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WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE WEIRD THINGS: PSEUDO SCIENCE, SUPERSTITION, AND OTHER CONFUSIONS OF OUR TIME by Michael Shermer. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1997. Pp. xii + 306. $22.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-7167-3090-1.
Dr. Michael Shermer founded the Skeptics Society (SS) in Altadena, California, in 1993 and is the editor-in-chief of its publication, started that same year, Skeptic magazine. Although it has similar aims, Shermer's group is quite independent from the Buffalo, NewYork-based Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), founded in 1976, whose publication is The Skeptical Inquirer (TSB. To some degree, membership for the SS grew out of an earlier but disbanded group, the Southern California Skeptics, which had been affiliated with CSICOP, and some SS personnel (most notably magician James Randi) are also associated with CSICOP activities. However, the organizations are not only independent from one another, but they also, to some degree, are in competition with each other for financial support and patronage.
At least on the surface, the SS appears less zealous and less concerned with debunking and bashing of "paranormalists" than is CSICOP, and this stems largely from Shermer's training as a historian of science and his central concern with science education and the teaching of critical thinking. The mission statement published in the front of each issue of Skeptic states that although the SS "recognizes the limitations and socio-cultural influences on science," it still (quoting Einstein) regards the scientific method to be "the most precious thing we have."
Even a cursory examination of Shermer's Skeptic magazine reveals that it is far more academic in its tone and character than is TSI. Whereas TSI tends to center on often-fleeting anomaly claims in the tabloids, media, and popular culture, each issue of Skeptic is thematic and contains lengthy discourses on current controversies more central to science, including such topics as cosmology and God, evolutionary psychology, Afrocentrism, ecology, AIDS, and conspiracy theories. Whereas TSI is usually livelier reading, Skeptic seems more interested in depth and scholarship.
In general, the SS has shown far less interest in serious psychical research and parapsychology than has CSICOP. The little attention SS has given to parapsychology has been to popular culture and media representations in film, on tabloid television, and such targets as...