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Home , Alan Hale (astronomer), Kendrick Frazier

SECOND WORLD SKEPTICS CONGRESS

Science and , Foibles and Fallacies, and Doomsdays Heidelberg Conference attracts 300 delegates from 23 countries

KENDRICK FRAZIER

n the twenty-two years since its beginning, the modern skeptical Imovement has gone from an idea in the minds of philosopher and a handful of concerned colleagues to a widely recognized international network o f organizations. Ninety-two skeptics organizations in thirty-three countries now examine claims, explore the boundaries between and , and consider social, philosophical, and educational issues involving science and the public. In the 1980s the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP)—which started it all—began holding conferences about every eighteen months in cities and aca- demic settings around the United States. Heidelberg, site of the Second World Skeptics Congress. In 19%, CSICOP celebrated its twenti- eth anniversary with the first World It was sponsored by CSICOP and medicine, the problems of memory, the Skeptics Congress at the place of its co-sponsored by the European Council paranormal and in China. founding, the State University of New o f Skeptical Organizations and the And there were some case studies— York at Buffalo (SI, September/October, German skeptical organization GWUP reports of investigations into such mat- 1996). (Gesellschaft zur wissdshafilichen ters as dowsing, the Shroud of Turin, The Second World Skeptics Untersuchung von Parawissenshaften). and "bio-energetic products." There was Congress. July 23-26, 1998. in the pic- With the dawn of new millennium also a workshop for skeptics. turesque city of Heidelberg, Germany, looming, the conference theme, And—as is not always the case at was the most cosmopolitan ever. The "Armageddon and the Prophets of these session-packed conferences—there sessions took place in a modern lecture Doomsday" served as a convenient was some time for socializing. The tradi- hall at the ancient and historic springboard to a wide range of topics in tional conference banquet was replaced University of Heidelberg (founded in and out of science. Millennium prophe- by an informal evening on a double-deck 1386). The congress featured three and cies, natural disasters, and environmen- boat sailing up the river Neckar, culmi- a half days of sessions, most in English, tal concerns were at the core, but there nating in illuminations of high-perched some in German, with more than 300 was ample time to consider antiscience castles and a magnificent fireworks show, registrants from twenty-three countries. and the postmodernists, alternative the sounds echoing off the canyon walls.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 1998 5 Grossman, author of the recent book net. wars. "Who knows? The most informed technical minds believe that the chances are that at least some things will fail.") There was lots of real science. Alan Hale, co-discoverer of Hale-Bopp, the largest and most dramatic comet in decades, discussed the scientific significance and popular lore of and gave a personal account of his discovery. He then lambasted the combination Paul Kurtz Amardeo Sarma. convenor of the German skep- of scientific illiteracy, willful delusions, a tical organization GWUP and a member of the CSICOP Executive Council, was honored by "As wc approach the year 2000 we radio talk-show's deceptions about an CSICOP at the end of the Second World Skeptics arc surrounded by prophets of doom imaginary spaceship supposedly accom- Congress with a "Special Citation for who predict that terrible disasters await panying the comet, and a 's bizarre Distinguished Contributions to the ." Sarma was recognized by the us," said CSICOP Chairman Paul Kurtz yearnings for ascending to another level Executive Council for his "outstanding dedica- in opening the congress. Wc have a nat- of existence that led to the Heaven's tion and effectiveness in furthering the cause of science, reason, and skepticism in Germany and ural yearning to know the future and a Gate mass suicides. worldwide." certain mixture of optimism and appre- Hale says that well before Heaven's hension about it. The trick, he empha- Gate, he had told a colleague, '"We are round "The Code is Evil." sized, is to apply the methods of scien- probably going to have some suicides as Giving import to such post-hoc data- tific inquiry in examining all claims, a result of this comet.' The sad part is mining procedures, Thomas noted including those about doomsdays and that I really was not surprised." wryly, is a double-edge sword. Thomas disasters, whether concerns arise from "Comets are lovely objects," he said, says he even found in War and Peace a secular, religious or New Age origins. "but they don't have apocalyptic signifi- "prediction" that Michael Jordan and If you think these science-minded cance. We must use our minds, our rea- the Chicago Bulls would win the 1998 skeptics would therefore automatically son." National Basketball Association title. pour cold water over every expectation Fellow scientist David (They did; sec News and Comment, this of disaster, you'd be wrong. The threat of E. Thomas gave an entertaining talk issue.) catastrophic comet and asteroid impacts about his debunking of the "Bible Code" "Either Tolstoy is the Supreme onto Earth was deemed real, global (SI, November/December, 1997). Using Creator of the Universe—or perhaps the warming was taken seriously, sudden cli- the same "equidistant-letter sequence" Bible Code is just an arcane mathemati- mate flip-flops were seen as a strong pos- methods that author Michael Drosnin cal technique that allows one to harvest sibility, and the Year 2000 problem with used in computer-searching the text of detailed hidden messages from any the world's computers was far from dis- the Hebrew Torah, Thomas showed how text." missed. ("Will the worst happen?" asked he could find similar "messages" in other science and writer Wendy literary works. Keynote speaker , the Drosnin had claimed that using his University of Washington psychologist methods, the words "Nazi" and "Hitler" and expert on the malleability of mem- appear linked in the Torah but not in ory, described a litany of new studies that Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. Thomas show, in her words, "the power of imag- found both in War and Peace. "I won't ination to make people believe that they call Drosnin a liar," said Thomas, "but have had experiences that they didn't here is a claim he made that is demon- have." As she summarized: "People have strably false." been led to remember nonexistent Using Drosnin's methods Thomas events from two weeks ago, from their also found that the King James version childhood, and even from the day after of Genesis contained such phrases as they were born. These findings fill in "The Code Is Bogus" and "Darwin Got our understanding of the rather flimsy It Right." Applying them to Drosnin's curtain that separates imagination and Alan Hale own book, The Bible Code, Thomas memory."

6 November/December 1998 Numerous other foibles, fallacies, the strict rules should not apply to used well-tuned humor to take on the falsehoods, and examples of false science ." absurdities of those who attach great were revealed and targeted in a variety of H e also gave an example of typical mystical significance to measurements presentations. "homeopathic logic": Its proponents o f the Great Pyramid. He had the audi- I n Europe, homeopathy has wide contend both that "proof is not possi- ence in stitches with his deadpan talk popular and political support, said ble" and that "proof is piling up." Said about the "meaningful" measurements Willem Betz, professor of medicine at Betz: "Never give an aura of science to he took in the corridors of his home. Brussels University and a national dele- nonsense." His home is in an astronomical observa- tory, a location, he said, "that may be- gate to a program in which fifteen Prominent Dutch astrophysicist very close to the cosmos and well recep- European countries collaborate to set Cornelis de Jager, a former president of tive to its incredible powers." rules for recognition of alternative med- the International Council of Scientific icine. Proponents of homeopathic med- Unions, one-time general secretary of Jean-Paul Krivine of the French icine "know quite well" that it "would the International Astronomical Union, Union Rationaliste described New Age be quite impossible to meet the criteria, and current chairman of the European and pseudoscientific practices used in so they offer countless arguments why Council of Skeptical Organizations, French companies. Many companies in

Anti-science Postmodernists Rhetoric Over Evidence

One of the liveliest sessions at the Second World Skeptics imum amount of confusion in a minimum number of words." Congress was "Anti-Science and Postmodernists," and Jean He said these critics insist they are not antiscientific and Bricmont was its central figure. Bricmont. professor of at argue, "We are scientists just like you." Yet they profess that sci- the University of Louvain, Belgium, is co-author with Alan Sokal entific theories are little different from socially constructed view- of Intellectual Impostures. Sokal is the American physicist whose points, opinions no better than any others. hoax paper satirizing the rhetorical excesses and scientific pre- Yet said Bricmont, it doesn't work to try to understand the- tensions of extreme postmodern criticisms of science was pub- ories and make judgments on whether belief in them is rational lished in the journal Social Text in 1996 without its editors real- or irrational "without regard to whether they're true or false." izing the article was a parody (see "Physicist Alan Sokal's Hilarious "That doesn't wort," he said. "You can't explain why people Hoax," SI, November/December 1996). come to believe in anything without discussing the evidence for it. Last year Sokal and Bricmont expanded on their argument in To explain the cause of belief, you have to consider maybe K is their book. Published in Paris, it raised a storm of controversy, because it is true or rational, that evidence supports it. Without because many (but not all) of the philosophers and social critics looking at the evidence, there is no way to understand" why sci- who are the subject of its criticisms are French. And the French entists support one theory over another. "If you look at it purely take their intellectuals very seriously. ("Americans don't have sociologically, you don't always see." famous intellectuals as the French have," he said; the crowd The panel on anti-science and postmodernism concluded moaned in reluctant agreement.) The book was published in with a lively question session discussing all these issues. One English for the first time this summer in London (sec page 58), audience member cautioned that this debate is not just acade- and an American edition is due out soon. mic. She told of similar antiscientific rhetoric that her daughter Bricmont says Sokal's 1996 article was like a Trojan horse was forced to study in her classroom. "I am concerned about the brought within the walls of cultural studies and science studies. damage being done to the average student." "His article was full of nonsense." Astrophysicist Evry Schatzman, a former president of the Bricmont said criticism of science is healthy but too many of French Physical Association, was a member of the panel. In the these "science studies" critics write without truly understanding discussion, he pointed out that in new astronomical science. They use scientific words and concepts they don't under- instruments regularly come into operation, and they "make new stand. "The editors did not understand Sokal's article." he said. discoveries almost every day." He echoed many scientists' antipa- "If they did understand it they would have known it was bull- thy toward the postmodernists' rhetoric and criticisms. "These shit. So how could their readers have understood? What were philosophical speculations are so much away from the way we their readers to learn?" [] work, that we are not interested in them." Bricmont showed the audience excerpts from some of the postmodernist writings on science, calling one example "a max- -K.F.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER November/December 1998 7 France are widely using nonrational and ried out of the experimental results. The workshop on critical thinking, they nonscientific methods such as graphol- results, he said, show the exact opposite emphasized how hard it is for us to see ogy and numerology. Graphology, he of what the proponents are claiming. through our own preconceptions. said, is used by most recruiting depart- Showing a plot of the scattered data on "Teaching people to think critically ments in France. a chart in which the dowsing propo- in their individual lives is hard," said In recent years the popular press has nents claim to see trends supporting Alcock. "The world is more likely to made frequent references to experiments dowsing abilities, Enright said: "It is give information that confirms our conducted by a university group from hard to imagine a set of data that repre- beliefs than not, because of the way we Munich (H. Wagner, H.-D. Betz, and sents a more convincing disproof of interpret information. others) that professed to find a core of dowsing. I challenge anyone here to "So if we believe in something, peo- skilled individuals who supposedly have show any difference between randomly ple's experiences will confirm il. unexplained success in dowsing. These generated data and the actual data." "All of us—myself included—hold so-called "Scheunen experiments" have Lest anyone think he or she is beliefs that are false. I'm sure I do. The been funded by the German govern- immune to the self-deception that goes problem is I don't know which ones." ment. They have given the impression into forming and holding to paranormal "Unless we try to use a logical, scien- that physicists have shown that dowsing unsupported beliefs of every sort, psy- tific approach, we will just compound is a real phenomenon. chologists (University of the errors our brains make." J.T. Enright of the Scripps Oregon) and James Alcock (York Institution of Oceanography reported University) would relieve you of that Kendrick Frazier is Editor of the on a thorough reexamination he has car- misperception. In their world congress SKEPTICAL INQUIRER.

Alternative Medicine, Impact Threats, Abrupt Climate Change, and Efficient Energy

MATT NISBET

World Skeptics Congress tus of philosophy at the State University 23 Countries at Convenes with Participants of New York at Buffalo and founding from Five Continents chairman of the Committee for the World Congress Scientific Investigation of Claims of the These were the countries repre- Here is a brief review of several of the ses- Paranormal (CSICOP), declared: sented at the World Skeptics sions at the World Skeptics Congress. More "Skeptics want to focus on inquiry, not Congress in Heidelberg: reports will appear in future issues. doubt. We simply insist that there be Austria Ireland sufficient evidence, rational coherence, Australia Italy At , on the bank or replicable experimental confirmation Belgium Japan of the Neckar River, some 300 skeptics, of claims and that hypotheses intro- Bulgaria Netherlands scientists, experts, and academics from duced undergo rigorous peer review and Brazil Norway North America, Europe, Australia, Asia, corroboration before they are accepted." Canada Russia and South America convened to discuss Leading medical researchers' com- China Slovak Republic ments on the perceived growth of alter- Czech Republic Spain and critically evaluate the latest claims Finland Switzerland of the paranormal and pseudoscience native medicine in North America and France United Kingdom and consider some crucial issues in real Europe highlighted half-day plenary ses- Germany United States science. sions on topics that included millennial Hungary Opening the World Skeptics doomsday predictions and a workshop Congress, Paul Kurtz, professor emcri- on critical thinking.

8 November/December 1998 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER