I've been reading a lot of Carl Sagan lately

[Tobin S.]

And he has changed the way I look at the world. I've read "Cosmos" and "The Demon-Haunted World" and I'm currently reading "The Dragons of Eden."

I have very little formal training in science (I'm a trucker), so Sagan is a valuable resource for people like me. He writes in a way that is accessible to the layman, and he also takes the time to educate when a concept eludes a simpler explanation. He introduced me to skepticism and the tools of critical thinking. Remember the baloney detection kit? :)

Who are some other skeptics and popularizers of science who you would recommend?

[onager]

1. Victor Stenger

http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/

Assuming you'll get lots of pointers to people like James Randi, Michael Shermer etc. Stenger doesn't seem to get as much publicity, but he does great work in the field.

He has degrees in both quantum physics and philosophy, so is pretty much un-bullshitable by the woos coming from either the Fake Science or Fake Philosophy camps.

He absolutely despises the misuse of quantum physics by hucksters like Deepak Chopra, and wrote a great book about it - "Quantum Quackery."

I saw Stenger speak at the Skeptics Society here in Los Angeles. Like Richard Feynmann, he has that great and rare gift for being able to explain very difficult scientific concepts in plain language. When discussing the abuse of quantum physics, he explained stuff like the Double-Slit Experiment so that even I could understand it.

And for all those who claim "science can't disprove the existence of god," Stenger says science can do exactly that.

[charlie]

2. "He absolutely despises the misuse of quantum physics..."

Wow. I hate that shit too, and I REALLY LIKE this guy:

A new myth is burrowing its way into modern thinking. The notion is spreading that the principles embodied in quantum mechanics imply a central role for the human mind in determining the very nature of the universe. Not surprisingly, this idea can be found in New Age periodicals and in many books on the metaphysical shelves of book stores. But it also can appear where you least expect it, even on the pages of that bastion of rational thinking, The Humanist...

The myth of quantum consciousness sits well with many whose egos have made it impossible for them to accept the insignificant place science perceives for humanity, as modern instruments probe the farthest reaches of space and time. It was bad enough when Copernicus said that we were not at the center of the universe. It was worse when Darwin announced that we were not angels. But it became intolerable when astronomers declared that the earth is but one of a hundred billion trillion other planets, and when geologists demonstrated that recorded history is but a blink of time - a microsecond of the second of earth’s existence.

In a land where self-gratification has reached heights never dreamed of in ancient Rome, where self-esteem is more important than being able to read, and where self-help requires no more effort than putting on a cassette, the myth of quantum consciousness is just what the shrink ordered.

http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Quantum/QuantumConsciousness.pdf

...The new quantum holism, on the other hand, feeds our delusions of personal importance. It tells us that we are part of an immortal cosmic mind with the power to perform miracles and, as Shirley MacLaine has said, to make our own reality. Who needs God when we, ourselves, are God? Thoughts of our participation in cosmic consciousness inflate our egos to the point where we can ignore our short-comings and even forget our mortality...

...Mystical physics is a grossly misapplied version of ancient Hindu and Buddhist philosophy, which were based on the notion that only by the complete rejection of self can one find inner peace in this world of suffering and hopelessness. Capra and his colleagues say they are putting a modern face on ancient Eastern philosophy. I say they are covering a noble edifice with graffiti. Where they see similarities between the new
and the old mysticisms, I see only contrasts. Where they promote the new mythology as an antidote for self absorption, I assert that they are manufacturing a drug that induces it.

http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/vstenger/Quantum/mystic.pdf

That stuff bugs the shit out of me. You can easily run into 50 ignorant uses of "quantum" a day on the web, whether you're looking for it or not.

One character here is always throwing "quantum" and "non-local" into posts, apropos of nothing, usually by angry assertion, with a pissed off "materialism is stoopid" coda. Come to think of it, she's always impatient and pissed off. I guess she oughta be angry, after creating 8 years of GeeDubya and an argument with an annoying putz like me at the end. Her reality-creating would give masochists nightmares.

[Tobin S.]

3. Thanks onager and charlie

I appreciate the information.

I'd really like to take some physics classes at the local community college, but I'm afraid I'd spend a year just catching up on the required math. :) I have gotten up to college level calculus, but that was a long time ago. I can remember up to elementary algebra and that's about it. I may take those classes still yet, though.

[Odin2005]

4. Quantum woo REALLY gets on my nerves.

It's all BS based on popular misunderstandings of ONE philosophical INTERPRETATION of QM, an interpretation strongly based on Bohr's own Instrumentalist, Subjectivist, Anti-Realist philosophical views. A view the MAJORITY of physicists don't agree with.