Michael Shermer, Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Skeptical Eye

Excerpt

At a time when science is politically beleaguered (see, for instance, the resistance by one of our major political parties to scientific consensus about climate change) and our educational system seems to be failing our students in scientific education, we should welcome informed popular advocacy of science. Michael Shermer is a prominent advocate of the cause of science in the pages of Scientific American and Skeptic, the journal he founded. In his new book, Skeptic, he has gathered 75 articles on a variety of subjects in which he argues for science and its achievements and exposes “pseudoscience and quackery.” He is wide ranging in his knowledge of the scientific disciplines and a vivid and lucid writer. Stephen Jay Gould is his model. As the title of his book promises, he is a debunker of myths, illusions and delusions, which pretend to scientific status: creationism, intelligent design, the denial of human influenced climate change, the scientific status of acupuncture, the efficacy of prayer, among others. Convincing on particular subjects, he is, however, wanting when he generalizes about the scientific enterprise and its relation to other disciplines. …