Category: Special Report

American conservatives have been rightly upset by the vandalizing of statues and monuments over the past couple of years. Make no mistake: Confederate generals and vile colonialists deserve no honor. But the way to remove those monuments is through proper legal action instead of mob violence. Yet some conservatives are thrilled by the recent vandalizing …

Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine permeates the entirety of Russian society. It is dividing friends and families and silencing its critics with legislative changes. Propaganda about the rotten West and the heroic fight against fascism attack people’s minds on a daily basis. Is there still skepticism in Russia? Общество скептиков (the Russian Skeptics …

When I first met CSI Fellow Richard Saunders, the producer and host of The Skeptic Zone podcast, at CSICon 2017, I had no way of knowing that in less than a year I would be writing for skepticalinquirer.org. I also had no way of knowing that once I had that job, my first article would …

On September 20, 2021, the open access journal Scientific Reports posted a paper titled “A Tunguska Sized Airburst Destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age City in the Jordan Valley Near the Dead Sea” (Bunch et al. 2021). The paper cited the Bible as possibly containing a written record of the destruction: “We consider whether …

Last week, rumors circulated on TikTok warning of imminent school shootings. The rumored threat went by several names, including the “TikTok Shooting Challenge” and a “National Shoot Up Your School Day” message, allegedly encouraging students to attack schools on Friday, December 17. While some parents panicked and school officials scrambled to reassure their communities, law …

With an admittedly grossly underestimated death toll of more than half a million, Brazil is one of the countries hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is also one in which the catastrophic effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus can be attributed, with little space for controversy, to the adoption of public policies based on pseudoscience …

Anti-vaxxers all over the world have capitalized on the temporary hold some European countries have placed on the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine due to some cases of blood clotting. We now know that reports about its risks have been overblown, and after a thorough evaluation, European authorities once again resumed the use of this vaccine. Yet …

Twenty years ago this month—this week, in fact—the capital of India was gripped in a panic. Early reports claimed that some mysterious monkey-like creature attacked many residents in New Delhi, leaving fear, scars, and ultimately even dead bodies in its wake. The Monkey Man, as it came to be known, made international news as police …

My friend and colleague Scott O. Lilienfeld died on September 30, 2020, far too soon, at the age of fifty-nine (see obituary in January/February 2021 Skeptical Inquirer, 10–11). Scott wrote an amazing twenty-five articles for Skeptical Inquirer and in total more than 350 articles before his untimely death. Readers can come to appreciate his many …

In my line of work, I routinely encounter events said to be inexplicable. They’re not merely amazing or incredible but downright unexplained. At times the topics I research are even said to be “beyond science” (whatever that would mean). These subjects—including psychic powers, crop circles, Bigfoot, ghosts, and miracles—are described as timeless mysteries that cannot …

A lot can happen in twelve years—even in evolution. It took just a dozen years for a population of threespine stickleback fish to evolve to lose the bulk of their armor after colonizing a freshwater lake in Alaska (Bell et al. 2004). Experimental populations of a species of wheat managed in the same amount of …

  The numbers were grim, changed constantly, and told only part of the story. As of early June, there were nearly 6 million diagnosed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with over 350,000 deaths and 2.3 million recovered. Of those, over 1.6 million patients and nearly 100,000 deaths were in the United States. With only a small …

Alejandro Borgo, editor of the newly launched CFI online publication, Pensar, invites you to explore the Spanish language magazine for science, reason, and freethought. Check it out at Pensar.org.

I last wrote about the “War of the Weasels,” the ongoing creationist attacks on evolutionary (genetic) algorithms, in the May/June 2010 issue of Skeptical Inquirer (Thomas 2010). Genetic algorithms (GAs) are computerized simulations of evolution and are used to study evolutionary processes and also to solve difficult engineering or math problems. Intelligent design (ID) creationists …

More Brazilians believe in the importance of vaccines than in the validity of so-called alternative therapies, and almost 90 percent of the adult population accepts—at least in part—the fact that climate change is real and caused by human activity. Nevertheless, almost half of Brazilian adults reject one of the fundamental principles of the theory of …

After this past summer’s sizzling heat, many people will undoubtedly welcome the coming of winter in the northern hemisphere. Colder weather, though seasonally temporary, will be refreshing. Australians, though, and others in the southern hemisphere, may not be looking forward to their coming summer. Globally, July 2019 was the hottest July and month on record. …

I first started studying UFO reports on October 17, 1973. By the time I was thirteen years old, I had met and become friends with famed UFO researcher Stanton T. Friedman, who recently passed away at age eighty-four (see Joe Nickell’s piece in the September/October 2019 SI). Friedman had taken me under his wing and …

The July-August 2018 issue of American Psychologist contained an article titled “The Experimental Evidence for Parapsychological Phenomena: A Review” by Etzel Cardeña. Cardeña is known for research on hypnosis and consciousness, parapsychology, and, interestingly, for his work in theater as an actor and director. The paper prompted us to examine and critique the science behind …

John of God (João de Deus, real name João Teixeira de Faria) is a well-known Brazilian medium who claims to have healed several people through his spiritual surgeries. According to one John of God website, he is “arguably the most powerful unconscious medium alive today and possibly the best-known healer of the past 2000 years.” …

Those of us in the skeptical community have our work cut out for us. In the process of disseminating scientific thinking, we often challenge unsubstantiated beliefs that are held with considerable conviction. Every one of us who has tried to persuade committed believers in astrology or homeopathy that they are mistaken knows just how challenging—and …

Kids and their parents around the world apparently have a new deadly online danger to fear: a mysterious and terrifying online figure known as “Momo,”

On November 22, 2018, Institute Question of Science (IQC), the first Brazilian institute for skepticism and rational thinking, was officially launched.

Natalie Grams was once a practicing homeopathic doctor.  She decided to write a book defending homeopathy, but what she learned changed her own views instead.

Nothing prepared me for the workshops my colleagues and I were required to attend this past winter.

Alternative therapies in the Brazilian Unified Health System will be the first target of the new institute in defense of scientific evidence

Americans have misconceptions about a great many things and a demonstrable blindness to social problems facing Native Americans and others, but misinformation isn’t helpful.

Skeptic Tim Farley has produced an excellent website called “What’s the Harm?,” which catalogs tangible negative consequences from belief in pseudoscience.

Things took a turn from the political to the surreal with conspiracy rumors that a lawyer sitting behind Brett Kavanaugh was caught on camera flashing a white nationalism sign with the fingers of one hand.

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey aired in 2014 to much acclaim.

Several British tabloids and paranormal-themed websites reported that a ghostly black monk appeared in a photograph taken by Jon Wickes during a visit to Eynsford Castle in Kent. Wickes had taken his twelve-year-old son to the castle because he was learning about medieval castles in school. The photo, taken from outside the ruined remains of …

Despite returning to its regular home at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan, change was in the air for NECSS 2018.

An Interview with Dr. Anna Zakrisson

An unexplained distortion of time and space—or catalogue of simple errors and a misunderstanding of how science works?

The film spawned several sequels as well as dozens of conspiracy theories.

In the 1970s and 1980s, belief in the paranormal was the most common target of skeptics. Topics such as extrasensory perception (ESP), astrology, and faith healing were at the top of the list of skeptical concerns. In the past thirty years, skepticism has evolved quite a bit, and while we never stopped being watchdogs on …

On March 18, 2018, CBS Sunday Morning featured an insufficiently skeptical segment, “ESP: Inside the Government’s Secret Program on Psychic Spies.” One of the psychics presented—Angela Ford (formerly Angela Dellafiora)—is described as a former Pentagon Project Stargate “psychic spy.” She recalled one of her best assignments in which, allegedly, she psychically tracked down fugitive drug …

The Halloween 2017 terror attack in New York brought forth the usual affirmations of courage and resilience amid the sorrow, though these have been joined by a growing sense of frustration that the United States is not making progress in its struggle against Islamic extremism. Such confusion stems from the fact that Americans are far …

Skeptics are likely already familiar with homeopathic products being sold in pharmacies.

Skeptics typically work hard to reassure the public that their fears of many things are exaggerated or outright fabricated.

Demon House is a documentary by Zak Bagans, best known for his Travel Channel series Ghost Adventures.