Click here to support the Daily Grail for as little as $US1 per month on Patreon

Sheldrake v Shermer

By Gregon

Last week I mentioned the ‘Skeptic’ column by Michael Shermer in the November 2005 issue of Scientific American, which focused on the research of ‘maverick biologist’ Rupert Sheldrake. Rupert has written a letter of reply to Scientific American regarding Shermer’s column, and has kindly agreed to share it with the Daily Grail – click here to read it. Accompanying the letter is contact information for Sci-Am, in case you want to lend some support to Rupert, and also a previous essay I wrote regarding Shermer’s shoddy research and writing.

Greg
Editor
Greg is the owner-editor of The Daily Grail, as well as the author of a number of books including Stop Worrying, There Probably is an Afterlife.
Related

7 Comments

  1. I think so, at least.
    You know what I think? I think Michael Shermer, and people like Joe Nickell need to get laid. Could you imagine? It wouldn’t shock me very much if a female did however make themselves readily available to them, and instead they decided to go write a column or hop on a History channel special arguing that the vagina doesn’t exist. Anyway, nice read. Thanks for the update Greg!

    ” There is no Religion higher than the Truth. “

    1. I used to…
      …read Sci Am on a regular basis. I had not gotten myself a subscription but did by it off the newstands every month, together with every scientific mag I could get my hands on.

      After a number of reads of Shermer’s collumn, I decided that Sci Am was not worthy to be read anymore. If they can support all this unscientific pretentions, I have no reason to assume that other articles are any more legit.

      Maybe they are but maybe they are not. They simply do not scan what they publish or have a slanted view on things.

      Surprising in a sense when you consider that other articles in the same magazine could often be even more far fetched than what Shermer was attacking. The Holographic Universe, Strings, Big Bangs and what not.

      One could wonder if all minds have the same number of branes intersecting them. Some people unfortunately seem to be lacking dimensions.

      1. It makes sense.
        For the most part, it’s much easier to be a ‘great destroyer’ of ideas or claims than it is to express or develop them. These guys do their jobs because it’s easy, and it’s hard for me to respect that. Any regular Joe can discern if something doesn’t make sense or this or that guy’s claims are completely bogus; you don’t need to be a grandeur ‘professional researcher’ to shoot down half-baked claims of the paranormal or supernatural. I said it once, and I’ll say it again, these guys need to get laid.

        ” There is no Religion higher than the Truth. “

      2. More Sci Am dissing
        Hi Richard,

        Back in the ’70s and early ’80s, I worked in one of the largest research organizations in the world. I read Sci Am along with a lot of other journals that were available through the library there. By the late ’70s, I quit reading Sci Am because it was so sanctimonious, I just couldn’t get through even one article. I had first hand experience with ‘real’ research of many kinds and with my fellow scientists who performed that research. I could not recognize what Sci Am was conveying as anything like what we were doing. It was filtered through some kind of warping mechanism. Other journals were written by scientists for scientists, but Sci Am was produced by the bishops of the religion of science for the great unwashed to be intimidated and impressed by the things they couldn’t possibly understand.

  2. SciAM = Voice of the Establishment
    What else would you expect? The strings are clearly visible, to me anyway, and by that I mean marionette strings!

    Peace,

    ASM

    The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

    George Bernard Shaw

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mobile menu - fractal