Date:   Fri Oct 15 1993  09:40:20
From:   Marty Leipzig
To:     All
Subj:   A quick note to a publisher.
Attr:   
SKEPTIC                        -------------------------------

    Greetings, all.

    I am rather new to this echo, yet I thought that a little piece
    of correspondence I penned to one of those "publishers and
    panderers of the paranormal" who send gaudy, glitzy flyers about
    all sorts weird, wild and supposedly wonderful phenomena; would
    be most appropriate to this forum. I do hope no one objects
    (note: some names and places have been changed to further indict
    the guilty....)
 
     Mr. R. U. Foeureal
     Editor: Gullibullshit Press
     666 Post Oak West P.O. Box 999
     East Harbor, NT 58385-3498

     Dear Mr. Foeureal:

     I recently received your company's offer for a free copy of the
     book "Mysteries of Mind, Space and Time. The Unexplained." The enclosed
     materials in the package include your letter asking "....If you're not
     sending for your FREE book-- would you please tell me why?..." Inasmuch
     as I have no interest in receiving this, nor any other book of this
     set; I will most gladly tell you why I must decline your offer.  But as
     a caveat, remember, you DID ask...

     I am a professional industrial scientist and science educator.  Along
     with that one probably should also add: skeptic, cynic and unrepentant
     realist. As such, I try to maintain an open mind to that which, at
     least superficially, appears to be "unusual ," out of the norm or that
     which is labeled "supernatural" or "unknown." I liken having an open
     mind to that image of a door that is locked, but has in front of it a
     "Welcome" mat; rather than flinging open the doors and shouting "Come
     on in, no one's home." Yet, that latter mindset is exactly to what your
     book appears to be soliciting.

     A quick perusal of the package that I was sent reveals such
     overburdened and melodramatic voyeurisms as ghosts, extraterrestrials,
     psychics, exotic outsized reptiles and assorted supernatural
     nonsensicals. Quite an eclectic group of "phenomena" aimed at such a
     general audience. But, recall, extraordinary claims require
     extraordinary evidence. Where exactly is this evidence?  Or, is this
     just being offered to,  for the most part, an unsuspecting  and
     uncritical public as "gospel"; i.e., something that must be accepted as
     true, without regard to the evidence (or more precisely, the lack
     thereof) just because it appears in print? As the scientific community
     must disregard that which is non-evidentiary, which immediately propels
     these volumes into the realm of pseudoscience and fantasy, I must be
     forced to view the latter as the proper conclusion.

     Perhaps that was the exact impetus (aside from the monetary)
     driving the publication of these volumes; not one of producing
     scientifically accurate (or remotely plausible) books, but rather ones
     of "shock, schlock and sensationalism."  If so, that is entirely your
     prerogative.  I value our constitutional right to various freedoms and
     so emulate Voltaire, inasmuch as I may not agree with what you say, but
     will defend your right to say it.  What does concern me though is the
     muddling and merging of science and pseudoscience promoted in your
     brochure, and, ergo, this series. For instance, the splashy
     frontispiece foldout featuring Dr. Dale Russell's anthropified
     _Stenonychosaurus_, regarding the speculation of archosaurian
     evolution past the K/T extinction event, literally cheek-by-jowl
     with reports of UFO abductions and mysterious, unknown sea creatures.

     As a member of a number of national and international scientific
     societies, and as a science educator frequently called to deliver
     lectures to largely non-scientific audiences, I am keenly aware of the
     overwhelming, and alarming, depth of scientific ignorance manifested in
     American society today. Fully 95% of the US population are functionally
     scientifically illiterate. Handmaidens to this ignobility are the lack
     of critical thinking, unquestioned acceptance, and illogic; a seedbed
     for the healthy festering of superstition, dogma and irrationality. It
     is to this that I object most strongly.

     Perhaps you may regard my tone as one of being too harsh or too severe.
     After all, it's just a series of harmless books, correct?  I see it
     entirely differently. Never previously have we stood before the
     technological and scientific crossroads that we do today. This science
     and technology impacts every citizen profoundly on a daily basis,  yet
     so piteously few understand the merest moiety of the basic body of
     knowledge. In fact, certain individuals revel in the fact of this very
     ignorance. They cannot, or will not, see the possible value of
     scientific projects; and readily retreat into an unnatural world,
     devoid of fact or substance, but that seems more fantastic or
     fascinating than that which we call reality.  This inevitably will lead
     to a splintered and stratified society, and indeed, is quite
     unmistakably apparent forthwith. Surely, a more well paved path to
     perdition could not be constructed.

     Of course, I do not lay blame for this sorrowful situation upon
     you or your publishing house, per se, but pseudoscientific
     sensationalism of this stripe acts as nothing more than fertilizer
     of a blighted harvest.

     For this reason I must reject your free offer.

     Sincerely,

     Dr. Martin R. Leipzig
     enclosure:  Free Book Offer Card



... Skeptical? Me? I don't believe that....      
--- Blue Wave/Max v2.12
 * Origin: A Little Corner in Time BBS (1:106/113.0)