links science and pseudoscience.html

Forskaren som sökare - av Torbjörn Fagerström, professor (sänt i "Tankar för dagen", P1, 030922).
Vetenskap och vidskeplighet - av Per Svensson, kulturchef på Expressen (sänt i "Tankar för dagen", P1, 031006).

Meningen med livet - av Nils Uddenberg, professor (sänt i "Tankar för dagen", P1, 080421).

Till onyttans försvar - av Peter Sylwan, vetenskapsjournalist och agronom (publicerad i Naturvetare nr 2/2010). Om vikten av nyfikenhetsdriven forskning utan omedelbara krav på nytta eftersom framtida nyttigheter är svåra att förutsäga.

The Brights, an international internet constituency for people who have a naturalistic worldview: A Bright's vorldview is free of supernatural and mystical elements. The ethics and actions of a Bright are based on a naturalistic worldview.

http://www.csicop.org/

Skeptical Inquirer: http://www.csicop.org/si/

The Skeptic's dictionary: http://www.skepdic.com/

Skeptic Magazine: http://www.skeptic.com/ Publisher: Michael Shermer, the director of the Skeptics Society.

European Council of Skeptical Organisations: ECSO with links to 25 national skeptical organisations and other web resources.

Association for Skeptical Enquiry - U.K. Skeptic Organisation

Skeptical links: http://users.ox.ac.uk/~worc0337/serious/scepticism.html and http://www.discord.org/skeptical/

Quotes for skeptics - quotes by famous persons on skepticism, paranormal, parapsychology, UFOs and religion (Asimov, Sagan, Dawkins, Blackmore, Russell, Hume, Randi, Feynman, Hawking, Weinberg, Stenger, Twain, T H Huxley, and others).

John Baez: The Crackpot Index. A simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics.

Thomas Gilovich: "How we know what isn't so - The fallibility of human reason in everyday life". The Free Press, 1991.

Olav Hammer: "Osunt förnuft. En bok om intuitivt och kritiskt tänkande." (in Swedish). Wahlström & Widstrand, 2002.

Sven Ove Hansson: "Vetenskap och ovetenskap" (in Swedish). Tiden, 1983 och 1995.

Phil Mole: "Are skeptics cynical? Popular misunderstandings of skeptics" Skeptical Inquirer 26(6), 44-48, Nov/Dec 2002.

Misconception 1: "Skeptics consider people who don't share their beliefs to be stupid." Needless to say, exposing the falsity of a claim does not compel us to conclude that the claimant is morally or intellectually inferior. Smart peole can and do commit logical errors that only careful skeptical investigation can reveal. Citizens in a democracy tend to confuse two concepts: they think that their right to hold their own opinions somehow makes all opinions equal. Of course, some ideas are better than others, and skepticism is simply the methodology for assessing the merits of different truth claims. It follows that those who are trained in the methods of critical thinking will be better skilled at this task than those who lack such training.
Misconception 2: "Skeptics are closed-minded, and think that logic and science can explain everything." Contrary to what many people believe, skeptics [...] know that science cannot explain everything, and want the knowledge revealed by the scientific method to be as reliable as possible. Science, unlike pseudoscience, is keenly aware of the limitations of human knowledge. True skepticism involves assessing a claim on its own merits, and not arbitrarily rejecting it. Skeptics do not dogmatically declare certain ideas impossible, even when they involve paranormal phenomena such as ghosts, extrasensory perception (ESP), or extraterrestrial visitations. Good skeptics do not simply reject evidence conflicting with their current beliefs. They do sometimes dismiss certain claims out of hand, but only when these claims are identical or extremely similar to claims already disproved beyond any reasonable doubt. Skeptics are willing to consider good evidence or arguments in favor of a claim, but the burden of proof is always on the claimant. There are many unsubstantiated claims out there, and skeptics cannot possibly evaluate all of them. It should also be obvious that science has little to say about the meanings of many or most sublime human experiences - the feelings associated with love, or stimulated by contact with great works of art. Science is concerned with explaining the world we live in, and skepticism is one of its most important methods.

Misconception 3: "Skeptics try to undermine religious faith, and show that life is hopeless." First, skepticism cannot definitively disprove the existence of a deity (even if skeptics have disproved many religious claims). Second, even if skepticism does challenge some religious beliefs, there are no consistent connections between theological belief and optimism. Very many devout believers have held profoundly negative views of life, and many agnostics and atheists have been quite cheerful. Of course, some theists maintain that their belief in eternal life is the only thing that makes life bearable for them. It should be clear that this is nothing more than a statement about their own lack of happiness in the life they already possess. Anyone who believes that critical thinking undermines happiness is a cynic in disguise. The person who claims that skepticism erodes his/her happiness is essentially saying that the truth erodes his/her happiness and would prefer the world to be different than it really is. Cynicism is an attitude about life, while skepticism is a method for uncovering facts about life.

Phil Plait in Discover magazine 6 april 2009: "Science IS imagination". Quote from the article: "It takes no imagination at all to insert a supernatural explanation in some spot where you don’t understand the process. It’s all too easy to say "the bacterium flagellum could not have evolved," or "The Big Bang theory doesn’t explain why the Universe is homogeneous everywhere," and therefore "God did it." But it takes imagination, soaring, incredible, wonderful imagination, to look beyond the limitations of what’s currently known, and see what could possibly be… and even more imagination to make sure this venturing beyond current understanding still stays within the bound of reason and known rules of science."

Prometheus books with many titles on pseudoscience: http://www.prometheusbooks.com/site/co.html

James Randi Educational Foundation: http://www.randi.org/

The One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge: JREF offers a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.

Dr. Susan Blackmore. Psychologist and skeptic.

Unskilled and unaware of it: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments. By Justin Kruger and David Dunning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Dec. 1999 Vol. 77, No. 6, 1121-1134.

Intressanta artiklar på svenska (in Swedish):

Olle Häggström, Professor of Mathematical Statistics at Chalmers University of Technology: Debattinlägg om skolfrågor, matematik, kunskapsrelativism, kreationism mm.

Germund Hesslow, Professor of Neuroscience at Lund University: http://www.mphy.lu.se/avdelningar/neurofys/hesslow/

Johan Karlsson, student i kemi vid Uppsala universitet: användbar länksamling med kritisk granskning av kreationism, religioner, bibeln mm.

Social constructivism and cultural relativism

Alan Sokal, Professor of Physics, New York University: "Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity". This is the original "parody" article, published in Social Text 46/47, pp. 217-252 (spring/summer 1996).

Further papers on "The Social Text Affair" can be found on Sokal's web page.

Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont: "Impostures Intellectuelles" / "Fashionable Nonsense" (1997/1998). The first chapter has been published in the New York Times.

Write your own social constructivist text: http://www.elsewhere.org/cgi-bin/postmodern/

Critical views on alternative medicine

Parodi på alternativmedicinska behandlingar som homeopati: That Mitchell and Webb Look: Homeopathic A&E (YouTube) 2:33.

Ett underbart practical joke med Amelia Adamo på den tiden hon var redaktör för Aftonbladets helgbilaga visar att det går att lura i vissa journalister vad som helst och att de är villiga att sprida pseudovetenskap trots att sakkunnig expertis påtalar det orimliga i påståendena. Läs artikeln "Ärret som botar", skriven på skoj av Mikael Nyberg och Hans Isaksson, som hävdar att sjukdomar kan diagnostiseras genom att granska naveln med förstoringsglas (dvs navelskådande). När författarna senare avslöjade sin bluff kommenterade Amelia Adamo detta sålunda: "Men jag tycker inte att det här med navelskådning var underligare än till exempel healing, som vi skrivit om tidigare". Huruvida hon därigenom visade att hon förstått poängen med bluffartikeln är troligen fortfarande oklart. Samma år fick Amelia Adamo stora journalistpriset för sina insatser för Aftonbladet, förmodligen helt utan ironiska undertoner. Samtidigt fick hon, betydligt mer välförkänt, VoF:s pris Årets förvillare.

Religiösa böner för sjuka har studerats i ett flertal studier. En meta-analys i Journal of Behavioural Medicine 2007 av Masters & Spielmans konkluderade att ingen effekt kunde observeras. En stor studie av böner för patienter som genomgått hjärtkirurgi fann inte heller någon effekt (Benson et al., American Heart Journal, 2006). Tvärtom, studien visade att de som visste om att de blev bedda för fick faktiskt sämre utfall! Se notis 2006-05-08 på VoF:s webbsida av Jesper Jerkert och pressmeddelande från Harvard Medical School.

Michael Shermer: "What's the harm". Alternative medicine is not everything to gain and nothing to lose. Scientific American Dec. 2003.

Alternative medicine and common errors of reasoning. By Barry L. Beyerstein. Academic Medicine, Vol 76(3), March 2001, 230-237.

Alternative medicine: http://www.discord.org/skeptical/Alternative_Medicine/

NCAHF, the National Council Against Health Fraud: http://www.ncahf.org/

Quackwatch: http://www.quackwatch.com/

Mark Personne: Tro och vetande inom medicinen. Läkartidningen 93, 10-11, 1996

Risksidan - rapporter om biverkningar och risker med naturläkemedel och egenvårdsprodukter (in Swedish).

Bluffpreparat - avslöjande av bluffpreparat (in Swedish).

Critical views on homeopathy

Literature overview in Swedish of meta-studies and systematic reviews investigating homeopathy. Conclusion: It is important to consider the possibility that homeopathic treatments are equivalent to placebo. (pdf file) Svenska: Litteraturöversikt på svenska av metastudier och systematiska översikter som undersöker homeopati. I ett examensarbete vårterminen 2005 har Maja Haurdic granskat de studier som gjorts. Slutsats: "Det är viktigt att överväga möjligheten att homeopatisk behandling är likställd med placebobehandling." En korrigering av dokumentet är gjord på sid 9 (2006-03-04).

Kim Bergström: Homeopati - konsten att späda. Originalartikel publicerad i Naturvetaren 4, 12-13, 2002.

Grethe Sogn Heggland (in Norwegian): "Piller og dråper for sjelen. En religionsvitenskapelig analyse av alternativ medisin med vekt på homeopati og Bach blomstermedisin." Thesis from University of Oslo, 2000. (To my knowledge no longer available on line.) Conclusion: homeopathy has many of the features of a cult for its proponents (but not necessarily among homeopathy users).

Homeopathy: A critical approach. Edited by Edzard Ernst and Eckhart G. Hann.

Homeopathy: http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/go/btcarrol/skeptic/homeo.html

Homeowatch: http://www.homeowatch.org/

Homeopathy - the ultimate fake: http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/homeo.html

Homeopathy and its kindred delusions: http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/holmes.html

Homeopathy and science: a closer look. By David W. Ramey et al.

Homeopathy: NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (Cochrane Collaboration). Effective Health Care, Nov. 2001 Vol. 7(3). Conclusions: "The evidence base for homeopathy needs to be interpreted with caution. Many of the areas that have been researched are not representative of the conditions that homeopathic practitioners usually treat. Additionally, all conclusions about effectiveness should be considered together with the methodological problems of the research. There is currently insufficient evidence of effectiveness either to recommend homeopathy as a treatment for any specific condition, or to warrant significant changes in the current provision of homeopathy." (pdf file)

Shang A, Huwiler-Müntener K, Nartey L, Jüni P, Dörig S, Sterna J A C, Pewsner D, Egger M. Are the clinical effects of homoeopathy placebo effects? Comparative study of placebo-controlled trials of homoepoathy and allopathy. The Lancet 2005;366:726-732. Conclusion: The clinical effects of homeopathy seem to be placebo effects. See also the correspondence published in The Lancet, 17 December 2005, p 2081-2086.

Edzard Ernst: A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy. Br. J. Clin. Pharmacol. 54(6), 577-582, 2002. Conclusion: The best clinical evidence for homeopathy available to date does not warrant positive recommendations for its use in clinical practice.

Walach H, Köster H, Henning T, Haag G. The effects of homeopathic belladonna 30CH in healthy volunteers - a randomized, double-blind experiment. Journal of psychosomatic research 2001;50:155-160. Conclusion: There is no indication that belladonna 30CH produces symptoms different from placebo or from no intervention. Symptoms of a homeopathic pathogenetic trial (HPT) are most likely chance fluctuations.

Maddox, J., Randi, J. och Stewart, W. W. "High-dilution" experiments a delusion. Nature 334, 287-290, 1988. Critique of experiments reported by J. Benveniste and coworkers (Davenas et al., Nature 333, 816-818, 1988).

Klaus Linde et al.: Impact of study quality on outcome in placebo-controlled trials of homeopathy. J. Clin. Epidemiol. 52, 631-636, 1999. Conclusion: "…there was clear evidence that studies with better methodological quality tended to yield less positive results."

Homeopati på djur: Kerstin de Verdier Klingenberg et al.: Utvärdering av effekten av homeopatisk behandling vid kalvdiarré. Svensk Veterinärtidning 53(14), 733-736, 2001. Slutsats: Ingen skillnad jämfört med placebo

Critical views on acupuncture

Acupuncture: http://www.skepdic.com/acupunc.html

Acupuncture: NHS Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (Cochrane Collaboration). Effective Health Care, Nov. 2001 Vol. 7(2). Conclusions: "Acupuncture appears to be effective for postoperative nausea and vomiting in adults, chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting and for postoperative dental pain. Current evidence suggests that acupuncture is unlikely to be of benefit for obesity, smoking cessation and tinnitus. For most other conditions, the available evidence is insufficient to guide clinical decisions." (pdf file)

Literature overview in Swedish of studies investigating if acupuncture may work through endorphins. Conclusions: The studies performed have not convincingly demonstrated endorphin release. If acupuncture shall have a role in the treatment of pain, it appears to be as a placebo treatment. (pdf file) Svenska: En av de främsta hypoteserna för akupunkturens verkningsmekanism är frisättning av endorfiner. I ett examensarbete vårterminen 2004 har Annemay Wedholm granskat de studier som gjorts. Slutsatser: "Studierna som gjorts har inte kunnat övertyga om endorfin-frisättning." "Om akupunktur ändå ska ha en plats i smärtbehandling förefaller det vara som placebometod."

Literature overview in Swedish of studies investigating the newly developed placebo needle for studies of acupuncture. Conclusions: The placebo needle is a step in the right direction but it is not as inactive as intially thought and how it is perceived depends on the acupuncturist's technique. The studies indicate that some effect may be achieved with acupuncture but long-term effects are fairly difficult to measure. (pdf file) Svenska: För några år sedan uppfanns en så kallad placebonål för att möjliggöra jämförelser mellan akupunktur och placebobehandling. I ett examensarbete vårterminen 2004 har David Bergman granskat de studier som gjorts med placebonålen. Slutsats: Placebonålen är ett steg i rätt riktning men den är inte så inaktiv som forskarna först trodde och den upplevs olika beroende på akupunktörens teknik. Studierna indikerar att en viss effekt kan uppnås med akupunktur men att långtidseffekterna är tämligen svåra att mäta.

Critical views on various alternative treatments

K. Schmidt and E. Ernst: MMR vaccination advice over the Internet. Survey shows that some homoeopaths and chiropractors advise against MMR in response to email questions. No general practitioners gave advice on MMR vaccination by email. Vaccine 21(11-12), 1044-1047, 2003.

Patrik Olin: "Okunskap bakom kritiken av det svenska vaccinationsprogrammet". Medikament nr 1, 18-23, 2001. Argumenten mot vaccination från den antroposofiske läkaren Jackie Swartz granskas och visas vara osakliga.

Literature database on dietary supplements etc. http://dietary-supplements.info.nih.gov/databases/ibids.html

Warning to the public from 51 experts regarding the shameless marketing of useless anti-aging products. Written by S. J. Oshansky, L. Hayflick & B. A. Carnes, published in Scientific American, June 2002, 78-81: "The Truth about Human Aging".

Critical test of healing ("therapeutic touch") by E. Rosa et al.: "A close look at therapeutic touch." JAMA 279 (13), 1005-10, 1998. Conclusion: Twenty-one experienced TT practitioners were unable to detect the investigator's "energy field." Their failure to substantiate TT's most fundamental claim is unrefuted evidence that the claims of TT are groundless and that further professional use is unjustified.

Evaluation of claims of linkage between religion and health. Conclusion: "There is little empirical support for claims of health benefits deriving from religious involvement."

Vattenvirvlare från Plus och Minus AB granskades av SVT:s konsumentprogram Plus i Umeå 2002-02-11 och befanns vara bluff. Se artikel i Folkvett nr 4/2005.

"Öronljus" (coning, ear candling) claimed to clear the ears, the blood and the mind (among many additional preposterous claims). The links show that the claims are incorrect and based on fundamental misunderstandings. Several accidents have been reported with burns and ear canal obstruction by candle wax.

Critical views on Peter J. D'Adamo's Blood type diet (ABO) ("blodgruppsdieten").

Critical views on iridology (Swedish: "irisdiagnostik"):

Ernst E. Iridology - not useful and potentially harmful. Arch. Ophthalmol. 118, 120-121, 2000.

Ernst E. Iridology: A systematic review. Forsch Komplementarmed. 6, 7-9, 1999. Conclusion: The validity of iridology as a diagnostic tool is not supported by scientific evaluations. Patients and therapists should be discouraged from using this method.

Murphy C. J. and Paul-Murphy J.: Iridology. Arch. Ophthalmol. 118, 1141, 2000.

Critical views on biodynamic agriculture

Anthroposophy - biodynamic agriculture by H. Kirchmann and O. Andrén

Brain myths, parapsychology

Critical comment on the professorship in psychology/parapsychology at Lund University, Sweden. Interview published in The Scientist Nov. 26, 2003.

The 10% myth: "We use only ten percent of our brains".

"Brain Myths", editorial in Nature Neuroscience 6(2), 99, 2003: Suggests that the10% myth goes back to 1906 or is based on a misunderstanding that interneurons are "undeveloped". The editorial muses that one may be "tempted to wonder whether those who continue to spread this stubborn myth really do use less of their brains than the rest of us".

The myth that the soul weighs 21 grams: In 1907 the physician Duncan MacDougall performed measurements of the weight of each of six humans before, during and after dying. MacDougall had constructed a special bed built on a beam scales. The six patients were in the end stages of terminal illnesses (four from tuberculosis, one from diabetes, and one from unspecified causes). Accounts of the experiments were published in The New York Times and the medical journal American Medicine. The first individual's weight decreased by three-fourths of an ounce (=21.3 grams). The second individual lost half an ounce, upon remeasurement found to be more than one ounce and a half. The third case lost half an ounce, then an additional one ounce a few minutes later. The measurement of individual number four failed. The fifth individual lost three-eighths of an ounce, but the scales performed strangely. Also the measurement of case number six had to be discarded. It seems like MacDougall's device was too imprecise. Another complication was the difficulty to determine the precise moment of death. MacDougall admitted in his journal article that his experiments would have to be repeated many times with similar results before any conclusions could be drawn from them. This has still not happened. But the myth prevails.

Susan Blackmore: What can the paranormal teach us about consciousness? Skeptical Inquirer March/April 2001, 22- 27. Describes a few examples of fraud in parapsychological research.

Criticial articles and books on astrology and moon-landing critique

The Skeptic's Dictionary: Astrology

S. Carlson: "A double-blind test of astrology". Nature 318, 419-425, 1985.

S. Carlson: "Astrology". Experientia 44, 290-297, 1988.

Roger B. Culver and Philip A. Ianna: "Astrology: True or False? A scientific Evaluation". Prometheus Books, 1988.

Geoffrey Dean: Attribution: A pervasive new artifact in the Gauquelin data. Astrology under Scrutiny 13, 1-72, 2000. Sammanfattning .

Geoffrey Dean: "Is the Mars Effect a Social Effect?" Skeptical Inquirer 26 (3), 33-38, May/June 2002.

Ulrika Engström (in Swedish): "Finns ödet i stjärnorna?" Dagens Nyheter March 16, 2002.

Staffan Gunnarson (in Swedish): "Astrologins oanade effekter: Om mars inflytande på idrottsmän och skeptiker" Humanisten 3, 29-31, 2000.

I. W. Kelly: "Why astrology doesn't work". Psychological Reports 82, 527-546, 1998.

P. Kurtz, J. W. Nienhuys, and R. Sandhu: "Is the 'Mars Effect' Genuine?". J. Scientific Exploration 11, 19-39, 1997.

Ronny Martens and Tim Trachet: "Making Sense of Astrology". Prometheus Books, 1998.

R. Nanninga: "The Astrotest - a tough match for astrologers"

J. W. Nienhuys: "The Mars Effect in Retrospect". Skeptical Inquirer 21(6), 24-29, Nov/Dec 1997.

Clas Svahn: Bemötande av påståendena att människans månlandning aldrig ägt rum: http://www.ufo.se/apollo/

Criticial articles on dowsing (Swedish: slagrutor och vinkelpinnar)

James Randi: The Matter of Dowsing

The Skeptic's Dictionary: Dowsing

Anders Bærheim & Hogne Sandvik: "Jordstråler" - et underjordisk fenomen? Tidsskr Nor Lægeforen 117(17), 2476-2477, 1997. Title in English: "Earth rays" - an underground phenomenon? Abstract: Four dowsers participated in an experiment where, independently of each other, they were to demonstrate the pattern of earth rays in a gymnasium. Four supervisors ensured that the dowsers could not communicate with each other during the experiment. As it turned out, they came up with four totally different patterns. Thus, any protective treatment prescribed by the dowsers seems to be based on pure chance.

König, Moll & Sarma: "The Kassel Dowsing Test" Part One: Swift 1(1), 3-8, 1997. Part Two: Swift 1(2), 5-7, 1997. Comments in 1(2) on pages 4 and 8. Article originally published in Skeptiker (Germany) 1991. The test was carried out in 1989.

J. T. Enright: "Testing Dowsing. The Failure of the Munich Experiments". Skeptical Inquirer 23(1), 39-46, Jan/Feb 1999. Conclusion: "The experiments thus can and should be considered a decisive failure by the dowsers."

(In Swedish) Jesper Jerkert: Exempel på debatt med en slagruteförespråkare, Erik Welamson

(In Swedish) Per-Ola Quist: Jordstrålning - bluff eller bara båg?

Criticial articles on crop circles

"Circular reasoning: The 'mystery' of crop circles and their 'orbs' of light" by Joe Nickel. Published in Skeptical Inquirer Sept/Oct 2002.

Criticial comments on the Bible

The Skeptic's Annotated Bible: märkliga textrader i Bibeln med kommentarer.

Shroud of Turin (Swedish: turinsvepningen)

The Skeptic's Dictionary: Shroud of Turin: "All empirical evidence and logical reasoning [...] will lead any objective, rational person to the firm conclusion that the Shroud is an artifact created by an artist in the fourteenth-century."

Shroud of Turin radiocarbon dating at McCrone Research Institute in Chicago. Conclusion: The "Shroud" is a beautiful painting created about 1355 for a new church in need of a pilgrim-attracting relic.

Steven D. Schafersman: Unraveling the Shroud of Turin.

Damon et al.: Radiocarbon dating of the Shroud of Turin. Nature 337, 611ff, 1989. Conclusion: "The results provide conclusive evidence that the linen of the Shroud of Turin is mediaeval." (1260-1390).

J. Nickell: "Scandals and follies of the 'Holy Shroud'", Skeptical Inquirer Sept/Oct 2001, 17-20.

A report in the peer-reviewed journal Thermochimica Acta (Vol. 425, p 189-194, 2005) by Raymond N Rogers with the title "Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the Shroud of Turin" claims a much greater age for the Shroud of Turin than the previous carbon-14 dating. Rogers, a long-term defender of shroud authenticity, performed microscopy and chemistry experiments in his home which along with mass spectrometry analyses lead him to conclude that the radiodated sample contained threads of different origin than other parts of the shroud. According to Rogers, the radiocarbon dating (suggesting manufacture between 1260 and 1390) was performed on a younger part of the shroud, an interwoven medieval repair with cotton threads. Rogers reports that the lignin of the cloth has lost more vanillin than the radiocarbon sample, suggesting great age for the shroud. However, the samples are extremely limited. A comment by Joe Nickell (published in Skeptical Inquirer, May/June 2005) points out that Rogers disregards that many types of paint have been found on the linen, suggesting an artist's work. Also, the weaving style is different from any known cloth with an age of two thousand years. In addition, Jewish burial practice utilized - and the Gospel of John specifically describes for Jesus - multiple burial wrappings with a separate cloth over the face. Other evidence of medieval fakery includes the shroud’s lack of historical record prior to the mid-fourteenth century, when a bishop reported the artist’s confession, as well as serious anatomical problems, the lack of wraparound distortions, the resemblance of the figure to medieval depictions of Jesus, and suspiciously bright red and picturelike “blood” stains which failed a battery of sophisticated tests by forensic serologists, among many other indicators. All these observations argue against Rogers’ claims. Raymond Roger's rebuttal (the same link as above) provides no scientific support for his conclusion. Joe Nickell has a reply to the rebuttal in the same issue of Skeptical Inquirer.

Examples of web pages with pseudoscience (some in Swedish)

Pseudoscience: Creationism

The Swedish creationist organisation GENESIS.

Krister Renard, lärare på Livets Ords skola. Särskilt sidan Makroevolutionen har flera vilseledande påståenden och sidan Biokemi och evolution är ett praktexempel på selekterad information och felaktiga slutsatser, speciellt resonemanget om evolutionen för proteinet cytokrom c.

En parodi på evolutionen skriven av en person som verkar vara kreationist (Haakon Sjoquist). I själva verket avslöjar texten hur författaren missförstått i stort sett varje händelse i den evolutionära processen som han beskriver. Texten blir således en parodi på hur kreationister missförstår evolutionen. Eller är texten rentav avsedd att parodiera just kreationistiska missförstånd?

Creationist propaganda and deceptions: "Creation Tips". See for instance "Best arguments against evolution?" which claims to list three problems for evolution. Two of these do not deal with evolution but the origin of life and the third is wrong.

Institute for Creation Research - ICR.

Discovery Institute

Answers in Genesis "defending the Christian faith beginning with Genesis".

Harun Yahya.

Pseudoscience: Alternative Medicine, New Age and occultism

Sluta röka med magnetterapi i akupressurpunkt: Zerosmoke

Feng shui as described by Karen Kingston.

Susanna Ehdin.

Tidskriften Sökaren.

Alternativ Förmedling, en webssida med förteckning över allehanda alternativa behandlingsformer, exempelvis auraklippning, irisdiagnostik, regenerationer, koppning, healing, djurtolk, färgpunktur och öronljus-behandling.

Nordiska Akademin för Klassisk Homeopati (skola) - NAKH.

Hulda Clark och hennes absurda påståenden om cancerbehandlingar.

Antroposofi och homeopati. Sune Nordwall.

Irisdiagnostik (iridology).

Alpha Plus AB i Falun.

Plus & Minus AB i Åstorp, säljer bland annat vattenvirvlare. Virvlat vatten stöds av Susanna Ehdin som uttalat sig positivt om gurkor som odlats i vatten behandlat med vattenvirvlare, se Folkvetts notissida 2003-10-30.

Kommittén för Alternativ Medicin - KAM.

Weleda - tillverkare av antroposofiska produkter.

FALK - Föreningen för Antroposofisk Läkekonst, en patient- och intresseförening.

Kloka Gubben och Sanslösa Tanten. En hemsida som propagerar för "ekologisk medicin", en lära som anser att sjukdomar beror på antingen näringsbrister eller förgiftningar. Bland de pseudovetenskapliga terapier som rekommenderas finns både homeopati och öronljus.

Bokhandeln Vattumannen vimlar av pseudovetenskaplig och new age-inspirerad litteratur.

Respiratory training device från företaget Dinamika (grundat i Novosibirsk?). Apparaten saluförs i Sverige av MDR-Center, ett pseduovetenskapligt företag som påstår sig syssla med kvantmedicin och endogen andning. MDR-Center grundades 1996 av Boris Aranovich som är lärare vid Axelsons Gymnastiska Institut (som ordnar många kurser i pseudovetenskapliga metoder) och Iwona Aranovich som beskrivs som alternativmedicinsk terapeut. Apparaten för endogen andning påstås hjälpa mot i stort sett vad som helst från förstoppning och hemorroider till barnlöshet, TBC och tandlossning. Sådana oerhörda anspråk är alltid ett säkert tecken på pseudovetenskap.

Massage upplevs av många som behagligt och avslappnande. Men många massageteorier har anspråk långt utöver detta med fantasifulla esoteriska förklaringsmodeller. Hos "Skola för beröring" finns en länk till The Radiance Technique International Association, Inc. som propagerar för The Radiance Technique®, Authentic Reiki® och Real Reiki®, dvs den mystiska Reiki-metoden som t o m hävdar att sjukdomar kan behandlas utan beröring, alltså med healing. Reiki blev populärt genom japanen Mikao Usui (1865-1926) som efter flera veckors fasta och meditation började hallucinera och höra röster som han ansåg gav honom "the keys to healing".

Vibrational and energy medicine

Musikmedicin - Så här skriver upphovsmannen Henry Soludde: "Varje organ har sin egen tonvibration - ett organ med rätt ton är alltid friskt."

Akupunkturakademien - kurser i bl a pulsdiagnostik och moxa.

Högskolan för kinesiologisk medicin.

Music acupuncture - Så här skriver upphovsmannen Michael B Johnsson: "Varje atom, cell, vävnad och organ i våra kroppar sänder hela tiden ut frekvenser på alla nivåer. Jag har använt en mycket avancerad kinesiologisk metod för att identifiera varje organs frekvens, och kan härmed sända ljud till organ i behov av behandling. På så sätt uppnås resonans samt massage på molekylär nivå."

Pseudoscience: Astrology and tarot

Rita Englund.

Datorprogram för horoskop: Astrocalc International.

Pseudoscience: Dowsing (Swedish: slagrutor)

Dan Mattsson.

Monica Friman.

Links to critical examination of various cults and sects: Herbalife, Landmark, Scientology, Anthroposophy, etc.

Updated 11 Jan. 2012