaluate this claim, would receive Christmas presents from it good for us because it’s in honey and one needs a fair degree of expertise in a us, from other family, from friends, but fruit and cane sugar. Is Chris aware that particular biomedical field. I do not have not from Santa Claus. natural is not the same as good? Plants that expertise, and so could not judge My two year old daughter was at a have a vested interest in encouraging Gillespie’s presentation. I could not tell hardware store when Santa was there. animals to eat their fruit and deposit if it was a massive scientific discovery or The store owner, who we knew in other seeds far and wide, not to help those a piece of rubbish. From what I could circles, was insistent about her meeting animals to live long and healthy lives, gather, only a small handful of people in Santa. My daughter cried. Over the and bees have vastly different internals the hall had knowledge in the area, and years, I realised this was not an unusual to mammals. they had little or no time to prepare a reaction of young children. Many find Perhaps if Chris had paid more response to what they were hearing. a large bearded man in a funny red suit attention in his article to the material Since there were few experts there, it scary*. Why should we force children to presented by Robert Lustig, which follows that most people in the audience like Santa? he does at least mention briefly but could not benefit from the presentation. Have my children missed out for not entirely skips its content, where the They could not learn from it, since it having received presents from Santa over science is well presented and deserves could be rubbish, and they could not almost 20 years? They would probably serious consideration, and addressed critique it for lack of expertise. Like say they have, but that has more to do the issues that Lustig presents rather Peter Ellerton, I zoned out, and I got on with a parental belief that you can have than ranting against the cheer squad’s with some reading quite early on. “too much of a good thing”, and that spelling mistakes, then the article may What should Gillespie have done? children are better off appreciating well- have been of some benefit to the readers The answer is obvious. He should chosen gifts than a multitude of cheap of The Skeptic. Also the work of Gary have written up a paper and sent it ‘stocking fillers’ that inevitably break by Taubes (author of Good Calories, Bad to a relevant journal, where genuine Boxing Day. Calories, turn to chapter 12 of that experts could have examined it at As a child, my brothers and I put out book for a summary) deserves attention. length. Or he could have presented at pillow slips to be filled on Christmas A competent nutritionalist would be an expert conference, where a roomful Eve. Did we believe Santa existed? Of 58 The Skeptic June 10 course not! But the pretence was good for (Thomas Jefferson) of having more presents. What annoyed me • Lighthouses are more useful than Misuse ‘odds’ most was the sudden way the tradition churches. (Benjamin Franklin) was ended when I was about 12. No • This would be the best of all teach a course in elementary discussion, more a “You’re too old for possible worlds if there were no Iprobability at QUT, Faculty of such nonsense.” Nothing replaced that religion in it! (John Adams) Education. As part of the unit we look game, that aspect of family tradition. Taking them in order, the at misuses and misrepresentations of Sure, do away with Santa, maybe first quote, taken in isolation, is probability, particularly in the media. we could have had a treasure hunt for misleading in that it does not make Most of the students do not have a presents instead, or a quiz trail. Thirty the distinction which was clear in mathematical background so we use only years on my daughter gave me a map Jefferson’s mind, namely that the basic probability in our analyses. For resulting in my climbing a tree to find teachings of Jesus were good but had example, a Ripley’s Believe it or Not cited my Easter eggs. There are alternatives to been perverted by his biographers and the case of a baby girl born in the USA Santa (and Easter bunnies) to spice up followers: hence the ‘most perverted’. on December 7, the same date as her our celebrations. I would be grateful for a source mother and grandmother quoting the I do not mind Santa Claus as a reference for the quote by Franklin. ‘incredible’ odds of 1/3653 or less than 1 reminder of the tenuous link back to I have seen the text of a longer in 48 million (mathematically correct). a good bishop in Roman times. I am quote from Adams, which came in a Clearly, many would think this an happy to have Santa as a part of the fun letter to Thomas Jefferson of 19 April incredible occurrence. However, when we and games of Christmas. But we do not 1817, as: “Twenty times in the course examine the probabilities we find that it have to weave a web of lies about his of my late reading, have I been upon is not at all extraordinary. Firstly it doesn’t existence. I was happy for my children the point of breaking out, this would matter what the date is so we’ll ignore the to jostle for lollies thrown from a Santa be the best of all possible worlds, if December 7 date and get a probability from some odd variation of a sleigh at there were no religion in it!!! But in of 1/3652 or less than 1 in 100,000. This some community gathering, but my this exclamation I should have been may still seem ‘extraordinary’ but given children received gifts from people who as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. the population of the USA, if we consider loved them and cared for them, not Without religion this world would be the probability that somewhere some from some distant figure. something not fit to be mentioned in child will be born on the same date as Inevitably, at Christmas time, some polite society, I mean hell. (Source: a parent and a grandparent of the same school or group finds itself in deep what purports to be a facsimile, sex, we find that even over a relatively trouble because they have banned http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/ short period of time, this is nearly certain Santa. Usually the cry is of “political vc006646.jpg) to happen. It’s a bit like if you buy a correctness gone mad”. In actual fact, it The longer quote from Adams, lottery ticket and you have a 1/100,000 is usually conservative Christians who if genuine, completely reverses the chance of winning. You might consider have banned Santa. And this is one time meaning of the extract. it extraordinary if you win, but not if I am agreeable with the fundamentalists. I would be very grateful for your somebody wins. We don’t see media And, like Alison White, discretion comments in relation to these quotes. reports “Extraordinary event: someone appeared the better part of valour. On a personal note, I am very wins lottery!” Someone has to. Likewise grateful that books and other works the event described is nearly certain to Dan Stewart by you have challenged, educated happen (See at end for those interested). Gympie Qld. and amused me and have contributed I recently came across another to my leaving the church of which example of a misuse courtesy of the letters * They’ve met Barry Williams then? - Ed I was a member. For most of the section in The Skeptic, March 2010. In period of my membership I was not a letter headed “Was Jesus Gay?”, Jon a believer, ie a person with faith in Donni wrote: “the odds dictate”. the conventional sense; I managed by Firstly, the odds never dictate An Open Letter to redefining ‘God’ as a principle rather anything; they tell us the likelihood of than a sentient being. However, I something; in this case the likelihood of Richard Dawkins became increasingly concerned that at least one of a group of 21 men being church membership, even in what I gay. Some assumptions need to be made: write in relation to three quotes conceived as my moderate, rational • The proportion of homosexual men Iwhich appear in The God Delusion, way, was a sort of endorsement to in the population is five per cent in the section Secularism, the founding faith, any faith, including violent • The 21 in the sample are fathers and the religion of America of fanaticism. representative of the population. This chapter 2, the God Hypothesis, viz. latter assumption is probably not • Christianity is the most perverted Ralph Seccombe true. For example the proportion of system that ever shone on man. Toronto NSW married men is probably different 59 l e t t e r s To the Editor

Misuse of ‘odds’ certain to happen every few years. The Belief, Gods only “believe it or not” situation would Continued... be if it didn’t happen. The misconception & 9/11 here is in not understanding what the but without the assumption we problem is. ould a Skeptic go so far as to cannot proceed. Cdevelop a ‘closed mind’ when he/ So let’s see what the likelihood that Robert Peard she confronts a subject that has attained at least one of the 21 is gay under these QUT, Qld widespread belief within the conspiracy assumptions. theory arena? Perhaps too focused on • The probability that any one is not rejecting out of hand any suggestion that gay is 95 per cent or 0.95. Valentich & UFOs the theories might contain a few grains • Thus the probability that all 21 are of truth? not gay is (0.95)21 = 0.34. enjoyed reading the analytical essay I’m prompted to ask this question • Thus the probability that at least one Iby Geoff Cowan concerning the due to reading Dr Krissy Wilson’s is gay = 1 - 0.34 = 0.66 disappearance of Frederick Valentich and article “The Architecture of Delusion” The phrase “the odds dictate” implies the plane VHDJS. [The Skeptic, 30:1, page 45] dealing a higher probability than this. It would As would most informed UFO with the events of 9/11 in which she be better for the author to say something adherents, I disagree with his categorical says: “All too often a well-meaning like “there is a greater probability than denial that it has anything to do with a desire to expose lies and deceit merely not of ...”, or “the odds favour” or “it is UFO. results in paranoia and self-deception.” about twice as likely as not that ...”. His arguments are similar to the In many respects, I agree with that (If we want to find the probabilities Rendlesham Forest incident that occurred observation. of exactly one, two or three gays in in late December 1980. Most of your However, as a Skeptic, I am prepared the sample we use the Excel function readers may be unfamiliar with the events to listen with an open mind to theories, BINOMDIST. This gives us 0.38, 0.20 that took place there. Briefly, the basic suggestions etc as to the subject in and 0.07 respectively and we can see that facts are: question (9/11 in this case) so as to the most likely is, as expected, one.) • an object with pulsating lights was try and derive some understanding To analyse the Ripley’s article, we observed in the forest by officers of the as to why certain conspiracy theories simply set up an Excel spreadsheet and USAF might have originated and then analyse make the necessary estimations and • a subsequent patrol was led by that input, regardless of the popular assumption: Lieutenant Colonel Charles I Halt, (perhaps too often unquestioned) • If n is the number of births per year deputy base commander, RAF, acceptance of these theories. in the country Woodbridge, who also observed and Re the above, there is an interesting • Y is the number of years of made a report to the authorities. DVD titled 911 In Plane Site that observation The reported sighting has recently presents many anomalies relating to • p is the probability that any child been verified by the Ministry of Defence TWC1, WTC2, WT7 and the Pentagon. born has the same birthday as both (understandably no explanation given) by One example: at the time a Boeing parent and grandparent of the same way of the Freedom of Information act. commercial passenger aircraft hit the sex = 1/3652. The point I make is that the comments Pentagon, there was one surveillance We should note that these made by Skeptics, after the press release, camera able to capture an indiscernible calculations are only approximate. This is were almost as strange as the object image. Only one camera? At the because if two people are born with the observed, ie mistaken for lighthouse Pentagon? In that case, I suggest it would same grandmother, their outcomes in beams; the commotion made by farm be a simple matter to land a joyflight regard to the events of interest here will animals; predators; the officers at the helicopter for a picnic on the lawns of the be correlated. Also we have ignored the scene were intoxicated; the damage done White House without being spotted by minor effect of leap years. to the forest canopy – rabbits! the FBI or the Secret Service. • Then(1-p) is the probability that There were also various ‘explanations’ It has been suggested by they do not match for the higher than normal radio activity psychologists and their ilk that people • And (1-p) nY is the probability of no recorded at the site. who claim to have spoken to/been match for nY births Can anyone explain Mr Cowan’s abducted by aliens are considered • Hence 1- (1-p) nY is the probability conclusion? He offers no proof that the to be paranoid/self-deceptive, yet in of at least one match Bass Strait incident was not caused by a the same breath they would consider We see that in even a relatively small UFO? it blasphemous to label a Catholic, country with 100,000 births per year, I rest my case. Muslim etc, who believes in an invisible the probability of this “believe it or not” entity in the sky who listens to them occurrence is about 90 per cent. In a large R. Hadley and answers their prayers and so on, country such as the USA it is virtually Adelaide SA paranoid/self-deceptive. But where 60 The Skeptic June 10 did these believers get their ‘facts’ to Jesus ... again their founder and is not proof for support such belief in these entities? their beliefs. Not even Mike believes I would suggest through conspiracy Hindu Gods founded Hinduism. theories (for ‘conspiracy’ choose ou should have stuck to the So Hinduism’s existence cannot be whichever dictionary definition you Y decision to close correspondence evidence of these Gods’ existence. wish); in other words, the Bible, Koran, started by Martin Bridgstock’s I suggest the Editor now close this etc and numerous other ‘words of articles in 2008 rather than let Mike correspondence, allowing Mike time to God(s)’ tomes penned in the distant Myerson display (yet again) his biblical attend Logic I. past by ordinary mortals. Yet because ignorance and inability to think clearly. of their popular appeal, gods are I will dissect only one of his many David Goss considered to be a ‘fact’ by millions of assertions. I had discussed the historical Mawson ACT believers. evidence for Jesus’ existence then added Please note: I am aware that there that Christianity’s existence was proof Editor’s note: Agreed, this may be a ‘few grains of truth’ among that Jesus existed. Meyerson says that correspondence is now truly closed. the religious chaff. Might similar grains on that argument the 330,000,000 of truth also exist among the 9/11 Hindu Gods also exist. chaff? All but Meyerson can see this To sum up, why is it that belief in argument’s flaw. The existence of a gods is accorded such wide acceptance religion or movement with a founder when there is no evidence and yet the is evidence the founder existed but 9/11 conspiracy theories, which I would not evidence for claims about him or suggest contain at least some evidence, beliefs advocated. Examples include are considered paranoid and self- Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and deceptive according to Dr Wilson? Marxism. But some have no founder. To adapt Dr Wilson’s sign off: a They emerged from ethnic/tribal warning to us Skeptics all, perhaps? groups or from amalgamating different ideas. Examples include animistic Terry Fowler religions, Hinduism and Shinto. Roseville NSW Their existence says nothing about cryptic crossword solution Puzzle solution

A. 10

F F U T S T H G I R E H T

S B. No E B C G E H N S

I T A N I M U L L I L I V

E C. Yes, possibly - during the transition to/from daylight

L T S O A O L saving time

E B S Y A R R O R E P M E + Zero, because it contains (x-x).

B S H A U E S

C I T P E S I T N A H S A

R R S L T

B TRIVIA QUIZ SOLUTION

E V E T C I D A R T N O

C 1. Trying to finish his dinner, which consisted of a pork

T N L M S T

R chop with hot apple sauce and a glass of warm wine.

S T E L U M A Y T U D S O He was called away from the table and on return found

I G C E A E R a cold chop and cold wine but still-warm apple sauce.

N G I S E L O R A M A G I

R 2. The Great Plague had caused all universities to close for

I U R I O A R

O the time being.

S S E S U O H D E T N U A H

3. Recording Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. 61 r e g u l a r s Horoscope Your Stars: June 2010 With our Astrologer Dr Duarf Ekaf

Aries: 19 April-13 May Scorpio: 23 Nov-29 Nov Money is on your mind this As predicted by Nostradamus, 2010 month, as it is every month. will be followed by 2011. This is It’s on my mind too as good news for you as it means I have not been paid to you will not miss out on a write the rest of your whole year of your life. In star sign. Sorry, just an amazing validation of make up the rest the powers of Astrology, yourself. the ancients, using the stars, also predicted Taurus: one year would 14 May-19 June follower another in People born under order! However, I your star sign are am not taking bets usually over the on 2013. top and beside themselves. If this is Ophiuchus: you then you need to 30 Nov-17 Dec find your balance. You The planets of Vulcan can try a naturopath but and Gallifrey are moving a good lie down and a cup into your star sign this of tea is cheaper. Your lucky month with Tatooine moving year is 2009, which is a pity as it out. It’s time to trek to see a won’t be back for a very long time. Doctor. I note that people of your star sign watch too much science Gemini: 20 June-20 July fiction on TV. It’s another day and another week and yet another year. Well it’s better than your life with bad news ... or a close Sagittarius: 18 Dec-18 Jan the alternative. The stars are shining relative may pop over for dinner with Eating an apple a day will make your on you, but then again they shine on good and bad news ... or no one comes greengrocer richer. In fact, a well everyone except when it’s cloudy. So, for dinner but you get good news from balanced diet is a good alternative to before you go outside today, take a a friend and/or a relative. It’s amazing alternative medicine which is really no look at the sky. If it’s cloudy stay in how accurate the stars can be. alternative at all. Your lucky moon is bed. If you can see the stars, go back Virgo: 16 Sept-30 Oct Naiad, a tiny moon of Neptune. You’ll to bed as it’s night time. be very lucky if you ever get to see it. Your love of curried baked-beans is Cancer: 21 July-9 August causing a bit of a stink with friends Capricorn: 19 Jan-15 Feb Your friends cannot understand why and workmates. Yes, they want some A chance meeting with an old friend you are a skeptic, especially when too. Mind you, people of your star will bring back memories. Wow, that’s you subscribe to a skeptical magazine sign are great in the kitchen ... when a really lame prediction, even for me! that features an Astrology column. it comes to washing up... but forget Okay ... A chance meeting with a I tried to write a skeptical column about the cooking. Your lucky animal stranger will bring back no memories for an Astrology magazine once but is a Dodo, which is sadly extinct. at all. Hmm ... no. That’s still rubbish. it was rejected! Tell your friends that Right ... A chance meeting with ... people born under their star signs are Libra: 31 Oct-22 Nov also skeptical by nature and should Now is the time to head for a Mind Aquarius: 16 Feb-11 March & subscribe to this magazine! Body Spirit Festival and get your aura cleansed and your hog washed. It is Pisces: 12 March-18 April Leo: 10 August-15 Sept also a good place to see crapitalism Don’t bother - nothing astrological A long lost relative may come into in action. I’m sure the exhibitors are (or even logical) happens to you this your life this month with good news ... good book keepers with all that cash month. Maybe next month.Time to or a long lost relative may come into being handed over. (ATO take note.) stay in bed and read The Skeptic. 62 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Are you skeptical? ? ? ? ? ? ? Skeptics think critically where there is doubt. ? ? The Skepticpromotes skepticism, reason, science, education, critical thinking and common sense. ? ? ? ? ? ? Skeptics analyse claims. ? ? The Skeptic investigates paranormal and pseudoscience beliefs and practices from a rational and scientific perspective. ? ? ? ? ? ? Skeptics are open-minded. ? ? But not so open that our brains fall out! An open mind is not an empty head. ? ? ? ? ? ? Skeptics seek the evidence. ? ? The Skeptic publishes findings that are sometimes humorous, often sobering and always fascinating. ? ? An informative and factual resource for the public and media. ? ? ? ? ? ? We invite you to subscribe to The Skeptic. ? ? The Skeptic is published quarterly by Australian Skeptics Inc. ? ? Complete and post or fax this form, phone us, or visit www.skeptics.com.au ? ? ? ? Cheques, money orders and credit cards accepted. ? ? ? ? ? ? Name: ………………………………………………………………………...... ……………… ? ? ? ? ? ? Address: ………………………………………………………...... …………………………… ? ? ? ? Phone number(s): ……………………………………………………..……...... ………………. ? ? ? ? ? ? Email: ……………………………………………...... ………………………………………… ? ? ? ? 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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA NOVEMBER 26-28, 2010 AUSTRALIAN SKEPTICS 26TH ANNUAL CONVENTION Go to www.tamaustralia.org for ticket sales and other details

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