Robert Todd Carroll
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Skeptic's Dictionary Newsletter 11
Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in
philosophy.
--Napoleon Bonaparte
September 11, 2002
Subscribers 1,184
(Past issues posted at
http://skepdic.com/news/)
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Contents
1) New or revised entries
2) What we're reading
3) Responses to selected feedback
4) Corrections
5) News
1) New or revised entries in The Skeptic's Dictionary
& Skeptic's Refuge
Since the last newsletter I have
-
updated the
Kirlian photography page by adding a link to a page with some
interesting examples of
electrophotography [thanks to Ronaldo Cordeira],
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added a
reader's comments on
sleep paralysis,
-
updated the Noah's Ark page
with a link to an article from
Space.com about using satellite photography to try to locate the Ark,
-
added some comments
on an article in the
New York
Times Magazine about the raw-food craze,
-
updated the
magnet therapy page with a link to an
article from MedlinePlus on the use of magnets to relieve depression,
-
added some
comments on the
PBS Frontline program
"Faith and
Doubt at Ground Zero,"
-
updated the
pareidolia page to include a link to an article about people in India
who have a potato
that looks like the god Ganesh,
-
revised the
Ica stones article to include some facts presented in an article by
Massimo Polidoro in the latest issue of the Skeptical Inquirer,
-
revised
suburban myth #
60, that drinking eight glasses of water is essential to good health. Reader
George Pace alerted me to a study published in the
American Journal of Epidemiology that found a significant difference
with respect to fatal coronary disease between those who drank at least five glasses
of water a day and those who drank two or fewer,
-
updated the
New Books page to
include (1) J. M. Adovasio's
The First Americans: In Pursuit of Archaeology's Greatest Mystery,
(2) renowned skeptic
Taner Edis's
The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science, and
(3)
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Understanding the Brain.
Adovasio argues that America was populated some 4,000 years
before the Clovis period, the period most archaeologists identify as the
time that the first Americans arrived. Adovasio believes that several
distinct cultures antedate Clovis.
Edis is a physicist. His book presents his case for the
view that our scientific knowledge is sufficient to support the view that
God is an unnecessary hypothesis.
2) What
we're reading
-
Phil Plait's article on the
Top
Five Cosmic Myths is interesting. It will give you some idea of what you'll find in his
book
Bad Astronomy.
-
The lead article in the latest issue (Sept/Oct 2002) of
the Skeptical Inquirer is
called "A Skeptical Look at September 11th - How We can Defeat Terrorism by
Reacting to It More Rationally." The magazine cover, however, asks the
loaded question: "Can We React More Rationally to Terrorism?" The authors,
Clark R. Chapman and Alan W. Harris, argue that as a nation we haven't
responded very rationally. If they're right in their assessment of human
nature, it seems doubtful that we could have taken a much more rational approach
than we have. According to the authors, we've gone overboard on "homeland"
security (especially by establishing cumbersome and ineffective security
measures at airports), throwing money at victim's families, and stirring up absurd concerns among small town
officials that their high school gym could be next.
The authors' focus is on proportionality of response, especially with
respect to fear and taking precautions. They argue that the
nation is acting irrationally by making disproportionate expenditures on
marginal security measures and that this is depriving more productive
enterprises of a reasonable share of our resources.
Nothing was said about the disproportionate heroism of firefighters,
however. Nor was anything mentioned of the disproportionate curtailment of
civil liberties by our government.
Nothing was said, either, about President Bush's desire to attack Iraq to
prevent Saddam Hussein from either providing nuclear weapons to terrorists,
using them against the U.S., or threatening to use them in an attempt to
blackmail the U.S. or others. Mr. Bush and his team may even believe that
they are following the advice of Chapman and Harris, who advise "shifting
toward objective cost-benefits analyses and equitable evaluation of the
relative costs of saving human lives." Aren't these "objective" analyses
little more than guessing games, especially when they come to predicting how
some nation will behave in the future?
I wonder, if Mr. Bush and his team were all women would they be accused of
being impulsive and irrational? Is the Bush team guilty of "misperception of
risk?" Will the DSM V include "homeland security mania" as a treatable
mental disorder? I don't know, but one thing is certain: If the point of
terrorism is to induce irrational fears in the population and disrupt their
traditional way of life, then the 9/11 terrorists have achieved their
objective.
-
Sure, the latest Gallup polls found that only 18% of
Americans "believe they have permanently altered the way they live as a
result of Sept. 11. But 71% say time has not yet healed the wounds of the
country caused by the terrorist attacks. Six out of 10 say it is at least
somewhat likely that there will be further acts of terrorism in the United
States in the next several weeks. Yet, only 19% of the public now say that
terrorism is the top problem facing the country today -- fewer than mention
the economy. President Bush's latest job approval rating is 66%, but the
public's approval rating of his policies regarding terrorism is 10 points
higher, at 76%. Congress continues to work on legislation to create a new
cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security. Although a majority of six in
10 Americans favor the concept, this level of support is down from June."
And, "almost six in 10 Americans support the basic concept of military
action to remove Saddam Hussein from power."
-
Finally, the lead article in the latest issue of
Skeptic is an excerpt from Brenda
Denzler's 2001 book
The Lure of the Edge: Scientific Passions, Religious Beliefs, and the
Pursuit of UFOs. The article explores the relationship of UFOlogy to
religion, especially how the possibility of extraterrestrial life is viewed
by some theologians. Denzler brings attention to some very interesting
connections between UFOs and religion, connections that are often ignored or
minimized, but shouldn't be.
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3) Responses to selected feedback
Some mail I wouldn't respond to even if I had the
time. Here's an example:
If the illuminati dont
[sic] exist them [sic] explain why hitler invaded Russia and lost the war
on purpose. {ok...no more sics...you get the idea}
No rational explanation exists for that.
So you may have to look for the irrational explanations to get closer
to the truth.
And please do not say that hitler was 'stupid'.
Thats one thing he wasnt.
If the illuminati dont exist then why do so many world leaders join
cultish groups (secret societies) and undergo pagan rituals while
pretending to be christian?
For example hitler read about the occult and joined 2 secret
societies.The vril society and the thule society.
He was a starving street artist one day and after joining these
societies he became germany's chancellor and then dictator.
I think its time for people to become skeptics of mainstream history.
At least the writer got one thing right, which is more than I
can say about the next writer, Maarten W.T. Post.
In December 2001 my book Djenghis Khan: key to the enigma
of Nostradamus was published in the Netherlands. This book contains new
evidence that Nostradamus did not write about the future. It is my opinion
that he writes about the past instead. I will give you an example. Century
10 quatrain 72 :
The year 1999, seventh month,
From the sky will come a great King of Terror:
To bring back to life the great King of the Mongols,
Before and after Mars to reign by good luck.
Who was the great king of the Mongols? Djenghis Khan is the only real
king of the Mongols. He conquered more land than Alexander the Great did.
If we multiply 7/12 (seventh month) with 1999, then we get the year Djenghis Khan was conceived: 1166. If we add the number of characters of
the last two lines (the French quatrain), we’ll get the year of his death:
1227.
This is not the only thing I discovered. I discovered also that
Nostradamus wrote about Attila the Hun, the Hundred Year war, Charles V,
the Ottoman empire, Andrea Doria, Barbarossa, Mohammed, the
Muslim-invasion in 711 in Spain, the battle of Poitiers (near Paris)
between the Saracens and the Franks led by Charles Martel (the grandfather
of Charlemagne) and many more historic persons and events.
What do you think?
I think Maarten has too much free time on his hands. (I wonder if he
explains in his book why Nostradamus would use such a strange method to
write about the past. Perhaps he was creating a game. Maybe Nostradamus also had too
much time on his hands.)
**********
4) Corrections
Warwick Finch and Jim Foley of Australia wrote to correct me regarding the
census done by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) that resulted in
some 70,000 citizens claiming "Jedi" as their religion. "The ABS didn't
provide a box called 'Jedi' to the non-compulsory religion question, but
rather allowed respondents to nominate whatever they liked in a comments
field," says Mr. Finch. He referred to these respondents as stirrers and
larrikins. I have no idea what these words mean, but I doubt that they
are complimentary. According to Foley, the ABS "told people not to do it,
but people wrote it in anyway....The ABS pointed out that giving frivolous
and/or incorrect responses is an offense... but I can't see them charging
70,000 people." What would they charge them with? Pretending to belong
to a frivolous religion?
*******
5) News
-
Some of you may have noticed that I changed the subtitle of
The Skeptic's Dictionary (once again!). Jeff Golick, my editor at
Wiley, found "Critical Survey of Questionable Therapies, Eccentric Beliefs,
Amusing Deceptions and Dangerous Delusions" to be too academic-sounding for
his trade-oriented ears. It's also too long. So, for now we have settled on
"A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous
Delusions."
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