From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat Jul 08 2000 - 13:32:36 MDT
>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
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