Alison Campbell looks at the Accelerated Christian Education curriculum. By accident, I came across the curriculum document for Accelerated Christian Education (ACE), which provides teaching and ... (767 words)

A best-selling book claiming to present evidence of life after death may not be all it's cracked up to be. I recently read an article ("Heaven's Gate", SA Weekend Magazine, The Advertiser, December ... (1475 words)

On a recent visit to New Plymouth I was rather taken aback to see a billboard outside a central city church posing the question: "Evolution? How come we still have apes?" It wasn't so much surprise ... (410 words)

Some claim our society is too materialistic and lacks spiritual values. But what would it be like to live in a society that rejects materialism? Arnhem Land in tropical Australia has a curious ... (1942 words)

Non-custodial sentence inappropriate In delivering a non-custodial sentence in the Janet Moses makutu case, Justice Simon France noted that expert witnesses considered the perpetrators were not ... (160 words)

Although formal religion is continuing to decline in this country, belief in the supernatural remains high. That seems to be the main conclusion to be drawn from a recent survey of New Zealand ... (425 words)

Elephants in Loch Ness? Nessie's an elephant, says a leading British palaeontologist (Dominion Post, 7 March). Neil Clark, curator of palaeontology at Glasgow University's Hunterian Museum, spent two ... (1184 words)

Intelligent Design ruled a pretext for religion in the classroom In a decision which sets an important precedent for US science education, a court has ruled against the teaching of the theory of ... (1338 words)

The decision by Judge John Jones ruling that the promotion of Intelligent Design (ID) in schools is a violation of the constitutional ban on teaching religion, is at least a temporary victory for ... (446 words)

Efficacy of Prayer - an update Since I wrote my piece (NZ Skeptic 75) based on Bruce Flamm's article in Skeptical Inquirer concerning a research paper on the efficacy of prayer, Dr Flamm has reported ... (1164 words)

A widely publicised trial which appeared to show prayer was effective in enhancing fertility now appears to have been fraudulent. In 2001 an extraordinary paper, from the highly regarded Columbia ... (908 words)

Like scientists, historians use a dependable methodology to ensure their findings are reliable. Assertions of historical fact can properly be based only on empirical evidence. Historians then use ... (791 words)

Answering Answers in Genesis The young earth creationists have been active again ... the Australian-based group Answers in Genesis (AIG), has been doing the circuit in New Zealand. Warnings on the ... (1212 words)

A Waikato University lecturer has been named on a website for Latter-Day Saints as anti-mormon. American history senior lecturer Dr Raymond Richards has accused the Mormon Church of irresponsible ... (261 words)

These are nervous times. By an astounding coincidence, as I wrote that line and paused to think of what to put next, I had a call from a friend to tell me there was a Sars case at the Waikato ... (425 words)

Alternative Child Healthcare The following correspondence between nursing lecturer Sue Gasquoine and Skeptics' chairentity Vicki Hyde is reproduced with the permission of the participants -ed. Hello ... (1343 words)

Death was "the Biggest Gift" A Feng Shui practitioner who died while on a life mastery course in Fiji was ready to leave his body, his widow believes. Stephanie Challis, pictured in the Nelson Mail ... (1345 words)

Providence based medicine If the caring practitioner has no idea of what to do next, the decision may be best left in the hands of the Almighty. Too many clinicians, unfortunately, are unable to ... (1523 words)

Biokinetic Horror Show A Hamilton doctor is facing two charges of professional misconduct and one of disgraceful conduct after one of his patients was left looking "like something out of a horror ... (1131 words)

Damian Thompson argues that a tangle of folklore and urban legend, allied to a particular horror of paedophilia, has blinded many to the scientific facts Ritual satanic abuse is back. In March, a ... (1043 words)

When Raymond Richards included a lecture on the Mormon Church in his course on American history he ran foul of not only the Mormon community but also the University of Waikato heirarchy. He told his ... (2690 words)

John Riddell reckons he's a sensible bloke. But then, doesn't everybody? A while ago I had to take my wife out for our anniversary, so while we were waiting for our burgers and fries I flicked ... (773 words)

The Gallup Organization released the results of its new poll on paranormal beliefs in June, which indicate increases in the percentage of Americans who believe in communication with the dead, ESP, ... (318 words)

If I Could Talk to the Dead Animals Pet psychic Carol Schultz of Chicago has been gaining a lot of international attention, with identical reports featured in June editions of the Cairns Post and ... (914 words)

Because Cowards get Cancer too, by John Diamond, Random House, 1998 So John Diamond is dead; at age 47 killed by his tongue cancer. He may not be well known in New Zealand, but was a popular ... (922 words)

John Riddell Even in a secular age, it's hard to surrender the religious habits of old Back when our ancestors lived in caves, life was frightening. Anything could kill you. Lions, earthquakes or ... (1234 words)

Presenting the evidence just isn't enough Bill Peddie In his book Unpopular Essays, Bertrand Russell claims that although he was fully aware of the notion that the human is a rational animal, despite ... (2965 words)

Christian fundamentalists usually come to the notice of the Skeptics when they make pronouncements on scientific matters, as with creationism. But, as Ross Miller indicates, fundamentalism results in ... (797 words)

Complaints Process Then and Now I found it interesting to read Bernard Howard's article on complaining to the authorities. I myself complained about an incident that happened some years ago, when ... (818 words)

New claims that pollen grains on the Shroud of Turin link it to pre-eighth-century Jerusalem were made in August by researchers at the International Botanical Congress in St. Louis. In fact, the ... (554 words)

ROBERT Temple's book The Sirius Mystery suggests that astronauts from Sirius visited Earth in ancient times, 5000 years or more ago. These beings were amphibious humanoids, with the lower body ... (1428 words)

IT'S A funny old world, I was thinking to myself on the way home from coffee with a friend. Except, it wasn't coffee, it was decaff, and, to add insult, instant. During which she'd helped me to a ... (653 words)

Around 300BCE there started a school of Greek philosophy called Skepticism. It continued for centuries, but was more like dogmatic doubt than the modern version. Bertrand Russell put their creed as ... (1281 words)

John Riddell finds some creationist claims really are testable, unfortunately for them. A FEW weeks ago a couple of Jehovah's Witness walked down my drive and told me if I wanted to live forever I ... (830 words)

Jim Ring takes a look at canonisation and finds the lives of the saints less than miraculous. THERE may soon be a New Zealand saint -- so should we be excited? Canonisation is a process making ... (1353 words)

Jim Ring continues his investigations into the Fijian paranormal scene. I HAVE previously examined supernatural claims from Fiji [see NZ Skeptic 26 & 35]. Twenty odd years ago a friend described ... (1090 words)

The Bible (or, more precisely, the Torah) is a heavenly word-find puzzle, according to Israeli mathematicians. THE BIBLE CODE, a new book touting the miraculous prophetic nature of the Hebrew Torah ... (1180 words)

The social vision associated with the name Walter Nash, or for present purposes Jack Marshall, has crumbled. The most secure and decent high culture, which flowered for some decades, is now on almost ... (2317 words)

Dr Mann's essay in this issue will annoy some readers, but it belongs here because it deals with one of the key debates of our time. A recent edition of the Times Literary Supplement carried essays ... (851 words)

Folie-a-deux can be defined as a paranoid disorder in which the same delusion is shared by two (or more) persons. The delusion is thought to be transmitted from a dominant but paranoid person to his ... (3800 words)

Australian creationist Peter Sparrow toured New Zealand recently. Peter Sparrow is a black-bearded, bespectacled, bear of a man. He is cheery, articulate, and an excellent spokesman for the Creation ... (1476 words)

Visitors to Fiji are still being told that village people have the hereditary ability to walk on white-hot stones. This is quite untrue (see Hot Footing it in Fiji,Skeptic 26). A tourist promotion ... (502 words)

Pull up a chair and hearken to the tale of the Great Drought of '94 "Skeptical?" piped up the old timer. "Of course I'm flaming skeptical, ye addlepated mudfish! "Aye, but it wasn't always so. I was ... (825 words)

Lately -- my last few airline flights -- I've been listening to the in-flight comedy channels. This was how I discovered Bob Newhart and his monologues. These are things where he takes one side of a ... (841 words)

NZ Qualifications Authority An editorial in the Christchurch Press (23 Nov 94) was critical of the Universities who are seeking approval from the NZQA and argued that they should continue to set ... (1495 words)

Yes, Rhesus Monkey (Tune: "Yes, Jesus Loves Me") Rhesus monkey, this I know, that the Bible Belt must go. Trusting to authority must give way to "test and see". Yes, rhesus monkey, Yes, rhesus ... (133 words)

A friend of mine once visited a faith-healer, one of the religious variety from the United States who periodically come to New Zealand to swell their bank balances. She attended the meeting because ... (827 words)

Vicki Hyde suggests (Skeptic 30) that we are in for a lot more doomsday predictions as we approach the year 2000. I am afraid she is right, but why should fundamentalists get so excited about a round ... (637 words)

Attempts to interpret the results of quantum mechanics in ways people can understand can themselves lead to confusion. Some physicists and philosophers conspire to waste intellectual resources on ... (743 words)

John Jewel was Bishop of Salisbury during the reign of Elizabeth I. It is hardly credible what a harvest, or rather what a wilderness of superstition has sprung up in the darkness of the Marian ... (98 words)

Are the End Times drawing nigh? Are fires and floods from heaven on the brink of seething down in wrathful purge, damning the damned and raising the faithful? Is God's finger poised on the panic ... (464 words)

A jury which in August ordered the Christian Science church to pay $US5.2 million ($NZ9.6 million) in damages in the diabetes death of an 11-year-old boy followed this by adding a further $US9 ... (209 words)

There is a worldwide epidemic of satanic child abuse allegations. Are they true? Has satanic child abuse happened here in New Zealand? The most extensive child sex abuse case to be heard in a New ... (1616 words)

John Cole, editor of Creation/Evolution, recently wrote of his tendency toward hair-pulling, in the National Centre for Science Education Reports, Vol 12 No 2 (Summer 1992). Anti-evolutionists ... (292 words)

The British Independent recently ran an editorial not worth reproducing in the Skeptic. The editorial did, however, generate a vigorous response from Richard Dawkins which is worth thinking about. ... (461 words)

From Jerusalem comes news that Israel's former Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has ruled that trained monkeys may turn off lights or do other domestic chores forbidden to Jews on the sabbath. But only a ... (88 words)

Are Skeptics pussy-footing around by not attacking the major source of superstition and pseudoscience -- religion? With the reintroduction of serious Islam in Afghanistan, women are now required by ... (685 words)

Unconvinced Environmentalist Your main article in the March issue (Skeptic, #23), "The Skeptical Environmentalist" by Vincent Gray, is perhaps the worst I have ever read. It consists almost entirely ... (1562 words)