From Abracadabra to Zombies
What's the buzz about The Skeptic's Dictionary?
the book
This superb book is likely to be used so often that it is a pity it is a softback book. Cardboard and sticky tape might grant it a longer life. --New Scientist
Perhaps the most useful group of entries are those anatomising illogical thought processes: the Pragmatic Fallacy, the Regressive Fallacy, Confirmation Bias and many other rhetorical devices beloved of Daily Mail writers. --Guardian Unlimited
The Skeptic’s Dictionary, aside from being a lot of fun, has restored our deep faith—in skepticism. --Quality Paperback Book Club
Pardon me, but didn't we once live in a rational society? I distinctly remember that when I was growing up the Age of Reason was considered a good thing. Don't they teach thinking in school any more? Or have mysterious enemies been poisoning our national vital fluids with goofy juice? Cast your mind in any direction and odds are you'll reel in inanity of some boggling dimension. Fortunetellers and seancists inhabit the airwaves like so many carnival hucksters. Schoolbooks in Georgia are required to have warning stickers espousing bio-evolutionary precepts as written in millennia-old religious texts. According to the bumper stickers Angels and other spiritual whatnots are hovering so thickly they need to be hip checked just to get an elbow on the bar. Next time some valued co-worker spouts some idiocy that leaves your jaw dangling for lack of response, trundle back to your desk and quickly consult The Skeptic's Dictionary. You'll get a better idea of the rotten intellectual underpinnings of said tom foolishness, and have a couple of counter arrows of your own to sling back. It's probably too late to stem the human tide of numbskulls, but maybe you can take a few of them with you. [Mitchel Ahern, Netsurfer Books, Volume 05, Issue 09, September 20, 2003]
If your inquiring mind wants to know about Uri Geller, Holocaust deniers, Ouija boards, Men in Black, Dianetics, Deepak Chopra, fairies, magnet therapy, the "face on Mars," numerology, psychic detectives, or cattle mutilations, this dictionary offers a perspective you won't get from supermarket tabloids or TV "documentaries." --Doug Wyatt, Savannah Morning News
"I did want to give you my two-cent's worth, debunking a popular myth held by large corporations and their lawyers that says that making something free on the Internet decreases sales of the corresponding print copy of it. After reading skepdic.com for many years and enjoying it, I have bought the print book. It was almost 20 bucks, but I love the website so much, I really wanted a print copy on hand. And, I'm a grad student! I can't be buying things. Thank you for the wonderful resource." -- Zachary Hyde, future science teacher
"From alternative medicine, aliens, and psychics to the farthest shores of science and beyond, Robert Carroll presents a fascinating look at some of humanity’s most strange and wonderful ideas. Refreshing and witty, both believers and unbelievers will find this compendium complete and captivating. Buy this book and feed your head!" –Clifford Pickover, author of The Stars of Heaven and Dreaming the Future
"A refreshing compendium of clear thinking, a welcome and potent antidote to the reams of books on the supernatural and pseudoscientific."--John Allen Paulos, author of Innumeracy and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper
"Whether it’s the latest shark cartilage scam, or some new ‘repressed memory’ idiocy that besets you, I suggest you carry a copy of this dictionary at all times, or at least have it within reach as first aid for psychic attacks." –James Randi
"This book covers an amazing range of topics and can protect many people from being scammed." –Stephen Barrett, M.D. Quackwatch.org
"I think that this wonderful book might be better titled "The Thinking Person's Guide to Level-headed Thinking". I am eager for my son to reach the age where, well, he can read, but also appreciate the sheer beauty of logic and solid research applied to what seems to pass for "common knowledge" in the popular press. My son will not enter jr. high without being able to quote chapter and verse from this book - and I'll beat him too him by a mile! BTW - beside being incredibly valuable, it is a simply wonderful read, which I recommend to readers and thinkers everywhere!" -- Reviewer, Amazon Canada: from Rolling Hills of New Jersey
Great book for those seeking facts. Incredible book that is well-written and a joy to read. Carroll looks at phenomena and ideas that pop-culture has promoted ad nauseum and gets to the scientific truth. He takes James Randi's work a step further by detailing his entries in a clear, concise manner, and creates a book that is amazingly readable. I couldn't put it down! Reviewer, Amazon Canada: from Los Angeles
I ... wanted you to know that three copies of your book are on their way to me from Amazon.com. One I will keep handy for myself as an off-line reference, one will go to my eleven year-old daughter as intellectual armor, and the last will go to P, who teaches Philosophy here at S. Community College. Despite being a good friend and colleague, P is a committed theist. Though he struggles to bring balance to his classes, I fear his natural bias shows through as he presents the arguments. I hope to convince him to use your book when he teaches Critical Thinking (I have already got him to provide the URL for your site). I'll let you know how it works out. -- Jeff Omalanz-Hood
I wanted to thank you for getting the book published. So far, I've ordered 8 copies and will probably be ordering a few more. As you said: 'Together we may not change the world, but we may change a few minds!'. I never thought of talking to the Library or local school. I will. -- Joe Darcy
I'm gonna buy yer book! Anyone what so causes me excessive soul-filled joy deserves a vote from me wallet....But I got a question. How come if I dunno what yer talkin' about most of the time yer still manage to get the right answers? -- Yer devoted disciple Peter Blood from Australia
Love is everywhere except in the Skeptic's Dictionary....I would like to know why the notion of love isn't featured in the Skeptic's Dictionary. After all, I believe that this particular emotion/feeling can not be quantified in the laboratory, yet we all know that is exists. Therefore, by the reasoning of the dictionary, one should be extremely sceptical of anyone proclaiming to be in love. --Reviewer, Amazon.com: United Kingdom
Antidote for gullibility....Unfortunately this sort of book is still an exception in the current Age Of Disinformation. Probably will not change the minds of people who believe in UFO, ESP or God, but is still a relief for the rest of us to see that ignorance has not conquered the world. YET. The author must be congratulated for this initiative. But must be weeping with such an imbecile attack as that the word "Love" should be listed "since skeptics don't believe in anything that cannot be measured in a lab". Phew! --Reviewer, Amazon.com: from Sydney, Australia
There is lots of love in your fight for reason over ignorance. How many people are hurt by cults and the zillion other forms of fraud in our society? I bought your book as a birthday present for my daughter. I bought it for her because I love her, and I want her to be armed with a source of truth to fight the scams. Truth and love are close companions, because truth is a requirement of integrity, and integrity is a requirement for mature love. What may feel like a lack of love in your book is, I believe, the feeling tone associated with the subject matter. Dealing with the purveyors of misrepresentations, disinformation, spin-masters, and the defenders of prejudice and other forms of ignorance is like hunting rats. Hunting rats doesn't seem like an act of love, but to the parent of the child badly bitten by rats last night, it is. --Roger Backes
the web site
I have nothing but praise for your newsletter and site, except for one tiny problem: I'm finding it very hard to motivate myself to work now that I know your site is a click away. I've taken you out of my favorites and even stopped the predictive text function on my browser - but there seems no solution. My Bloomberg terminal goes untouched and my inbox is silting up with research reports. Please could you be less interesting, I'm going to lose my job!
Surely, you must have some information on the myths of compulsive behavior so I can stop conning myself into thinking I've found a new addiction - skeptomania.-- Lucy
Thank you for adding more candle power against the darkness of fear, ignorance, superstition and religion. -- Adam Blum
An oasis of reason! I will certainly encourage my students to use it. -- Angus Bancroft, School of Social and Administrative Studies, Cardiff University, UK
The hours of research and diligence to the subjects at hand is astounding in its depth. Thank you so much for sharing this with humankind. -- Jo-Anne Shaw
I have faith in God but have the good sense to realize it is an irrational belief. Your skepticism and my belief system seem to converge. I think you're doing the world a great service... --Frank Lane
As a newcomer to the skeptical movement, I find the Skeptic's Dictionary to be an invaluable resource. Just wanted to say thanks. --Anon.
1000 thanks for your wonderful skeptic's dictionary - it has - and is - a great help within the work of our new Danish Skeptical Association. --Mogens Winther
Thank you for this valuable resource. I find it particularly useful in responding to my children's inquiries and in fostering critical thinking skills. --Anon.
I find your page to be extremely well written, interesting and entertaining. Your system of breaking things down and seeming to find the most balanced, informed and logical perspective on these subjects is nothing short of amazing. -- Michael, Perth, Western Australia
Thanks again for "The Skeptic's Dictionary"! This is the first place I go to help me understand the latest claims. -- John Catalano
I have a deep appreciation for the work of men like you who spend their lives spreading knowledge (vs. beliefs, even if what you and I call knowledge might be called belief by the next person). As a physician, I am constantly faced with the belief of the paranormal by my patients. this sometimes causes medical problems and my position towards the paranormal is progressively shifting from amused tolerance to silent irritation. -- Karl F., Manhattan
This is just the kind of ammo I need to deal with all the Southern Baptists in my family. -- Lance Vamplew
Why can't everyone think this way? Better yet, why can't everyone think?-- Michael
I have just finished reading your skeptic's dictionary and found it entirely refreshing. I must say it even debunked some of my cherished beliefs for which I am grateful to you. Most liberating. -- James C Price
Your web site has become my favorite late night reading and an invaluable source of information when the latest tabloid rubbish becomes the topic of conversation at work. For the hours of work you have put in for the cause of reason, I thank and salute you. -- Tom W. New
I want to thank you for, well, for your contribution to my intrinsic and well developed sense of wonder. I now have a much better understanding of what it is that I have been for so many years. I'm not depressed, I'm not pessimistic nor spiritually void; quite the contrary. However, I am (proudly self proclaiming) a skeptic. -- Jonathan Buckmaster
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your site; a breath of rational fresh air. -- Bill Hackett in Brier
The Skeptic's Dictionary is the finest web page I've ever visited. Thank you for this island of sanity in a sea of internet trash. -- Jeff Jardine
Many thanks for sharing some great information with the rest of us "candle holders" in the (still) "demon haunted world!" -- Paul Critelli
It's nice to have access to the "other" side of the coin regarding many beliefs that are often taken at face value. Just letting you know it's appreciated and your hard work is not for naught. -- Art
I'm a senior in high school right now but as a future theologian, I'd like to say that this is a very informative and fun site that I could spend days educating myself at. Keep up the good work! -- E. Williams
BRAVO and thanks from Croatia. -- Ignac Kulier
I had plans to write a long essay that would expound the virtues and intricate nature of The Skeptic's Dictionary. But I realized that anything that I could write could never be as elegant as a simple "Thank-you." -- Tim Hergert
I am the research coordinator for a medical charity. Often, I have to handle inquiries from people all over America about one therapy or another. Sometimes, these therapies are simply uncommon, but legitimate therapies, like hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Sometimes, however, the therapies are quackery. Your "Skeptic's Dictionary" has been invaluable for my research. Please don't stop! -- Craig Levin
You do an important public service with this kind of popularizing scholarship--one too few academics are willing to engage in. -- Doris Dungey
I thoroughly enjoy your skeptic's dictionary - without exception. As James Randi has recently put me in charge of administrating his "Psychic challenge" I receive quite a lot of e-mail from people asking rather silly questions. I regularly refer people to your site to help rid them of some of their eccentric notions (not that I consider your work silly or eccentric!). -- Andrew Harter
I'm an engineer for a large telecommunications firm, a company that likes to think of itself as a paradigm of our scientific and technological age. Therefore it depresses me even more that we have regular demonstrations from New Age healers and the like for my fellow employees....After spending many hours at your web site, I will feel more prepared the next time! -- Philip O'Toole, Galway, Ireland
Greetings from Tokyo Japan! Just a quick message to say that your site would have to be the most informative, educational, enjoyable, practical, objective site - (the list can go on) that I have ever come across in my whole entire life of surfing on the web!!!! Thank you so much - I have been waiting for something like this to come my way - Amazing! keep up the brilliant work! -- Sharon Ganter
A quick comment from Spain. I think it is disgraceful that your work is not made compulsory reading in schools and other centres of learning. -- Ernesto Nomparte Forchetto, Gijon, Asturias
Congratulations to your wonderful site, which I just discovered and which I will recommend to all collaborators in our unit. You might be interested in the work we are pursuing here; it is on the neuropsychological foundations of paranormal beliefs (we think that esoteric beliefs have their roots in peculiarities in rather hard-wired brain processes). - Peter Brugger, Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland
I love that you are out there making people challenge their rather blind faith and helping us become less vulnerable, less ripped off, and far more powerful to make a difference in our world......I appreciate you....I admire you....I respect you. I cannot ever believe in a UFO....a Channeler...or 99% of what other people "believe" in...I DO believe that there is Something that cannot be explained (yet) that exists within us....that there IS magic (not of the hocus pocus variety)...and that it is as vital as Facts....and your website actually allows me to find that magic INSIDE of me...in a far more powerful way than somebody ranting or raving about lightbeings and ascended masters etc etc etc. Your website challenges me...to challenge those things that breed ALL of this...Beliefs. Thank you again. -- Linda Rankin
You're a beacon of light in what has become a new dark age. Keep it up, and Thanks. -- Ted Nieves
Your site is thorough and very intense and I only wish I had found it sooner. I had a boyfriend who was using mind control and other manipulative techniques to keep me with him. I'm so glad you helped me to see the light. -- Margie
I don't think I could live without the Skeptic's Dictionary; thank you so much! -- Sarah Gossett
Your site is a tribute to and a treasure for humanity. It ain't easy living in the Bible Belt (northwest Florida), I assure you. The Dictionary has now given me an edge. -- Jason Loveless
I truly think that your site is one of the most important fortresses of rational thinking in all of the "new-ageism" and "occultism" that surround us nowadays. -- Yuval Vinkler
So much bunk, so little time for adequate debunking. How do you manage to have a job and a life and still make time for this valuable, educational project? -- Andy Kapust
Have you ever been interviewed by anyone on NPR? I'm thinking you'd be a natural for Talk Of The Nation's Science Friday or Terri Gross' Fresh Air. -- Gregg Catanese
You've given me alternative explanations for things I used to believe in and encouraged me to be more of a critical thinker. -- YW
I am launching an ambitious project to somehow help teachers, especially at the elementary level where it must begin and where teachers are least prepared and equipped to do it well. I was intimidated by the awesome task of collecting requisite data until I discovered that you have already done the job.... -- Joseph F. Bohren
I’m a Christian, and I believe in God. I don’t believe, however, that God makes the “A” train arrive in response to a prayer to help me get to a job interview on time....You’re a hero. Keep up the good work. I’ll be watching and cheering from the sidelines. -- prefers to remain anonymous
You are performing an invaluable service. I hope the phrase "keep up the excellent work" won't seem to hackneyed. -- Miryam
Keep up the good work. We are a young species and show promise. -- Jim Mobley
Keep up the good work and the site. It's great to hear some critical thinking for a change, instead of being always expected to run our lives with irrational and emotional thinking. -- Eve S.
Thanks so much for your site. It gives me a lot of peace of mind as well as intellectual fulfillment. -- Ron Shaw (Perth, Australia)
I'd like to thank you for providing the Skeptic's Dictionary, it is indeed a refuge. -- Caelin Graber
Just a few words of encouragement - I know you take a pounding from the myriad of "believers" out there - just a reminder that many of us out here greatly appreciate your straight forward analysis of this wonderful world and its workings. You are the light in the sea of darkness. Keep up the good work! Excelsior! -- Ted Nieves
It should be mandatory reading for everyone from nursery school to deathbed....I recommend it to anyone who will listen...and it's so much fun to read. Skepdic is as refreshing as a cold shower of fact in a desert of hot air. -- C. L. Maxwell
I am deeply impressed with the massive work you must have put into this site....Even from California good things come. Keep up the good work. -- August Wülfinghoff, Leiden, Holland
Thank you for your wonderful SD site, which I recognize as the best skeptic reference on the Net. It helped me learn a lot about how to build the style for my fight against pseudoscience and modern superstitious in my country. -- Voja Antonic, Serbia
...it's nice to know that there are others like me, skeptical atheists who prefer science to quackery. -- Anon.
Your website will be used this semester by students at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio, in my auditorium section of Introduction to Philosophy and a "normal" section of Critical Thinking....Your website is a model of planning, clarity, and candor. Thanks very much for your valuable contribution to sanity and genuine learning in our magic-loving and myth-loving culture. -- Tom Shipka
I don't think I've ever agreed with anyone as much as I do with you. How you mange to cut through all the crap is beyond me. -- Phil Leone
Keep fighting the good fight, Mr. Carroll! There are quite a few of us behind you, all the way. -- Dave W.
I've been wanting to write you for some time and thank you for your website. I've been a fan for several years, and have spent many happy hours reading the entries. I first found it when I was working in Moscow, Russia, and enjoyed the reality boost first thing every morning. Now I like to read new entries, letters, and look up the occasional topic I hear about from someone. I've also enjoyed exploring the links. -- Eric Kinzel
My name is Ryan, and I am a high school student living in Florida. I would just like to say "thanks" for your site and all of the information it provides. It irritates me to no end to hear my teachers talk about the "fact" that we only use 10% of our brains and to then see my fellow students go "oh, wow. I didn't know that!" I am currently embroiled in a religious battle with my bus-driver who, like many people, sees the Bible as irrefutable evidence of everything. It's very frustrating. There's not much else to say, so again, thank you for providing a very informative (and interesting) website. It's one of my favorites.
To coin a phrase, keep up the good work. And if you're ever in Costa Rica... -- Chris Ward
I am a frequent visitor to Skepdic.com, and I thought you deserved kudos! It's a great site, and a bold accomplishment. Keep up the great work! --Kate
Many, many thanks for your devotion to skeptical and critical thinking, as evidenced by your website....Thanks again for adding your voice to the chorus of reason. -- John A. Zrnich
Keep up the great work - this site should be required reading on every kids desktop. -- Stephen, Hong Kong
This is to congratulate you for your superb educational and bibliographical skeptic resource, a real candle in the jingoist dark of our postmodern times. -- Conrad
Just to say I much enjoyed your site - and have plugged it into my browser's "Personal Links", so my kids will easily access and use as a resource ...Keep up the good work, much appreciated. -- Robin Jones (In Saudi Arabia)
Excellent site Bob! This has been THE page I have been looking for! Thank you for providing this information, and please continue the great work you have accomplished! Major kudos to YOU, sir! -- anon.
Your site is a breath of fresh air. All of it. Your precise and carefully reasoned arguments with the most cracked of pots is an inspiration. There is a vanishing small amount of clear and logical thought on this planet. The Skeptic's Dictionary represents a significant chunk of it. Please keep up the amazingly good work. -- Alan Farmer
Every time I'm on the internet I find myself gravitating toward your site to check out another topic in the Skeptics Dictionary. It's a real pleasure to see someone who is so logical, yet fair in his analysis of many controversial topics. I'm ordering your book and look forward to reading it. Keep up the good work. -- Kelvin Herron
You have a really great site! Keep up the good work. Your efforts are appreciated. Especially out here in the Bible Belt. -- Mark
Thanks for your site...and your insights...it's good to know I am not alone. -- Darryl Auld, Melbourne, Australia
This is just about the most impressive site I have ever seen, in terms of the volume of information and its organisation. It seems to be a light shining amongst a heck of a lot of Net gloom. Thanks for making my day. -- Glenn, Australia
I hardly ever write websites, but I'm moved to write you to say thanks for putting out the skeptics' dictionary. It's very informative and useful, especially to people like me who are naturally suspicious of some things that others take for granted. I've always been curious and interested in some of these kinds of subjects (not because I want to join them, but because I'm a scientist at heart and I want to know what's really behind some of these movements and organizations). -- Timothy E. Thompson, Florence, Italy
I applaud you for standing firm against lazy and undisciplined thinking, and wish (how's that for lazy?) there was a way to keep someone like you around to kick my ass whenever I go soft. ... I also want to commend you for your clarity and sense of humor. -- Eric Prescott
Kudos on standing up to those who believe taking in all the facts makes you closed-minded. -- Laura
I have had many a chuckle over my own and others' silly misconceptions as a result of reading the information available on various subjects in the SD. I have discovered things that will always keep me from being more easily "suckered." -- Stephen E. Robinson
Thanks again for all your hard work and dedication in the face of a lot of hostility. Some of us out here are grateful. -- Tom Miller
I hope you get more praise mail than hate mail, I've had a blast reading from link to link all day long while my employer thinks I'm thinking of creative ideas. -- Phil B
Greetings from Edinburgh Bob. I want to take this opportunity to thank you (belatedly) for your quite wonderful Skeptic's Dictionary. It is truly one of the wonders of the Web. There is so much to appreciate about your contribution, but I will limit myself to a short paragraph or two. I revel in your prose style and clarity of thought. And humour. -- Ian Stewart
I am an (American) English teacher here in Saudi Arabia. For the past few months I have been toying with the idea of establishing a "Hall of Shame" web site to cover all the scallywags out there. Your Skeptic's Dictionary is it already! (Now I have to find a new project.) As a Skeptic, I will now follow you blindly and believe everything you say. (Hold on, that doesn't sound right!) -- Paul
I just wanted to thank you for you website. It has been a good education for me. -- Ahsan
Your site provides an important public service. Thank you for putting so much time and detail into it. -- Jon
I will be a medical doctor by the year 2004 and if there is something I can contribute to your project, you may count on me. -- Klaus Reimert, Germany
Your website is a drop of sanity in an ocean of delusion.-- Rocky
Bullshite is the ultimate renewable energy source, and how you keep patience with the never-ending tide of the stuff I’ll never know. Sometimes I despair, I really do. I’d just about given up arguing over these matters before I found your site, but now I make my little stand where I can. I’m sure you’re familiar with the outcome: incredulity, anger, and a stream of fourth-hand anecdotes that I am challenged to explain. So I gird up with the little store of knowledge gained from your site and elsewhere, and do battle even though I know the same battle will have to be fought over and over again. Thank you for all your work, and your tireless point-by-point rebuttals. Got to go now, I just heard someone say something about life energy. -- Seán Hennessy, Dublin, Ireland
...a much needed enclave of sanity in an increasingly credulous world. -- Julia D Atkinson, York, England
This is a notice that Trinity Western University students will be viewing your site for educational purposes. Our e-course instructors have viewed your site and believe it contributes to the information provided in our on-line courses. -- Elizabeth Dickey
I'm going through a fairly bleak time at the moment (no details, you'll be relieved to know) but I just wanted to let you know that I was reading your replies to reader comment on auras when I came to your remark about the Unbanged Banger. I laughed until I cried. Thanks a million! -- Steve, London UK
Carl Sagan, I believe, said the scientific method was our only small candle in a world of darkness. Or something like that. You are helping to keep it alight.-- Stephen Archer, Harlow UK
I just thought I'd tell you that some of us credulous folks do eventually come around to skepticism. I'm a musician and music teacher up here in Vancouver, and your site (along with others) has changed my life. No hyperbole. -- Mike Rud
As a minister in training, I fully understand the difference between skepticism and cynicism, and the need for skepticism in any serious approach at understanding the world around us. Faith without reason is... well, it's messy, at best. I have taken the liberty of forwarding your newsletter to a number of my friends, and encouraged them to take a look at your various web pages. Thank you again for providing such a resource in promoting clarity of thought. -- Solomon Grey
You have the best site on the entire web. You certainly must be an extraterrestrial:) -- Alberto A. Tassone, Australia
Some days the entire world appears to be a mental asylum. Only yesterday someone told me they communicate with animals, including ticks, and someone else told me a lengthy story about a ghost living in her house, whom they call Janitor because he fixes things. This person also has psychic contact with dogs. Another person told me "if you believe, you will see fairies. They're everywhere." As Ricky Ricardo used to say: ay, ay, ay. When stuff like this happens, I have to read the SD. Any entry. Just to reassure myself that not *everyone* has gone mad. It's a pretty good antidote. Thanks for keeping it handy and updated. -- Charles
Man, you are a gift from the heavens! You have saved me from severe anxiety, because I have read so much trash on the internet. Then I stumbled upon your site - a rock amidst a sea of psychobabble/apocalyptic crap. Your essays have given me answers that I could not have found anywhere else. It's a shame that there is no television series for skeptics, but instead schlock like "mysteries of the Bible". - Bemjamin
Just a note to say that you are undoubtedly one of the finest writers that I have ever had the pleasure of reading, combining rapier wit with compelling content and most importantly, putting a rather more realistic slant on the charlatans, buffoons and frauds out there. You are an inspiration. Keep up the absolutely sterling work. -- D. Donovan Jackson, South Africa
Stay the course; you are doing important work. Above all, don't be dismayed by all the attention and apparent success garnered by the Nut Case class in this world of ours. The advantage is theirs, now and always, for the simple reason that people want what they are selling....easy answers to difficult questions and the excitement of mystery. You have only the hard work of independent thinking to offer and people, being people, will prefer the mystery. I look forward to reading your book. - anon.
I just wanted to say that as a young person who's inquisitive about everything (including the paranormal), your writings have been an immeasurable help. I believe that people are far too ignorant (often willfully so) of the power of thought and belief , and it's far too rare to find a writer who believes truth and common sense are worthy goals. -- Andros
Thank you very much for the remarkable service you are doing for us all. -- Chris Daniels
I'm a 21-year-old Brazilian student...[and]...call you Darwin's pit bull.... --Fabricio Andrade
I'd like to take the opportunity to thank you for all your great work. -- Per-Erik Forssén, Sweden
Thank you so much for your web site!! I really do love it, and it is a GREAT service to people, you are truly a wonderful person....You have a great mind, I admire you. Keep up the good work. I think you are admired and appreciated more widely than you might imagine. -- John Boles
I wanted you to know, as I'm sure you must by now, that there are many people, including myself, who greatly appreciate the work you've done in putting together a website as informative, well laid out and as necessary as yours. For that, you have my heartfelt thanks (and I feel that I'm not unrepresentative in my sentiments of a great many readers of your site). -- John A. Zrnich
I wanted to express my gratitude for your work, and for the ways it has opened to me. Like you I'm a hard skeptic, and sometimes I feel myself alone in the middle of an ocean of nonsense such as astrology (they even want to turn the astrologer into a regulated profession here in Brazil), crystals, acupuncture and so on (It's hard to find atheists like me here, especially in Rio de Janeiro, where I live). -- Miguel Antonio M. V. Azevedo
Greetings, Professor, I'm a Chilean skeptic student. Some members of my family practice the Feng Shui. They say that "Feng Shui is the Acupuncture of the house" Well, I only say: "That's right: Feng Shui, just as Acupuncture, doesn't work" Congratulations for your excellent page, and keep doing the good job. -- Diego Vicencio
I've been a long time fan of your site, and check it often for the latest updates. I can't wait for the print version. -- Jason England
Thank you very very much for doing such an important job. If your site were not on the net, I would have no idea of the rudiments of logic and would still be stumbling from one conspiracy theory to the next myself....Keep up the good work, Dr Carroll, you are one of the few bright lights in the darkness. You are advancing humanity and helping to keep us from slipping back into the dark ages! --Alison Bevege
As a working mentalist (a performer for entertainment purposes only), I found your web page to be both refreshing and entertaining....An excellent source on flim-flam, cold readings, and scams. Well done! -- John Andrejack
After 9-11
Fear and Panic are the most powerful weapons of terrorism. Rational and clear-headed response is our only defense. Truly, you are providing a light in the darkness. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. -- Christine Canelos
....my sincere appreciation for your presence on the web. The statistics you cite on your updated Nostradamus entry are a sign that without your dictionary the web would be hopelessly out of balance on this topic and many more. I ... dearly hope that rational skepticism will play a role in how this country begins a new path. Your page is a beacon to clear thinking on the web, a fantastic reference for my students, and I wish you every continued success. Warmest regards. -- Ray Hall
The afterbuzz
Wow, all that "buzz" about the SD and NONE of it negative! You must have the "True Believer" filter turned on. -- Tim B.
* AmeriCares *
