It's a hoax, folks. Sorry to be the spoiler of a feel good story--that of Rom Houben, the Belgian man who allegedly "woke up" from a 23-year long coma--but the hard truth must win out over hopeful emotions. Houben's "communications," his "statements" about how he's been aware all...

Despite the media frenzy surrounding Sarah Palin's autobiographical Going Rogue, the real rogue warrior making a political conservative comeback today is not Palin, but the Russian immigrant turned champion of American conservative principles, Ayn Rand. If you really want to understand the conservative right read Ayn Rand, not Sarah Palin....

From Fellow Skeptic Michael Shermer
Editor of Skeptic magazine and "Skeptic" columnist for Scientific American

Dear Bill,

Years ago you invited me to appear as a fellow skeptic several times on your ABC show Politically Incorrect, and I have ever since shared your skepticism on so many matters important...

Michael Moore is the Leni Riefenstahl of our time. Or, perhaps he would be better characterized as a Bizzaro World Leni Riefenstahl, because while she propped up with propaganda the political powers of her time, Moore uses the same techniques to bring down the powers of our time, be it...

At the Atheist Alliance International conference this past weekend in Burbank, California, the Skeptics Society had a booth in the vendor's section of book sellers and the like, the latter of which included a table full of bumper stickers. One struck me as a poignant proxy for what I predicted...

Are you a global warming skeptic, or are you skeptical of the global warming skeptics? Your answer depends on how you answer these five questions: 1. Is the earth getting warmer? 2. Is the cause of global warming human activity? 3. How much warmer is it going to get? 4....

Yet again, revelations about doping in sports are in the news: Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz took steroids while playing for the world champion Boston Red Sox (is that how they finally broke the curse of the Bambino and beat the Yankees?) and the 2009 Tour de France stage 16...

Anyone who follows politics on a regular basis through the standard channels of talk radio, talk television, newspaper editorials, magazine commentaries, popular books, blogs, tweets, and the like, knows the standard stereotype of what liberals think of conservatives:

Conservatives are a bunch of Hummer-driving, meat-eating, gun-toting, hard-drinking, Bible-thumping, black-and-white-thinking, fist-pounding,...

I just watched the HBO documentary film, The Trials of Ted Haggard, produced by Alexandra Pelosi (which the media seem curiously intent on identifying not as a filmmaker but as the daughter of Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House). The film is a follow-up to her 2007 film Friends...

Ever since Skeptic magazine published an investigative article on the 9/11 "Truth Movement" and analyzed their claims, which were found wanting, I have been hounded by the so-called 9/11 "truthers" because I am the editor of the magazine and therefore am suppose to be a "skeptic" of the official explanation...

The new science of neuroeconomics offers new insights into old political problems

The 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat expressed a principle applicable in the 21st century: "Where goods do not cross frontiers, armies will."

In my new book, The Mind of the Market, I describe in detail how in the...

The new science of evolutionary economics explains why some candidates, like some products, get ahead in the marketplace

By Michael Shermer

As the presidential candidates bounce from primary to primary, with some surging and others falling back, it is appropriate to ask if there is something going on here more...

Last week I edited and approved for publication in eSkeptic and www.skeptic.com (the electronic editions of Skeptic magazine) a story that included highlights from a press release issued by PEER (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility), a Washington D.C.-based environmental watchdog group (www.peer.org). That press release, dated December 28, 2006, was...

"Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue."
--Robert K. Merton, Social Theory and Social Structures, 1962

In Matthew 7, verses 1-2, Jesus admonishes his listeners: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged."...

I begin by addressing Deepak Chopra's commentary on Intelligent Design here and on Larry King.

First, Deepak, are you aware that you appeared on the cover of Skeptic magazine several years ago, in which we did an extensive analysis of the science behind your quantum theories of consciousness? Just...

Genesis Revisited: A Scientific Creation Story

To the Citizens of Kansas (along with those from Ohio, Georgia, Michigan, and a dozen other states contemplating the teaching of “Intelligent Design” creationism as a “balance” to the theory of evolution in public school science classes), I present you with a small...

The Evolution-Creationism controversy is back in the news, with Kansas yet again at the epicenter of the continuing aftershocks left over from the earthquake originally triggered in 1859 with the publication of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species. At stake for science is that the single most powerful overarching theory...