Skeptical Documents and Links

• Skepticism, critiques of pseudoscience.
• Pseudoscience, Weird Science, Kookiness and Quackery.
• Specific varieties of pseudosciences.
• Urban Legends.
• Mistakes in Science.
• Science and Religion, including creationism.

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Skepticism, Critiques of Pseudoscience.

The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.—Edith Sitwell

• Creationism and Intelligent Design. Fraudulent Pseudoscience.
• Debunking a Shoddy "Research" Study. Cartoon eyes on cereal boxes.
• Fibonacci Flim-Flam. Mystical mathematics misapplied to reality.
• Pseudoscience books. Eccentric and misguided attemps to rewrite science.
• Jim Lippard's Skeptical Information Links.
• The Skeptic's Dictionary A starting point for skeptical analysis of popular delusions.
• The WHY-Files, newsletter of the Inquiring Skeptics of New York.
• The Straight Dope Archives. Cecil Adams answers questions on every conceivable subject.
• CSICOP. The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Contents pages and selected articles from The Skeptical Inquirer and Skeptical Briefs.
• Skeptics Society Web Skeptic magazine.
• The Skeptic Tank. Fredric Rice's archive of skeptic and urban legend information and links.
• Skeptic's organizations: North Texas Skeptics, The New England Skeptical Society.
• Rube Goldberg. A cartoonist who satirized technology.

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Urban Legends, Hoaxes and Frauds

An "urban legend" is an unfounded fictional story, presented as if it were fact, widely believed because it has the trappings of plausibility and appeals to people's preconceptions, beliefs or prejudices.

• Snopes.com. Urban Legends Reference Page.
• Christian Urban Legends.
• Scientific Urban Legends. Symantec Corp.. Computer threat hoaxes.
• Other frauds and scams: National Fraud Information Center. Internet frauds and scams.
• Quackwatch. Medical snake-oil peddlers.

SKEPTICAL DOCUMENTS

• Russell Turpin's "Characterization of Quack Theories." by Russell Turpin. Copy.
• Richard Feynman on "Cargo Cult Science."
• Bibliography for Science/Pseudoscience Seminar.
• Extrapolation. Mark Twain. Excerpt from Life on the Mississippi.
• Books for skeptics, in e-text.

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Science and Religion

Some things need to be believed to be seen. —Guy Kawasaki

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. —William Kingdon Clifford

This section also includes materials on the creation/evolution issue and links to resource materials on evolution and human origins. See Bob Schadewald's corner for more about creationism.

• Creationism and Intelligent Design. Fraudulent Pseudoscience.
• Humans, Cockroaches and the Laws of Physics. Victor J. Stenger exposes the logical missing links of the Intelligent Design arguments.
• In spite of what you've read in the popular press, Leading Scientists Still Reject God.
• The Talk.Origins Archive. Excellent, detailed documents on evolution.
• National Center for Science Education. On the frontlines of the battle to teach evolution and climate change in the schools.
• The Secular Web.
• The Skeptical Review of religion.
• Christian Urban Legends.

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Pseudoscience, Weird Science, Kookiness and Quackery

It's been my policy to view the Internet not as an 'information highway,' but as an electronic asylum filled with babbling loonies. —Mike Royko

There's a rich mix of credulous pseudoscience and new-age claptrap here, along with skeptical, rational and scientific analyses of it. Some materials linked here might be classed as borderline or speculative science. You sort it out.

• What is science? What is Pseudoscience? by Donald Simanek.
• The Museum of Unnatural Mystery (The Unmuseum). An amazing site! Curator: Lee Krystek.
• The Museum of Questionable Medical Quackery. Bob McCoy's collection of quack medical apparatus in Minneapolis.
• The Museum of Unworkable Devices. A collection of ingenious devices that never worked and never will. You are invited to figure out why, using only elementary physics. Curator: Donald Simanek.
• James Randi Educational Foundation. Wizard and skeptic James Randi is the enemy of humbug peddlers, snake-oil salesmen and other purveyors of poppycock.
• National Council Against Health Fraud.
• Dark Side of the Net.

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Specific Varieties of Pseudoscience

• Immanuel Velikovsky's science-fantasy scenarios imagined a wayward planet/comet causing catastrophic events recorded in human history. If this notion has the slightest appeal to you, then you should read An Antidote to Velikovskian Delusions.
• Ignatius Donnelly and the End of the World. An illustrated field trip through the mind of an original thinker.
• The Alchemy Web site. Yes, there are still alchemists.
• The Maharishi University of Management. This university proves that accreditation is a sham. One can hardly keep up with the nonsense emanating from this enclave of the Maharishi Mahesh Yoga's minions of mentally muddled meditators. The Meditation Information Network can help you sort it out.

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