Science, Nonscience
and the Paranormal
Looking back
at a landmark publication
I worry
that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and
superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason
more sonorous and attractive.
- Carl Sagan
(1995)
It is no defense of superstition and pseudoscience to say that it brings solace and comfort to people. .... If solace and comfort are how we judge the worth of something, then consider that tobacco brings solace and comfort to smokers; alcohol brings it to drinkers; drugs of all kinds bring it to addicts; the fall of cards and the run of horses bring it to gamblers; cruelty and violence bring it to sociopaths. Judge by solace and comfort only and there is no behavior we ought to interfere with.
Preface
As I approached the century mark in
the number of entries appearing in my blog since I started writing in Feb 2010
(with a long, wholly unjustified, break between 2014 and 2023), I was not sure
about the topic for this article, a personal milestone, until a member in one
of my WhatsApp groups made a reference to, and offered to share, a soft copy of
a landmark publication titled ‘Science, Nonscience and the Paranormal’, edited
by the late Dr H Narasimhaiah (popularly known as Dr HN; see picture below),
someone I knew very well.
It was then that the idea of writing
a comprehensive article occurred to me, focusing primarily on this publication
and its architect, with illustrative and supportive episodes drawn from my own experience. I also thought that I could use this opportunity
to express my own views at length on scientific temper, pseudoscience and superstition as
exemplified in these episodes.
As a leading figure in the educational sphere in Karnataka, and an outstanding human being with strong Gandhian values and lifestyle, Dr HN was also firmly committed to the practice and promotion of scientific temper, something I greatly admired. This publication (see the picture of its title page displayed above) came out nearly four decades ago and created quite a flutter at that time.
I didn’t need to get the soft copy
from the group member since it was found by another member of the same group to
be in the public domain, and could be freely downloaded from the Internet
Archive at:
https://archive.org/details/scienceparanomial0000bsf/mode/2up
It is a comprehensive collection of writings of the
time on the titled theme, including pseudosciences, superstitions and blind
beliefs. It is as relevant today as it was when first brought out. Sadly, no print version is now available. I
therefore strongly urge all concerned individuals to download it, go through
it, disseminate it, and give the publicity its timeless content deserves.
Dr HN was also the founder-president of the Karnataka
Rajya Vijnana Parishat (KRVP), who strived all his life for the
development of a scientific temper in all people and at all levels, primarily
though the medium of education. I served as a member of the parishat
at that time and had attended several meetings headed by him, at the Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore, as an interim venue. He knew that he was
fighting an arduous battle against irrational beliefs and practices, ignorance,
superstition, dogma and vested interests, but never wavered in his principles
and determination.
His struggles in attempting to expose the ‘godman’ Satya Sai
Baba, and others, the conflicts he had with the general public, and with the
Syndicate of the Bangalore University of which he was the vice-chancellor, a
position from which he was eventually forced out by vested interests, made
frequent news at that time. His loss of
popularity didn’t lead to any loss of faith in his own beliefs. He had some
able allies like Mr M A Sethu Rao, founder secretary, and Mr J R Lakshmana Rao,
and others, who played a leading role in the affairs of the parishat. He
is missed very much today, as are the others.
Incidentally, I have a few things in common with Dr HN,
including a humble origin and a research guide, Professor M L Pool, in the
Physics department of the Ohio State University in the USA. However,
unlike Dr HN, my attachment to Prof Pool was for only one semester, and a
decade later, in 1967. I learnt the basics of nuclear reactor physics
under him. Only when I first met Prof Pool did I come to know that Dr HN had
got his doctorate degree in Nuclear Physics under him. He showered encomiums
on Dr HN, describing him as an outstanding human being and a very good student
as well.
I later got formally acquainted with Dr HN back home and worked with him in
several state government committees dealing with educational matters.
Once I had a long chat with him and we shared our experiences in the
USA. He narrated how he managed to stay a vegetarian in USA, against a
challenge that I too had faced later. As
I got to know him better, with his commitment to uphold a scientific spirit in
all walks of life, and a spartan life style, my admiration for him grew even
greater. I cherish this opportunity to pay my heartfelt tributes to his memory.
Scientific Temper – An audio recording
A few days after I downloaded the
soft copy of the publication and began re-reading it, one of my former
colleagues at the Regional Institute of Education (RIE) Mysore, formerly the
Regional College of Education, sent me a digital recording of an audio
programme, taped nearly three decades ago, which was a panel discussion titled
“scientific temper”, involving me with two of my esteemed erstwhile senior colleagues
Dr N N Swamy and Dr A S Janardana. The discussion is centred around three
episodes from our experience narrated and discussed with the objective of
bringing out some of the characteristics of scientific
temper and their presence or absence in the narratives. I remembered having taken part in this
programme intended for instructional use and for broadcast over the All India
Radio as well. Here is the full, unedited version of it, about twenty minutes in
duration:
At this stage, it is pertinent to
understand what we mean by some of the key terms employed in the present
context.
Science:
Science is too extensive and too
broad to lend itself to a unique cut-and-dry definition. However, here are a
few statements that, taken together, convey the essence of what
science is:
Science is a
rigorous, systematic endeavour that builds and organizes knowledge in the form
of testable explanations and predictions about the world.
Science is the
systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural
world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against
the evidence obtained.
Science is as much a process as a product since it involves a systematic approach to gaining knowledge about the natural world. Through observation, experimentation and analysis, scientists develop and refine theories and explanations for natural phenomena. This process allows for the testing of hypotheses and the continuous refinement of our understanding of the world around us. Science is dynamic and self-correcting, as new evidence and discoveries can lead to revisions of previously accepted ideas. This iterative process is essential for advancing our understanding of the universe.
Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence. Scientific methodology includes the following:
- Objective observation: Measurement and data (possibly, although not necessarily, using mathematics as a tool)
- Evidence
- Experiment and/or observation as benchmarks for testing hypotheses
- Induction: reasoning to establish general rules or conclusions drawn from facts or examples
- Repetition/replication
Nonscience:
Here are excerpts from a webpage of
the (US) National Center for Science Education, which elucidates the meaning
and scope of the term ‘Nonscience’:
Those
of us concerned with the multifaceted threat of creationism, as well as other
ideas of that nature, need to make clear to the public that both the sciences
and the nonsciences (including religion) are two legitimate areas of knowledge.
Each of these, working in harmony with the other, is vital for the operation of
any society. Pseudoscience, on the other hand, is a confusion of these two
areas and, as often as not, involves a conscious attempt to convey that
confusion to others.
… Nonscience is
the other sphere of human knowledge. It involves religions, ethical beliefs,
moral precepts, and philosophical ideals. (Unfortunately, the "non"
in nonscience almost
implies some value judgment, but there doesn't seem to be a better term.) These
kinds of knowledge also answer for us questions about the world, but, unlike
scientific answers, these answers are based upon faith; they are taken for
granted and they are not open to testing. They can be questioned and sometimes
changed, but, when they are, it is not through any sort of inductive reasoning
or experimentation. It is through abstract, philosophical analysis.
Non-scientific
ideas show us how to use scientific knowledge. They tell us what our
relationship is with the world around us and with each other. They answer
questions which need answering but for which we have no scientific answers.
Pseudoscience:
Pseudoscience is a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly regarded as being based on scientific method.
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claims; reliance on confirmation bias rather than rigorous attempts at refutation; lack of openness to evaluation by other experts; absence of systematic practices when developing hypotheses; and continued adherence long after the pseudoscientific hypotheses have been experimentally discredited. It is not the same as junk science, which is spurious or fraudulent scientific data, research, or analysis.
Paranormal:
Paranormal events
are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge,
whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of
normal scientific understanding. Notable paranormal beliefs include those that
pertain to extrasensory perception (for
example, telepathy), spiritualism and the pseudosciences of ghost hunting,
cryptozoology, and ufology.
There is no clearcut distinction between paranormal and
pseudoscientific. Much of what is
considered as paranormal is also pseudoscientific. Similarly, there is no
clearcut distinction between pseudoscience and fringe science. All these are
part of the irrational in human behaviour.
[To find out the
extent to which paranormal phenomena are taken seriously, Samuel T Gill
presents a short attitude survey questionnaire in Chapter 33 of the publication
on which we are focusing here. A group
of students were asked to check the following attitudes against each of the ten
statements given below:
Attitudes listed were: "Strongly agree", "Fairly certain" "Undecided", "Not likely", and "Strongly disagree".
Statements:
- I believe we are being visited by aliens from outer space.
- I feel Atlantis once existed and is the mother of civilization.
- I feel that some people have the power to read minds and foretell the future.
- I believe that some force, as yet unknown, operates to cause the mysterious disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.
- I feel that aliens from outer space have assisted humans in the past especially in their efforts to build pyramids and other immense ancient monuments.
- I feel that some people can bend metal and otherwise affect material objects using the power of their minds.
- I believe that there are strange creatures, unknown to science, such as the Loch Ness Monster, the Abominable Snowman, and Bigfoot, still roaming the world.
- I feel that some people can leave their physical bodies dormant and take actual trips to other times and places by astral projection.
- I feel that America's ancient civilizations, such as the Incas, Aztecs, and Mayas, must have come from somewhere else.
- I feel science and government often cover up startling discoveries about the origin of mankind and current paranormal phenomena.]
It would be interesting to suitably modify this questionnaire and try it out in the Indian context.
Superstition:
Definitions of the term vary, but they commonly describe superstitions as:
- Irrational beliefs at odds with scientific knowledge of the world.
- Their presumed mechanism of action is inconsistent with our understanding of the physical world.
- These beliefs are not merely scientifically wrong but impossible.
- They presuppose an erroneous understanding about cause and effect, that have been rejected by modern science.
- Superstitions are often considered out of place in modern times and are influenced by modern science and its notions of what is rational or irrational, surviving as remnants of older popular beliefs and practices.
Please see Appendix A for a famous agnostic’s definition of superstition.
Before expressing my own views and
thoughts on the subject, I would like to briefly review the contents of Dr HN’s
publication.
Contents of ‘Science, Nonscience and
the Paranormal’
This 334-page publication consists
of 44 chapters, about thirty of them being pre-published articles, mainly drawn
from the Skeptical Inquirer, the official
quarterly of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal (CSICOP*). The rest are from Indian authors or institutions, with Dr
HN being the principal contributor with five articles to his credit. Two of the articles are sourced from former
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, whose commitment to science and the scientific
way of life is almost legendary. Among the major contributors, well-known names
like Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Martin Gardner, Paul Kurtz and the ‘amazing’
(magician) James Randi figure prominently.
[* Constituted in the USA in 1967, SCICOP is involved in the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and to disseminate factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community and the public.]
I am desisting from presenting even short summaries of the individual chapters of the publication since that would make the article too long. Instead, I am including, in Appendix C, a long list of (over a hundred) significant statements/ phrases/ quotes excerpted selectively (with an obvious bias, but in no particular order) from the contents of the publication to underscore the key issues and ideas addressed therein. They may be overlapping and even repetitious, though not verbatim.
Now to my own views and thoughts on
the pseudoscientific, irrational and superstitious behaviour of people,
particularly highly ‘educated’ ones.
Duality in Daily Life
One of my
highly discriminating readers, who has also vetted many of my blog writings, once
asked me, with reference to my travelogues in Japan, to comment on ‘how the Japanese
society makes old religious traditions coexist with ultra-modern ways of life’. My hesitant response at that time had been: “This
is very true and a fact of Japanese life. My broad observation is
that they compartmentalize them and implement a self-imposed
mutual non-interference pact, as some people seem to do in India and many other
countries as well.” Coming to think of it, this is perhaps true of all
societies all over the world, especially so in India… and it is not just some
people; it would be more appropriate to say many or even most
people… and with no hesitation on my part!
The more visible compartment is one’s
public posture in which the person may be a paragon of virtue, and the other is
a sparsely visible private life, which is unfettered by much of what happens
outside its own sphere of interest. In rare cases, one can be a scientist in
professional life, even an astronomer, and be also a contented astrologer at
home. Incidentally, belief in astrology, rather generously described as a
pseudoscience, is so widespread all over the world that, for every professional
astronomer there may be a thousand astrologers advertising their wares. Most
newspapers and magazines carry daily or weekly astrology columns by popular
demand, and readers often lap up the ‘predictions’ with glee, even if it is just
for their entertainment value.
The compartmentalized dual personality
traits seen in people is loosely analogous to the Jekyll and Hyde characters in
Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novella, with the irrational side corresponding
to the latter, but without its hideousness and criminality. Even when the
person is in the Jekyll mode the Hyde in him is not fully hidden. Often it
shows through in recognizable ways, including the dress, habits, facial
appearance, and many a time from tell-tale markings that the person
deliberately puts on different parts of the body, signifying something deeper
than just religion. Such people generally refuse to discuss their private beliefs
with anyone trying to probe them, dismissing it as a ‘personal matter’ and
beyond debate. If probed too hard, the questioner may even be accused of “hurting
(their) religious feelings”! This is the red signal for the probe to stop,
otherwise the questioner may get into serious trouble, depending on the
religious affiliation of who he is questioning!
Human behaviour exhibits a dichotomy, able
to embrace contradictory beliefs and actions, which tend to be neatly
compartmentalized, in the same persona. One set of these beliefs and actions
has its roots firmly set in unquestioningly treading the beaten path laid out
by centuries of tradition, because it is safe and comforting to do so. The other arises out of the need for
adaptation to change, arising largely from the influence of advancing science
and technology that makes such change imperative. Perhaps this explains how one
can be a good scientist in the laboratory or the lecture hall and still be
wedded to superstition and age-old rituals at home. Let me illustrate with three examples from my personal experience.
Two faces of a coin
Once, while travelling in a train some
years ago, my long time protégé Chiranjeevi and I were discussing how one could
observe the solar corona during a total solar eclipse. He had no such opportunity but I had the
experience of it during the great total solar eclipse of 1980 observable at
most places in south central India. When I was narrating my experience to him,
a gentleman interestedly listening to us, intervened excitedly to say that he
had imparted the experience to his class of college students at that time. He introduced himself as a professor of
physics, like me, at a nearby first grade college. We were curious to know the details and I
asked him where he had observed the eclipse, knowing he could not have
observed the totality phase of the eclipse from his place. He at first
sidetracked my question, but when I repeated it persistently, he became rather deflated,
and went on to say that he had only ‘explained’ the event in advance in the
classroom. When we pointed out that he could have easily shown the partial
phase of the eclipse from his own place to the whole class, he sheepishly said
that he had actually stayed at home.
When I exclaimed in disbelief how he could lose such an opportunity to
reinforce his classroom teaching with a real-life experience, he countered by
asking me how it was proper for a ‘Hindu’ like him to come out of his home at
such inauspicious time! That remark, made with an air of finality, terminated
our illuminating conversation! The
science teacher in him had no qualms about coexisting with a staunch
traditionalist, steeped in superstition.
It is such duality in human behaviour that exasperated Dr HN in his own
dealings with ‘educated’ people.
Another extraordinary incident was
narrated to me by my colleague Dr N N Swamy. He was teamed up with a university
professor in one of the practical examinations in postgraduate physics at our
institution. During their casual conversation he discovered that the professor
was a disciple of the ‘godman’ Satya Sai Baba who was very much in the news
because of Dr HN’s persistent efforts to unmask him as a fraud. The Baba was famous for performing frequent
‘miracles’ by pulling out of thin air a variety of material objects, especially
a particular brand of wrist watches, as surprise gifts to some of his disciples!
He never agreed to Dr HN’s challenge to have his performances investigated
scientifically and thereby face exposure.
Dr Swamy was curious to know what the professor thought about the whole
affair. Understandably, the professor sided with the Baba’s stance. But, to my colleague’s utter astonishment, he maintained
that the Baba was actually materializing the objects with his ‘supreme
yogic powers’! This, from a university
professor of physics! If anyone else had told me this story I would have been
hard pressed to believe it. This man was Dr HN’s classic example of an educated
superstitious person, a much greater danger to society than his uneducated
counterpart. Incidentally,
Dr S Bhagavantam,
a famous Indian physicist, was also a right-hand man of the Baba and he used to
translate the Baba’s speeches in Telugu into English for wider dissemination! One wonders whether he too believed in the
materialization sleights.
My third and concluding example also
concerns a physics teacher! He was one who unravelled the beauty of the
discipline and the inherent methodology of science while teaching the subject
in my postgraduate degree course. He was also a very friendly, helpful and
admirable human being in his dealings, especially with students. But his personal life was the antithesis of
science, given to some of the most bizarre superstitious beliefs and practices traceable
to his Bramhinical ancestry. I discovered this after I had become one of his favourite
students, with frequent interactions that enriched my understanding of physics,
but brought him down in my esteem. He seemed to be untouched by any of the
scientific principles in his personal life even as he unravelled them
eloquently in the classroom lectures. He
was very proud of his ‘orthodoxy’ and used to call it ‘my doxy’ just to drive
home the dichotomy in his life.
If the reader gets the impression
that professors of physics are more prone to believe in the paranormal than
educated elite in other disciplines, I will be hard put to dispute it!
Regressing trends
If it is pertinent to ask whether
Dr HN’s publication has had any positive impact at all on the beliefs and
practices associated with the paranormal, the reader is advised to keep the
question under wraps. It is obvious to any concerned rationalist that it is
actually the impact of the paranormal that has increased, indeed gone up
manifold, in the intervening period. In the continuing
conflict between the rational and the irrational, I think the rationalist is losing
ground so rapidly that he may have to be consigned soon to the vanishing
species.
What we are seeing today is not just the lack of a scientific temper, but a virtual assault on it. For example, the portals of the Indian National Science Congress have been used to do this with statements such as: Albert Einstein's theory of relativity is ‘a big blunder’; Isaac Newton didn't really understand how gravity works; Ravana, a demon god with 10 heads, had 24 kinds of aircraft of varying sizes and capacities; India was making test-tube babies thousands of years ago; dinosaurs were created by the Hindu god Brahma; plastic surgery was practiced in ancient India, and so on, mostly by ‘scientist’ delegates, perhaps to suit the prevailing socio-political ideology. See here for some of the most bizarre pseudoscientific statements of recent times, made in India by people in high positions! In such a climate, a top government technocrat who thinks that Newton’s laws of mechanics were stolen from ancient Indian scriptures can be ignored with the mild admonition that he hasn’t studied the history of science.
Pseudoscience has invaded even the portals of our higher education institutions without much resistance. The UGC has made it acceptable for universities and colleges to offer degree courses on such patently unscientific subjects as Astrology and Pourohitya. Let us not forget that this was first done on the initiative of a former union HRD minister, who was previously a university professor of physics (again!). Very few voices have been heard in protest against this, even from the scientific community.
If
anything, Science is enjoying greater freedom in India than in a country such
as USA, supposed to be the very cradle of Science and Technology. The
on-going assault on the teaching of Evolutionary Biology in some American
states is too well-known to need elaboration here. Despite losing a legal
challenge, the proponents of biblical Creationism in the glorified garb of
‘Intelligent Design’ are putting up a relentless effort to secure equal status
for this along with the long-established Darwinian Theory of Evolution.
As in the times of Galileo, they wish to establish the supremacy of religious
dogma over established scientific truth – even in this new millennium.
Role
of the Media
A
factor that adds enormously to the propagation of the pseudosciences, the
paranormal, superstitions, and blind beliefs, is the role of the media,
especially the all-pervasive electronic media whose influence was considerably
less forty years ago. They have indeed become sources and repositories for all
that is considered irrational. The highly popular and greatly useful WhatsApp
smartphone app is being used routinely in spreading all kinds of rumours,
propagandistic (mis)information, false news, deep fake stories and almost every
kind of undesirable stuff. So are most of the regional TV channels for whom rationality is at best incidental, that too
occasionally. When turned on early
morning, they spew out assorted routines designed to continually reinforce the
paranormal beliefs of viewers. It is no
different through the stereotyped ‘TV serials’ that are popular with the whole
family. There are some channels solely devoted to the spread of religious dogma. The print media, whose influence is on the
decline, are not lagging too far behind either.
One can imagine what the rationalist movement, if there is any at all,
is up against!
Here is a quote from one of the articles in the publication:
“Belief in the
paranormal is fed and reinforced by a vast media industry that profits from it;
and it has been transformed into a folk religion, perhaps the dominant one
today.”
Concluding Comments
One of the characteristics of the scientific method is open-mindedness on the part of the investigator. When anything is prima facie contradictory to a well-known fact or scientific principle, the investigator has to go about examining it with an open mind, uninfluenced by any preconceived notions or bias on his part. But what if he confronts something glaringly and obviously false, and patent nonsense, like saying that the earth is flat, or that the Apollo astronauts never landed on the Moon, or that Sai Baba could materialize gold coins with ‘yogic powers’, or that the future of a child is determined by the time of birth, etc.? Is there any open-mindedness required to refute such claims? Isn’t the inherent absurdity of the claim sufficient to brush it aside without any debate?
As Richard Dawkins put it: “By all means let us be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out!”
I sign off with the following quote from Aldous Huxley in his Brave New World Revisited.
“Human beings act in a great variety of
irrational ways, but all of them seem to be capable, if given a fair chance, of
making a reasonable choice in the light of available evidence. Democratic
institutions can be made to work only if all concerned do their best to impart
knowledge and to encourage rationality. But today, in the world's most powerful
democracy, the politicians and the propagandists prefer to make nonsense of
democratic procedures by appealing almost exclusively to the ignorance and
irrationality of the electors.”
Surely,
he could not have had present day India in mind! The work was first published in 1958.
APPENDIX
A
WHAT IS
SUPERSTITION?
o To
believe in spite of evidence or without evidence.
o To
account for one mystery by another.
o To
believe that the world is governed by chance or caprice.
o To disregard
the true relation between cause and effect
o To put
thought, intention and design back of nature.
o To
believe that mind created and controls matter.
o To
believe in force apart from substance, or in substance apart from force.
o To
believe in miracles, spells and charms, in dreams and prophecies.
o To
believe in the supernatural.
o The
foundation of superstition is ignorance, the superstructure is faith and
the dome is a vain hope.
o Superstition
is the child of ignorance and the mother of misery.
o In
nearly every brain is found some cloud of superstition.
—
Robert Green Ingersoll
APPENDIX B
[Titles of the articles and their respective authors:
Science, Nonscience and the Paranormal]
- A Statement on Scientific Temper – Nehru Centre, Mumbai
- Darwin and the Triumph of Science – Jawaharlal Nehru
- Debunking Neutrality and Scepticism in Science – Paul Kurtz
- Night Walkers and Mystery Mongers, Sense and Nonsense at the Edge of Science – Carl Sagan
- Bangalore University Investigations on Miracles – H NarasimhaiahSri Satya Sai Baba and Scientific Attitude – H Narasimhaiah
- Science, Mysteries and the Quest for Evidence – Martin Gardner
- The Perennial Fringe – Isaac Asimov
- A Study of the Kirlian Effect – Watkins & Bickel
- An Investigation of Fire Walking – Leikind & McCarthy
- Critical Reading, Careful Writing and the Bermuda Triangle – Larry Kusche
- Bermuda Triangle, 1981 Model – Michael Dennett
- Scientific Temper, what it is! – MGK Menon
- Interview with P N Haksar on Scientific Temper or Bondage of Traditions
- Tests and Investigations of Three Psychics – James Randi
- Ghostbusters – RF (!)
- Edgar Cayce: The Slipping Prophet – James Randi
- The Responsibilities of the Media and Paranormal Claims – Paul Kurtz
- Karnataka Government’s Investigations of Banamathi – Extracts from the Report
- Scientific Temper or Bondage of Traditions – P M Bhargava
- Teaching Critical Thinking – Mazurek & Titley
- Computers and Rational Thought – Spangenburg & Diane Moser
- The Extraordinary Mental Bending of Professor Taylor – Martin Gardner
- Astrology – Sense or Nonsense? – H Narasimhaiah
- Zodiac and Personality – Gauquelin
- The Moon and the Maternity Ward – Abell & Greenspan
- Scientific Tests of Astrology do not support its Claims – Kurtz & Franknoi
- CSICOP’s Call for a Disclaimer on Newspaper Astrology Columns – Skeptical Inquirer
- Sense and Nonsense in Parapsychology – Piet Hein Hoebens
- Quantum Theory and the Paranormal – Shore
- Quackery – Frazier
- Prophecy: The Search for Certainty – Cazeau
- Unsolved Mysteries and Extraordinary Phenomena – Samuel Gill
- Palmistry: Science or Hand-Jive? – Michael Park
- Science and Superstition – Nayudamma
- Yogi’s Prayers for Rain in Vain – H Narasimhaiah
- AAA Offers Statement Affirming Evolution – AAA
- Point of View: Drive the Pseudos Out – Wheeler
- Skepticism, Closed-Mindedness and Science Fiction – Beyerstein
- Science, Human Values and Supernatural Beliefs – H Narasimhaiah
- Indian Astrologers’ Squibs go Damp – Balachandra Rao
- Science and the Mountain Peak – Isaac Asimo
- About Transcendental Meditation – Merrell
- Science and Humility – Jawaharlal Nehru
APPENDIX C
Here is a long list (of over a hundred) significant statements/phrases/quotes excerpted selectively (with an obvious bias, but in no particular order) from the contents of the publication “Science, Nonscience and the Paranormal” to underscore the key issues and ideas addressed therein. They may be overlapping and even repetitious, though not verbatim.
- One of the greatest miracles of this century is the co-existence of science and superstition.
- Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence – Carl Sagan.
- One of the fundamental duties of citizens enshrined in the Indian Constitution makes it mandatory on the part of all citizens to develop “Scientific Temper, Humanism, Spirit of Inquiry and Reform.”
- An educated superstitious person is more dangerous to the society than his uneducated counterpart.
- Parascience is an incoherent collection of belief systems steeped in fantasy, illusion, and error.
- Rituals of the most bizarre kind are frequently performed often with official patronage.
- Obscurantist social customs are followed even by those whose profession is the pursuit of scientific enquiry.
- We are witnessing a phenomenal growth of superstitious beliefs and obscurantist practices.
- The origin and role of the caste system is explained in a way that would justify it and imply that some castes are inherently superior.
- The emphasis on the method of science does not imply that science and technology have solutions to all human problems at any given time.
- The Church in Europe was always coming into conflict with science and trying to suppress new ideas.
- When people believe blindly in dogmas and the dogmas receive a shock, they feel helpless and miserable and without any solid ground to stand upon.
- Belief in the paranormal is fed and reinforced by a vast media industry that profits from it; and it has been transformed into a folk religion, perhaps the dominant one today.
- The quest for extraterrestrial life is one of the most dramatic adventures of our time The persistence and growth of ancient paranormal beliefs in our highly educated scientific-technological civilization is a puzzling phenomenon to many of us.
- Many scientists (until recently) considered it beneath their dignity to become involved in what they viewed as patent nonsense…. but they ought to be investigated because of the widespread public interest
- Some of the claims that are made, even by scientists and scholars, are preposterous and debunking is not an illegitimate activity in dealing with them. Sometimes the best way to refute such a claim is to show how foolish it is, and to do so graphically.
- If one debunks, he had better command an arsenal of facts and marshal evidence to show why something is improbable or even downright false.
- The history of science is full of radical departures from established principles. Thus, we must keep an open mind about unsuspected possibilities still to be discovered. However, one should make a distinction between the open mind and the open sink.
- If there are falsifiable claims and conceptually coherent theories, then we need rigorous testing and careful logical analysis by independent scientific investigation. And here neutrality in the process of evaluation is the only legitimate approach; take a hypothesis, examine the experimental data reported, attempt to replicate the experiment, make predictions, and see if the theories are logically consistent and can be verified.
- Today skepticism is essential to the very life-blood of scientific inquiry.
- The self-corrective process (of science) is on-going. We must always be willing to entertain and not rule out new ideas.
- Belief in the paranormal is strong in the world today, and especially in highly developed and highly educated scientific-technological societies.
- Since belief in the supernatural and occult remains largely unchallenged, the paranormalist finds a receptive audience.
- There are at least two cultures existing side by side. On the one hand, the religious, and on the other the rational-philosophic-scientific. Until the religious is submitted to intellectual critique openly and forthrightly, the paranormal will continue to flourish on the fringe of science.
- Sadly, our elementary and high schools, colleges and universities, turn out specialists who may be extremely competent in their narrow fields of expertise, but who lack an appreciation for the broader scientific outlook.
- The burden of proof always rests upon the claimant to warrant his claim.
- Very few scientists actually plunge into the murky waters of testing or challenging borderline or pseudoscientific beliefs.
- Finding out the way the world really works requires a mix of hunches, intuition, and brilliant creativity; it also requires skeptical scrutiny of every step.
- But the success of science, both its intellectual excitement and its practical application, depends upon the self-correcting character of science.
- A scientist or a student of science will be highly rational in his approach to problems inside the laboratory. But it is shocking to find many a time the same rational man being hopelessly irrational in trying to solve the problems of life.
- All superstitions are born out of fear and ignorance. They do incalculable harm by damaging the self-confidence. They blunt the edge of dynamic thinking and fearlessness.
- The most deliriously certain fringers are, of course, the creationists, who presumably get the word straight from God by way of the Bible that creationism is correct. You can't get a more authoritative statement than that.
- An enhanced ability to sift the plausible from the implausible should be one of the benefits from better public understanding of science.
- “I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.” - Albert Einstein.
- “The less a writer knows about his subject, the better equipped he is to write a mystery about it. Ignorance of the subject is, in fact, a major technique in writing about the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle and other subjects in the so-called paranormal.” - Lawrence Kusche.
- Very often, popularization of science is confused with propagation of scientific temper.
- It would then be reasonable to predict that no observable phenomena need be regarded as beyond the reach of science: even though one may never actually achieve that complete degree of understanding.
- To say that science is complete is not to say that it is all embracing.
- “At the heart of science is an essential tension between two seemingly contradictory attitudes — an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.” – Carl Sagan
- Scientific temper invites us to dissect, analyze, observe, interrelate social, economic, cultural and political phenomena in terms other than Divine Will. It invites us to question every dogma… Without it we human beings would still be living in caves, eating wild berries and by hunting.
- “No people in the world waste more time in religious ritual than we Indians. And, no people stick as stubbornly to traditions which have lost their purpose of meaning as we do.” - Khushwant Singh.
- There is no such thing as the paranormal. That is to say, whatever actually happens in fact can be described within the framework of science. If something new is found that doesn't fit with our present laws of science, we wouldn't throw up our hands. What we would do is to enlarge or otherwise modify the laws of science to incorporate the new phenomenon.
- … firewalking is perfectly possible. It's not a false claim; it’s not a psychosomatic effect; it's simply a physical one.
- The placebo effect (in which objectively worthless treatments help in fighting serious disease) is one of the most important in medicine and needs to be better understood.
- We should encourage the study of all kinds of claims, with different doses of skepticism in different cases, and try to see what comes out of careful observation.
- “The costliest of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind.” - H. L. Mencken
- “The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.” - George Bernard Shaw
- Those who have studied science realize that scientific explanations of natural phenomena are often far more elegant and far more beautiful than the most fanciful, magical, or supernatural interpretations that people have concocted over the centuries.
- Many of the illnesses described to physicians are totally imaginary or self-terminating ones.
- The term paranormal includes everything from psychic prophecies, ESP, clairvoyance, telepathy, psychokinesis, apparitions, hauntings, poltergeists, communication with discarnate spirits, reincarnation, levitation, psychic healings, on the one hand, to astrological charts and horoscopes, UFO sightings and abductions, Bermuda Triangles, and monsters of the deep, on the other. There is no public awareness of the fact that when these claims were subjected to careful scientific appraisal, they were shown to be either unverified or false.
- Intrinsic to science is the self-corrective process whereby earlier hypotheses and theories are revised in the light of new data and new explanations.
- Today we are confronted by various forms of anti-intellectualism, even among college graduates, that abandon any pretense to objective, reflective, or critical inquiry and substitute faith, subjective prejudice, or occult thinking.
- Much misinformation and exaggeration can be traced to the desks of editors, journalists, publishers, program directors, and film producers.
- Several professional magicians, notably Harry Houdini and Joseph Dunninger, offered large rewards for anyone who could produce an effect that they couldn't duplicate. Nobody ever won the wager, but clairvoyants and other quacks continue to thrive.
- “What else would one expect when ministers and other senior politicians, senior scientists such as a past Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence, Secretaries to the Government of India and to the State Governments (and other senior civil servants), educationists occupying senior positions such as many Vice-chancellors and Chairman of the University Grants Commission, and prominent citizens, believe in one godman or another, especially in their miraculous and magical powers? Why this obsession with the supernatural?” – P M Bhargava
- There is not a single example of concerted and organized governmental effort in the direction of inculcating the scientific temper in our country—or even encouraging it.
- Almost limitless literature (exists) promoting the belief that the position of heavenly bodies at the time of one's birth determines personality and influences the course of one's life.
- “Some scientists seem unwilling to engage in public confrontations on borderline science issues because of the effort required and the possibility that they will be perceived to lose a public debate. But it is an excellent opportunity to show how science works at its murkier borders, and also a way to convey something of its power as well as its pleasure” – Carl Sagan
- The history of science swarms with observed phenomena that were genuine but had to wait for centuries until a good theory explained them
- Science and superstition coexist but are not complementary. Scientific knowledge is a rational process in which dogma, rigidity, revelation, ritual, mystic belief and miracles should not find a place. The greatest damage done by superstitions is that they deflect attention from the primary cause and lead to a defeatist attitude of helpless acceptance.
- Such is the way of all superstitions, whether in astrology, dreams, omens, divine judgments, or the like; wherein men, having a delight in such vanities, mark the events where they are fulfilled, but where they fail, though this happen much oftener, neglect and pass them by - Francis Bacon, Novum Organum I
- The plain fact is that it is not Mayo, or Carter, or Barbault, or some other astrologer who is wrong. It is astrology itself.
- No correlation between the numbers of births and full moon or any other phase of the moon.
- The moon has unquestioned influence on the tides and on certain other phenomena, but several pieces of evidence at hand suggest that many of the "incredible facts" about the influence of the moon on man are simply not facts at all.
- You will find that astrology and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore, as soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician, take good food and rest. – Swami Vivekananda
- The obstetrician hovering over the infant during delivery exerts a much greater gravitational pull than the nearest planet.
- Astrology columns should be read only for their entertainment value and that they have no reliable basis in scientific fact.
- In particular, astrological columns, charts, and horoscopes carried in newspapers are pure fiction.
- Much the same as we label packets of cigarettes as dangerous to health, astrology columns should carry a proper label concerning their contents.
- Parapsychology is indistinguishable from pseudoscience, and its ideas are essentially those of magic.
- Parapsychology is a farce and a delusion, along with other claims of wonders and powers that assail us every day of our lives.
- In Quantum Mechanics most of the interactions of a system with the outside world are destroyed by incoherent processes, so that only those strong enough to have a direct influence on the system can act on it.
- The physical world is understood not by speaking about it, or using colourful language to picture it, but by empirically and theoretically (mathematically) dissecting it.
- Quackery reflects pseudoscience at best.
- Quackery now invades nearly every aspect of our lives, and at points attracts adherents with near religious zeal. Medical quackery is a massive problem. It is growing at an alarming rate.
- Nostradamus composed them [the quatrains] with tongue in cheek, and... he was well aware that there is an enduring market for prophecies and particularly veiled ones.
- The notion of prophecy fulfils a human need that all of us share: to know what will happen to us. Self-proclaimed prophets, for the most part, prey upon this need, often in their own self-interest.
- Better to make our own futures than sit around and wait for them to happen.
- Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
- The well-meaning contention that all ideas have equal merit seems to me little different from the disastrous contention that no ideas have any merit. – Carl Sagan.
- No pronouncement, however sacred or high in authority, is accepted without experimental test or proof. Science has a built-in method for correcting its own mistakes.
- Superstition is steeped in simple fear.
- When millions are dying of hunger in one part of the country, large quantities of food-stuff (ghee particularly) are known to be consigned to flames in the name of a yajna. All because some wise men have thought it fit to exploit people in the name of religion. If mantras can give much wanted food, the world will be an easier place to live.
- Martin Gardner in his interesting book on ‘In the Name of Science (1952)' brings out the unbelievable amount of intellectual energy that has been wasted on the lost causes and the grotesque extremes to which deluded scientists can be misled and in turn mislead others.
- The most apparently convincing evidence for supernatural and occult phenomena vanishes into an insubstantial tissue of trickery and delusion whenever it is closely examined.
- —a scientist in the laboratory, a superstitious addict at home. scientists break coconuts to bribe the gods to succeed in their efforts. Some are firmly convinced of the efficacy of their private rituals.
- The sheepishness or group behaviour, not daring to be different is yet another cause to carry on with superstitions.
- (Nehru urged scientists repeatedly) to strike beyond the narrow ritual of restricting rational thinking to laboratories and lecture halls.
- If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world in so far as our science can reveal it — Albert Einstein
- To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason is like administering medicine to the dead – Thomas Paine
- It is impossible to prove the non-existence of something.
- Society is supersaturated with superstitions!(Religions) have divided humanity into watertight compartments and have become sturdy barriers for the unity of mankind. In practice each is in conflict with the other. Nothing is so hostile to a religion as another religion. It is a rivalry and a fight between one brand of superstition and another brand of superstition. Every religion abounds in myths and miracles.
- Religion tries to erect impassable tall gates on the highways of free thinking.
- All religions have created the monstrous ideas of hell and heaven.
- In spite of some of the positive qualities, there is a fundamental conflict between science and religion. And there cannot be any re-conciliation.
- There seems to be more truth in the statement of Voltaire that man created God than in the belief that God created man.
- (Man) makes his own hell and heaven; and he makes it here and now. The ideas of hell, heaven, the theory of karma, rebirth, eternal damnation and eternal salvation have lent support to social injustice and economic exploitation.
- Humanists do not believe in making petitions to God through prayer or rituals.Humanists believe that traditional theories which lend support to the efficacy of prayer in the sense that there is a God assumed to love and care for persons, and who answers prayers is outdated, unproved and unacceptable.
- Ethics is social, autonomous, and situational, needing no divine, religious or ideological sanction.
- Humanism considers the traditional religion to be a form of escapism from intolerable conditions.
- The present pattern of education is converting an uneducated superstitious person into an educated superstitious person and an illiterate communal minded person into a literate communal minded person.
- The Bible says the Universe had a beginning. The astronomer thinks the Universe had a beginning. That’s all.
- Anyone can reach a conclusion in any way—by guessing it by experiencing a gut feeling about it, by dreaming it, by copying it, by tossing a coin over it
- Science—of which astronomy is one branch—is the one human endeavour that does not rely on intuition. Intuition pops up here and there on the road science travels, but the final decision on which branch to follow at each of an infinite number of intersections is based on careful observation and measurement of natural phenomena and deliberately arranged experiments.
- Many Eastern sages have said many things in elliptical and obscure language, even in the original, which suffer further in the translation.
- There has been at least one other such occasion in history, when Greek secular and rational thought bowed to the mystical aspects of Christianity, and what followed was a Dark Age. We can't afford another.
- I thought of (Buddha’s) message which, apart from its religious significance, was a message of tolerance, a message against superstition, rituals and dogma. It was a message essentially in the scientific spirit. – Jawaharlal Nehru.
- Rigid and intolerant ideas, ideas which assert in effect that "I am in possession of the truth, the whole truth, every bit of the truth, and nobody outside the pale has it", narrow men's minds, shutting the door against a tolerant and objective approach, where men not only look up at the heavens without fear but are also prepared to look down into the pit of hell without fear.
