Newsletter
31
October 7, 2003
"The legitimate powers of
government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does
me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It
neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson,
Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781-82
In this issue: I'm back! A book giveaway program;
the je suis enigma; new entries and other changes on the web site;
The Skeptic's Dictionary selected as a Book Club featured alternate;
Netsurfer review; a few words on dictionaries versus encyclopedias; Einstein
as plagiarist; Arthur Koestler and parapsychology in Edinburgh; Highway 666
revisited; and some abominations.
Well, obviously I have sent another newsletter after
announcing I would cease doing so. Several subscribers wrote with excellent
suggestions as to how I could lighten the burden of maintaining the mailing
list and keep on producing the newsletter. I won't bore you with the details
but I am ceasing most housekeeping tasks and am making some changes in the
newsletter.
***
I hope to see some of you in Albuquerque over the weekend of
October 23-26 at the CSICOP conference on
Hoaxes,
Myths & Manias. I'll be speaking on Friday the 24th at 11 AM.
***
Amanda Chesworth let me know about a wonderful program
called BookCrossing. The idea is
to release "books into the wild to make the world one immense library." You
simply take a favorite book and leave it in a public place. Amanda released
a copy of The Skeptic's Dictionary on the campus of the University of
New Mexico "where a lot of students loiter. It has a stick-it note on
reading Free! Pick Me Up! Hopefully some poor, deluded soul will pick
it up, enjoy the read, become a skeptic and pass it on a la
'and-they-tell-two-friends-and-so-on-and-so-on-and-so-on' shampoo
commercial."
According to the BookCrossing web site, all you have to do
to join in the fun is: (1) Read a good book; (2) Register it at BookCrossing
(along with your comments) and get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number),
and label the book. Then, (3) release it for someone else to read (give it
to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in
a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes to
BookCrossing and records journal entries for that book. Go to the
web site for more details.
So far, over half a million books have been registered.
***
I received a very strange phone message recently from a
person identifying himself as "William Kind from England." He said he found
my philosophy "interesting" and thought I would benefit from something he
called "the je suis enigma." To make a long story short--though he didn't:
He left about a ten minute message--William has discovered a word and
pattern game. The idea of the game is to take a word, any word, and look for
any meaning you can in the letters of the word. Je suis, French for
I am, reveals I Jesus, though William assured me that there is
nothing religious about this enigma. He suggested that I analyze a word that
is significant to me or even the word significant and I would see
what he was driving at. Sign can't if I. I guess I don't have
the intelligence to see all the patterns that Mr. Kind can see, but I
understand what he's doing. It's called
apophenia. David De St
Croix, coincidentally from the UK also, recently wrote that he thinks the
inability to recognize that one is creating patterns or meaning where there
isn't any "leads to, or constitutes, psychosis." I agree that it is a sign
that one has lost touch with reality when one fails to recognize that
creating meaning or patterns where there is none is nothing but a creative
act. It is amusing, perhaps, and some people are clearly much more talented
at such games than others. And if you are aware of what you are doing, the
game might be a rewarding exercise. But if you take it too seriously you'll
end up like Michael Drosnin,
David John Oates, or
Uri Geller.
Mr. Kind has indeed taken his enigma very seriously. He
informed me that it is through words that the spirits of the dead
communicate in a paranormal fashion with the human brain. Thus, when I see
the word 'spirit,' for example, and read into it the message spit it spri
iri, I am conveying some sort of message that has been directed to my
brain through the paranormal from some spirit.
It would be pointless to remind Mr. Kind that finding
meaning and significance where there is some and where there isn't any, and
finding confirmation for beliefs, are things most humans do quite well. Some
seem to do it too well and it leads them astray.
But, perhaps there is something to this after all. Look
at the words Governor Schwarzenegger and what do you see? Go vern!
no war zen egg. Furthermore, it was all predicted by Nostradamus!
The barbarian at the gate
gray lies in money buried
the rose of Sharon weeps
shrove Tuesday blunders war in flames.
***
Changes in The Skeptic's Dictionary
or The Skeptic's Refuge
Since the last newsletter I added entries on
infrasound,
cognitive
dissonance, and hidden persuaders. I've revised the
Jeane Dixon entry. I've
posted my report on The
Skeptic's Toolbox. And, I've posted a page on
How to Get Involved
in the Skeptic Movement.
Check the What's New?
page for other changes.
***
The Skeptic's Dictionary, the book
My editor informs me that The Skeptic's Dictionary
has been selected to be a Featured Alternate in the November 2003 catalog of
The Writer's Book Club (part of F &
W Publications).
***
There was a nice recommendation in Netsurfer Books on
September 30. You can read it
here.
***
Thanks again to those of you who have made sure that a
copy of The Skeptic's Dictionary has found its way into your
local library.
***
Ever since I began publishing The Skeptic's Dictionary
on the WWW, I've had complaints that it's not a dictionary but an
encyclopedia. Webster's give the following as def. 2 for 'dictionary':
a reference book listing alphabetically terms or names important to a
particular subject or activity along with discussion of their meanings and
applications
For 'encyclopedia' it gives the following definition:
a work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or treats
comprehensively a particular branch of knowledge usually in articles
arranged alphabetically often by subject
The Skeptic's Dictionary will never be comprehensive. It couldn't
hope to be. The kinds of things I write on multiply like Hydra heads. For
every folly uncovered, ten more spring up. Anyway, skepticism isn't a branch
of knowledge, like psychology or medicine. Skepticism is more of an activity
than it is a subject. It is an activity that involves a certain attitude and
the application of knowledge and critical thinking skills to various
topics. That knowledge includes not just knowledge of the subject matter at
hand but knowledge of the kinds of perceptual and cognitive illusions human
beings are prone to. That's true whether we are talking about
philosophical skepticism
or ordinary skepticism.
Should Voltaire's
Philosophical Dictionary or Bayle's
Historical and Critical
Dictionary be called encyclopedias? Maybe I should have followed
the lead of Diderot. He called his magnum opus an Encyclopedia, or a
Systematic Dictionary of Science, Arts, and the Trades. At one time I
toyed with calling my book The Skeptic's Enchiridion or the less
pretentious Skeptic's Handbook. I gave up that
notion for two reasons: It seemed contradictory to call an Internet book a
handbook. Anyway, I couldn't
spell 'enchiridion' the same way twice.
One reviewer of the book on Amazon--a physicist--quibbles that the book is not
skeptical but 'fact based.' As far as I know, the two aren't mutually exclusive and I have no
idea what this physicist means by 'skeptical.' Perhaps he expects a skeptic
to suspend judgment on all subjects. In any case, I expect to get many more
critics complaining that the book is not fact based but opinion based. These
critics will especially dislike the fact that my opinion differs from
theirs.
Actually, if there is one thing I wish my book had more of it is facts,
especially historical facts. For example, I am currently revising the entry
on homeopathy to include more of the historical background of its origin and
development. (I was encouraged to do this by the critical remarks of Jan
Willem Nienhuys, co-author of
Tussen Waarheid & Waanzin
Een encyclopedie der pseudo-wetenschappen (De Geus 2002) or,
in English, Between Truth and Delusion: An Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience.)
***
Responses to selected feedback
Richard Moody wrote to inform me that he is "setting up a
Special Interest Group (SIG) in Mensa called the Truth Seekers in order to
set up a factual basis for the charge of Capital Plagiarism against
Einstein." He went on to say, "According to Christopher Jon Bjerknes in his
book, Albert Einstein was an Incorrigible Plagiarist. I agree."
Why did Richard write to me? I asked him and he
replied: "We could sure use a good philosopher in case you might be
interested."
Maybe I'm being hoaxed. I don't know. I'll say this. If
Einstein were one of my students, I'd be interested in investigating charges
of plagiarism. I'm sure Mensa has some fine philosophers who can....do
what?.....make the true appear false and the false appear true? Towel off
the physicists and the historians of science after a hard day of capital
litigation?
***
Richard Cadena writes in response to the fellow who
laments on Amazon that there is no love in The Skeptic's Dictionary:
"Love without evidence is stalking."
***
Andrew Snape writes that while reading
an article in The Telegraph News he was surprised to find
that the University of Edinburgh has a parapsychology unit that honors a
select person (currently
Robert Morris)
with the title Koestler Professor of Parapsychology. The position is paid
for from the proceeds of the estate of writer and critic
Arthur Koestler
(1905-1983). Before his death, he established the Koestler Foundation to
promote research in parapsychology. Koestler thought
ESP could be explained by quantum physics and he was a defender of
Jung's notion of synchronicity.
Edinburgh not only has a resident parapsychologist, but
a very active program. Prof. Morris has been the Koestler Professor
since 1985 and during that time he has had seventeen students complete
Ph.D.'s under his supervision.
His main recent funding sources have been
The Institut fuer
Grenzgebiete der Psychologie und Psychohygiene in Freiburg, Germany, and
the Fundacao Bial in Porto,
Portugal. His postgraduate students have received funding from these
sources, plus the
Perrott-Warrick Fund at Cambridge University, the
Society for Psychical Research in
London, the Economic and Social Research
Council, the Bjorkheim Fund in Stockholm, the
Parapsychology Foundation in
New York and the University of Edinburgh itself.*
Who said there is no funding for parapsychological
research?
***
Phil Beebe writes to inform us that the reason the
states of New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah have renumbered highway 666 which
runs from Gallup to Monticello to highway 491 was because too many signs
were being stolen. Phil assures us that it had nothing to do with pressure
to remove the "number of the beast" (Revelation 13:18) from the public
highway.
***
Abominations
Some of you may have seen the
open letter
to Dr. Laura Schlesinger regarding her comments on homosexuality being
an abomination (Leviticus
18:22 and
20:13). It turns out that there are many things that were considered
abominations by the ancient Jews:
shellfish;
eagles, ospreys, and vultures;
storks, herons, lapwings, and bats;
snakes and reptiles;
silver and gold;
sacrificing children to other gods;
serving other gods;
sacrificing blemished bullocks or sheep;
divination;
wizards and necromancers;
transvestites;
making weird vows;
taking back a woman you've divorced;
making graven or molten images;
pride; and
hundreds of others things. Most of these abominations are punishable by
stoning until dead, which certainly seems reasonable for anyone who would
eat an eagle or shrimp, or wear the wrong kind of clothes, but unreasonable
for sacrificing a blemished bullock.
Some people
think this book contains the answers to all our problems.
|