Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Volume 26, Number 6, November/December 2002

• Buy this back issue
• Politicizing the Virgin Mary: The Instance of the Madonna of Medjugorje
• A Presentation Without Arguments: Dembski Disappoints
• Investigative Files: Psychic Pets and Pet Psychics
• Book Review: The Skeptical Environmentalist

Articles

Politicizing the Virgin Mary: The Instance of the Madonna of Medjugorje

Apparently individual experiences of the paranormal can, on some occasions, be shown to arise largely out of the broadest social forces, including even those that result in cross-national warfare.
Raymond A. Eve

Hypothesis Testing and the Nature of Skeptical Investigations

Testing hypotheses is the fundamental activity of scientists and skeptics. Now, a debate within the scientific community may be about to radically change the way we think about and conduct tests in the sciences.
Massimo Pigliucci

A Presentation Without Arguments: Dembski Disappoints

William Dembski is a prominent advocate for Intelligent Design (ID). In his presentation to the Fourth World Skeptics Conference in Burbank, California, he avoided discussing the substance of the controversy, thus laying bare the futility of ID wherein specious rationalization substitutes for evidence.
Mark Perakh

Hugo Gernsback, Skeptical Crusader

Throughout the 1920s and 1930s magazine publisher and "father of science fiction" Hugo Gernsback used his popular publications to fight a one-man war against pseudoscience. Virtually every issue of magazines such as Science & Invention contained debunking articles, tests on claims for psychic abilities and extraordinary medical devices, and offers of substantial cash awards to anyone who performs a successful demonstration.
Ron Miller

Alternative Medicine and Pseudoscience
Comments of a Biophysicist

Many claims of alternative medicine practitioners and paranormal investigators are at odds with scientific knowledge. A biophysicist deals with the biophysical aspects of these claims, some widely known, some specific to the Czech Republic.
Vojtevch Mornstein

Are Skeptics Cynical?
Popular Misunderstandings of Skeptics

Many people seem to confuse cynicism with skepticism, and believe that critical thinking results in a negative attitude about life. However, this opinion rests on a number of mistaken assumptions about the nature of skepticism. Skeptics must correct these misconceptions if they hope for the wider application of critical thinking.
Phil Mole

Columns

Editor’s Note:

Statistical Self-Deceptions, and When History Isn’t

News and Comment

• Washington Post Commemoration of 1952 UFO Sighting Omits Telling Details
• Microanalytical Great, Walter C. McCrone, Dies
• Anti-Gravity Shield Rises Again, and the Zero-Point Fringe
• Psychics Wrong About Chandra Levy
• Houdini Reappears
• Martin Gardner Donates Book Collection to Center for Inquiry Library

Investigative Files

Psychic Pets and Pet Psychics
Joe Nickell

Psychic Vibrations

The X-Planet: The Truth is Nowhere in Sight
Robert Sheaffer

Notes on a Strange World

The Search for Margery
Massimo Polidoro

New Books, Etc.

Science Best Sellers

Forum

• Unintelligent Design
  Paul Giles
• It’s a Good Thing Cows Can’t Fly in Mobile
  Ralph Estling

Follow-Up

• Econometric Modeling, Guns, and Murder Statistics
  John R. Lott, Jr. (Reply by Ted Goertzel)
• Response to "The High Cost of Skepticism"
  Stanley Berent (Reply by Carol Tavris)
• Richard Wiseman Replies to Gary Schwartz
  Richard Wiseman

Letters to the Editor

Book Reviews

The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World
By Bjorn Lomborg
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Richard M. Fisher

K.I.S.S. Guide to the Unexplained
By Joel Levy
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Benjamin Radford