_Skeptic_ Volume 3, Number 2 (1995): The AIDS Heresies

Table of Contents
SKEPTIC

A Quarterly Publication of the Skeptics Society, Devoted to the
Investigation of Extraordinary Claims and Revolutionary Ideas and the
Promotion of Science and Critical Thinking

Features:

10 Skeptical News

"Cool Moss Clinton"; Randi 1--Geller 0; Scholastic Magazine 
Haunted by Nostradamus; Janos Was No Janus: So Long to a 
Skeptical Friend; California Has Its Faults; No Satanic 
Abuse; Repressed Memory Suit Dismissed; South African 
Witchcraze; No Social Security For UFOs; Mystery Fumes Not 
Mass Hysteria; Psychic Cats; Ig Nobel Peace Prize; California 
Cloudbusting; The Madness of King George (& the American 
Public); A Trip to Waco; Why Ask Why; Corporate Religion.

Forum

14 Skeptics' Forum: Letters

Suicide Astrology; Am I Crazy? Seeking Answers--20 Questions; 
Abducted by Santa; A Psychic Test For Skeptics; A Skeptical 
Test of Graphoanalysis; Lucky Chicken Crap; The Great 
Atheism--Agnosticism Debate; Skeptical Religion; Challenging 
Drees--Religion is Not a Deterrent; Understanding the Total 
Human Experience--Drees Responds; Randi is Wrong; Reality is 
Right--Randi Responds; The Skeptics Dogmatic Society--Raso 
Needs Revising; Tending Garden and Health--Raso Responds; 
Curing Homeopathy; Satire--A Powerful Weapon; Sloppy Thinking 
Media.

20 Skeptics' Forum: Challenge

   Who Really Discovered Punctuated Equilibrium?: A Skeptical 
Critique of Stephen Jay Gould by Bruce Sobol.
   The Mismeasure of Gould--
On the Perils of Striking Out 
by Michael Shermer.

23 Pseudohistory forum

Revising the Founding Fathers; Afrocentric Skepticism or 
Credulity?; Holocaust Poll Still Distorted; The Greeks Stole 
Philosophy?; Plane Crashes and Gas Chambers; The John Birch 
Society & Holocaust Revisionists--Common Methods & Mistakes; 
Greetings from the Aryan Nations; Speaking Volumes About 
Revisionism; Don't Forget the Gypsies.

27 Should the Bible Be Taken Literally?--By Betty McCollister

28 'Twas Brillig.Commentary
The Great Astrology Brouhaha: The Internet Becomes a Weapon 
of Change By James Randi

30 Do Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence? A 
Reappraisal of a Classic Skeptics' Axiom
By Theodore Schick, Jr.

Bell Curve Issue Preview:
34 For Whom the Bell Curve Tolls
An Interview with the Author of The Bell Curve, Charles 
Murray.On IQ, Race, Class, Gould, Gardner, and the Clintons
By Frank Miele

Special Section: THE AIDS Heresies

Does HIV Really Cause AIDS?--A Case Study in Skepticism Taken 
Too Far. 

By Steven B. Harris

42 AIDS Part I
The Skeptics and Their Claims

59 AIDS Part II 
How Skepticism Went Astray

73 AIDS Part III 
Lessons on How Science Works

80 Skeptical Perspectives

A Gentlemanly Arrangement 
Alfred Russel Wallace, Charles Darwin, and the Resolution of 
a Scientific Priority Dispute: The story of how the co-
discoverers of natural selection resolved a scientific 
priority dispute offers deep insight into the nature of 
discovery and history. By Michael Shermer

In Brief and In Review: 

90 BOOKS in Brief

"Skeptoon: An Illustrated Look at Some New Age Beliefs"; and 
"Magic Minds, Miraculous Moments," by Harry Edwards; 
"How To Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New 
Age," by Theodore Schick, and Lewis Vaughn;
"Telling the Truth About History," by Joyce Appleby, Lynn 
Hunt, and Margaret Jacob; "Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of 
Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher." Recordings 
of Richard Feynman in the Classroom; "The Pleasures and 
Perils of Genius: Mostly Mozart," ed. by Peter Ostwald and 
Leonard Zegans; "Gene Roddenberry: The Myth and the Man 
Behind Star Trek," by Joel Engel; "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of 
the Human Future in Space," by Carl Sagan.

BOOKS In Review

92 The Fall of The Soviet Union & the Changing Game of 
Biblical Prophecy
Hal Lindsey's "Planet Earth--2000 A.D.: Will Mankind 
Survive?" Reviewed By Tim Callahan

98 Culture Wars:
Skeptics, Parapsychologists & New Agers--Has the "good guys 
v. bad guys" rhetoric hindered the quest for truth?--A review 
of "Science in the New Age," by David Hess. Reviewed By Brian 
Siano
102 The Question All Skeptics are Asking
Why Did God Make Rice Cakes? By Bernard Leikind

104 Authors and Contributors


