Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience

by Martin Gardner

Book Overview

Martin Gardner is perhaps the wittiest, most devastating unmasker of scientific fraud and intellectual chicanery of our time. Here he muses on topics as diverse as numerology, New Age anthropology, and the late Senator Claiborne Pell's obsession with UFOs, as he mines Americans' seemingly inexhaustible appetite for bad science. Gardner's funny, brilliantly unsettling expos?s of reflexology and urine therapy should be required reading for anyone...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393322386
• ISBN13: 9780393322385
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A soothing drink of rationality...

Martin Gardner more or less began the modern skeptical movement, with his 1957 book FADS AND FALLACIES IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE; he is one of the most influential skeptical thinkers of our time; and he is the author of literally hundreds of skeptical articles and dozens of skeptical books--and yet before picking up DID ADAM AND EVE HAVE NAVELS?, I don't think I had ever read anything he had written. After reading this book, however, I intend to read his entire canon. After reading this, I want to own every book he has ever written, because this book is a delight. It is. DID ADAM AND EVE HAVE NAVELS? features engaging essays on Intelligent Design and evolution, the Star of Bethlehem, urine therapy, Freud and psychotherapy, cannibalism, the Science Wars and the Sokal Hoax, suggestions of the Internet in early science fiction, Carlos Castaneda and New Age spirituality, the Heaven's Gate cult, the paranormal interests of Thomas Edison and Isaac Newton, the legend of the Wandering Jew, underground alien bases in New Mexico, and much more. Gardner's essay, "Science and the Unknowable," is a must for any deist wishing to argue his or her case, and very thought-provoking for everyone else; it is perhaps the most cogent argument I've ever read for the idea that all our existence is little more than metaphorical shadows on the walls of Plato's cave, and that outside that cave there might be something else. I can't say I totally agree with the guy on everything, but there's no denying his intelligence, his articulate gift for writing, or his ability to put together a sound defense of his conclusions. Gardner's style of skeptical analysis is interesting. He goes very easy on the attack and on the skeptical dissection, preferring instead to pile up and pile up the ridiculous details and claims of the people he discusses, until the very quantity and extremeness of those claims and details becomes more than enough to allow readers to draw a sound conclusion. He goes easy on his opponents, and yet, they are ultimately all left in a bloody heap; he makes it look effortless. I read this book months ago, but it has stayed with me. I've found myself thinking often of it, and recommending selections from it, and I'm sure I'll recommend it again to others. I'll recommend it to you, right now.... It's good. You should read it.

Tina Turner sang it so well, "Simply the best"

In addition to his unparalleled record as a promoter of mathematics, Martin Gardner has also applied his considerable writing and intellectual skills to the never-ending crusade against pseudoscience. This book is a collection of some of his more memorable entries in the "Notes of a Fringe Watcher" column that appeared in "The Skeptical Inquirer." As is always the case with Gardner, the writing and his arguments are so crisp that it is difficult to believe that anyone could read them and be unconvinced as to the correctness of his position. Unfortunately, the pendulum always seems to be skewed towards a belief in the bunk rather than the intellectual reality. Therefore, no matter how much the evidence is in favor of a position, there will always be people who will dismiss that evidence out of hand. There are 28 different chapters in this book, covering all areas where pseudoscience rears its' empty cranium. From creationism to the therapeutic properties of drinking ones own urine, I cannot think of an area of pseudoscience that Gardner does not address. However, I am sure that some do exist, after all, not even Gardner is perfect and there are so many of them. This is a book that should be read by every thinking, intelligent person.

Wonderful collection

If you want a book that contains some great writing debunking psuedo-science then this is it. A great collection of writings on psuedo-science and some overlooked true science. This book is a truly great read and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Get this book

This book was awesome. It is basically a collection of essays that Gardener has written for the Skeptical Inquirier. These essays are really informative and sometimes down right hilarious. He is basically pointing out how silly lots of fringe science is. Things like ufology, urine therapy (that is a gross one), and other paranormal ideas. After reading this book you realize just how many fruitcakes are wandering around the world. Some of these fruitcakes are well educated, some are run of the mill crazy people, and sadly I think that many of them are fakes who prey unsuspecting people. This book should be required reading, so many people get sucked in by these fruitcakes and end up buying super magnet chairs or signing up for a $3000 workshop about remote viewing. You can't under estimate how much influence these fringe groups have. I mean there are even psychics for dogs. If your a skeptic (or just an ordinary person who thinks about things) and want a good laugh get the book. If your thinking about the validity of some lunatic fringe idea, then read the book and you will realize just how big of a mistake you were about to make. If your a psychic, dog energy channeler, or a practitioner of reflexology read the book, you may see the error in your ways and rejoin the real world. Actually, if your heavy into one of these silly practices you'll just get ..., which is fine. Afterall, you can't expect to steal people's money and not get a little heat for it.

A Catalogue of Human Foibles

Martin Gardner chronicles human folly in his magazine columns and this book is a collection of his recent work. Each chapter is freestanding, representing a recent column, with the author's updated thinking on the subject at the end of the chapter. The columns are grouped by general subject matter. In each chapter, Gardner lampoons some error in human thinking, effectively revealing the errors during the column and then moving on to another foible in the next segment. This is pleasant, entertaining reading and will revive the skeptic in each reader. Fortunately for Gardner, the list of human intellectual errors is a long one, allowing Gardner the comfort of endless material from which to select for future subject matter. In short, a very entertaining book.