50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True - Part 16
Library

Part 16

14. Seth Shostak, interview with the author, April 6, 2011.

CHAPTER 13: "A FLYING SAUCER CRASHED NEAR ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO, IN 1947 AND

THE GOVERNMENT KNOWS ALL ABOUT IT."

1. "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer in Roswell Region," Roswell Daily Record, July 8, 1947.

2. B. D. Gildenberg, "A Roswell Requiem," Skeptic 10, no. 1 (2003): 6061.

3. Ibid., p. 61.

4. Ibid., p. 62.

5. Ibid., p. 63.

6. Charles Berlitz and William L. Moore, The Roswell Incident (New York: Berkley Books, 1980).

7. Joe Kittinger, interview with the author. Quoted in Guy P. Harrison, "I Was the First Man in s.p.a.ce," Caymanian Compa.s.s, October 26, 2001. The complete interview with Joe Kittinger can be read at http://www.s.p.a.ceguy.8k.com/custom.html, under the heading "I Was the First Man in s.p.a.ce."

8. Ibid.

9. Gildenberg, "Roswell Requiem."

10. Air Force Web Information Service, "The Roswell Report: Case Closed," US Air Force, June 24, 1997, http://www.af.mil/information/roswell/index.asp (accessed February 22, 2011).

11. Kittinger, interview.

12. Jonah Lehrer, "Ads Implant False Memories," Wired, May 25, 2011, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/05/ads-implant-false-memories/ (accessed July 4, 2011).

13. Frank Newport, "What If Government Really Listened to the People?" Gallup News Service, October 15, 1997, http://www.gallup.com/poll/4594/What-Government-Really-Listened-People.aspx (accessed January 11, 2011).

14. Linda Lyons, "Paranormal Beliefs Come (Super) Naturally to Some," Gallup News Service, November 1, 2005, http://www.gallup.com/poll/19558/paranormal-beliefs-come-supernaturally-some.aspx (accessed March 15, 2011).

CHAPTER 14: "ALIENS HAVE VISITED EARTH.

AND ABDUCTED MANY PEOPLE."

1. Frank Newport, "Americans More Likely to Believe in G.o.d Than the Devil, Heaven More Than h.e.l.l," Gallup News Service, June 13, 2007, http://www.gallup.com/poll/27877/Americans-More-Likely-Believe-G.o.d-Than-Devil-Heaven-More-Than-h.e.l.l.aspx (accessed November 3, 2010).

2. Susan A. Clancy, Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), pp. 2829.

3. Ibid., p. 33.

4. Kat McGowan, "Past Perfect," in "The Brain," special issue, Discover (Fall 2010): 6970.

5. Clancy, Abducted, p. 59.

6. Elizabeth Loftus, interview with the author, March 27, 2011.

7. Clancy, Abducted, p. 35.

CHAPTER 15: "ASTROLOGY IS SCIENTIFIC.".

1. Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, "Many Americans Mix Multiple Faiths," Pew Forum, December 9, 2009, http://pewforum.org/Other-Beliefs-and-Practices/Many-Americans-Mix-Multiple-Faiths.aspx (accessed March 10, 2011).

2. Time Staff, "Good Heavens! An Astrologer Dictating the President's Schedule?" Time, May 16, 1988, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,9673891,00.html (accessed March 10, 2011).

CHAPTER 16: "ALL SCIENTISTS ARE GENIUSES.

AND SCIENCE IS ALWAYS RIGHT."

1. These examples are taken from "Not Even Wrong," in "Genius," special issue, Discover (Winter 2011): 9495.

2. "VP: US Conducted 17 Types of Experiments on Guatemalans," Latin American Herald Tribune, January 15, 2011, http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=373723&CategoryId=23558 (accessed January 15, 2011).

CHAPTER 17: "THE HOLOCAUST NEVER HAPPENED.".

1. Guy P. Harrison, "Band of Brothers," Caymanian Compa.s.s, September 7, 2001, p. A19.

2. Guy P. Harrison, "Embraced by Evil," Caymanian Compa.s.s, December 5, 2002, pp. 1516.

3. Guy P. Harrison, "Defying Hitler's Evil," Caymanian Compa.s.s, August 8, 2003, p. A16.

4. Guy P. Harrison, "Stronger Than Evil," Caymanian Compa.s.s, March 5, 2004, pp. A2526.

5. Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things (New York: MJF Books, 1997), p. 190.

6. Ibid., p. 212.

7. Ibid., p. 214.

8. Nick Wynne, interview with the author, March 27, 2011.

CHAPTER 18: "GLOBAL WARMING IS A POLITICAL ISSUE AND NOTHING MORE."

1. Nathanial Gronewold and Christa Marshall, "Rising Partisanship Sharply Erodes US Public's Belief in Global Warming," New York Times, December 3, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/cwire/2009/12/03/03climatewire-rising-partisanship-sharply-erodes-us-public-47381.html (accessed October 19, 2011).

2. Ibid.

CHAPTER 19: "TELEVISION NEWS GIVES ME AN ACCURATE VIEW OF THE WORLD."

1. Benjamin Radford, Media Mythmakers: How Journalists, Activists, and Advertisers Mislead Us (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003), p. 69.

2. Ibid.

3. Daniel Gardner, The Science of Fear (New York: Dutton, 2008), p. 250.

4. Ibid., pp. 25051.

5. Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (New York: Nation Books, 2010), p. 44.

CHAPTER 21: "BIOLOGICAL RACE DETERMINES SUCCESS IN SPORTS."

1. Michael Jordan, Driven from Within (New York: Atria, 2006), p. 33.

CHAPTER 22: "MOST CONSPIRACY THEORIES ARE TRUE.".

1. Thomas Hargrove, "Third of Americans Suspect 911 Government Conspiracy," Scripps News, August 11, 2006, www.scrippsnews.com/911poll (accessed July 22, 2011).

2. Jon Hamilton, "Psst! The Human Brain Is Wired for Gossip," Morning Edition, May 20, 2011, http://www.npr.org/2011/05/20/136465083/psst-the-human-brain-is-wired-for-gossip (accessed June 28, 2011).

CHAPTER 23: "ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE IS BETTER.".

1. Pride Chigwedere, George R. Seage III, Sofia Gruskin, Tun-Hou Lee, and M. Ess.e.x, "Estimating the Lost Benefits of Antiretroviral Drug Use in South Africa," Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome 49, no. 4 (December 1, 2008): 410, http://www.aids.harvard.edu/Lost_Benefits.pdf (accessed December 1, 2008).

2. Ibid., p. 414.

3. Richard L. Nahin, Patricia M. Barnes, Barbara J. Stussman, and Barbara Bloom, "Costs of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) and Frequency of Visits to CAM Pract.i.tioners: United States, 2007," National Health Statistics Report 18 (July 30, 2009), http://www.cdc.gov/NCHS/data/nhsr/nhsr018.pdf (accessed March 3, 2011).

4. Ibid., p. 3.

5. A. Malik and S. Gopalan, "Use of CAM Results in Delay in Seeking Medical Advice for Breast Cancer," European Journal of Epidemiology (August 18, 2003), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=12974558 (accessed March 6, 2011).

6. V. A. Luyckx, V. Steenkamp, and M. J. Stewart, "Acute Renal Failure a.s.sociated with the Use of Traditional Folk Remedies in South Africa," Ren Fail (January 27, 2005), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15717633 (accessed March 6, 2011).

7. Elizabeth Mendes, "In US, More Than 8 in 10 Rate Nurses, Doctors Highly," Gallup News Service, December 13, 2010, http://www.gallup.com/poll/145214/rate-nurses-doctors-highly.aspx (accessed January 12, 2011).

8. Nany Shute, "Desperate for an Autism Cure," Scientific American, October 2010, p. 81.

CHAPTER 24: "HOMEOPATHY REALLY WORKS,.