Kendrick Crosby Frazier (March 19, 1942 – November 7, 2022) was a science journalist who edited Skeptical Inquirer magazine from 1978 until his death. In 2024 his outstanding book titled Shadows of Science: How to uphold science, detect pseudoscience, and expose antiscience in the age of disinformation was published.
The Introduction begins as follows:
“Misinformation swirls around us like a hurricane that never ends. It is constant, ever-renewing, resilient, overwhelming. It seems that we might never escape the maelstrom. Falsehoods have always flown like the wind, while truth does a slow walk, as Jonathan Swift and others have long noted. But something seems different these days Way back in 1987, my organization held a conference titled ‘The Age of Misinformation.’ That theme was both topical and prescient because today, in this third decade of the twenty-first century, studies show that misinformation spreads faster, farther, broader, and deeper than accurate information. The algorithms of social media sites, the bots of bad-actor nations, and the current political-cultural climates of divisiveness all actively encourage the spread of misinformation. These and other toxic social forces amplify the abuse exponentially and poison our own sense of reality and the trust in others necessary for societies to cohere and for democracies to function.
When that misinformation and disinformation seek to nullify facts and evidence about the science of nature, life, and ourselves and present false and unsupported views as true, the result is something we can likely call pseudoscience. Pseudoscience is everywhere, following real science like a shadow, never quite revealing itself for what it is. Pseudoscience is pervasive, potent, unrelenting. It confuses people and impedes the public acceptance of good science. It advances powerful countercurrents contrary to common sense and good science, making truth constantly swim upstream against cascading headwaters of misguided information designed to appeal to our deepest fears, wants, and wishes. What can be done? The first thing is to recognize it….”
Titles of chapters in this book are as follows:
Science and the Frontiers of Discovery
Pseudoscience and Unfounded Ideas
What the Heck is Pseudoscience?
What’s the Harm? Why Does It Matter?
The Subjects of Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience in Medicine or SCAM
The Values of Science
The Demarcation Problem: Philosophers and Pseudoscience
Climate Antiscience and Denial
The Rise of Organized Skepticism
Skepticism Goes Global
Final Thoughts, Future Hopes
Pages 61 and 62 list the following representative topics that attract pseudoscience, which could also be what you expect to hear on the late-night Coast-to-Coast-AM radio show:
Archeology and Earth Sciences
Ancient astronauts, ancient inscriptions, the Bermuda Triangle, dinosaur and human footprints together, dinosaurs contemporary with humans, dragon hoaxes, fire-breathing dinosaurs, global flooding in human history, a hollow Earth, lost ancient technologies, lost continents (Atlantis), psychic archaeology, psychic earthquake predictions, undersea “pavements”, unverified early visitations to the New World
Astronomy and Space Sciences
Alien abductions, alien artifacts, alien visitations, astrology, big bang rejection, cities on the Moon, crashed saucers, an electric universe, end-of-the-world apocalypses, a face on Mars, full-Moon effects, Moon-landing denial, neoastrology (‘Mars effect’), recovered saucers, rogue planets, UFOs, Velikovskyian ‘Worlds in Collision.’
Biology and Anthropology
Antievolutionism, birth-date-based biorhythms, bogus fossils (the Piltdown man), cattle mutilations, chupacabras, creationism, cryptozoology, or undiscovered large animals (bigfoot, yeti, Loch Ness monster, or lake monsters, etc.), intelligent design.
Cognitive Science and Neuroscience
Mind-body dualism, near-death experiences, out-of-body experiences, pop psychologies about the brain, seeing Heaven, split-brain exaggerations, visiting Heaven.
Medical Sciences (Pseudomedicine)
Acupuncture, alternative medicine, anthroposophic medicine, antiaging creams, applied kinesiology, aromatherapy, ayurvedic medicine, chelation therapy, chiropractic (other than for treating back pain), coffee enemas, colonics, complementary medicine, cleanses, crystal healing, cupping, detoxification, ear candling, electrodermal screening, energy healing, energy medicine, essential oils, fad diets, faith healing, feng shui, flower remedies, food supplements, herbal remedies, homeopathy, integrative medicine, iridology, jade eggs, magnet therapy, meridians, natural remedies, naturopathy, oil pulling, oxygen therapy, performance-enhancing bracelets, psychic surgery, quackery, quantum medicine, quantum quackery, reflexology, spontaneous human combustion, therapeutic touch, unproven medical remedies, weight loss schemes.
Physics and Chemistry
Accelerators creating mini black holes, anthropic principle misinterpretations, antimatter pseudoscience, Bible codes, blood of Januarius, bomb-detector devices, cold fusion, dowsing, energy catalysis (e-cat), energy healing, faster-than-light travel, free energy, human-presence-detector rods, Kirlian photography, magnetic healing, misapplications of quantum mechanics to the macroworld, New Age physics, perpetual motion, psychic photography, quantum mysticism, relativity denial, the shroud of Turin, water with memory, weeping statues, young-Earth creationism.
Psychology
Aura reading, bogus self-help schemes, Dianetics, divination, eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), facilitated communication, fringe psychotherapies, fortune telling, ghosts, graphology, hauntings, hypnotic age regression, mass hysterias, mediums, multiple personalities, parapsychology, past lives, pop and fad psychologies, premonitions, psychic claims, psychic detectives, psychic powers (ESP, precognition, psychokinesis) psychics, rebirthing, recovered memories, reincarnation, repressed memories, remote viewing, Rorschach inkblot tests, Satanic-ritual-abuse rumors, spirits, thought-field therapy, transcendental meditation.
The looney looney looney title was adapted from here at Wikimedia Commons.
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