1. Home
  2. Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience

The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Hal Harris | Thu, 06/01/2006 - 01:00

What are the consequences of allowing irrational ideas into the science classroom? If you are willing to rely on faith instead of reason to come to conclusions about nature and our origins, then there is no reason to stop with Intelligent (sic) Design. Why not go all the way (and beyond that) and teach that the universe is the result of divine intervention by The Flying Spaghetti Monster?

That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles: 62 All-New Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of EverydayLife

Hal Harris | Sat, 11/01/2003 - 00:00

Joe Schwarcz's books are irresistible for "Hal's Picks" because they constitute just the kind of morsels that I look for - the connections between what we teach in chemistry courses and the world in which our students (and we) live. My only surprise in this book was that Prof. Schwarcz was able to come up with so many additional high-quality essays.

Radar, Hula Hoops, and Playful Pigs: 67 Digestible commentaries on the fascinating chemistry of ordinary life

Hal Harris | Thu, 05/01/2003 - 01:00

Joe Schwarcz is Director of McGill University's Office for Chemistry and Society. He hosts a weekly radio call-in radio show in Montreal and also writes a column about chemistry in everyday life for the Washington Post. The essays in this book are collected largely from his radio show, and they are exactly in the spirit of "Hal's Picks".

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

Hal Harris | Thu, 10/02/1997 - 02:00

Generally speaking, if you skipped every book with the word "weird" in the title, you wouldn't be missing much. This is an exception. Michael Shermer teaches the history of science at Occidental College in Eagle Rock, California and, as Editor of Skeptic Magazine, is a prominent and eloquent proponent of the skeptical viewpoint.

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Hal Harris | Wed, 01/01/1997 - 00:00

Science lost one of its most eloquent and persuasive spokesmen with the death last month of Carl Sagan. While he was best known as an astronomer and planetary scientist, The Demon-Haunted World should remind us that his interests were far broader than that. Here, he addresses at greater length some questions of pseudoscience that he briefly discussed in Sunday Parade magazine articles.