Full Product Details
Author: Robert L. Park
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.40cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.510kg
ISBN: 9780691133553
ISBN 10: 0691133557
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 12 October 2008
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print
Availability: Out of stock
Language: English
Reviews
Park writes with bemusement at human folly but also with outrage at the misappropriation of science. -- Robert A. Segal, Times Higher Education Park uses his personal story to great effect to champion scientific thinking. He also gets under its skin, to explain how, as well as what, science delivers. -- Mark Henderson, Times For Princeton physicist Robert Park, science serves as a rapier for skewering all beliefs not sustained by empirical proof. Predictably, religion heads the list of targets ... [Park] pits experimental rigor not only against the creeds of antiquity but also against the irrationality of New Age gurus who evangelize for alternative medicines or extrasensory perception... Sure to spark sharp debate. -- Bryce Christensen, Booklist Parks' main target in the first part of his book is Christianity, especially its creationist and so-called intelligent-design offshoots. However, the world's other religions do not emerge unscathed... He takes on New Age beliefs, reserving particular scorn for those practitioners who add the word 'quantum' to unrelated topics like 'healing' to give themselves an imprimatur of scientific respectability... Both religious and non-religious scientists are sure to find something of interest in the rest. -- Physics World Genial anecdotal tales introduce each chapter, which are then followed with the cutting criticism of various pseudobelief systems. Dogmatic in his emphasis that science is the only way of knowing, Park weighs faith-based beliefs against scientific evidence and makes no allowance for other ways of knowing... The controversial content should provide debate material for the high school and young college crowd as well as the general public. -- R.A. Hoots, Choice With acerbic wit, Park, professor of physics at the University of Maryland, asks why we believe weird things even when no evidence supports our claims... A humanist and naturalist, Park asserts that science rejects appeal to authority in favor of empirical evidence. -- Roy E. Perry, The Tennessean Bob Park is a sceptic's sceptic, a consummate critical thinker, a no-nonsense scientist who knows baloney when he detects it... Superstition is more than an entertaining romp through the weird and wonderful. It is an important contribution to the sceptical literature ... that every scientist needs to be aware of. -- Michael Shermer, Nature Physics Guns blazing, Park hunts down what he calls pseudo-science... I found myself enjoying much of this feisty book as a kind of entertainment that raises serious questions. -- Evelyn Juers, Australian
Park writes with bemusement at human folly but also with outrage at the misappropriation of science. -- Robert A. Segal Times Higher Education Park uses his personal story to great effect to champion scientific thinking. He also gets under its skin, to explain how, as well as what, science delivers. -- Mark Henderson Times For Princeton physicist Robert Park, science serves as a rapier for skewering all beliefs not sustained by empirical proof. Predictably, religion heads the list of targets ... [Park] pits experimental rigor not only against the creeds of antiquity but also against the irrationality of New Age gurus who evangelize for alternative medicines or extrasensory perception... Sure to spark sharp debate. -- Bryce Christensen Booklist Parks' main target in the first part of his book is Christianity, especially its creationist and so-called intelligent-design offshoots. However, the world's other religions do not emerge unscathed... He takes on New Age beliefs, reserving particular scorn for those practitioners who add the word 'quantum' to unrelated topics like 'healing' to give themselves an imprimatur of scientific respectability... Both religious and non-religious scientists are sure to find something of interest in the rest. Physics World Genial anecdotal tales introduce each chapter, which are then followed with the cutting criticism of various pseudobelief systems. Dogmatic in his emphasis that science is the only way of knowing, Park weighs faith-based beliefs against scientific evidence and makes no allowance for other ways of knowing... The controversial content should provide debate material for the high school and young college crowd as well as the general public. -- R.A. Hoots Choice With acerbic wit, Park, professor of physics at the University of Maryland, asks why we believe weird things even when no evidence supports our claims... A humanist and naturalist, Park asserts that science rejects appeal to authority in favor of empirical evidence. -- Roy E. Perry The Tennessean Bob Park is a sceptic's sceptic, a consummate critical thinker, a no-nonsense scientist who knows baloney when he detects it... Superstition is more than an entertaining romp through the weird and wonderful. It is an important contribution to the sceptical literature ... that every scientist needs to be aware of. -- Michael Shermer Nature Physics Guns blazing, Park hunts down what he calls pseudo-science... I found myself enjoying much of this feisty book as a kind of entertainment that raises serious questions. -- Evelyn Juers Australian
Author Information
Robert L. Park is professor of physics at the University of Maryland. He is the author of ""Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud"".
