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"[Gardner] zaps his targets with laserlike precision and wit."―Entertainment Weekly
Martin Gardner is perhaps the wittiest, most devastating unmasker of scientific fraud and intellectual chicanery of our time. Here he muses on topics as diverse as numerology, New Age anthropology, and the late Senator Claiborne Pell's obsession with UFOs, as he mines Americans' seemingly inexhaustible appetite for bad science. Gardner's funny, brilliantly unsettling exposés of reflexology and urine therapy should be required reading for anyone interested in "alternative" medicine. In a world increasingly tilted toward superstition, Did Adam and Eve Have Navels? will give those of us who prize logic and common sense immense solace and inspiration. "Gardner is a national treasure...I wish [this] could be made compulsory reading in every high school―and in Congress."―Arthur C. Clarke "Nobody alive has done more than Gardner to spread the understanding and appreciation of mathematics, and to dispel superstition."― The New Criterion, John Derbyshire
- Sales Rank: #2195093 in Books
- Color: Multicolor
- Published on: 2001-10-17
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.30" h x .90" w x 5.50" l, .99 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 352 pages
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- ISBN13: 9780393322385
- Condition: New
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Review
Gardner is a national treasure...I wish [this] could be made compulsory reading in every high school—and in Congress. -- Arthur C. Clarke
Nobody alive has done more than Gardner to spread the understanding and appreciation of mathematics, and to dispel superstition. -- The New Criterion, John Derbyshire
[Gardner] zaps his targets with laserlike precision and wit. -- Entertainment Weekly
About the Author
Martin Gardner (1914-2010) is regarded as one of the world's leading experts on Lewis Carroll and his work. The author of more than a hundred books, he wrote the "Mathematical Games" column for Scientific American for twenty-five years and has been hailed by Douglas Hofstadter as "one of the great intellects produced in this country in this century."
Most helpful customer reviews
52 of 57 people found the following review helpful.
The never-ending battle against pseudoscience
By Duwayne Anderson
There are certain qualities and characteristics that make a great writer. One is the ability to write well, of course, but closely related is the ability to convey clear and succinct concepts in a way that communicates with the reader. The best authors all leave me with that "ahah" moment, as they teach me something I didn't know before.
For these reasons and others, Martin Gardner is one of my favorite authors. I've enjoyed his articles over the years, and find his books both refreshing and educational. This book, "Did Adam and Eve have Navels," is consistent with Gardner's reputation as one of the best science and mathematics authors around.
Gardner's book consists of a collection of essays (there are 28), each dealing with some aspect of pseudo science (or, in some cases, I'd call it pseudo logic). The title on the front of the jacket corresponds with the subject matter of the first essay. There is something about simple questions and observations that fascinates me. They tend to be overlooked or ignored, but often lead us to deep insights. In Gardner's first essay, he explores the logic - or lack of it - in the idea of the mythical Adam and Eve and whether they actually had belly buttons. This seems like a whimsical question, and one probably best forgotten by most people. The problem is, as Gardner points out, whether you answer the question "yes," or "no," there are unexpected consequences.
This is pretty much Gardner's style throughout the rest of the book, as he picks off one after the other unsupported idea or myth. Topics include ideas about intelligent design, egg balancing, numerology, Cannibalism as a myth, Freud, and the Star of Bethlehem.
Some of the most interesting stores Gardner tells, and some of the most alarming, are those that deal with pseudo science at the academic level in some of the nations more prestigious universities. There is the example of Courtney Brown (an associate professor of political science at Emory University) who claims to be able to do SRV (scientific remote viewing, which is another word for clairvoyance) and "Yogic flying." His book has received praise from the likes of Harvard psychiatrist John Mack, who believes that aliens from a different dimension are visiting earth, kidnapping its citizens, and doing some really nasty stuff to them.
There are also stories about the influence of political extremism on science, including the following statement from ultra feminist Lucy Irigary:
"Is E=Mc^2 a sexed equation? Perhaps it is. Let us make the hypothesis that it is insofar as it privileges the speed of light over other speeds that are vitally necessary to us. What seems to me to indicate the possibly sexed nature of the equation is not directly its uses by nuclear weapons, rather it is having privileged what goes the fastest ..."
In addition to these exposed escapades, I think my favorite chapter was number 14, which describes "Alan Sokal's Hilarious Hoax." The hoax was a paper that Sokal submitted to the editors of "Social Text," in the Spring/Summer of 1996. Sokal wrote the paper as a hoax to illustrate the foolish things the journal would print, and their failure to engage in any sort of academically meaningful peer review. Sokal began his parody by explaining that there really isn't an objective world out there, that can be studied and understood by the scientific method. As Gardner put it, "the funniest part of Sokal's paper is its conclusion that science must emancipate itself from classical mathematics before it can become a "concrete tool of progressive political praxis."
If these stories didn't portend such dreadful consequences for public policy and science education in America, they'd be so funny you'd hardly be able to stop laughing. Or crying.
About the only complaint I have with Gardner's book is his tendency to laugh off some of the examples of scientific illiteracy. For anyone remotely familiar with science, the laughing off is understandable - as in the case of Lucy Irigary calling the equation E=Mc^2 sexed. The problem is, for those who don't really know much about science (either how it works, or what it says) some of the laughing off might look like pride, or the inability to deal logically with alternative ideas.
To a certain extent, I can understand what Gardner's doing. Some ideas are simply so absurd as to lack any respect at all. [And Gardner would point out that the reason they are absurd has to do with their failure to explain the evidence. So, this is not about pre-conceived perceptions, but about allowing the evidence to lead us to conclusions, instead of following our favorite myths, political convictions, or emotional desires.] Still, there were times I found myself wishing Gardner would say a little more about why some of the ideas in his examples were silly.
Anyway, I really liked this book. I highly recommend it to anyone. It's easy to read, well written, and for anyone concerned about the proliferation of pseudoscience in modern society, it's pretty much required reading.
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
Another fine collection
By Dennis Littrell
I found this the chewiest of the four Martin Gardner collections that I have read. Once again the venerable champion of common sense assumes his role as the sorcerer's apprentice trying to sweep back the tide of pseudoscience. And once again he provides insight into just how overwhelming that task really is.
There are 28 essays in this collection, all but one from Gardner's column in the Skeptical Inquirer. They range over such matters as UFOs, religion, social science, astronomy, evolution versus creationism, etc. There is a chapter on "Alan Sokal's Hilarious Hoax." ( I too thought it was pretty hilarious. See my review of The Sokal Hoax: The Sham that Shook the Academy (2000).) There is one on cannibalism in which I found Gardner's skepticism understandable, especially as he points out that it is always the other culture that makes the accusation; however his essay finally suggests that the debate may be more over the extent than in any doubt about its occurrence. The Adam and Eve question is of course a joke, but the kind of joke that has been taken seriously by some for hundreds of years. For me it's similar to the question about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. More germane is the chapter, "Freud's Flawed Theory of Dreams" followed by "Post-Freudian Dream Theory" in which it is demonstrated once again that Freud was, shall we say, mistaken.
The chapter on Carlos Castaneda is illuminating in what it reveals about the gullibility of some anthropologists, while the essay on the ill-fated Heaven's Gate "Bo and Peep" cult is sad. Gardner has some fun with Jean Houston, channeling master and New Age guru to Hillary Rodman Clinton. Apparently Houston's spin on channeling is that it is a kind of trance experience that allows one to come into contact with Jung's "collective unconscious" (p. 125). Notable is Gardner's accusation that Temple University "has become a center for the promulgation of some of the wildest aspects of pseudoscience" (p. 221). (Can Harvard be next?) I was amused to find that the "urine therapy" that Gardner takes apart really is predicated upon the use of human urine. I had seen the name before but naively thought it was "Your-reen therapy" after somebody's surname! The final chapter, "Science and the Unknowable" is a fine essay on the philosophy of science.
One of the very best reasons for reading Gardner is to appreciate how clear his expression is, and how readable he makes just about any subject (including the philosophy of science!). He has a gift for making the abstract concrete and the obtuse transparent. May his tribe increase.
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful.
More cataloging than debunking
By E. Graves
I read the intelligent design chapter of this book in a bookstore and was interested enough to buy it and read the rest. Based on the marketing of the book (bearing the subtitle "Debunking Pseudoscience"), I expected to read a set of discussions explaining the flaws in the reasoning of purveyors of popular but incorrect science. This was certainly the model for the chapter on intelligent design, which addresses the common arguments for this "theory" and points out their problems.
However, upon reading the rest of the book I was dismayed to find that the majority of the chapters spend precious little time debunking flawed science, and mainly give an exhausting list of the instances of a particular misconception. For example, the chapter on urine therapy spends vastly more time on various incarnations of this technique than on medical evidence showing that urine has no therapeutic benefit. Gardner addresses this point briefly in one chapter, in which he states that he wouldn't waste print space trying to have an intelligent argument over whether a certain topic is right or wrong. The implication being that it is beneath his intelligence to do so. And to be fair, this thinking is true for a great many of the topics in the book, including remote viewing, second coming prophecies, and UFO cults.
I therefore feel somewhat mislead that a book subtitled "Debunking Pseudoscience" focuses less on the inaccuracies of scientific misconceptions and more on completely and obviously ridiculous crackpot ideas. Expanding on Gardner's comment, this is not "pseudoscience", "science" doesn't belong anywhere near the label of many of these subjects. Also problematic is that some of the more science-oriented chapters, such as the discussion of the existence of cannibalism, also don't debunk but instead present arguments over what is apparently a valid, ongoing scientific debate.
In summary, the book does contain a number of interesting discussions of misguided ideologies, but its appeal is from a historical perspective. Anyone expecting in depth scientific analysis should look elsewhere.
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