Science: Good, Bad and Bogus

Rating:
Summary: A must have for critical thinkers
Review: A classic compendium from the skeptic of skeptics, Martin Gardner. Though the book is now a little dated, the articles and essays on the dubious psychic "research" conducted by Targ and Puthoff are classic examples of why people believe in bizarre things simply because they want them to be true. This should be required reading for high-school and college students.

Rating:
Summary: A must have for critical thinkers
Review: A classic compendium from the skeptic of skeptics, Martin Gardner. Though the book is now a little dated, the articles and essays on the dubious psychic "research" conducted by Targ and Puthoff are classic examples of why people believe in bizarre things simply because they want them to be true. This should be required reading for high-school and college students.

Rating:
Summary: A must have for critical thinkers
Review: A classic compendium from the skeptic of skeptics, Martin Gardner. Though the book is now a little dated, the articles and essays on the dubious psychic "research" conducted by Targ and Puthoff are classic examples of why people believe in bizarre things simply because they want them to be true. This should be required reading for high-school and college students.

Rating:
Summary: Required reading for the sceptical worldview
Review: Gardner has never pulled his punches when it comes to claims of ESP, paranormal abilities, spoon-bending and the like. This book collects 38 pieces he wrote over thirty years, half book reviews and half articles. All of them attack, and in most cases dismember, pseudoscience and its claims.

The book reviews are acid and make interesting reading, but the articles are the meat of the book, because here is where Gardner assembles fully coherent arguments not just to demolish a foolish book, but to show in detail how someone like Uri Geller fools people. It becomes abundantly clear as you read this book that any competent magician (Gardner is one) can duplicate any of the feats of ESP or spoon-bending cited. It's sad, but not surprising, that this never makes the headlines the way Geller's original claims did back in the seventies.

In addition to pieces on modern figures, some less well-known than Geller, Gardner also writes about figures such as Conan Doyle, who was a passionate believer in spiritualism; and Freud, who had a long and very close friendship with a numerologist. There is a short piece on Einstein, who is often cited by parapsychologists as an establishment figure who nevertheless believed in ESP. Gardner comprehensively demolishes the basis for this citation, quoting letters from Einstein showing that he had no such belief, and was in fact very sceptical.

The only reason I haven't given the book five stars is that its very nature as an anthology prevents it from really achieving coherence. It's an excellent addition to the sceptic's armoury, though, and I strongly recommend it, along with another of Gardner's along similar lines: "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science".

Rating:
Summary: Required reading for the sceptical worldview
Review: Gardner has never pulled his punches when it comes to claims of ESP, paranormal abilities, spoon-bending and the like. This book collects 38 pieces he wrote over thirty years, half book reviews and half articles. All of them attack, and in most cases dismember, pseudoscience and its claims.

The book reviews are acid and make interesting reading, but the articles are the meat of the book, because here is where Gardner assembles fully coherent arguments not just to demolish a foolish book, but to show in detail how someone like Uri Geller fools people. It becomes abundantly clear as you read this book that any competent magician (Gardner is one) can duplicate any of the feats of ESP or spoon-bending cited. It's sad, but not surprising, that this never makes the headlines the way Geller's original claims did back in the seventies.

In addition to pieces on modern figures, some less well-known than Geller, Gardner also writes about figures such as Conan Doyle, who was a passionate believer in spiritualism; and Freud, who had a long and very close friendship with a numerologist. There is a short piece on Einstein, who is often cited by parapsychologists as an establishment figure who nevertheless believed in ESP. Gardner comprehensively demolishes the basis for this citation, quoting letters from Einstein showing that he had no such belief, and was in fact very sceptical.

The only reason I haven't given the book five stars is that its very nature as an anthology prevents it from really achieving coherence. It's an excellent addition to the sceptic's armoury, though, and I strongly recommend it, along with another of Gardner's along similar lines: "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science".

Rating:
Summary: How can people ignore the evidence?
Review: Great book. Kept me fascinated throughout. Prefer Michael Shermer, but I loved this one nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: The simple, effective arguments against pseudoscience
Review: I first read this book almost twenty years ago and even though some of the events and principals have faded into oblivion, the basic theme has not. While there are some negative consequences of science, in many ways they are secondary to the enormous benefits. The number of ways in which the scientific approach has benefited our lives are clearly too numerous to mention. And yet, there are those who, largely for personal gain, choose to ignore it when it is advantageous to do so. When that advantage is financial, we can at least understand them, even while we consider them despicable. The saddest of all are the ignorant masses who fall victim to the nonsense that the charlatans dispense.
In this book, Gardner primarily takes on the purveyors of pseudoscientific nonsense rather than the followers, debunking ESP, UFOs and other views that fly in the face of mountains of scientific data that has been painstakingly accumulated and repeatedly verified. There are simple, effective counter arguments against most of the areas of pseudoscience, and Gardner quite effectively makes them, at times properly separating the arguments when they need to be separated. For example, the idea of life after death and mediums communicating with the dead are two separate issues. One can expose the false medium without proving that there is no life after death. It would be so simple for any departed spirit to send a special message that would be conclusive proof that they were alive, and yet no medium has ever managed to do it. The best that is offered is a general "all is good here" style of drivel, which means nothing.
My favorites in these stories are always those that invoke the giant conspiracy explanation of events. Especially hilarious are the proponents of UFOs who firmly believe that the U.S. government has conspired for over fifty years to hide information about crashed alien space ships. I am the first to admit that governments lie to the people, but to believe that such a secret could be kept for so long is ridiculous.
The entire scientific world owes a debt to Martin Gardner for his courage in taking on those who are either very gullible or who are willing to prey on the gullible, all in the name of pseudoscience. To me, the wonders of science dwarf the petty "accomplishments" of the crackpots and sleazeballs he writes about in this book. Much of it is human nature at its' worst.

Rating:
Summary: A much needed skeptical perspective
Review: What is it that supporters of psuedo-sciences say to doubters? Usually they say, "Keep and open mind", as if all there is to overcome is prejudice. Mr. Gardner doesn't just dismiss their claims out of hand, he actually investigates the subject and explains exactly why the allegations are so suspect.

This isn't the kind of book most people would want to read in one sitting. But it is a good reference to have on hand if you need to debunk some bunk.