Every year, in English-speaking countries alone, more than a hundred books that promote the wildest forms of bogus science and the paranormal are published.
The percentage of Americans today who take astrology seriously is larger than the percentage of people who did so in the early Middle Ages, when leading church theologians-Saint Augustine, for example - gave excellent reasons for considering astrology nonsense.
We pride ourselves on our advanced scientific technology, yet public education in science has sunk so low that a fourth of Americans and 55 percent of teenagers, not to mention a recent president of the nation and his first lady, believe in astrology!
Now and then a courageous publisher, more concerned with enlightening the public than with profits, will issue a book that honestly assesses pseudoscience and the paranormal.
Works of this sort now in print can be counted on your fingers. It is always an occasion for rejoicing when such a book appears, and there are several ways in which How to Think about Weird Things is superior to most books de- signed to teach readers how to tell good science from bad
First of all, this book covers an enormous range of bogus sciences
and extraordinary claims that currently enjoy large followings in America. Second, unlike most similar books, the authors heavily stress principles that help you critically evaluate outlandish claims-and tell you wby these principles are so important. Third, the book's discussions are readable, precise, and straightforward.
I am particularly pleased by the book's clearheaded assessment of scientific realism at a time when it has become fashionable in New Age circles to think of the laws of science as not "out there," but some-how a projection of our minds and cultures.
Yes, quantum mechanics has its subjective tinge. There is a sense in which an electron's properties are not definite until it is measured, but this technical aspect of quantum theory has no relevance on the macroscopic level of every- day life.
In no way does the mathematical formalism of quantum mechanics imply, as some physicists smitten by Eastern religions claim, that the moon is not there unless someone looks at it. As Einstein liked to ask, Will a mouse's observation make the moon real?
The authors give clear, accurate explanations of puzzling physical theories. Quantum theory indeed swarms with mind-boggling experiments that are only dimly understood.
None of them justify thinking that E = mc2 is a cultural artifact, or that E might equal mc3 in Afghanistan or on a distant planet.
Extraterrestrials would of course express Einstein's formula with different symbols, but the law itself is as mind-independent as Mars.
