S P E C I A L C O L L E C T I O N
Much of my writing on skeptical topics has appeared in the pages of Skeptic magazine. This special collection brings together all of the articles, essays, interviews, and reviews I've published in Skeptic magazine and its online publication eSkeptic since 2004.
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Did Native Americans Discover Europe in 60 BCE? Skeptic 17.4 (2012) "The long and short of it is that there is no independent confirmation that Native Americans washed up in Holland around 60 BCE. We can’t rule out an accidental shipwreck of Native Americans, but the evidence from the brief ancient passages now extant argues against it." |
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Review of Ancestor by Scott Sigler Skeptic 16.1 (2010) and eSkeptic (March 2, 2011) "Scott Sigler writes books with an eclectic mix of elements drawn from science fiction, horror, and thrillers with a heavy emphasis on real life science. Skeptics can take heart in knowing this science is (within reason) true to life and without the supernatural and metaphysical aspects that color so much genre fiction." Image courtesy Crown Publishing
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Golden Fleeced: The Misuse of the Argonaut Myth in Robert Temple's Sirius Mystery eSkeptic (May 5, 2010) "It is not my intention to review the case against Temple’s space-faring fish-men and their watery revelations. Such work has already been done, exhaustively, and, to most skeptics’ minds, conclusively. Instead, I would like to explore Robert Temple’s misuse of Greek mythology." |
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Oh the Horror! Why Skeptics Should Embrace the Supernatural in Fiction Skeptic 15.3 (Winter 2010) "For as long as there have been stories of the supernatural, some who heard them believed that the menacing creatures depicted in them really existed. There have also always been skeptics who doubted the reality of the supernatural monsters." |
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Who Really Discovered America? Skeptic 12.3 (Summer 2006) "Pity poor North America, a land whose history can never be her own. For centuries scholars, prophets, and cranks have tried to prove that the continent did not belong to the native peoples who populated it when the European explorers first arrived." Image courtesy Virgina Dept. of Historic Resources
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A Skeptic's Defense of Supernatural Television Skeptic 12.3 (Summer 2006) and eSkeptic (April 20, 2006) "Many skeptics who issue dire warnings and oppose televised supernatural fiction often engage in uncritical and fallacious thinking that undercuts their rationalist message. Attacking these television shows risks insulting the audience skeptics wish to reach, and it suggests an elitist, condescending attitude..." Photo: © 2011 CW-TV/Warner Bros.
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Review of Civilization One by Knight and Butler Skeptic 11.3 (Winter 2005) "Christopher Knight’s and Alan Butler’s Civilization One reads like the notes for a much better book that could be written by authors less awestruck by their own cleverness. Superficial and often unreadable for the density of mathematical equations, the book commits the first sin of popular literature: it is no fun to read." |
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Who Lost the Middle Ages? Skeptic 11.2 (Summer 2004) "[L]ate medieval scribes [...] accidentally made history four times longer than it should have been by repeating the same history four times. Fomenko believes this accounts for 'similarities' he has found in the different periods of human history" |
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Charioteer of the Gods Skeptic 10.4 (2004) "...for people familiar with the science fiction magazines of the 1940s and 50s, [Eric] von Daniken's "revolutionary" assertion [about alien gods] held more than just a hint of other writings that claimed long before that the gods were not of this world." |
Photo credits: Except where otherwise indicated, images are from public domain sources.
