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Hear leading scientists, scholars, and thinkers discuss the most important issues of our time. Hosted by .

#146 Dr. — # 130 Dr. DeBra Soh—the end # 113 Dave ruBIn— # 106 Dr. DanIel ChIrot— Weird earth: Debunking Strange of Gender: Debunking the Myths Don’t Burn this Book: you Say you Want a revolution? Ideas about our Planet about Sex & Identity in our Society thinking for yourself in an radical Idealism and its tragic age of unreason Consequences #145 GreG lukIanoff—Mighty # 129 Dr. Mona Sue WeISSMark Ira: the aClu’s controversial involve- —the Science of Diversity # 112 ann Druyan—Cosmos: # 105 Dr. DIana PaSulka— ment in the Skokie case of 1977. Possible Worlds. how science and american Cosmic: ufos, # 128 MIChael ShellenBerGer civilization grew up together religion, and technology #144 Dr. aGuStIn fuenteS— —apocalypse never: Why environ- Why We Believe: evolution and the mental alarmism hurts us all human Way of Being # 127 Dr. WIllIaM Perry and #143 Dr. nICholaS ChrIStakIS— toM CollIna—the Button: the apollo’s arrow: the Profound and new nuclear arms race and Presi- enduring Impact of Coronavirus on dential Power from truman to trump the Way We live # 126 Sarah SColeS—they are #142 Dr. PhIlIP Goff— already here: ufo Culture and Galileo’s error: foundations for a Why We See Saucers new Science of Consciousness # 125 Dr. BJorn loMBorG— #141 rICharD kreItner— false alarm: how Climate Change Break it up: Secession, Division, Panic Costs us trillions, hurts the and the Secret history of america's Poor, and fails to fix the Planet Imperfect union # 124 Dr. DavID J. halPerIn— # 140 Dr. reBeCCa WraGG Intimate alien: the hidden Story of SykeS—kindred: neanderthal life, the ufo love, and art # 123 GeralD PoSner— # 139 Dr. Shelby Steele—Shame: Pharma: Greed, lies, and the how america’s Past Sins have Poisoning of america Polarized our Country & the film What killed Michael Brown? # 122 Dr. Walter SCheIDel— escape from rome: the failure of # 138 DouGlaS Murray— empire and the road to Prosperity the Madness of 2020 # 121 Dr. MarIa konnIkova— # 137 Marta ZaraSka—Growing the Biggest Bluff: how I learned to young: how friendship, optimism, & Pay attention, Master Myself, and Win kindness Can help you live to 100 # 120 Dr. anDreW raDer— # 136 Dr. GaD SaaD— Beyond the known: how explo- the Parasitic Mind: how Infectious ration Created the Modern World Ideas are killing Common Sense and Will take us # 135 Dr. Paul halPern— # 119 hoWarD BlooM—einstein, : the epic Quest to , and Me: a Search understand the Quantum nature for the Soul in the Power Pits of # 111 Dr. SCott Barry kaufMan # 104 JuDIth fInlaySon— of Cause and effect rock and roll —transcend: the new Science you are What your Grandparents of Self-actualization ate: …nutrition, experience, # 134 Dr. JoSePh henrICh— # 118 Dr. Stuart ruSSell— epigenetics and the origins of the WeIrDest People in the human Compatible: artificial Intelli- # 110 Dr. Bart ehrMan—heaven Chronic Disease World: how the West Became gence and the Problem of Control and hell: a history of the Psychologically Peculiar and # 103 Dr. roBert frank— # 117 Dr. Matt rIDley— Particularly Prosperous # 109 Dr. neIl ShuBIn— under the Influence: Putting Peer how Works: and Why Some assembly required: Pressure to Work # 133 Dr. MIChael e. It flourishes in freedom MCCullouGh—the kindness Decoding four Billion years of life, of Strangers: how a Selfish ape # 116 Dr. hoWarD Steven from ancient to Dna # 102 Dr. ChrIStoPher ryan— Invented a new Moral Code frIeDMan—ultimate : Civilized to Death: the Price of the We Place on life # 108 Dr. BrIan Greene— Progress # 132 Dr. leonarD MloDInoW until the end of time: Mind, —Stephen hawking: a Memoir of # 115 Dr. MattheW CoBB— Matter, and our Search for # 101 Dr. huGo MerCIer—Not friendship and the Idea of the Brain: the Past Meaning in an evolving universe Born Yesterday: The Science of Who and future of We Trust and What We Believe # 131 Dr. Stuart rItChIe— # 107 Dr. freD kaPlan— Science fictions: how , , # 114 katherIne SteWart—the the Bomb: Presidents, Generals, # 100 Dr.MIChael SherMer— negligence, and hype undermine Power Worshippers: Inside the Dan- and the Secret history of 100th episode Special: Ask Me the Search for truth gerous rise of religious nationalism nuclear War Almost Anything #6 millions of downloads

Hear leading scientists, scholars, and thinkers discuss the most important issues of our time. Hosted by Michael Shermer.

# 99 Dr. BoBBy Duffy—Why We’re # 91 JaMeS trauB—What Was Conversations: A Very Practical Guide #66 Dr. ChrIStIan lISt— Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Liberalism?: The Past, Present, and Why Free Will is Real Theory of Human Misunderstanding Promise of a Noble Idea # 82 Dr. PhIl ZuCkerMan— What It Means to Be Moral: # 65 Dr.-- # 98 Dr. roBert PennoCk— # 90 Dr. Mel konner—Believers: Why Religion Is Not Necessary for Upheaval:Turning Points for Nations An Instinct for Truth: Curiosity and Faith in Human Nature Living an Ethical Life in Crisis the Moral Character of Science # 89 Dr. —out- # 81 Dr. BruCe hooD— # 64 Dr. MIChael toMaSello— # 97 aMBer SCorah—Leaving growing God: A Beginner’s Guide Possessed: Why We Want More Becoming Human: A Theory of Than We Need Ontogeny

# 80 Bryan WalSh: End Times— # 63 Dr. heCtor a. GarCIa— A Brief Guide to the End of the World Sex, Power, & Partisanship: How Evolutionary Science Makes # 79 Dr. anthony kronMan— Sense of Our Political Divide The Assault on American Excellence ask Me anything # 5 Dr.MIChael # 78 Dr. DonalD hoffMan—The SherMer—“Are the of Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Jesus Unbelievable?” Debate Hid the Truth from Our Eyes Postmortem

# 77 Dr. lee MCIntyre—The # 62 Dr. Mark Moffett— Scientific Attitude: Defending Science The Human Swarm: How Our from Denial, Fraud, & Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall

# 76 WIllIaM PounDStone— # 61 Dr. rICharD WranGhaM— The Doomsday Calculation: The Goodness Paradox: The How an Equation that Predicts Strange Relationship Between the Future is Transforming Everything Virtue and Violence in Human We Know About Life and the Evolution Universe # 60 Dr. nICholaS a. ChrIStakIS # 75 CharleS fIShMan— —Blueprint: The Evolutionary Ori- One Giant Leap: The Impossible gins of a Good Society Mission that Flew us to the Moon #59 CaSS r.SunSteIn— # 74 Dr. ShaIlI JaIn— On Freedom The Unspeakable Mind: Stories of Trauma and # 58 Ben ShaPIro—The Right Healing from the Frontlines Side of History: How Reason & Moral of PTSD Science Purpose Made the West Great

# 73 anDreW SeIDel— # 57 Dr. franS de Waal—When The Founding Myth: Why Christian Animals Weep (& laugh, love, fight, Nationalism is Un-American are afraid, get angry, seek revenge, & other human-like emotions) # 72 roBert ZuBrIn—The Case the Witness: Exiting a Religion and # 88 DanIel oBerhauS— for Space: How the Revolution in # 56 Dr. tyler CoWen— Finding a Life Extraterrestrial Languages Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of How an Views the World Limitless Possibility # 96 Dr. CatherIne WIlSon— # 87 DouGlaS Murray—The ask Me anything #4 Dr.MIChael How to Be an Epicurean: Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race, # 71 Dr. MIChael SherMer— SherMer—The Problem of Evil The Ancient Art of Living Well and Identity What is Truth? # 55 Dr. DavID Sloan WIlSon— # 70 Dr. BrIan keatInG—Losing # 95 Dr. John MartIn fISCher— # 86 Dr. neIl DeGraSSe tySon This View of Life: Completing the Death, Immortality & Meaning in Life the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmol- Darwinian Revolution —Letters from an Astrophysicist ogy, Ambition, and the Perils of Sci- # 94 Dr. DavID leISer—How We ence’s Highest Honor # 85 Dr. — #53 aDaM hIGGInBothaM— Misunderstand and Why Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite China Syndrome II: The True Story it Matters # 69 Dr. BarBara tverSky— of What Happened at Chernobyl Potential Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes # 93 Dr. Geoffrey MIller— Thought Virtue Signaling: Essays on # 84 Dr. ChrIStof koCh— # 52 BruCe SChneIer—Hacked! Darwinian and Free Speech The Feeling of Life Itself: #68 Dr. MIChael ruSe— Security and Survival in a Hyper- Why Consciousness is Widespread The Meanings of Life Connected World # 92: tIM SaMuelS— but Can’t Be Computed Future Man: How to Evolve and #67 Dr. ChrIStIan SMIth— # 51 GreGG hurWItZ—Into the Thrive in the Age of Trump, # 83 Dr. Peter BoGhoSSIan— Atheist Overreach: What Atheism Light: Myths…Archetypes, and Mansplaining, and #MeToo How to Have Impossible Can’t Deliver Trump PO Box 338 SKEPTICS SOCIETY & SKEPTIC MAGAZINE Altadena, CA, 91001 626-794-3119 (phone) 626-794-1301 (fax) Promoting Science and [email protected]

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2 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 EDITORIAL / ADVISORY BOARD CONTENTS Arthur Benjamin Professor of Mathematics, COLUMN 58 The Testimony Harvey Mudd College, Magician of Witnesses: Roger Bingham 7 The SkepDoc Raising the Dead Science Author & Television Essayist New Rumpelstiltskin? How Continuous Change, Discrete Events, Napoleon Chagnon Spins Straw into Gold and the Nature of Reality Professor of Anthropology, U.C. Santa Barbara by Harriet Hall, M.D. by Tim Callahan K.C. Cole Science Writer, 97 Authors & Contributors 74 Do Diversity Training Richard Dawkins Emeritus Professor, University of Oxford Programs Work? Creating a Culture of Inclusion through Jared Diamond Professor of Geography & COVER ARTICLES: Scientific Reasoning Environmental Health Sciences, UCLA QANON & CONSPIRACY by Mona Sue Weissmark Clayton J. Drees THEORIES Professor of History,Virginia Wesleyan College 77 Unpacking Political Life in America Professional Magician & Mentalist 5; Conspiracy Theories Why We Can't Unsee Patterns— The Skeptics Society’s Social and Gregory Forbes Real or Imagined—Once We See Them Political Attitudes Study Professor of Biology, by Robert D. Kirvel by Marshall McCready, Anondah Grand Rapids Community College Saide, and Kevin McCaffree John Gribbin Astrophysicist & Science Writer 67 QAnon in 7; How Do You Get People William Jarvis Conspiratorial Context President, National Council Against Health by Michael Shermer to Care About Truth in Fraud, Professor, Loma Linda University Politics? Lawrence M. Krauss 69 QAnon is Just a Warmed by Gleb Tsipursky Theoretical Physicist, State University Over Witch Panic; and It’s 87 Are Laws of Nature Christof Koch Also Very Dangerous Professor of Cognitive & Behavioral Biology by Daniel Loxton Discovered or Invented? California Institute of Technology by Sima Dimitrijev

William McComas Director, project to advance Science Education University of 100TH ISSUE SPECIAL REVIEWS Bill Nye Director, The Planetary Society 53 The Art of the Skeptic 8: Cynically Skeptical Leonard Mlodinow Finding Your Niche A review of Cynical Theories: How Physicist, Caltech if You Love Both Science and Art by Pat Linse, with additional Activist Scholarship Made Everything Richard Olson About Race, Gender and Identity by Professor of History of Science, Harvey illustrations by Daniel Loxton Mudd College, Claremont Graduate School Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay. reviewed by Gabriel Andrade Donald Prothero Professor of Geology, Cal Poly, Pomona

Nancy Segal ARTICLES 8< The Gods of the West Professor of Psychology, CSU. Fullerton A review of Return of the Strong Gods:

Eugenie Scott :Fat Man and Little Boy Nationalism, Populism, and the Future (Retired) Executive Director, On the 75th Anniversary of Nuclear of the West by R.R. Reno. National Center for Science Education Weapons, a Moral Case for Their Use in reviewed by George Michael Julia Sweeney Ending WWII and the Deterrence of Writer, Actor, Comedian Great Power Wars since, and a Call to Frank Sulloway Eventually Eliminate Them JUNIOR SKEPTIC Research Scholar, MIT by Michael Shermer Carol Tavris 98 The Honest Truth Social / Author About Vaccines 49 The Rise and Fall of Charles by Daniel Loxton Stuart Vyse Behavioral Scientist, Author Willson Peale’s Philadelphia Museum Cover illustration by Pat Linse. by Lee Alan Dugatkin Original reference photo by Azret Ayubov.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 3 COLUMN The SkepDoc

New Rumpelstiltskin? How Gwyneth Paltrow Spins Straw into Gold

BY HARRIET HALL, M.D.

The phenomenal success of Gwyneth tual godmother of Gwyneth Paltrow” Madame Yale, like Paltrow, was sell- Paltrow’s company truly boggles (https://bit.ly/3f0T8gV). ing beauty, leading customers to believe the mind. has put a new spin on A century before today’s celebrity they could look like her if they used her nonsense and made gullibility and ig- health gurus, this American business- products. Both made claims of attaining norance profitable. Is she a 21st century woman made a fortune marketing her- biochemical purity. One Goop product Rumpelstiltskin? self. Born Maude Mayberg in 1852, she claims to increase cell turnover and In the fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin had called herself Madame Yale. A former detoxify pores. Madame Yale sold a blood the knack of spinning straw into gold. He homemaker with a talent for personal tonic that would “drive impurities from was a fictional character, but Gwyneth branding, she gave public presentations the system as the rain drives the debris Paltrow is very real, and her Goop empire to preach her “Religion of Beauty.” She along the gutters.” has spun her own brand of “wellness” sold a variety of lotions and potions that Madame Yale’s most advertised straw into financial gold. But the analogy she claimed had turned her from a sal- product was Fruitcura, an elixir that she with Rumpelstiltskin is imperfect. Straw low, fat, exhausted woman into the styl- had come upon during a dark period is a real, material substance with many ish beauty that stood before them today. when “my cheeks were sunken, eyes hol- uses; Goop is all about and well- low and vacant in expression, and my ness. What Paltrow is selling is more of a complexion was to all appearances hope- mishmash of nebulous, immaterial ideas. lessly ruined. My suffering was almost Much of it is imaginary, and the claims unbearable.” Fruitcura brought her from for her products are not based on reality. “a life of despair into an existence of sun- The appeal is hard for a skeptic and scien- shine and renewed sensations of youth.” tist like me to understand. She said that helping her sisters in mis- The name Goop with its negative ery was a sacred purpose. overtone is also puzzling. Why didn’t Pal- The pursuit of beauty might be dis- MMAA E trow choose a more pleasant-sounding DDAME MM.. YYAALLE paraged as vanity; but then, as today, pur- name? When I learned the explanation, I suing wellness was considered not only TH was disappointed. Apparently, someone E CURE FOR ALL morally acceptable but laudable. told her that all big internet companies FFEEMALEEMMAALLEE CCOMPLAINTSCOOMMPPLLAAIINNTTSS The FDA sued Madame Yale for T matters not from what source the had two O’s in their title, so she just trouble may arise, one bottle will misbranding, seized her products, and I show a decided improvement, and in added her initials on either side of the most cases a half dozen bottles will insure condemned them and her as . She a cure. But ladies are advised to continue O’s: ergo, Goop. If her name had been until at least one dozen bottles have been was fined $500 and barred from selling a taken. Dominique Morris (Doom) or Penelope For regulating the periods of young girls third of her most popular products. Was Fruitcura will be found infallible. It is Perkins (Poop), Or Felicia Larkin (Fool) unnecessary to quote the various forms of she a wellness visionary ahead of her female weakness. Fruitcura has a dis- would she have applied the same metric? tinct action on the female system, and time, or a scam artist? She was both. reaches every weak point, giving instan- taneous relief and effecting a cure in every It must have been a good marketing deci- instance. sion because Goop quickly grew into a DIRECTIONS What is Goop? Take one teaspoonful of Fruitcura three times $250 million corporation. daily after meals. Great care should be taken in So what, exactly, is Goop all about? It the diet. Every woman should decide for herself what agrees or what disagrees with her stomach. calls itself a lifestyle and wellness com- Gwyneth Paltrow’s Godmother Price of FRUITCURA $1.98 per bottle : 3 for $5.50 pany. “We operate from a place of cu- M M. YALE. The Goop phenomenon is not un- ME. riosity and nonjudgment, and we start BEAUTY and COMPLEXION SPECIALIST precedented. A recent article in Smith- hard conversations, crack open taboos, sonian magazine tells the story of a A label from a bottle of Madame Yale’s and look for connection and resonance 19th century forerunner, an American Fruitcura. The art has been recreated everywhere we can find it,” the com- woman the author dubbed “the spiri- for clarity from a low resolution photo. pany advertises, and “we believe that

4 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 people can take what serves them and shop. For instance, “G.Tox Detoxifying Goop Wellness leave what doesn’t.” Superpowder” is a mixture of detoxifying That explains why scientists and nutrients and botanical extracts to help Products skeptics object to Goop. No judgment, neutralize dietary and environmental no looking at evidence, no asking what toxins for healthy, vibrant skin. Price: is effective, no prioritizing reality over $60 for a month’s supply. fantasy; just “looking for connection Among categories under the “Shop” $66. and resonance.” And people are encour- tab, you can choose or JaDe eGG aged to take what they imagine “serves” Cosmic Health. Or you can see what Pal- harness the them (makes them feel good?) rather trow chooses in the “GP Picks” category. power of work, than asking what is true. Among those are a “This Smells like My , ” candle for $75, a Goop University and a kegel- An Empire is Born sweatshirt for $195, rings like physical $27 practice. VAMPIRE REPELLENT Goop started as a newsletter and quickly ($55), a handblown carafe ($1320), a keep it in An energy-refreshing scent developed into a vast enterprise with a powder to make 20 servings of saffron or on a with a tendency space that to conjure website, an online shop, a print maga- latte ($64), an amethyst crystal-infused is sacred up positivity. zine, a podcast, a boutique, and a docu- water bottle to help you tap into your to you or (We assume has good this is a joke mentary series on . The company own intuition ($84), a set of 49 “Inner vibes but you is now worth a quarter of a billion dollars. Compass Cards” to guide your intuition never It even held a one-day wellness sum- ($55), a Travel Meditation Kit ($119), a know.) mit, which quickly sold out despite charg- Firewood Tote ($499), a yoga mat ($128), ing $500-$1500 per ticket. It featured a a bamboo toothbrush ($8), and all kinds flavored oxygen bar, readings, an IV of supplements, detox products, ques- drip bar, wellness activations, a Workout tionable wellness books such as The Shop, a Clean Beauty Apothecary shop, Longevity Diet and Hero Foods, over- bee pollen smoothies, kale ice cream, an priced clothing with pictures of Paltrow elaborate swag bag, a free worry bracelet wearing them to make them look more for each attendee, and panels where Pal- attractive, and much more. The products trow herself chatted with girlfriends about are mainly aimed at women, but they leech facials and with psychotherapists don’t neglect men (“G.Tox Himalayan about the importance of allowing yourself Salt Scalp Scrub Shampoo” for $42). $68 ROSE to be imperfect. People magazine covered The candle that “Smells like My QUARTZ 1 the conference documenting “the crazi- Vagina” started out as a joke and was CRYSTAL (and est things we witnessed” and noting that sold for $75, and, unbelievably, it polished 99% of the attendees were female. quickly sold out and was then offered steel) STRAW. on eBay for $250. Said to Products Sold on Goop An article on their website tells you radiate a $34. kIt heart- Goop first became notorious for selling “How to have fulfilling phone sex.” Maybe (lip balm/oil/bamboo opening, jade eggs to insert into the vagina to that came in handy for singles during the spoon) refresh the breath calming and remove excess oral vibe. “improve your sex life, balance your COVID-19 social isolation. buildup by swishing menstrual cycles, and intensify your flavored coconut oil around your mouth for feminine energy.” After the claims got 5 to 20 minutes. them reported for deceptive advertising, The six episodes of the Netflix series the company was sued and agreed to pay Goop Lab are a showcase in human gulli- $145,000, issued refunds to customers, bility. Paltrow and other Goop executives and deleted all such health claims for listen to nonsense and try out implausi- the jade egg from its advertising.2 That ble things for themselves. Considering little stumble didn’t hurt the company Paltrow’s enthusiastic recommendations as they could easily afford to pay the for and jade vaginal penalty, bad publicity is good for busi- eggs, it is hilarious to hear her admit that ness, and despite Health magazine ad- she didn’t know what a vagina was: she vising women “don’t put one in your didn’t know what “vulva” meant and she vagina,” they’re still selling jade eggs. always thought “vagina” meant the whole $46. GLORIA STEINEM TEA SET. Three flavors (2.8 It’s fascinating to peruse the hun- thing. She thanks her informant for the oz. each) Chosen to evoke feelings of determina- dreds of products sold in Goop’s online anatomy lesson! tion, drive, and can-do-it energy.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 5 Episode 1 sent staffers to a retreat is supposed to have anti-aging effects. ence those whose minds have not already in Jamaica to take psychedelic mush- Sure enough, five days of a low-calorie been irretrievably Gooped up. rooms, which are legal there. We see vegan diet and other brief interventions When Goop praised coffee enemas them giggling uncontrollably, breaking are followed by slight decreases in the as a good way to “supercharge your an- down in tears, and afterwards we hear blood test results. But there is no accurate nual goop detox,” Edzard Ernst dubbed it them say how they felt the experience test of “biological age,” and it really “a triumph of ignorance over science.” was healing. mushroom therapy doesn’t have any scientific meaning. An Gwyneth Paltrow was ridiculed for remains very controversial. It produces online quiz said my biological age was 59; recommending vaginal steaming, which hallucinations and is sometimes per- I’m 74 and some days I feel like 94. involves squatting over a basin of hot ceived as life-altering; but it commonly In episode 5, energy healers work on water and herbs for 30 minutes or so. She causes vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, and staff members. A chiropractor touches a thinks it can relieve menstrual cramps, muscle weakness, and can even cause patient and then “moves the energy cleanse the vagina and uterus, boost fertil- psychosis. Researchers at Johns Hop- around” with his hands three feet away ity, and even relieve headaches. Gynecolo- kins reported a high incidence of “bad from the patient’s body, which he claims gists quickly protested, saying that it had trips”, with nearly 11 percent of users is where the energy can be felt most no health benefits and was dangerous, po- reporting that they put themselves or strongly. Staff members cooperate by tentially causing burns and infections. others at risk for physical harm.3 writhing around, groaning, and reporting Goop claims to empower women, In episode 2, “Cold Comfort,” the how they feel. It’s all imagination: there is but gynecologist Jen Gunter pointed out extreme athlete Wim Hof teaches partic- no such thing as a human energy field, that “Giving people incorrect informa- ipants to tolerate sitting naked in the and tests have shown that practitioners tion is the opposite of empowerment.” snow and plunging into frigid water. are fooling themselves. The chiropractor Paltrow thinks the criticism in the (Well, not completely naked; they did tries to explain the scientific basis of how media is unfair, saying it is just oppor- wear skimpy swimsuits.) He says the it works but only succeeds in making a tunistic clickbait.5 She insists Goop is not breathing method he teaches will raise fool of himself and demonstrating his ig- giving health advice. Maybe not techni- the body’s pH. Well, duh! But that’s not a norance of quantum physics. cally, but it is advertised as a “wellness” good thing. Hyperventilation produces Episode 6 is all about intuition. It site, and what is wellness if not a synonym respiratory alkalosis, one of the four claims everyone is intuitive and can for health? Each episode of “The Goop basic categories of disruption of acid- communicate with the dead. It features Lab” is preceded by a disclaimer that it is base homeostasis. It is an abnormal con- a medium and a parapsychologist: that for entertainment and information only. dition that causes lightheadedness, probably says all you need to know. The It would more properly read “for disinfor- tingling, and muscle spasms in the hands medium did a on a staff mation and indulgence of fantasies only.” and feet. In the episode, one participant member that was inadvertently hilari- reports those symptoms and says it feels ous and self-refuting. Every suggestion Queen Midas? just like her panic attacks, but without from her cold reading was emphatically After careful consideration, I think Pal- the emotion. If continued long enough, rejected by the staffer and then another trow would be better compared to King hyperventilation can make you pass out. staffer spoke up to say the medium had Midas than to Rumpelstiltskin: everything Because of that possibility, Wim Hof obviously been in contact with her re- she touches turns to gold. King Midas died of starvation; but so far, criticism and law- rightly cautions against using his method cently deceased grandmother! “That suits haven’t managed to affect her goopy happens sometimes,” the medium ex- when driving or diving. After passing endeavors. The FDA stopped her “spiritual out, normal pH balance is quickly re-es- plained. Sure it does. godmother” Madame Yale, but nothing tablished by the body’s normal compen- Jonathan Jarry, of McGill Universi- seems able to touch Paltrow. satory mechanisms. tiy’s Office for Science and Society in Michael Shermer’s book explained Episode 3 covers female sexuality, Montreal, Canada, criticized the series Why People Believe Weird Things, but the telling women they need permission to for its “coronation of personal experi- prodigious success of Goop still baffles experience sexual and need to ence,” for suggesting that the subjective me. I guess it shouldn’t; after all, there are be taught how to have orgasms. Isn’t experiences of a few select individuals plenty of people who still believe vaccines that demeaning and sexist? It features can mean more than the results of ran- cause autism and that the earth is flat. a roomful of naked women and photos domized, controlled clinical trials.4 showing the variations in appearance of the normal vulva, so that might appeal Criticism to some prurient viewers. Critical reactions by scientists and doctors REFERENCES Episode 4 is about anti-aging claims. were quick and devastating. Goop-bashing 1. https://bit.ly/2Ugeqip 2. https://bit.ly/373zs9n) A blood test of “biological age” is applied became a popular sport. Goop-bashing 3. https://bit.ly/2XEQWWx) to Paltrow and staff members before and with logic and evidence may not accom- 4. https://bit.ly/3gYKa5p). after they go on a short trial of a diet that plish much, but it is fun and may influ- 5. https://bit.ly/2AFcXLR).

6 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 ARTICLE Fat Man and Little Boy On the 75th Anniversary of Nuclear Weapons, a Moral Case for Their Use in Ending WWII and the Deterrence of Great Power Wars Since, and a Call to Eventually Eliminate Them BY MICHAEL SHERMER

Three quarters of a century ago this summer, R. Groves, had another Fat Man-type plutonium im- on July 16, August 6, August 9, and September 2, plosion bomb ready to go after August 24 that would nuclear weapons altered our civilization forever. On have likely killed another 50,000 to 100,000 people.2 July 16, in , the Trinity plutonium And had the Japanese military hardliners had their bomb detonated with the energy equivalent of 22 way to continue the war into the fall, Groves had kilotons (22,000 metric tons) of TNT, sending a three more bombs readied for September and another mushroom cloud 39,000 feet into the atmosphere, three for October. So President Harry Truman was left a crater 76 meters wide filled with radioactive not exaggerating when he threatened Japan with “a glass called trinitite (melted quartz grained sand), rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never and could be heard as far away as El Paso, Texas. On been seen on this Earth.” Truman did agonize about August 6, the Little Boy gun-type uranium-235 dropping more nukes on Japan, troubled as he was by bomb exploded with an energy equivalent of 16-18 the thought of more innocents and non-combatants kilotons of TNT, flattening 69 percent of Hiroshi- being killed, and he wrestled away from the military ma’s buildings and killing an estimated 80,000 peo- the authority to do so (note Groves’ handwritten ad- ple and injuring another 70,000. On August 9, the dendum to his memo that “It is not to be released on Fat Man plutonium implosion-type bomb with the Japan without express authority from the President” energy equivalence of 19-23 kilotons of TNT was Ever since U.S. presidents have had sole authority to dropped and leveled around 44 percent of Nagasaki, use nuclear weapons). This was unnecessary, how- killing an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people and ever, as on August 15 Emperor Hirohito, against the severely wounding another 60,000.1 wishes of some of Japan’s military leaders, announced As documented in the memo below dated Au- on the radio that Japan would capitulate. On Septem- gust 10, 1945, if the Japanese had not surrendered, the ber 2, they signed the surrender documents in Tokyo head of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie Bay, ending the Second World War.3

On July 16, the Trinity plutonium bomb detonated with the energy equivalent of 22 kilotons (22,000 metric tons) of TNT. This is the explosion at 16 milliseconds.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 7 Hiroshima: The aftermath of Little Boy. https://bit.ly/3gqEgIH On August 6, the Little Boy gun-type uranium-235 bomb exploded with an energy equivalent of 16-18 kilotons of TNT, flattening 69 percent of Hiroshima’s buildings and killing an estimated 80,000 people and injuring another 70,000. https://bit.ly/3lgv7X1

On August 9, the Fat Man plutonium implosion-type bomb with the energy equivalence of 19-23 kilotons of TNT leveled around 44 percent of Nagasaki, killing an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 people and severely wounding another 60,000. https://bit.ly/2D3dSHu Before and aftermath of Nagasaki bombing. https://bit.ly/2EwP4rC

8 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 On this 75th anniversary of the summer of the bomb I want to make the case that their use was nec- essary to end the war, that their continued existence has acted as a deterrence against another Great Power war, but that we must eliminate them entirely for the long-term existence of our civilization, and possibly our species.

***

Since 1945 a cadre of critics have proffered the claim that atomic bombs were unnecessary to bring about the end of World War II (or, at least, the Fat Man Na- gasaki bomb was superfluous), and thus this act was immoral, illegal, or even a crime against humanity. Robert Oppenheimer and other physicists like Leo Szilard who worked on the Manhattan Project ex- pressed reservations. “The physicists have known sin,” Oppenheimer opined. He went to Truman and con- fessed “Mr. President. I feel I have blood on my hands,” to which the President recalled “I told him the blood was on my hands—to let me worry about that.” Truman promptly dismissed Oppenheimer and told Secretary of State Dean Acheson “I don’t want to see that son-of-a-bitch in this office ever again.” 4 In 1946 the Federal Council of Churches issued a statement declaring, “As American Christians, we are deeply penitent for the irresponsible use already made of the atomic bomb. We are agreed that, whatever be one’s judgment of the war in principle, the surprise bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are morally in- 5 Had the Japanese military hardliners had their way to continue the war into defensible.” In 1967, the linguist and leftist politico the fall, Groves had three more bombs readied for September and another called the two bombings “the most three for October. Here he instructs his Chief of Staff that the next bomb will unspeakable crimes in history.” 6 be ready to drop after August 24. Emperor Hirohito capitulated on August 15, More recently, in an otherwise deeply insightful thereby millions of lives of his citizens. history of genocide titled Worse Than War, the histo- rian Daniel Goldhagen opens his analysis by calling could be considered genocidal because there are only U.S. President Harry Truman “a mass murderer” be- two categories—mass and non-mass murder. cause in ordering the use of atomic weapons he “chose The virtue of continuous thinking allows us to to snuff out the lives of approximately 300,000 men, distinguish the differences between types of mass women and children.” Goldhagen opines that “it is killings (some scholars define genocide as one-sided hard to understand how any right-thinking person killing by armed people of unarmed people), their could fail to call slaughtering unthreatening Japanese context (during a state war, civil war, ethnic cleans- mass murder.” 7 In morally equating Harry Truman ing), (termination of hostilities or exter- with Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol mination of a people), and quantities (hundreds to Pot, Goldhagen allows himself to be constrained by millions) along a sliding scale. In 1946, the Polish ju- the categorical thinking that prevents one from dis- rist Raphael Lemkin created the term genocide and cerning the different kinds, levels, and motives of defined it as “a conspiracy to exterminate national, re- genocide (although he does this for other mass ligious or racial groups.” 8 That same year the U.N. killings). If one defines “genocide” broadly enough, as General Assembly defined genocide as “a denial of the when Goldhagen equates it with “mass murder” right of existence of entire human groups.” 9 More re- (without ever defining what, exactly, that means) then cently, in 1994 the highly respected philosopher nearly every act of killing large numbers of people Steven Katz defined genocide as “the actualization of

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 9 the intent, however successfully carried out, to murder in its totality any na- tional, ethnic, racial, religious, political, social, gender or economic group.” 10 By these definitions, the dropping of Fat Man and Little Boy were not acts of genocide, and the difference between Truman and the others is in the context and the of the act, apparent in the subtitle of Goldhagen’s book: “Genocide, Eliminationism, and the Ongoing Assault on Humanity.” In their genocidal actions against targeted people, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot had as their objective the total elimination of a group. The killing would only stop when every last pursued person was exterminated (or if the perpetrators were stopped or defeated). Truman’s goal in dropping the bombs was to end the war with Japan (which it did), not to eliminate the Japanese people (which it didn’t). That the U.S. provided considerable financial, personnel, and material support to help rebuild Japan into a world economic power puts the lie to the elimina- tionist accusation.11 More broadly, if we ground morality in the survival and flourishing of sen- tient beings,12 by that measure, then not only did Fat Man and Little Boy end the war and stop the killing, they saved lives, very probably millions of lives, A both Japanese and American. My father, Richard Shermer, was possibly one

(Top left) (A) The author’s father, Richard Shermer, in 1945, serving aboard the USS Wren (B), a Navy destroyer de- ployed to protect aircraft carriers from suicidal Kamikaze pilots B while their planes bombarded the Japanese E homeland in preparation for the invasion that never came, thanks to Fat Man and Little Boy. https://bit.ly/3li C QHdq

F

Photos C, D, E, and F were taken by Richard Shermer on board the USS Wren. (Above) E and F: the Wren pictured fore and aft. C: the aircraft car- rier USS Lexington, which the Wren protected. D: arriving in Tokyo Bay in D late August, 1945 in preparation for the surrender ceremony on Septem- ber 2, marking the end of the Second World War.

10 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 such survivor. During the Second World War he served aboard the USS Wren (DD-568), a Fletcher- class destroyer assigned to escort aircraft carriers and other large capital ships to protect them from Japan- ese submarines and especially to shoot down Kamikaze planes on what was called antiaircraft radar picket watch. His ship was so attacked several times but sustained no major damage. The Wren, in fact, was part of the larger fleet that was working its way toward Japan, protecting the carriers whose planes were bombarding the Japanese homeland in preparation for the planned invasion. My father told me that everyone onboard dreaded that day because they had heard of the horrific carnage resulting from the invasion of just two tiny islands held by the Japanese—Iwo Jima and Okinawa—and if that was any indication of what was to come with a full-scale invasion, the contemplation of it was almost too 13 much to bear. Mass bombing of Tokyo. On the night of March 9-10, 1945, 279 B-29s During the invasion of Iwo Jima there were ap- dropped 1,665 tons of bombs on Tokyo, leveling 15.8 square miles of the proximately 26,000 American casualties that included city, killing 88,000 people, injuring another 41,000, and leaving another mil- 6,821 dead in the 36-day battle. How fiercely did the lion homeless. This is the result. https://bit.ly/2Ywc5lO Japanese defend that little volcanic rock 700 miles from Japan? Of the 22,060 Japanese soldiers assigned to fight to the bitter end, only 216 survived.14 The sub- program, LeMay said September 1, because that was sequent battle for Okinawa, only 340 miles from the when there would be nothing left of Japan to bomb. Japanese mainland, was fought even more ferociously, And the death toll from conventional bombing would resulting in a staggering body count of 240,931 dead, have been just as high as that produced by the two including 77,166 Japanese soldiers, 14,009 American atomic bombs, if not higher, given the fact that previ- soldiers, plus an additional 149,193 Japanese civilians ous mass bombing raids had produced Hiroshima-level living on the island who either died fighting or com- death rates, plus the likelihood that more than just two mitted rather than let themselves be cap- cities would have been destroyed before the Japanese tured.15 With an estimated 2.3 million Japanese surrendered. Compare, for example, Little Boy’s energy soldiers and 28 million Japanese civilian militia pre- equivalent of 16,000-19,000 tons of TNT to the U.S. pared to defend their island nation to the death,16 it Strategic Bombing Survey estimate that this was the was clear to all what an invasion of the Japanese main- equivalent of 220 B-29s carrying 1,200 tons of incendi- land would entail. ary bombs, 400 tons of high-explosive bombs, and 500 It is from these cold hard facts that Truman’s advi- tons of anti-personnel fragmentation bombs, with an sors estimated that between 250,000 and one million equivalent number of casualties.20 In fact, on the night American lives would be lost in an invasion of Japan, of March 9-10, 1945, 279 B-29s dropped 1,665 tons of nicknamed Operation Downfall.17 General Douglas bombs on Tokyo, leveling 15.8 square miles of the city, MacArthur estimated that there could be a 22:1 ratio killing 88,000 people, injuring another 41,000, and of Japanese to American , which translates to a leaving another million homeless.21 minimum death toll of 5.5 million Japanese.18 By com- These facts also help refute the claim that the parison—cold though it may sound—the body count alternative scenario of dropping an atomic bomb on from both atomic bombs—about 200,000-300,000 an uninhabited island to demonstrate its destructive total (Hiroshima: 90,000–166,000 deaths, Nagasaki: force would have worked to convince the Japanese to 60,000–80,000 deaths19 )—was a bargain. surrender. Given that they refused to capitulate even In any case, if Truman hadn’t ordered the bombs after numerous cities were obliterated by conventional dropped, General Curtis LeMay and his fleet of B-29 bombs and Hiroshima was erased from the map by an bombers would have continued pummeling Tokyo and atomic bomb it seems unlikely this more benign strat- other Japanese cities into rubble. When asked to pre- egy would have worked.22 dict when the war would end based on his bombing On balance, then, dropping the atomic bombs

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 11 was the least destructive of the options on the table. to attack.” Said enemy, of course, must know that you Although we wouldn’t want to call it a moral act, it have at the ready such destructive devices, and that is was in the context of the time the least immoral act by why “The whole point of a doomsday machine is lost if the criteria of lives saved. That said, we should also you keep it a secret!” 25 recognize that the several hundred thousand killed is Dr. Strangelove was a black comedy that parodied still a colossal loss of life, and the fact that the invisible MAD by showing what can happen when things go killer of radiation continued its effects long after the terribly wrong, in this case when General Jack D. Rip- bombings should dissuade us from ever using such per becomes unhinged at the thought of “Communist weapons again. Along that sliding scale of evil, in the infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist context of one of the worst wars in human history that subversion, and the international Communist conspir- included the singularly destructive Holocaust of six acy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily flu- million murdered, it was not, pace Chomsky, the most ids” and orders a nuclear first strike against the Soviet unspeakable crime in history—not even close—but it Union. Given this unfortunate incident and knowing was an event in the annals of humanity never to be for- that the Russkis know about it and will therefore retal- gotten and, hopefully, never to be repeated. iate, General “Buck” Turgidson pleads with the presi- dent to go all out and launch a full first strike. “Mr. *** President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than ten to twenty mil- When I was an undergraduate at Pepperdine Univer- lion killed, tops, uh, depending on the breaks.” 26 sity in 1974, the father of the hydrogen bomb—Ed- This isn’t far off real projected casualties (Kubrick ward Teller—spoke at our campus when he was was a student of Cold War strategy), as in 1957 Strate- awarded an honorary doctorate. His message was gic Air Command (SAC) estimated that between 360 that deterrence works, even though at the time I re- and 525 million casualties would be inflicted in the member thinking—like so many politicos were say- first week of a nuclear exchange with the Soviet ing—“yeah, but a single slipup is all it takes.” Popular block.27 In 1968 former Secretary of Defense Robert films such as Fail Safe and Dr. Strangelove reinforced McNamara gave these figures for MAD to work: “In the point. But the blunder never came (and the the case of the Soviet Union, I would judge that a ca- close-calls were kept secret for decades). In the game pability on our part to destroy, say, one-fifth to one- theoretic strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction fourth of their population and one-half of her (MAD), deterrence works because neither side has industrial capacity would serve as an effective deter- anything to gain by initiating a first strike against the rent” (with a population of the time of about 128 mil- other nation as long as the retaliatory capability of lion, this translates to 25-32 million dead).28 A 1979 both is such that a first strike would most likely lead report from the Office of Technology Assessment for to the utter annihilation of both countries (along the U.S. Congress, entitled The Effects of Nuclear War, with much of the rest of the world). “It’s not mad!” estimated that 155 to 165 million Americans would die proclaimed Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNa- in an all-out Soviet first strike (unless people made use mara. “Mutual Assured Destruction is the foundation of existing shelters near their homes, reducing fatali- of deterrence. Nuclear weapons have no military util- ties to 110-120 million). The population of the U.S. at ity whatsoever, excepting only to deter one’s oppo- the time was 225 million, so the estimated percent nent from their use. Which means you should never, that would be killed ranged from 49 percent to 73 per- never, never initiate their use against a nuclear- cent. Staggering. equipped opponent. If you do, it’s suicide.” 23 Deterrence has worked so far—no nuclear The logic of deterrence was first articulated in weapon has been detonated in a conflict of any kind in 1946 by the American military strategist Bernard 75 years—but it would be foolish to think of deter- Brodie in his appropriately titled book The Absolute rence as a permanent solution.29 As long ago as 1795, Weapon, in which he noted the break in history that in an essay titled Perpetual Peace, Immanuel Kant atomic weapons brought with their development: worked out what such deterrence ultimately leads to: “Thus far the chief purpose of our military establish- “A war, therefore, which might cause the destruction ment has been to win wars. From now on, its chief of both parties at once…would permit the conclusion purpose must be to avert them. It can have almost no of a perpetual peace only upon the vast -ground other purpose.” 24 As Dr. Strangelove explained in of the human species.” 30 (Kant’s book title came from Stanley Kubrick’s classic Cold War film: “Deterrence is an innkeeper’s sign featuring a —not the type the art of producing in the mind of the enemy the of perpetual peace most of us strive for.) Deterrence

12 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 acts as only a temporary solution to the Hobbesian temptation to strike first (also called the security dilemma in which a na- tion arming in defense triggers other na- tions to also arm in defense), allowing both Leviathans to go about their business in rela- tive peace, settling for small proxy wars, which themselves have been in decline for decades.31

***

In the long run we need to work toward a world free of nuclear weapons. The risk of accidents or a deranged Dr. Strangelove-type character triggering a nuclear exchange is too high for a MAD deterrence strategy to be a permanent solution to the security dilemma it was invented to solve. Authors such as Richard Rhodes in his nuclear tetral- ogy (The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Dark Sun, Arsenals of Folly, and The Twilight of the Bombs32 ), and Eric Schlosser in Command and Control,33 leave readers with vertigo knowing how many close calls there have been. To name but a few: the jettisoning of a Mark IV atomic bomb in British Columbia in 1950; the crash of a B-52 carrying two Mark 39 nuclear bombs in North Carolina; the Cuban Missile Crisis; the Able Archer 83 Exercise in Western Europe that the Soviets misread as the buildup to a nuclear strike against them; the Titan II Missile explosion in Damascus, Arkansas, that narrowly avoided eradicating the entire city off the map; and Stanislav Petrov’s decision not to trigger a retaliatory strike against the U.S. based on reports from the Soviet early warn- ing satellite system of incoming ballistic missiles—it is not for nothing that Petrov is known as “the man who saved the world.” 34 Thus, in the long run we must get to Nuclear Zero, but in the short run there are so many hurdles that few think we are any- where near such a lofty goal. In two episodes of my Science Salon podcast, Fred Kaplan, the national security journalist and author of several books on nuclear weapons, and William J. Perry, Secretary of Defense under President Clinton and a staunch advocate The decline in the total number of nuclear warheads to around 16,000 from for eliminating nuclear weapons, both told the peak of around 70,000 in 1986. From The Moral Arc by Michael Shermer. me that they did not think this could hap- New York, 2015. Henry Holt, 66. pen any time soon, even while their books

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 13 outline how it could be done.35 In The Moral Arc I sum- try. One more statistic is sobering in this regard, as marized the consensus among experts on the most im- noted by the anti-nuclear scientist and activist David portant steps to take to reduce the risk of nuclear Barash: The U.S. has a triad of nuclear weapons of weapons and to work toward a world free of them, in- land (missiles), air (bombers), and sea (submarines). cluding: (1) enact a “no first use” ; (2) take all A single Trident sub carries 20 nuclear-tipped missiles, weapons off of “launch on warning”; (3) increase the each one of which has eight independently targetable warning and decision times for launching a retaliatory warheads of about 465 kilotons, or about 30 times the strike; (4) remove from the President the sole author- destructive power of Little Boy. So one sub packs 20 x ity to launch nuclear weapons; (5) uphold non-prolif- 8 x 30 = 4,800 Hiroshimas. We have 18 Trident sub- eration agreements; (6) widen the taboo from using marines, so that is the equivalent of 86,400 Hiroshi- nuclear weapons to owning them; (7) economic inter- mas!40 In the words of President Obama during a dependence; (8) expand democratic governance; (9) briefing about our nuclear capability: “Let’s stipulate reduce spending on nuclear weapons; and (10) con- that this is all insane.” 41 tinue the disarmament of existing nuclear weapons. The use of nuclear weapons for both ending wars To that end, it is encouraging to see the decline in the and deterring them is a 20th century phenomenon total number of nuclear warheads to around 16,000 that can be phased out for the new century. As the po- from the peak of around 70,000 in 1986, as visualized litical scientist Christopher Fettweis notes in his book in the figure above.36 Dangerous Times?, despite the popularity of such intu- I should mention that some security scholars, itive notions as the “balance of power”—based on a along with many political theorists and leaders, think small number of non-generalizable cases from the past that the path to peace is more deterrence through that are in any case no longer applicable to the pres- more and better nuclear weapons. President Trump, ent—so-called “clashes of civilization” like the world for example, insists on renovating our aged nuclear wars of the 20th century are extremely unlikely to weapons systems to the tune of $1.2 trillion between happen in the highly interdependent world of the 21st 2017 and 2046,37 an upgrade program he inherited century. In fact, Fettweis shows, never in history has from President Obama. And despite winning the such a high percentage of the world’s population lived Nobel Peace Prize for working toward nuclear nonpro- in peace, conflicts of all forms have been steadily drop- liferation, Obama nevertheless backed off from initiat- ping since the early 1990s, and even terrorism can ing a “no first use” policy under pressure from our bring states together in international cooperation to NATO allies, who were worried that Russian saber rat- combat a common enemy.42 tling and border expansion might be encouraged if an escalation from conventional to nuclear weapons was The abolition of nuclear weapons is an exceptionally no longer on the defense table.38 complex and difficult puzzle that has been studied ex- Similarly, the late political scientist Kenneth tensively by scholars and scientists for over half a cen- Waltz thought that allowing Iran to go nuclear would tury. The many problems and permutations of getting bring stability to the Middle East because “in no other from here to there are legion, and there is no single region of the world does a lone, unchecked nuclear sure-fire pathway to zero, but it is a soluble problem, state exist. It is Israel’s nuclear arsenal, not Iran’s desire and humans are nothing if not innovative problem for one, that has contributed most to the current crisis. solvers.43 I do not believe that the deterrence trap is Power, after all, begs to be balanced.” 39 Except for one from which we can never extricate ourselves, and when it doesn’t, as in the post-1991 period after the the remaining threats should direct us to work toward collapse of the Soviet Union and the unipolar domi- Nuclear Zero sooner rather than later. In the mean- nance of the . No other medium-size time, minimum is the best we can hope for given the power rose to fill the vacuum, no rising power started complexities of , but given wars of conquest to consolidate more power, and the enough time, as Shakespeare poetically observed… only other candidate, China, has remained war-free for almost four decades. And given Iran’s outlier status in Time’s glory is to calm contending kings, the international system and their avowed promise to To unmask falsehood and bring truth to light, “wipe off the map” Israel, anyone who would join a To stamp the seal of time in aged things, Fair-Play-for-Nuclear-Iran-Committee has lost their To wake the morn and sentinel the night, … moral compass. To slay the tiger that doth live by slaughter, … This all just shows how difficult it is going to be to To cheer the ploughman with increased crops, get to a world without nukes. Nevertheless, we have to And waste huge stones with little water-drops.” 44

14 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 REFERENCES 1. Rhodes, Richard. 1986. The Making 17. Giangreco, Dennis M. 1998. “Tran- gels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon script of ‘Operation Downfall [U.S. In- Declined. New York: Penguin. & Schuster. vasion of Japan]: US Plans and 32. Rhodes, Richard. 2010. Twilight of 2. The Atomic Bomb and the End of Japanese Counter-Measures. Beyond the Bombs: Recent Challenges, New World War II, A Collection of Primary Bushido: Recent Work in Japanese Dangers, and the Prospects of a Sources. National Security Archive Military History. https://bit.ly/2ZY- World Without Nuclear Weapons. New Electronic Briefing Book No. 162. CLwu See also: Maddox, Robert York: Knopf. George Washington University. https:// James. 1995. “The Biggest Decision: 33. Schlosser, Eric. 2013. Command and bit.ly/2WMuDNM See also: “The Third Why We Had to Drop the Atomic Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Dam- Shot.” https://bit.ly/39eCTuW Bomb.” American Heritage, 46(3). ascus Accident, and the Illusion of 3. DeNooyer, Rushmore. 2015. The 18. Skates, John Ray. 2000. The Invasion Safety. New York: Penguin. Bomb. PBS documentary. https://to of Japan: Alternative to the Bomb. 34. See the documentary film of that title. ..org/3f2yyfw University of South Carolina Press, 79. Trailer: https://bit.ly/2CVRuPJ 4. Bird, Kai and Martin J. Sherwin. 19. Putnam, Frank W. 1998. “The Atomic 35. Science Salon archives: 2007. American Prometheus: The Tri- Bomb Casualty Commission in Retro- https://www.skeptic.com/science- umph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppen- spect.” Proceedings of the National salon/ The episodes with Fred Kaplan heimer. New York: Knopf, 332. Academy of Sciences, May 12, and William J. Perry were based on 5. Quoted in: Marty, Martin E. 1996. Mod- 95(10), 5426-5431. their new books: Kaplan, Fred. 2020. ern American Religion, Vol 3: Under 20. D’Olier, Franklin (Ed.) 1946. United The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and God, Indivisible, 1941-1960. Chicago: States Strategic Bombing Survey, the Secret History of Nuclear War. University of Chicago Press, 117. Summary Report (Pacific War). Wash- New York: Simon & Schuster; Perry, 6. Chomsky, Noam. 1967. “The Respon- ington DC: United States William J. and Tom Z. Collina. 2020. sibility of Intellectuals.” The New York Printing Office. https://bit.ly/32TsOSL The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Review of Books, 8(3). 21. Rhodes, Richard. 1984. The Making Race and Presidential Power from Tru- 7. Goldhagen, Daniel Jonah. 2009. of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon man to Trump. BenBella Books. Worse Than War: Genocide, Elimina- & Schuster, 599. 36. For a striking visual demonstration of tionism, and the Ongoing Assault on 22. Ibid. every one of the 2,053 nuclear Humanity. New York: PublicAffairs, 1, 6. 23. Quoted in: Cold War: MAD 1960- weapon explosions between 1945 8. Lemkin, Raphael. 1946. “Genocide.” 1972. 1998. BBC Two Documentary. and 1998 by the Japanese artist Isao American Scholar, 15(2), 227-230. Transcript: https://bit.ly/2EimnyA. Hashimoto, starting with the Trinity 9. United Nations General Assembly Res- Film: https://bit.ly/2WVLsFX test in New Mexico, where in the olution 96(1): “The Crime of Geno- 24. Brodie, Bernard. 1946. The Absolute world they happened and whom they cide.” Weapon: Atomic Power and World were sponsored by, see: https://bit.ly 10. Katz, Steven T. 1994. The Holocaust Order. New York: Harcourt Brace, 79. /2D20l2o in Historical Perspective, Vol. 1. New 25. Kubrick, Stanley. 1964. Dr. 37. 2018. U.S. Nuclear Modernization York: Oxford University Press. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Programs Report. Arms Control Asso- 11. Kugler, Tadeusz, Kyung Kook Kang, Worrying and Love the Bomb. Colum- ciation. August. https://bit.ly/3fQv0yk Jacek Kugler, Marina Arbetman-Rabi- bia Pictures. http://youtu.be/2yfXgu 38. The Nobel Prize committee’s statement nowitz, and John Thomas. 2013. “De- 37iyI on President Obama’s award: mographic and Economic 26. Ibid. https://bit.ly/2WLWr4K Sonne, Paul, Consequences of Conflict.” Interna- 27. Brown, Anthony Cave (Ed.). 1978. Gordon Lubold, and Carol E. Lee. tional Studies Quarterly, March, DROPSHOT: The American Plan for 2016. “‘No First Use’ Nuclear Policy 57(1), 1-12. World War III Against Russia in 1957. Proposal Assailed by U.S. Cabinet Offi- 12. Shermer, Michael. 2015. The Moral New York: Dial Press; Richelson, Jef- cials, Allies.” Wall Street Journal, Au- Arc: How Science and Reason Lead frey. 1986. “Population Targeting and gust 12. https://on.wsj.com/3hsKGYR Humanity to Truth, Justice, and Free- US Strategic Doctrine.” In Desmond 39. Waltz, Kenneth N. 2012. “Why Iran dom. New York: Henry Holt, 11. Ball and Jeffrey Richelson (Eds.). Should Get the Bomb: Nuclear Balanc- 13. In 2002 I attended the reunion of the Strategic Nuclear Targeting. Ithaca, NY: ing Would Mean Stability.” Foreign Af- Wren crew in my father’s stead and Cornell University Press, 234-249. fairs, July/August. confirmed his memories. 28. McNamara, Robert S. 1969. “Report 40. Barash, David. 2018. “Deterrence 14. Toland, John. 1970. The Rising Sun: Before the Senate Armed Services and its Discontents.” Skeptic, Vol. 23, The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Committee on the Fiscal year 1969-70 No. 2, https://bit.ly/2EikKkt Empire 1936-1945. New York: Ran- Defense Program, and 1969 Defense 41. Quoted in Kaplan, op cit., 244. dom House, 731. Budget, January 22, 1969.” Washington, 42. Fettweis, Christopher. 2010. Danger- 15. “The Cornerstone of Peace—Number DC: Government Printing Office, 11. ous Times? The International Politics of Names Inscribed.” Kyushu-Okinawa 29. For a scholarly analysis of and an al- of Great Power Peace. Georgetown Summit 2000: Okinawa G8 Summit ternative view to deterrence see: Ku- University Press. Host Preparation Council, 2000. See gler, Jacek. 1984. “Terror Without 43. Lipton, Judith and David Barash. also: Pike, John. 2010. “Battle of Oki- Deterrence: Reassessing the Role of 2019. Strength Through Peace: How nawa.” Globalsecurity.org; Manches- Nuclear Weapons.” Journal of Conflict Demilitarization Led to Peace and ter, William. 1987. “The Bloodiest Resolution, 28(3), September, 470- Happiness in Costa Rica, and What Battle of All.” , 506. the Rest of the World Can Learn From June 14. 30. Kant, Immanuel. 1795. “Perpetual a Tiny, Tropical Nation. Oxford Univer- 16. Giangreco, Dennis M. 2009. Hell to Peace: A Philosophical Sketch.” In sity Press. Pay: Operation Downfall and the Inva- Perpetual Peace and Other Essays. In- 44. Shakespeare, William. 1594. The sion of Japan 1945-1947. Annapolis, dianapolis: Hackett, I, 6. Rape of Lucrece. Available in full at: MD: Naval Institute Press, 121-124. 31. Pinker, Steven. 2011. The Better An- https://bit.ly/2ByB5k4

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 15 ARTICLE ia. ia. 1822, by Charles Wilson Peale. Courtesy Peale. Wilson Charles 1822, by Arts, Fine the of Academy Pennsylvania the of Philadelph Gift of Mrs. Sarah Harrison (The Joseph Harrison, Jr. Collection). Harrison Mrs. Sarah Gift of Collection). Harrison, Joseph (The Jr.

The Artist in His Museum, The Rise and Fall of Charles Willson Peale’s Philadelphia Museum

BY Lee ALAn DugAtkin

The first major museum in the United States—an Enlightenment temple of sorts in Philadelphia—was a gem of the new . Some six decades after it opened, it was gobbled up by a showman. It need not have ended that way.

16 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 When Charles Willson Peale’s Philadelphia would prefer seeing such articles of curiosity than Museum opened its doors in July of 1786, it was the any paintings whatever.”1 Those bones were not first true museum in the United States. It began as Charles’s, but other such bones could be acquired, an extension to the Peale home in Philadelphia and as could natural history specimens of all sorts. Pair- a few years later it moved to its new home in Philo- ing art with natural history set Peale’s mind racing. sophical Hall, catty-corner to was was then the Two years later, readers of the July 7, 1786, edition of State Capitol. But Philosophical Hall could not hold Pennsylvania Packet newspaper read: the thousands of items pouring into the museum Mr. Peale, ever desirous to please and entertain the every year, so the museum moved to the second public, will make part of his house a repository for floor of the State House—Independence Hall—just natural curiosities. The public he hopes will thereby above the spot where the Declaration of Independ- be gratified in the sight of many of the wonderful ence was signed and one floor below where (what works of nature which are now closeted and but sel- we now call) the Liberty Bell rang each day. dom seen. By the early 1800s Peale’s Museum housed 100,000 plus natural history, ethnographic, miner- Peale imagined an Enlightenment temple, a alogical, and mechanical items, often exhibited place to “bring into one view a world in miniature.” under exquisite portraits of Washington, Franklin, He saw it as a collaborative effort, using newspa- Paine, Lafayette, the Marquis de Chastellux, and pers to constantly encourage his fellow citizens to more, many painted by Peale himself. As the mu- contribute what they could. His natural history call seum grew it brought into its orbit almost every to arms yielded immediate results. Two of the first scientific, political, and celebrity persona (from Jef- to contribute were Benjamin Franklin, who sent ferson and Humboldt to Lewis and Clark) of the the body of an angora cat that he received from day. Peale thought such a place should ultimately Madame Helvétius when he had left Paris, and become a national museum. George Washington, who contributed the body of a Peale had been trained as a saddler but he had just-deceased golden pheasant from the aviary of an early penchant for painting. Powerful people in Louis XVI that the general had received as a gift Maryland were impressed enough with his talents from the Marquis de Lafayette. to send him to study under the legendary painter Soon Peale, through his own collecting endeav- Benjamin West in London. After two years Peale set ors, as well as those of the public, began to amass sail back to the colonies, with a growing reputation not only a vast collection of zoological and botanical as a highly skilled artist. His brush was in high de- material, but also anthropological material, miner- mand. He met Martha Washington in 1771, and not als, manufactures, crafts, inventions, coins, and long after that, he convinced her that Colonel antiquities. Lectures and live experiments in chem- Washington should sit for him. istry and electricity, often accompanied by music at In August 1780, Peale moved his family to a the museum, were added on as well. There was also home at 62 Lombard Street in Philadelphia. Two a small menagerie behind the museum with red years later he added on a dedicated portrait doves, eagles, baboons, mongooses, hyenas, and gallery: a 66-foot extension, with skylights that more for the interested museum visitor. Annual at- had screens that were adjusted to manipulate tendance in the early years is estimated to have mood and setting. On November 14 of that year, been between 3,500 to 12,000. Even at the lower the Pennsylvania Packet announced the opening end of that estimate, in a Philadelphia of 54,000, the of Peale’s portrait gallery. museum was making its mark. Sometime in May 1784 Colonel Nathaniel The museum had many missions, but for Peale Ramsay, Peale’s brother-in-law, visited the Peale the overarching one was for it “to be beneficial, home and was transfixed by a box of very large curious or entertaining to the citizens of the new bones sitting on a table. Those bones were from a world.” 2 It would also come to be Peale’s primary creature then dubbed the mammoth or incognitum source of income. Tickets were set at 25 cents, on (today we know they were mastodon bones, but like par with admission to the theatre, a concert, or the Peale, I will use the term “mammoth”). Peale was circus. The idea that he should from the mu- sketching them as part of a commission, and Ram- seum was a sensitive point, and Peale tended to jus- say said he “thought them so interesting…he would tify profits as a by-product of the greater good. “I have gone 20 miles to behold such a collection… have always declared [the museum] was designed doubtless there are many men like myself who for benefit of America,” he wrote. “Have I not been

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 17 persevering more for the than for my dreams to create a museum that would diffuse “a own emolument?” Such a public good, he was cer- knowledge of the wonderful and various beauties tain, “ought to become a national concern, since it of Nature, more [so] than any other school yet is a national good ... (for) the very sinews of govern- imagined.” What he had created was a step in ment are made strong by a diffused knowledge of that direction, but a federally supported expan- this science.” 3 sion was needed, such that “in the end (his) Soon Peale was writing President Washington labors would be crowned in a national establish- that he hoped that one day the museum would come ment of my museum.” Was the President, Peale under congressional “patronage.” Peale was much inquired, interested? 5 less cryptic in a broadside he posted called My De- Jefferson was sympathetic: “I very much wish sign in Forming this Museum, in which he informed it could be made public property,” he wrote Peale. readers of his hope that “in the end it (the museum) That said, the President continued, “I must not suf- might become the basis of a great national magazine fer my partiality to it to excite false expectations in of those subjects in nature.” He had every intention you…one of the great questions which has divided of tapping into their nationalism, adding that it was political opinion in this country is whether Con- his “earnest desire that the public of the country gress [is] authorized by the constitution to apply should possess them, rather than they should be the public to any but the purposes specially transferred to any foreign nation or people.” enumerated in the Constitution…(and) those who Many overseas travelers, naturalists among hold them to the enumeration, have always denied them, came to Peale’s Philadelphia Museum that Congress has any power to establish a National when they visited in the temporary capital of the Academy.” Disappointed, Peale accepted Jefferson’s United States. Foreign institutions too, including decision, or at least said as much. the Swedish Academy, were quite interested in In 1806, an idea was circulating in Washing- exchange programs with the museum. Peale at- ton that might help turn the Peale museum into a tempted to leverage this so as transform national institution. Joel Barlow, soon to be am- his museum into a national one. In a newspaper bassador to France, published a pamphlet enti- article that he addressed to the governor and tled Prospectus of a National University. “I have both the Pennsylvania Senate and House on this heard of a proposal by Mr. Joel Barlow to form a matter, writing in the third person, he let it be National Institute at Washington,” Peale wrote known “that a large portion of his life has been President Jefferson. “I have not seen the pam- devoted to the establishment of a Grand National phlet, and therefore don’t know whether my mu- museum…yet he contemplates the great incom- seum might not be embraced amongst the first of petency of an individual to give that degree of its establishments.” The point quickly became perfection to a grand deposit of the works of na- moot when the bill died in the Senate.6 ture and art, which can alone flow from national Peale officially retired and handed control of encouragement.”4 That petition was tabled in the museum, with its 100,000 plus items, to his both the State Senate and State House, then son Rubens in 1810. In 1814, Charles’s son Rem- eventually read and dropped. brandt opened a spin-off Peale museum in Balti- The next appeal to turn the museum into a na- more. The three-story-tall brick museum sat at 225 tional one came on the heels of Peale’s most fa- North Holliday Street, half a mile from the tip of mous exhibit. In 1801, he and his staff undertook the Patapsco River and was the first building in the the first organized paleontological expedition in United States designed from scratch to be a mu- upstate New York to find a full mammoth skeleton seum. It was stocked largely with duplicate items for the museum. In marl pits near Newburgh, New that Rubens and Charles had sent from the York, they found one. They reconstructed the Philadelphia Museum, along with portraits that mammoth skeleton and put it into the museum. It Rembrandt had painted or acquired. caused a nation-wide stir. Charles continued to wield power from It was the perfect time to renew the call for Belfield, his estate near downtown Philadelphia, federal support for the museum. The mammoth and he concocted another plan to make his was creating waves, and Peale’s good friend and Philadelphia Museum a national one. He wrote natural history savant, Thomas Jefferson, was sit- Jefferson, now comfortably ensconced at Monti- ting in the Executive Mansion. In 1802, Peale cello, that he was also considering “making an wrote President Jefferson of his never-ending offer of the Museum to Congress…(because) the

18 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 (portrait) collection of Revolutionary characters seum. Thousands visited the American Museum must have esteemed value with the Government each week. Rubens could not compete and sold of the United States.” 7 During a three-month- the museum in 1842; later that year, Barnum long trip Peale took to Washington in 1818/19, he bought its contents. Edmund, who in addition to lobbied members of Congress on the idea of mov- being in charge in Philadelphia, also still held ing the Philadelphia Museum to Washington and that role at the Baltimore Peale museum, saw making it a national institution. But Peale real- there was just no money to be made in Balti- ized this attempt too would not yield fruit, writ- more, and like uncle Rubens, in late 1845 he sold ing in his diary, “From what little conversation I the contents of that museum to Barnum. have had with a few members, I believe I shall In the spring of 1849, Barnum opened a not find the members of Congress disposed to branch museum of his own in Philadelphia, just a purchase it.” few blocks from Peale’s Philadelphia Museum. That would be Charles Willson Peale’s last bat- Soon he wrote his partner Moses Kimball that tle in one of the few wars he lost. In 1827, he died “he’d kill the other shop in no time.” He did. The and was buried at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. By Philadelphia Museum’s last advertisement ran on the time of his death his son Rubens had grown August 27, 1849, and soon thereafter the United weary of running the Philadelphia Museum and his States Bank held a public auction of the contents brother Titian was now at the helm there. Rubens of the museum, where Barnum bought it all, not- briefly took over the Baltimore museum from Rem- ing in his receipt book that it cost him a mere brandt before handing that off to his nephew, Ed- “five or six thousand dollars on joint account of mund Peale, and then moving to to Moses Kimball and myself.” open a third Peale museum there. When Titian Eventually, some of Kimball’s share of this eventually left the Philadelphia Museum, Edmund material made its way to the Peabody Museum of took over. None of them, at any of the Peale muse- Anthropology and the Museum of Comparative ums, made a concerted effort to attain the national Zoology at Harvard, where it resides today. Exactly (or even state) institution status toward which where all the items Barnum took is not known, Charles had devoted so much effort. but many, perhaps most, likely were sent to his Despite Rubens, Titian and eventually Ed- American Museum in New York or down the mund’s efforts, the Philadelphia Museum had been street to Barnum’s Philadelphia museum. Both es- on a downslide since Charles’s death. The museum tablishments suffered devastating fires over the had moved from the State House, first to the next few decades, and it is assumed that much of Philadelphia Arcade, and then over to Ninth and the Peale material perished in those blazes. Sansom Street. By the mid 1840s, attendance and As we consider difficult decisions today about revenues had dropped precipitously, and the num- government support for contemporary Enlighten- ber of new items flowing into the Philadelphia Mu- ment institutions, we might do well to look back to seum had all but dried up. “Dime store” museums, the earliest days of our republic and contemplate as well as the endless other attractions in Philadel- what happened, and didn’t happen, with Charles phia, were too great a lure for a public that was be- Willson Peale’s Philadelphia Museum. ginning to crave instant satisfaction. P.T. Barnum smelt Peale blood. In 1842, he Lee Dugatkin’s newest book is Behind the Crimson had opened his American Museum in New York Curtain: The Rise and Fall of Peale’s Museum (2020, City, all too close to Rubens’ New York Peale mu- Butler Books)

REFERENCES 1. Miller, L. (ed.) 2000. The Se- concern,” C. W. Peale, Introduc- C. W. Peale to Representatives of lected Papers of Charles Will- tion to a Course of Lectures, the State of in son Peale and His Family, APS: American Philosophical So- Congress, December 14, 1795. Volume 5: 113. ciety, Peale-Sellers Family Collec- 5. C. W. Peale to Jefferson, Janu- 2. Dunlap’s Daily Advertiser, Janu- tion, 1686-1963, Mss. BP31, ary 12, 1802. ary 13, 1792. Philadelphia. 6. C. W. Peale to Jefferson, August 3. “I have always declared,” C. W. 4. C. W. Peale, “Memorial to the 4, 1806 and Jefferson to C. W. Peale to the American Philosoph- Pennsylvania ,” Daily Peale, December 21, 1806. ical Society, March 7, 1797; Advertiser, December 26, 1795; 7. C. W. Peale to Jefferson, Janu- “Ought to become a national for more on Massachusetts, see ary 15, 1818.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 19 SPECIAL 100TH ISSUE FEATURE The Art of the Skeptic Finding Your Niche if You Love Both Science and Art

BY PAT LINSE, WITH TWO ADDITIONAL PAGES OF ILLUSTRATIONS BY JR SKEPTIC CREATOR DANIEL LOXTON

I’ve never been much of a joiner, but when I discovered Graphic Arts Tips for Skeptic Groups the in 1984, after reading and absolutely • Buy art expertise wholesale, not retail if you can. loving an article in the L.A.Times that explained the physics Retail art: the ad agency—suitable for a large organization. behind firewalking, I decided to get involved. Pick one that has clients with similar needs to yours. An At the time I was working as an illustrator doing movie agency specializing in beer or real estate clients may skew posters, and my broad ad agency background made me a one-stop your projects in those directions. Meet the person you will be shop for a skeptics group needing flyers, advertising, or a newslet- dealing with and ask questions about the samples they show ter (in the pre-internet era). I made skeptic-specific samples of you to find out if they can communicate art ideas without art and flyers and volunteered for local and national groups. I got using a lot of jargon or hiding behind design snobbery. a few assignments but the truth is, it’s hard to even give graphic Wholesale art: the do-it-all individual. The Internet provides arts expertise away. People respond to good art and design when opportunities for these efficient self-starter types to hone they see it, but they are rarely motivated to seek it out. their creative skills without having to land a job that per- By the time I met with Michael Shermer in late 1991 to talk fectly fits their . Try them out as volunteers, and if about creating Skeptic I had 7 years of bottled up enthusiasm you have a job opening you will have a pool to draw from. ready to dedicate to the project. He had a Ph.D. in the History of • How trendy should your art be? For skeptical topics I lean to- Science, he’d authored a few books, and he was running a non- ward somewhat conservative or realistic art styles because profit bicycle racing organization and publishing a magazine for the articles themselves can be difficult to understand. its members. So between the two of us we had the expertise. One doesn’t need to add more mystery with overly ab- Skeptic was an all volunteer organization especially in its stract art. (By contrast when designing for the fashion or early years. We drummed up resources where we could. One of the music industry, it’s all about emotion, implication, our biggest came from the desktop computer revolution. and innuendo, so almost anything goes.) Also, art can It was similar to today’s digital cameras and software that allow actually clarify a complex article. For example, say an almost anyone to produce a video and post it on the Internet. In author has four points to make. Four small illustrations roughly a decade the cost of designing and typesetting a page for a representing each point may be the way to go. publication, which had formerly taken the coordinated effort of • Logos, branding, and names: pick the nickname. Pick the name many specialists (designer, layout artist, type spec, type house, that is short, sweet, and most of all memorable. Never half-tones, and paste-up artist), had gone from hundreds of dollars pick a name or logo that needs an explanation so that peo- to zero when performed by a single volunteer on a computer. ple will understand how clever it is. Don’t try to find the In 2002 Daniel Loxton began donating artwork over the perfect word—there is not a word in existence that doesn’t Internet. At the time I was writing and illustrating Jr.Skeptic carry some baggage (for example, the word “skeptic”). and looking for help. I had stacks of manuscripts but nothing This is why large companies make up names for products, suitable: too pedantic, too patronizing, too precious—everyone and then spend millions creating a reputation for the new thinks they can write for young people but it’s not that easy. term. If you make something up, make sure it’s both easy But I noticed from Loxton’s cheerfully entertaining emails to pronounce and to remember. that he could write, so I asked him to give it a shot. His response • Avoid giving art assignments to someone’s love interest. When I stunned me. He produced a polished press-ready product: metic- worked in the music industry, nothing terrified the art ulously researched, beautifully written, and fully designed and il- department more than the news that the musician’s boy- lustrated. I had found the Holy Grail of non-profit employees: the or girlfriend was going to be involved creating the image do-it-all creative individual. I later learned that his early efforts to for the packaging. Art for your organization is not a get involved in had gotten the same tepid response as throw away assignment for someone in the office who mine had—he had already produced a Jr Skeptic style prototype feels underappreciated. Your graphic look serves a “dress and unsuccessfully tried to get other skeptic groups interested. for success” function, creating a favorable impression, So the lesson to be learned for those who truly want to get inspiring confidence in your product, and last but cer- involved is create a professional product and be persistent. tainly not least, providing enjoyment.

20 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 THE ART OF PAT LINSE

IT’S ALWAYS A PLEASURE TO DO A PORTRAIT HONORING A SKEPTICAL ACTIVIST Top left to right: • 2009—Norman Jay Levitt, mathematician, known for his relentless defense of science, especially against academic postmodernists. Ink and stipple on paper. • 2003—William of Ockham, from an article on the use and misuse of Ockham’s razor. I converted a Medieval pen sketch to a Hans Holbein style drawing. Pencil, photocopy. • 1995—philosopher David Hume’s essay Of Miracles laid the foundation for the skeptical axiom “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Drafting pen. • 2014—Puzzle and math wizard Martin Gardener, authored many Scientific American columns on those topics, and was one of the founders of the U.S. skeptical movement. Pencil and felt tip pen. • 1989—A drafting pen ink sketch of Paul Kurtz for a Pasadena, CA, lecture. He helped found the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, CSICOP (now CSI), and other Skeptical/Humanist related organizations.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 21 THE ART OF PAT LINSE

THERE IS MORE TO BE DONE THAN JUST THE COVER ART Artists should not underestimate the importance of illustrations, graphs, and diagrams that illuminate points made by an author. A drawing can sim- plify an overly complex photo and highlight the important parts. Or a photo that is too blurry, bleached out, or dark can be saved by making it into a drawing.

ILLUSTRATIONS FOR CLARITY From top left: 2002—From a series of drawings showing how sleight of hand is performed; 2013—An altruistic rat opens the door for a friend trapped in a plastic tube; 2012—Shirley Mason, the patient A.K.A. “Sybil” who in- spired the multiple personality myth. A drawing reveals elaborate details of her hairdo and blouse not visible in the photo; This simple drawing receives the MOST REQUESTS 1994—An Olmec monumental stone FOR PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE from authors head from an article on pseudohistoric writing about medical history, scientific protocol, and ideas about who discovered America; critical thinking. 2013—Fourth grader Emily Rosa’s 2006—A Solutrean flint point used as ingeniously simple protocol for testing Therapeutic evidence in a “who discovered the New Touch. Can the TT practitioner feel the “force field” of World” hypothesis; 2016—A mysterious the tester if the hovering hand is shielded from view? supposed alien skull (light area) is shown to be a water rounded remnant of a wild goat’s broken skull.

BUYING STOCK ART As a rule I don’t use a stock image as is, not just because another publication may use the same one, but because I enjoy making them into something new that better fits my purpose. 2020 —Four photos are combined for an article on race.

MOST CONTROVERSIAL This stylized cover illustra- tion received more accolades…and more complaints than any other cover. Critics thought the drawing style was either sophisticated—“the best cover [we’d] ever done,” or they suggested we “find someone who can draw”—and then volunteered themselves. 1999—From an article on fraud and whistleblowing in science. Pencil and Photoshop.

22 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 THE ART OF PAT LINSE

2003—From an article on whether dou- ble-blind testing is necessary for the “hard” sciences. These Double Blind Lab Specs were inspired by a phone call I took from a man enthusiastically touting magnets as a cure-all. When I asked if his treatment had been subject to a double-blind study he assured me that when he tested it, everyone in his lab had been wearing blindfolds! Ink and collage.

2016—From an article on resilience to abuse. Photoshop.

2005—From an article on how false memories can be generated. George 1999—From an article W. Bush first heard about 9/11 in front of a group of school children when addressing cell phone an aide whispered the news into his ear. But repeatedly viewing news radiation that footage of the attacks in the weeks following 9/11 led him to showed exactly how misremember that he saw it happen live on TV. Pencil. much radiation energy it takes to break down the chemical bonds in cells. Scratchboard.

2007—From an article on and sym- 2004—From an article by a journalist who formerly pathetic magic. What could be a more potent 1999—. From a column on fad supported alternative . Pen and pencil. charm than Hitler’s own moustache brush! psychological cures. Photoshop and collage.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 23 THE ART OF PAT LINSE

Depicting the “Opposition” My first instruction to an illustrator as art director of SKEPTIC magazine is “Please do not do a salesman.” Not only is it a terrible cliché, it is rarely an accurate representation of the individual who holds the beliefs we may be criticizing. Many supporters of non-scientific ideas are quite sincere. Above left to right • 2013—Conservative spokesperson appeared in a documentary that claimed academics conspire to “expel” those who support . We suggest more education, not less. Drafting pen. • 2013—Walter Mercado—flamboyant Puerto Rican astrologer. Felt tip pen, pencil and Photoshop. • 2004—The brilliant science fiction and gothic horror storyteller H.P. Lovecraft originated the idea that in the distant past, space aliens descended to earth and were mistaken for gods. Swiss author Erich von Däniken picked up this idea and popularized it as nonfiction. Pencil and Photoshop. Bottom, left to right • 1994—Wilhelm Reich “discovered” Energy which he promoted as a cure-all for everything from a lagging libido to drought. he sported an unusual hair style which he believed served as a kind of antenna to direct the orgone. Drafting pen. • 2009—A psychic demonstrates a manipulative questioning technique used to draw information from a client without them realizing it. Pencil on vellum paper. • 2015 Aleksandr Dugin, mystical high priest of Russian fascism, also known as “Putin’s Rasputin,” who wants to bring about the end of the world. Pencil, white paint and ink on vellum paper.

24 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 THE ART OF PAT LINSE

COVER ART From upper left to right. • 1992—Our first cover honored . Six different photos were used as reference for the portrait—one with the best hair, one with the best smile, the best lighting, etc. Black Prismacolor pencil on canvas-textured illustration board. • 2018 Mother Nature. For an article asking “Did morality evolve naturally?” Greco-Roman statuary was used as a reference for the Goddess look. Colored pencil and Photoshop. • 1999— . I shot the photo for this portrait at the historic Mount Wilson Observatory. The interior of the telescopic dome actually was filled with glowing red light. Pencil, paint, and Photoshop. • 2015 The cover of a special issue about the co-discoverer of evolutionary theory Alfred Russel Wallace. The colors represent the filtered light under a tropical canopy. A Wallace flying frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus) sits on his shoulder. Pencil and Photoshop.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM THE ART OF PAT LINSE

MORE COVER ART From upper left to right. • 2011—Frank Paul, the unassuming engineer who invented the modern look of flying saucers. Pencil and Photoshop. • 2020—Giving The Devil his due. The Fonz and Danny from Grease notwithstanding, this is exactly what the Devil looks like. Pencil and Photoshop. • 2012— tragically fo- cused on alternative health care methods (represented here by a mandala composition) to treat his pancreatic cancer. Orange, green and gray are an unusual color combination, but I think this works well. The Prussian blue of the shirt is the key. Pencil, collage and Photoshop. • 1993—A surrealistic juxtaposition of science fiction imagery (the robot Gort from the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still ) and Michelangelo’s famous Piet`a symbolizes how popular culture often addresses the same fears and longings as classical culture and religion. Prismacolor pencil and airbrushed acrylic.

SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 THE ART OF DANIEL LOXTON

By Daniel Loxton: Clockwise from upper left. • 2010—This fairy may be my all time favorite JUNIOR SKEPTIC illus- tration. It combines location photogra- phy, model photography, CGI, digital painting, and a dress I made by hand from real leaves. • 2003—Roswell crash scene combines CG elements with photos of my sheep I took during an earlier career as a shepherd. • 2014—Plasticine Carl Sagan, just for fun. • 2019—As a lifelong geek, it was a bit of a dream come true to make this D&D style red dragon! • 2014— Flat Earth digital painting.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM THE ART OF DANIEL LOXTON

By Daniel Loxton: Clockwise from upper left. • 2003—This Abominable Snowman image features a puppet I sculpted, painted, and covered with faux hair. • 2002—The Cadborosaurus was my very first JUNIOR SKEPTIC cover! It features a hand-sculpted and painted physical model composited into location photography. • 2009— End of the World Rumors: Surely every illustrator longs for an excuse to blow up a planet. CGI with digital painting. • 2020—An angry honey bear container hears that sugar syrup was substituted for honey in 1800s food fraud scams. Digital painting and studio photography. • 2016—Digital painting of an American mastodon.

SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 ARTICLE The Testimony of Witnesses: Raising the Dead BY TIM CALLAHAN

One of the common arguments invoked to vine in John’s gospel than in any of the other three. support assertions of events is that of Since it is unlikely that the earliest gospel would have the testimony of several witnesses. It is commonly portrayed Jesus as synonymous with God and then put forth as, “Look, here are all these people who wit- that succeeding gospels portrayed him as more human nessed this event. Are you saying they were all hallu- and less divine, it is highly unlikely that John was any- cinating or all deceived? It’s far more likely that the thing other than the last of the four gospels to be writ- multiple attestation of these many witnesses indi- ten. The Jesus of Mark is by far the most human and cates they were [or are] telling the truth.” Testimoni- the least divine. There is no Nativity story in Mark, as als at first seem to be stunning evidences, but, upon there are in Matthew and Luke. Rather, Jesus first ap- examination, they prove to be illusory. pears in Mark as a young man who goes to John the Consider this argument when it’s applied to the Baptist to be baptized, i.e., symbolically cleansed of his resurrection of Jesus. Differing accounts of the Resur- sins by being immersed in the River Jordan. Then, as rection are given in the four canonical gospels and in a he is rising from the waters, he has an entirely subjec- passage from the Pauline epistle 1 Corinthians. They tive epiphany that he is the Son of God (Mk. 1:10,11): differ one from another enough that Christian apolo- Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, gists can reasonably claim that they are the reports of he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit separate witnesses. So, aren’t the separate testimonies descending on him like a dove. And a voice of these five witnesses strong evidence for the historic- came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I ity of the Resurrection? At first, this would seem to be a love; with you I am well pleased.” good argument. There are, however, rational objections to accepting the validity of these testimonies. First of The clear implication of these verses is that Jesus all, these “witnesses” weren’t…witnesses, that is. It is had no idea he was the Son of God until that moment. widely accepted among scholars of different leanings The Gospel of Mark contains a prophecy of the de- that Paul’s epistles (those genuinely from his hand) an- struction of the Jerusalem temple (Mk. 13:1,2) as part tedate the gospels. They are widely believed to have of what is variously called the Olivet Discourse or the been written between CE 50 and 60. Of the four “Little Apocalypse.” This event actually took place in canonical gospels, the Gospel of John is definitively the year CE 70, when the Romans, having crushed the considered to have been the latest. The Jesus of John’s Jewish revolt, flattened Jerusalem, leaving nothing gospel is far more divine than the Jesus of the other standing but one section of wall connecting two tow- three. Consider John’s opening verses (Jn1:1–3, 14): ers. Their destruction was so complete that, had they not left these two towers and the connecting wall be- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was tween them, nobody would have thought that a city with God and the Word was God. He was with God in had once been there. Thus, the prediction in the open- the beginning. Through him all things were made; ing verses of Mark 13 could only be either divinely in- without him nothing was made that has been made…. spired prophecy, written before the fact, or history The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have written after the fact framed as a prophecy. If the de- seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who struction of the temple is divinely inspired prophecy, came from the Father, full of grace and truth. we would logically expect the rest of the gospel to be In John, Jesus is the divine logos(spoken word), divinely inspired as well. However, at the end of Mark 8 synonymous with God the creator. Jesus is far more di- and the beginning of Mark 9 Jesus says (Mk. 8:38–9:1):

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 25 “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this seeing things slightly differently from one another adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will would be two witnesses who saw a woman fleeing be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s the scene of a crime. If one witness says the woman glory with the holy angels.” And he said to them, was wearing a red blouse and the other says the “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not woman was wearing a violet blouse, the difference in taste death before they see the kingdom of God com- their testimonies is minor and they can easily be rec- ing with power.” onciled. However, if the second witness says it was a That some of those standing there would see what man fleeing the scene wearing a white shirt, the two appears to be the Second Coming—and since that testimonies cannot be reconciled has yet to take place—it would seem to make this a Thus, I would ask any Christian apologist the fol- false prophecy, not divinely inspired. This, in turn, lowing questions: Did the risen Christ appear to no- would mean that the “prediction” of the destruction body, leaving only the empty tomb as evidence of his of the temple was written after the fact, and that resurrection as the Gospel of Mark has it (Mk. 16:1–8), the Gospel of Mark had to have been written after or did he appear to over 500 people at one time, as 1 CE 70 by someone who had never met Jesus or wit- Corinthians claims (1 Cor. 15:6)? Did he direct his dis- nessed the Resurrection. ciples to meet him in Galilee and did he meet them Christian apologists rationalize this by saying there to give them the Great Commission (i.e., to make that the “kingdom of God coming with power,” re- believers of all the world), as the Gospel of Matthew as- ferred to in Mk. 9:1 was, in fact, a reference to the serts (Mt. 28:7–10, 16–20), or did he meet them in of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit suppos- Jerusalem, as Luke says (Lk 2:36–51) and expressly tell edly descended on Jesus’ disciples, giving them the them not to leave Jerusalem (Acts 1:4)? Did he first ap- miraculous power to speak in other languages. How- pear to Mary Magdalene, as the Gospel of John says ever, these same apologists also claim that when (Jn.20:11–17), to two disciples on the road to Emmaus reading parallel passages, accounts of the same words as Luke has it (Lk. 24:15), or to Cephas (Peter) as 1 or deeds in different gospels, the believer is to take Corinthians asserts (1 Cor. 15:5)? Each one of these the most detailed version as the most authoritative. paired examples directly contradicts the other. They In the case of this prophecy the most detailed parallel can’t be reconciled, nor are they minor differences in is to be found in Matthew (Mt. 16:27, 28): varying memories the equivalent of clothing colors. Along with the Resurrection, the four gospels For the Son of man shall come in the glory of contain stories of Jesus raising the dead on three occa- his Father with his angels; and then he shall re- sions. These are the raising of the son of the widow of quite every man according to his works. Verily Nain (Lk. 7:11–17), the raising of Lazarus (Jn. 11:1–45), I say unto you, There be some standing here, and the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mk. 5:21–24, which shall not taste of death, till they see the 35–43; Mt. 9:18, 23–26; Lk. 8:40–42, 49–56). Were Son of man coming in his kingdom. we to exclude the raising of the son of the widow of The Son of man coming in the glory of the Fa- Nain and that of Lazarus, since each of these events is ther with his holy angels, then requiting every man only recorded in a single gospel, we would still have for his works cannot be a reference to Pentecost, but the raising of the daughter of Jairus seemingly attested only to the Second Coming and the Last Judgment, to by three witnesses (Mark, Matthew and Luke). which obviously didn’t take place in the generation of Leaving aside for the moment that all of the gospels those hearing Jesus. Therefore the prophecy in Mark were written by non-witnesses over 40 years after the also referred to the Second Coming and was likewise traditional date of the death of Jesus (approximately false. So, the “prophecy” of the destruction of the CE 30), the degree to which common material was temple in Mark was actually written after the fact, shared between these three gospels is such that the meaning Mark was written after CE 70, and its au- likelihood is that the raising of the daughter of Jairus thor did not witness any portion of the life of Jesus. was originally only recorded by one author (Mark) and Yet another problem with the five testimonies of repeated by two others (Matthew and Luke). Hence the Resurrection (the four gospels and 1 Corinthians) the seemingly robust testimony of three witnesses is that they disagree in ways that cannot be recon- evaporates under scrutiny. ciled. Christian apologists argue that the differences Of course, any testimony from ancient times in the Resurrection accounts merely reflect the sub- suffers from the possibility that its record has been jectivity of different witnesses and that, as a whole corrupted over two millennia, particularly since they all agree. An example of different witnesses these ancient documents have come down to us by

26 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 transmission rather than all devotees of Sai Baba preservation. They have and thus motivated to been copied and recopied promote the power of multiple times, allowing their guru. As Steel notes, considerable opportunity even more damning is the for the accumulation of actual report from the errors or even for deliber- now named doctor at- ate alteration. This is not tending Walter Cowan: the case for a 20th cen- Part of Dr. B. Krishna tury testimony of a Rau’s letter to Premanand miraculous resurrection (13-7-1988) adds medical from the dead by a mod- detail: “Mr. Walter Cowan ern holy man. This event was admitted with con- was alleged to have oc- gestive cardiac failure and curred on Christmas Day in a very bad condition. 1971, when the Hindu He had NOT at any time guru Sathya Sai Baba died in the medical termi- raised Walter Cowan Hindu guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba nology. During his stay in from the dead (see the hospital, Sri Sathya “When Sri Sathya Sai Resurrected Walter Cowan Sai Baba visited him when he was critically ill. on Christmas Day 1971”, https://bit.ly/3kC7U06). On December 25, 1971, after a conference in So there was no death, hence no resurrection, Madras, India, an elderly follower of Sai Baba’s, Wal- therefore no miracle to explain. ter Cowan, became seriously ill and died in the arms Interestingly enough, along with skeptics, of his wife Elsie. He was taken to a private hospital, evangelical Christians are also a good source of ma- the Lady Wellington Nursing Home, and there pro- terial debunking the alleged miracles of Sai Baba nounced dead. Elsie was too distraught to accom- (see Gretchen Passantino’s 2002 article on “Sai pany her husband’s body to the hospital and went to Baba” in Christian Research Journal, Vol. 24, No. 3, see Sathya Sai Baba. He told her he would visit her https://bit.ly/2RIQl2f). This debunking of a rival reli- husband’s body. When Elsie finally went to the hos- gion’s miracles would appear to be an example of spe- pital at 10:00 a.m. the next day with a friend, she cial pleading—Hindu claims of raising the dead are was told that Sai Baba had visited and left. Then, to met with rigorous skepticism, while biblical claims her utter amazement and joy, Elsie found her hus- that Jesus raised the dead are to be accepted on the band Walter alive, having been resurrected by Sai basis of faith—but in fact it’s a good example of skep- Baba. Dr. John Hislop had been called in to assist tical reasoning when religious bias is removed. Mrs. Cowan. Hislop wrote down a full report of what For those who would test the validity of extraordi- Elsie Cowan related concerning her husband’s death nary claims it is appropriate to apply the well-known and resurrection. He recorded that he had asked skeptical dictum ECREE—Extraordinary Claims Re- Judge Damodar Rao to interview the doctor (unfor- quire Extraordinary Evidence—most famously voiced tunately not named) who had attended Walter by late Carl Sagan but first articulated by David Hume Cowan and that the doctor had told the judge that in his 1748 An Enquiry Concerning Human Under- Cowan was indeed at the hospital. standing: This would seem at the outset to be a well-docu- In our reasonings concerning matters of fact, mented miraculous resurrection of a man from the there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, dead. However, the story begins to unravel upon ex- from the highest certainty to the lowest amination. First of all, the story is second hand. It was species of moral evidence. A wise man, there- Dr. Hislop’s account of Elsie Cowan’s account of her fore, proportions his belief to the evidence. husband’s death and resurrection. Another problem, as noted by Brian Steel in his 2009 article debunking Testimonies—eyewitness or second/third hand— the supposed resurrection (“Sathya Sai Baba, Elsie and are almost always colored by bias and are often Walter Cowan and John Hislop. A Discredited 1971 based on memories clouded by individual subjectiv- Resurrection Claim,” https://bit.ly/33NsvI7), is that ity. As such, they are, in and of themselves, virtually Elsie Cowan, Dr. Hislop, and Judge Damador Rao were useless as evidence.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 27 ARTICLE Conspiracy Theories Why We Can't Unsee Patterns—Real or Imagined— Once We See Them

BY ROBERT D. KIRVEL

Introduction political or economic power. Machiavelli advised in Effective conspiracy theories typically capture The Prince against advancing conspiracy theories be- and hold attention through audacious, often sinis- cause real conspiracies often fail to achieve desired ter, allegations rooted in emotion rather than an an- ends. Modern research points to more troublesome alytical or documented chain of cause and effect. effects, including the sowing of social discord, vio- Research on factors associated with conspiracy be- lence, and public mistrust while undermining con- liefs, including proposed political and psychological structive discourse on important issues. Even unlikely motives, has accelerated in the past decade, and the conspiracy theories can have adverse effects on peo- principal findings are revealing. However, largely ple’s lives, health, and safety.3 ignored in the literature—although addressed in Actual conspiracies, such as bribery or collu- Skeptic’s recent cover story on conspiracies (Vol. sion among team players to lose a championship 25, No. 1, 20201)—are some underlying considera- game, or schemes to cheat regulatory tions that might provide a foundation for human standards, and plots to rob a bank, involve real predispositions toward conspiracism, as reflected in events with a documented chain of cause and effect. the universality of conspiracy theories across cul- In contrast, conspiracy theories offer allegations that tures and throughout recorded history. are often social in origin and outcome, rooted in Three additional foundations to conspiratorial emotion, diabolical in tone, intuitive rather than an- belief that I would like to explore here are: (1) the alytical, and that may or may not be true. mathematical Ramsey theory, which shows how Despite their adverse consequences, conspiracy order (the of organization) must invari- beliefs are not limited to fringe groups, and their ably appear from apparent disorder; (2) the neuro- prevalence cannot be blamed on the internet or so- physiology of signal and pattern recognition under- cial media. Instead, they are pervasive across cultures lying the ways vertebrates are “tuned” to detect and throughout recorded history, and they can crop information that is biologically or evolutionarily up almost anywhere. Among the more enduring in adaptive for survival; and (3) a human predisposi- Western culture are notions about John F. Kennedy’s tion to derive and superimpose emotionally mean- at the hands of a massive involv- ingful interpretations on sensory input and then to ing the CIA, Russians, Cubans, and the Mafia; NASA adjust behavior accordingly. moon landings being staged by the government; Given the broadly documented, emotional UFOs and aliens landing on Earth; secret societies quality of conspiracy beliefs, together with addi- controlling nearly everything; and 9/11 as an inside tional psychological mechanisms suggested by job. A 2016 survey by researchers at Chapman Uni- other investigators, such as biased assimilation and versity4 found the following percentages of Ameri- , conspiracism appears to be a cans surveyed who agree or strongly agree that “the predictable outcome in individuals who may lack or government is concealing what they know about…” reject more analytic and cognitive tools to arrive at rational explanations for events. The 9/11 attacks...... 54.3% The JFK assassination...... 49.6% Secret Plots Alien encounters...... 42.6% Conspiracy theories are notions or purported explana- Global warming ...... 42.1% tions, often with negative connotations, about some Plans for a one world government....32.9% event that feature a secret, insidious, or fiendish plot Obama’s birth certificate ...... 30.1% as a central feature.2 The goal of the alleged cabal is Death of Antonin Scalia ...... 27.8% often to deceive and manipulate people or to usurp The Moon landing...... 24.2%

28 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 CONSPIRACIES & QANON Illustration by Izhar Cohen Izhar by Illustration

It’s no exaggeration to suggest almost every Frank Plumpton Ramsey in the 1920s and expanded major historical event has generated a conspiracy considerably by Paul Erdo˝s thereafter,6 the core idea theory. Indeed, enthusiastic conspiracists have oc- of Ramsey theory is that random elements fall into cupied high places in society and politics, including specific arrangements. Given enough elements—and the White House. it doesn’t take many—an interesting pattern is guar- Although some conspiracy ideas can be credi- anteed to emerge. A surprising example of Ramsey ble—or correct in questioning ethics, politics, or soci- theory centers on people gathering at a party. In any ety in general, or useful in holding authorities group of at least six people selected at random, the accountable—intentionally mistaken or absurd theo- gathering will invariably include three mutual friends ries (e.g., QAnon and the satanic pedophile ring that or three mutual nonfriends. According to another President Trump is allegedly combatting) can be mathematician, T. S. Motzkin, in writing about Ram- harmful to individuals or culture as a whole, often by sey theory, complete disorder is impossible.7 confusing facts and fiction or fueling hatred. Why are If total disorder can’t happen, perhaps it’s logi- crazy or manipulative conspiracy theories so preva- cal and helpful for us to seek or impose order—or lent? Is it true that certain psychological characteris- more to the point, purpose or meaning—on the ap- tics cause some people with a so-called “conspiracy parent disorder of phenomena we encounter. Could mindset” to believe them more than others? Scientific the tendency to perceive underlying design be a bi- studies addressing these questions have mushroomed ological predisposition (or in evolutionary terms, an in the last decade. Other insights on possible origins of adaptive process) with a foundation in mathemat- conspiracy theories lie in some relatively under-appre- ics, given the reality that patterns are everywhere, ciated ideas related to mathematics, biology, and how and it might be useful for us to perceive them? beliefs are shaped by human emotion and anxiety. After combined appendix and tonsil surgeries at the age of eight, I remember staring at the acoustic Do the Math First ceiling tiles above my hospital bed during a boring Ramsey theory is a branch of mathematics focused on week of recovery. The white tiles had tiny, random how a degree of order or regularity must appear un- holes scattered on the exposed surface, and I found avoidably from apparent disorder.5 Developed by myself picking out images in the distributed holes,

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 29 much the same way people see features or figures in “tuned” to detect highly specific, oriented structures groups of stars on a clear night. Once I identified an and contours, not unlike edge detection in amphib- image, such as a human face or horse, I couldn’t ians.14 Another important finding was that restricting make myself not see the pattern on the ceiling. Even visual information from reaching the visual brain dur- at the age of eight, I wondered why, and was it just ing a critical period early in the life of a kitten alters me who saw recognizable images where none ex- electrical activity of the brain’s visual cortex. Such isted? Was there a name for it? There is. losses in processing information are virtually nonexist- ent in adults who experience visual deprivation for Connect the Dots one reason or another later in life, so once present, A tendency to detect order in apparent disorder is pattern detection is durable.15 true not only of humans, but nonhuman animals as All of this is to say that humans and other ani- well. One term used to describe this phenomenon is mals, from amphibians to felines and primates, have pareidolia, or the tendency to incorrectly perceive pat- evolved over eons to pick out contours and patterns, terns where none exist, such as shapes in clouds, ran- including edge detection and other types of informa- dom sounds as words or phrases, or faces in water tion, that help individuals survive in a complex world. stains.8 Another term is patternicity, or the tendency Some of the time, there really is a signal in the noise, to find meaningful patterns in both meaningful and and it might be well to sense and perceive it to deter- meaningless noise. Patternicity, developed by Michael mine if there is any useful information to be gained Shermer, expands on pareidolia inasmuch as many ap- and exploited. Maybe the reason we are inclined to parently meaningless patterns turn out to be real, just detect patterns—at a basic biological level at least— as some conspiracy theories are true, as are many sci- has to do with how the brain itself works. Because our entific theories first thought to represent random eyes and brains are tuned to perceive features and can anomalies, such as anthropogenic global warming.9 hardly avoid seeing them, we might have the begin- Two key tools of science, in fact—Signal Detection ning of an explanation for why conspiracy theories Theory and its counterpart Statistical Detection The- are so prevalent. We are biologically “tuned” to see ory—are grounded in the necessity of establishing cri- features, however functional or fictional. The signal teria for detecting signals in noise, such as the well might be useful to us because it represents a pre- established p values of 0.05 and 0.01 for determining dictable pattern, just as it can be useful for survival to “statistical significance.” 10 recognize the absence of cause and effect. The brains of humans and many other animals It isn’t just edges or sudden movements humans have been shown to be superbly organized to detect are engineered to pick out as signals in a seemingly specific signals and patterns. Since the late 1950s, random world that is decidedly not random at all. scientists have demonstrated how a frog’s retina is Human brains are so specialized for detecting facial specifically organized to detect distinct features in the features that a specific area called the fusiform gyrus world, including sharp edges, curved edges, moving (located in the occipitotemporal lobe) is dedicated edges, and movements produced by dimming light, solely to face recognition, with both sides of the brain akin to shadows.11 None of this is surprising, given a equally involved in the task. Different circuits center frog’s typical lack of eye and head movement as it sits on familiar versus unfamiliar faces, but other brain still on a rock or lily pad, especially when we consider areas, including the prefrontal cortex in humans, also that a frog’s survival depends on escaping enemies and respond to faces and interact strongly with emotional snatching bugs from the air. After all, both predators parts of the brain, including the . Single neu- and flying frog food feature dark, moving edges as they rons are thought to respond selectively to faces of pass across a frog’s visual field. specific individuals, and the chemical neuropeptide, Cats are notorious for how they see and respond oxytocin, plays an important role in facilitating face to the world, including good night vision and a fond- and emotion recognition, of obvious importance in so- ness for pouncing on laser pointers or other darting cial interactions. More recent studies, however, show targets. Two neuroscientists, David Hubel and Torsten the rate individual face-recognizing cells fire corre- Wiesel, worked for more than 20 years on visual ex- sponds to separate facial features along an axis, and periments using cats and then primates as models for different combinations of firing along the axis can cre- human vision.12, 13 They eventually won the Nobel ate an image of every possible face with remarkable Prize for their efforts to demonstrate that neurons lo- precision.16 We might think of the brain as a highly cated at the last stop of the visual pathway; namely, complex xylophone or keyboard, with individual keys cells of the visual cortex in cats and monkeys, are representing the feature-recognizing brain cells, and

30 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 CONSPIRACIES & QANON faces as complex chords played on the instrument. lamented we are currently experiencing a Golden Age Of course, conspiracy theories are about much of conspiracy theories.17 Such claims have been made more than detecting such features as edges and mo- for decades. Political scientists Joseph Uscinski and tion. However, decoding how the brain works to Joseph Parent searched through 100 years of over perform fundamental tasks can tell us something im- 100,000 letters to the editor featuring conspiracy portant about how we not only recognize stimuli but scares published in The New York Times. Their analysis also process information. Frogs don’t simply see an generated three pages worth of conspirators, from edge on an otherwise blank canvas, they attribute Adolf Hitler and the African National Congress to the meaning to the input and behave accordingly. If an World Health Organization and Zionist villagers, cata- edge features sharp contours and moves rapidly, a frog logued into seven types: Left, Right, Communist, Cap- might well conclude it’s an insect and tongue-snatch it italist, Government, Media, and Other. (This last type for lunch. If a moving edge signifies a large predator, includes Freemasons, and even scientists and the such as a swooping bird of prey, a frog might jump to AMA). Letter writers in the 1890s, for example, were escape. As humans, we don’t simply sense a face: we afraid that Mormons had rigged for Republi- recognize an individual as husband or wife and attrib- cans and that Canada and England were conspiring to ute meaning and intention to facial expressions. A reclaim U.S. territory. In the early 1900s, correspon- smile signifies we can joke; a frown cautions against dents were worried about the role of financial inter- responding flippantly. ests in undermining . And so it went It’s fair to say our brains are designed to pick out throughout the 20th century, dispelling the myth that signals with meaning or possible intention from ap- conspiracism is a recent phenomenon. The common parent noise, and neurons in the temporal lobe per- theme running throughout these newspaper letters form the tasks unrelentingly even when we are was power. People writing to The New York Times edi- unaware it’s happening. When the perception of tors expressed their concern that someone or some- meaning or connections is mistaken, it’s called thing was engaged in getting or using illegitimate , of which pareidolia (the incorrect percep- power to manipulate others, which is not always a tion of visual objects, such as a horse on ceiling tiles) false .19 is a subcategory. Add human emotions, such as fear, and factors like threat and personal beliefs to the way Who Believes or Doesn’t Believe we perceive objects or events in the world, and we Although it seems obvious that conspiracy theory have the principal elements of conspiratorial thinking beliefs are exacerbated by political partisanship, ac- along with the possibility of erroneous attribution. In cording to recent investigations there is no simple cor- regulating human responses, the brain is designed to relation between left (liberal) or right (conservative) oversee detection and recognition, but emotions thinking and tendencies to believe or disbelieve in con- imbue with color and meaning, and emo- spiracy theories. Rather, according to Adam Enders tions are notoriously unreliable when it comes to im- and Steven Smallpage, researchers studying relations partial judgment. between conspiracy theories and politics, we all live on People are more inclined to buy into a conspiracy a continuum of conspiratorial thinking with respect to idea when they feel threat, anxiety, powerlessness, acceptance or rejection.20 Our beliefs are often formed or owing to distressing social events. for good reason, given the way the brain works in look- Moreover, according to the social psychologist Dr. Jan- ing for connections and the survival benefits of being Willem van Prooijen, believing one conspiracy theory suspicious or cautious, especially when we feel threat- doesn’t reduce the experience of threat but does the ened. Almost all behavior is strategic to some extent, opposite, stimulating additional conspiracy theorizing and conspiracy theorizing appears to represent a strat- in a sort of positive feedback loop.17 Once a person egy for responding to threat even if some or all of the sees meaningful patterns in dots on the ceiling, the underlying details are bunk. Michael Shermer calls images do not go away. After we see the face of the this constructive conspiracism, where enough conspir- man in the moon, it’s difficult to unsee it. acy theories are true that it pays to err on the side of as- Once we believe in a given conspiracy theory, it’s suming most conspiracy theories are real even though tempting to see conspiracies operating elsewhere. In many are not (false positives).21 fact, the best predictor of belief in one conspiracy the- As a rule, advocates of conspiracy theories are ory is belief in another. Given the partisanship, anxi- as inclined as anyone else to appear rational and ety, and distrust associated with politics in America open-minded, at least on the surface. In a system- and elsewhere, plus a disruptive pandemic, some have atic review of 96 studies on conspiracy beliefs

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 31 (including 93 studies published since 2007), a vari- sus “them” thinking), genocide, witch hunts, radi- ety of human predictors were assessed.22 Among calization, extremism, gun ownership, terrorism, the personality factors that had been previously and a rejection of mainstream medicine and sci- suggested by some as predictors of ence (for eample, negative attitudes toward safe conspiracy beliefs were low agreeableness and sex, vaccines, and human-caused climate change.) high openness to experience, but neither these nor If conspiracy theories are potentially damaging other personality factors, such as neuroticism, and sometimes even contradict each other (as in the could be verified in the survey as significantly man- case of those who believe the conspiracy theory that ifest in people who believe in conspiracy theories. Princess Diana was murdered but also tend to believe When rational explanations fail in times of un- the conspiracy theory that she faked her death) why certainty, however, so do logic and reason in favor of do some people persist in embracing and propagating sensationalism, at least for some people. But who is them? In certain cases, official or authoritative expla- more likely to buy into conspiratorial thinking when nations for events are inadequate or contrived to experiencing anxiety? Instead of looking at personal- meet political or other objectives, and people know it. ity traits as predictors, a University of Chicago re- There are also professional opinion makers—includ- searcher, Eric Oliver, assessed different styles of ing well-known personalities on social media, radio, thinking. According to Oliver, people fall on a spec- and television—who make a living by stoking the trum of thinking from magical or intuitive at one end flames of conspiracism (e.g., Alex Jones), and they can to rational at the other. An intuitionist tends to think be effective at their jobs. in terms of unobservable or magical forces, relying Beyond external factors, do internal psychologi- more on emotions and gut feelings or religious be- cal mechanisms dispose individuals to believe conspir- liefs, and then making judgmental shortcuts while acy theories? Five mechanisms have been suggested:26 rejecting what’s observable to explain an event. A ra- tionalist tends to favor logic, deduction, and facts, 1. A desire to discover meaning to counter uncer- while relying on analytical thinking and transparency. tainty and preserve beliefs. Such information Oliver notes that most people (about 60%) are some- processing is a higher-level (more complex) ex- where in the middle, with intuitionists outnumbering ample of perceiving patterns in seeming ran- rationalists about 2 to 1 in the remaining 40% of peo- domness, which we know our brains are ple.23 If the percentage estimates are fairly accurate, specialized to do well. Of course, in a hunt for then a large segment of the human population, which meaning, it’s possible to go off the tracks. includes a relatively large number of intuitionists, is 2. Biased assimilation—similar to confirmation susceptible to conspiracy beliefs, and some people bias—which refers to a tendency to incorpo- might both believe and partly disbelieve. On average, rate information that confirms what we al- though, a fortune teller or an evangelical is more ready believe is true, especially when lacking likely to buy into conspiracy theories than a physicist cognitive tools or other skills to arrive at expla- or statistician. nations by more rational means. Beyond underlying personality, psychological 3. Powerlessness, low status, lack of control, and motives, and styles of thinking, other researchers compensation for failures. Demonizing others have suggested possible demographic factors linked can be powerfully reinforcing, especially for to beliefs in conspiracy theories. They include low those who harbor prejudice or antagonism education, low income, being male, and being a against certain segments of society. Even if an member of some minority or an “outsider.” Con- object of scorn is unspecified, it is convenient founding variables and other complications place to blame others for individual failings as part these demographic ideas into the category of sug- of a self-healing strategy. After all, if such elu- gestions requiring more study.24 sive entities as the , the Deep State, powerful corporations, shape-shifting lizards, What’s Wrong with Believing, or plant people control everything, then per- and Why Do People Believe? sonal failures—financial or otherwise—are What is the problem with being keen on conspiracy hardly our own fault but, rather, the pre- theories? According to another comprehensive re- dictable outcome of a rigged system. view of interdisciplinary literature,25 conspiracy 4. Narcissism and maintenance of a positive self- theories do more harm than good. Historically, image. Those who endorse conspiracy theories such ideas are associated with prejudice (“us” ver- may feel a need to be perceived as personally

32 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 CONSPIRACIES & QANON

unique by possessing rare and important infor- the worst expectations, or explaining what other- mation unknown to other people. wise seems inexplicable by suggesting something 5. Defensiveness and a desire to strengthen group shocking and sinister about what we may already identity by suggesting antagonists are conspir- suspect is true. When an idea is as entertaining and ing against the group, especially if the ingroup infuriating, titillating and extreme, reinforcing and is undervalued or threatened by an outgroup. loathsome, laughable and egregious, personally ele- vating and socially destructive as a popular conspir- Looking Away acy theory, chances are good that our interest will Once seen, we can’t easily unsee the man in the be piqued. The irony is that conspiracy theories moon any more than a frog can ignore a darting in- thrive on the assumption proponents know there is sect or we can force our brains to disacknowledge the official story, a reported story, and the underly- the face of someone we know. Effective conspiracy ing truth, while what is offered up as conspiratorial theories capture attention through audacious truth to well-meaning truth seekers might well be claims, sometimes mixing outrageous notions with anything but the truth. Nevertheless, like a high- clever interpretations. They are perverse in flaunt- way accident or train wreck, it’s difficult to ignore ing , bolstering egos while reinforcing or look away from a good conspiracy theory.

REFERENCES 1. Shermer, Michael. 2020. “Why Science Fictions: How Fraud, 20. Enders, Adam M. and Small- People Believe Conspiracy The- Bias, Negligence, and Hype Un- page, Steven M. 2019. “Who ories.” Skeptic, Vol. 25, No. 1. dermine the Search for Truth. Are Conspiracy Theorists? A https://bit.ly/2HLz7iR New York: Metropolitan Books. Comprehensive Approach to Ex- 2. Pauly, Marc. “Conspiracy Theo- 11. Ingle, David. 1973. “Two Visual plaining Conspiracy Beliefs.” ries,” The Internet Encyclope- Systems in the Frog,” Science, Social Science Quarterly, Vol. dia of Philosophy. https://bit.ly Vol. 181, Issue 4104, 1053- 100, No. 6, October. /34bSMQE 1055. https://bit.ly/33mnHuw 3. van Prooijen, J. W. and Dou- 12. Hubel, David H. and Wiesel, 21. Shermer, Michael. 2019. Con- glas, K. M. 2018. “Belief in Torsten N. 1959. “Receptive spiracies and Conspiracy Theo- Conspiracy Theories: Basic Fields of Single Neurons in the ries: What We Should and Principles of an Emerging Re- Cat’s Striate Cortex,” Journal of Shouldn’t Believe—and Why. search Domain,” European Physiology, Vol. 148, 574-591. Audible Original. https://amzn Journal of Social 13. Hubel, David H. and Wiesel, to/2Sm2gDa 48(7), 897–908. https://bit.ly Torsten N. 1963. “Receptive 22. Goreis, Andreas and Voracek, /2Sh4l3l Cells in Striate Cortex of Very Martin. 2019. “A Systematic 4. Chapman University. 2016. Young, Visually Inexperienced Review and Meta-Analysis of “What Aren’t They Telling Us?” Kittens,” Journal of Neurophysi- Psychological Research on Con- Chapman University Survey of ology, Vol. 26, 994-1002. spiracy Beliefs,” Frontiers in American Fears. Oct. 11. https: 14. Koch, Christof. 2004. The Psychology 11. https://bit.ly/ //bit.ly/2HPABc0 Quest for Consciousness: A 33lpAHG 5. Weisstein, Eric W. 2020. “Ram- Neurobiological Approach. New 23. Oliver, Eric and Wood, Thomas sey Theory.” From MathWorld— York: Roberts and Co. J. 2014. “Conspiracy Theories A Wolfram Web Resource. 15. Kandel, Eric. 2018. The Disor- and the Paranoid Style(s) of https://bit.ly/2Gs0HB4 dered Mind: What Unusual Brains Mass Opinion.” American Jour- 6. Hoffman, Paul. 1998. The Man Tell Us About Ourselves. New nal of , Vol. Who Loved Only Numbers: The York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 58, No. 4, 952–966. See also: Story of Paul Erdös and the 16. Bate, Sarah. 2012. Face Oliver, Eric. 2020. “The Sci- Search for Mathematical Truth. Recognition and Its Disorders. ence of Conspiracy Theories New York: Hyperion, 5–57. New York: Palgrave. and .” Big 7. Soifer, Alexander (Ed.). 2011. 17. Van Prooijen, Jan-Willem. 2020. Brains podcast. Ramsey Theory: Yesterday, “An Existential Threat Model of https://bit.ly/3cTzvav Today, and Tomorrow. New Conspiracy Theories.” Euro- 24. Uscinski, Joseph E. (Ed.) 2018. York: Springer. pean Psychologist, 25, 16–25. Conspiracy Theories and the 8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ https://bit.ly/33n5e0G People Who Believe Them. Ox- Pareidolia 18. Stanton, Zack. 2020. “You’re ford University Press. 9. Shermer, Michael. 2011. The Living in the Golden Age of Con- 25. Douglas, K. M, Uscinski, J. E., Believing Brain. New York: spiracy Theories.” Politico, June Sutton, R. M. et al. 2019. “Un- Henry Holt. 17. https://politi.co/33mgydG derstanding Conspiracy Theo- 10. For a brief history of the signal- 19. Uscinski, Joseph E. and Parent, ries,” Advances in Political detection problem in the context Joseph M. 2014. American Psychology 40(1). of the replication crisis in sci- Conspiracy Theories. New York: https://bit.ly/3l75qY8 ence, see: Ritchie, Stuart. 2020. Oxford University Press. 26. Ibid.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 33 ARTICLE QAnon in Context

BY MICHAEL SHERMER

The conspiracy theory QAnon—which holds that a secret theory. A clue as to why people believe QAnon may be found Satanic cult of pedophiles led by politicians and celebrities in Barkun’s threefold model of explanation: such as , Hilary Clinton, Lady Gaga, and even —First, conspiracy theories claim to explain what normal historical Tom Hanks has infiltrated the U.S. government, and is being and political analysis cannot. They try to make sense of a countered by President —has emerged over world that is otherwise nonsensical. the past couple of years as the most popular since the 9/11 —Second, they explain the world in a relatively simple way, almost Truther and the Obama Birther movement. Let’s put this Manichean in dividing the world into good and evil, with con- conspiracy theory in context. spirators representing the dark side of humanity. First, what type of conspiracy theory is QAnon? In my —Third, conspiracy theories are a type of secret knowledge that is Audible/Great Courses course on Conspiracies and Conspir- either unknown or underappreciated by others; the conspir- acy Theories I reviewed several classificatory systems con- acist is in on the secret while the unwashed masses continue spiracy researchers have compiled, including Medicine, about their lives either brainwashed or simply ignorant of the Religion, Science and Technology, Suspicious Deaths, and cabalistic forces operating around them. most notably Government ( operations, Pearl Har- bor, 9/11, FEMA prison camps, Sandy Hook, the Philadelphia The simplicity of most conspiracy theories is what makes Experiment, and the Clintons) and Secret Organizations (the them appealing. It’s hard to wrap our minds around the matrix of Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, the causal variables that contribute to the making of historical, polit- Freemasons, the Illuminati, the International Monetary ical, and economic events. Indeed, social scientists have devel- Fund, the Trilateral Commission, and the Zionist Occupation oped sophisticated statistical techniques and computer models Government). QAnon and the corresponding “deep state” to tease apart the many variables that shape any human behavior conspiracy theory is firmly embedded in these last two types or social phenomenon. Conspiracy theories allow people to cut of conspiracy theories. through all that complexity and to identify a clear villain. In his 2013 book The United States of , journalist In his 2015 book Suspicious Minds: Why We Believe Con- Jesse Walker has identified four types of conspiracy theories: spiracy Theories, psychologist Rob Brotherton makes a similar point. “Things seem a whole lot simpler in the world according • The “Enemy Outside” refers to theories based on figures alleged to be to conspiracy theories,” he writes. “The prototypical conspiracy scheming against a community from without. theory…assumes nothing is as it seems; it portrays the conspira- • The “Enemy Within” finds the conspirators lurking inside the nation, tors as preternaturally competent; and as unusually evil.” who are indistinguishable from ordinary citizens. To the classificatory schemes of Jesse Walker and Michael • The “Enemy Above” involves powerful people manipulating events Barkun I would add another distinction: the one between Para- for their own gain. noid Conspiracy Theories involving ultra-secret entities for which • The “Enemy Below” features the lower classes working to overturn there is little to no evidence and are largely driven by paranoia, the social order. and Realistic Conspiracy Theories involving normal political insti- In his 2003 book A Culture of Conspiracy, political sci- tutions and corporate entities conspiring to manipulate the sys- entist Michael Barkun classifies conspiracy theories into tem to gain an unfair, immoral, and sometimes illegal advantage. three types: Paranoid Conspiracy Theories include aliens, evil forces, world-domination schemes, or so numerous and plots so • Event conspiracy theories, such as the JFK assassination, 9/11, complicated that they could never be pulled off. Examples in- Sandy Hook. clude the Bildebergers, Rockefellers, or Rothchilds running the • Systemic conspiracy theories, such as those involving social con- world’s economies, the Illuminati determining political elections trol, political power, and even world domination. and power relations, and even 9/11 as an inside job, all which • Superconspiracy theories, such as those involving a single individ- would require hundreds or even thousands of operatives work- ual or force that controls everything, from a politician to an ing in perfect harmony and complete secrecy. QAnon is unques- alien force to Satan himself. tionably a conspiracy theory for paranoids. In these classificatory schemes QAnon is an “enemy Realistic Conspiracy Theories include government agencies within” and a combination of systemic and superconspiracy and corporate entities engaged in power consolidation, personal

34 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 CONSPIRACIES & QANON profiteering, tax-cheating schemes, regulation-dodging activities, —Plans for a one world government: 32.9% and any number of shenanigans that we see routinely on the —Obama’s birth certificate: 30.2% nightly news. Watergate is an example from government, Volks- —The origin of the AIDS virus: 30.2% wagen cheating emission regulations is an example from indus- —The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia: 27.8% try, Wells Fargo opening fake bank accounts is an example from —And 24.2% of Americans believe the government is concealing business, and the usual insider trading and tax-avoidance plots are what it knows about the moon landing. examples from finance. These are true conspiracy theories, and Emblematic of just how strong conspiratorial thinking can QAnon does not fit into them and has no chance of being true. be, once you put people into a conspiracy mindset they will even Realistic conspiracy theories often involve power, or the believe in a made up conspiracy. To wit, Bader and his colleagues lack of it. In his 1985 book The Liberty Lobby and the American threw into the mix “the North Dakota Crash.” Remarkably, they Right, the historian Frank Mintz popularized the term “conspir- found that a third of Americans think that the government is acism” to describe the beliefs of people without power who are concealing information about this non-existent event. prone to view history as being primarily driven by people with The implications are clear: believing in conspiracies power. As he wrote: makes one fearful. Bader and his colleagues also found a cor- Conspiracism serves the needs of diverse political and social groups relation between the number of conspiracy beliefs a person in America and elsewhere. It identifies elites, blames them for eco- holds and that person’s distrust of others. They assessed this nomic and social catastrophes, and assumes that things will be bet- by two measures: (1) fear that their significant other is cheat- ter once popular action can remove them from positions of power. ing, and (2) fear that others are talking about them. The role of power as a central element in the structure of —For those with no conspiracy beliefs, these two fears were held by conspiracy theories was affirmed by the political scientists 6.6% and 4.4% respectively; Joseph Uscinski and Joseph Parent. Performing an analysis of —for those who believe 1-3 conspiracies the percentages of these over 100,000 letters sent to the New York Times over the course fears were 7.4% and 6.6%, of 121 years, they coded the content for conspiracy related —for those holding 4-7 conspiracy beliefs the numbers were 11% themes. Their analysis generated three pages worth of conspira- and 6%, tors, from Adolf Hitler and the African National Congress to the —and those who believe in 8-10 conspiracies distrusted their World Health Organization and Zionist villagers, catalogued spouse and others at 17.6% and 11.3%. into seven types: Left, Right, Communist, Capitalist, Govern- ment, Media, and Other. (This last type includes Freemasons, Perhaps most disturbingly for real world consequences, and even scientists and the AMA!). Bader and his colleagues found that the more conspiracies peo- Letter writers in the 1890s, for example, were afraid that ple believe in the more likely they are to buy a gun. Specifically: Mormons had rigged elections for Republicans and that Canada and England were conspiring to reclaim U.S. territory. In the —7.1% of people with no conspiracy beliefs bought a gun out of early 1900s correspondents were worried about the role of fi- fear, compared to… nancial interests in undermining democracy. And so on —10% holding 1-3 conspiracies throughout the 20th century, dispelling the myth that conspir- —15.7% for those holding 4-7 conspiracies, and… acism is a recent phenomenon. —17.4% believing in 8-10 conspiracies. The common theme running throughout these letters was In studying the people most likely to believe in conspiracies, power. People writing to the New York Times editors expressed the Chapman researchers concluded that conspiracy theorists: their concern that someone or something was engaged in getting or using illegitimate power to manipulate others, which as we Tend to be more pessimistic about the near future, more fear- shall see later in the course is not always a false conspiracy theory. ful of government, less trusting of other people in their lives With power comes fear—the fear that someone has more and more likely to engage in actions due to their fears, such as power than the conspiracists. In 2016, my colleagues at Chapman purchasing a gun. University conducted a study on what Americans fear the most. In fact, QAnon began in 2016 with the “Qonspiracy theory” The research team led by Christopher Bader found that 54.3% of of “Pizzagate.” Promulgators of this theory asserted—without Americans believe that the government is concealing what they any evidence and beyond belief—that Hillary Clinton was di- know about the 9/11 attacks. And it’s not just 9/11. Here are some recting a pedophilia ring out of a pizza parlor. As absurd as this events and topics, along with the percentage of people who think sounds, the Pizzagate conspiracy theory led a young man to the government is hiding what they know about each: shoot up a restaurant with an AR-15-style rifle, claiming he in- —The JFK assassination: 49.6% tended to break up the perceived cabal of perverts. It was fortu- —Alien encounters: 42.6% nate no one was hurt in the incident, but it revealed the power —Global warming: 42.1% of conspiratorial paranoia.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 35 ARTICLE QAnon Is Just a Warmed Over Witch Panic—and It’s Also Very Dangerous

BY DANIEL LOXTON

As 2020 nears its end and the Covid-19 pandemic plagues modern society. As one seductive introduc- continues, a rapidly growing far right conspiracy the- tory video2 asks curious viewers, ory increasingly dominates headlines. QAnon is a Have you ever wondered why we go to war? Or why crowd-sourced online mythology inspired by cryptic you never seem to be able to get out of debt? Why anonymous internet posts appearing since 2017 from there is poverty, division, and crime? What if I told an unknown figure (or group) known as “Q” or “Q you there was a reason for it all? What if I told you it Clearance Patriot.” It is an expanded successor to the was done on purpose? debunked 2016 “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, which claimed that Hillary Clinton and other prominent The idea that Satanists rule the world is a story Democrats operated a child sex trafficking ring under of Lovecraftian horror in which the normal world is a Washington, DC pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong. an illusion and a much darker true world lies just be- QAnon is also rooted in much older mythologies yond the veil. And yet, QAnon believers are more ex- about sinister secret societies of Satan worshippers, cited than scared. People who “take the red pill” or witches, or Jews. “wake up” to the claimed conspiracy are offered a QAnon believers hold that our modern world is simple explanation for all of the world’s problems. secretly ruled by a “cabal” or “deep state” of cartoon- They’re also offered a reassuring prediction for a bet- ishly wicked evildoers hidden in plain sight. “Every ter future: “What if I told you that those who were President after Reagan was one of these deep state corrupting the world, poisoning our food, and ignit- criminals,” believers claim.1 Indeed, most “famous ing conflict were themselves about to be permanently politicians, actors, singers, CEOs, and celebrities” are eradicated from the Earth?” supposedly part of the cabal. For example, entertainers According to QAnon mythology, an apocalyptic Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, Lady Gaga, and Tom Hanks event called “The Storm” will soon cleanse the world are all thought to be prominent members. The Oba- and usher in a utopia. The unlikely savior in this story mas and Clintons are supposedly sinister cabal leaders. of revelation and renewal is none other than Presi- These criminals aren’t merely bad, greedy, or dent Donald J. Trump. “Good patriots in the U.S. mili- ruthless. They’re said to be deliberately, totally, breath- tary” supposedly “asked Trump to run for President so takingly evil. They worship Satan and may be in league they could take back control of America” from the Sa- with supernatural demons. They systematically abuse, tanic overlords. This righteous struggle is the true torture, and murder children. They’re pedophiles. purpose of the Trump administration. “The world is They maintain their youth through intoxicating injec- currently experiencing a dramatic covert war of Bibli- tions of blood drained from children ritually mur- cal proportions—literally the fight for Earth—be- dered at the moment of maximum terror. The cabal tween the forces of good and evil,” believers claim. also eats babies. Clues about the progress of this clandestine war are To maintain power, the cabal controls all main- to be found in “Q drop” posts by the anonymous Q, stream news media and engineers every ill that and in Trump’s more cryptic statements and typos.

36 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 CONSPIRACIES & QANON

Critical news stories about Trump are Satanic lies. tober of 2017 predicted the imminent arrest of Hillary When asked about QAnon, Trump dissembled, Clinton, which did not occur.) describing QAnon believers as “people that love our QAnon has emerged as a grand unified conspir- country” and “like me very much, which I appreci- acy theory. QAnon is broadly compatible with what- ate.” When asked during a pre- televised town ever conspiracy beliefs one happens to hold regarding hall interview to denounce the claim that “Democrats vaccines, Covid-19, , Jews, vampirism, a are a Satanic pedophile ring, and that you are the sav- New World Order, the Vatican, deep state conspira- iour,” Trump refused to do so. When exasperated tors, “false flag” , white nationalism, immi- moderator Savannah Guthrie pressed Trump to admit grants, or practically anything else. QAnon acts as a that his political opponents kind of glue that promotes aren’t devil-worshipping child and binds together seem- molesters, Trump insisted, “I ingly unrelated conspiracy don’t know that, and neither theories. When people ap- do you know that.” 3 proach social media with With Trump’s tacit en- curiosity regarding one con- couragement, the QAnon spiracy claim (that vaccines community eagerly looks for- cause autism, for example), ward to a moment called the those platforms’ recommen- “Great Awakening,” when the dation algorithms often pro- good patriots will reveal all mote QAnon content that and Trump will seal his victory entices viewers into further with mass arrests of high gov- conspiracy beliefs. ernment officials. Hillary This flexibility allows Clinton and all of the other al- QAnon to appeal to secular leged Satanists will be “se- people as well as fundamen- verely punished.” As one talist “spiritual warriors.” It QAnon YouTube personality is able to attract people we gushed: “I’m excited. I’m would normally expect to re- happy! … Once you know the ject far-right positions. For information you are not in example, some people in the fear; you’re, like, empowered! “wellness” community find You are excited. You can’t wait for justice to go down, that their doubts about vaccines and mainstream you can’t wait for the kids to be saved, you can’t wait medicine harmonize with QAnon’s rejection of main- for the bad guys to be put in jail.” 4 stream media and public health. In QAnon’s bizarre melting pot, hippies support a Republican The Power of QAnon president, adopt radical libertarian objections to pan- The anonymous Q purports to be a highly placed U.S. demic safety measures, and help to inflame the pas- officer sharing classified inside informa- sions of far right “militia” members and white tion. Q’s posts provide fragmented source material nationalists. about “pedo networks,” “child abductions for satanic rituals” and the supposed battle against the “powers Dangerous Beliefs of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of As I write this, the United States is confronting evil in the heavenly realms.” However, the style of multiple serious and mutually compounding crises: these posts is generally opaque, vague, and posed in a ferociously divided electorate; an unprecedented the form of insinuating questions. Dubbed “bread presidential election; mass protests against racial crumbs,” they require creative, collaborative interpre- injustice; a severe economic ; widespread tation by the QAnon community, allowing enthusiasts ; a pandemic that has already to fill in the blanks for themselves. claimed 223,000 American lives; and the escalating The result is a viral, organic, crowd-sourced ide- threat of white nationalist domestic terrorism on ology that can stretch to accommodate a broad diver- the right and Antifa-fueled violent protests on the sity of conspiratorial views. It is also flexible enough left. These crises created QAnon. In return, QAnon to allow believers to dismiss Q’s failed predictions and makes these crises worse. shifting claims. (For example, Q’s earliest posts in Oc- The pandemic has thrown jet fuel on the QAnon

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 37 fire, bringing in countless new believers. Those believ- Much of the damage is already done. Polls suggest that ers tend to interpret Covid-19 as somehow serving around 23 million Americans hold a “very favorable” or the agenda of the Satanic elite. Q suggests that the “somewhat favorable” view of QAnon. Larger percent- pandemic is part of a plot to steal the election from ages are prepared to accept individual QAnon claims. Trump by promoting the use of mail-in ballots. Other For example, 18 percent of respondents in one survey members of the community object to Covid-19 safety agreed that it is “probably or definitely true” that measures such as masks. For example, one woman Trump is secretly preparing for a “mass arrest of gov- who previously made headlines with her QAnon claim ernment officials and celebrities.” Although some of that actor Tom Hanks “purchased me from my father these respondents heard this “mass arrests” claim for for sex as a dissociated mind control doll” has more re- the first time from the survey itself, this finding sug- cently claimed “masks are mind control” and “man- gests that almost 60 million Americans could become dating masks is Satanic.” She argues in a YouTube receptive to this essentially fascist QAnon claim.6 video that masks are part of a “gigantic Satanic ritual initiation” intended for “evil and control, period.” 5 Recycled Antisemitism QAnon claims are incitements to violence. They QAnon’s extremist claims are certainly outlandish, have already triggered isolated violent incidents, in- but this does not make them original. QAnon largely cluding an armed standoff at the Hoover dam and at repackages older conspiracy beliefs dating back least one murder. QAnon members anticipate further decades and even centuries. violence and civil unrest during the overthrow of the For example, the belief that scheming elite pup- supposed cabal. For this reason, the FBI has warned pet masters control the banks and the media merely that QAnon and other “anti-government, identity rehashes tired but dangerous antisemitic tropes. The based, and fringe political conspiracy theories” will scenario envisioned by QAnon echoes the infamous “very likely motivate some domestic extremists…to early 20th century antisemitic , The Protocols commit criminal and sometimes violent activity.” of the Elders of Zion. That malicious document pur- Further, QAnon encourages the targeting of spe- ported to record a secret Jewish plan to take over the cific people accused of membership in the cabal. world and oppress gentiles. The Jewish elite would “These targets are then subjected to harassment cam- achieve “absolute despotism” over all nations by con- paigns and threats by supporters of the theory,” warns trolling the banks and the press. Although discredited the FBI, “and become vulnerable to violence or other as a plagiarized in 1921, the Protocols hoax dangerous acts.” went on to influence Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Especially worrisome is the possibility of QAnon- regime. Hitler claimed the Protocols were authentic, motivated violence during or following the 2020 U.S. and said they revealed the true “nature and activity of presidential election. People radicalized into the belief the Jewish people and…their ultimate final aims.” that public figures are servants of Satan naturally pose Given this blood-soaked history, it is noteworthy that a threat—especially when egged on by the President QAnon claims prominent Jewish Americans such as himself. When the perceived enemy is considered ele- George Soros are secret despotic rulers of the Earth. mentally evil, and the future of the world is thought to Conceptually, QAnon’s antisemitic roots extend be at stake, the most extreme measures may appear back much further to the medieval “blood libel” that reasonable to committed believers. Jews ritually murdered and ate Christian children. In recent months, this rising threat has moti- These wildly dangerous false allegations had terrible vated social media companies to take unusual steps to and predictable real-world consequences: sporadic combat QAnon. Facebook has announced an evolving massacres of European Jews. series of “measures designed to disrupt the ability of QAnon and Militarized Social Movements to operate Satanic Panic and organize on our platform,” including the removal QAnon also rehashes debunked old claims of Satanic of “over 1,500 Pages and Groups for QAnon contain- Ritual Abuse cults, which were based in turn upon ing discussions of potential violence.” Facebook later Renaissance era claims about sinister secret covens of expanded its restrictions on the conspiracy group, witches. QAnon’s imagined Satanic cabal is essen- announcing, “we will remove any Facebook Pages, tially identical to the network of highly placed Sa- Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, tanists imagined during the Satanic Panic of the even if they contain no violent content.” Twitter and 1980s—especially in their shared claims of systematic YouTube have recently taken similar steps. ritual abuse of children. However, QAnon has been growing since 2017. The Satanic Panic was ignited by a bizarre memoir

38 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 CONSPIRACIES & QANON called Michelle Remembers. Published in 1980, it tells said the infamous witch hunting manual Malleus the supposedly true (but later discredited) story of a Maleficarum (“Hammer of Witches”). The manual girl ritually tortured for months by a Satanic cult. The claimed that witches “are in the habit of devouring story emerged during intense therapy sessions in and eating infant children.” For example, one man al- which the adult Michelle was pressured to “recover” legedly “missed his child from its cradle, and finding increasingly outlandish “memories” of her supposed a congress of women in the night-time, swore that he childhood ordeal—false memories that did not previ- saw them kill his child and drink its blood and devour ously exist. it.” The witches were also “taught by the devil to con- The book’s claims were not true, but they were fect from the limbs of such children an unguent horrifying. Michelle allegedly endured ritualized hu- which is very useful for their spells.” miliation and sexual abuse. In one passage, a woman The threat of pure evil justified even the most ex- wearing a “black cape with a hood” dipped a colored treme measures to protect society. Suspected witches stick into a “silver goblet and inserted” the stick “in were brutally tortured until they told the expected Michelle’s rectum.” The woman shoved other sticks stories that interrogators wanted to hear. When they “everywhere I had an opening!” Several scenes fea- inevitably did so, they were burned to death. Their ex- ture dead, murdered, or dismembered children and torted false “confessions” appeared to confirm the be- infants. In the book’s grisly, absurd climax, Satan him- liefs of the witch hunters,and justified further attacks self appears as a character. He recites bad poetry and on innocent people—usually the most vulnerable, accepts tribute from the cult, including offerings of such as destitute women and the mentally ill. Many dead infants “in a pile at his feet.” 7 thousands of innocent people were murdered in the This lurid tale proved much more influential than name of this conspiracy theory. it deserved. It created a “script” for countless later claims of Satanic abuse of children. Many misguided QAnon Will Not “Save” Children therapists pressured their own patients to “recover” President Trump has claimed that QAnon believers stories like Michelle’s. These copycat stories were then “are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very repeated in books, workshops, and TV interviews, hard.” QAnon does indeed rally under a banner to reenforcing the moral panic’s standard narrative tem- “save the children!” However, both Trump and plate: hidden legions of Satanists are secretly abusing QAnon are mistaken. QAnon isn’t doing anything at thousands of children. Books warned of the “ever all to fight pedophiles. They’re railing against imagi- growing web being spun by those who desire to lead nary witches. your children into satanism.” Ensnared youngsters One of the tragedies of the Satanic Panic of the could suffer “all manner of sexual perversions,” “sexual 1980s was that it created confusion and diverted at- orgies which involved children and animals,” 8 and tention and law enforcement resources away from even and cannibalization of infants. the genuine social evil of child sexual abuse. The peo- None of these Satanic abuse stories was true. ple locked up for Satanic sexual abuse were innocent. Years of investigations by journalists and law enforce- People guilty of actual sexual abuse all too often went ment failed to uncover even one single genuine case. unpunished. Nevertheless, the resulting international panic led to In an effort to protect children, moral campaign- numerous false accusations against individuals, some ers in the 1980s led crusades against supposedly Sa- of whom were tried and wrongly convicted for imagi- tanic music, role-playing games, Disney movies, and nary crimes against children. young adult fiction. Their pamphlets and seminars taught law enforcement officers to look for imaginary Covens of Witches signs of imaginary abuse by imaginary cults. Sup- In retrospect, Michelle Remembers was clearly in- posed signs of Satanic cult activity included every- spired by fantastical horror movie depictions of Devil thing from teenaged boredom to the hippie “peace” worshipers. Those films were inspired in turn by cen- symbol.9 Activists and counsellors accomplished turies-old folklore. nothing for children with their bad advice about non- It was widely believed in Renaissance times that existent threats. They did nothing to bring criminals society was plagued by hidden covens of witches who to justice. Instead, they sent police on wild goose worshipped Satan and conspired against Christians. chases, left children in the hands of misguided, The witches were supposed to be utterly, unspeakably overzealous investigators, and ruined the lives of in- evil. “So heinous are the crimes of witches that they nocent people who were falsely accused. even exceed the sins and the fall of the bad Angels,” Likewise, QAnon’s baseless accusations against

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 39 Democrats and celebrities will not help children. deemably evil. What wouldn’t one do to stop people Like the moral crusaders of the Satanic Panic, QAnon who eat babies? As one former QAnon member re- imagines that perpetrators of both genders conspire cently told CNN, it “still bothers me to this day, how in a vast national network, abduct children, and willing and happy and joyfully I would have reacted to gather in groups to commit abuse for ritual purposes. something that I would normally want no part in,” such In reality, child molesters are most often lone males as cheering for the extralegal arrest of Hillary Clinton. who are known to their victims and motivated by “This is how you get good people to do bad things.” 10 pathological sexual desires. Eliminating QAnon’s threat to society would take Instead of saving children, QAnon’s incitements more than watchful cops and social media bans. It to violence put children and adults in danger. On De- would require QAnon supporters to change their cember 4, 2016, an armed gunman walked into the minds about a cherished belief and a community Comet Ping Pong pizza parlor intending to rescue chil- they’ve invested in heavily. Admitting serious error is dren from Hillary Clinton’s alleged child sex traffick- an extraordinarily difficult and courageous thing for ing ring located in the basement…of a building that anyone to do. Generous, respectful, personal outreach does not have a basement. Despite internet rumors, can sometimes help; shaming will not. Believers need the only children in the pizzeria were customers. support if they are to have any hope of transitioning Those kids were placed in jeopardy when the would- away from their misguided movement. “It has to start be rescuer fired three shots from an AR-15 rifle. with empathy and understanding,” the former QAnon Thankfully, no one was hurt. (The man surrendered to member told CNN. QAnon believers are highly insu- police. He was later sentenced to four years in prison.) lated from contrary information by their beliefs that The threat of QAnon-motivated domestic ter- news media are untrustworthy and nonbelievers are rorism diverts law enforcement resources from blind to the truth. True communication can only take real problems. Every minute cops spend watching place when barriers to communication are removed QAnon is a minute not spent investigating other through compassion. crimes—including abuse against children. That’s easier said than done. However, there’s ur- gent reason to try. Conspiracy theories thrive most Conclusion dangerously during times of uncertainty and societal QAnon’s conspiracy claims are not based in fact. The stress—such as during a pandemic. During the me- anonymous Q poster could be anyone from an over- dieval Black Death, conspiracy theorists claimed that seas “troll farm” to a teenaged prankster. Q’s claims are Jews were secretly causing the plague by poisoning frequently meaningless or factually wrong. There was wells. As a result, mob violence erupted across Eu- never any good reason to believe this absurd story. rope. Hundreds of Jewish communities were wiped However, some people do believe it, to their own out; many thousands of men, women, and children detriment and ours. Intense fringe beliefs tend to harm were burned to death. believers by isolating them from friends and loved Another pandemic rages today. As millions suffer ones. In this case, the content of their beliefs also and mourn and political divides deepen into chasms, threatens society at large. It is dangerous when groups one simple truth can help make us safer: we are in are radicalized to perceive their adversaries as irre- this thing together.

REFERENCES 1. “Q - The Plan To Save The (accessed October 18, 2020.) Your Children for Satan? (Milton World.” YouTube, March 20, 5. Sarah Ashcraft. “Masks are Keynes, England: Word Publish- 2019. https://bit.ly/3olxxVH Mind Control.” YouTube, July 17, ing, 1990.) pp. 1, 67. (accessed October 18, 2020.) 2020. https://bit.ly/3dRWYJQ 9. Gayland Hurst and Robert 2. Ibid. (accessed October 18, 2020.) Marsh. Satanic Cult Awareness. 3. “Trump refuses to denounce 6. Brian Schaffner. “QAnon and (Self published pamphlet, date QAnon conspiracies.” CNN Poli- Conspiracy Beliefs.” Institute for unknown, acquired by NCJRS Jan tics, October 16, 2020. Strategic Dialogue, October 5, 27, 1993.) https://cnn.it/3mj8hxx (ac- 2020. https://bit.ly/3kFvdqB 10. Bronte Lord and Richa Naik. “He cessed October 18, 2020.) 7. Michelle Smith and Lawrence went down the QAnon rabbit hole 4. Kim Cohen. “Why I'm Not Scared Pazder. Michelle Remembers. for almost two years. Here's how & You SHOULDN'T Be Either! (New York: Congdon & Lattès, he got out.” CNN Business, Oc- THE GREAT AWAKENING! (5 Lev- 1980.) pp. 23, 216. tober 18, 2020. https://cnn.it/ els To Q.)” YouTube, April 9, 8. Pat Pulling with Kathy Cawthon. 3okuMUR (accessed October 2020. https://bit.ly/2Tn2lal The Devil’s Web: Who Is Stalking 18, 2020.)

40 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 ARTICLE Do Diversity Training Programs Work? Creating a Culture of Inclusion through Scientific Reasoning

BY MONA SUE WEISSMARK

With the rise of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) gether face-to-face with adult children of Nazis, as movement in 2020, government agencies, corpora- well as the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of tions, and universities and colleges began scram- African American slaves and slave holders, I docu- bling to show their support by instituting diversity mented the results in my 2004 book Justice Matters and racial sensitivity training programs, not dissimi- (made into a documentary in 2006) and more re- lar to what Starbucks did in 2018 when they closed cently in my 2020 book The Science of Diversity. 8,000 stores to put 175,000 employees through an The preponderance of diversity trainings begin “anti-bias” training program in response to the with the assumption that we need to eliminate bias media frenzy after two African American men were and prejudice by purging our “wrong” beliefs, such arrested while waiting for a business meeting to as those related to historical injustices, power dif- begin there. ferentials, race and gender differences, and so forth. Underlying such programs is the belief in the The contentiousness of this methodology has taken value of diversity and inclusion, and many organiza- center stage in both the private and political arenas. tions have taken steps to implement diversity President Trump recently ordered the heads of fed- training programs that subtly insist on ideological eral agencies to cease and desist from offering and often silence open discussions. Nei- such trainings, noting that they “engender divi- ther measure is inclusive. The seemingly noble in- sion and resentment within the Federal work- tention of encouraging inclusion is often subverted force.” By contrast, universities and corporations by agenda-driven trainings that leave little space for are actively ramping up their diversity and racial different perspectives or sensitivity programs. nuanced conversations. A review of the re- This approach contradicts search on diversity and the very essence of the racial sensitivity programs values they are trying to shows that thousands of promote. diversity intervention pro- Most diversity and grams over 50 years have racial sensitivity training been ineffectual in remov- programs are not up to the ing bias and prejudice task of developing truly in- from people. Telling clusive environments be- people that they are bi- cause they do not foster ased and need to attend psychological safety among a mandatory antibias their participants. I learned training, or a racial sensi- this the hard way at Har- tivity program can acti- vard where, as a clinical vate bias rather than and social psychologist, I stamp it out. If people brought adult children of feel forced to accept an Holocaust survivors to- authority’s agenda, they

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 41 may do the opposite to assert their autonomy. there was a sense of double victimhood. Without such In order to comprehend the complexities of an environment, this phenomenon would have pre- our , it is necessary to understand their bio- vented these conversations from the progress that led logical, neurological and psychological underpin- to common threads of understanding. nings. Commanding people to get rid of biases that In a time of pandemic and racial reckoning, are deeply rooted in their personal memories and and with our civil discourse at a standstill, conver- histories is akin to asking them to shed their very sations on polarizing topics have an urgency as legacies and identities. never before. Many people are walking on eggshells Moreover, telling people to get rid of their bi- wondering what to say and how to say it, or worse, ases is apt to fail when there are strong feelings on some people don’t feel safe to share their viewpoint both sides of a historically sensitive issue. Evidence out of fear of reprisal. for this phenomenon was apparent in the multiple This reflects the discomfort many have with studies I conducted at Harvard on the aforemen- the current widespread cancel culture. “It no longer tioned children of Holocaust survivors and children feels safe to have conversations with people who of Nazis, along with the great-grandchildren of en- have a different viewpoint” they say. Diversity and slaved African Americans with the descendants of racial sensitivity programs aimed at exposing and slave owners. Both sets reported that they felt they curing biases and prejudices are unlikely to succeed had inherited a legacy that consumed large parts of at creating a culture of inclusion where everyone their lives and identities. feels heard, and where nuanced meaningful conver- The facilitated conversations between these polar- sations take place. Given these constraints, it is nat- ized groups revealed similar threads of feelings and as- ural to ask, “Is there anything we can do? Are there sociations to the past that run through their lives. They any solutions we can live with?” also revealed an important difference in that most chil- The quick answer is “yes.” The solution requires dren of Nazis reported their parents told them stories a fair process of facilitated conversations in which about the war, whereas children of survivors reported people learn how to reason together scientifically their parents told them stories about the Holocaust. about difficult questions, even when in stark dis- The daughter of a survivor put it like this: agreement. Over the years, thousands of students have joined me to reason scientifically about some of I didn’t even know there was a war until I was a the most important polarizing questions we face as a teenager. I didn’t even know fifty million people society and in our everyday lives, including questions were killed during the war. I thought just six million on racial justice, slavery, police racial bias, white Jews were killed. The stories I heard were always privilege, immigration, BLM, and reparations. about taking the Jews to concentration camps. For People do not always think of scientific reason- my whole childhood I think I thought it was only the ing as a path to understanding in emotionally Jews who were killed. That it was just Nazis killing charged conflicts. However, the nature of scientific Jews. It wasn’t until some history class that I realized reasoning causes one to pause, reflect, look to data this was a major war. But you know, still I think the for insight, and reach scientific consensus. Jews had it the worse, they suffered the most because When I was teaching the Psychology of Diver- every Jew was a victim like someone said.1 sity course at Harvard recently, one of my students The daughter of a Nazi officer put it like this: expressed the view that racism has long been the cause of rampant police brutality. In response, an- I didn’t know about the concentration camps until I other student suggested that police brutality, re- was in my teens. First I heard about the Party. Then gardless of race, may be a more pressing issue and I heard stories about the war, about bombs falling or noted a recent news article supporting the same. about not having food. I would hear that my father We can imagine how an exchange beginning in was an officer in the army, and I remember seeing this manner might unravel into an emotional de- pictures of him in uniform. And I remember his bate and end in a deadlock. Especially in our cur- black shiny boots. And I saw a picture of him on a rent politically polarized environment, we can also horse. At first I remember feeling proud to find out see how little progress would be made had another my father was an officer in the army.2 student expressed the view that police brutality was By providing an environment in which both sides not an issue at all. However, as a facilitator of the could openly express their experiences, these two his- conversation, I encouraged them to ask “What do torically opposed groups were able to understand that the data say about the relation between race and

42 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 police brutality? Which other factors contribute to theorizing, political conviction, or personal opin- the nexus between the two?” ion, but instead on methods of empirical research The class was then tasked with finding peer-re- independently available to anyone as a means of viewed scientific journal articles on the issue that opening the world to scrutiny. All opinions are have conflicting findings. When people are encour- viewed as hypotheses to be tested, rather than as aged to seek out information in support of both appeals to emotion. When conversations on polar- sides, they are encouraged to seek out information izing topics get bogged down by passionate opin- without an agenda. This allowed us to problem ions, scientific reasoning lifts us up so we can solve together by asking, “Why do these studies consider the alternative hypothesis. come to opposite conclusions? What data collec- It is a universal fact that diversity is a feature of tion and analytic methods were used? What other nature. This is true of individuals, families, social factors could play a role in the discrepancy?” classes, religious groups, ethnic groups, and nations. From there, the conversation was able to open There will always be diverse polarized views with up and move forward. We could then ask more dif- which people passionately identify. Scientific reason- ficult questions such as, “What effect does taking ing is a fair two-sided method for evaluating polarized race out of the conversation on police brutality views, fake news, misinformation, and disinformation. have on a person who has experienced racism? Embracing scientific reasoning and using logic What effect does placing race as the central cause and standards of evidence can bolster American ed- of police brutality have on a person who has experi- ucation and heal our riven society. While agenda- enced such brutality without race being a factor?” driven diversity training programs are divisive, the Scientific reasoning does not take emotion out of scientific reasoning method is connective. Agenda- the conversation. Instead, it allows us to pause and re- driven diversity training programs try to resolve dif- flect on what effect our emotions have on the progres- ferences by methods of shame and pressure that sion of our dialogue. This is what tends to go missing in seek to win and control the debate and by cherry- conversations about polarizing diversity topics, but it is picking evidence in support of an idea, action, or also what I have found to be imperative to include. It is theory, typically with the aim of persuading others the only way to recognize our blind spots and trans- to share one’s “right” view. form them into facilitators rather than obstacles. By contrast, the scientific reasoning method dis- This is the method used in science and prob- solves differences by asking people to consider all the lem-solving education. It is dialectic between per- data, ask each other questions about what the data sons holding different hypotheses about a topic but mean, and reach a consensus about what is and is not wishing to understand one another and test their agreed on. They then have a foundation on which to views. One does not judge the other for their view. collaborate and explore how to test the questions about One does not try to win a debate. One does not the points on which they disagree. The process of sci- expect the other to change or think differently. entific reasoning is based on finding out what is true, Rather, the expectation is that one will learn to rea- and not, “What can I prove and convince you of?” son scientifically about the topic. Scientifically reasoning together shifts the dy- Many great scientists, including Nobel Prize namics of the culture from one of divisiveness to winners Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, and Richard one of connectedness, thereby making it possible to Feynman, have stressed that scientific reasoning is have a truly inclusive culture that includes different the key to developing peoples’ moral and intellectual perspectives. That is why it is so vital. strengths, and that this would lead to a better society. According to Feynman, the scientific worldview is a In appreciation of my current Harvard teaching fellows and re- search assistants Labrita Andrews, Brian Chin, Marcelle Giovan- habit of mind, and once acquired one cannot retreat netti, Bushra Hassan, Jeanette Lieb, and Marcelo Soares who help from it. I would underscore, as Feynman did, that run and continually improve the Harvard Psychology of Diversity scientific reasoning contains within itself a system of course and The Science of Diversity research projects. Their effort is critical to the successes we have teaching the course and run- logic and standards of evidence that can be used for ning the projects. Copyright © 2020 Mona Sue Weissmark All building a culture of inclusion. This method has the Rights Reserved potential to create an environment where everyone feels safe to express a hypothetical viewpoint and REFERENCES open to understanding that more than one view can 1. Weissmark, M., 2020. The Science of Diversity. Ox- be hypothetically true at once. ford University Press, p. 219. Scientific reasoning does not rely on armchair 2. Ibid., 219-220.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 43 ARTICLE Unpacking Political Life in America The Skeptics Society’s Social and Political Attitudes Study

BY MARSHALL MCCREADY, ANONDAH SAIDE, AND KEVIN MCCAFFREE

For nearly 30 years, the Skeptics Society has one to check out the reports themselves and email re- been dedicated to promoting science, reason, and ra- [email protected] with comments or questions. We tionality. Its members have endeavored to debunk welcome your own interpretation of the data. conspiracy theories, contest pseudoscience, and share the best available scientific research. The Skep- Theme 1: Prevailing Political Disagreements tics Society is always striving to find new avenues for Unsurprisingly, relative to liberals, moderates and discussing and promoting science. The latest project, conservatives were less likely to agree that the United the Skeptic Research Center1 (SRC), is an effort to States government should open its borders to all im- directly engage readers with the process of survey migrants in need.4 Almost three quarters of liberals data collection and analysis. As researchers associ- endorsed this position compared to a little over a ated with this newly established center, we are third of moderates, and 15.5% of conservatives. On pleased to present the results of our initial reports.2 the question of whether “ should always be a The findings of our first collaboration, called the women’s choice,” 85% of liberals agreed it should, Social & Political Attitudes Study (SPAS), were released 61% of moderates, and 38% of conservatives (see Fig- across 10 separate reports from July 2020 through Sep- ure 1). Climate change was also, predictably, a point tember 2020. The study was conducted by members of of disagreement: only 40% of conservatives affirmed the Worldview Foundations Research Team, composed that human actions are increasing global tempera- of sociologist Kevin McCaffree, psychologist Anondah tures compared to 74% of moderates, and 89% of lib- Saide, and graduate student Marshall McCready. The erals. These hot button issues continue to serve as survey was drawn from a nationally representative sam- litmus tests dividing most conservatives from most ple of adults in the United States in October 2019. Sur- liberals. vey respondents were asked about their political views, feelings towards those with opposing perspectives, Theme 2: Support for Science opinions about the role of language in constructing In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and the reality, and more. All reports are freely accessible on run-up to the 2020 election, we have seen all kinds the SPAS page3 of the Skeptic Research Center website. of contradictory and pseudoscientific claims circu- Our first ten reports included the following titles: lating in the news and on social media. People may often use the latest scientific paper as a political • Viewpoint Diversity and Political Bias (#10) cudgel against their ideological opponents, but the • Political Disagreement and Emotional Closeness (#9) very attempt to do so belies an assumption that sci- • Political Orientation and Political Attitudes (#8) ence is (or ought to be) authoritative in our social • Political Orientation and Information Sources (#7) and political conversations. • Political Orientation and Decision-Making (#6) Our study results showed that liberals, moder- • Political Affiliation and Attitudes about Language (#5) ates, and conservatives all agreed that they base their • Attitudes on Inequality and Political Affiliation (#4) political opinions on scientific evidence and reason • A Paradox of Tolerance? (#3) (see Figure 2).5 Liberals were, on average, a bit more • Political Affiliation and Political Intolerance (#2) likely to report premising their political opinions on sci- • Division in the Democratic Party (#1) ence, compared to moderates or conservatives. How- We will briefly review five of the themes that ever, an important caveat to keep in mind is that we emerged in our reports below, and we encourage every- surveyed peoples’ self-reported reliance on scientific

44 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 evidence (versus emotion) in political judgements, so Figure 1. Agreement with the statement, “Abortion should we should be cautious about making any inferences always be a woman’s choice.” about how people actually form their political opinions in their daily life. Also, these data were collected last 100 October, and views may have changed due to science’s 80 38% politicization during the pandemic. 61% Another finding from the study was that people 60 85% 12.5% across the political spectrum supported the dissemina- tion of scientific research, even if it contained contro- 40 versial findings.6 In our survey, we set up a thought 19% 49.5% Agree experiment for respondents. The scenario involved a 20 5.5% 20% Neither hypothetical study analyzing the effects of teaching 9.5% Disagree 0 both liberal and conservative perspectives in univer- Liberal Moderate Conservative sity classrooms. Specifically, respondents were told that researchers examined whether or not presenting diverse political points of view increased or decreased Figure 2. Agreement with the statement that, "My political violence against ethnic minority groups on campus. opinions are based on scientific evidence and reason.” We then asked participants how important they thought it would be for the results to be shared with 3 the public. Liberals, moderates, and conservatives all 2 reported that they believed the results should be shared, regardless of whether it increased or decreased 1 violence. Compared to the other two groups though, Agreement liberals were more likely to emphasize the importance 0 of sharing the results with the public if those results -1 indicated violence against minorities increased, but Liberal this difference between groups was small. -2 Moderate

Disagreement Conservative Theme 3: Disunity Among Democrats -3 Our study also found some evidence of disunity within the Democratic Party. In response to the Figure 3. How Democrats, Republicans, and those with no question, “If you had to choose, which political affiliation identify themselves. group do you think is most different/opposed to your own political views, currently?” Democrats 100 were statistically as likely to select the Democratic 11% 15% 7 Party as they were to pick the Republican Party. In 80 36% other words, there was a 50/50 chance a randomly 71% selected Democrat would report disagreeing more 60 75% with his or her own party than the Republican Party. This degree of party division was only charac- 40 53% teristic of the Democratic Party; Republicans were Liberal 20 20% considerably more unified in their opposition to Moderate 9% 10% Conservative Democrats. Responses to the survey items on politi- 0 Democratic Republican No Political cal orientation (i.e., how conservative or liberal a Party Party Party person is) supply further evidence of disagreement among Democrats. Almost half of Democrats re- ported being moderate or conservative, while only Theme 4: Bipartisan Political Tolerance about a third of Republicans reported being moder- In contrast to the sensationalistic depictions of political ate or liberal (see Figure 3).8 This means Democ- tribalism one gleans from mainstream cable news cov- rats were less likely to self-identify as liberal than erage and social media feeds, the results of our were Republicans to self-identify as conservative, study revealed a reassuring degree of partisan toler- 9 another indication the Republican Party is compa- ance. Respondents were asked whether they would be rably more unified. irritated if a member of an oppositional political group

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 45 most intolerant group.11 Other demographic charac- Figure 4. How irritated would you be if a member of the opposite teristics such as education, age and income did not political group was your neighbor, co-worker, local elected offi- cial or someone dating a member of your family? predict tolerance/intolerance. Tolerance/intolerance was also correlated with political attitudes in interest- 5 ing ways. Those in the most politically intolerant group 4.55 were more likely to agree that: (a) the U.S. government igh HighH 4 should provide financial assistance to foreign coun- tries, (b) the U.S. government should open its borders e 3.55 to immigrants in need, and (c) political conflict poses a anc 3 major threat to society. Perhaps counterintuitively, the oler t

n 2.55 most and least tolerant groups both largely agreed that I Intolerance the U.S. government should do more to help female 2 and ethnic minority American citizens.

w DemocraticDemocratic RepublicanRepublican

o 1.55 L Low

1 Theme 5: Consensus that Speech can Harm PoliticalPolitical PPartyarty AffiliationAffiffiliation The results of our survey additionally uncovered a con- sensus among political groups about the role of lan- 12 Figure 5. Attitudes towards language and political affiliation. guage. On average, Democrats, Republicans and those who are politically unaffiliated, all slightly agreed with 2 DemocraticDemocratic PPartyarty the statements, “Reality is determined by the words we

ee No parpartyty in parparticularticular

r use,” and “People should say and believe whatever they g 1.5 RepublicanRepublican PartyParty Agree A want, even if others think it is harmful.” All three 1 groups also agreed that people can cause “severe physi- cal harm” with the words they use. The only notable 0.5 disagreement among political groups in their responses 0 to questions about language arose over whether or not using someone’s preferred pronouns leads to physical -0.5- 0.5 harm against LGBTQ people. The average differences -1 were still quite small, with Democrats in slight agree-

ee ment, political unaffiliates in slight disagreement, and r -1.5 Republicans in only slightly stronger disagreement

Disagree Disag -22 than political unaffiliates (see Figure 5). RealitRealityy is PPeopleeople ccanan PeoplePeopple should NNotot uusingsing These results appear to fly in the face of multiple detdeterminederminedd bbyy ccauseause sevsevereere sasayay and d someonesomeone’s’sxx the wwordsords phphysicalysicy al harm believbelieveve whawhatever h tever preferredpreferred pronounsppronouns political stereotypes echoed frequently in the media: wwee use withi h the theyy wwant,ant, evevenen if leadsl toto physicalpph hysicy al wwordsords they use othothershhers think harm against gi the consensus about the ability of words to cause phys- it iis s hurtfulhurtful LGBTQLGBTQ people l ical harm raises the possibility that the free speech de- bate is more about the risks of regulation than the was dating a member of their family, was their neigh- possible harmfulness of language. If those in favor of bor, co-worker, or local elected official. Their answers regulating speech have been trying to persuade free to all four questions were then averaged into a single speech supporters by illustrating how words can hurt, composite tolerance score. On average, both Democ- they may want to rethink their strategy in light of this rats and Republicans indicated low levels of political in- evidence. tolerance (see Figure 4). Moreover, researchers found no significant relationship between respondents’ emo- Implications of the Social and Political tional closeness to their family and friends and the de- Attitudes Study (SPAS) gree of political disagreement in their social circles.10 In our view, the results of the Social and Political Atti- Despite all the sociopolitical turmoil on cable news and tudes Study are on the whole encouraging. The find- social media, most people in our survey reported feel- ings regarding support for disseminating scientific ing close to those with whom they disagree politically. research and relying on science as a basis for political There were additional interesting results. The opinion suggest most Americans believe in the value only significant demographic difference between the of empirical evidence, even if they may not have the most politically tolerant group and the least tolerant skills to evaluate it. While what people say they want was gender, with males more likely to fall within the on a survey and how they actually behave can certainly

46 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 differ, the fact that respondents reported an abstract to promote rational conversation by providing the appreciation of science is reason for optimism. public with new public opinion data, there are three The results of the political tolerance measures are ways you can get involved. also cause for optimism. Those of opposing political First, you can help fund our research through and partisan orientations get along better and agree monetary contributions.15 Conducting research is ex- more than political elites suggest. While the country is pensive and any donation you can make goes a long no doubt more effectively polarized than in previous way. Second, you can share your feedback about exist- decades,13 the SPAS indicates the existing tension in ing research like the SPAS by filling out our short the country does not necessarily match that portrayed form.16 Third, you can submit ideas for future studies, on social media. opinion editorials, and/or videos. Submit your ideas This is timely news. Talking politics with friends via email to: [email protected]. We welcome sug- and family of different political persuasions may be es- gestions, constructive criticisms and anything else pecially important right now. Fewer interactions with that can help us improve the work we do. people holding different perspectives combined with Your contributions, whether concrete or abstract, increased Twitter scrolling and news consumption are essential. Science is fundamentally a collaborative cannot be conducive to keeping an open mind or endeavor, a fact which bears upon the meaning of reaching rational conclusions. The insignificant rela- “skeptic.” Skepticism entails questioning claims and tion in the SPAS data between emotional closeness subjecting them to scientific and logical scrutiny, but and political disagreement indicates that we can still no one person has all the tools, skills, or time to per- have contentious discussions with those close to us. form complete investigations of the vast majority of It is not all harmonious, however. The relation- the important claims echoing around us every day. In- ship between Democrats and Republicans may be bet- deed, most people do not have the resources for a sin- ter off than expected, but the one between Democrats gle such analysis. This is where we hope the Skeptic and Democrats might be in more jeopardy. According Research Center can provide value: rigorous and to our data, the Democratic Party is more divided than transparent research on topical issues, motivated by the Republican Party, and this could make it more the goal of improving the quality and carefulness of difficult for Democrats to mobilize voters in the 2020 some of our most important conversations. election. On the other hand, Trump may be so dis- liked that high Democratic Party unity isn’t necessary for them to win the election. Our next study will delve REFERENCES deeper into these important questions. 1. https://www.skeptic.com/research-center/ 2. The SRC is a collaboration with researchers across scientific disciplines, to create substantive and Forthcoming Skeptic Research Center (SRC) easy-to-read reports drawn from proprietary polling Studies and survey data. The mission of the SRC is to em- The SRC is excited to continue collecting and ana- power you with a data-driven understanding of the beliefs and behaviors characterizing American cul- lyzing new data. In fact, multiple studies are al- ture. What makes this endeavor special is that we ready underway. are explicitly focusing on researching issues you Our next project is titled the Civil Unrest and care about: science literacy, health and medicine, cults and conspiracy theories, changing political Presidential Election Study (CUPES). Using data col- worldviews, religion, secularism, and morality. lected in September and October of 2020, this study 3. https://www.skeptic.com/research-center/social- examines political and social attitudes about timely is- political-attitudes-study/ 4. Report # SPAS-008 sues including the George Floyd protests, alleged police 5. Report # SPAS-006 brutality, the Coronavirus pandemic, and the 2020 6. Report # SPAS-010 presidential election. Additionally, a new survey assess- 7. Report # SPAS-001 8. Report # SPAS-008 ing peoples’ endorsement of various conspiracy theo- 9. Report # SPAS-002 ries and paranormal beliefs is in development for early 10. Report # SPAS-009 2021. We are tentatively calling it the Paranormal and 11. Report # SPAS-003 12. Report # SPAS-005 Conspiratorial Ideation Study (PCIS). Results from past 13. Iyengar, S., Lelkes, Y., Levendusky, M., Malhotra, N., and current research, as well as updates about forth- and Westwood, S. J. (2019). The origins and conse- coming studies, are all available on the SRC website.14 quences of affective polarization in the United States. Annual Review of Political Science, 22, 129-146. 14. https://www.skeptic.com/research-center/ Get Involved 15. https://www.skeptic.com/get_involved/donate/ If you wish to help the Skeptics Society in our efforts 16. https://forms.gle/VuDaPGXZ7M23jZ6J6

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 47 ARTICLE How Do You Get People to Care About Truth in Politics? BY GLEB TSIPURSKY

Do you feel angry and disgusted when politicians not worked. We tend to overestimate the extent to lie, even those whose and you oth- which other people share our opinions and predispo- erwise support? Do you intuitively recognize the sitions, a typical thinking error that behavioral scien- danger of lies in politics? Do you ever wonder why tists term the , well described many of your fellow citizens give such politicians a in a 1987 review article by Gary Marks and Norman pass, ignoring their deceit? Miller.4 However strange it may seem to readers of I hope that, as a fellow skeptic, you answered this article or those intellectuals and public commen- yes to these questions: I know I do. Some people tators, few people do not see an inherent problem care about the truth first and foremost, regardless when politicians they support lie to gain political of their personal values—liberal, conservative, or credibility. centrist. However, unfortunately, those passionate While it is necessary to highlight political de- about the truth tend to be outliers, as illustrated by ceptions, it is not sufficient for the people who do Jonathan Haidt, in his 2012 The Righteous Mind: not have an intuitive aversion to lies. Instead, we Why Good People Are Divided By Politics and Reli- need to demonstrate clearly why such lies are harm- gion, in which he describes extensive research that ful to the long-term interests of our country and itsr shows what values are most prized by mainstream political institutions. We need to show people why liberals, such as justice, fairness, and equality, and they should care—deeply and viscerally—about the values emphasized by conservatives, including truth in politics, for the sake of their own political purity, safety, and security.1 Truth is not among the and personal goals. top values for either group. This helps explain why so many people do not One Way to Tell the Truth, Many Ways to Lie intuitively recognize the harm done by to Before talking about the importance of truth, we democratic institutions, whether in the U.S. or need to start with definitions. By “telling the truth,” around the globe. Unlike the skeptical ideal, most I mean conveying an accurate portrayal of the rele- people put their ideological beliefs first, and then vant features of reality that any reasonable person interpret reality through these lenses, as described might want to know about the topic. Implicitly, this in Michael Shermer’s The Believing Brain.2 More- definition includes not intending to misinform. It’s over, those people resonate more with appeals to pretty simple. emotions rather than facts, as shown by research Now let’s ground that statement with some ex- such as that described in the edited volume by Nico amples of what not telling the truth looks like. Say Frijda, Antony Manstead, and Sacha Bem on Emo- you decide to purchase a used car and the salesman tions and Beliefs: How Feelings Influence Thoughts.3 introduces himself as Truthful Tom. You point to a How do we communicate convincingly the dan- car and ask him to tell you about it. What scenarios gers of post-truth political tactics to people who do might result? not have a visceral concern about truth in politics? Just wagging a finger and calling out such lies, as Scenario 1: Tom answers: “Oh, it’s a great car. Let’s many intellectuals and public commentators have sign the deal now.” Most of us will suspect his done in the past and are currently doing, clearly has vagueness does not sound very truthful. He

48 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 didn’t list the relevant features of the car that he may expect any reasonable customer to want to know. But the description “great” is such a generality it can hardly be pinned down as a lie. Maybe Tom truthfully means, “great for me if I can sell it to you at this price”? Scenario 2: Tom answers: “This is a car for true pa- triots. I can tell you love your country, so this is the right car for you. Let’s sign the deal now.” In this scenario, Tom is deceptively appealing to emotions through flattery, and again is not describing what is relevant to you, the buyer. This particular kind of flattery is called a glit- tering generality, an emotionally appealing phrase that is so closely associated with highly valued concepts and beliefs that it carries con- viction without supporting information or rea- son. The appeal to love of country, and desire for peace, freedom, glory, and honor so dazzles and affirms your beliefs you fail to notice the lack of other salient information. Scenario 3: Tom gives you the relevant details any reasonable customer might want to know about the car and answers your questions. He tells you accurately that the car was serviced regularly. However, he did not know and thus failed to mention that the car had a problem with the transmission. That’s a relevant problem and a rel- evant piece of information. Normally, we would say is Tom simply wrong, not lying. But in this scenario, Tom had previously instructed the showroom’s mechanic not to tell him if there were any engine problems. When she tried to tell him, he would cut her off or walk out of the room, arguing that such information would only hamper his job of selling cars. So Truthful Tom is not simply wrong, he is willfully ignorant. Scenario 4: Tom knows about the problem with the transmission and does not tell you about it. Tom committed what is known as a lie by omission, meaning deliberately withholding relevant information and thus deceiving you. Scenario 5: Tom was told about the transmission problem but rather conveniently he forgets about it. So he doesn’t mention it to you, even though he had the information and should have told you. In this case, Tom engaged in confabulation, making false statements due to incorrect memories about the past without a deliberate intent to deceive. Scenario 6: Tom knows about the transmission problem, but rather than admitting it, He distorts the truth through exaggeration (or

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 49 hyperbole), telling you that everyone who Another important element to consider in owned this car was happy with it (when in re- whether we label something as a deception, or sim- ality, some owners were happy, and some were ply a wrong statement, is the question of intent. not). By overemphasizing the degree of cus- Dictionaries define lying as being intentionally mis- tomer satisfaction, Tom thinks he’s not lying, leading. Someone can fail to tell the truth and be just exaggerating, and indeed not all exaggera- wrong yet not be lying. However, it can be hard to tion is meant to deceive. But in this case, de- determine intent. Imagine you bought the car from ceptive hyperbole is clearly his purpose. Tom and found out later that it had a faulty trans- Scenario 7: Tom tells you about the faulty transmis- mission. How do we know what Tom knew and did sion but uses jargon that he knows only car not know? How do we know whether he was will- specialists would recognize. He is deceiving fully ignorant, lying by omission, blatantly lying, or you through obfuscation. He’s not actually just plain mistaken? It’s not easy in a one-time en- lying, but deliberately making the information counter. unclear and confusing to you. We need to be especially careful and suspicious Scenario 8: You directly ask whether there is a when politicians make ostentatious, yet verifiable, problem with the transmission and Tom tells statements favorable to their reputation and/or you it’s just fine. Truthful Tom is directly lying. their political interests. We need to create a norm We call this a blatant lie. Experienced liars demanding politicians back up such claims with have one specific trick to make blatant lies credible evidence that would convince a reasonable more convincing—they use vivid details to person of any political persuasion. If we ask for make their fiction seem real. Tom might elabo- such evidence and they fail to provide it, we can rate on his lie by saying, “In fact, I was with safely dismiss their statements as wrong, until Olga the mechanic when was she was inspect- proven otherwise. If they do not provide evidence, ing the vehicle, and I recall her telling me, but continue to insist that they are right, then we ‘Tommy, this transmission is in great shape!’” should condemn them as being intentionally mis- Scenario 9: Tom lies to you about the transmission, leading—the dictionary definition of lying. If some- but in the center documentation you one lies repeatedly, and keeps doubling down on find Olga’s inspection report that declares the their deception, then we can shift our baseline per- transmission is faulty. You confront Tom. He ception to consider that person a systematic liar responds that the service center people are dis- who may even be engaged in gaslighting, which is honest and always lie. “That Olga, she’s makes worse because it involves extensive psychological mistakes like this all the time. Frankly, I think manipulation intended to make the victims doubt management are going to fire her later this reality and accept an alternative version forced on week.” Tom asks you to trust only him as the them by the perpetrator. source of all truth about the car. This is the If we can better categorize a politician’s level type of behavior characteristic of post-truth car of deceptiveness (from generally truthful to blatant salespeople. In extreme forms this is known as liar and gaslighter) we can more easily tune our gaslighting, meaning manipulating someone ears to the appropriate level of skepticism. This is into questioning their own sanity through one aspect of probabilistic thinking, where we as- denying the truth of reality. Comedian Richard sign probabilities to our understanding of reality, Pryor immortalized gaslighting in the story of and change our estimates based on new evidence his wife catching him with another woman. we acquire. For instance, a politician who lies re- He denies his blatant infidelity, asking his wife peatedly can be safely labeled a habitual liar. When (echoing Chico Marx), “Who you gonna be- there is clear prior evidence of their lack of credi- lieve, me or your lying eyes?” bility, we can probabilistically dismiss any self-fa- vorable statements by these people as lies unless These nine scenarios help reveal that there is a they provide verifiable evidence up front. spectrum of truth and lies, with some tactics such Finally, an evaluation of the truth must con- as blatant lies and gaslighting farther from the sider what constitutes credible evidence. While we truth, and some, like vagueness or obfuscation often deal with clear-cut situations, such as the being more accurate, but still deceptive. This spec- nine scenarios with Truthful Tom described above, trum helps explain why fact-checkers typically have in other cases we have to deal with more complex a scale of evaluating claims. situations of incomplete information coming from

50 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 multiple sources, each with its own biases. To help Deception and . orient us toward the truth, we can rely on credible Corruption, a natural bedfellow of political decep- fact-checking organizations and/or on the scientific tion, is another negative outcome of post-truth pol- consensus. itics. In a post-truth political situation, politicians win office by competing for who tells the best lie. If The Dangers of Deception for voters don’t mind or don’t notice the lies, politi- Democratic Decision-making cians have no incentive to represent the actual con- To help convince people to care about deception in cerns of the citizenry once elected, including politics, you need to demonstrate to them the dan- concerns for how tax dollars are spent or for gov- ger of falsehoods in politics when making decisions ernment dealings with business. Failing to con- in the political sphere. To make a wise decision, we demn political deception thus leads to a scenario need to know the relevant facts on the ground. For where politicians can take bribes right and left for instance, to decide what car to buy from Truthful giving favorable contracts to businesses and thereby Tom, any reasonable customer would want accu- divert our tax dollars into their pockets. After all, rate information about the price, the car’s current without the truth about the influence of money in condition and history, and any warranties. To make politics, citizens cannot evaluate who is corrupt. a decision about any political policy, a reasonable They thus cannot use their votes to address the citizen requires the facts about the impact of that biggest fear of U.S. citizens. According to the 2016 policy on our society, with a list of costs and bene- Chapman University Survey of American Fears, cor- fits in material and human terms. But politicians ruption rests at the top with 60.6%, above terrorist can be motivated to ignore or distort information attacks at 41% and even above not having enough based on their ideology. money for the future at 39.9%. Let’s consider how corruption and deception Ideologically-informed Deception. play out in a hypothetical example. Greedy Gary Here are two well-known, real examples of ideo- has been a senator for 12 years and is running for logically-informed deception: 1. Pro-Brexit politi- re-election. Serving on the Senate Committee on cians claimed in 2016 that leaving the EU would Energy and Natural Resources, he has been cutting “give the National Health Service the £350 million undercover deals right and left with energy busi- the EU takes every week.” This obfuscation was nesses. For instance, Gary enabled a solar power admitted to be false by those leaders after UK company to get a huge tax credit of 7 million dollars voted to leave the EU, though it lingered on in so- in exchange for opening a plant in his state and cial media. 2. The Trump administration’s claimed transferring $500,000 to a Cayman Islands bank in early 2019 that “there’s a growing humanitarian account under his wife’s name. He ensured that and security crisis at our southern border,” a crisis his friend won a federal contract to build an oil that could only be resolved by building a multibil- pipeline in his state, despite his friend’s bid being lion-dollar border wall. There were too many lies far from the cheapest; next year, his friend bought to count during the ensuing government shut- him a $100,000 yacht for his birthday, despite not down, but the U.S. border authority’s own data on having given Gary birthday presents previously. illegal border crossing apprehensions showed a When the newspapers got wind of Greedy marked decline of illegal immigration from fiscal Gary’s activities and published stories about them, year 2000 (more than 1.6 million apprehensions) Gary denied the allegations with blatant lies. While to 2018 (overall apprehensions below 400,000). newspapers presented the objective facts, Gary The average southern border patrol agent appre- went for emotions. He claimed the deals were “real hended 14 single adult migrants during all of 2018 winners” for the state (vagueness), that he worked (“U.S. Border Patrol Monthly Apprehensions (FY hard every day to provide jobs for the people of his 2000–FY 2018”), from www.cpb.gov). To exag- state, because the people’s welfare was all he cared gerate this situation as an immigration crisis was about (lying by omission about his payoff). He in- something between deceptive hyperbole and a stead accused the papers of trying to ruin the liveli- blatant lie. To frame it as a humanitarian crisis hood of those workers who now worked in the solar (appealing to our sense of compassion) was a glit- power plant and on the oil pipeline (gaslighting). tering generality. To persist in the face of the bor- He cherry-picked stories of previously unemployed der authority’s facts was willful ignorance at best, mothers who got jobs and could support their fami- and gaslighting at worst. lies thanks to his deals. His winning campaign ad

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 51 featured a mother and her crying girl ripping apart Would you be surprised to learn that when a newspaper whose headline blasted Greedy Gary. Patty lost her re-election, she did not concede? In- Given our recent turn toward post-truth poli- stead, she claimed her opponent actually won due tics, we can expect more and more Greedy Garys at to massive voter fraud, with millions of illegal bal- all levels of our . Even worse, other lots swinging the election. Although no evidence politicians may look at the successes of Greedy existed for such fraud, Patty had Larry launch a Gary and conclude they might as well adopt his thorough investigation of the ballots. Larry’s con- strategies of lying and accepting bribes, because trol of the Department of Justice enabled him to they work and he gets reelected anyway. trump up some initial fake evidence of voter fraud. Although newspapers and experts questioned this Deception and Authoritarianism. evidence, Patty used it to press her case. Moreover, Most dangerous of all, post-truth politics paves the Patty’s supporters believed her, and launched large path for authoritarianism. Just as successful appeals demonstrations to support her power. With her to emotions over facts can destroy checks and bal- control of the administrative and judicial re- ances on political corruption, if politicians can win sources associated with the Presidency, and the by lying, they can use lies to gain power and hold it rallies of her supporters, Patty pressed the Elec- indefinitely. toral College to vote for her instead of her oppo- Here’s another hypothetical example: Power- nent. In four more years, Patty used the same hungry Patty has been elected U.S. President four tactics to transfer power to her chosen successor, years ago, and is running for re-election. Her origi- Patty Jr. nal election was mired in controversy. A couple of While many non-American readers of this arti- weeks prior to the election, when polls showed cle might easily recognize this scenario as a common Patty losing, she called the election rigged, and riled one for how transform into authoritar- up her supporters for demonstrations leading up to ian states, it may be hard for my fellow Americans to the election. Patty ended up winning the election do so, as we lack the experience of authoritarianism through a slim victory in the Electoral College, in our country. After all, we never had a dictator take while losing the popular vote by nearly 2 million power here. An authoritarian regime in the U.S. votes. She blamed her loss on millions of illegal would be what is called a black swan event, a highly votes cast for her opponent, and launched an inves- unlikely but very impactful event that radically trans- tigation into voter fraud, which didn’t turn up any forms our society. Examples of black swans include evidence of fraud, but received wide press coverage. the 2008 fiscal crisis, the September 11th terrorist at- Most of her supporters ended up believing that tacks, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and of course the Patty indeed won the popular vote, but that the ju- Covid-19 pandemic. dicial system was rigged against her. Fortunately, we can prepare for black swan Patty also appointed an Attorney General, events by addressing the issues in advance and com- Legal Larry, well-known for aggressive voter sup- paring our situation to other historical and contem- pression tactics. Along with Patty, Larry promoted porary contexts. While the word “post-truth” is a the myth of widespread voter fraud in U.S. elec- recent invention, appeals to emotions over objec- tions, especially in Patty’s election to the Presi- tive facts leading to an authoritarian takeover have dency. This myth is common in U.S. politics despite a long history in democracies, as Michael Signer de- having no evidence behind it. In fact, extensive evi- scribes in his 2009 book, Demagogue.6 A “dema- dence from many studies of U.S. elections shows gogue” is a dictator who initially rises to power with minimal voter fraud, as seen in a thorough meta- support from the public. The term originated in an- analysis in a report from the Brennan Center for cient Greece, when democratic city-states such as Justice at the New York University School of Law.5 Athens occasionally witnessed the rise of political Patty, Larry, and other members of Patty’s post-truth figures who appealed to emotions over facts and administration ignored the reality for the sake of manipulated the masses at the expense of the well- promoting their political agenda. When newspapers being of the city as a whole. The demagogue Cleon, and experts, along with members of Patty’s own for example, was depicted by historical accounts as party, called out Patty for her lies about the elec- charismatic, eloquent, and skilled at appealing to tion, Patty ignored or denounced them. Many of the masses, presenting an image of himself as Patty’s supporters who did not care about the truth rough and unpolished, despite being an aristo- trusted Patty. crat. He pursued military actions that harmed

52 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 Athens (according to the historical consensus) by their own party. The reasoning I used in my conver- exaggerating the military resources of Athens, and sations appealed to what the hosts and their listeners minimizing strength of its rival, Sparta. cared about—poor decisions, corruption, and author- More recent examples of demagogues who itarianism. We had very productive conversations came to power though democratic elections, largely during which we agreed on the dangers of post-truth by misleading voters, include Benito Mussolini in politics and the importance of not taking any claims Italy, Adolf Hitler in Germany, and Hugo Chavez in at face value, instead demanding credible evidence. Venezuela. A number of contemporary authoritar- In my post-show, informal discussion with him, Lilly ian leaders who rose to dominance through post- said that our conversation really made him think, truth tactics include Recep Tayyip Erdogˇan in and, he told me, “that’s a dangerous thing.” Turkey, Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe, Viktor Orbán Given that these hosts have a wide following in Hungary, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, Vladimir among Republicans, the approach I outlined seems Putin in Russia, and Silvio Berlusconi in Italy. quite promising for getting them to care emotion- The U.S. has its own examples of people widely ally about fighting post-truth politics. The key is to deemed demagogues by historians, such as the Re- determine what the people you seek to influence do publican Senator Joe McCarthy and the Democratic care about, and show them how “alternative facts” Senator Huey Long. They gained significant power, will, in the end, destroy what they value. Doing so though not the presidency, through a combination will enable us to form an alliance across the politi- of emotional appeals and lies, and the U.S. suffered cal spectrum to fight for truth in politics, in letter much harm because of their . However, and spirit, for the sake of preserving our democracy because they never became authoritarian rulers (al- and preventing us from sliding down into corrup- though McCarthy came dangerously close), Ameri- tion and authoritarianism. cans find it hard to imagine the U.S. transitioning That’s what the Pro-Truth movement is about, to authoritarian rule. To counteract this compla- centered around the Pro-Truth Pledge (ProTruth- cency, we have to keep these examples in mind. Pledge.org). It’s up to everyone who cares about the Then we can turn the black swan (authoritarianism truth in politics—hopefully you, dear reader—to can never happen in the U.S.) into a grey swan (it sign the pledge online as a sign of their public com- almost happened with McCarthy, and has happened mitment to truthfulness, and then encourage their recently in other democracies). This will motivate elected representatives to do so. So join myself, us to fight to preserve our political system from the Michael Shermer, and many thousands of your corrosive effects of “alternative facts”—revealed in fellow skeptics in signing the pledge at ProTruth- this article as a whole spectrum of deceptions. Pledge.org. To learn more about the Pro-Truth To demonstrate the effectiveness of arousing movement itself and all the ways that you can make concern about truth in politics, I went on conserva- our politicial system more honest, read my new tive radio shows with hosts such as Scott Sloan, book, Pro Truth: A Practical Plan for Putting Truth Dwight Lilly, and Larry Stevenson, all Republican Back into Politics (Changemakers Books, 2020).7 activists. I chose Republicans, as Trump is our first post-truth President and he is a Republican, making Adapted from: Dr. Gleb Tsipursky and Tim Ward, it more challenging to communicate with Republi- Pro Truth: A Practical Plan for Putting Truth Back cans who would intuitively be disinclined to criticize into Politics (Changemakers Books, 2020).

REFERENCES 1. Haidt, Jonathan. 2012. The Manstead, Sacha Bem (eds.). About Voter Fraud.” Brennan Righteous Mind: Why Good 2000. Emotions and Beliefs: Center for Justice at the New People Are Divided by Politics How Feelings Influence York University School of Law, and Religion. New York: Vin- Thoughts. Cambridge University November 9. tage. Press. 6. Signer, Michael. 2009. Dema- 2. Shermer, Michael. 2011. The 4. Marks, Gary, and Norman gogue: The Fight to Save Believing Brain: From Miller. 1987. “Ten years of re- Democracy from Its Worst Ene- and Gods to Politics and Con- search on the false-consensus mies. New York: Macmillan. spiracies—How We Construct effect: An empirical and theo- 7. Tsipursky, Gleb and Tim Ward. Beliefs and Reinforce Them as retical review.” Psychological 2020. Pro Truth: A Practical Truths. New York: Times Books. Bulletin, 102.1: 72. Plan for Putting Truth Back into 3. Nico H. Frijda, Antony S. R. 5. Levitt, Justin. 2007. “The Truth Politics. Changemakers Books.

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 53 ARTICLE Are Laws of Nature Discovered or Invented? Continuous Change, Discrete Events, and the Nature of Reality

BY SIMA DIMITRIJEV

Science is based on the idea that effects have The concept of average power is not as precise as causes, and scientists use the mathematics of contin- the actual power at a specific point of time. For exam- uous change, called calculus, to formulate laws in ple, power consumptions at 6:00 pm and 11:00 pm disciplines ranging from fundamental physics to eco- could have been very different from the average nomics. With the absolute continuity and precision of value—much higher during dinner preparation at 6 calculus, we form causal links between the past and and much lower when almost everyone is gone to bed the future, an attribution that makes the laws of at 11. To express a more precise rate of energy change, physics deterministic and predictable. In this article I we should measure the energy consumption over a argue that these abstract models are different from much shorter interval of time and divide it by that real processes, which consist of events that are not time span. For example, if the energy consumption only discrete but also exhibit a degree of unpredictable between 6:00 pm and 6:03 pm is 0.1 kilowatt–hours, randomness. People who are unaware of this differ- the average power consumption over this interval of ence trust the calculus-based laws and adopt overgen- three minutes is two kilowatts. Although more pre- eralized interpretations of real-life observations and cise, this average number is not showing any power data. I show why calculus-based equations should be fluctuations within the period of three minutes, seen as idealized models of real processes, invented by which are very likely and can be significant if the humans, rather than autonomous laws of nature that oven was turning on and off. humans merely discovered. Free from the shackles of What, then, is the shortest possible time inter- these equations, we can see that a random event can val that would provide the most precise definition happen without an imminent cause. of power consumption at a specific point of time?

What Came First? Infinitesimal is Absolutely Precise What causes the first cancer cell? What initiates an un- but Inaccurate expected car breakdown? Where do new ideas origi- Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz introduced the nate? All cause-and-effect chains in our lives originate abstract concept of an infinitely small increment of from either an initial event or from fundamental time, labeled dt. The corresponding energy consump- processes that unfold according to the laws of physics. tion, labeled dE, is also infinitely small. However, the The continuous flow of electrical energy, either in ratio dE/dt is finite and represents the most precise the case of brain signals or in the simpler example of definition of power consumption. With the infinitely household electricity, is a suitable process by whitch to small dt, there can be no sudden and unpredictable explore this fundamental question. Taking the simpler power fluctuations between 6 pm and the subsequent case of household electricity, assume that the power point in time that is inseparably close to 6 pm. There- meter in a house shows energy consumption of 24 fore, the ratio dE/dt implements the concept of an ab- kilowatt–hours from the noon of one day to the noon solutely continuous process of power consumption. of the next day. To obtain the average rate of energy The concept of infinitely small changes, such as consumption, we divide the consumed 24 kilowatt– dE and dt, has a name—infinitesimal. The mathe- hours by the relevant time interval of 24 hours. The matical name for the ratio dE/dt is the first deriva- obvious result of one kilowatt is the average power tive of energy with respect to time. Mathematical consumption, which is just another term for the aver- equations that involve derivatives are called differen- age rate of energy consumption. tial equations. Newton and Leibniz created the area

54 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 of mathematics known as differential calculus, as well hour in this example. But this average is a mathemati- as the inverse operation of integral calculus.1,2 cal abstraction that cannot predict the time that it will The impact of calculus on our society has been take before a fox eats another rabbit. enormous. People used it to model processes from the Average values are also used to model processes fundamental physics to economics. Examples of these involving fundamental particles, such as electrons models include Schrödinger’s equation in quantum and photons. Yet again the average values cannot pre- mechanics, Einstein’s field equations, Maxwell’s equa- dict the occurrences of individual events. For exam- tions of electrodynamics, Newton’s laws in mechanics, ple, if the size of the energy packets delivered by the predator-prey equations in biology, and the Solow- individual electrons is kept at 110 electron-volts while Swan model of economics. the power is reduced to 1.76 nanowatts, the average In our power-consumption example, calculus en- time between subsequent deliveries of energy packets ables the most precise definition of power consumption becomes 10 nanoseconds. This is a measurable time at a specific point in time. However the big question interval and actual measurements show that the elec- then becomes about the accuracy of this precision. trons do not deliver the energy packets at 10-nanosec- The key problem with the precision of calculus is ond intervals. For example, measurements may show that the processes in nature consist of discrete units the following times between the actual arrivals of in- and discrete events. For example, textbooks describe dividual electrons, in units of nanoseconds: 7.2, 21.3, light as continuous waves, but the processes of light 9.3, 6.8, 11.2, 4.2, and so on. These are significant fluc- emission and light absorption consist of discrete tuations around the average value of 10 nanoseconds, events because only indivisible photons can be emit- which are not due to imperfections of time measure- ted and absorbed. In the example of electrical energy, ments but genuine ontological (the nature of reality) the indivisible units are the electrons. For the case of fluctuations.3 In electronics, these fluctuations are 110-volt electricity, the average energy delivered by a known as shot noise; they were first observed and de- single electron to the house in our example is 110 elec- scribed by Walter Schottky in 1918.4 tron-volts. Here, the electron-volt is another physical unit of energy; we can convert 110 electron-volts into Randomness and Uncertainty kilowatt–hours, but it is more convenient to use elec- These examples are consistent with the following an- tron-volts when we deal with energy transfers by elec- swer to the fundamental chicken-and-egg question: tronic processes. On average, 110 electron-volts is the Not only do events come first in emergent chains of smallest packet of energy that can be delivered, be- events and processes, but the fundamental events also cause there are no fractions of electrons to deliver this occur with a degree of randomness. packet of energy in smaller portions. This means that The smallest possible degree of randomness cor- the smallest packet of delivered energy in reality is responds to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle in larger than the infinitely small dE. Therefore, the ab- quantum mechanics. According to the energy–time solutely precise infinitesimal is inaccurate. form of this principle, the product between the uncer- The infinitely small time interval dt is also inac- tainty in time and the uncertainty in energy cannot be curate. For the case of one-kilowatt power, the average smaller than Planck’s constant.5, 6, 7 As a consequence, time between two deliveries of energy by individual neither the time interval between two quantum events electrons is extremely short but still longer than the nor the related energy exchange can approach the in- infinitely small dt. finitesimal values dt and dE. If they did, the uncertain- ties of these variables would also approach infinitely A Rigorous Analogy with Foxes and Rabbits small values, violating the uncertainty principle. Just as photons and electrons are indivisible units, and Therefore, the uncertainty principle is consistent with the rates of their absorption and emission are discon- the concept of fundamental events, which are sepa- tinuous, so are the rates of rise and decline of fox and rated by finite and random time intervals.8 rabbit populations in the common predator-prey ex- At this point, it seems necessary to clarify the rela- ample. Assuming that a fox eats a rabbit and then an tionship between the concept of fundamental events hour elapses before another rabbit is eaten, the rate of and Schrödinger’s equation—the most used mathemat- rabbit decline is one per hour. If the subsequent rab- ical formulation of quantum mechanics. Schrödinger’s bit-eating event occurs after half an hour, the rate equation is a differential equation and, consequently, it becomes two per hour. The continuous rate in the dif- is a mathematical formulation of fundamentally con- ferential predator-prey equations can match the aver- tinuous and deterministic processes, which is inconsis- age rate of rabbit decline, which is 1.33 rabbits per tent with the concept of random events. The common

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 55 view that Schrödinger’s equation is experimentally very serious question” and the reason was that Ein- proven leads to the view that these fundamentally con- stein’s calculus-based equations of general relativity tinuous and deterministic processes are real. However, “can permit time travel.” Acknowledging that “one has this is an overgeneralized interpretation because to be careful not to be labelled a crank,” he expressed it ignores the difference between the continuity of his concern that “if one made a research grant applica- Schrödinger’s equation and the discreteness of counted tion to work on time travel it would be dismissed im- photons or electrons in real experiments. We use mediately.” Paradoxically, that would indeed happen Schrödinger’s equation to calculate probabilities of even though are paying universities to events, and it is this probability that we compare to ex- teach the laws of physics in accordance with Hawk- perimental data. The dependent variable in this differ- ing’s way of thinking. ential equation, called wave function, is an abstract These paradoxes coexist only with the belief in concept—humans did not discover it, they invented it. the reality of calculus and, consequently, the belief in Consequently, we have to use the inverse integral cal- fundamentally continuous processes. In contrast to culus to convert the continuous wave function into the concept of process continuity, the defining feature probabilities of discrete events in reality. of events is that they are clearly distinguishable and Without this conversion from the abstract conti- countable units. For example, neuron-firing events are nuity to discreteness of events, there is no link be- distinguishable because the neurons reach their rest tween the wave function and experimental data. In condition before firing again—in other words, there is essence, this is Max Born’s statistical interpretation of an eventless interval between two consecutive firing quantum mechanics. Quantum physicists have to use events. The time gap between consecutive events sets Born’s transformation of the wave function to be able the arrow of time from the preceding to the subse- to compare their models to the random events from quent event. With the set arrow of time, events are experiments. Nonetheless, a large majority of them fundamentally irreversible and so are the processes continue to believe that the wave function is real and, that consist of these events. consequently, prefer some of the non-statistical inter- pretations of the wave function.9 They do it even as The Key Takeaways they admit that all these interpretations are truly It must be at once both comforting and disconcerting bizarre. However, for a smart skeptic, bizarre prefer- to let randomness taint the belief in established order. ences of a large majority are not relevant for the truth. Either way, it helps to be extremely skeptical about the deterministic laws of science. These “laws” do provide Are Processes Reversible? useful models of an averaged behavior, but there will A paradoxical feature of all differential equations is be unpredictable events in the future. Many of these that they are not only deterministic but also re- events will be disregarded as noise, but some will have versible. Even the greatest thinkers overgeneralize the a massive impact. Your thinking is not determined by reversibility of continuous equations. An example is some eternal laws of physics and—with the awareness Stephen Hawking’s view in his last book, Brief An- that the past does not determine everything in the fu- swers to the Big Questions,10 published shortly after ture—thinking is your tool for dealing with and even his death. Hawking saw traveling back in time as “a benefiting from the unexpected events.

REFERENCES 1. Boyer, C. B. 1959. The History of 57, pp. 541567. York: Basic Books. the Calculus and its Conceptual 5. Heisenberg, W. 1927. “Über den 8. Dimitrijev, S. 2009. “Irre- Development. New York: Dover. anschaulichen Inhalt der quanten- versible event-based model for 2. Boyer, C. B. and Merzbach, U. theoretischen Kinematik und thermal emission of electrons C. 1991. A History of Mathe- Mechanik” Zeitschrift für Physik, from isolated traps” Journal of matics, 2nd Ed. New York: Wiley. vol. 43, pp. 172–198. Applied Physics, vol. 105, pp. 3. Dimitrijev, S. 2011. Principles 6. Heisenberg, W. 1949. The 103706-1103706-4. of Semiconductor Devices, 2nd Physical Principles of the Quan- 9. Gribbin, J. 1984. In Search of Ed. New York: Oxford University tum Theory. New York: Dover. Schrödinger’s Cat: Quantum Press. 7. Feynman, R., Leighton, R., Physics and Reality. New York: 4. Schottky, W. 1918. “Über spon- Sands, M. 2011. The Feynman Bantam. tane Stromschwankungen in Lectures on Physics, The New 10. Hawking, S. 2018. Brief An- verschiedenen Elektrizitätsleit- Millennium Edition, vol. III: swers to the Big Questions, ern” Annalen der Physik, vol. Quantum Mechanics. New New York: Bantam.

56 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 REVIEWS Cynically Skeptical A review of Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender and Identity by Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay.

REVIEWED BY GABRIEL ANDRADE

The murder of George Floyd in 2020 care little about truth. In their world- sparked mass protests across the United view, facts do not matter and objectivity Durham: Pitchstone. States. Some of these protests are under- is a farce. What does matter? Power. 2020. 352 pp. $27.95 standable, inasmuch as police brutality Who has it. Who doesn’t. And how to get ISBN-13 : 978-1634312028 is real. But establishing that the police it. As Pluckrose and Lindsay explain: killings of blacks is racially motivated is “they interpret the world through a lens killing 379 people and injuring over 1200 much harder to prove, inasmuch as each that detects power dynamics in every in- others. But surely this is different from one has a back story of encounters be- teraction, utterance, and cultural arti- the alleged “violence” done when, say, a tween police and blacks that start off fact—even when they aren’t obvious or British colonial administrator told an In- routine and escalate into violence. To real. This is a worldview that centers on dian person that a giant turtle does not many protesters, this seemed to matter social and cultural grievances and aims support Earth in space (thereby commit- very little. In fact, it wasn’t long before it to make everything into a zero-sum po- ting “epistemic violence” toward these became apparent that many protests— litical struggle revolving around identity marginalized knowers)? A scientific particularly those that erupted in vio- markers like race, sex, gender, sexuality, model of astronomy is better called “sci- lence and morphed into riots—were not and many others” (p.11). ence” or “the quest for truth,” but schol- really about police brutality. As statues of When you have a hammer, every- ars such as Spivak twist definitions to Confederate officers and even Columbus thing looks like a nail. If you are obsessed claim that, somehow, bringing scientific began to be toppled, it became clear that with detecting patterns of oppression, literacy to the world is akin to imprison- these acts were symbolic of larger issues you will eventually find them in nearly ing Gandhi for picking up grains of salt. involving long simmering racial tensions. all relationships. And, much like Don As Pluckrose and Lindsay explain, Whenever such sudden unrest be- Quixote tilting at windmills to liberate these theorists regard “reason and sci- gins, conspiracy theorists typically imaginary victims, armed with critical ence themselves as just one way of look for culprits who allegedly agitate theories you will tirelessly focus on injus- knowing and… [it is frequently] oppres- crowds, all with the evil purpose of self- tices—both real and imagined—that can sive” (p. 84). In this strange new move- benefit. This time, George Soros was the only be remedied by burning the system ment, “rigor and completeness come target of such conspiracy mongering. to the ground. not from good methodology, skepticism Needless to say, this is delusional. But, it Cynical Theories is a fascinating re- and evidence, but from identity-based is not inaccurate to conclude that, in- view of how these modern-day liberators standpoints and multiple ways of know- deed, the current wave of protests was a find and fight windmills in all spheres of ing” (p 88). In other words, someone long time in the making. No, a Jewish life. For example, Pluckrose and Lindsay can legitimately defend , billionaire is not behind it. But, some examine the work of renowned Indian , , and so on, particularly pernicious ideas have played postcolonialist guru Gayatri Spivak. One as long as it conforms to her own self- a major influence in the current chaos. of her key concepts is “epistemic vio- identity. In this worldview, facts do not These ideas have been around for quite lence,” or the “injury done to the colo- matter, only identity does. Can it get some time in academia. Some call it nized when their knowledge and status more cynical than this? “woke ideology,” but the academic term as knowers is marginalized by dominant The “everything-looks-like-a-nail” to for it is “Critical Theory.” discourses” (p.79). the hammer of critical theories is most In their new book, Helen Pluckrose Colonialism did great damage, and apparent when it comes to race. One and James Lindsay do a fine job in dis- Pluckrose and Lindsay are not in the very popular author, Robin DiAngelo secting these ideas. They call them “Cyn- business of defending brutal events such (her book White Fragility, has been rid- ical Theories” because, ultimately, their as the Amritsar massacre in April 1919 ing the New York Times bestseller list for defenders (postmodernist scholars such when Acting Brigadier General Reginald months after the George Floyd killing), as Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Ed- Dyer ordered his troops to fire on a insists that the question is not “did ward Said, Judith Butler, and others) crowd of unarmed Indian citizens, racism take place?” but rather, “how did

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racism manifest in that situation?” The back into racial categories and inflames The dismissal of facts is likewise assumption being made is that all human racism... [and] is profoundly aggressive” present in other areas where Critical interactions are in some measure racist. (p. 156). Furthermore, “interpreting Theory is applied. Consider gender. Pluckrose and Lindsay are by no means everything as racist and saying so almost Pluckrose and Lindsay are quick to in denial about the racism that still exists constantly is unlikely to produce the de- admit that many ideas of gender are so- in society, but they are baffled by the way sired results in white people… It could cially constructed. But, not all. Biology critical race theorists interpret every- even undermine antiracist activism by does not explain all gender roles, but at thing as some sort of racist conspiracy to creating skepticism and indignation and the same time, there are some firm bio- hold down people of color. For example, thus producing reluctance to cooperate logical differences between men and according to theorist Derrick Bell, deseg- with worthwhile initiatives to overcome women, and there is strong empirical regation in the United States was not in- racism” (p. 157). evidence supporting this claim. Yet, so- troduced as a way to help black people Pluckrose and Lindsay are definitely called “Queer Theory” and more recent solve the problem of better integrating onto something. I have personally at- forms of feminism are in denial of into American society at large, but tended so-called “diversity training” ses- these facts. As Pluckrose and Lindsay rather, to further the interests of white sions. Many of the folks that I have met describe it, in such movements, “there people while suppressing black radical- at these sessions are not particularly big- can be absolutely no quarter given to ism during the Cold War. oted. But, the first thing they hear from any discourse—even matters of scien- In fact, scholars of Critical Race course facilitators is that, being melanin tific fact—that could be interpreted as Theory believe the system is so hope- challenged, they are by default racists. By promoting or legitimizing biological es- lessly racist that, as Pluckrose and the end of the session, they are fed up sentialism…. There are biologists and Lindsay note, “[these] theorists fre- with all the name-calling, and come out psychologists advancing knowledge of quently advocate Black Nationalism resenting the ethnic minorities in whose how the sexes differ (or do not differ) and segregation over universal human name they are harassed. biologically and psychologically on av- rights and cooperation” (p. 135). These These cynical theories are danger- erage, how sexuality works, and why theorists’ cynicism eventually turns ous and counterproductive in other some people are gay, lesbian, bisexual, them into mirror images of the Alt realms as well. Consider obesity. The or transgender—but their work is not Right, who also scold any talk of uni- United States (and the industrialized welcome in Queer Theory” (p.109). versalism and are likewise content with world at large) has an obesity problem, So, how do we climb out of this rab- segregating people by skin color. with dire implications for conditions bit hole in which facts do not matter, Ultimately, many of the offensive such as diabetes and heart disease. Yet, identity reigns supreme, and oppression tropes that old-fashioned racists ut- the influx of Critical theory has eventu- is perceived everywhere? The authors tered in regards to people of color in ally led to the idea that obesity is not offer some valuable guidelines. They pro- previous times are now being levelled detrimental to health. The medical es- pose a “liberalism without identity poli- against white people by enthusiasts of tablishment, so the argument goes, is tics.” By this, they mean an approach that Critical Race Theory. Essentialism was “fatphobic.” Once again, the issue is de- focuses on dignity instead of victimhood. a fundamental aspect of racist dis- fined by power. Any discourse targeting Instead of focusing so much on policing course, but now, in the name of anti- obesity as a health issue is perceived as of language and verbal microaggressions, racism, it is resurfacing. As Pluckrose oppression of a particular group of peo- Pluckrose and Lindsay propose focusing and Lindsay describe it, “we are told ple; in this case, fat people. So now, fat on facts and the “Correspondence Theory that white people are inherently racist. activists have their own academic jour- of Truth—that a statement is true if it ac- We are told that racism is “prejudice nal, Fat Studies, fully dedicated to evalu- curately describes reality” (p. 285). In- plus power,” therefore, only white peo- ating how discourse on obesity is akin to stead of focusing so much on particular ple can be racist. We are informed that racism, homophobia, transphobia, and identities, we ought to seek universal val- only people of color can talk about imperialism. Pluckrose and Lindsay have ues; racism can be overcome, not by ob- racism, that white people need to just to remind readers that “there is strong sessing over racial categories but, rather, listen, and that they don’t have the evidence that obesity is a result of consis- by building a liberal order in which “no ‘racial stamina’ to engage it” (p. 141). tently consuming more calories than are individual or group is supposed to get Will this obsession with race actu- needed and carries significant health special treatment” (p. 286). And, most ally help overcome racism? Pluckrose risks” (p. 205). But, remember, in this important, they propose to use the scien- and Lindsay doubt it. After all, if Critical particular intellectual fashion, facts don’t tific method to seek truth, wherever it Race Theory ends up resembling the Alt matter; only identity does. Indeed, in leads. In their words, “we deny the worth Right so much, what good can come out this new movement, fat identity is so im- of any scholarship that dismisses the pos- of it? As the authors persuasively argue, portant, that refusing to lose weight is sibility of objective knowledge or the im- “the core problems with Critical Race perceived as a heroic act of resistance portance of consistent principles and Theory are that it puts social significance against assimilation. contend that that is ideological bias,

58 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 rather than scholarship” (p. 324). in the tradition of Enlightenment hu- plement to Pluckrose and Lindsay’s The United States (and the West- manism and scientific skepticism. And, book. Freedom of speech ought to reign ern world at large) is in need of much even if particular claims are dubious supreme, even if it comes at the ex- soul-searching after the death of (such as “racism no longer exists” or pense of offending particular groups. In George Floyd. This is a golden opportu- “homosexuality is a mental disorder”), the dynamic discussion of ideas (re- nity to reclaim the liberal values pro- thes only effective way to discredit such gardless of how outrageous they may posed by Pluckrose and Lindsay, and ideas is by refuting them in debate. be), truth is more likely to prevail. And uphold claims to the extent that they Michael Shermer’s recent book, Give- alas, cynical theories are unlikely to lib- are supported by evidence, very much ing the Devil His Due, is a good com- erate you; truth shall set you free.

The Gods of the West A review of Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West by R.R. Reno

REVIEWED BY GEORGE MICHAEL

For decades, Americans have publicized death of George Floyd seems lamented about national decline. As to confirm that something is deeply gripped the economy in broken not only in the United States, 1979, President Jimmy Carter stated but the entire Western world. What is Regnery Gateway, Washington, that “all the legislation in the world the source of this civilizational pes- DC, 2019, 208 pp. $28.99. can’t fix what’s wrong with America. simism? ISBN-13 : 978-1621578000 What is lacking is confidence and a In Return of the Strong Gods: Na- sense of community.” What came to be tionalism, Populism, and the Future of natural extension of an anti-authoritar- known as the great malaise speech was the West, R.R. Reno, who serves on the ian imperative that crystallized during used as fodder by Ronald Reagan who board of the Edmund Burke Founda- World War II. According to Reno, the exulted in 1984 that “it’s morning again tion and the editor of First Things, ar- violence that convulsed the West from in America.” A renewed sense of patri- gues that many of the maladies that 1914 to 1945, spurred an American-led otism emerged during the Reagan era, afflict our civilization are rooted in a response that was “anti-fascist, anti-to- but it nevertheless seemed superficial worldview that has ossified over the talitarian, anti-colonialist, anti-imperi- and fleeting. Even the triumph of the past several decades. Perhaps the nu- alist, and anti-racist.” As he explains, it United States in the Cold War was anti- merous problems that bedevil our soci- is these “anti” imperatives that define climactic, as the country adjusted to ety today—including opioid addiction, the essence of the postwar era. Nor did the new realities of the global . alcoholism, divorce, broken families, the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989- Structural changes occasioned painful suicide, morbid obesity, loneliness, and 1991 bring the postwar consensus to a dislocations, as manufacturing jobs, the popularity of online porn—are not close; instead, victory in the Cold War and later even white-collar jobs, were isolated phenomena but stem from actually intensified these anti impera- lost in America as the country opened something more fundamental. tives, elevating them to unassailable up more and more to free trade. Reno’s book begins with him re- verities. Candidate Donald Trump capital- counting a letter he received from a Reno identifies Karl Popper’s 1945 ized on this angst in 2016, when he 27-year old friend in who ex- The Open Society and its Enemies as vowed if elected he would “Make pressed his hope to someday “live to the foundational treatise of the postwar America Great Again.” Indeed, the na- see the end of the twentieth century.” consensus. According to Popper’s epis- tion’s economic performance was im- In many ways, 1999 did not feel much temology, all theories are tentative and pressive during the first three years of different than 2019, for the guiding falsifiable and can never be regarded as his administration. Still, many Ameri- ethos remained the same. The so-called absolute truths. Strong truths are tanta- cans felt that the growing prosperity postwar consensus, which commenced mount to strong gods and thus must be notwithstanding, something was just after 1945, combined moral freedom rejected inasmuch as they threaten lib- not right or had been lost. The urban with cultural and economic deregula- eral norms. Popper, a highly influential protests that ensued after the much- tion. These features were seen as the philosopher of science, averred that

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people had a choice: to live in a “closed social order would block the road to with its repressive norms, the uncriti- society” characterized by authority and serfdom. Not unlike Popper, Hayek cal acceptance of social mores, and a the subordination of individual inter- treated metaphysical qualities, such middle-class culture that disapproved ests, or an “open society” that would lib- as social bonds and moral truths, as of the unconventional. And of course, it erate people from nefarious collectivist threats to the individual whose inter- was believed that these outworn senti- impulses. The logic undergirding this ests, he argued, should always come ments contributed to racism, sexism, intellectual edifice was straightforward: first. In their stead, he proffered a and anti-Semitism. Never again. Either an open society or metaphysical minimalism that saw To be sure, collectivism and con- Auschwitz. Essentially, the new dispen- virtue in smallness. formity had some salutary effects. As sation would prevent the return of Hayek’s work had an abiding influ- Eric Fromm noted in his 1941 study of Adolf Hitler. According to Popper, total- ence on the Nobel laureate economist the origins of Nazism, Escape from itarianism was imbedded in the DNA of and expert of , Milton Freedom, the closed and tribal society Western philosophy. In order to follow Friedman. Not unlike Hayek, Friedman is psychologically soothing and reassur- through with this anti imperative, we sought to build a culture in which au- ing. In that same vein, the historian must banish the old gods of the closed thoritative norms would be banished Arthur Schlesinger Jr. observed in his society and create a truly open one. from public life. His 1962 Capitalism influential 1949 book The Vital Center: This theme would be reinforced by and Freedom advocated a minimalist, The Politics of Freedom, that modern the Frankfurt School. It was composed night watchman state that would allow capitalism and technology released mainly of Jewish refugee scholars from the invisible hand of the free market to people from their traditional bonds, Hitler’s Europe who had settled at the run economic affairs. Free markets, and as a consequence left them vulner- . In 1950 they rather than central planning would en- able to the blandishments of authoritar- published The Authoritarian Personal- sure the greatest prosperity. As he saw ian leaders who promised to restore ity, which was written under the direc- it, the market served as a vast system of national purpose and social solidarity tion of Theodore Adorno and published checks and balances even more effec- based on a collectivist form of social by the American Jewish Committee. tive and reliable than the U.S. Constitu- order. For that reason, it was necessary Basic to its thesis was the psychoana- tion. The major thrust of his theory— to always be on guard against creeping lytic idea that disturbed parent-child whose proponents came to be known authoritarianism that could arise from relations involving the suppression of as the Chicago School—was to restrict any crisis. human sexuality was the principal fac- government as much as possible and According to the postwar consen- tor leading to authoritarianism. The unleash the anarchism of the market. sus, any form of transcendence or the Frankfurt School warned that although Friedman saw collectivism as tanta- recognition that there is something fascism was soundly defeated in World mount to slavery. higher than the individual was believed War II, vigilance could not be relaxed Despite the recommendations of to be implicitly totalitarian. The only because many potential fascists with a the Austrian and Chicago schools, in way to avert this trap was to adopt a propensity for anti-democratic thought the first few decades after the war na- two fold pattern of weakening or going remained both in Europe and America. tional governments in the West contin- small, with a value-free, fact-based no- The anti-authoritarian orientation ued to favor Keynesian policies with tion of truth while satisfying the larger pervaded economic thought as well. its emphasis on state direction in eco- needs of the human heart with an am- The so-called of Eco- nomic affairs. After all, such planning biguous rhetoric of meaning. nomics posited that a strong govern- was believed to have contributed to the The postwar consensus gained fur- ment was not necessary for a func- period of prosperity and high commu- ther traction in the 1960s. As Reno sees tional economy. Instead, markets were nity cohesion that characterized the it, those young people who went to inherently self-organizing as classical 1950s. But with that growing affluence Woodstock were not rebelling against laissez-faire had argued came conformity that many people their parents in any fundamental sense; since released his Wealth found stultifying. A number of books rather, they chided them for not mov- of Nations in 1776. The Austrian School published during that period, including ing fast enough along the road to the would expand and refine this theme. David Riseman’s 1950 The Lonely open society, for the 1960s were in fun- Arguably, its most persuasive propo- Crowd, William Whyte’s 1956 The Or- damental continuity with the 1950s. nent was , whose 1944 ganizational Man, and Sloan Wilson’s Another important theorist of the book The Road to Serfdom attacked 1955 The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, postwar consensus, the Algerian-born both Hitler’s National Socialism and lamented the deep anxiety felt by a sti- French author Jacques Derrida, laid the Stalin’s Soviet Communism as two fling conventionality. The dominant foundation for the fusion of economic sides of the collectivist coin. To Hayek, liberal establishment interpreted per- and cultural deregulation. Best known the market mechanism was intrinsi- sonal and social problems as patholo- as the pioneer of deconstructionism— cally anti-totalitarian. A market-based gies stemming from the closed society, a philosophy that seeks to question

60 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 traditional assumptions about certainty, For example, although William F. Buck- sensus invoke the legacy of Auschwitz, identity, and truth—he turned the his- ley criticized the climate of skepticism maintaining that the West has a funda- torical contingency of the postwar con- at his Ivy League university that under- mental obligation in historic terms to sensus into a timeless, anti-metaphysical mined religious faith and discredited welcome newcomers. To that end, im- truth. He sought to dismantle claims of deference to the transcendent in his migration spawns more diversity, knowledge in the Western tradition and 1951 God and Man at Yale, he neverthe- which can serve as a firewall to a resur- in their place move philosophy toward a less evinced a strong loyalty to the gent racism and fascism. disenchanted world in which it was open society and agreed with much of A former Trotskyite-turned-con- not possible to know anything perma- Hayek’s insights. For Buckley, much servative, James Burnham lamented nent, universal, or transcendent. As like Hayek, freedom was paramount. the declining civilizational self-confi- Reno argues, Derrida’s hermeneutics Furthermore, pluralism was a solvent dence of the Occident in his 1964 Sui- inadvertently undercut the intellectual that would tend to disperse, rather than cide of the West: An Essay on the credibility of Marxism and actually concentrate, thus reinforcing the open Meaning and Destiny of Liberalism. At strengthened the rising hegemony of society. Instead of challenging the foun- the time of its publication, anti-colo- neo-liberalism, that is, a market-based dations of the liberal postwar consen- nial liberation movements found solace form of laissez-faire economics com- sus, Reno maintains that Buckley was in Marxism, which endeared them to bined witha social progressivism seeking to gain a seat at the table for the Soviet bloc. Communism seemed which began to gain popularity among conservatives. Be that as it may, his to be on the right side of history, which the leadership class in the West during critics castigated Buckley because he made it attractive to many people, in- the 1980s. defended too many truth-claims. cluding the New Left in the West. As The anti-authoritarian imperative Republican politicians pushed the the decade of the 1960s continued, was picked up and applied to other postwar consensus as well. Emblem- Marxism was increasingly combined areas of human affairs. In the realm of atic was President George H.W. Bush’s with a nascent Third-Worldism. But as theology, Reno cites the influence of September 23, 1991 “new world order” Reno points out, Communism was an the “theologians of openness.” For ex- address before the United Nations ideology conceived and nurtured in the ample, the German Jesuit priest Karl General Assembly in which he en- West that actually spread its civiliza- Rahner formulated a theory of “anony- thused about a world “of open borders, tional influence in the developing mous Christianity.” To that end, Rahner open trade, and, most importantly, world. As he points out, Mao’s revolu- invoked the Gospel of Luke, which re- open minds.” Despite all the lofty rhet- tion dismantled China’s traditional lates a colloquy on Mount Calvary be- oric about the dynamism of the global Confucian culture, thus paving the way tween Jesus and a penitent thief who is economy, the movement of capital for Westernization. Likewise, Bolshe- crucified beside him. After the thief from the United States to Asia sug- vism did more to Westernize Russia pleads with Christ to remember him gests that corporate leaders see Asian than Peter the Great could have ever when he enters Heaven, Jesus replies, workers as better partners for the fu- dreamt. Communism provided a dis- “Amen I say to you, today you will be ture than middle class Americans. As tinctly Western ideology used by Third with me in paradise.” As Reno explains, the economic prosperity of the middle World revolutionaries who sought to this passage was taken by Christian tra- class has declined, so has political soli- overthrow ancient , tribal dition to mean that a pious soul who darity. To be sure, globalization has systems, and the remaining colonial ad- had not heard the Gospel nor pro- worked out nicely for the well-edu- ministrative elites. As Reno points out, claimed an explicit faith in Christ and cated and the coastal elite. But many 25 years after Burnham’s of received a baptism could still be saved, moderately talented Americans see no the West, it was the communist East so in that sense being hidden or functional role in the global economy that had died. Still, Reno finds that “anonymous.” Rahner expanded this for them. Burnham’s analysis of civilizational de- notion to suggest that a social con- Inasmuch as open borders are em- cline remains a useful guide to the tone science and philanthropic disposition blematic of the open society, it is no co- and tenor of contemporary liberalism could be taken as signs of a desire for incidence that immigration—both legal in the West. God, thus allowing believers to regard and illegal—has skyrocketed in the According to Reno, Popper and well-meaning progressives as quasi- West. This has exposed middle class Hayek’s anti-totalitarian agenda ad- Christian allies. Although a touching workers to increased vanced in two ways as the postwar era and heartwarming parable from scrip- and disrupted settled patterns of cul- unfolded. The first, by way of critique, ture, congruent with the Zeitgeist of the tural transmission. These migration culminated in the ideology of multicul- postwar consensus, it idealized the flows continue despite the fact that vot- turalism. The second was by way of re- minimization and weakening of faith. ers in the West have told their leaders duction by reducing human affairs to Even conservatives seemed to that they do not want more immi- material interests and biological bend the knee to the new dispensation. grants. Defenders of the postwar con- processes. Critique and reduction

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 61 REVIEWS

became the therapies of disenchantment of the authoritarian impulse, or as through “blood” and “sacrifice” and by required by the postwar consensus. Reno puts it, to prevent the return of doing so, transgressed a postwar Euro- As should be evident, academe is the strong gods. Moreover, the postwar pean taboo which abhors too much af- where the postwar consensus flour- consensus later transmogrified into the fection being shown to notions of ished most. At war’s end in 1945, Har- tyranny of which “blood and soil.” vard University’s report—General can be seen as the logical result of this But it borders on absurdity to sug- Education in a Free Society—defended intellectual and ideological orientation gest that the broad masses in Western the Western canon as useful way to en- that was cemented by the close of countries are gathering together and courage free inquiry. But decades later, World War II. Reno characterized these marching in lockstep singing the Horst Harvard’s 2007 Final Report of the Task anti imperatives as “flesh-eating dog- Wessel Lied (a Nazi song eulogizing an Force on General Education stressed mas masquerading as the fulfillment of alleged hero in their rise to power); that the aim of liberal education to “un- the anti-dogmatic spirit.” rather, Western societies are dissolv- settle presumptions, to defamiliarize In an open culture people’s lives ing, as loneliness, alienation, and the familiar to reveal what is going on become more disordered and less atomization plague much of the popu- beneath and behind appearances to dis- functional. As Reno explains, the lation. Marriage is collapsing among orient young people.” The report cham- postwar consensus has led to a situa- middle-class Americans. The opioid pioned multiculturalism, which for the tion in which the few have contempt epidemic has spread throughout the liberal education establishment is seen for the many. The leadership class country. Declining social capital, dys- as the next logical stage in an ongoing derides and dismisses the subjects functional communities, disintegrating effort to build the open society. Over whom it leads. Reno cites, for exam- families, and a nihilistic culture of lim- the years, the rhetoric of diversity ple, Hillary Clinton’s dismissal of itless self-definition are now the main- gained prominence in large part be- Trump supporters in the 2016 presi- stays of contemporary society. Because cause it evoked openness and expressed dential election campaign as a “basket of the preoccupation with attacking the ideals of the postwar consensus. In of deplorables.” Meanwhile, the main- any form of communal solidarity, the the current parlance, one could say that stream media and popular culture most important issues of our time go multiculturalism has been weaponized champion sexual minorities, multicul- unaddressed. to dismantle the Western tradition, for tural settings, and other “de-center- By the “return of the strong gods” the latter alone, as Reno maintains, has ing” stories and images. Reno does not mean “Thor and the a hold on our spiritual and political The growing wave of populism other residents of the Old Norse Val- imagination. The anti-Western bent of both in Europe and the United States halla”; rather, he defines the strong multiculturalism deprives many of threatens the postwar consensus. That gods as those of objects that earn men’s their cultural inheritance. Concomitant is why, according to Reno, the leader- love and devotion. In other words, with the ascendance of multiculturalism ship class is so stridently opposed to those things that are the sources of the has been the rise of identity politics. the new populist revolt, as they see the passions and loyalties that unite soci- Inasmuch as the postwar consensus open society as the only legitimate eties. These strong gods can occasion- militates against a strong civic identity, basis for economic and political ally take the form of charismatic individuals fall back on micro-identi- arrangement. Plugged into the global leaders or ideologies. And at times, ties such as race, ethnicity, gender, and economy, they ignore middle class stag- they can be destructive. For example, sexual orientation. nation and decline. Despite widespread nationalism that exalts “the people” As Richard Weaver once told us, anomie and alienation among the gen- could possibly run roughshod over the “ideas have consequences.” For Popper eral population, the leadership class, rights of minorities or those deemed as and Hayek, the anti-totalitarian imper- academia, and the mainstream media outsiders. For his part, Reno concedes ative required sidelining strong convic- are near hysterical about the return of that the postwar consensus developed tions that arouse powerful loyalties. authoritarianism. The 2016 election of for good reasons, as totalitarianism in But as Reno laments, this anti impera- the nationalist-populist candidate Don- its various forms took a tremendous tive, which crystallized as a result of ald Trump only re-invigorated the human toll during the 20th century. the crusade against fascist and later sense of vigilance deemed necessary to But Reno implores, “[w]e must stop communist totalitarianism, metasta- turn what was claimed to be a rising acting as if it were 1945,” for “[w]e need sized into something far from benign. tide of resurrected fascism. The main- to face the challenges of the twenty- It has deprived people of the “solidarity stream media were horrified when first century, not the twentieth.” The born of shared loves and loyalties, the Trump exclaimed at a speech in War- hyper vigilance of the anti imperative of solidarity any normal human being saw in 2017: “Let us all fight like the the postwar era considers any failure to seeks.” Openness, weakness, and disen- Poles—for family, for freedom, for denounce fascism as a dereliction of duty chantment were seen as good qualities country, and for God.” He commented to defend the West against its own per- insofar as they diminished any vestiges how Poland had sanctified its nation versions. Taken to its logical conclusion,

62 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020 Reno maintains that this ideology can be just as dangerous and destructive as the authoritarian- ism that it superseded. As he sees it, the most serious threat we face today is not a resurgence of fascism, but a decline in solidarity and a breakdown of trust between the leaders and the led. Reno believes that our leadership class is way out of balance. An oligarchical and unaccountable elite poses a far more serious threat in his mind to the future of liberal democracy than the return of any Hitler. It is their Manichean outlook that Reno posits that “blinds our leadership class to the realities of the twenty-first century, poisoning our politics with an all-or-nothing moralism that is self-serving as it is destructive.” This hyper moralistic sense of mission—“either us or Hitler!”—ultimately prevents society from deal- ing with the real and most pressing issues of the day. Reno warns it is the rich and powerful, not the populists, who will shipwreck our nations. Reno asks a fundamental question: What is the role of the nation in the twenty-first century? He calls for a renewed sense of American nation- alism, not based on a biological inheritance, but a sense of shared culture and civic duties. He finds that nation is the logical choice for our ideological and communal passions. As he explains, the con- cept of “we” infuses political solidarity with sa- cred significance, for the strong god of the nation draws us out of our “little worlds.” It is necessary to have a shared notion of the common good in order to formulate the “we” that is the essence of public life. For the West to survive, Reno asserts that its citizens must recover the sense of “we” that unites them. Rather than more diversity, we need a home, which will require a return of the strong gods. The major events that have bedeviled us so far in 2020—COVID-19, economic uncertainty, political and social polarization, and urban un- rest—suggest that the fabric of the West is more fragile than many of us previously thought. Exam- ining what he sees as the root cause of some of the most pressing issues of the day, Reno’s book is worth reading. His thesis could have been ex- tended to many more facets of life in the contem- porary West, including gender relations, film, music, literature, art, etc., but by keeping it con- cise, he gets to the essence of what is perhaps the most serious challenge facing our civilization and possibly the defining struggle of our era: keeping our societies together, not through some form of progressive tyranny, but rather, by building a ro- bust .

volume 25 number 4 2020 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 63 CONTRIBUTORS

______Dr. Gabriel Andrade was born Rise and Fall of Peale’s Mu- Humans and Extra-terrestrials Use’ movement)” appeared in and raised in Maracaibo, seum (2020, Butler Books). Dr. Finally Meet. In addition, his The Humanist. Venezuela. He received a Ph.D. Dugatkin has also written exten- articles have been published in ______from University of Zulia (Vene- sively on Thomas Jefferson and numerous academic journals Dr. Harriet Hall, MD, the Skep- zuela). He currently teaches natural history in Mr. Jefferson ______Doc, is a retired family physi- Ethics and Behavioral Science at and the Giant Moose (2009, The Dr. Anondah Saide has a PhD in cian and Air Force Colonel who St. Matthew’s University School University of Chicago Press). psychology from the University of writes about alternative medi- of Medicine (Cayman Islands). ______California, Riverside. She is a cine, pseudoscience, , He previously taught at Xavier Dr. Robert D. Kirvel, a Ph.D. in visiting assistant professor at and critical thinking. She is a University School of Medicine , has works ap- the University of North Texas contributing editor to both (Aruba), College of the Marshall pearing in more than 40 literary and co-directs the Worldview SKEPTIC and , Islands (Republic of the Marshall journals or anthologies and is Foundations Research Team. an advisor to the Quackwatch Islands) and University of Zulia co-author of numerous articles ______website, and an editor of (Venezuela). He has published in refereed science and technol- Dr. Gleb Tsipursky is a passion- Sciencebasedmedicine.org, some academic articles in ogy journals. Awards include the ate advocate for using behav- where she writes an article English, and many books in Chautauqua Editor’s Prize for ioral economics and cognitive every Tuesday. She is author Spanish. nonfiction, Fulton Prize for the science to advance truth-ori- of Women Aren’t Supposed to ______Short Story, ArtPrize for creative ented behavior, rational thinking, Fly: The Memoirs of a Female Izhar Cohen was born in nonfiction, and two Pushcart and wise decision-making. He Flight Surgeon. Her website is Raanana, Israel. He studied at Prize nominations. His writing serves as the president of Inten- www.skepdoc.info. the Bezalel academy of art in and technical contributions have tional Insights, a nonprofit ______Jerusalem, the École Nationale been recognized by the National whose main focus is the Pat Linse is an award winning Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs Science and Technology Council, Pro-Truth Pledge, a project that illustrator who specialized in in Paris, and the Central Saint Executive Office of the President aims to reverse the tide of film industry art before becom- Martins College of Art and De- (Obama) of the United States. misinformation and post-truth ing one of the founders of the sign in London. His work has The author has published in the politics sweeping the globe. Dr. Skeptics Society, SKEPTIC, and been published in The Sunday U.S, Canada, U.K, Ireland, New Tsipursky is the CEO of Disaster the creator of JUNIOR SKEPTIC Times, The Times, The Financial Zealand, and Germany. Most of Avoidance Experts, a consulting magazine. As SKEPTIC’s art di- Times, The New York Times, The his literary fiction and creative and training firm that helps or- rector she has created many il- Guardian, Reader’s Digest, Pro- nonfiction articles are linked at ganizations avoid disasters. He lustrations for both SKEPTIC and spects, The Washington Post, twitter.com/Rkirvel. His novel, has published in dozens of journ- JUNIOR SKEPTIC. She is co-editor and . He Shooting the Wire, was pub- lals such as Journal of Political of the Encyclopedia of Pseudo- regularly illustrated Michael lished in late 2019 by Eyewear and and Be- science. Shermer’s column Skeptic in Publishing, Ltd, London. havior and Social Issues and is ______Scientific American. Throughout ______the author of four books. He has Daniel Loxton was a profes- the years he taught in academia Dr. Kevin McCaffree has a PhD contributed over 400 popular ar- sional shepherd for nine years in Israel and Paris, exhibited in sociology from the University ticles in publications such as before he became editor of JUN- one man shows, illustrated of California, Riverside. He is Time, Scientific American, Psy- IOR SKEPTIC. He illustrates and books and pursued his personal an assistant professor at the chology Today, Newsweek, The authors most of the current creative work. He and his family University of North Texas and Conversation, Inc. Magazine, JUNIOR SKEPTIC material. He currently reside in Tel Aviv. co-directs the Worldview Foun- CNBC, New York Daily News, wrote and illustrated the best His work can be found at dations Research Team. The Dallas Morning News, The selling award-winning Evolution: https://izharcohen.com/. ______Daily Caller, and The Plain How All Living Things Came to ______Marshall McCready is a sociol- Dealer, Visit his website, GlebT- Be, and the award winning chil- Dr. Sima Dimitrijev received ogy graduate student at the sipursky.com, or email him at dren’s three book Tales of Pre- B.Eng., M.Sci., and Ph.D. de- University of North Texas. His [email protected]. historic Life Series. grees in electronic engineering master’s thesis develops moral ______from the University of Nis, Nis, panic theory using Evergreen Dr. Mona Sue Weissmark is a Dr. Michael Shermer is the Yugoslavia, in 1982, 1985, and State College as a . professor, researcher and au- Publisher of SKEPTIC magazine, 1989, respectively. He is cur- ______thor. She teaches advanced re- a regular contributor to rently a Professor at the School Dr. George Michael received his search methods and psychology Time.com, and Presidential Fel- of Engineering and Built Environ- Ph.D. from George Mason Univer- of diversity, and conducts re- low at Chapman University. His ment and the Deputy Director of sity’s School of . search on the science of diver- latest book is Heavens on Queensland Micro- and Nan- He is an associate professor of sity at Harvard University. Her Earth: The Scientific Search for otechnology Centre at Griffith criminal justice at Westfield State new book is The Science of Di- the Afterlife, Immortality, and University, Brisbane, Australia. University in Massachusetts. versity (Oxford University Press, Utopia. As a public intellectual He is the author of Principles of Previously, he was an associate 2020). he regularly contributes Opinion Semiconductor Devices, 2nd Ed. professor of nuclear counter- Editorials, book reviews, and (New York: Oxford University proliferation and deterrence essays to The Wall Street Jour- Press, 2011). His core value is theory at the Air War College in nal, The Los Angeles Times, realistic education—learning Montgomery, . He is REGULAR Science, Nature, and other from each other’s errors and the author of seven books: CONTRIBUTORS publications. He appeared on successes, but with full aware- Confronting Right-Wing Extremism ______such shows as The Colbert Re- ness of the difference between and Terrorism in the USA, The Tim Callahan is religion editor port, 20/20, Dateline, Charlie elegant models (science) and Enemy of my Enemy: The of SKEPTIC. His books include Rose, and Larry King Live (but, our ability to minimize surprises Alarming Convergence of Militant Secret Origins Of the Bible, proudly, never Jerry Springer!). and even build a different future Islam and the Extreme Right, and Bible Prophecy: Failure or He was a monthly columnist for (engineering). Willis Carto and the American Far Fulfillment? He coauthored the Scientific American. His two ______Right, Theology of Hate: A History award winning UFOs, Chem- TED talks, seen by millions, Dr. Lee Dugatkin is an evolution- of the World Church of the trails, and Aliens. He has also were voted in the top 100 of ary biologist and historian of Creator, Lone Wolf Terror and the researched the environmental the more than 1000 TED talks. science at the University of Rise of Leader-less Resistance, movement, and his article “En- He holds a Ph.D. from Clare- Louisville. His newest book is Extremism in America (editor), vironmentalists Cause Malaria! mont Graduate University in the Behind the Crimson Curtain: The and Preparing for Contact: When (and other myths of the ‘Wise history of science.

64 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 25 number 4 2020

PUBLISHER AND EDITOR IN CHIEF Pat Linse CO-PUBLISHER Michael Shermer

EDITOR AND WRITER Daniel Loxton

Hello!

“Vaccines” are we take when we’re healthy to pre- vent us from getting sick later. Nobody loves getting their shots. CONTRIBUTORS: But vaccines protect you, your family, and your community. Pat Linse is the creator of Vaccines have helped us control many serious diseases. Right and Editor in Chief now, scientists are racing to develop a safe, effective vaccine to of JUNIOR SKEPTIC. make us immune to Covid-19. However, some people claim that a She wrote many of Covid vaccine might not be safe, or even that it might be some sort the early issues. of trick to control us. Others say vaccines are more dangerous than Daniel Loxton doctors admit. What is the truth? Are vaccines safe or risky? Or is the Editor of might the truth be something in between? JUNIOR SKEPTIC, and writes and illustrates most is5 sues. Daniel is the Let’s find out! author of Evolu tion: How We and All Living Things Came to Be. Centuries of Sorrow

We’re going to learn how vaccines were dis- existed. They guessed instead that the gods covered, how they work, and how they save must be angry. They imagined that plagues lives. We’ll bust scary myths and conspiracy were sent to punish humanity. theories about vaccines. And, we’ll explore the How helpless and scared people must have darker side of vaccine history—because no mat- felt! How could anyone defend themselves ter how safe something is, things can still go from the wrath of the gods? And yet, people wrong. discovered some ways to do that. For example, Let’s start at the beginning. Imagine for a they could stay away from sick people. That’s moment what life was like thousands of years what leaders in ancient Sumeria recommended ago, before there were any vac- during plagues. cines. Contagious diseases The ancients also noticed something that were everywhere. If you lived held the key to defeating infectious disease. in ancient times, your life During one plague in ancient Greece, people might be threatened by deadly noticed the “disease did not attack the same SKEPTIC No.JUNIOR 77 (2020) disease epidemics every few person twice, at least not fatally.” Those This Issue’s Cover years. Your family might survive who got sick and then recovered were im- features a school5 one plague, only to sicken and die mune! Centuries later, that insight led to boy receiving a in the next. Almost everyone car- one of the most important discoveries measles shot in ried the sadness of losing loved of all time: a way to make people im- , in ones to contagious diseases. 1432. (Courtesy of mune to diseases! the CDC.) Worse, ancient people didn’t

know why plagues kept happen- Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess ing. Nobody knew that germs of war, plagues, and healing Images: Museum of Health and Medicine; CDC National Man suffering Boy battling smallpox from smallpox in Bangladesh in 1974

Smallpox Scourge

Smallpox was one of the deadliest and most devastating came contagious. Worse, about one out of fifty died. diseases ever known to humanity. From ancient times until Nevertheless, these crazy experiments actually worked! the 20th century, smallpox epidemics killed countless Yes, it was dangerous. However, it turned out millions. People lived in helpless terror of that those infected through a scratch on smallpox. The disease made people in- their arm were much more likely to survive credibly sick and covered their bodies than those who caught smallpox natu- with horrifying blisters. Those who re- rally! Accidental infections were about covered carried terrible scars for life. 15 times deadlier than getting the

Image: Wellcome Collection Wellcome Image: Some also lost their eyesight. They scratch. were the lucky ones! Up to 30 percent of smallpox victims died. “Inoculation” is the word for this practice of deliberately putting full Several hundred years ago, people strength infectious germs into in China and India knew there was at someone’s body to create immu- least one benefit from catching small- nity. People who were inoculated pox: survivors became immune. This against smallpox usually had mild gave them a wonderful, terrible, danger- symptoms. Most important, those ous idea: what if they gave themselves who recovered were fully immune smallpox on purpose? Could they make to smallpox for the rest of their themselves immune? lives, just as they would be if In medieval China, people took small they recovered from an acciden- amounts of pus from the blisters of small- tal infection. pox victims and blew it up healthy people’s Smallpox inoculation worked. noses. In India, they scratched material from No one knew why at the time, but it smallpox blisters into the skin on people’s arms. Smallpox shown in did. This risky but lifesaving discovery Japanese medical What happened when people were deliberately manual from the slowly spread to other lands in the infected with smallpox in this way? Well, they 1700s Middle East and Africa. got sick, of course! They were infected with smallpox! They showed symptoms of the disease and be- JUNIOR SKEPTIC No. 77 (2020) JUNIOR SKEPTIC No.

65 JUNIOR SKEPTIC No. 77 (2020) Mather wrote to Boston’s wrote Mather ing the Boston outbreak? by it, if it were practiced” dur- practiced” by it, if it were doctors about the technique. He doctors about the technique. “how many lives might be saved “how many urged them to “warily” test it in them to “warily” urged rope from Africa. He wondered, He Africa. from rope case it could help fight the dis- tion had also started to reach Eu- tion had also started to reach ease. “Gentlemen, my request is, request my “Gentlemen, ease. heard that descriptions of inocula- heard that you would meet for a consul- that you Mather remembered what he what remembered Mather learned from Onesimus. Mather had Mather Onesimus. learned from tation upon this occasion, and to de- liberate upon it,” Mather asked. asked. Mather upon it,” liberate This request set off a firestorm of con- set off a firestorm request This more than half the town. more smallpox epidemic. It would soon infect smallpox epidemic. It troversy. The doctors were not impressed doctors were The troversy. Five years later, Boston was struck Boston was by a severe later, years Five with what sounded like a crackpot idea that a a crackpot with what sounded like “credulous vain preacher” heard from a slave. To begin To a slave. from heard preacher” vain “credulous This sure caught Mather’s attention! Smallpox was as was Smallpox attention! Mather’s caught sure This Not every doctor thought inoculation sounded crazy. One everyNot doctor thought inoculation sounded crazy. public and members of the town leaders, Other doctors, dreaded in America as it was in Europe. Was it possible that it possible Was in Europe. as it was in America dreaded smallpox than the about fighting knew more slave an African a considerable with then “met doctors? Mather best White that inoculation who all agreed these Africans,” number of success.” and a “constant practice” a “common was Epidemic Emergency with, Mather was suggesting that doctors respond to a deadly suggesting was that doctors respond with, Mather people on purpose. That disease epidemic by infecting more it “I reckoned wrong. also seemed morally sounded insane! It and “novel said one leading critic. This a sin against society,” The also totally untested by science. was dubious practice” folk African also offended by the notion that doctors were than they did. medicine knew more Daring Experiment find out, believed it would work. To doctor named Boylston then began He he first inoculated his own son and servants. inoculating patients in the community. experiments. reckless seemingly Boylston’s about furious were against” of the people complained that the “rage Boylston put into a very violent, that I was great “so inoculation was He fury. of the town’s own share got his Mather fright.” possession of the people on this marveled at the “strange they blaspheme; they talk not only rail, rave, occasion. They frantics.” idiots but also like like Cotton Mather 66 Onesimus described the scratch-in-the-arm inoculation Mather recalled asking “Onesimus, who is a pretty intelli- who is a pretty asking “Onesimus, recalled Mather The two men didn’t always get along (not surprisingly), always men didn’t two The Mather was perfectly happy to “own” a human being. He a human being. perfectly happy to “own” was Mather In 1706, no one thought it was 1706, In The American colonies needed a lot of workers. To colonies needed a lot of workers. American The technique invented centuries earlier in India. He showed his showed He centuries earlier in India. technique invented common was and explained that the process scar to Mather, his homeland, born. In he was where of Africa in the region technique the dangerous to use” “whoever had the courage the fear of the contagion.” from free forever “was gent fellow, whether he ever had the smallpox; he answered, whether gent fellow, that he had undergone and then told me, and No; both, Yes, which had given him something of the small- an operation, it.” preserve him from pox, and would forever but Mather found Onesimus interesting to talk to. As it hap- to talk to. found Onesimus interesting but Mather wound up making history. pened, one of their conversations put his slave to work as a household servant.put his slave However, the fairly decently toward behaved seems to have Mather to taught his slave Mather “Onesimus.” man he renamed him to marry later allowed and and earn his and write, read to “enjoy his slave released Mather Eventually own money. and as he and employ his whole time for his own purposes, pleases.” weird when a Boston preacher weird as a gift man an African received members of his church. from Mather, Cotton preacher, The a smart,was complicated man mistaken with some terrible ideas and also some good ones. his writings about example, For of imagined the supposed threat of the witches led to the horrors Nu- infamous Salem witch trials. falsely were innocent people merous executed. and of witchcraft convicted also very was Mather interested However, America’s wrote He in scientific progress. first popular science book. meet that need, people were kidnapped from kidnapped were meet that need, people then sold into slavery to and forced Africa, many the time, At work in America. slavery, of approved White Americans as it today recognize even though we biggest crimes. one of history’s America’s first experiment with inoculation took place dur- with inoculation first experiment America’s in 1721 Boston through epidemic that raged ing a smallpox an inoculation from first learned about Americans and 1722. White owner. the technique to his who taught slave African Inoculating America JUNIOR SKEPTIC No. 77 (2020) the virus slipinsidethe cellandtricktheintomaking the virus evolved toattack. Then carried thegeneticinstructions by like tiny little bricks. They can’t move, think,orevenreproduce. They justsitthere (DNA orRNA). Viruses can’t doanything bythemselves. They’re justmicroscopic bundlesofgeneticinstructions Viruses are sosimpletheydon’t really evencountas“alive.” hosts sick. can thriveandmultiplyinsidehumanbodies, makingtheir Bacteria are microscopic livingthings. Somekindsofbacteria germs causemostcontagiousdiseases:bacteriaandviruses. Cotton Mather’s day. so risky—we needsomescientificknowledgenobodyhadin Why It Worked War ofIndependence. your menasfasttheyare enlisted”duringtheAmerican George Washington ordered hiscommandersto“inoculate why itwas suchahard decisiondecadeslaterwhenGeneral ulation killed dangerous.was very inoculation couldbeuseful,butwarned it in theaccidentalcontagion.” He agreed the symptomsfrequently more mild,than through inoculation“isnotsofataland eventually agreed thatsmallpoxreceived than 600people.) the wholetownmighthave saved more lives.” (We canestimatethatinoculating which mighthave saved many valuable coming intothepractice ofinoculation, kept “hundreds, ifnotthousands, from Boylston complainedthatthecontroversy cent ofthetown’s totalpopulationdied. dent, 14percent died.In fact,eightper- died. Ofthe5,989 Bostonianswhocaughtsmallpox byacci- were theircritics. imus, Mather, andBoylston were right.In someways, so you! I’llinoculateyou withthis, withapoxtoyou.” found attached tothebomb:“Cotton Mather, you dog, damn explode. The litfusefelloutwhenitlanded.Anotewas a bombintoMather’s house!Thankfully, thebombdidnot around three inthemorning, “some unknownhands” threw That is, touchesthesurfaceofalivingcellit unlessavirus Viruses are evensmallerandsimplerthanbacteria. Let’s talkaboutgerms. Today we knowthattwo types of To understandwhy inoculationworked—and why itwas He was rightaboutthat.After all,inoc- Inoculation’s fiercest medicalopponent Boylston inoculated286patients. Two percent ofthem Despite everything, iteventuallyturnedoutthatOnes- Mather’s criticshurledmore thaninsults. Onenight one outof50patients!This is Coronavirus bonding with alivingcell diseases. ity neededtofindasaferway tofightsmallpoxandother the priceoftakingafew. That’s ahighprice topay. Human- beforethe virus itcouldmake themsickenoughtodie. percent—wereMost abletofightoff inoculatedpeople—98 down. This gave patients’ immunesystems timetocatchup. skin, butintroducing through thevirus theskinslowed it where thevirusentered thebody. difference between inoculationandnatural infection was fought back.Recovered patientsbecameimmune. The only pox virus.The invaded virus cells;theimmunesystem recognize smallpox. came immunebecausetheirsystems couldnow Almost athird ofpatientsdied.Those whorecovered be- widespread virus. Victims’ bodiesbecamebattlegrounds. tack—and thecounterattack hadtobeferocious tobeatthe body before theirimmunesystem couldmountacounterat- likevirus smallpoxcouldinfectcellsthroughout avictim’s defend againstgerms. We needitbecausethere are germsin helpless. We’ve evolvedanamazingimmunesystem to could invade theirlungsandspread throughout theirbody. virus. If someoneelseinhaledthosedroplets, thevirus coughed outdropletsofsmallpox loadedwithparticles by another. Bothspread thesame way. Smallpox victims make ussick whentheyattack more andmore ofourcells. more cells, whichmake more copies. Multiplying viruses copies ofthevirus. Those copiesgooutandinfect virus Others weren’t solucky. Inoculation saved many livesat Smallpox evolved to invade lungs, not arms. It Inoculation alsoinfectedpeoplewiththefull strength small- This gives unfamiliar new germs a head start. An aggressive Now, I’m happytotellyou, humanbodiesare farfrom Smallpox Covid-19 was causedbyonevirus; iscaused antibodies toattack thenewgerm. every breath ofair,every biteoffood,and every the threat, soundthealarm,andmake time forourimmunesystem toreact to our weaker first linesofdefense. It takes for thefirsttime, itonlyhastogetpast When anewgermgetsintoourbodies it isn’t asquicktoattack newgerms. enemies getattacked onsight.However, germs ithasencountered before. Old quicktofight Our immunesystem isvery yes, we getbetter; ifnot,we getsicker. faster thanthosegermscanmultiply?If race: canourbodieskillinvading germs they causeany trouble. system stopsmostofthosegermsbefore surfacewe touch.Ourimmune every When we do get sick,it’s abitlike a could 67 infect Image: Wellcome Collection JUNIOR SKEPTIC No. 77 (2020) looks on in the background Edward Jenner vaccinating his family with cowpox while a cow At first doctors and scientists doubted Jenner’s results, but results, doubted Jenner’s first doctors and scientists At opposed to vac- fiercely who are people today are There doctors who pro- out between debate broke A ferocious Some people objected to the very They idea of vaccination. constitution in a state of perfect security from the infection from constitution in a state of perfect security Jenner it. from no one died better, Even of the smallpox.” very if cowpox inoculation should replace asked sensibly smallpox inoculation? made right: cowpox inoculation he was they soon realized much safer than people immune to smallpox, and it was named “vacci- new technique was smallpox inoculation. The of vacci- practice The for “cow.” the Latin word from nation,” over to and England and Europe across nation quickly spread States. the United Movement Birth of the Anti-Vaccination but our story, about them later in learn more We’ll cines. fact, the anti- In a new thing. isn’t opposition to vaccines vaccine the second Jenner’s movement began almost vaccine discovered. was and those who technique, moted the safer new vaccination insisted “known, certain, and long-experienced smallpox in- such an important was public This better. was oculation” that both sides quickly became furious with the health matter and As one 1806 book noted, “both those who approve, other. accused each have of vaccination, those who disapprove their patients.” other of murdering to put material from disgusting and unnatural said it was 68 Jenner concluded that cowpox inoculation “leaves the “leaves concluded that cowpox inoculation Jenner Then he tried inoculating people with material from cow- he tried inoculating people with material from Then Jenner learned that farm workers were sometimes in- were learned that farm workers Jenner Jenner was puzzled when he noticed that smallpox inocu- puzzled when was Jenner pox blisters. Those people caught very Those mild cases of cowpox pox blisters. tried Jenner When they recovered, symptoms.” with “slight happened. They inoculating them with smallpox. Nothing immune! were fected with an illness they caught from their cows. “Cow- their cows. fected with an illness they caught from a small number of pox” made people sick and produced if recovering wondered Jenner deadly. but it wasn’t blisters, find made people immune to smallpox? To cowpox from people on several tried smallpox inoculation out, Jenner of them became had cases of cowpox. None who previously infected with smallpox. lation didn’t always work on farmers and milkmaids. When and milkmaids. work on farmers always lation didn’t smallpox germs, arms and introduced their he scratched fact, nothing happened at all. They get sick. In they didn’t be immune to smallpox, even though to already appeared that possible? was How never had smallpox before. they’d For seven decades after the Boston experiments, inoculation decades after the Boston experiments, seven For was best medicine against smallpox. It humanity’s remained a doctor named in 1798, Finally, hazardous. also extremely to fight the announced a safer new way Jenner Edward his solution on farms in the Eng- found He disease. dreaded lish countryside. Cows to the Rescue! Image: Library of Congress

1802 Anti-Vaccine Society cartoon making fun of the “wonderful effects of the new inoculation”

diseased animals, “filthy in their very nature,” into human Vaccinating everyone was a great idea. There was just one bodies. People worried that cowpox would make them less problem: people get mad when they feel bossed around! human. Some claimed vaccination could turn a healthy child People hated “compulsory” (forced) vaccination. The anti- into an “idiotic ape, a hideous foul-skinned cripple: a diseased vaccination movement came roaring back, bigger and angrier burlesque on mankind.” People even feared that cowpox vac- than ever. New groups such as The Anti-Vaccination Society cination would literally turn them into cows. Quack doctors raged against “the cruel, despotic tyranny of forcing cowpox claimed vaccination made kids look like cows, and even made misery on the innocent babes of the poor—a gross violation them moo and grow horns! of religion, morality, law, and humanity.” Up to 100,000 Anti-vaccine doctors warned of countless supposedly people joined one massive protest rally against vaccines. The “dreadful effects of Cow-pox inoculation.” They blamed vacci- anti-vaccination movement soon spread across the sea to nation for almost any ailment their patients might have. Itchy North America as well. skin? Sores of any kind? These symptoms must be “the effects Strangely, one of England’s greatest scientists joined the of the diseases of brute beasts incorporated into the human anti-vaccination movement. Alfred Russel Wallace was a co- constitution” through vaccines. Others said vaccination discoverer (with Charles Darwin) of evolution by natural se- caused brain damage or created entirely new diseases. lection. He was also a big supporter of bogus These wild claims left the public badly confused. Were they photographs and false claims about vaccines. According to keeping their children safe by vaccinating, or putting their Wallace, “vaccination is a gigantic delusion” which “has children in danger? The answer become clearer with time. As never saved a single human life.” Wallace claimed vaccination more people got vaccinated, smallpox deaths started to drop. “has been the cause of so much disease, so many deaths, According to modern vaccine expert and medical doctor Paul such a vast amount of utterly needless and altogether unde- Offit, “between 1810 and 1820 Jenner’s vaccine halved the served suffering” that it was a “crime against liberty, against number of deaths from smallpox.” People got used to vaccines. health, and against humanity….” Wallace believed that Opposition died down. everyone would soon consider vaccination “one of the foulest blots on the civilization of the nineteenth century.” Health authorities were thrilled. Vaccination was a very powerful tool to protect people. The government of England He was badly mistaken about all of that. Instead, vaccina- wanted to make every kid safe from smallpox. They passed tion would later rescue humanity from smallpox once and laws during the 1850s and 1860s that required everyone to for all—and go on to protect us against numerous other terri- vaccinate their children. The laws included penalties for ble and deadly diseases. parents who refused to cooperate. JUNIOR SKEPTIC No. 77 (2020) JUNIOR SKEPTIC No.

69 strength cowpox virus. It had more than modern Battles Against Disease vaccines.

During the late 19th and 20th centuries, medical scientists To make safer vaccines, scientists had to find ways to make raced to develop vaccines against numerous killer viruses germs weaker. For example, they discovered ways to kill and bacteria. Vaccines were desperately needed. As Paul the germs with heat or chemicals before injecting them. Our Offit explains, immune system could still learn to recognize the dead germs, but dead germs can’t cause infections. (Strictly we should say In the early 1900s…Americans could expect that every viruses are “deactivated” because they’re not exactly alive to year diphtheria would kill twelve thousand people, begin with.) mostly young children; rubella (German measles) would cause as many as twenty thousand babies to be born Contaminated Vaccines blind, deaf, or mentally disabled; polio would perma- Another very serious early risk was that vaccines could be nently paralyze fifteen thousand children and kill one contaminated with other kinds of germs. During an American thousand; and mumps would be a common cause of smallpox epidemic in 1898–1904, for example, governments deafness. in some cities and states made laws that people had to get Before the whooping cough (or pertussis) vaccine, Offit vaccinated. However, there were no laws that vaccines had to adds, “about three hundred thousand cases of whooping be safe or effective. Anyone could make and sell vaccines! No cough caused seven thousand [American] deaths every year, one checked to see if they did a good job. almost all in young children.” Whooping cough is a horrible Smallpox vaccines were made from blisters on cows. The sickness. Children sometimes cough so hard they break ribs vaccines were often contaminated with bacteria that lived in or suffer brain damage! “Before the vaccine,” Offit goes on, the cows’ filthy stables. In one heartbreaking 1901 case, “measles infected as many as four million American chil- dozens of American children died from tetanus bacteria lurk- dren, causing a hundred thousand to be hospitalized and five ing inside their vaccines. After this tragedy, the United States hundred to die every year.” government decided to write laws that required vaccines to be There were frequent epidemics. In 1916, for example, a made safely. polio epidemic broke out in New York City. This strain of However, accidents can happen even when people are polio killed up to a quarter of everyone infected. Over two careful and responsible. In 1928, doctors were very relieved to thousand people died in the city alone. Thousands more died finally have a vaccine against diphtheria (a disease that could as the disease spread to other states. literally choke children to death). Sadly, one Australian doctor Vaccine Victories—and Risks Along the Way caused an accidental tragedy when he vaccinated his young patients. The vaccine was made properly, but it came in a Today, all those diseases and others have been controlled large vial with doses for numerous people. At some point, a or even eliminated by vaccines that prevent infection. This is deadly kind of bacteria got inside his bottle of vaccine and one of the humanity’s greatest success stories. Most people in started multiplying. Twelve children died from his contami- rich countries barely remember diseases that used to inflict nated vaccine. millions with terror, sickness, and death. The most spectacu- lar success is smallpox vaccination. Jenner’s discovery This horrible accident exposed another serious vaccine empowered us to completely eradicate this ancient enemy. risk. Health officials realized they needed a way to keep bacteria Thanks to vaccines, smallpox is extinct in the wild! Humanity from growing inside bottles of vaccine. They soon settled on a no longer suffers from this horrifying disease. preservative called “thimerosal.” It seemed like a great choice. Thimerosal killed bacteria without damaging the vaccine. It Those victories didn’t come easily. There were setbacks was considered safe for people. From the 1930s until the late and even disasters along the way. To understand vaccines— 1990s, thimerosal was successfully used to make vaccines and to learn which vaccine risks are real and which are safer. Then a new controversy erupted, which we’ll learn

imagined—we will need to look at the hard lessons that about later in our story. SKEPTIC No.JUNIOR 77 (2020) scientists learned on their quest to conquer deadly diseases. Hitchhiking Viruses Modern vaccines are incredibly safe…because medical Vaccines are made from germs.* If you want to make a vac- scientists have learned from a century of mistakes and cine against a virus, you need to grow a lot of that virus. The accidents. Vaccines used to be riskier than they are now. problem is, viruses can only reproduce inside living cells. The first and most obvious risk from the earliest inocula- Smallpox vaccine was originally grown inside living cows. tion treatments was that full strength disease germs make Modern flu vaccines are typically grown inside eggs. (That’s a people sick. That’s why the medieval smallpox inoculation risk for people with egg .) technique was so hazardous. Even Jenner’s vaccine used full

* Some newer vaccines are made using genetically engineered proteins that replicate the 70 surface of a virus. These do not contain actual germs. In the late 1950s, polio virus for vaccines was grown inside It was a disaster. The contaminated vaccine gave 70,000 living monkeys. Monkeys were first infected with polio and children polio. Two hundred kids were permanently para- then killed. Polio virus was filtered from their kidneys. Every- lyzed. Ten died. one thought this was safe until one government scientist de- All batches of the vaccine were quickly recalled while sci- cided to double check. She injected hamsters with polio virus entists fixed the problem. Those responsible for the accident samples taken from monkey kidneys. A whopping 70 percent were punished. Stricter new safety laws were written to of the hamsters developed tumors. It turned out that the sam- make sure such an accident could never happen again. ples also included a mon- key virus called SV40 Despite this tragedy, polio vaccines which causes cancer in Polio victim confined to an have proven so effec- hamsters. In 2013, the “iron lung” breathing machine tive that the disease Image: Public Health Image Image: Library Public U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now been com- estimated “10–30 mil- pletely eradicated lion Americans could from most of the have received an SV40 planet. Today, only a contaminated dose of handful of cases turn vaccine.” No one knows up each year in remote for sure whether SV40 places. World health is harmful to humans. authorities are hopeful that vaccination will Modern vaccines do soon make polio ex- not have this risk. Sci- tinct everywhere, once entists changed how and for all. vaccines were made as soon as they learned about the monkey virus. Vaccine viruses Side Effects are typically now grown in a laboratory using clean, safe cell Like any medicine, vaccines can cause side effects. Vac- cultures grown from human tissue. cines must be thoroughly tested to find out what those might Deadly Mistakes be. Experimental vaccines are first tested on a small number of volunteers in case they have severe or common side ef- Improving knowledge led to safer, more effective vaccines fects. If the first trials seem safe, the vaccine is then tested against more and more diseases. But safe vaccines still have to on larger numbers of people. Vaccines must be tested on be made properly. very large numbers to find any rare side effects. Only when In the early 1950s, polio was the disease that Americans they’re proven safe do vaccines get permission for public use. feared most. Polio mostly attacks children. The virus is easily Doctors then keep track of any health problems patients transmitted. Most infected people don’t even realize they have might have soon after receiving a vaccine, just in case those it. However, severe cases cause paralysis, deformed limbs, and health problem could be connected to the vaccine. Most death. Every year, thousands of kids were paralyzed and con- regular childhood vaccines have been in use for many years. fined in “iron lung” machines just to keep them breathing. Their possible side effects are very well known. When a successful polio vaccine was finally announced, The most common side effects include low fever and sore- the whole country burst into celebration. Church bells rang. ness at the injection site. Allergic reactions are one of the People wept for joy. It was front page news across the nation. most dangerous risks of modern vaccines. Some people are “Science has enriched mankind with one of its finest gifts,” severely allergic to ingredients in certain vaccines (such as proclaimed The New York Times. eggs or glycerin). To manage this risk, doctors ask patients The new vaccine had been carefully tested on nearly two about allergies. They may ask patients to wait after their million volunteers. It worked great. Side effects were rare. shots in case they have any unexpected reaction. People joyfully lined up to take it immediately. To remain in use, vaccines must be safer than the risk of Two weeks later, something horrible happened. Yes, the not vaccinating. Side effects must be mild or extremely rare. vaccine was safe…if it was made correctly. It used “dead” (de- When the risks from diseases change, health authorities activated) polio virus. This could not infect anyone. However, change the list of recommended vaccines. For example, several companies had permission to make the vaccine—and Americans no longer receive smallpox vaccine because one of those companies messed up. Badly. Their batches of smallpox is extinct. Similarly, the United States switched to a the vaccine were accidentally contaminated with infectious less effective but safer polio vaccine in 1998. It was safe to “live” polio virus! make this change because polio had become rare. JUNIOR SKEPTIC No. 77 (2020) JUNIOR SKEPTIC No.

71 Anti-Vaccine Myths diphtheria). The result was a whooping cough epidemic. A hundred thousand British kids caught a truly terrible pre- ventable illness which can itself cause brain damage! Thou- Modern vaccines are extremely safe. Most people should get sands wound up in the hospital. It’s been estimated that all of their recommended doses at the recommended times. about 600 kids died. This protects us, and also protects people who cannot take Even after that epidemic, media continued to spread the certain vaccines (such as babies, organ transplant patients, rumor around the world. In 1983, a TV program called DPT: and people with severe allergies to vaccine ingredients). Vaccine Roulette shocked American audiences with images of Unfortunately, anti-vaccine rumors continue to scare brain damaged children. The show claimed the whooping people. You may know someone who feels uneasy about cough vaccine caused “damage to a devastating degree.” vaccination. Some even feel strongly opposed to vaccines. Parents freaked out. Families sued the companies that made There has been an anti-vaccine movement for more than whooping cough vaccine. Judges ordered the companies to 200 years. Strangely, that movement has rarely complained pay billions of dollars. about the small but real risks of vaccines. Instead, they’ve To stay in business, companies had to charge 35 times usually scared people about imagined risks (such as smallpox more for the vaccine—an increase from twelve cents per dose vaccine turning children into cows). in 1982 to $4.29 three years later. They still lost money. Two Rumors about vaccine dangers often come from misun- of the three American companies that made the vaccine derstandings. In one gruesomely exaggerated example in stopped. Then in 1986, the last remaining company said they 1972, an anti-vaccine pamphlet claimed that one polio vac- too would stop making the DPT vaccine! Companies that cine was made from the blood of babies. “YOUR CHILD’S made other vaccines also started getting out of the business. NEXT IMMUNIZATION SHOT MAY BE CANNIBALIZED The U.S. Federal government had to step in to save vac- FROM A SLAUGHTERED BABY,” the pamphlet warned. cines from disappearing. The vaccine program protects the This wasn’t true, of course. The vaccine was made using whole nation, so the nation would also pay for any harm human cells grown in a lab. The activist who wrote the caused by vaccines. From now on, any American injured by pamphlet later admitted he was wrong. He apologized to the any vaccine could apply to a new national “vaccine court” for scientist who created the vaccine. However, the damage was compensation. already done. The pamphlet’s claims were repeated for years in church bulletins and newspapers. The whooping cough vaccine actually did have a lot of side effects. It was an early, crude vaccine that was later replaced Other frightening vaccine rumors were based on coinci- by a safer version. Nevertheless, the evidence from several dences. Developmental problems such as autism sometimes large studies showed that whooping cough vaccine did not appear in children around the same time that kids receive cause permanent brain injuries. For example, one study in childhood vaccines. If a child develops a condition after taking England compared 134,700 kids who received whooping a vaccine, parents may suspect that the shot caused the con- cough vaccine to 133,500 who didn’t. The study found “no dition. They may join anti-vaccine activists who share their convincing evidence” that the rumors were true. suspicions. Those groups spread scary rumors in newspaper stories, television, and the internet. Measles, Mercury, and Autism Rumors and Panic In 1998, another British doctor named Andrew Wakefield started a worldwide panic about a totally different vaccine. It’s helpful to know that similar anti-vaccine accusations He published a paper and held a press conference claiming have been made against different vaccines at different times. that the measles vaccine harmed children’s brains, causing In 1973, for example, a doctor in England claimed that the autism. Wakefield told reporters, “I cannot support the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine caused brain damage. continued use” of the MMR vaccine that protects against As Paul Offit explains, this claim is now known to be “utterly measles, mumps, and rubella. Measles is a serious illness that incorrect.” However, people believed it. used to infect four million American kids every year, killing SKEPTIC No.JUNIOR 77 (2020) The brain damage claims caused a media frenzy. News 500 and putting a hundred thousand in the hospital. media love stories that seem both surprising and important. We now know for a scientific fact that the measles vaccine “Whooping Cough Vaccine Risks Concealed, Say Victims’ does not cause autism. Wakefield’s “research” was completely Parents,” one headline claimed. “Boy’s Brain Damaged in bogus. His paper was later retracted as a fraud. Wakefield Vaccine Experiment,” said another. Headlines even claimed even lost his license to practice medicine. that the whooping cough vaccine should be abandoned. However, Wakefield’s false claims made headlines around People stopped vaccinating their kids. Many British doc- the world. “Doctors Link Autism to MMR Vaccination,” an- tors stopped recommending the DPT vaccine (which pro- nounced one London paper’s front page headline. This idea tects against three diseases: whooping cough, tetanus, and

72 JUNIOR SKEPTIC No. 77 (2020) a CivilWar andtwo World Wars!) has everfaced.” (That’s thatendured saying a lotinacountry American familiesis…thesinglegreatest threat this country activist, the“childhood vaccination program endured by no safevaccines!” According tooneprominent anti-vaccine from vaccines, conspiracy theoriesfalselyclaimed“there are claims aboutthimerosal. Even afterthimerosal was removed claims aboutthemeaslesvaccine blendedwithunrelated remained ahero toanti-vaccine activists. His Wakefield’s claimswere discredited, buthe erful andpopularintheyears thatfollowed. was noevidenceofharm? danger, why were authoritiessaying there thimerosal? Orifthere was why were theyremoving this news. If there was nodanger, ble.” The publicdidnotreact well to should beremoved assoonpossi- “thimerosal-containing vaccines abundance ofcaution,theydecided thimerosal. Nevertheless, outofan or evidenceofany harm” from reassured thatthere was everyone “no data public exactlywhatwas happening. They search was needed. fects noonehadnoticed?Further re- what ifthimerosal hadsubtlehealthef- many years ofuse. Still,doctorsworried: Big problems wouldbeobviousafterso seemedfine.one tostudy!After all,everything Butwas it? involved,experts becauseithadneverevenoccurred toany- to realize theysimplydidn’t know. exposure?an unsafelevelofmercury Doctorswere shocked usedto.Couldcines thanthey thoseshotspossiblyaddupto ment doctorssuddenlyrealized thatkidsgotalotmore vac- been usedsafelyinvaccines forseveral decades. Butgovern- amounts ofarelatively safeformofmercury. Thimerosal had thimerosal preservativeinsomevaccines containedtiny the Food Administration andDrug (FDA) knewthatthe dards regarding (ahighlytoxicmetal).Doctorsat mercury government agencieswere busycheckingtheirsafety stan- —and angry! harm their kids. Parents of autistic children were heartbroken ing’s scarierforparents than thinking theirdecisionscould gers” ofvaccines. Parents were confusedandalarmed.Noth- countless booksandnewsstoriesaboutthesupposed“dan- furious anti-vaccine activism,hearingsinCongress, and took holdinthepublicimagination,inspiringtwo decadesof None oftheseclaimswere true. Unfortunately, media The anti-vaccine movementbecamepow- Health officialsdecidedtotellthe was“There nosafety data” aboutthat,recalled oneofthe Then somethingelsemadethewholemessworse. U.S. some the vaccine. Several teamsofvaccine workers were mur- women unabletohave babies. People becamescared totake vaccine was aplottoinfectpeoplewithAIDSandmake polio from Nigeria. Then areligious leaderclaimedthepolio 2003, forexample, vaccine workers toeliminate were trying theories. New conspiracy claimspopupallthetime. In Conspiracy Theories andCovid-19 of harmwhatsoever.” people whoreceivedinvaccines shownoevidence mercury were neverexposedtothimerosal, andthevast majority of anti-vaccine authoradmitted, “Some children withautism finding was predictable from thebeginning. After all,asone nated kids. Bothgroups hadthesamerates ofautism.This compared hundreds ofthousandsvaccinated andunvacci- definitely donotcauseautism.Numerous studieshave and MMRclaims, andalways findthesamething:vaccines around theworldhave repeatedly testedthethimerosal of diseasessuchasmeaslesandwhoopingcough. evitably, fallingvaccination rates ledtoaseriesofoutbreaks tion scared parents. Many stoppedvaccinating theirkids. In- safety record. Years ofwidespread anti-vaccine misinforma- autism. Only11percent mentionedthevaccine’s actual that 70percent ofstoriesmentionedasupposedlinkto news storiesfrom 2002about theMMRvaccine revealed helped tospread misinformation.For example, onestudyof effective tobetter protect usall. Scientists willcontinuetomake vaccines saferandmore the firstCovid vaccine issoonreplaced byabetter one. Vaccines are amazing, butneverperfect.We may findthat tested? How long does it last? And, what are the side effects? totellus:Howexperts effective isit? How well is has itbeen more Covid vaccines becomeavailable, we’ll needmedical Do learnfrom ofvaccines. thecomplicatedhistory Asoneor stop this deadly pandemic. Don’t be distracted by fake rumors. Vaccines seemespeciallyvulnerable toconspiracy The andtragic. vaccineScientists panicwas unnecessary Covid vaccines becausewe needavaccine tohelp media already know almost everything aboutus.)media already knowalmosteverything Many teams ofscientistsare workingonpossible from Nigeria totwenty othercoun- dered. Then apolioepidemicspread conspiracy abouttheexperi- rumors mental Covid vaccines thatscien- tries. Five thousandpeoplewere tists are racing todevelopandtest. For example, somepeople claim Covid vaccines are aplottoimplant people withtracking chips. That’s silly. (Smartphonesandsocial paralyzed—and allbecauseofa false rumor. Today, there are dangerous 73 magv1n1-Tribute to Isaac Asimov (Premiere Issue) Isaac Asimov Tributes by , & Harlan Ellison; SKEPTIC MAGAZINE back issues $6.00 ea. 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Shermer; Ideological Immune Foundation; The Society for the Recovery of Persons Gould; Historic 1842 Sketch on Evolution by System by J. Snelson; Edgar Cayce Foundation Re- Apparently Dead by S. Harris; Book & Article Re- Charles Darwin; Darwinian Culture by James sponds to Skeptics & We Reply; Can Religion be Ra- views. Rogers; Reviews. tional? by C. Brough; Reviews. magv2n1-Genius: Myth & Reality: Genius magv2n2-Science, Religion, & Cults: The magv2n3-Fad Psychology, False Memory, by Steve Allen, , Paul MacCready, Jesus Cults by Steve Allen; What Makes A Cult? Facilitated Communication: False Memory Elie Shneour; Marilyn Vos Savant; James Gleick by C. Kisser; Millennium Watch by T. Daniels; The Syndrome by Hochman; Diagnoses are not Diseases (on Feynman); Amadeus Myth by M. Shermer; D. Resurrection Myth by S. Harris; Was Christianity by Szasz; Facilitated Communication by Green; Alexander(on Gene Roddenberry); Review of Ge- a Cult? by G. Larue; Realism & Religion by William Reich by Morrock & Carlinsky; Sex, Brains, nius, byM. Rothman; “Science” of Noah’s Ark by M. Rothman; The Unlikeliest Cult Of All by M. & Hands by Halpern; How Thinking Goes Wrong by D. Porter; Who & What Mattered in History by M. Shermer; Mathemagics by Auther Benjamin; Ark Shermer;Pseudoscience in by Tavris;Anti- Shermer; Mathemagics by A. Benjamin; Millen- Hoax; 25 Creationist Questions & 25 Evolutionist Science by McDonough; Flood Myths by Larue; Ark nium Watch by T. Daniels; Reviews. Answers; Reviews. Hoax by Lippard & Bloomberg. magv2n4-Pseudohistory-Afrocentrism and magv3n1-Pseudomedicine: Update False magv3n2-AIDS: AIDS Heresies by Harris; Astrol- Holocaust Revisionism: Free Speech & Neo- Memory Syndrome; Homeopathy by Jarvis; Alter- ogy Brouhaha by Randi; Should the Bible be Taken Nazis by Miele; Denying the Holocaust review by native Healthcare by Raso; by Literally? by McCollister; Extraordinary Claims Re- Siano; Holocaust Revisionism by Shermer; Cre- Rosa; Skeptics & Religion by Drees; Shallit on quire Extraordinary Evidence? by Schick, Jr.; Charles ationism & Racism by McIver; Goodbye Colum- Leftist Science; Mattoon Mass Hysteria by Smith; Murray Interview by Miele;Wallace & Darwin’s Priority bus? by Fritze; Were Egyptians & Greeks Black? Liquefying “Blood” by Randi; Star Trek’s Meaning Dispute by Shermer; Culture Wars: Skeptics, Para- by Lefkowitz; Beyond Race by Appiah. Noah's Ark by Shermer; Is Raw Meat Conscious? by Leikind; psychologists & New Agers by Siano; Debunking Hal Hoax Update by Lippard; Randi on the Millen- Huston reviews books on Miracles, Conspiracies Lindsay by Callahan; Did God Make Rice Cakes? by nium; Reviews. & Skinheads. Leikind; Reviews. magv3n3V Race & IQ: Place In The Sun by magv4n1-: magv4n2-Evolutionary Ethics: Science of Tavris. Bell-Shaped Curve’s Skewed Logic by Stephen Jay Gould Interview, Lionel Tiger, & Robin Morality by R. Bingham;F. Miele interviews Garrett Halpern. Sternberg interview by Miele. Insult to In- Fox. (Im)moral Animal by Miele; Sociology as Hardin; Morality & Genetic Engineering by J. Har- jury: Uses of The Bell Curveby Griffin. Defending The Alchemy by Salter; Beyond Just-So-Stories by Hol- tung; Evolution of Morality & Religion by W. Irons; Bell Curve, by Sarich. Cycles & Curves by Shermer. comb;How Humans Got Spots by Schlinge;.Gould’s Plants & Property by A. Oubre´; Ethics Without Re- Scientology v. the Internet by Lippard & Jacob- Dangerous Idea by Shermer;Darwin Dangerous? by ligion by Shermer; William Jennings Bryan’s Argu- sen. King Tut’s Curse by Randi. Moral Panics by Vic- Ruse; Randi debunks Quadro tracker; Creationist ment Against Evolution; Superstition by Olson; tor. “Recovered Memories” by Pendergrast. How to museum; Scientology responds; What Is the Ant, Randi debunks saving fuel device; Cosmythology Eat a Light Bulb by Leikind; Reviews. Sir? by Leikind; Reviews. by V. Stenger. Adam’s IQ by Leikind. magv4n3-Conspiracy: Jerry Brown Interview magv4n4-Is History A Science? Tribute magv5n1-Ecology: Economists v. Ecologists by by Miele; World’s End by Callahan; Farrakhan & to Carl Sagan:Can History Be Science?; F. Miele; Scientists’ Warning to Humanity; Paranoid Style by Brackman; Freud’s Follies by Mac- F. Sulloway on Born to Rebel; Early Ghost-busters; Julian Simon Interview; Not-So-Wise Use Donald; Political Correctness Conspiracy by Siano; Debunking Nostradamus; Critical Thinking About Movement by P. Lindholdt; Population Risk As- End of Science by Horgan; End of Science Illusions by History; Norm Levitt Replies to Critics; R. Olson on sessment by E. Shneour; Myth of the Beautiful People by M. Shermer; by E. Casti; Heretic-Personality by Shermer; Hollywood ET Left & Right Science; What Happened to N-Rays?; Wojcie-howski; Dumbth News by R. Cassing- by McDonough;Mesmerism by Ben Franklin, Antoine Randi-How To Be Psychic: Im-moral Creationism. ham; Modern by F. Crews. Randi’s Lavoisier; Bell Curve Book Cracks; Randi on Police Reviews: Evolution & Literary Theory; Killing of Swift: , , Pigasus ; Tomorrow? by Leikind. History; Amazing Kreskin. Dumbth News. Awards, Futurists. magv5n3-Anthropology: Interview: Donald magv6n1-Science & Society: E.O. Wilson In- magv6n2-Taking God Seriously: Deepak Johanson; Human Origin Stories by Miele; God & terview by F. Meile; Review of Wilson book by B. Siano; Chopra Danger by P. Molé; Interview; Ghost Dance by Shermer; Mead & Anthro. by Free- Van Praagh-How He Talks To the Dead by M. Shermer, Atheist v. Agnostic by Shermer; Karl Popper On God; man; Indians v. Archaeologists by Feder; Millen- plus Commentary by G. Posner; Skeptical Of Objective TT Wars by L. Sarner; Against God by M. Pigiucci; For nium by Stephen Jay Gould; Dumbth News by by A. Kitty; GRE As Fringe Science by K. God by B. Mazet; Answering Creationists by T. Edis; Cassingham; Di Conspiracies by Gerlich; X-Files Oldfield; Drug Policy Debate Guide by E. Goode; Fraud Intellectual Danger by J. Randi; Self-Help Coach by Meets Disney by Mc-Donough; Houdini v. Margery In the Name of Religion? by M. Fried; New Age High D. Lease; ‘97 Dumbth Awards by R. Cassingham • by Polidoro; Fairies Frauds by Randi; Alternative Tech by J. Randi; Dumbth News; Evil Eye by G. Bohi- JR. SKEPTIC: TT & Me by E. Rosa; Lucky 7 by E. An- Medicine by L.Jaroff; Reviews. gian; Reviews. tisdale; Web reviews by C. Walker & S. Kinney. magv6n3-Why Professors Believe Weird magv6n4-JFK: Jack Horner Interview; JFK- magv7n1-Influence: Carol Tavris Interview; Things: Sex, Race, & the New Left by N. Levitt; Facts & Fictions by N. Gerlich; JFK-Case Still Fraud & Science by D. Kevles; Biologist Views Belief Susan Blackmore Interview; Is God Dead? by M. Open by A. & M. Snyder; Pope & Science by M. by K. Parejko; & Quantum Physics Shermer; Meme Critique by J. Polichak; Alternative Shermer; Anastasia: Miraculous Survival Myth by R. Miller; Reconsidered by B. Seidman; Religion Supporters by S. Kent & T. Krebs; Facili- by T. Callahan; Dumbth News by R. Cassing- Public Relations by B. Siano; Communication’s Hid- tated Communication by B. Gorman; SnakeOil Psy- ham; Dowsing Challenge by Randi; Ig Nobel den Dynamics by D. Brenders; The Knowledge Filter chotherapy? by T. Dineen; Randi on True Believers, Awards by S. Gibson •JR. SKEPTIC; Aliens Among by M. Shermer; by H. Ziel; Randi Waco. JR. SKEPTIC; ! by Harter; Crystals by A. Us? by A. Chesworth; Abducted! by M. Shermer; Addresses Congress; Dumbth by R. Cassingham; JR. Chesworth; Golfball Finder by Cohen. Psychic Math! by A. Benjamin; UFO Photos SKEPTIC: Fortunetelling. magv7n2-Cloning: Science, Ethics of Cloning magv7n3-Millennium: T. Dufresne Interviews magv7n4-Pseudoscience: Interview of Phil by F. Miele; Cloning & Science’s Moral Limits by M. Frederick Crews; Search for Immortality by A. Herd; Klass by Posner; Sagan Bios by Shermer & Morrison; Shermer; Richard Seed Interview; Evolution Infor- Creation & The End by T. McIver; Celestine Prophesy Holistic Healing by Molé; Phantom Assailants by mation by R. Dawkins; Evil & Group Selection by N. by P. Molé; Millennial Meanings by M. Shermer; Bartholomew & Goode;Satan Panic by Wade; Penis Thompson; Theology & Evolutionary Psych by K. That’s All Folks! by D. Lease; Randi Comments; Panics by Bartholomew; Eye Movement Therapy by Konkola & G. Sunshine; Fake Quotes by J. George; Dumbth by R. Cassingham; Educashun by S. Rosen, Sai Baba by Gogineni; Thought Field Ther- Medical Discoveries? by H. Ziel; Population Myths by Asma; Myth & Science by T. Callahan; Political Ex- apy by Swenson; Lilienfeld & McNally; Photo ESP D. Henige; Humor by S. Asma & D. Lease; Randi’s tremism by L. Hyman. JR. SKEPTIC Halloween; Au- by Kauffman & Brown; Psi Missing by Riniolo Pigasus Awards; JR. SKEPTIC: Urban Legends. topsy Aliens. Haunt Houses by B.Friedhoffer & Schmidt. JR. SKEPTIC: TV Psychics. magv8n1-Race & Sports: Black Domination magv8n2Skepticism & Religion: Frans de magv8n3-Chaos & Complexity: Jared Dia- by J. Entine; Race Sports Mythsby J. Hoberman; Race Waal Interview by M. Shermer; Agnosticism by S. mond Interview by M. Shermer; Quick Introduction to Differences by V. Sarich; Meaning of Dominance by Dawson; Skeptic’s Faith? by B. Wildish; Scope’s Trial Chaos Theory by F. Miele; Chaos Skepticism by M. M. Shermer; Ernst Mayr Interview by F. Sulloway & M. Revisited by T. Riniolo & L. Torrez; Bible Belt by G. Pigliucci;Contingencies by M. Shermer;Latest Cos- Shermer;FreeEnergy by R. Park;Nonzero /Human Ga- Sloan; Influence & Scientology by D. Martin; Bible/Na- mology by R. Ebert; Complex Systems by L. Lam;Dar- iaby D. Wilson; by S. Homola; Attention ture by E. Zerin; Life’s Meaning by D. Naiditch; Existence win Bumper Fish by S. Gibson; Randi on Cold Deficit Disorder by J. Leo; Geller Compass Trick by by H. Vahidi & S. Friberg; Personal Gods by M. Pigliucci; Reading; Reverse Speech by W. Langstoni & J. An- Randi;Mind/Body Problem by W. Lee; Women Skeptics? Prayer Heals? by W. Matthews, T. Christ & J. Conti; derson; Cultural Relativism by R. Bartholomew; by S. Gibson; JR. SKEPTIC: Darwin by P. Linse. Randi; TV by S. Gibson • JR. SKEPTIC: Pyramids. Stephen Jay Gould Festschrift.

magv9n1-Anthropology Wars: magv9n3-A.I.&Theology of UFOs: magv10n1-Roswell Requiem: by B. D. Interview; Intro to Anthro Wars by F. Miele; Science by S. Harris; Theology of UFOs Gildenberg; Psychic For A Day by M. Shermer; v. Spin Doctoring in Anthro Wars by M. Shermer; by B. Denzler; Education Doesn’t make Skeptics by HAARP Conspiracy? by D. Naiditch; Fear by D. G. “NobleSavage”? by P. Frank; Margaret MeadAnthro W. R. Walker, S. J. Hoekstra, and R. J. Vogl; Acceler- Myers; Blind Research by R. Sheldrake; Pet Psy- Controversy by P. Shankman; Testing Mediums ated Learning by L. K. Hagan; How Smart People chics by B. Farha; Three Views Of Time Travel by by J. Randi; Belief & New Transcendence by D. Sabotage Thinking by P. Molé; Neo-Confederates by A. Bernardin, M. Shermer, and T. Dace; Skeptical Brin; Velikovosky at 50 by D. Morrison; New At- C. M. Center; Peers & influence by B. Markovsky & Maxims: by J. Hrynyshyn, J. Gribbin, P. Molé; Ho- lantis by G. G. Fagan & C. Hale; Jr Skeptic: Did S. R. Thye; Freud, Darrow, & the Leopold/Loeb Trial meopathy by Randi; Evolutionists Give Up by B. We Go To the Moon? by P. Linse by T. C. Riniolo. Plus Randi, Dumbth, JR. SKEPTIC. Muller; Jr. Skeptic: Alien Life by D. Loxton

magv10n2-Stephen Wolfram’s Science magv11n2-Nature v. NurtureHuman Nurture magv11n3-Catastrophe by R.A. Posner; by D. Naiditch; Are We Getting Dumber? by R. by H. D. Schlinger; A Consilient View of Human Be- Collapse by J. Diamond; Double-Blind Protocol Ehlich; Why Smart People Believe Weird Things havior by F. Miele; Are Sports Streaks Random? by & Science by S. Bratman; Consumer Electronic by M. Shermer; Can the Media Help Science? A. Bernardin; Alternative Health Journalism by C. Myths by E. Winer; Many Powerful Memories Un- by H. N. Pollack; The Media Harms Science by Bowerman; A New Chronology of History by J. Colav- trustworthy? by D. Greenberg; Psychic Renier & S.Waxman; Psychic Counselors by ito; Spiritualists Prove Religion With Science by P. Court TV by G. Posner; Shakespeare’s Authorship R. Freedman; Randi; Mystery Balls by R . Saberi; Firenze; How to Investigate by J. Randi;Politicization by D. Price; Cholesterol by M. E. Deutsch; Forum: B. Muller-Humor; Seminar by B. J. Of Science by D. O. Krider; Mexican UFOs by J. C. Nature-Nurture Debate; Randi; Film reviews: Phelps, S. Pedersen E. Wogen; Test Sylvia Brown Smith; Cryonics by G. Benford; JR.SKEPTIC: Sasquatch Question of God, Ramtha; JR SKEPTIC: Sasquatch by B. Farha: Jr. SKEPTIC: by Loxton by D. Loxton Part Two by D. Loxton magv12n2-Artificial Intelligence Quest by magv13n3-Medical Controversies: magv13n4-Quirkology: Odd Science of Every- P. Kassan; Design Illusionby R. Dawkins; Dover ID Flawed Psychiatry by J. Sorboro; Reading Medical Re- day Life by R. Wiseman; Afterlife Debate: D. Chopra Trial by B. Humburg & E. Brayton; ID as Scienti-fic search by H. Hall; Secondhand Smoke Debate:S. v. M. Shermer; Dawkins is Wrong About Religion by as SETI? by R. Camp; Young Earth Creationists by J. Zion v.H.Hall; Animal Research by N. Shanks, R. D. S. Wilson: Dawkins Replies; New ET Myths by Rosenhouse; Other IDTheories by D. Brin; Ted Se- Greek, N. Nobis, & J.Swingle-Greek; Vaccine- Tim Callahan; Can Apes Learn Language? by C. rios’s Camera Brain by C. Campbell; Omnitron by Autism Mythby M. Normand & J.Dallery; Science Wynne; Franklin’s Kite a Hoax? by W. D. Stansfield; Randi; CoralCastle Enigma by W. Stansfield. JR Disputes/AIDS Originby B. Martin; Randi on S.Harris; Mozart Effect Myth by W. Dowd; Consciousness by SKEPTIC-Pyramid Power by D. Loxton. REVIEWS:9/11; Cold Cures by Hall; Bonobo Politics by F.de Waal; H. D. Schlinger; Reviews: Levitt; Hall; Paranormal. Privileged Planet Film; Republican War on Science Cosmology & ID by Pilpel; JR SK:Alien Astronauts Jr. Skeptic: Alien Astronauts IIby D.Loxton magv14n1-Global Warming: G W Skepticism magv14n2-Is the Evolution of Intelligence magv14n3-New Revisionism: if Hitler Had by P. Frank; How We Know Warming Is Real by T. Likely toHappenAgainOnEarthor OnOther Planets?; Won by M. Shermer; Skeptical of Evolved Altruism by Schneider; Global Warming Solutionsby W.Calvin; Grief Stages a Myth? Criminal Profiling; Near Death K. W. Krause; Twins Experts Interviewed On Be- Hydrogen by A. Friedemann; Last Chance to Win Experiences; ; Behind the Anti-sci- havior Genetics and Evolutionary Psychology by F. $1,000,000 by J. Randi; Detox Quackery by H. Hall; ence Film Expelled: 9/11 Conspiracy; Popular Med- Miele; New Look at Out-of-Body Experiences by J. A. Houdini & Séance Fraud by S. E. Rivkin; Kong & ical ; Dyson & the Paranormal. REVIEWS: Cheyne; Germ Theory Denial by H. Hall; Near Death Nessie by D. Loxton; Journalism’s Flaws by S. Snake Oil, Suckers; Perceptual Distortion; Argu- Expereinces by S. Dieguez;ID’s Machine-like Flagella Salerno; SupernaturalClaimsby C.T.Palmer, ments for God; Postmodern Misadventures; DNA a Myth by M. Perakh; Wolfram Revisited by G. Neske; K.Coe, & R.L.Wadley, Reviews. Dragonsby Loxton Evolution; Spiritual Brain; JR. SK: Crystal Skulls. Reviews. JR. SKEPTIC: Great American Skeptics.

magv14n4-Ponzi: Ponzi Scheme Psychology by magv15n1-Christian Origins Conspiracy magv15n4-Climate Skepticsby D.Brin; S. Greenspan. : Medicine by K. W. Matt Ridley Interview; Atheism a Stealth Religion?; Dowsing Rod Bomb Detectors by Randi; Cell Phones Krause; Benny Hinn by R. Shaffer; by Hugh Ross v. Michael Shermer; Morristown UFO & Cancer by B. Leikind; Fertility, Immune System by M. Carrier. Self-Esteem Myths by S. Salerno; Gulf Hoax; Randi on Firewalking; Internet Matchmak- H.Hall; Longevity by S.Salerno; Biology Curriculum War Syndrome by H. Hall; Randi on Double Blind ing; Ape Language Controversy; Testing Orgone by C. Lindgren; Magic in Class by P. Goodin; Astrol- Studies; Evaluating Science Claims by R. M. Energy; SkepDoc on Homeopathy, Placebo Effect; ogy & Sex by C.S. Reichardt; Million Dollar Challenge Barnes, A. L. Alberstadt, & L. E. Keilholtz; Global Flawed Justice System; Teach Critical Thinking. by G.Thompson; Atheist Stigma by T.Arcaro; Truths Warming Consensus by G. Whittenberger. Reviews. REVIEWS: Core theory; Science of Love; Metaphysical by W.M. Gardner; More Non-religious by J. A. Cheyne; JR. SKEPTIC: I. Rowland’s Psychic Cold Reading. Mind; Film: Oppenheimer. JR SK: Scooby-Doo Reviews. JR. SKEPTIC: Top 10 Myths by D. Loxton.

magv16n 1-Happinessby S. Salerno; Zen magv16n2-Origin of Lifeby P. F. Deisler, Jr; magv16n3-Islam. R. S. Humphreys interview Motorcycle Maintenance by C. Edwards; Ge- New Atheistsby M. Dowd; Accents by K. Stollznow; on Islam by F. Miele; Qur’an Origins by T. Callahan; netic Tests by H.Hall; Gardner Tribute by Religion & Violence by B. G. Purzycki & K. Gibson; Muslim Creationism by M. Carrier; Aspartame by Randi & M. Shermer; Changing Minds by M.J. Kurzweil’s Flaws by C. Edwards; Science & Magic Hall: by K. Stollznow; UFO Arti- Kane; Intellectuals v. Think Tanks by M.Pigli- by Randi; Ayurvedic Medicine by M. Carrier; Incom- factby P.Linse & E.Harrison; Understanding Evolu- ucci; Antony Flew’s Conversion by K.Grubbs; prehensible Universe by D.Zeigler; tion by A.Shtulman; D.Bem’s by N. Quantum Consciousness Myth by M. Bier; Mars by H.Hall; Literary Test by M. Simkin; Stradivarius Gauvrit; Alien Contact OK? by G. Michael; Model Effect Statistics by A.Y.Panchin; Sports Domi- Myth by R.L. Barclay; 9/11 Conspiracies by S. Som- Dependent Realism by C. Edwards; The Kraken! nace by S. Sniderman. . JR. SK: Griffins- Loxton. mers; Reviews. JR. SKEPTIC: Investigation by Loxton. by Loxton. Reviews: G.Taubes, S.Harris, D.D’Souza.

magv16n4-Inventing UFOs by A. Simon; Alien magv17n1-Scientology:2Views by J.Lippard; magv17n2-Climate Change Q & A by D. R. Roswell by F. Borzellieri; Antioxidants by H. Hall; Scientology A Cult? by M. Shermer; Meaning of Life Prothero; Foo Fightersby J.A.Lindell; No. 3 by S. Morris; Sound Healing by K. Stollznow; $1,000,000 Prize by by D. Zeigler; 9/11Demolition Science by Chris Mohr; Randi on Hitchens; Energy Medicineby H.Hall; Psychic Randi; Quakes/Tornados by D.Prothero; Effective De- Body Language by K. Stollznow; Scientific Medicine R. Rosen by K. Stollznow; Shroud of Turin by D. Loxton; bate by D. Loxton; Creationist Self-Critique by R. M. by H. Hall; Educational Reform by C.Edward; Science Depression Treatmentsby B.E.Levine; Sensory Integra- Barnes& R.A.Church; Daryl Bem by N.Gauvrit; Sleep & Eternal Life? by C. Braun; Resurrection Halluci- tion & Autism by C. A. Polenick & S. R. Flora; L.Krauss & Precognition by R. Wiseman; D’Souza by M. Dahlen; nation by G. Wittenberger; Psychology A Science? Interview by A.Z.Williams; Audio Hallucinations by J. E. William L. Craig by K. Grubbs; Fine-tuned Universe? by R.E.Silverman; Religion In Harry Potter by A. Buckner V & R. A. Buckner; Sleep Paralysis by H. Love. by C. Sirola. Reviews. Fakes by D.Loxton. Armstrong; Reviews. Fossil Fakes 2 by D.Loxton. REVIEWS.JR. SKEPTIC: The Mighty ! by D.Loxton. magv17n 4-CancerCures?by H.Hall; Reality magv18n 1-Mass Murder: What Can We Do? magv18n 2-Gender Differences by H. Hall; Distortion by M. Shermer; Free Will by V. J. Stenger; by D.Hillshafer, by M.Shermer. Creationists’ Dino Gender & the Paranormal by A. Saide; Science by M.Pigliucci; Skeptical Fact Check by Claim by P.Senter; Coral Castle by P.Hancock; Ex- Reporting by H. Hall; Skeptics in Court II by Randi; D.L.Halper;Americans Discover Europe? by J. Colavito; panding Earth by D. R.Prothero; Rain Scientology Handbook by K. Stollznow; Earth’s Mag- Was Jesus Married? by T. Callahan; Earth Grounding Case by R.E.Bartholomew & J.Nickell; Sense of Being netic Field Reversal by D. Prothero; Skeptics in Films by H. Hall; Exorcist Bob Larson by K. Stollznow; Post- Stared At Test by J.M.Lohr, T.G. Adams, M.Schwarz, by R. Martoccia; Napoleon Chagnon Interview by modern Nonsense by J. Davies; Howard Bloom Inter- & R. E. Brady; Electromagnetic Sensitivity by H. Hall; F. Miele; Science & the Soul by S. Cave; Levels of view by F. Miele; Glossolalia by S. Semenyna & R. Almanacs by K.Stollznow; Skeptic in Court I by Randi. Nothing by R. L. Kuhn; Witch Doctors by J. Chapman. Schmaltz; Reviews. Ancient Mythbuster by D. Loxton REVIEWS.JR. SKEPTIC: Ghostbuster Girls! by D. Loxton JR SKEPTIC: Alien Invaders! by D. Loxton. Reviews. magv18n 3-50 Years of JFK Conspiracies magv18n 4-Ancient Aliens Evidence by C. magv19n1-Did Jesus Exist? by T. Callahan; by David Reitzes; Origin of Science in Pale- White; Noacian Flood: Myth & Geology by T. Callahan Does Religion Make People Healthier? by H. Hall; olithic Times by L. Liebenberg; Science Denial & D. Prothero; v. Astronomy by Randi; Un- Inside Faith Healing by D. White: Excerpt: Madalyn Threats by D. Prothero; Great Radium Craze by certainty in Medicine by H. Hall; Psychiatric Diagnosis Murray O’Hair by M. Stephens; ’s R. Sutera; J. Randi, K. Stollznow and H. Hall on by R. Lewis; Measuring Multiple Personalities by R. Afterlife by I. H. Smythe: at Sand Scientology; by I. H. Smythe Sov- Stern & M. McDonald; Bigfoot Hunter by J. Blais; New Creek Massacre Site by Gregory F. Michno; Whistle- ereign Citizen Scam by J. Tsidulko;. JR SKEPTIC: Mer- Satanic Panic by M. Moran; Sean Carroll Interview by blowing Doesn’t Work by F. V. Malmstrom and D. maids by D. Loxton. REVIEWS: Media Panics; H. Trujillo; Medical Error Reduction by P. Levitt. JR Mullin; Latest on IQ: James R. Flynn Interviewed by Earth’s History: Amityville Horror; Room 237. SKEPTIC: Velikovsky by D. Loxton. REVIEWS. L. Traynor. JR SKEPTIC: Sagan by D. Loxton. REVIEWS. magv19n2-Boston Bombing Conspiracies magv20n1-Terrorism. Terrorism Guide by R. magv20n2-Drug Myths: Carl Hart Interview by G. Michael; Randi on M. Gardner; Faith Healing by E. Wackrow; Terrorism Myths by M. Shermer; Terrorism by F. Nogueira; Preventative Medicine by H. Hall; Rais- H. Hall; Voynich Manuscript by K. Stollznow; Science and Religion by K. Krause; Colloidal Silver by Harriet ing Kid’s I.Q.s by C.Tavris; Parenting Myths by S. Hupp of Memory by C. Tavris; Multiverse & God by R. Grigg: Hall, M.D.; Genius Myth by C. Tavris; Fake Rainmakers & J. Jewell; Calling E.T.by D.Brin; Do Emotions Effect Soft Theism by M. Jako; Evolving a Soul by J. Harris; by Peter Olausson; Clever Hans by T. E. Heinzen, S. O. Matter? by N. Gauvrit & S.Francfort; Placebos by J. Mass Hysteria by R. E. Bartholomew; Probability Lilienfeld, & S. A. Nolan; Testing for Demons by R.Am- Brissonnet, trans. by H. Hall; Diet & Heart Health by and Miracles by Alex Boklin; Artificial Intelligence mirati, S. T. Hendrick,&S.O.Lilienfeld; Horror by S.T. K. W. Krause; Supernatural? by Shermer; Putin’s Dugin Optimism by B. Ferris; K. Sanders Cartoon. JR. Asma; Cow tipping by P. Linse; Quantum Quackery by by R. Zubrin; Near-Death by C. Markum; Pseudo-Math SKEPTIC: Ghost Photos, Part I by D. Loxton. REVIEWS. J.Harris. JR.SKEPTIC: Hollow Earth by D.Loxton. REVIEWS. by E. C. Prichard; JR.SKEPTIC: Hollow Earth IIbyLoxton. magv20n3-Alfred Russel Wallace: magv20n4-Robert Trivers: Photo Amnesia by magv21n1-Cons Excerpt by M. Konnikova. Species by R. Conniff; Consilience by J.T. Costa; Human Tavris; Incidentalomas by H.Hall; Tanning Myths by A. DSM-5 by H.Hall; Defining Rape by Tavris; ET Paradox Cognition by L.Dugatkin; by R.Milner; Flat Becirevic & D.D.Reed; Magic Perception by D.Russell; by G.Michael; U.S. Stonehenge by G.J.van‘t Land; Vol- Earth byR. Milner& Shermer; Heretic Scientist by M. Moral Values: M. Hauser v.M. Shermer; Richard Paul ney byT.C.Williams; Divine Hurricane Strikes by R. Shermer. Internet Civility by C.Tavris; Good Evidence; by Tribute by G.Hart; Destiny? by D. Zeigler; Radiation by Warren & M. Olejniczak; Vaccine War by R. Barglow & H. Hall; Full Moon Test by J.D.Van Dyke; Non-Fine-Tuned J. A. Siegel &C. W. Pennington; Ben Carson’s Beliefs by M. Schaefer; Pretentious Bullshit by J. A. Cheyne & G. Universe by J.Harris & E. Harris; Science/Theology by D. D. Prothero; Moving Tomb by G. J.van‘t Land; Educa- Pennycook; Why Cops Kill by D. DeLeon; Video Game Vi- J.Navarick; Critical Thinkingby J. E.& R.A. Buckner. tion & Religion by N. M.Baker; God Debate: D. Navar- olence by J. Glynn; Morals Debate by S. Harris, Shermer JR.SKEPTIC: Bat-People Hoax by D.Loxton. REVIEWS. ick v.D.Matson; Reviews. Adamski UFOs by Loxton. & M. Hauser; Review. JS: Haunted Houses by D. Loxton magv21n2-Uploading the Mind: Plausible magv21n3-Internet Porn=Sexual Dysfunc- magv21n4-Cancer Care Industry by L. Kirk by K.Hayworth; Implausible by P. Kassan; Mind-Body tion? “Yes”by P. Zimbardo, G. Wilson & N. Coulombe, Hagen; Aging Claims by Hall; Train Memory by Tavris; Problem by R. L.Kuhn. Flu Shots by Hall; Abuse Cycle? “No” by M. Klein. Herbal Hazard by Hall; Sex Orienta- Amityville by R.E.Bartholomew & J. Nickell; Alien Skull by Tavris; Extremists & Idealism by T. Dupuy; Islamism tion by Tavris; Ancient Maya on Google by D.S. Ander- by D. Prothero, A. Bondarev, & Callahan; Nazca Lines by P.Boghossian & J.A.Lindsay; Future Terrorism by P. son; Paleo Diet by A.R.Johnson; Does AA Work? by C. by D. Iammarino; Galactic Defense System by G. Torres; Homo naledi by N. H. Lents; HIV Goat Milk Cure J.Bogart; End-Times by P. Torres; of Michael; Spirituality Defined by D. Speed; Clown Panics by Hall; Mass Hysteria by R. E. Bartholomew; St Paul Bad Dreams by J. A.Cheyne; Poison Gas Attack by R. by R. Bartholomew; Living in a Computer Simulation? by H. White; Pro Anti-Science by H. Siegal; ID Declines E. Bartholomew, et al.; EM Field Panic by J. Frantsve by Kassan; Luck & the Mean by G. Smith; Political Crit. by D. Prothero; JR.SK: Man-Eating Plants by Loxton -Hawley; REVIEWS.JR.SK: Mammoths I by Loxton. Thinking by T. J.Redmond. JS. Mammoths II by Loxton magv22n2-Artificial Intelligence Danger magv22n3- Hancock’s Lost Civilization: magv22n4-Science Wars. No Barriers to In- AI Concerns by M.Graves; AI an Existential Threat? by Joe Rogan Debate by Shermer; Hancock’s Geological quiry by M.Shermer; Racist Shaming by S.Beckner; Shermer; AI: Simulation/Synthesis? by P. Kassan; pH Claims by M. Defant; Hancock’s Historical Claims by Science the Enemy by M.J.Defant; Wrongin Berkeley by Med Myths by H. Hall; Racism Test by C. Tavris; Alt- Callahan. CONCEPTUAL PENIS HOAX: Why We Published It- R.Barglow; Alt-Left & Alt-Right by K.McCaffree; Diet Right by G. Michael; “Tractor” Quack Device by T. Shermer; Hoax by Boghossian/Lindsay; On Hoaxes by Sodaby Hall; Crow Intelligence by P. Lindenfors; Dr. Hines; by D.R.Prothero; Concept of Race by R. Alan Sokal. Juicing by Hall; Our Angry Era by Tavris; CA Brian Hare Interview: Canine Minds by F. Nogueira; Khan & B.B. Boutwell; 3 Kinds of Atheism by B.Page & Stem Cell Research by Barglow; Homo naledi by Lents; Biology & Crime by N.H.Lents & L.Kazemian; Taubes D.J.Navarick. REVIEWS: New Ideas; Men Age; Homo ET Aliens by Callahan; Taming Foxes by Trut/ Dugatkin; Sugar Claims by Hall; JFK Myths by M. J.Gagné; Deus; Science Deniers; Cons. JS: Chemtrails Facts by D. Zeigler. JR SK Zombies-Loxton. Dualism by P.Kassan. JS: Ghost Ships by Loxton. magv23n1-Evil. Atheists Find Meaning by R. magv23n2-Rise of the Nones. Decline of Re- magv23n3-Science & Morality. Moral Judge- Lewis; Atheism Defended by K. Levy; What is Evil? by ligion by Shermer; God Surveys by C.S. Reichardt; Fake ments: Real or Opinion?by C.F.Naff & A.Norman; Suicide G. Salis; Evaluating Evil by R.Stern; Moral Realism Headlinesby Hall; Please Touch by Tavris; Flat Earth by by J.Bering; Debate:CanScience Determine Moral Values? Debate by D.J. Navarick & M.Shermer; Alzheimers by Loxton; Conspiracy Theory Harm by J. K. Lambert; Re- with M.Shermer, M. Pigliucci, & K. McCaffree. Stem Cell Hall; Me, Too Movement by Tavris; Alien Skeleton by E. covered Memory Tragedy by L K. Hagen; Value of Diver- Treatments by H. Hall; Facilitated Com. by S. Sobel; Re- Weiss; Brazil Cancer Quackery by N.P.Taschner; Anna sity by T. M Freeberg; Nuclear War by D. Barash; Our ligious Scientists by J. C. Wathey; Human Anatomical Freud by R Barglow; Cuban Sonic Attack by R.E. Place In the Cosmos by S. B. Gray; Multiverse by A. Errors by N.H.Lents; JORDAN PETERSON PHENOMENON: Bartholomew; Education Upgrade by C.Edwards; F. Sangalli; Ahtiest Purpose by R. Lewis: REVIEWS: Rise of Archetype by Shermer; Peterson Defended by J. N. Stea; Crews’Freud review by M.Schaefer. JS:Pet Psychics Victimhood Culture. JR SK: Perpetual Motion- Loxton. Truth Search by S.Beckner. by Loxton magv23n4-Something Ratherthan Nothing magv24n1-Behe’s Intelligent Design by magv24n2-Evil/God Debate with M Shermer by M. Shermer; Health Informed Consent by H. Hall; N.H.Lents; Postmodernism by S.Beckner; Radiation & B. Huffling; Laser Therapy by H. Hall; Acusations & Traits v.Type by C.Tavris: Teaching Evolution by S. Rx by H. Hall; Degrees of Misconduct by C.Tavris; Evidence by C. Tavris: G. Hancock’s America Before re- Parvatam; Abortion Milestones by G. Whittenberger; Gas from Water by D.Plazak; Online Gaming’s Dark viewed by J. Colavito; Was the Thunderbird a Pterosaur? Creation/Evolution Debate Styles by R. M. Barnes; Side by J. Glynn; Data Mining by G. Smith; Fix Fake by P. J. Senter; Signs & Omens by J. Bering; S. Pinker on Microwave Attacks by R. E. Bartholomew; Adversarial News by D.Cowan; Disproof of God by C. McGinn; Falun Religious Rituals, ed. by Shermer; Cousin Marriage? by Arguments by A. Cooper-Sansone; Quackery History by Gong Dance Deception by D.Silverman; Opioid Epi- G. Andrade; Energy Therapies by A.Bleske-Rechek, et al.; M. Tavel; Not-So-New Atheists by M. Cohen; Human demic by R. Barglow; Human-Centered View by D. Why Lie about UFOs? by E. Wojciechowski; Surveillance Conciousness by C. McGinn; JS: Boards by Loxton Zeigler. Reviews. JS: Dungeons & Dragons by D. Loxton Privacy Threats by J. Glynn JS: Cardiff Giant by D. Loxton magv24n3-Scholars Must Defend Reason magv24n4-Understanding Flat Earthers magv25n1- Conspiracies by M. Shermer; Anti- byS.Pinker; Coconut Oil:Healthy?by Hall; Memory Wars by D. Loxton; Water Fluoridation by Hall; Sexual Norms Aging Myths by H.Hall; Conduct Codes by C.Tavris; Ants byTavris; Israel’s Lost Tribesby T.Callahan; Tic Tac UFO by Tavris ; God-Evil Debate II Whittenberger v.Huffling; /Humans by M. Moffett; Games & Capitalism by J. Kay; by R.Sheaffer; Vampire Origins by J.Close; S. J.Gould’s Turin Shroud Update by Callahan; Contentious Conver- Drone Scare by R. Bartholomew; Post-Truth Era debate: Science & Politics by A. Panchin; 2 Kinds of Atheism by sations by Boghossian & Lindsay; Willetta Huggins by L. McIntyre v. M. Shermer; New Logical ?by D.K. J.L.Schellenberg; Antivax Attitudes Tested by N.Gauvrit J. Bering; Balkans Pseudohistory by Todorovic´ ; Cancer Johnson; Meditation by J.M.Fish, & by K. Schultheis; & M. Guillaud; False Confessions by S. Justman; Brain Screening Myths by Nogueira; Impossible Evidence by History’s Key Points by C. Edwards; Biological Beauty by Evoution by V.S.Johnston; Kaufmann’s White Decline Elgat; REVIEWS: Mental Illness; Human Swarm; Dar- V. S. Johnston; Integrative Cancer Care by M. Stefanek & Review by G. Michael. JS: Chupacabra by D. Loxton win; Forensics. JR SK: Crystal Palace Dinos by Loxton C.DJordan; REVIEWS.JS: History of Fake Food by Loxton magv25n2-Giving the Devil His Due magv25n3-Science of Race by G. P. Harrison magv25n4-QAnon by D. Loxton & M. Shermer; by M. Shermer; Electronic Screen Syndrome by H. Hall; C. Tavris: Do Ends Justify Means?; H. Hall: Masks & Conspiracy Patterns by R.D.Kirvel; Lifestyle Quackery by Feminist Divide by C.Tavris; African Superstition Science; Hollow Earth by D. Prothero; & H. Hall; Skeptic Art by P. Linse & D. Loxton; C.W. Peale’s by W. C. Iheme; Government UFO Programs by R. Cycling by M. Shermer; Resurrection by T. Museum by L. A. Dugatkin; Social & Political Studies by Sheaffer; Brazilian Creationism by H. M. Silva; Earth- Callahan; Faked Death Stories by M. Moran; Threat of M. McCready, A. Saide, & K. McCaffree; 75 years of the Centered Cosmology by D. Prothero; Rationality’s Merit Hell by D. Barash; Respecting Nature by M. W. Moffett; Bomb by M. Shermer; Truth in Politics? by G. Tsipursky; by D.Zeigler; Göbekli Tepe Mysteries by R.A.Schneiker; Science Amoral?by W.E.Magnusson; Meaning Without Diversity Training by M. S. Weissmark; Laws of Nature Science v. Religion by D. K. Johnson; Bullshit Detection Faith by A. Cooper-Sansone; What Literature Teaches Us by S. Dimitrijev; Resurrection Witnesses by T. Callahan; by J. V. Petrocelli; REVIEWS. JS: Werewolves by Loxton by K. Schultheis; REVIEWS. JS: The Plague by Loxton REVIEWS. JR SKEPTIC: Vaccine History by D. Loxton. Michael Shermer DVDs

Giving the Devil His Due by How We Believe (b063PB $20.00 paper- The AtheismTapes av571DVD. $29.95 (2 DVD set) Michael Shermer. (b175HB $24.95 hard- back) by Michael Shermer. An empirical study A Documentary Extra with Jonathan Miller Neurologist, playwright, film- of 10,000 Americans—why do people believe maker & self-described atheist. Conversations with six of today's back, “The Devil” is anyone you disagree leading men of science and letters: Richard Dawkins, philosophers with. His due is the right to speak his in God?; science & religion controversies; Daniel Dennett & Colin McGinn, playwright Arthur Miller, theologian mind because his freedom is inextrica- proofs of God; did religion evolve?; deeper mil- Denys Turner, and Nobel laureate physicist Steven Weinberg. These bly tied to your own. A full-throated de- lennial destruction-redemption meanings; distinguished thinkers discuss their personal intellectual journeys & fense of free speech and open inquiry. finding meaning in life; how people assume offer illuminating analyses of belief & disbelief from a wide range of that others believe for different reasons than they do. perspectives. Compelling viewing you won't want to miss. Heavens on Earth: the Scien- THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL? The Original tific Search for the After- life, Why Darwin Matters by Michael TV Documentary av568DVD. $19.95. (2-DVD set) Inmortality and Utopia by Michael Shermer. (b111PB $13. paperback) An in- Two-part documentary (“The God Delusion” & “The Virus of Faith”) plus Shermer. (b170HB $30. hardback, $19.99 siders’ guide to the evolution/creation de- Bonus Features: Commentary; Q&A; & a reading from The God Delusion, all paperback) What drives belief in life after bate—what evolution really is, how we by Richard Dawkins. Examines the power of religion, an interview with former death, plus scientific attempts to achieve Pastor Ted Haggard, novelist Ian McEwan, the former Bishop of Oxford, & oth- know it happened, and how to test it. Why ers offer insights into the impact & consequencesof faith inthe 21st century. immortality, extropians, transhumanists, creationism and Intelligent Design theory cryonicists, and mind-uploaders. Utopias. Purpose and are not science. Why 50% in U.S. reject Root of All Evil? The Uncut Interviews progress and what we can do in the here-and-now. evolution—spiritual, psychological and political reasons, av569DVD. $24.95 (3 DVD set) During the filming of Root of All Evil?, such as moral relativism and social Darwinism. Richard Dawkins conducted many fascinating interviews. The footage was Ske?tic by Michael Shermer. (b168HB edited, & some entire interviews had to be omitted. Here are 8 raw & uncut $28. hardback) A collection of 75 essays interviews, allowing the viewer a rare vantage point see these revealing ex- from Shermer’s Scientific American The Science Of Good and Evil: changes. Interviews with: Jill Mytton; Ian McEwan; Bishop Richard Harries columns. Features his trademark combi- Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, 90 (Watch this interview free online at skeptic.com); Michael Bray; Hell House Pastor Keenan Roberts; Alister McGrathl; Adrian Hawkes; & Rabbi Gluck. nation of deep scientific understanding, Share, & Follow the Golden Rule scientific concepts and theory, and an by Michael Shermer. (PB085-paperback entertaining writing style. $17. ) Broad in scope, deep in analysis, and The Great Debate-Does God Exist? av558DVD controversial. Is it human nature to be selfish (DVD only-$23.95) Dr. Doug Geivett, Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology at Bioloa University v. Dr. Michael Shermer, SKEPTIC The Moral Arc by Michael Shermer. or selfless, fierce or loving, moral or immoral? magazine, Director, Skeptics Society. Dr. Geivett presents the best theo- (b162PB $16.99 paperback) Are we living Scientific evidence shows that morality is deeply embedded logical, philosophical, and scientific evidence for God’s existence. Dr. in the most moral period of our species’ in our being and behavior. Explores how science can address Shermer counters these arguments, then presents the best scientific evi- history? Extensive data suggest we are. some of our most difficult moral dilemmas. dence that God and religion are human creations. Remarkably enlighten- ing and entertaining! Lively Q & A. Of the many factors over the centuries that have bent the arc in a more moral Science Friction: Where the Growing Up in the Universe av570DVD. (2- direction, science & reason are foremost. Known Meets the Unknown by DVD set) ($19.95) Richard Dawkins presents a series of lectures on life, Michael Shermer. (SALE: $10. 100HB) the universe, and our place in it. With brilliance and clarity, Dawkins un- The Believing Brain…How the Shermer becomes a psychic for a day, in- ravels an educational gem that will mesmerize young and old alike. Illu- minating demonstrations, wildlife, virtual reality, and special guests Brain Constructs Beliefs & Re- vestigates quack cancer & alternative (including Douglas Adams) all combine to make this collection a time- inforces Them as Truths by Michael medicine, evolutionary psychology and the less classic. Originally presented as part of the Royal Institution Christ- Shermer. (b144PB $15.99 paperback.) mutiny on the Bounty, chaos theory and mas Lectures for Children were founded by Michael Faraday in 1825. How beliefs are born, formed, nourished, history, intelligent design creationism, sports psychology, reinforced, challenged, changed, and ex- and more. Lively and fun reading. Brain, Mind and Consciousness (av560DVD) FREE WITH ANY DVD ORDER! 3 DVDs. About 71/2 hours. Skeptics Society tinguished. From our to our politics, and conference hosted by Michael Shermer and Roger Bingham. Christof Koch economics. The neuroscience behind our beliefs, real- In Darwin’s Shadow: The Life & Sci- on neurobiology; Alison Gopnik on how brains learn; Richard McNally on world examples of belief from all realms of life, and why ence of Alfred Russel Wallace by false memory; Terrence Sejnowski on sleep & subconscious; Susan Black- science is the best tool ever devised to determine whether Michael Shermer (HB081 $29.95. hardback) more on altered states; John Allman neurobiology of emotion; Paul Zak on or not a belief matches reality. A landmark of the co-discoverer ; & Ursula Goodenough on morality. of natural selection & the greatest natural- Break the Science Barrier av577DVD. $15. Why People Believe Weird Things ist of his age. Shermer applies modern psy- A 1 hour film by Richard Dawkins. Communicates the power and the by Michael Shermer. (PB062 $17. paper- chological theories to understand why beauty of science including the discovery of the Big Bang, junk sci- back) Witty & eloquent. A no-holds-barred Wallace also crossed disciplines to become involved in spir- ence in the courtroom, magic and deception, and how science is the itualism, seances, & life after death belief systems. best tool ever devised for understanding how the world works. In- assault on mass delusion, prejudice, & cludes a delightful interview with Douglas Adams and magician Ian gullibility. UFOs, ESP, Near Death Experi- Rowland, who reveals how easy it is for any of us to be fooled by both ences, Alien Abduc tions, Recovered Mem- Mind of the Market magic & superstition. ories, Creationism, , Race, byMichael Shermer. (b126PB $15. paper- God, & Science v. pseudoscience. A classic & a best seller. back) Integrates behavioral economics, Penn & Teller's Bullshit , and evolutionary econom- (first season) av553DVD ($39.99) by Penn & Teller. A 13 episode Borderlands Of Science ics, expanding the application of science boxed set of 3 DVDs from their TV show. The masters of in-your-face en- and skepticism to reveal that humans are tertainment debunk everything from designer water to aliens to "alter- by Michael Shermer. (PBB069 $29.95. pa- native medicine." Outrageous! perback. Hardback on sale at $10.00 just as irrational when it comes to money (second season) each) Where does valid science leave off and markets as they are in other areas. av557DVD by Penn & Teller ($34.99) A 13 episode boxed set of 3 DVDs. and borderland science begin? Examines Blows the lid off taboo topics like P.E.T.A., True Love, Safety Hysteria, Anti-Aging Treatments, Death …and more! the theories, the people and the history in- The Skeptic Encyclopedia of volved in areas of controversy where sense Pseudoscience by Michael is in danger of turning into nonsense. Shermer, Ed./Pat Linse, Con. Ed. TWO The Question of God (av556DVD $34.98) 4 hours. An examination of the questions raised by theism and atheism seen VOLUMES, $129.00. (save over $50.00 through the lives of Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis, with roundtable off the library price. Hardback. Soul of Science by Michael Shermer. discussion by Dr. Michael Shermer & eight other panalists. b082HB) Four parts: (b109PBB $5.) Shermer’s popular lecture & in- (1.) A-Z topic listings. (2.) Case spirational essay as a pocketbooklet. How can The Original Cosmos Studies: In-depth analyzes. we find spiritual meaning in a scientific world- Collector’s Edition by Carl Sagan (3.) Pro & Con” debate section. (4.) view? Religion may be the most common source A beautiful boxed set of 7 DVDs. (av554DVD $129.98) The origi- Historical Documents. Bibliogra- nal13 hour series narrated in 1980 by Carl Sagan updated in of spirituality, but anything that generates a sense of awe phy, Illustrated moral dilemmas. 2000 with new science and images. The definitive tour of our uni- may be a source of spirituality. Science does this in spades. verse. Inspiring! A classic! Other Fascinating Topics Jared $5. Booklets

Evolution vs. Creationism: An Diamond THE BALONEY DETECTION KIT Introduction by Eugenie C. Scott This 16-page booklet is designed to hone critical Cat. No. b160PB--($29.95 Paperback) The de- The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution thinking skills. What questions to ask, what traps to bate over teaching evolution continues in spite and Future of the Human Animal avoid. Specific examples of how the scientific of the emptiness of the creationist positions. method is used to test pseudoscience and paranor- by Jared Diamond (b049PB $15. paperback) This book provides an introduction to the ongo- mal claims. Includes a how-to guide in developing ing dispute’s many facets: the scientific evi- The evolution of human sexuality and science a class in critical thinking. Includes: Sagan’s Ten dence for evolution, the legal and educational of adultery. How we pick our mates and sex Tools for Baloney Detection; Shermer’s Ten Questions For Baloney De- basis for its teaching, and the various religious partners. Why do we grow old and die? The an- tection; How Thinking Goes Wrong: The 25 Fallacies of Thought; Eight points of view—as well as a concise history of the controversy. imal origins of art. Why do we smoke, drink, Sample Syllabi: How to Teach a Course in Science & Pseudoscience; and use dangerous drugs? The golden age that never was. Most Recommended Skeptical Books; Skeptical Manifesto. Baloney De- Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of tection Kit. Cat. No. PB075 16 pages, 8 1/2 x 11 booklet. Mindless Neuroscience by Sally Satel Natural Experiments in History and Scott O. Lilienfeld. Cat. No. b159HB- HOW TO DEBATE A CREATIONIST ($26.99 HB) Since fMRI was introduced in the (b138HB $29.95 hardback) Edited by Jared early 1990s, brain scans have been used to help Diamond and James Robinson. You can’t run PART I: BACKGROUND: Science on Evolution; Sci- politicians understand and manipulate voters, a controlled scientific experiment to discover ence & Religion; Debating a Creationist: Duane T. determine guilt in court cases, and make the economic consequences of military con- Gish; Creation myths. PART II: OLD & NEW CRE- sense of everything from musical aptitude to quest or slavery. But you can use comparative ATIONISM: 25 Creationist Arguments & 25 Evolu- romantic love. But although brain scans pro- statistics from closely related societies to dis- tionist Answers. Philosophically based arguments: viding groundbreaking insights into the workings cover surprising reasons for far-reaching historical outcomes. 1-12;Scientificallybased arguments:13-25 PART of the human brain, the increasingly fashionable idea that they are Why is Haiti, which shares an island with the Dominican Re- III: THE NEW NEW CREATIONISM: Creationist strategies to get into the most important means of answering the enduring mysteries of public, so much poorer? Why did deforestation occur on schools; Why creationism is not science. U.S. Supreme Court ends psychology is misguided—and potentially dangerous. some Pacific islands and not others? Why did places con- new creationism.• The Rise of Intelligent Design Theory: Ten I.D. quered by Napoleon become wealthier than those that were arguments including: The Nature of the Designer; Methodological 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology by not? Also: world banking systems, India, the New World. Supernaturalism; Irreducible Complexity; Inference to Design; Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven Jay Lynn, John Fine Tuned Universe; Conservation of Information. How to Debate A Ruscio, and Barry L. Beyerstein. Collapse: How Societies Choose Creationist Cat. No. PB007. 28 pages, 8 1/2 x 11 booklet. Cat.No. b158PB. ($29.95 paperback). Do we use to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. only 10% of our brains? Of course not, but this, (88PB $18. paperback) What caused some A Skeptic’s Guide To Global Climate and 49 other myths, have made their way into the of the great civilizations of the past to Change by Don Prothoro (148PB $5. paperback) brains of millions of people through pop culture. collapse into ruin, and what can we learn See skeptic.com for multiple copy discounts) The Three world-class psychologists deconstruct the from their fates? Diamond traces the fun- Scientific Background & Evidence for Climate myths, show how they got started, and explain why damental patterns of social catastrophe. Change; M. Shermer on why he changed his they’re wrong. Includes critical thinking skills; a mythbusting kit; mind; Skepticism v. Denialism; Answers to 25 200 additional psychological myths; and last but not least, psycho- Climate Denier Arguments; Are We the Cause?; logical findings that are actually true. Engaging and accessible. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (b054PB $15.95 Forces Behind Science Denialism; A Skeptical Scientist Looks at paperback) Why did Eurasians conquer Na- Climate Data; Consequences. 28 pages 8 1/2 x 11 inches. tive Americans, Australians, & Africans, in- Mistakes Were Made (but not by me): Why stead of the reverse? Diamond dismisses DISCOUNTS ON ORDERS OF ANY 5 OR MORE: We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, racially-based theories of human history by 626/794-3119 and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris and Elliot revealing the environmental factors re- ITZER Aronson. Cat. No. b157PB ($15. paperback). PUL ! sponsible for history’s broadest patterns. A Why do people dodge responsibility and fail to PRIZE work rich in dramatic revelations that chal- own up when they screw up? Why can we see lenges conventional wisdom. hypocrisy in others but not in ourselves? Are we all liars? Or do we really believe the stories we Don Prothero tell? Two of the world’s greatest social psycholo- gists answer these and other questions. Carl Sagan Reality Check by Don Prothoro (b151HB $35. hardback) Describes how major scientific ideas that are accepted by the entire scientific community (evolution, an- Tim Callahan Secret The Demon-Haunted World thropogenic global warming, vaccination, the Origins of (b045PB $15.95 paperback) by Carl Sagan. The HIV cause of AIDS, and others) have been at- the Bible great astronomer and science writer challenges tacked with totally unscientific arguments UFOs, Chemtrails, and Cat. No. b079 New Agers & explains social phenomena like and methods, and argues that science denial Aliens: What Science Says PB, Paperback. UFOs, alien abductions, recovered memories, has resulted in widespread scientific igno- Coauthored Award rance, increased risk of global catastro- $19.95 How satanic cults, witch crazes, hallucinations. How Winner! by Donald R. ancient myth- to detect baloney. A classic! phes, and deaths from disease. Prothero. Cat. ology inspired Catastrophes! Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, No. b171HB. Bible stories. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal $28. Hardback. and Other Earth-Shattering A great reference source. In- View of the Search for God Disasters Entertaining cludes contributions by ancient (b147HB $30. hardback) A fas- read. Why false by Carl Sagan, Ed. by Ann Druyan. (B114PB $17. cinating read. Describes historic catastrophic Egypt and other surrounding paperback) Sagan’s prestigious Gifford Lec- beliefs thrive. cultures; creation stories; gi- events and the forces that cause them in grip- Covers psychol- tures on Natural Theology. Considers: psychol- ping detail. These tales of geologic history and ants; the flood; the tower of ogy of belief; possible chemical nature of ogy behind Babel; the Exodus; the Nativ- human fortitude & folly will stay with you long aliens & UFOs; reliability of transcendence; creationism & intelligent de- after you put the book down & leave you with ity, Passion, and Resurrection sign; life on other planets; science as “in- eyewitness testimony; conspira- narratives; and other deities respect for the mighty power of the earth. torial thinking; standards of formed worship.” Humorous, wise, and at acknowledged by the Israelites, times stunningly prophetic. Sagan at his best. Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs: evidence; cultural signals. and much more. Evolution, , and the Future of Our Planet (b137HB $29.95 hardback) Dr. Donald Prothero discusses the latest findings and controversies in geology and paleontology, using a personal narrative The End Of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the style and examples from his own career. A Future of Reason by Sam Harris. (b139PB $13.95 must read for anyone interested in these pro- paperback). Harris’ first book was an instant bestseller fessions. A section of the book covers the possible reasons for because of its cogent arguments & literary clarity, in past radical climate changes and —from jungles Letter to a Christian Nation by which the author argues that because of weapons of in the Arctic to the frozen snowball earth—and what this Sam Harris. (b140HB $12. hardback) In mass destruction the world can no longer tolerate violent could mean for us and our current changing climate. this tightly reasoned commentary on the religions, & that in fact even moderate religious believers state of religion in America, Sam Harris only encourage Evolution: What the Fossils pulls no punches in his arguments to extremists by enabling their Say and Why It Matters members of the Christian Right on all supernatural beliefs. by Donald Prothero. (b127HB $30. hard- matters moral and political, noting Old back) Rave reviews! “Best damn evolu- Testament law (death for adultery, homo- The Moral Landscape: How Science Can tion book, period!” A great introduction sexuality, disobedience to parents etc.), Determine Human Values by Sam Harris. (b141HB to the field or get up to speed on the lat- and contrasts this with, for example, the $26.95 hardback) Views the experiences of conscious creatures est discoveries in the incredibly rich fos- Award Winner complete non-violence of Jainism. Harris argues that the reliance as peaks and valleys on a “moral landscape.” Definite facts ! sil record, with an emphasis on on dogma can create a false morality, which is divorced from the can be known about where we fall on this landscape, so science transitional forms. Includes a no holds reality of human suffering and the efforts to alleviate it. Quite a can go beyond merely describing morality—it should be able to barred critique of the claims of creationism and Intelligent bargain for only $12. tell us what we ought to do to live the best lives possible. Design. Over 200 illustrations. AWARD WINNING Richard Dawkins CHILDREN'S BOOKS The Magic of Reality: How The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. We Know What’s Really True (b123PB $15.95 paperback) A classic. Changed Daniel Loxton by Richard Dawkins the nature of the study of social biology. This For years people have wanted the brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural se- renowned evolutionary biologist to write a lection explains how the selfish gene revolves Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be book for kids on evolution. He has done around savage competition and exploitation— by Daniel Loxton. (b136HB $18.95) Ages 8–13. Winner of mul- that—and much more—with this highly yet acts of apparent altruism do exist in nature. tiple awards. Easy to understand, spectacularly illustrated in- engaging and well-illustrated work that troduction to the theory of evolution. How the evidence for will also enlighten adults who read it. Filled with clever The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evi- evolution was discovered, the basic mechanics of how it thought experiments and jaw-dropping facts, The Magic of dence of Evolution Reveals a Universe works. Answers to common questions and misunderstandings Reality explains a stunningly wide range of natural phenom- Without Design by Richard Dawkins. (b087PB about evolution. Written with warmth and enthusiasm. Out- ena. This is a page-turning detective story that not $15.95 paperback) Perhaps the most influential standing science content. Award W only mines all the sciences for its clues but inner! work on evolution written in this century. Natu- primes the reader to think like a scientist as ral selection—the unconscious, automatic, Ankylosaur Attack (Tales of Prehistoric Life) by Daniel well. Cat. No. b166PB ($16. paperback) blind, yet essentially nonrandom process—has no purpose in Loxton. (b145HB $16.95) Ages 4 and up. A mind-blowing feast mind. If it can be said to play the role of watchmaker in nature, it for the eye that uses photorealistic images along with an excit- An Appetite for Wonder: The Mak- is the blind watchmaker. Engaging and accessible. ing, natural history-inspired story. Pre-school children will enjoy ing of a Scientist by Richard Dawkins. a story that features a young hero. A young ankylosaur (a plant- Cat.No.b167PB. ($15.99 paperback) A mem- The Ancestor’s Tale by Richard Dawkins. eating, heavy-plated dinosaur) saves the day when a T. rex at- oir covering material from Dawkins’ child- (b092PB $16.95 paperback) A masterwork: an tacks. A surefire hit with young dinosaur lovers. hood in colonial East Africa through the exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, publication of his world-changing bestselling from present-day humans back to the micro- Pterosaur Trouble (Tales of Prehistoric Life) book The Selfish Gene. Told with frankness bial beginnings of life. Entertaining, insightful by Daniel Loxton. (b149HB $16.95) Ages 4 and up. A dramatic and eloquence, warmth and humor. An enter- stories. Sheds light on topics such as specia- paleofiction tale inspired by real fossil discoveries. The mighty taining and enlightening read. tion, sexual selection, and extinction. An essential education in pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus—perhaps the largest flying animal evolutionary theory and a riveting read. ever to exist—finds himself on the menu for a pack of small The Greatest Show on Earth by feathered Velociraptor-like dinosaurs. This photorealistic ad- Richard Dawkins. (b143PB $16.99 paperback) A A Devil’s Chaplin by Richard Dawkins. venture will delight and astonish. fierce counterattack against Intelligent Design. (b122PB $14.paperback) Diverse topics exam- Rich layers of scientific evidence: living examples ined through the lens of natural selection: educa- Plesiosaur Peril (Tales of Prehistoric Life) of natural selection; fossils; natural clocks; de- tion, ape rights, jury trials, the vindication of by Daniel Loxton. (b153HB $16.95) Ages 4 and up. A group of veloping embryos; plate tectonics; molecular ge- Darwinism; memes; religion, academic obscu- plesiosaurs, ocean-dwelling cousins of the dinosaurs, keeps netics—all make an airtight case for evolution rantism; Stephen Jay Gould; Douglas Adams; safe by swimming in a family pod. But when one baby plesiosaur by non-random selection. A master vision of life’s splendor. pseudoscience; & his awe at the marvelous complexity of the swims too far from its mother it attracts the attention of some- universe. Written with clarity & passion. thing large and very hungry and the struggle for survival is on. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. (B113PB $15.95 paperback) Dawkins’ most Climbing Mount Improbable byRichard important book to date, his definitive state- Dawkins. (b121PB $16.95. paperback) The Mount ment on the God question, the origins of Improbable metaphor symbolizes the improbability morality & religion, the best arguments for and that seemingly perfectly designed living things Do You Believe in Magic? Vitamins, Supple- against God’s existence, the dangers of reli- evolved. In a breathtaking journey through the moun- ments, and All Things Natural by Paul A. Medical expert Paul A. Offit, M.D. offers gious extremism, and why science offers the tain’s passes and up its many peaks, Dawkins demon- Offit, M.D. a scathing exposé of the alternative medicine indus- best hope for humanity. strates how the improbable path to perfection merely takes time. try, revealing how even though some popular thera- pies are remarkably helpful due to the placebo response, many of them are ineffective, expensive, and even deadly. He concludes: “There’s no such Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye. Sparked thing as alternative medicine. There’s only medicine by his 2014 debate with Creation Museum curator Ken Ham, Bill Nye expands the that works and medicine that doesn’t.” Cat. No. points he made about creationism and points out that this debate is not so much about b156PB ($15.99. paperback) religion v. science as about the nature of science itself. With infectious enthusiasm, he reveals the mechanics of evolutionary theory, and explains how it is rooted in the testable and verifiable scientific method. He argues passionately that to continue to as- sert otherwise, to continue to insist that creationism has a place in the science class- CHILDREN'S BOOKS room is harmful not only to our children, but to the future of the greater world as Secrets of Mental Math: The The Magic well.is misguided—and potentially dangerous. Cat. No. b163HB-($25.99 HB) Mathemagician’s GuidetoLight- Detectives ning Calculationand Amazing Written and illus- Math Tricks (12 to adult.) (b112PB trated by Joe Nickell $12.95) By Arthur Benjamin & Michael (b070PB $15. 115 Shermer. Renowned “mathemagician” pages. Paperback. 9 Daniel C. Dennett Benjamin shares his secrets for light- to 14 yrs) 30 myster- ning-quick ies—encourages readers to think for calculations & themselves before the solution is of- Darwin’s Dangerous Idea: Breaking the Spell: Reli- amazing num- fered. Historical ghost incidents, Lock Evolution and the Meanings gion as a Natural Phe- ber tricks. nomenon by Daniel C. Ness, UFO aliens, ’s Curse, Holy of Life by Daniel C. Dennett. Learn to do Shroud, and more. In a book that is both groundbreak- Dennett. In this definitive math in your ing and accessible, Daniel Dennett work on religion by one of the head faster Maybe Yes, focuses his unerringly logical mind “Four Horsemen” and world-fa- than you ever Maybe No on the theory of natural selection, mous philosopher Daniel Den- thought possi- by Dan Barker (b071PB showing how Darwin's great idea nett asks “Is religion a product ble & make $16.00, 128 pages. pa- transforms and illuminates our of blind evolutionary instinct math fun. perback.7-10 years) or rational choice?” “Is it traditional view of humanity's NEW YORK Adventures of Andrea, truly the best way to live a place in the universe. Dennett TIMES a skeptic. Cartoon strip vividly describes the theory it- moral life?” Ranging through BESTSELLER style. How to check out extraordinary self and then extends Darwin's vision with im- biology, history, and psychol- Test Your Science IQ peccable arguments to their often surprising ogy, Dennett charts religion’s by Charles Cazeau (b073PB $20.00, 368 claims. Simple straightforward text. conclusions, challenging the views of some of the evolution from “wild” folk belief pages. paperback. 12 to adult) Hun- How to listen and ask questions; how to most famous scientists of our day, including to “domesticated” dogma. dreds of addictive questions & answers seek a simple explanation; what tools Stephen Jay Gould. Cat. No.b155PB. ($18. paperback) Cat. No. b154PB. ($18. paperback) covering both science & pseudoscience. and rules a scientist uses to check Clear, well written, yet sophisticated things out. enough for adults. Very Sasquatches strong on why From Outer science is Space Daniel Loxton & Don Prothero important. A by Tim Yule. (Ages 10- book you will 15) (b072PB $15.) enjoy experi- Chatty cheerful style. Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids Covers Astrology, big- encing with by Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero. (b150HB $29.95 hardback) An entertaining, educational, and de- foot, ESP, the Bermuda your child. finitive text on cryptids, presenting the arguments both for and against their existence. Takes on Bigfoot; triangle, corp circles, , Fascinating the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, and its cross-cultural incarnations; the Loch Ness monster; the evolu- Vampires, and UFOs and aliens. Glossary, tion of the Great Sea Serpent; and Mokele Mbembe, the Congo dinosaur. Analyses the psychology behind and fun. Award Winner bibliography. “Try This” sections encourage ! the persistent belief in paranormal phenomena, and discusses the subculture. critical thinking skills. SELECTED JR SKEPTIC ARTICLES ARE NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD

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