Home : Skeptical Inquirer magazine

Volume 27, Number 6
November/December 2003

• Buy this back issue
• Ann Druyan Talks About Science, Religion, Wonder, Awe...and Carl Sagan
• Neither Intelligent nor Designed
• Investigative Files: The Curse of Bodie: Legacy of Ghost Town Ghosts?
• Book Review: The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions.

Articles

Ann Druyan Talks About Science, Religion, Wonder, Awe . . . and Carl Sagan

It is a great tragedy that science, this wonderful process for finding out what is true, has ceded the spiritual uplift of its central revelations: the vastness of the universe, the immensity of time, the relatedness of all life, and life's preciousness on our tiny planet.

Ann Druyan

Less About Appearances: Art and Science

Visual art throughout history has given form and shape to fictional spaces-habitats to the gods, myths, and legends. But art has changed, slowly moving from fictional space into physical space-leading some artists to an interest in science and the untamed complexity of the real.

Stephen Nowlin

King of the Paranormal

CNN's Larry King Live has a long history of outrageous promotion of UFOs, psychics, and spiritualists.

Chris Mooney

Sylvia Browne

TV Psychic Sidesteps Challenges

Popularized by Larry King and Montel Williams, self- proclaimed psychic Sylvia Browne has reneged on promises to be tested for her extraordinary claims of communicating with the dead and "seeing" health problems. Is she really psychic? Would the medical profession consider her to be practicing medicine without a license? Do the media care?

Bryan Farha

Neither Intelligent nor Designed

Evolution succeeds where "Intelligent Design" fails in describing the natural world.

Bruce and Frances Martin

The Fellowship of the Rings

UFO Rings versus Fairy Rings

Fungal diseases, mushrooms, fairy rings (a fungus ring), bioluminescent fungi, and slime molds are presented as possible explanations for some UFO rings or "landing rings."

Ángel M. Nieves-Rivera

Columns

Editor's Note

News and Comment

• 'Bogus' Poll of Scientists Latest Twist in ID/Creationists' Fight Against Science Standards; Scientists Battle Back
• Evolution Battle in Texas Textbooks
• Extensive Loch Ness Search by BBC Team Yields No Monster
• Astrologer Misses John Ritter's Death
• Scott Peterson Defense Suggests Satanists
• Daniel Dennett Elected a CSICOP Fellow
• Polygraph Testing to Be Scaled Back at National Labs
• Autistic Boy Killed During Exorcism
• Recent Deaths (Hibbs, Taves)

Investigative Files

The Curse of Bodie: Legacy of Ghost-Town Ghosts?

Joe Nickell

Psychic Vibrations

A Quiet Summer in Roswell

Robert Sheaffer

Thinking About Science

The Sin of Scientism

Massimo Pigliucci

Notes on a Strange World

Houdini's Final Days

Massimo Polidoro

Forum

Hen-Dubious, Cock-Sure

Ralph Estling

Science Best Sellers

Guide for Authors

Letters to the Editor

Book Reviews

The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions

Robert Todd Carroll

Amanda Chesworth

The Ghost in the Universe: God in the Light of Modern Science

Taner Edis

Phil Mole

1421: The Year China Discovered America

Gavin Menzies

Dan Koch

Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in North America

Loren Coleman

Benjamin Radford