>From: GBurch1@aol.com
>
>This points to a general problem with debunking ju-ju: There's no money in
>it. Aside from CSICOP and their magazine the Skeptical Inquirer and and
>few
>books, there is no real forum for dubunking and very little SYSTEMATIC
>checking of "prophecies" and other clap-trap. Systematically collecting,
>checking the claims of "prophets" and "psychics" and publicizing the
>results
>would be a hugely expensive and difficult undertaking. Worse, sensible
>people know that there isn't any good that comes from such an endeavor
>other
>than the frustrating one of trying to stem the tide of irrationality in the
>world. Unlike the spontaneously generated mechanism that the scientific
>method offers for publication, peer review and independent corroboration,
>debunking charlatans doesn't produce valuable new products to provide
>funding
>for the process. In other words, perhaps dubunking charlatans is a public
>good that is underproduced by the market, especialy in comparison to the
>money to be made from PRODUCING and selling quackery and nonsense . . .
There's The Skeptics Society and their Skeptic Magazine. Usually
informative, always entertaining reading.
www.skeptic.com
-Zero
Learn how your computer can earn you money while you sleep!
http://www.ProcessTree.com/?sponsor=38158
________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:34:12 MDT