SKEPTICISM . SCIENCE . SOCIETY Vol. 34, No 1. March 2014 Religion versus Real Medicine +Simon Says Dolphins Activism Belief Australian Skeptics . www.skeptics.com.au Skeptic_Cover_Mar14.indd 1 4/03/14 10:39 AM The Skeptic March 14 Skeptical Groups in Australia Australian Skeptics Inc – Richard Saunders Gold Coast Skeptics – Lilian Derrick www.skeptics.com.au PO Box 8348, GCMC Bundall, QLD 9726 PO Box 20, Beecroft, NSW 2119 Tel: (07) 5593 1882; Fax: (07) 5593 2776 Tel: 02 8094 1894; Mob: 0432 713 195; Fax: (02) 8088 4735 [email protected] [email protected] Contact Lilian to find out news of more events. Sydney Skeptics in the Pub – 6pm first Thursday of each month at the Mezz Bar, Coronation Hotel, Park St in the city (meeting upstairs) Canberra Skeptics – Lauren Cochrane PO Box 555, Civic Square ACT 2608 Dinner meetings are held on a regular basis. http://www.canberraskeptics.org.au Tel: 0408 430 442 March 29 dinner - Ketan Joshi, Technophobia [email protected] (general inquiries), 2014 convention - November 28-30. Details and speakers tba. [email protected] (Canberra Skeptics in the Pub). A free monthly talk, open to the public, usually takes place on the 1st Saturday of each month at the Lecture Theatre, Hunter Skeptics – John Turner CSIRO Discovery Centre, Clunies Ross Rd (check website for Tel: (02) 4959 6286 [email protected] details of the current month’s talk). Skeptics in the Pub gather at 1pm on the third Sunday of each month at King O’Malleys Meetings are held upstairs at The Cricketers Arms Hotel, Cooks Pub in Civic. For up-to-date details : www.meetup.com/ Hill (Newcastle) on the first Monday of each month, excepting SocialSkepticsCanberra/ January, commencing 7.00pm, with a guest speaker or open discussion on a given topic. Visitors welcome. Further information from the secretary at: [email protected] Skeptics SA – Laurie Eddie 52B Miller St Unley, SA 5061 Tel: (08) 8272 5881 [email protected] Australian Skeptics (Vic) Inc – Chris Guest GPO Box 5166, Melbourne VIC 3001 Thinking and Drinking - Skeptics in the Pub, on the third Friday Tel: 1 800 666 996 [email protected] of every month. Contact [email protected] www.meetup.com/Thinking-and-Drinking-Skeptics-in-the-Pub/ Skeptics’ Café – Third Monday of every month, with guest calendar/10205558 or http://tinyurl.com/loqdrt speaker. La Notte, 140 Lygon St. Meal from 6pm, speaker at 8pm sharp. More details on our web site www.skeptics.com.au/vic WA Skeptics – Dr John Happs PO Box 466, Subiaco, WA 6904 Tel: (08) 9448 8458 [email protected] Borderline Skeptics Inc – Russell Kelly All meetings start at 7:30 pm at Grace Vaughan House, PO Box 666, Mitta Mitta, Victoria 3701 227 Stubbs Terrace, Shenton Park Tel: (02) 6072 3632 [email protected] Further details of all our meetings and speakers are on our Meetings are held quarterly on second Tuesday at Albury/ website at www.undeceivingourselves.org Wodonga on pre-announced dates and venues. Australian Skeptics in Tasmania – Leyon Parker Queensland Skeptics Association Inc – Bob Bruce PO Box 582, North Hobart TAS 7002 PO Box 3480, Norman Park QLD 4170 Tel: 03 6225 3988 BH, 0418 128713 [email protected] Tel: (07) 3255 0499 Mob: 0419 778 308 [email protected] Skeptics in the Pub - 2nd Monday each month, Meetings with a guest speaker on the last Monday of the month 6.30pm, Ball & Chain restaurant, Salamanca Place from February to November at the Redbrick Hotel, 81 Annerley Road, South Brisbane. Dinner from 6pm, speaker at 7.30pm. Qskeptics eGroup - www.egroups.com/list/qskeptics Darwin Skeptics – Brian de Kretser Skepticamp Brisbane planned for July 2014 - watch for details. Tel: (08) 8927 4533 [email protected] Volume 34 • No 1 March 14 Contents REPORTS 8 The secret Skeptics 7 Tim Mendham Skepticism in the UK 8 Chris French 9 School 4 thinking 9 7 Krissy Wilson FEATURES 20 In God we trust 12 Harriet Hall Bending the rules 18 Peter Bowditch 12 States of exemption 20 Tim Mendham ARTICLES 24 Birth of a notion 23 34 French, Kruszelnicki, Hrab Chiropractors Singed 24 Martin Hadley The numbers racket 28 Steve Roberts 28 Taking it to the e 30 Amanda Devaus The mystery tour 33 38 Wanderlust & Tim Mendham 42 Need to believe 34 Paul Berchtold Rush to judgement 38 Brett Christian The dolphin delusion 42 Tim Harding Look into my eyes 48 48 Kevin M McConkey REGULARS 46 Editorial 4 Around the Traps 5 Them! 10 Puzzles page 17 53 The logical place 29 Astrology 41 What goes around 46 Book reviews 53 Letters 59 EDITORIAL From the Editor Get the picture? here are a number of articles in and the acceptance by the public of this edition of The Skeptic which simplistic pseudoscience and marketing T impinge on an issue I have been claims in the face of truth-sayers being mulling over for some time. And this too cautious or scared to respond. is the ‘bigger picture’ of skepticism Ultimately, it leads to a despair of ISSN 0726-9897 when dealing with pseudoscience and getting the skeptical message across and Quarterly Journal of the paranormal. people then moving into areas that offer Australian Skeptics Inc It’s one thing to investigate the a faster payoff and higher profile issues (ABN 90 613 095 379) claims regarding specific issues – these (environment, politics, etc). Editor are important and interesting areas The sort of discussion of “why people Tim Mendham to cover. Sightings of the Loch Ness believe weird things” is getting there, monster, the testimonies of alien but an even broader topic is “what Editorial Board abductees, and the spurious claims happens to the world when people Steve Roberts made by the alt-med and anti-vax believe weird things”. Eran Segev crowds are the sorts of areas that are What happens is that we have Martin Hadley the staple of skeptical discussion, creationists in parliament influencing Barry Williams whether over a beer at the pub or political decisions that affect all of Design Services online via Facebook or Twitter. us. We have medical authorities such Nova Consulting P/L There is absolutely nothing wrong as the NHMRC tying up valuable with doing this, and it is vitally time and money because they’ve been All correspondence to: important that we do so to continue asked to assess - yet again - totally Australian Skeptics Inc the education of the public, the unsupported medical practices PO Box 20 media and those who are new to the (homeopathy, reflexology, etc). We Beecroft NSW 2119 field and who might not be aware of have schools teaching non-science Australia the actual facts and the skeptical view. and nonsense in science classes in the But the ‘bigger picture’ is what name of inclusiveness. And we have Contact details affects all of us. a population so lacking in critical Tel: +61 (0)2 8094 1894 We can have much coverage of thinking, as exemplified by their belief Mob: +61 (0)432 713 195 “the lies of anti-vaccination” and not in weird things, that they will be Fax: +61 (0)2 8088 4735 enough on what it all means in the incapable of assessing the claims of any [email protected] bigger picture. In the Simon Singh marketer, lobbyist, abuser of statistics, www.skeptics.com.au case, where he was taken to court merchant over comments on chiropractic, that of doom or politicians. The Skeptic is published four times means anti-science and distrust of Anyone for a march on parliament? per year by Australian Skeptics Inc. science; the legal measures used by . Views and opinions expressed in articles pseudoscientists to maintain their and letters in The Skeptic are those of position; what it means to skeptical - Tim Mendham, editor the authors, and are not necessarily campaigners like Ken Harvey; those of Australian Skeptics Inc. Articles may be reprinted with permission and with due acknowledge- A Correction: Before any brickbats are thrown our way, let us own up to a terrible ment to The Skeptic. way to treat an American university – we moved it. The uni in question is the one where All effort is made to ensure correct Pamela Gay works, Southern Illinois University, which we placed in Edmondsville acknowledgement of all contributions. (page 23 of the last issue). Unfortunately, the campus where Dr Gay works is actually We are happy to update credit when so in Edwardsville. We don’t even know if there is a town called Edmondsville in Illinois, informed. so we may have thrown Pamela into a black hole, which may be familiar territory to an astronomer. She kindly says that “Screwing up the name of my university is a long and Editorial submission deadline honourable tradition. You found a novel way to rename us, so you get points for that.” So for the next issue: there we are; shame-faced, but apparently earning points. And our apologies to the citizens May 1, 2014 of Edmondsville, wherever you are. 4 NEWS The Skeptic March 14 Around the traps ... SYDNEY 2014 Marron wins Order of Australia 30TH SKEPTICS AUSTRALIA: Loretta Marron, Her activities have resulted in the NATIONAL three-time winner of Australian withdrawal of many pseudoscientific Skeptics’ Skeptic of the Year award, has products from the market and from CONVENTION been granted a 2014 Medal (OAM) the Australian Register of Therapeutic in the General Division of the Order Goods, and highlighted many November 28-30 of Australia “for service to community dangerous practices in both private ‘care’ health”.