kittynh
1st October 2006, 04:04 PM
With much trepidation I checked out the book Readers Digest "Fakes and Forgeries, The True Crime Stories of History's Greatest Deceptions" by Brian Innes.
It's really a great book.
Very short blurbs on many historic scams and fakes. The best chapter for perhaps your average skeptic is "Faking for a Cause". It covers the Cottingley Fairies, the Fox sisters, The Shroud of Turin...
Also there is a chapter on medical "cures". It's not what I've come to expect from Readers Digest. The whole book is very readable, and heavily illustrated. It would be perfect for an older child to read. The lessons of the other chapters on how people have been fooled over time (as in the man that sold the Eiffel Tower - twice!) is a wonderful example of how you have to live as a skeptic to keep from being fooled. It's financially sound as well as healthier, to live as a skeptic.
I'm thinking of ordering it, as the clairity of it, and it's target for a wide audience, makes it a perfect tool for reaching people.
To be honest, just one line from the book on the Shroud of Turin, easily cuts into the heart of the believer audience. "It can be seen the front and back body images touch at the head-impossible if they had been produced while the shroud was wrapped over a body."
I usually go all into carbon dating and stuff, but yeah, what about the head touching like that? It's very clear and fair, but not an overt skeptic book. Far too "easy" a read for a lot of us, it's still a fun read, which makes it a great skeptic tool.
It's really a great book.
Very short blurbs on many historic scams and fakes. The best chapter for perhaps your average skeptic is "Faking for a Cause". It covers the Cottingley Fairies, the Fox sisters, The Shroud of Turin...
Also there is a chapter on medical "cures". It's not what I've come to expect from Readers Digest. The whole book is very readable, and heavily illustrated. It would be perfect for an older child to read. The lessons of the other chapters on how people have been fooled over time (as in the man that sold the Eiffel Tower - twice!) is a wonderful example of how you have to live as a skeptic to keep from being fooled. It's financially sound as well as healthier, to live as a skeptic.
I'm thinking of ordering it, as the clairity of it, and it's target for a wide audience, makes it a perfect tool for reaching people.
To be honest, just one line from the book on the Shroud of Turin, easily cuts into the heart of the believer audience. "It can be seen the front and back body images touch at the head-impossible if they had been produced while the shroud was wrapped over a body."
I usually go all into carbon dating and stuff, but yeah, what about the head touching like that? It's very clear and fair, but not an overt skeptic book. Far too "easy" a read for a lot of us, it's still a fun read, which makes it a great skeptic tool.