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Next Meeting: "Who Owns Our Children?" |
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The Most Recommended Skeptics Books Here are the results of our [Skeptic Magazine's] recent e-Skeptic hotline request for the most recommended skeptics books. It is broken down into (1) The Top Ten, (2) Multiple nominations, (3) Jr. Skeptic recommendations, (4) single nominations, (5) commentary on some of the titles provided by readers. Please note This is not an attempt to list the "most important" books, or the books that had the greatest impact. We were after those books that people recommend to others to read, or that professors assign to their students to read. These lists are meant to supplement the Baloney Detection Kit, that includes course syllabi for professors and recommended reading lists. About 300 people responded to the request. We would like to have a few more children's and young adult's book recommendations, so if you can think of any not listed here please e-mail them to skepticmag@aol.com, subject heading "JR. SKEPTIC BOOKS" THE TOP TEN (with number of votes)
Receiving multiple nominations (alphabetical by title within identical vote categories)
The Most Recommended Jr. Skeptic Books
(alphabetical by title) Aha! Gotcha Paradoxes to Puzzle and Delight by Martin Gardner "Fun paradoxes to make you think." Aha! Insight by Martin Gardner "A book to hone thinking skills and enjoy it at the same time." Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstader "Not technically a critical thinking book, but it does challenge much of the prevailing intellectual laziness that prevents us from thinking critically. And it's just as relevant now as it was when it first written decades ago. The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski "Because it provides an overall prespective on the importance of reason in the historical development of mankind." The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner "This book illustrates how scientists are methodically uncovering the very concrete nature of natural selection and genetic foundations of behavior. Beautifully written." The Bermuda Triangle Mystery Solved by Larry Kusche "Beautiful job of showing how legands develop by ignoring data or never checking it as well as selective reporting." Clear thinking A practical introduction by H. Ruchlis and S. Oddo "A good text suitable for bright high school students or college freshmen." Contact by Carl Sagan "Because, for me anyway it introduced me to skepticism by way of great story with compelling ideas." Cults in America by Willa Appel "Because it is a concise report of the techniques, activities and social significance of cults. It also describes the indoctrination and recovery psychological process very well, thereby helping people recognise and resist these techniques when they are inflicted on them." Darwin's Ghost by Steven Jones "Very readable reworking of Darwin's Origin in light of current research. Great book!" The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan "As you know, an absolute must." "This book had a profound effect on my life." "Because, after reading Contact I was left hungry for more. An Excellent introduction to real world critical thinking." The Diseasing of America by Stanton Peele "Peele debunks assumptions about addiction and the potential harm done by treatments based on these assumptions. Treatments based on pseudosciencecan be dangerous." The End of Science and The Undiscovered Mind by John Horgan "These two books will challenge a skeptic's ability to take critical thinking skills right into the scientific enterprise ... and they presage the debates that will engage a skeptical community that, in future, goes beyond the task of debunking the latest fad of the credulous. Can scientists take a dose of their own medicine?" Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner "This has got to be the best all-time. All of it is still relevant, the same fads and fallacies are still around in new (or even the same old) guises. This is what got me started back in the late late 1950s." "Should be required reading for high school students, an older book that is easy to read, often funny, and will still open the eyes of many teenagers. Definitely a 'reactive' book, but still a cornerstone of modern skepticism." Flim Flam! Psychics, ESP, Unicorns and Other Delusions by James Randi "A masterful demonstration of the wizard at work showing up the tricksters who would scam us." "Has a popular tone and exposes a good many of the more popular scams." "A down to earth on the front lines kind of book." The God Particle by Leon Lederman "What Hawking does for cosmology, Lederman does for particle physics (while having you in stiches!)" The Golden Bough by James Frazer "The book I have routinely given as a gift. It is absolutely essential for understanding the origins of religion." Great and Desperate Cures The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness by Elliot S. Valenstein "Another classic case study of science mis-used, with an immediacy that senior-level high school students could appreciate. The perils of poorly-done medical science, with social and political consequences resounding for decades." How to Play With Your Food by Penn and Teller "A lot of fun and gives some insight into how humans percieve things." How to Think About Weird Things by Theodore Schick and Lewis Vaughn "But of course a new 'classic,' and very readable." "The best introduction to skepticism and critical thinking available." How to Think Straight About Psychology by Keith Stanovich "This one's ideal, since it's relevant beyond psychology, is geared toward students, and has the distinction of having converted me to skeptical thinking (as an undergrad fifteen years ago)." How to Win Every Argument by N. Capaldi "A good introductory text in learning to reason and argue better. Still available under its original title The Art of Deception from Prometheus Books." How We Believe by Michael Shermer "Another good study from Shermer on the nature of belief, with emphasis on religious belief." Inevitable Illusions by M. Piattelli-Palmarini "A convincing look at some of the ways our brains have evolved to our disadvantage in making important decisions. This is the book that introduced me to the counter-intuitive nature of Bayes' Law." "This is a great resource for exploring the most common and pervasive cognitive errors that cause even very smart people to believe weird things." "Because it shows us how failures in reason are inherent to the mechanism of our mind, and how being educated and/or intelligent is no defense against these errors in reason." In the Name of Eugenics Genetics and the Uses of Human Heredity by Daniel J. Kevles "Terrific book, terribly pertinent in the year 2001 and the age of the Human Genome Project, about the social and personal consequences of badly done science. Everyone should read this at some point in their education, I think. Madness on the Couch by Edward Dolnick "The best recent expose of the follies of Freudian theory and the humbug surrounding psychoanalysis." Magic or Medicine? An Investigation of Healing and Healers by R. Buckman and K. Sabbagh "A lesser known book on the common elements of orthodox medicine and alternative medicine and why complementary/alternative medicine continues to find adherents despite a lack of rigorous scientific underpinning." Making Us Crazy DSM The Psychiatric Bible and the Creation of Mental Disorders by Herb Kutchins and Stuart A. Kirk "Kirk and Kutchins demonstrate the lack of validity and reliability in this book. They describe how politics, not science determines who is mentally sick and who is not." The Mask of Nostradamus by James Randi "Anything by James Randi because his books are just fun to read!" A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper by John Allen Paulos "A useful book which encourages us to think more carefully about the 'facts' and stories we read." The Meaning of it All Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard Feynman "Nobody expressed himself more clearly than Feynman. In these lectures (the third in particular) he points out the need for the scientific worldview." Mind, Machines, and Evolution by James P. Horgan "It contains a number of (fictional) short stories, (non-fictional) essays, and a couple autobiographical pieces. His arguments for evolution and nuclear energy are as cogent (and accessible to a lay person) as I've ever read, and his short story about the General Operations Director (GOD) looking at the Work Order Review Document (WORD) is a hilarious satire." The Monk and the Philosopher A Father and Son Discuss the Meaning of Life by Jean Francois Revel, Matthieu Ricard, John Canti (Translator) "Where a French skeptic philosopher takes on his own son who gave up a promising career as a microbiologist to become Buddhist monk!" The New Age Notes of a Fringe Watcher by Martin Gardner "Entertaining and devastating look at some of the more popular weird beliefs and crazes, up to the late 1980s." The Night is Large Collected Essays 1938-1995 by Martin Gardner "Gardner's great thoughts on just about everything." The Passover Plot by Hugh Schonfield "An excellent book to awaken students understanding as to how historic times & events set the stage for the formation of rebel leaders masquerading as religious messengers of God." Physiological Bases of God Beliefs by Dr. Michael Persinger "Tremendous book!" Science on Trial by Douglas Futuyma "This is a short, readable, and masterful treatment of creationism." "Best response to creationists -- this should have its own category." Science, Reason, and Anthropology A Guide to Critical Thinking by James Lett "Although I have not read the entire book, I have enjoyed excerpts and found them very useful indeed. Lett invents the acronym FiLCHeRS to help in remembering the '6 Rules of Critical Thinking' (Falsifiability, Logic, Comprehensiveness, Honesty, Replicability, and Sufficiency) -- this would work well I think in a course)." Tales of the Rational Skeptical Essays About Nature and Science by Massimo Pigliucci "A stimulating coverage of many skeptical topics. Everyone should read it." Teaching Thinking by E. De Bono "Takes the view that thinking is a teachable skill, and presents ways to do it." Thinking Critically About New Age Ideas by William Gray "The best book I've found for use in my Freshman Phil. 100 class (Knowledge and Reality). I like it because it's short, concise, interesting and thorough." The Tower of Babel by Robert Pennock "A longer more detailed dismantling of creationism than the preceding, particularly good for its treatment of Intelligent Design nonsense. The True Believer by Eric Hoffer "It confronts the idea that ALL mass movements and social movements are born out of unhealthy constructs, they appeal to emotion over logic, and swell their ranks with the weakest not the strongest members of society. These movements then go about remaking society, and its laws, to serve their newly-found epiphanies, most often to the long-range detriment of their own followers and society at large. Recommended because it gives a skeptical view to the oft-quoted idea of safety-in-numbers which always triggers in me the laughable slogan 'Ten million Elvis fans can't be wrong!" Uncommon Sense The Heretical Nature of Science by Alan Cromer "This book is terrific, and not often seen on lists. I give it a 5 star rating it provided a background and framework that allowed me to merge many similar works into a coherent whole. Very high recommend, top of the list." The Web of Belief by W.V. Quine and J. S. Ullian "It doesn't get clearer than this. Example 'Believing is a disposition to respond in certain ways when the appropriate issue arises." The Untamed Tongue by Thomas Szasz "This is an easy and entertaining read that covers a wide range of subjects. Our Right to Drugs, also by Szasz challenges ideas about drugs and drug laws in the same rigorous and rational way that he challenges the very concept of mental illness in The Myth of Mental Illness." What If Everything You Always Knew About AIDS Was Wrong? by Christine Maggiore "This book attempts to deconstruct the numerous pseudo-science AIDS theories we have all been lulled into accepting courtesy of the most extensive and expensive propaganda campaign in U.S. history. With numerous scientific journal references, Ms. Maggiore attempts to lead the reader to be skeptical of all things AIDS. Her personal experiences, and those of many others who question AIDS theories and refuse to swallow the popularly-sold toxic AIDS meds, are a less-technical and more personal side of the discussion to balance out the avalanche of unsupportable 'science' that threatens to bury us all." Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Elliot Friedman "The most accessible book of historical scholarship on this subject that I have ever read, also very entertaining and focused on the implications of history for modern religious dogma." Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer "Because, like Sagan, Shermer seems to write in a way that most people can understand and relate to." "Excellent introduction to some of the major irrational beliefs held by many today, and how to think more clearly about them." "Extremely readable, enjoyable and still communicates the point very well." |
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