Skeptic's Newsline

Experts Offer Evaluation of Doomsday Prophecies and Millennial Cults

In an article in the Jan/Feb issue of Skeptical Inquirer, he describes secular, New Age and religious Armageddon prophecies ranging from global economic collapse to UFO religions. "When apocalyptic faith is intermingled with ideology, it can have deleterious social, political, and military consequences" writes Kurtz. "It is at this point that all those committed to skeptical inquiry have an obligation to carefully examine those claims being made about our collective future." Kurtz is founding chair of CSICOP, the author or editor of thirty books, and a professor emeritus of philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

In the same issue of Skeptical Inquirer, biblical scholar Gerald Larue traces the social and historical evolution of the beliefs that lie behind end-time theology. "Apocalyptic literature has special appeal when society is permeated with social pressures, intellectual conflicts, and frustration," writes Larue, a professor emeritus at the University of Southern California. He describes millennialism as a failure of nerve and the abandoning of hope in human potential to resolve social and ecological problems.

Physicians and Scientists Gather in Philadelphia in February to Evaluate Alternative Medicine

These are some of the questions that will be posed as physicians and scientists from across the U.S., Canada, and Europe gather at the CSICOP co-sponsored conference "Science Meets Alternative Medicine", February 26-28, in Philadelphia, PA. Keynote speeches will include George Lundberg and NEJM executive editor Marcia Angell. Highlighted will be the newly launched Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, the only peer-reviewed science journal to focus exclusively on alternative medicine.

Pseudoscience Floods Russia, Thirty-Two Russian Scientists Respond

In an article in the Jan/Feb issue of Skeptical Inquirer, Sergei Kapitza, vice-president of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, raises alarm at Russian popular belief in cold fusion, shamanism and black magic. The former editor of the Russian edition of Scientific American, Kapitza explains Russia's decline as a possible result of a "global intellectual crisis, through which European civilization is now passing."

Following Kapitza's article, Skeptical Inquirer re-publishes a statement by prominent members of the Russian Academy of Sciences. "We, representatives of many sciences and disciplines--astronomers, physicists, chemists, biologists, philosophers, lawyers, psychologists--are concerned by the widespread growth of astrology, alternative medicine, palmistry, numerology, and mystic pseudoscience in Russia and other countries of the world...."

Silicon Valley CEO's Alien Encounter Typical of a Waking Dream, Says CSICOP Researcher. Cites Majestic Twelve Documents as Forgeries and Roswell Incident as a Crashed Government Spy Balloon

"Firmage's encounter with an alien while laying in bed is typical of what is known as a waking dream," says CSICOP Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell. "Often people see visions of ghosts, aliens and demons when really they're experiencing a very vivid dream."

Nickell, a well-known forensic writer and document investigator, also says that Firmage has been misled by the Majestic Twelve documents. "It's all part of American mythology. The documents have been shown to be forgeries, just like evidence reveals that the alleged alien crash at Roswell was nothing more than the debris of a government spy balloon."

Many of these claims and topics have been covered in past articles in Skeptical Inquirer, a fact duly noted by Nickell. "Firmage could save himself some time and money by reading our magazine."

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