Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

A web column by Chris Mooney.

• The Next Big Storm: Can Scientists and Journalists Work Together to Improve Coverage of the Hurricane-Global Warming Controversy?
  
  
• Welcome to Science Court
  The ruling in the Dover evolution trial shows what the legal and scientific processes have in common--intellectual rigor
  
  
• Upping the Anti
  Tom Bethell takes the modern political right's "war on science" to a whole new level.
  
  
• Abductive Reasoning
  In her brilliant first book, Susan Clancy successfully explains how normal Americans--who are neither psychotic nor fabricators--can nevertheless devoutly believe they were kidnapped by aliens.
  
  
• Science Wars II
  Where does the debate now stand over science and the Bush administration?
  
  
• Less than Miraculous
  If there's a silver lining to the recent widespread promotion of the paranormal on television, its that some of these shows are downright embarrassing--and many audiences are smart enough to know it.
  
  
• Out of Balance
  Even with respect to extraordinary and absurd claims, ABC and Peter Jennings listen to "both sides."
  
  
• Bad Science, Bad Fiction
  In Michael Crichton's work, the two are intimately connected.
  NOTE: ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS

• State Your Case
  Anti-evolutionist activism, inspired and rejuvenated by the Intelligent Design movement, is spreading across the country. Get ready for lawsuits.

• Déjà vu All Over Again
  How did the Intelligent Design movement publish in a peer reviewed biology journal? A similar--and notorious--story from climate science sheds light on the question.

• IDing ID
  Is "Intelligent Design" theory really "Creation Science" version 2.0? Not exactly, but the parallels are certainly suggestive.

• Wake Up Call
  Leading scientists say climate change must finally receive the attention it deserves. True skeptics should agree with them.

• Learning from Nonsense?
  Hollywood's new disaster blockbuster, The Day After Tomorrow, presents climate change cataclysms that no respected scientist considers realistic. But can the hoopla surrounding the film actually educate about the real global warming issue?

• Don't Listen to Those Pesky Scientists
  Why science adviser John Marburger's defense of the Bush administration's science policies fails.

• The New Science Wars
  Is George W. Bush's the most anti-science administration in modern times?

• It Just Takes One
  How an advertisement for Intelligent Design theory made its way into the Harvard Law Review.

• The Politics of Peer Review
  Expert review of scientific information is usually a good thing. But as a recent White House proposal to expand peer review of government regulatory science shows, there are big exceptions.

• Abuses of Skepticism
  Doubting is a powerful tool, but it can definitely be taken too far.

• Not Too "Bright"
  Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett are smart guys, but their campaign to rename religious unbelievers "brights" could use some rethinking.

• Polling for ID
  The latest pro-Intelligent Design Zogby poll is just one in a series of questionable surveys.

• King of the Paranormal
  What's up with the Larry King Show's outrageous promotion of UFOs, psychics, and spiritualists?

• Exonerating the Friedmans
  Skeptics of hypnosis and "recovered memory therapy" will know that Arnold and Jesse Friedman were probably innocent. So did the documentary filmmaker who captured their story: He just decided not to say it.

• Creationist U.
  Anti-evolutionists have just won two important victories on American university campuses - one legal, one in public relations.

• The Skeptic's Message Lab
  Some thoughts on new ways to critique alternative medicine.

• Dini is Served
  A spat at Texas Tech provides a new wrinkle on Darwinism and science education.

• Happy Old Year
  When it comes to the media's human cloning coverage, we're still in 1997.

• Conversion Fantasies
  In paranormalist fiction, the "skeptic" character always comes around in the end.

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Skeptics
  Why doubters should celebrate J.K. Rowling's tales of magic and wizardry.

Feedback | Reverse links for this page | Translate this page