Skeptics’ Anniversary
From AP’s “Today in History” for Oct. 28:
In 1636, Harvard College was founded in Massachusetts.”
In the spring of 1960, Harvard sent to all incoming freshmen a reading list consisting, as I recall, of two books:
1. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, by Martin Gardner (Dover, 1957), and
2. A book on evolution, whose title I do not recall. Perhaps it was Apes, Angels, and Victorians, by William Irvine (McGraw-Hill, 1955).
I found in later years that Gardner was not to be trusted (certainly not on the subject of mathematics– he never had even one college course in the subject). Darwin, however, still seems eminently reasonable.
For my own views on the religion of Scientism advocated by many at Harvard and by those who admire Gardner, see
For a musical version of some related views, see
For an update on the religion of Scientism, see yesterday’s Newsday:
“The congress coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Council for Secular Humanism, the arm of the center dedicated to promoting a nonreligious philosophy.”
The word “nonreligious” here should, since Scientism itself amounts to a religion, be viewed with a great deal of skepticism.