Part of “Pseudoscience A to Z”, a series of articles in the Skeptics Canada newsletter about topics that have not been subjected to much critical thinking by their promoters.
Tags: E-rays, Pseudoscience A to Z —
Dowsing for fun and profit: A test of a $1-million claimant
The “Holy Grail” of the paranormal world must surely be the US$1 million prize offered by the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) “to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event” (http://www.randi.org).
Divination: A mancy for every fancy
Part of “Pseudoscience A to Z”, a series of articles first appearing in the OSSCI newsletter about topics that have not been subjected to much critical thinking by their promoters.
Tags: Pseudoscience A to Z —
Famous fabulous creatures: Bigfoot and Nessie
A whole area of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims—and thus also of skeptical research—concerns the claims of cryptozoologists.
Tags: Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster —
Cryptozoology: Science or pseudoscience?
Part of “Pseudoscience A to Z”, a series of articles first appearing in the OSSCI newsletter about topics that have not been subjected to much critical thinking by their promoters.
Tags: Pseudoscience A to Z —
“Intelligent Design is not science”: The Dover decision
US District Judge John E. Jones III issued his long-awaited ruling on the case of Kitzmiller et al. versus the Dover (Pennsylvania) Area School District on Dec. 20, 2005. The school board had required grade-nine biology teachers to read a statement calling evolution not a fact but a theory with gaps and pointing to Intelligent Design as alternative explanation for the origins of life.
Tags: Education, Intelligent Design —
In the beginning: A closer look at creation geoscience
Introduction
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The first book of the Bible, Genesis (1:1-31), describes the creation of the universe in six days, from out of cold nothingness, by a supernatural being to which Christianity, Judaism and Islam bid worship. As time progressed, people began to look more closely at the rocks which they trod upon, and noticed peculiarities which could not be accounted for by the Bible, and so required further explanation. Thus was born the scientific field of geology — the description of the earth’s rocks and how they came to be situated in their current locations.
Tags: Intelligent Design —
The Jonas Method of birth control
Part of “Pseudoscience A to Z”, a series of articles in the Skeptics Canada newsletter.
The Jonas Method of natural conception control is a strange mix of quack medicine, religious inspiration, and an astrologically based pseudoscience called cosmobiology. If you believe the claims it enables seemingly infertile women to conceive, while promising that you can choose the sex of the child you wish. It also avoids miscarriages, and “eliminates birth defects and mental retardation”. All of these purported benefits are based on conceiving at just the right time.
Water memory tests all wet: A reassessment of the Benveniste experiments by a D.V.M.
An issue of Ontario Skeptic contained a letter from Paul Greenwood, (“Science is open to radical, new ideas”) reporting on the “water memory” experiments of Dr. J. Benveniste, and offering the publication of these experiments as evidence of the willingness of the scientific community to examine new and unconventional ideas.
Tags: Homeopathy —
What’s so natural about naturopathy?
« Newer Posts — Older Posts » Part of “Pseudoscience A to Z”, a series of articles in the Skeptics Canada newsletter.
Naturopathy and its associated practices are well known to skeptics, and little description is needed here, but for those who are interested in an in-depth analysis, try www.naturowatch.org/general/beyerstein.html by the late Dr. Barry Beyerstein, a skeptic and biopsychologist at Simon Fraser University.
Tags: Naturopathy, Pseudoscience A to Z —