Pseudoscience

Pseudosciences are widely accepted in India, as Jayant Narlikar has explained in the previous chapter. Pseudosciences are also widespread in other populous countries that are not part of the “first world.” But pseudosciences also became very popular in countries such as Russia after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Science education was generally considered strong in these countries. Perhaps the coming of “democracy” encourages people to believe what they want (or for their beliefs to become more open). In North America, several forms of astronomical pseudosciences are widely accepted. Fortunately, there are individuals such as Andrew Fraknoi, and organizations such as the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (with which Fraknoi is associated), which have produced some excellent resource material for teachers and the general public; these are online at: http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/pseudobib.html

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), based in Buffalo, New York, and with a website at http://www.csicop.org, describes itself as follows: “CSICOP encourages the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminates factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community and the public.” They publish a valuable magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, six times a year. An index of past articles is on line at their website.