Home : Skeptical Inquirer magazine

Volume 28, Number 1
January/February 2004

• Buy this back issue
• Editor's Note: Science Always Trumps Pseudoscience- and a Still Broader Mission for SI
• European Skeptics Congress
• Anti-Vaccination Fever: The Shot Hurt Around the World
• Judging Authority
• A Geologist's Adventures with Bimini Beachrock and Atlantis True Believers

Articles

Anti-Vaccination Fever

The Shot Hurt Around the World

Sensationalist media, religious fanatics, and alternative medical practitioners fanned the fires created by questionable research to spawn worldwide epidemics of a disease that had almost been forgotten.

William John Hoyt, Jr.

Skepticism of Caricatures

B.F. Skinner Turns 100

Juxtaposition of recent claims about B.F. Skinner in popular science books with actual quotations from Skinner's work reveals several enduring misinterpretations. Their promulgation is unnecessary and serves no beneficial purpose for the broader scientific community.

Scott T. Gaynor

Fallacies and Frustrations

Why Skeptics Dread Conversations with True Believers

Skeptics often hesitate to engage in conversations with believers in the paranormal because these conversations are usually very frustrating. Paranormal adherents tend to make fallacious use of language, logical arguments, and established knowledge. Yet skeptics must acknowledge and work past these frustrations to further the cause of rational inquiry.

Phil Mole

Judging Authority

We are often required to accept the word of another person, but how can we best judge whether or not that person is a legitimate authority?

Jere H. Lipps

A Geologist's Adventures with Bimini Beachrock and Atlantis True Believers

Natural submerged beachrock off the island of Bimini in the Bahamas has been deemed a remnant of Atlantis by the faithful since the 1960s. In spite of geological research demonstrating the stones are natural, "true believers" continue to be drawn by the strong "force field."

Eugene A. Shinn

The Real Method of Scientific Discovery

Scientists don't sit around in their labs trying to establish generalizations. Instead they engage in mystery-solving essentially like that of detective work, and it often involves a creative, imaginative leap.

Burton S. Guttman

Oxygen Is Good - Even When It's Not There

Alternative medicine's claims for the efficacy of supplemental oxygen are less than convincing-especially when the supplement contains no oxygen.

Harriet A. Hall

Contemporary Challenges to William James's White Crow

William James's belief that he had found his white crow, thereby proving the legitimacy of spiritualism as a suitable subject for a science of psychology, evoked strong reaction from psychologists-and from his dying sister.

Herman H. Spitz

Columns

Editor's Note

Science Always Trumps Pseudoscience- and a Still Broader Mission for SI

News and Comment

• European Skeptics Congress: With Alt-Med's Rising Popularity, Health Issues High on Agenda
• Astrologers See Stars: Predictable Outrage in Astrology Land
• Insoles and Heel Pain: Magnets not a Benefit, JAMA Study Shows
• Studies Clear Childhood Vaccine of Links to SIDS, Autism
• IAU Rejects Naming Asteroid for Homeopathy Founder
• New Resource Guide for Debunking Astronomical Pseudoscience
• Newsweek Revisits Religion and Health, Medical Prayer

Investigative Files

UFOs Over Buffalo!

Joe Nickell

Thinking About Science

Predictions and Explanations

Massimo Pigliucci

Notes on a Strange World

What a Bloody Miracle!

Massimo Polidoro

Science Best Sellers

Letters to the Editor

Book Reviews

The Great Skeptic CD

Australian Skeptics, Inc.

Amanda Chesworth

The Seashell on the Mountaintop

Alan Cutler

James C. Sullivan