SI DIGEST 1-21-99

SkeptInq@aol.com
Thu, 21 Jan 1999 15:00:22 EST 

 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER ELECTRONIC DIGEST
 January 21, 1999

 SI Electronic Digest is the biweekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.) Visit
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 SINISBET@aol.com (716-636-1425 x219)

 CSICOP publishes the bimonthly SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, The Magazine for Science
and Reason.  The Jan/Feb 1999 issue features a Special Report on Armageddon
and the Prophets of Doomsday.

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 In this week's SIDIGEST:

 --SKEPTICS NEWS LINE 1-20-99
 --OPINION: Firing of JAMA Editor Wrong Decision
 --NBC "Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us", Feb. 17
 --More On York University and Chiropractic
 --CSICOP Visits Kansas State, Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield, IL
 --Joe Nickell Lecture and Master's Tea at Yale University

 SKEPTIC'S NEWS LINE 1-21-99

 January 21, 1999
 For Immediate Release

 Listed below are story ideas from the Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal(CSICOP), publisher of Skeptical
Inquirer magazine. If you wish to pursue any these story ideas, contact Matt
Nisbet at 716-636-1425 X 219 or SINISBET@aol.com.

 Experts Offer Evaluation of Doomsday Prophecies and Millennial Cults

 A range of claimants that include the Denver-based Concerned Christian cult,
UFO Armageddon watchers, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have begun to grab
headlines with prophecies of doom as hype and hysteria build towards the
arrival of the next millennium. Yet philosopher Paul Kurtz observes that the
year 2000 is nothing more than an arbitrary date peculiar to Western culture.

 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

 Alternative medicine has grown into a $16 billion dollar industry, and
physicians and health care managers are under increasing pressure from
patients to prescribe and provide a host of unproven alternative therapies.
What are the scientific critiques of such immensely popular therapies as
homeopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic and naturopathy? What are the ethical
issues involved as alternative therapy use and popularity grow? What are the
legal issues? How do we provide consumers with accurate information about
alternative therapies? What should the scientific community do in response?

 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

 With the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent profound economic
crisis, science in Russia is in a difficult state. The rampant social
disruption has been accompanied by a veritable flood of pseudoscience. The
rise of irrationality and decline of reason may also be part of a wider global
trend.

 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

 On January 9, USWeb founder and former CEO Joe Firmage resigned so he could
promote his claim that today's high-tech advancements are the product of alien
technology. Firmage bases much of his belief on a 1997 incident in which an
alien being appeared to him one morning while asleep in bed. His on-line alien
contact manifesto, http://www.thewordistruth.org, also cites as further
evidence the infamous "Majestic Twelve" documents ( including an alleged memo
from President Truman directing government efforts to investigate
extraterrestrials) and the supposed crash of an alien craft at Roswell, New
Mexico. According to news reports, Firmage has spent $3 million in his pursuit
of extraterrestrial notions.

 "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."

 --30--

 Founded in 1976, CSICOP is an international organization of scientists and
academics dedicated to the scientific evaluation of claims of the paranormal
and pseudoscience. CSICOP publishes the bi-monthly journal Skeptical Inquirer,
The Magazine for Science and Reason.
 __________________


 OPINION: FIRING OF JAMA EDITOR WRONG DECISION

 ____________


 NBC "CONFIRMATION: THE HARD EVIDENCE OF ALIENS AMONG US?"

 Wednesday, February 17 8PM EST
 Check your local listings.

 CSICOP Fellows Phil Klass and Joe Nickell will be featured in a two-hour NBC
special on UFOs and alien abductions.  Prompted by the Whitley Streiber book
of the same title, promos for the program highlight interviews with abduction
enthusiasts John Mack and Bud Hopkins, abduction re-enactments, and UFO
sighting cases.

 Let's hope NBC's treatment of the topic is critical and responsible.  Viewers
can post reviews on the Council for Media Integrity website at
http://www.csicop.org/cmi.

 For more on the show, go to: http://www.confirmation.net/confirmationnet.html

 ______________

 MORE ON YORK UNIVERSITY AND CHIROPRACTIC

 In the latest encroach of alternative medicine on campus, the Senate at York
University, the third largest university in Canada, has approved affiliation
with the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CCMC), potentially becoming
the first major university in the world to affiliate voluntarily with a
chiropractic college.

 Faculty members and scientists at York who oppose the affiliation have put
together a website.  Go to:  http://www.ndir.com/chiro

 CSICOP is helping to organize opposition to the affiliation.  Look for a
press release next week.

 The York decision, to be finalized this spring, raises alarm among science
faculty who question heavily the scientific integrity of chiropractic, the
lack of a legitimate research culture in the field, the effect on York's
reputation, and the potentially disastrous influence on the schools ability to
attract research monies and recruit top students and faculty.

 "Will the best science researchers come to York if we should be coloured as
'the chiro-university'?...Will we get the best students?" York physics
professor Michael DeRobertis asks in a recent article in Canada's Globe&Mail
newspaper.

 In a classic example of the culture of antiscience on university campuses,
the York Senate approved the affiliation over the objections of the Faculty of
Pure and Applied Science(FPAS.)  In debate before the Senate vote, many Senate
members spoke derisively of scientists and science.  Scientists were called
"narrow-minded," "biased," "grant-fixated" as well as "elitist and unable to
admit other ways of inquiry than their own."

 Here's the real kicker:  If the York Senate makes final approval this spring,
the science faculty will be given responsibility for teaching the new
chiropractic students.

 A full report on the matter by York University physics professor Michael
DeRobertis appears in a commentary article in the Fall/Winter 1998 issue of
the Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine.  Copies can be obtained by
calling Prometheus Books at 1800-421-0351.

 As DeRobertis points out at the conclusion of his article, if chiropractic is
granted worldwide legitimacy through affiliation with York University, can
other topics like astrology, aromatherapy, homeopathy, or naturopathy be far
behind?

 You can reach DeRobertis at: mmdr@yorku.ca, 416-736-2100 ext. 77761.

 IF YOU HAVE CONCERNS AND COMMENTS YOU CAN SEND THEM TO YORK UNIVERSITY.

 Phone, fax or address comments to:

  Dr. M. Elliot
  Chair, Senate
  S883 Ross Bldg.
  York University
  4700 Keele St.
  Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
  Fax: 416-736-5769
  Phone: 416-736-5012

  Dr. Michael Stevenson
  Vice-President, Academic Affairs
  S 938A Ross Bldg.
  York University
  4700 Keele St.
  Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
  Fax: 416-736-5876
  Phone: 416-736-5012

 ________________

 CSICOP TO VISIT KANSAS STATE, KANSAS CITY, ST. LOUIS & SPRINGFIELD

 CSICOP Public Relations Director Matt Nisbet will be touring parts of the
Midwest in February.  He'll be meeting with college students, members of local
skeptics groups and the local media.  At several venues he will be giving a
presentation titled "Skeptics Versus The X-Files: The Media and the
Paranormal."  Using video clips and slides, Nisbet reviews how the media
portrays science and the paranormal, tackles the immensely popular series The
X-Files, highlights research linking media presentations of the paranormal and
viewer belief and reviews efforts by CSICOP, scientists and skeptics to work
for better media coverage of science and the paranormal.

 --On Thursday evening, February 11, as part of the Skeptical Inquirer Lecture
series offered to colleges across the U.S. and Canada, Nisbet will be
presenting at Kansas State University.  Stay tuned for time and location
information.

 --On Saturday February 12 at 730pm, he'll be at the Center for Inquiry-
Midwest in Kansas City, MO.  The Center is housed in the United Labor
Building, 6301 Rockhill Rd, Suite 412.

 --On Sunday afternoon, Nisbet will be in St. Louis to present at a meeting
sponsored by the Gateway Skeptics and the Rationalist Society of St. Louis.
You can catch him at 2pm at the University City Library, 6701 Delmar,
University City, MO 63130.

 --On Monday, he'll travel to Springfield, IL to give a presentation sponsored
by the Rational Examination Association of Lincoln Land (REALL).  The talk
will be held at 7pm at the Lincoln Library in Springfield.  Call the REALL
hotline number for more information at 217-726-5354 and check out their
website at www.reall.org.

 Everyone is encouraged to turn out for the events in their area.  It promises
to be a provocative and informative presentation and a great way to find out
more about the international efforts of CSICOP.  For more information, call
716-636-1425 X219.

 __________________

 JOE NICKELL MASTER'S TEA AND LECTURE AT YALE UNIVERSITY

 CSICOP Senior Research Fellow Joe Nickell will be visiting Yale University on
Monday and Tuesday, February 22 and 23.  On Monday, Nickell will be doing a
signing at Yale Bookstore of the latest of his fifteen books _Crime Science_ ,
a case study review of forensic and criminal investigation.  Monday evening
he'll be giving a lecture open to the public.  Stay tuned for more details.

 On Tuesday, he will be the subject of a prestigious Hilliman College Master's
Tea, as Nickell meets Yale students and introduces them to the work of CSICOP
and skepticism.  His visit is sponsored by the New England Skeptical Society
and the recently launched Yale Skeptics.

 --30--