North Texas Skeptics Flashback, July 1992

It’s still July, right?  This was a busy month with a trip to The Amazing Meeting in Las Vegas.  Now, just in time, a history flashback 20 years ago in July from the newsletter archives.

In the July 1992 newsletter, Pat Reeder covered global warming, currently referred to as “climate change”, and back then often referred to as “the greenhouse effect”.  It is interesting that the tone of the article leaned toward skepticism against the existence of human-caused climate change, mainly because of some inconsistencies in the evidence at that time.  Even a few years ago, many skeptics were on-the-fence about climate change.  Today, most skeptics in the movement are pretty convinced by the evidence that there is anthropogenic climate change.  To examine the evidence yourself, check out sites like the National Center for Science Education‘s Climate Change 101, and Skeptical Science.

Another story briefly covered the local television minister, Robert Tilton, who was in the middle of lawsuits over his healing claims.  Tilton was accused of swindling his followers into sending him money to heal them through their prayer requests that they would mail to Tilton’s organization.  Investigations found that Tilton took the money, and the requests were thrown in the trash without being read.

Pat Reeder wrapped up his section with a news roundup of various national articles about witches, astrologers, and Elvis sightings.

Long time NTS member John Blanton described his investigation into local practitioners of the Gerson therapy diet.  John attended a lecture on healing through Gerson therapy, and describes the basic claims of the therapy and reports about some of the people he spoke with at the lecture.  You can read more about Max Gerson, his claims, and the risks on Wikipedia.

Dan Phelps covered Reverend Carl Baugh, a young Earth creationist who claimed to find human footprints next to famous dinosaur tracks in the Paluxy River basin in Glen Rose, TX.  Baugh established the Creation Evidence Museum in a trailer outside of Dinosaur Valley National Park in Glen Rose.  In the museum he displays his claimed evidence for a young Earth, including evidence of the coexistence of man with the dinosaurs. Dan visited the museum and reported what he found there.

Check out the full July 1992 newsletter for all the details.

 

Skepticism 101

Skepticism 101 BannerAre you new to the skeptic movement?  Are you looking for material to educate others about skepticism and critical though?  Need a refresher?  The Skeptics Society has a new Skepticism 101 resource section of their website.  It is a collection of recommended books, courses, papers, presentations, etc.  The material can be used in classes or for self-study.  The collection can be searched by topic, by resource type, by academic discipline, and by academic level.  Check it out.

There is also extra background information about the resource center from Michael Shermer in his blog post, How to Learn to Think Like a Scientist (Without Being a Geek) .