Skeptical Inquirer Electronic Digest 9-30-99
CSICOP
Skeptical Inquirer Electronic Digest 9-30-99
SKEPTICS DEBATE 1999
A Special SI DIGEST Where Skeptics Debate Current Issues.
Visit the CSICOP and Skeptical Inquirer Magazine website at
http://www.csicop.org. Receiving over 200,000 hits per year, the CSICOP
site
was recently rated one of the top ten science sites by HOMEPC magazine.
In this week's SI DIGEST:
--Kurtz to Appear on HBO Special "Life Afterlife"
ALSO:
SKEPTICS DEBATE 1999
A Special SI DIGEST where readers debate current issues.
--Genetically Modified Food: What Should Be the Skeptic's Position?
--Animal Intelligence and Language: What do Skeptics Think?
--The End of Science? What do Skeptics Say?
KURTZ TO APPEAR ON HBO SPECIAL "LIFE AFTERLIFE"
Linda Ellerbee's production company, Lucky Duck Productions, has produced
a
two-hour documentary for HBO on the afterlife, spiritualism, and near
death
experience. A documentary crew traveled to Amherst, New York last fall to
interview CSICOP chair Paul Kurtz on the topic.
The world premiere is on HBO October 5 at 7:30pm. In addition, the film
has
already been accepted at The Breckenridge Film Festival and The Vancouver
International
Film Festival, and the producers are hoping to screen the show at a few
others.
So, in other words, this one is big. No word though on the treatment of
the
topic.
We'll all have to tune-in October 5 to HBO and see.
SKEPTICS DEBATE 1999
A Special SI DIGEST where Skeptics Debate Current Issues.
GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD: WHAT SHOULD BE THE SKEPTIC'S POSITION?
The topic of genetically modified continues to be at the center of heated
controversy in Europe, the U.K., Australia, Japan, and other parts of the
world. Yet in the U.S., there appears to be a silent acceptance of the
technology.
***What should be the skeptic's position on GM?
E-mail concise 200 word opinions to SINI...@aol.com, and we'll post a
selection of some of the best in the next SIDIGEST.***
For background, read the recent debate sponsored by the journal Nature on
their website at:
http://helix.nature.com/debates/gmfoods/gmfoods_frameset.html
Also, you might want to listen to a recent discussion of the topic on
NPR's
Science Friday.
Go to:
http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=08%2F13%2F1999&PrgID=5
Or check out the Monsanto UK website by going to:
http://www.monsanto.co.uk/
And make sure to check out the website for the Union for Concerned
Scientists.
Go to:
http://www.ucsusa.org/agriculture/index.html
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE AND LANGUAGE: WHAT IS THE SKEPTICS POSITION?
Prompted in part by the release of new book titled _The Parrot's Lament
and
Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue, Intelligence and Ingenuity_ by Eugene
Linden, NPR Science Friday recently devoted a program to the topic of
animal
intelligence and language.
Skeptics have long debated the topic of animal intelligence and language,
going back to the horse Clever Hans. For a past overview of the topic
posted
on the CSICOP website, go to:
http://www.csicop.org/articles/koko/index.html
***What is the skeptic's position on animal intelligence and language?
E-mail concise 200 word opinions to SINI...@aol.com, and we'll post a
selection of some of the best in the next SIDIGEST.***
Here is a preview of the NPR Science Friday program. To listen to the
full
audio go to:
http://search.npr.org/cf/cmn/cmnpd01fm.cfm?PrgDate=09/07/1999&PrgID=5
GUESTS:
EUGENE LINDEN
*Author, The Parrot's Lament and Other True Tales of Animal Intrigue,
Intelligence and Ingenuity.
An excerpt from the book can be found at the TIME magazine website. Go
to:
http://www.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,30198,00.html.
ROB SHOEMAKER
*Coordinator of the Orangutan Language Project
*Research Associate at the Krasnow Institute at George Mason University
Everyone with a pet has some kind of story about Spot or Fluffy acting in
a
way that displayed an almost human insight. Is this just human
sentimentality? In recent years, some researchers have claimed that animal
thought processes are not so different from our own, and some animals are
self-aware, and even capable of empathy and abstract reasoning. Join Ray
Suarez and guests for a fresh look at animal intelligence.
THE END OF SCIENCE? WHAT DO SKEPTICS SAY?
In 1996, then Scientific American writer John Horgan published _The End
of
Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific
Age_ in which he argued that scientific inquiry had gone about as far as
it
can go and that the questions remaining for it to answer are unanswerable.
Many scientists and skeptics were "outraged". (I recently read the book,
and
highly recommend it. Stylistically brilliant, entertaining, and
philosophical, though you might disagree with much of it. In the
scientific
tradition, it poses important questions.)
Now his latest book is due to be released in October. "The Undiscovered
Mind -- How the Human Mind Defies Replication, Medication and Explanation"
(Free Press, $25) reportedly continues where Horgan left off in _The End
of
Science_.
***The end of science? What do skeptics say?
E-mail concise 200 word opinions to SINI...@aol.com, and we'll post a
selection of some of the best in the next SIDIGEST.***
For more background, check out an interview with Horgan from the NY TIMES
Science Tuesday section for Sept. 22. Go to:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/092199sci-conversation-horgan.
html.
_____________________________
-30-
James J. Lippard
> Skeptical Inquirer Electronic Digest 9-30-99
>
> --Animal Intelligence and Language: What do Skeptics Think?
> --The End of Science? What do Skeptics Say?
The skeptic's position should be, on any issue where there isn't
conclusive evidence one way or another, either agnosticism or
tentative acceptance of the view that seems to be best supported--but
with tolerance for those who accept other views which are also
inconclusively supported by the evidence. In other words, there is
no and should be no official skeptic's position.
Further, there shouldn't be an official skeptic's position on subjects
which are matters of political ideology, religious faith, or metaphysical
views on which empirical science is silent.
Jim Lippard lippard...@discord.org http://www.discord.org/
Unsolicited bulk email charge: $500/message. Don't send me any.
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