Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[SkeptInq@aol.com]

 Skeptical Inquirer Electronic Digest, April 30, 2000

 Visit the CSICOP and Skeptical Inquirer Magazine website at
 http://www.csicop.org. Receiving over 200,000 hits per year, the CSICOP site
 was rated one of the top ten science sites by HOMEPC magazine. Send comments
 regarding SI DIGEST to editors Matt Nisbet at mcn23@cornell.edu and Barry
 Karr at skeptinq@aol.com.

 In this week's SI DIGEST:
 -NEWSWEEK: Special Feature and Poll on Miracles
 -APS "What's New": Nuclear Phobia
 -NY TIMES: Profile of Robert Park, Claim Buster

 --NEWSWEEK: SPECIAL FEATURE AND POLL ON MIRACLES

 The May 1, 2000 edition of Newsweek features several articles on miracles
 including:

 What Miracles Mean (related audio)
 Why I Don't Believe in Miracles by Philip Hefner
 Newsweek Poll: Most Americans Believe in Miracles
 The Miracle Detective
 To read the articles, go to
 http://www.newsweek.com/nw-srv/printed/us/so/a18981-2000apr23.htm

 Newsweek Poll: Most Americans Believe in Miracles


 [An overwhelming majority of Americans believe that God performs miracles
 and nearly half say they have personally seen or experienced one, according
 to a new Newsweek poll. Eighty-four percent of Americans said that God
 performs miracles. Seventy-nine percent say they believe that the miracles
 described in the Bible actually took place, according to the Newsweek poll.
 Sixty-three percent say they know someone who claims to have experienced a
 miracle, and 48 percent believe they have experienced or witnessed one. It
 is overwhelmingly Christians (90%) who believe in miracles, compared to 46
 percent of non-Christians. Faith in miracles among Evangelical Protestants
 is 98 percent. And 87 percent of those polled said that miracles can happen
 to people of religious faiths different than their own. About two-thirds of
 Americans (67%) say they have prayed for a miracle. Strong majorities of

 Americans believe God or the saints cure or heal sick people who have been
 given no chance of survival by medical doctors (77%). People who face death
 in accidents or natural disasters can be saved by a miracle, say 72 percent
 of those polled. The poll data appears as part of a new Newsweek story on
 miracles, available on newsstands Monday and online on Newsweek.com on
 Sunday. Religion Editor Kenneth L. Woodward provides accounts of modern-day
 miracles and profiles the role of miracles in each of the world's leading
 religions. Woodward's story is adapted from his new book, "The Book of
 Miracles" (Simon & Schuster, 432 pages)....]

 --APS "WHAT'S NEW": NUCLEAR PHOBIA

 From the weekly "What's New," a weekly e-mail bulletin written by American
 Physical Society Director and CSICOP Fellow Robert Park.
 For more information, go to http://www.aps.org/WN/

 April 28, 2000

 [...3. NUCLEAR PHOBIA I: NO EXCESS CANCERS FROM THREE MILE ISLAND.
 A 13-year study of people living within five miles of the Three
 Mile Island nuclear plant found no increase in cancer deaths due
 to the 1979 accident.  You will not be surprised to learn that
 the University of Pittsburgh researchers called for continued
 monitoring of the resident's health, while nuclear activists
 insisted the study must be flawed and called for expanding it to
 ten miles from the plant.  There have been no calls for similar
 studies around coal-fired power plants, which deposit vastly
 greater amounts of radioactivity as well as other carcinogens.
 4. NUCLEAR PHOBIA II: CHILDREN KEPT AWAY FROM HALL OF SCIENCE.
 The Alameda County Board of Education called for a moratorium on
 field trips to the Lawrence Hall of Science where hundreds of
 children are shown the wonders of science each day.  The Board
 acted at the urging of the Berkeley-based Committee to Minimize
 Toxic Waste which claims the area is contaminated by tritium from
 the nearby National Tritium Labeling Facility.  Astounded LBL
 and EPA officials explained to the Board that levels comply with
 federal guidelines, but the Board was unmoved....]

 --NY TIMES: PROFILE OF ROBERT PARK, CLAIM BUSTER

 April 29, 2000

 For the full text of the article, go to:
 http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/042900robert-park.html

 A Claim-Buster by Calling


 By Patricia Cohen
 [...For while many professional physicists recognize him for his technical
 research on the structure of crystal surfaces, to the somewhat wider
 audience that includes readers of his weekly newsletter and zany inventors
 of all types, Mr. Park, 69, is known as a gadfly, an indefatigable debunker
 of alien abductions, miraculous cures, infinite energy sources and wasteful
 spending.
 In congressional testimony, he has railed against Star Wars defense
 strategies, government secrecy and research into alternative medicine; he
 has ridiculed the supposed dangers of silicon breast implants and electric
 power lines. He says the powdered orange drink Tang was not developed for
 the space program....]

 --------------------------------

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