Book Review

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner

Reviewed by Peter Bowditch

Book review

by Martin Gardner

This book is one that truly deserves to be called a "classic". It was my introduction to skeptical thought and critical thinking and still remains my favourite book in my collection of skeptical literature. I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone who wants to see what weirdness people are capable of believing.

The book is subtitled "A study in human gullibility". True and tragic.

The tragedy of this book is that, 50 years later, almost all of the foolishness and scams exposed in the book are still with us. How anyone believed this stuff in the first place is a mystery. How anyone can continue to believe idiocies like scientology, chiropractic, homeopathy, perpetual motion machines, flying saucers, and the nonsense about Atlantis and the pyramids in the 21st century almost defies belief.