Skepticism and Humanism: The New Paradigm - Review

Paul Kurtz. Transaction Publishers, Rutgers-The State University, 35 Berrue Circle, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8042. 2001. ISBN 0-7658-0051-9. 306 pp. Hardcover, $39.95. A spirited defense of the values of reason, skepticism, science, and humanism in an increasingly complex world where, to take just one point, science has become so specialized that few people can draw on its broader intellectual and cultural implications.

Kurtz has devoted his life to using the methods of skeptical inquiry in all fields of human interest--including religion--while likewise being committed to the secular humanist paradigm. He also has been involved in creating alternative institutions to carry forth and sustain those ideas. Skeptics may find especially valuable Part One of this collection of papers, "Skeptics of the World Unite!" It deals with antiscience paradigms, skeptical inquiry, skepticism and the paranormal, the escape to oblivion, fears of the apocalypse, scientific tests of astrolo gy, the "Mars Effect," a defense of scientific medicine, Can the sciences be unified? Should skeptical inquiry be applied to religion? And, Why do people believe or disbelieve? This is a companion volume to Toward a New Enlightenment: The Philosophy of Paul Kurtz, from the same publisher.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group