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Autobiographies and Other Musings from The BOOK REVIEWS Green Men." Morrison, one of Carl Autobiographies and Sagan's first doctoral students, reviews the Velikovsky affair, catastrophism (i.e., Other Musings from the evidence for and against the effects of meteor and comet collisions), evidence World's Leading Skeptics for and against other intelligent life- ROBERT A. BAKER forms in outer space, and creationism's ignorance and silliness. This section also Skeptical Odysseys: Personal Accounts by the World's Leading includes Neil DeGrasse Tyson's "Certain Paranormal Inquirers. Edited by Paul Kurtz. Prometheus Uncertainties," a detailed discussion of Books, Amherst, N.Y. 2001. 400 pp. ISBN 1-57392-884-4 the difficulties scientists have in present- Cloth, $27. ing and explaining scientific facts to the scientifically naive. ooking for ways to celebrate the Director, provides an entertaining essay Section V, devoted entirely to astrol- twenty-fifth anniversary of the on the problems and pleasures of orga- ogy, includes Geoffrey Dean's and Ivan LCommittee for the Scientific nizing, staffing, and managing hundreds Kelly's "Does Astrology Work?," a Investigation of Claims of the Para- of workshops, conferences, and semi- review of astrology and skepticism from normal (CSICOP), founder Paul Kurtz nars. CSICOP Fellow and council 1975 to 2000, as well as Jean-Claude decided to publish a commemorative member James Alcock provides an Pecker's essay of the unending battle sci- volume made up of autobiographical overview of the current state of psi ence has waged with this pseudoscience. statements and original contributions by research as well as accounts of his per- Popular investigations. Section VI, a selected few of the world's major skep- sonal struggles with parapsychology. Lee includes CSICOP's Senior Investigator tics. The result, Skeptical Odysseys, is a Nisbet, in his recall of the origins and Joe Nickell's amusing and adventure- book that anyone having a serious inter- evolution of CSICOP, stresses that sci- filled autobiography and magician and est in either CSICOP or paranormal ence is too important to be left to scien- entertainer Henry Gordon's "Diary of a claims will be interested in. The book tists and shows us just how important a Canadian Debunker." Gordon's en- offers insights, illuminations, and auto- role skeptics play in science education. counters with some of the world's best- biographical statements from thirty- Editor Kurtz finishes the section with known psychics and true-believers make seven well-known scientists and para- his own autobiography and his personal skeptics want to cheer. normal investigators. involvement in a number of CSICOP's Section VII, on Creationism, is a Editor Kurtz asked each contributor major attacks and campaigns. superb account by Eugenie Scott of her to look back over die past twenty-five Section II of Odysseys is devoted to long and successful battle with religious years of his or her investigatory efforts at parapsychology and includes Susan fundamentalists to protect and defend exploring the paranormal and then to Blackmore's review of the sorry state of the teaching of evolution as well as to review and summarize what he or she psychic research and a personal expose the flaws and fallacies of their learned. Few restrictions were placed on account of why she has given up on pseudoscience. Section VIII, devoted cither content or length; this air of free- ever finding anything worthwhile in to Alternative Medicine, contains dom results in a most informal and the pursuit of psi. Leon Jaroff, a Wallace Sampson's sobering summary enjoyable cornucopia of recent skeptical CSICOP Fellow and Time science edi- of how a host of medical pseudo- history and the men and women who tor, provides a memorable account of sciences managed to gain public accep- made it. his experiences with Uri Geller, and tance and support when it is crystal Section I, Twenty-Five Years of CSI- Barry Beyerstein offers his personal clear they do not deserve it. Section IX, COP, is headed by Kendrick Frazier's history as well as a detailed account of Skepticism Around the World, has story of his personal experiences and the legitimate psychology's struggles with contributions from the Netherlands, challenges he faced as editor of the parapsychology and New Age charla- Italy, Mexico, Russia, India, and Spain. SKEPTICAL INQUIRER for the past quarter tans. The third section of the book is Each of these short entries convinc- of a century. Frazier's views on the role devoted to UFOs and includes excel- ingly demonstrates that the skeptical of SI in educating a scientifically illiter- lent essays by Phil Klass, Robert cause is alive and well, not only here ate public are inspirational and memo- Sheaffer, Gary Posner, and Bill Nye. but around the world. rable. Barry Karr, CSICOP's Executive Section IV, concerned with Astron- Section X, titled Some Personal omy and the Space Age, offers us David Reflections, consists of intriguing com- Robert Baker is professor emeritus in psy- Morrison's brilliant essay "Killer ments by distinguished sexologist Vern chology University of Kentucky, Lexington. Comets, Pseudocosmogony, and Little Bulloughs, Michael Shermer, editor of SKEPTICAL INQUIRER May/lune 2002 51 BOOK REVIEWS Skeptic, the late TV star and author days and the place of religion in the Rodney Castleden should be on every Steve Allen, and CSICOP Fellow and scheme of things. Particle physicist skeptic's bookshelf as well. Bin the Council Member Bela Scheiber. All Stenger's "Skepticism About Religion" newly published The Atlantis Syndrome four of these essays have important is aptly titled and covers the topic suc- by Paul Jordan belongs in that special messages for skeptics. Bullough's com- cinctly and well. Every skeptic familiar place on the bookshelf reserved for ments about nurses and nursing, with Thomas's earlier detective work on works that represent an authoritative Shermer's clashes with organized reli- Drosnin's The Bible Code will also enjoy treatment of a topic. Jordan has pro- gion, and Allen's incisive attack on reli- this follow-up: "Beyond The Bible duced a book that is so well-written, so gious dogma should be read and Code: Hidden Messages Everywhere." thorough, so engaging, inclusive, and remembered. Memorable also is Finally, Section XII traces the men- unflinching, I'm just not sure anything Scheiber's disturbing review ot how and tal progress of yours truly from my more need be written about Atlantis. It why many American corporations early days as a skeptic to a concerned truly is that good and the marketing bought into the New Age nonsense. humanist. It also provides me with an cliche applies quite well here: if you read Section XI, Religion, is distinguished opportunity to thank Paul Kurtz for his one book on the lost continent of by the work of CSICOP co-founder leadership and for Skeptical Odysseys Atlantis, it should be Paul Jordan's The Martin Gardner, physicist Victor which is, indeed, a fitting and most cre- Atlantis Syndrome. Stenger, philosopher Antony Flew, and ative commemoration of CSICOP's One of my own major annoyances CSICOP Fellow Dave Thomas. twenty-five successful years. Let us with people who have questioned me Gardner gives insightful observations hope the next twenty-five will be about the lost continent is their nearly and comments about CSICOP's early equally successful. universal error in assuming that the Atlantis described by Plato was a "per- fect society." So, the argument goes, Diagnosing the Atlantis wouldn't it be wonderful if such a soci- ety actually existed, especially at a time- Syndrome so deeply embedded in antiquity? The assumption behind this question is a KEN FEDER clear indication that, though they may The Atlantis Syndrome. By Paul Jordan. Sutton Publishing, be mightily interested in Atlantis, they Thrupp, United Kingdom, 2001. ISBN 0-7509-2597-3. have not availed themselves of the 308 pages. Hardcover, $29.95. works in which Atlantis was introduced to the world; the Timaeus and, espe- cially, the Critias dialogues of Plato. Jordan, of course, summarizes the s can be seen in the Skeptic- Triangle, it buries it in a way that leaves Atlantean dialogues, but he does much Annotated Bibliography (www. the rational reader concluding: "Case more than merely disabuse actual and .csicop.org/bibliography/home. closed!" In this same category I would A potential Atlantisologists of their cgi), plenty of terrific books have been place Joe Nickell's Inquest on the Shroud notions of Atlantean perfection published in which a skeptical approach of Turin (1987) and James Randi s The (ancient Athens, not Atlantis, is the is applied to a particular paranormal Mask of Nostradamus (1993). These are model society in Critias, exemplifying claim or "alternative" perspective of not simply wonderful and useful books; the workings of a perfect polity as human history. These works are all quite they represent what amounts to the detailed in The Republic). Jordan per- useful and a few of them even rise to the "final word" on their respective topics. forms the vital task of placing the level of "definitive statement" on a par- Now, thanks to author Paul Jordan, I Critias dialogue in historical and philo- ticular topic. In my own personal pan- need to make room on my bookshelf for sophical context. Jordan makes Plato's theon of quintessential skepticism, I another such definitive work. purpose clear, and it is not in conveying reserve a place for Lawrence Kusche's To be sure, there are many valuable a true history of the world. The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved books on the topic of the lost continent (1995). That work does not simply of Atlantis. Skeptics interested in Too often, diose who present alterna- debunk the myth of the Bermuda Atlantis arc obliged to seek out L.
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