How to be a skeptic

Natural History, April, 1997 by Michael Shermer

These are just some of the considerations that make me a skeptic. Perhaps the best advice to follow, in the face of an unusual claim, was given by Hume, in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding:

When anyone tells me that he saw a dead

man restored to life, I immediately

consider with myself whether it be more

probable, that this person should either deceive or

be deceived, or that the fact, which he

relates, should really have happened.... If

the falsehood of his testimony would be

more miraculous than the event which he

relates; then, and not till then, can he

pretend to command my belief or opinion.

RELATED ARTICLE: Bookshelf

Alligators

By Martha Strawn, with essays by J. Whitfield Gibbons, Jane Gibson, and LeRoy Overstreet (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997, $39.95, illus.) Photographer Strawn has assembled photographs and writings on the science, history, and folklore of the alligator--an inhabitant of the North American continent for at least 65 million years.

Are We Unique?

By James Trefil (John Wiley and Sons, 1997, $24.95) Trefil, a physicist, specializes in tackling big questions (What is thinking? Can the brain do something a computer can't?) and predicts the evolution of an "intelligent" computer.

Stuff

By Ivan Amato (Basic Books, 1997, $25, illus.) Human inventiveness has transformed Earth's raw materials into ceramics and plastics, as well as into today's fullerenes, high-temperature superconductors, and other exotic "stuff," as researchers "micromanage" materials on an atomic level.

The Universe Below

By William J. Broad (Simon and Schuster, 1997, $30, illus.) Accompanying scientists using submersibles, robots, or scuba gear, New York Times science writer Broad observes abyssal creatures, underwater volcanoes, and other phenomena of the ocean depths.

In the Company of Mushrooms

By Elio Schaechter (Harvard University Press, 1997, $24.95, illus.) Microbiologist Schaechter writes the biography of fungi, the planet's great decomposers and recyclers. He also advises readers on mushroom collecting and cooking.

On Safari

By LeRoy Neiman (Harry N. Abrams, 1997, $60, illus.) Lions, elephants, cape buffaloes, rhinoceroses, and leopards--a vivid menagerie of East African wildlife is portrayed by artist Neiman.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

By Jared Diamond W. W. Norton and Company, 1997, $27.50, illus.)

Why Is Sex Fun?

By Jared Diamond (Basic Books/HarperCollins, 1997, $20, illus.) The geographical and environmental forces that shape society and the evolution of human sexuality are the subjects of two new books by evolutionary biologist and physiologist Diamond.

The books mentioned in "Natural Selections" are available by mail order from the Museum Shop of the American Museum of Natural History, (212) 769-5150.

Michael Shermer, who teaches at Occidental College in Los Angeles, is the director of the Skeptics Society Alligators