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editors Tim Callahan, Harriet Hall, Phil Molé, and James Randi; editorial assistant Sara Meric; photographer David Patton and videographer Brad Davies for their visual record of the Skeptics’ Caltech Science Lecture Series. I would also like to recognize Skeptic magazine’s board members: Richard Abanes, David Alexander, the late Steve Allen, Arthur Benjamin, Roger Bingham, Napoleon Chagnon, K. C. Cole, Jared Diamond, Clayton J. Drees, Mark Edward, George Fischbeck, Greg Forbes, the late Stephen Jay Gould, John Gribbin, Steve Harris, William Jarvis, Lawrence Krauss, Gerald Larue, William McComas, John Mosley, Bill Nye, Richard Olson, Donald Prothero, James Randi, Vincent Sarich, Eugenie Scott, Nancy Segal, Elie Shneour, Jay Stuart Snelson, Julia Sweeney, Frank Sulloway, Carol Tavris, and Stuart Vyse. Special thanks to Pat Linse for rendering much of the artwork for the book.

Thanks as well for the institutional support for the Skeptics Society at the California Institute of Technology goes to Susan Davis, Eric Wood, Hall Daily, Laurel Auchampaugh, Christof Koch, Leonard Mlodinow, Sean Carroll, and Kip Thorne. Likewise, I appreciate the institutional support of the School of Politics and Economics at Claremont Graduate University, most notably Paul Zak, Wendy Martin, Mary Ellen Wanderlingh, Laura Beavin, Thomas Willett, Thomas Borcherding, and Arthur Denzau. As always, I acknowledge my friends at KPCC 89.3 FM radio in Pasadena, most notably Larry Mantle, Jackie Oclaray, Karen Fritsche, and Linda Othenin-Girard. I would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Skeptics Society from Jerome V. Broschart, Tom Glover, Tyson Jacobson, Matthew D. Madison and Sharon E. Madison, Ted A. Semon, Daniel Mendez, Robert and Mary Engman, and Whitney L. Ball. Finally, special thanks go to those who help at every level of our organization: Stephen Asma, Jaime Botero, Jason Bowes, Jean Paul Buquet, Adam Caldwell, Bonnie Callahan, Tim Callahan, Cliff Caplan, Randy Cassingham, Shoshana Cohen, John Coulter, Brad Davies, Janet Dreyer, Bob Friedhoffer, Michael Gilmore, Tyson Gilmore, Andrew Harter, Diane Knudtson, and Joe Lee.

Mariette DiChristina and John Rennie at Scientific American deserve special recognition for being such trusted friends and for shepherding the Skeptic column to fruition each month. My column in those august pages of what is now the longest published magazine in American history (165 years and counting) is the most fulfilling thing I do in my working days.

The dedicatee of this book, Devin Ziel Shermer, has now started her own life’s journey, and I thank her for the opportunity to express unconditional love and for giving my life deep purpose and ultimate meaning as we contribute to the three-and-a-half-billion-year evolutionary imperative of life’s continuity from one generation to the next, remembering always that there’s no place like home …

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

Abducted (Clancy)

Abdulmutallab, Umar Farouk (underwear bomber)

Abraham, Anna

Abu Ghraib

Account of the Discoveries (Dalrymple)

action potential

addiction

adrenaline

afterlife

agenticity

afterlife and

aliens and

belief confirmation and

CIA and

conspiracy and

defined

demon-haunted brain and

God and

left-brain interpreter and

neuroscience of

polls on belief and

power of

science and

sensed-presences and

telephoning dead and

theory of mind and

agnosticism

Aldebaran

Aletheia Foundation

aliens

abduction by

God and

resemblance to humans

Allen, Woody

All of Me (film)

Alpha Centauri

al-Qaeda

altruism

America Rebuilds (TV special)

amphetamines

amygdala

Anatomical Exercise (Harvey)

anchoring bias

ancient repetitive elements (AREs)

Andromeda (M31)

anecdotal thinking

Angels and Demons (Brown)

anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

anterior insula

anterior paracingulate cortex