Randi on Vaccinations | Miracle Tableau | UFO ‘Disclosure’ | FTC Tackles Homeopathy the Magazine for Science and Reason Vol. 41 No. 2 | March/April 2017 THE SELFISH GENE REVISITED RICHARD DAWKINS WHY SKEPTICISM? Ronald A. Lindsay WHY WE BELIEVE —LONG AFTER WE SHOULDN’T Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson GOD’S OWN MEDICINE Paul A. Offit SHOULDN’T SKEPTICS KNOW WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT? Massimo Pigliucci CSICON 2016 LAS VEGAS: A SPECIAL SECTION INTRODUCTORY PRICE U.S. and Canada $5.99 Published by the Center for Inquiry in association with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry a program of the Robyn E. Blumner, President and CEO Massimo Polidoro, Research Fellow Bar ry Karr, Ex ec u tive Di rect or Benjamin Radford, Research Fellow Joe Nickell, Senior Research Fellow Richard Wiseman, Research Fellow www.csicop.org Fellows James E. Al cock*, psy chol o gist, York Univ., Tor on to Mur ray Gell-Mann, pro fes sor of phys ics, San ta Fe In sti tute; Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA Mar cia An gell, MD, former edi tor-in-chief, No bel lau re ate Lor en Pan kratz, psy chol o gist, Or e gon Health New Eng land Jour nal of Med i cine Thom as Gi lov ich, psy chol o gist, Cor nell Univ. Sci en ces Univ. Kimball Atwood IV, MD, physician; author; Newton, MA David H. Gorski, cancer surgeon and researcher at Barbara Robert L. Park, professor of physics, Univ. of Maryland Steph en Bar rett, MD, psy chi a trist; au thor; con sum er ad vo cate, Ann Kar manos Cancer Institute and chief of breast surgery Jay M. Pasachoff, Field Memorial Professor of Al len town, PA section, Wayne State University School of Medicine. Astronomy and director of the Hopkins Willem Betz, MD, professor of medicine, Univ. of Brussels Wendy M. Grossman, writer; founder and first editor, Observatory, Williams College Ir ving Bie der man, psy chol o gist, Univ. of South ern CA The Skeptic magazine (UK) John Pau los, math e ma ti cian, Tem ple Univ. Sus an Black more, vis it ing lec tur er, Univ. of the West of Sus an Haack, Coop er Sen ior Schol ar in Arts and Clifford A. Pickover, scientist, author, editor, IBM T.J. Watson Eng land, Bris tol Sci en ces, professor of phi los o phy and professor Re search Center. Sandra Blakeslee, science writer; author; New York Times of Law, Univ. of Mi ami Massimo Pigliucci, professor of philosophy, science correspondent Harriet Hall*, MD, physician; investigator, Puyallup, WA City Univ. of New York–Lehman College Mark Boslough, physicist, Sandia National Laboratories, David J. Helfand, professor of astronomy, Stev en Pink er, cog ni tive sci en tist, Harvard Univ. Albuquerque, NM Columbia Univ. Mas si mo Pol id oro, sci ence writer; au thor; ex ec u tive Hen ri Broch, physi cist, Univ. of Nice, France Terence M. Hines, prof. of psychology, Pace Univ., di rect or of CI CAP, It a ly Pleasantville, NY Jan Har old Brun vand, folk lor ist; pro fes sor emer i tus James L. Powell, geochemist, author, professor; executive direc- of Eng lish, Univ. of Utah Doug las R. Hof stad ter, pro fes sor of hu man tor, National Physical Science Consortium; retired college and un der stand ing and cog ni tive sci ence, In di ana Univ. Mar io Bunge, phi los o pher, McGill Univ., Montreal museum president, Buellton, CA Ger ald Hol ton, Mal linc krodt Pro fes sor of Phys ics and pro fes sor Anthony R. Pratkanis, professor of psychology, Univ. of CA, Robert T. Carroll, emeritus professor of philosophy, of his to ry of sci ence, Har vard Univ. Sacramento City College; writer Santa Cruz Sean B. Carroll, molecular geneticist; vice president for science Ray Hy man*, psy chol o gist, Univ. of Or e gon Donald R. Prothero, paleontologist/geologist, Natural History education, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Madison, WI Stuart D. Jordan, NASA astrophysicist emeritus; Museum of Los Angeles County, Los Angeles, CA Thomas R. Casten, energy expert; founder o, Recycled Energy science advisor to Center for Inquiry Office of Public Benjamin Radford, investigator; research fellow, Committee Development, Westmont, IL Policy, Washington, DC for Skeptical Inquiry John R. Cole, an thro pol o gist; ed i tor, Na tion al Barry Karr, executive director, Committee for James “The Amazing” Randi, magician; CSICOP founding Cen ter for Sci ence Ed u ca tion Skeptical Inquiry, Amherst, NY member; founder, James Randi Educational Foundation K.C. Cole, science writer; author; professor, Univ. of Southern Law rence M. Krauss, foundation professor, School Mil ton Ro sen berg, psy chol o gist, Univ. of Chic a go California’s Annenberg School of Journalism of Earth and Space Exploration and Physics Dept.; Am ar deo Sar ma*, chairman, GWUP, Germa ny John Cook, climate communication research fellow for director, Origins Initiative, Arizona State Univ. Richard Saunders, president, Australian Skeptics; educator; the Global Change Institute at the Univ. of Queensland, Ed win C. Krupp, as tron o mer; di rect or, investigator; podcaster; Sydney, Australia Australia. Grif fith Ob ser va to ry, Los Angeles, CA Joe Schwarcz, director, McGill Office for Science and Society Fred er ick Crews, lit er ary and cul tur al crit ic; pro fes sor emer i tus Law rence Kusche, sci ence writer Eu ge nie C. Scott*, phys i cal an thro pol o gist; chair, advisory of Eng lish, Univ. of CA, Berke ley Le on Le der man, emer i tus di rect or, Fer mi lab; council , Na tion al Cen ter for Sci ence Ed u ca tion Rich ard Dawk ins, zo ol o gist, Ox ford Univ. No bel lau re ate in phys ics Rob ert Sheaf fer, sci ence writer Ge of frey Dean, tech ni cal ed i tor, Perth, Aus tral ia Stephan Lewandowsky, psychologist, School of Experimental Seth Shostak, senior astronomer, SETI Institute, Mountain View, CA Cor nel is de Ja ger, pro fes sor of as tro phys ics, Univ. of Utrecht, Psychology and Cabot Institute, Univ. of Bristol, UK the Neth er lands Scott O. Lil i en feld*, psy chol o gist, Emory Univ., Atlanta, GA Simon Singh, science writer; broadcaster; UK Dan i el C. Den nett, Aus tin B. Fletch er Pro fes sor of Phi los o phy Lin Zix in, former ed i tor, Sci ence and Tech nol o gy Dai ly (Chi na) Dick Smith, entrepreneur, publisher, aviator, adventurer, Terrey Hills, N.S.W., Australia and di rect or of Cen ter for Cog ni tive Stud ies, Tufts Uni v. Je re Lipps, Mu se um of Pa le on tol o gy, Univ. of CA, Berke ley Keith E. Stanovich, cognitive psychologist; professor of Ann Druyan, writer and producer; CEO, Cosmos Studios, Eliz a beth Loft us*, profes sor of psychol o gy, Univ. of CA, Irvine human development and applied psychology, Uni v. of Ithaca, NY Daniel Loxton, author, editor of Junior Skeptic at Skeptic maga- Toronto Sanal Edamaruku, president, Indian Rationalist zine (US), artist, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Karen Stollznow*, linguist; skeptical investigator; writer; Association and Rationalist International Da vid Marks, psy chol o gist, City Univ., Lon don podcaster Edzard Ernst, professor, Complementary Medicine, Peninsula Mar io Men dez-Acos ta, jour nal ist and sci ence writer, Mex i co City Jill Cor nell Tar ter, as tron o mer, SE TI In sti tute, Moun tain View, CA Medical School, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, Car ol Tav ris, psychol o gist and author, Los Angeles, CA Exeter, UK Kenneth R. Miller, professor of biology, Brown Univ. Da vid Mor ri son, space sci en tist, NA SA Ames Re search Cen ter Da vid E. Thom as*, phys i cist and math e ma ti cian, Socorro, NM Ken neth Fed er, pro fes sor of an thro pol o gy, Cen tral Con nec ti cut State Univ. Rich ard A. Mul ler, pro fes sor of phys ics, Univ. of CA, Berke ley Neil de Gras se Ty son, as tro phys i cist and di rect or, Hay den Plan e tar i um, New York City Krista Federspiel, science journalist, expert on complementary Joe Nick ell, sen ior re search fel low, CSI and alternative medicine, Vienna, Austria. Jan Willem Nienhuys, mathematician, Waalre, Indre Viskontas, cognitive neuroscientist, TV and podcast host, Barbara Forrest, professor of philosophy, SE Louisiana Univ. The Netherlands and opera singer, San Francisco, CA An drew Fra knoi, as tron o mer, Foot hill Col lege, Los Al tos Hills, CA Lee Nis bet, phi los o pher, Med aille Col lege Stuart Vyse, psychologist, former Joanne Toor Cummings ’50 professor of psychology, Connecticut College; author Kend rick Fra zi er*, sci ence writer; ed i tor, Skep ti cal In quir er Steven Novella*, MD, assistant professor of neurology, Yale Univ. School of Medicine of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition Christopher C. French, professor, Department Bill Nye, sci ence ed u ca tor and tel e vi sion host, Nye Labs Ma ri lyn vos Sa vant, Pa rade mag a zine con trib ut ing ed i tor of Psychology, and head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit, Goldsmiths College, Univ. of London James E. Oberg, sci ence writer Stev en Wein berg, pro fes sor of phys ics and as tron o my, Univ. of Julia Galef, host of the Rationally Speaking podcast; Irm gard Oe pen, pro fes sor of med i cine (re tired), Tex as at Aus tin; No bel lau re ate cofounder, Center for Applied Rationality, Berkeley, CA Mar burg, Ger ma ny E.O.