Category: Letters
Letters – Vol. 46, no. 2
On The Exorcist As a very serious forty-years-plus scholar of all things related to both the classic novel and film The Exorcist (most specifically relating to the writings and work of award-winning novelist and screenwriter William Peter Blatty), I greatly enjoyed your November/December 2021 issue featuring the article “Demoniac: Who Is Roland Doe, the Boy …
Letters – Vol. 46, no. 1
Examining Academic Relativists As a professor of rhetoric, I read Sven Ove Hansson’s article (“The Hidden Connection between Academic Relativists and Science Denial,” September/October 2021) with great interest. I only wish he had highlighted more of the “excellent such research” that he intimated existed. It is clear that rhetoric exists in many areas related to …
Letters – Vol. 45, no. 6
Environmentalism and the Fringe Re: “Environmentalism and the Fringe” by David Mountain (July/August 2021). One crucial and pragmatic solution to human-induced environmental degradation is to slow population growth through voluntary family planning. The UN projects world population will reach 9.4–10.1 billion in 2050—achieving the lower end of that range would help us preserve the natural …
Letters – Vol. 45, no. 5
Repairing the American Mind I was delighted to read Guy Harrison’s article espousing the need for critical thinking education (May/June 2021). On one count, however, he is thankfully wrong. At the college level, said education is not limited to “university philosophy courses.” For close to one hundred years, Speech Communication (or Communication Studies) Departments have …
Letters – Vol. 45, no. 4
Fighting Creationism Great anti-creationist articles from Nathan Lents and Richard Dawkins, but both are preaching to their choirs (Lents, “Behe, Bias, and Bears, Oh My!”; Dawkins, “Science: The Gold Standard for Truth,” both March/April 2021). Time is of the essence. This is spiritual warfare. Offense is needed, not defense. Fight on their turf. Jesus was …
Letters – Vol. 44 No. 4
The New Climate War Michael E. Mann is correct when he says that we cannot allow the profits of a few companies to destroy our planet and that the misinformation tactics of Exxon and other major oil firms are criminal (Commentary, “How to Win the New Climate War,” March/April 2020). However, the hydrocarbon producers are not …
Letters – Vol 44 No. 3
Climate Tribalism? Matthew Nisbet asserts that “today’s ubiquitous branding of Republicans as the party of ‘denial’ greatly exaggerates the intensity of opposition to climate and clean energy solutions among those on the center right. …” (“Against Climate Change Tribalism: We Gamble with the Future by Dehumanizing Our Opponents,” January/February 2020). This statement is irrelevant even …
UFOs Over Disney: Just Plain Goofy
A letter from SETI Senior Astronomer Seth Shostak to Disney Chairman Michael Eisner.
Notes from My Bulk-Mail Psychic File
Letters collected by CSICOP Executive Director Barry Karr