50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True Part 15

CHAPTER 4: "YOU'RE EITHER BORN SMART OR YOU'RE NOT.".

1. Guy P. Harrison, Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know about Our Biological Diversity (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2009), p. 253.

2. David Shenk, The Genius in All of Us (New York: Doubleday, 2010), p. 16.

CHAPTER 5: "THE BIBLE CODE REVEALS THE FUTURE.".

1. David E. Thomas, "Beyond the Bible Code: Hidden Messages Everywhere!" in Skeptical Odysseys, ed. Paul Kurtz (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2001), p. 389.

2. David E. Thomas, "Hidden Messages and the Bible Code," Skeptical Inquirer, November/December 1997, http://www.csicop.org/si/show/hidden_messages_and_the_bible_code/ (accessed February 22, 2011).

3. Brendan McKay, "a.s.sa.s.sinations Foretold in Moby d.i.c.k!" 1997, http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/moby.html (accessed March 17, 2011).

4. Michael Drosnin, Bible Code II (New York: Viking, 2002), p. 186.

5. Ibid., p. 101.

6. Submission.org, "Bible Code vs. Quran Code," http://www.submission.org/quran/biblecode.html (accessed March 11, 2011).

CHAPTER 6: "STORIES OF PAST LIVES.

PROVE REINCARNATION IS REAL."

1. David W. Moore, "Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal," Gallup News Service, June 16, 2005, http://www.gallup.com/poll/16915/three-four-americans-believe-paranormal.aspx (accessed March 11, 2011).

2. Carl Haub, "How Many People Have Ever Lived on Earth?" Population Reference Bureau, February 1995, www.prb.org/Articles/2002/HowManyPeopleHaveEverLivedonEarth.aspx (accessed January 12, 2011).

3. ABC News, "Parents Think Boy Is Reincarnated Pilot," Primetime, June 30, 2005, http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Technology/story?id=894217 (accessed February 12, 2011).

4. Judy Kroeger, "About Past Lives...Uniontown WWII Flyer's Memories in Louisiana Boy," Daily Courier, April 15, 2004, http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/dailycourier/news/s_189477.html (accessed October 19, 2011).

5. J. Allen Danelek, The Case for Reincarnation (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications, 2010), p. 19.

6. Terence Hines, Pseudoscience and the Paranormal (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003), pp. 10910.

7. Danelek, Reincarnation, p. 188.

CHAPTER 7: "ESP IS THE REAL DEAL.".

1. Richard Wiseman, "'Heads I Win, Tails You Lose,' How Parapsychologists Nullify Null Results," Skeptical Inquirer, February 2010, http://www.csicop.org/si/show/heads_i_win_tails_you_loser_how_parapsychologists_nullify_null_results (accessed March 2, 2011).

2. David W. Moore, "Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal," Gallup News Service, June 16, 2005, http://www.gallup.com/poll/16915/three-four-americans-believe-paranormal.aspx (accessed March 11, 2011).

3. Jonathan C. Smith, Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims (West Suss.e.x, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), p. 251.

4. Michael D. Mumford, Andrew M. Rose, David A. Goslin, "An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications," American Inst.i.tutes for Research, September 29, 1995, http://www.fas.org/irp/program/collect/air1995.pdf (accessed March 1, 2011).

5. Michael Shermer, "Freeman Dyson, Miracles, and the Belief in the Paranormal," eSkeptic, May 4, 2004, http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/0405-04/ (accessed February 2, 2011).

6. Ibid.

7. Jefferson M. Fish, interview with the author, March 26, 2011.

8. Terrence Hines, Pseudoscience and the Paranormal (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2003), p. 150.

CHAPTER 8: "NOSTRADAMUS SAW IT ALL COMING.".

1. James Randi, The Mask of Nostradamus (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1993), pp. 1112.

2. Ibid., pp. 67.

3. Ibid., p. 149.

4. Ibid., p. 233.

5. Ibid., pp. 21213.

6. Janelle Brown, "Nostradamus Called It! Internet Conspiracy Theorists Are Having a Field Day after the Attacks," Salon, September 17, 2001, http://www.salon.com/technology/feature/2001/09/17/kooks/index.html (accessed November 1, 2010).

7. Randi, Mask of Nostradamus, p. 223.

CHAPTER 9: "I BELIEVE IN MIRACLES.".

1. Harris Poll, "What People Do and Do Not Believe In," Harris Interactive, December 15, 2009, http://www.harrisinteractive.com/vault/Harris_Poll_2009_12_15.pdf (accessed March 11, 2011).

2. Jonathan C. Smith, Pseudoscience and Extraordinary Claims of the Paranormal (West Suss.e.x, UK: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), p. 130.

CHAPTER 10: "NASA FAKED THE MOON LANDINGS.".

1. Guy P. Harrison, "The Last Moonwalker," Caymanian Compa.s.s, August 9, 2002, pp. A1213.

2. Ibid.

3. Frank Newport, "Landing a Man on the Moon: The Public's View," July 20, 1999, Gallup News Service, http://www.gallup.com/poll/3712/landing-man-moon-publics-view.aspx (accessed November 13, 2010).

4. Mary Lynne Dittmar, "Engaging the 1825 Generation: Educational Outreach, Interactive Technologies, and s.p.a.ce," Dittmar a.s.sociates, 2006, http://www.dittmar-a.s.sociates.com/Publications/Engaging%20the%201825%20Gpdate~web.pdf (accessed January 26, 2011).

5. "Apollo 11 Hoax: One in Four People Do Not Believe in Moon Landing," Telegraph, July 17, 2009, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/s.p.a.ce/5851435/Apollo-11-hoax-one-in-four-people-do-not-believe-in-moon-landing.html (accessed January 3, 2011).

6. California Academy of Sciences, "American Adults Flunk Basic Science," ScienceDaily, March 13, 2009, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090312115133.htm (accessed March 11, 2010).

7. Steve Crabtree, "New Poll Gauges Americans' General Knowledge Levels," Gallup News Service, July 6, 1999, http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx (accessed January 1, 2011).

CHAPTER 11: "ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS WERE HERE.".

1. Nancy White, interview with the author, March 21, 2011.

2. Carl Sagan, The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for G.o.d (New York: Penguin, 2007), p. 129.

3. Penn State University, "How Were the Egyptian Pyramids Built?" ScienceDaily, March 29, 2008, http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080328104302.htm (accessed March 28, 2011).

4. Erich von Daniken, Chariots of the G.o.ds (Berkley, CA: Berkley Trade, 1999), p. 87.

5. Ibid., p. 96.

6. Ibid., p. 65.

7. Ibid., p. 73.

CHAPTER 12: "UFOS ARE VISITORS FROM OTHER WORLDS.".

1. Read about the Drake equation on SETI's website: http://www.seti.org/drakeequation.

2. Linda Lyons, "Paranormal Beliefs Come (Super) Naturally to Some," Gallup News Service, November 1, 2005, http://www.gallup.com/poll/19558/paranormal-beliefs-come-supernaturally-some.aspx (accessed January 3, 2011).

3. Antonio Regalado, "Poll: Mexicans Express Belief in Spirits, Not Science," January 5, 2011, http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/01/poll-mexicans-express-belief-in.html?ref=hp (accessed June 9, 2011).

4. Steve Crabtree, "New Poll Gauges Americans' General Knowledge Levels," Gallup News Service, July 6, 1999, http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx (accessed January 1, 2011).

5. Mark Lewis, interview with the author, September 7, 2011.

6. Stephen Webb, If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens...Where Is Everybody? (New York: Copernicus Books, 2002), p. 30.

7. Stephen L. Macknic and Susana Martinez-Conde, Sleights of Mind (New York: Henry Holt, 2010), pp. 1112.

8. D. J. Simons, C. F. Chabris, "What People Believe about How Memory Works: A Representative Survey of the U.S. Population," PLoS ONE 6, no. 8: e22757.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0022757, http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0022757 (accessed August 11, 2011).

9. The video is available at www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/videos.html.

10. Philip Plait, Bad Astronomy (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2002), pp. 202204.

11. Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, The Invisible Gorilla and Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us (New York: Crown, 2010), pp. 810.

12. Paul Davies, The Eerie Silence: Renewing Our Search for Alien Intelligence (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010), p. 19.

13. Andrew Fraknoi, "An Astronomer Looks at UFOs: A Lot Less Than Meets the Eye," Skeptical Inquirer 33, no. 1, January/February 2009, http://www.csicop.org/si/show/astronomer_looks_at_ufos_a_lot_less_than_meets_the_eye (accessed January 5, 2011).