The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
The mission of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims.
Now Online: Skeptical Inquirer Volume 37.1
January/February 2013
Selected articles by:
Latest Articles
Bashing the BMI: A Closer Look at the Skeptics
by Ben Radford
Special Articles
December 31, 2012
Why such hate for an otherwise boring, uncontroversial medical formula?
States of Mind: Some Perceived ET Encounters
by Joe Nickell
Skeptical Inquirer · Investigative Files · Volume 36.6
Together, as we shall see, these cases illustrate that UFOlogy continues its long tradition of mystery mongering and the implicit reliance on a logical fallacy called “arguing from ignorance”: “We don’t know what was seen in the sky; therefore, it must have been an extraterrestrial craft.”
Curse That Painting!
by Massimo Polidoro
Skeptical Inquirer · Notes on a Strange World · Volume 36.6
Paranormal legends about paintings have always existed. Some think that a picture falling off the wall represents a bad omen for the person depicted or photographed in it. Others feel watched by some portraits whose eyes seem to follow onlookers as they move through a room. And still others claim that paintings can come alive...
How to Get Something from Nothing
by Mark Alford
Skeptical Inquirer · Book Review · Volume 36.6
A review of A Universe from Nothing by Lawrence M. Krauss.
A Book of Stories that Happened to a Friend ...
by Ben Radford
Skeptical Inquirer · Book Review · Volume 36.6
A review of Encyclopedia of Urban Legends: Updated and Expanded Edition by Jan Harold Brunvand.
Ghosts at a Shaker Village
by Joe Nickell
Skeptical Briefs · Investigative Files · Volume 22.2
In 1774 a “visionary” named Ann Lee—as charismatic as she was uneducated—sailed from Manchester, England, to New York to spread her new faith. In time “Mother Ann’s” United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming would found nineteen utopian communal villages.
