Superstition: Belief in the Age of Science

From uttering a prayer before boarding a plane, to exploring past lives through hypnosis, has superstition become pervasive in contemporary culture? Robert Park, the best-selling author of Voodoo Science, argues that it has. In Superstition, Park asks why people persist in superstitious convictions long after science has shown them to be ill-founded. He takes on supernatural beliefs from religion and the afterlife to New Age spiritualism and faith-based medical claims. He examines recent controversies and concludes that science is the only way we have of understanding the world.

Park sides with the forces of reason in a world of continuing and, he fears, increasing superstition. Chapter by chapter, he explains how people too easily mistake pseudoscience for science. He discusses parapsychology, homeopathy, and acupuncture; he questions the existence of souls, the foundations of intelligent design, and the power of prayer; he asks for evidence of reincarnation and astral projections; and he challenges the idea of heaven. Throughout, he demonstrates how people's blind faith, and their confidence in suspect phenomena and remedies, are manipulated for political ends. Park shows that science prevails when people stop fooling themselves.

Compelling and precise, Superstition takes no hostages in its quest to provoke. In shedding light on some very sensitive--and Park would say scientifically dubious--issues, the book is sure to spark discussion and controversy.

"'Science is the only way of knowing — everything else is just superstition,' says physicist Park (Voodoo Science) in this thinly argued rehash of the debate between science and religion. Among other questions, Park revisits experiments regarding the healing power of intercessory prayer (prayer for the healing of others), citing several studies that he claims are meaningless because it is impossible to measure prayer. Further, he says, only science, not prayer, con protect us from so-called 'acts of God,' like a tsunami. Park argues against the existence of the soul by debunking a tale of reincarnation and even interprets the Bible to his own purposes. But this chapter also shows how disjointed his arguments can be, as he jumps from the Plan B contraceptive to genes and memes to stem cells and ghosts. Such issues have been covered more eloquently and in greater depth by thinkers like Daniel Dennett in Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

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".

Introduction: Lessons from a tree vii

CHAPTER ONE: A BIGGER PRIZE 1

In which we discover scientists of faith

CHAPTER TWO: THE SECRET OF LIFE 23

In which Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection survives

CHAPTER THREE: MIRACLE AT COLUMBIA 56

In which both sides pray for victory

CHAPTER FOUR: GIVING UP THE GHOST 79

In which we search for the soul

CHAPTER FIVE: THE SILENT ARMY 93

In which we search for an afterlife

CHAPTER SIX: THE TSUNAMI GOD 104

In which the innocent suffer

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE NEW AGE 116

In which anything goes

CHAPTER EIGHT: SCHRÖDINGER'S GRAVE 129

In which quantum mysticism is found to be superstition

CHAPTER NINE: THE BARBARY DUCK 142

In which the body heals itself

CHAPTER TEN: THE DEER 161

In which the placebo effect is explained

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE MORAL LAW 188

In which we instinctively know right from wrong

CHAPTER TWELVE: THE LAST BUTTERFLY 202

In which there is no place else to go

Bibliography 217

Index 221