This invaluable book argues against many other books—the huckster ones sold elsewhere in the bookstore—those books filled with puffery about about the Shroud of Turin, UFOs, crystals, and New Age.

meakin_armstrong-small.jpg For years now, I’ve been a fan of the book, The Skeptic’s Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions.

This invaluable book argues against many other books—the huckster ones sold elsewhere in the bookstore—those books filled with puffery about about the Shroud of Turin, UFOs, crystals, and New Age. By necessity, The Skeptic’s Dictionary also explains the tenets of logic—thankfully in fashion far more clear that your professor’s ever attempted to.

Go to the Table of Contents on its companion Website, or start with the entry on Apophenia. Move to Argument to Ignorance, and then go on to the Barnum Effect, ending at Littlewood’s Law of Miracles.

This book and Website is a weapon. It will teach you how to think.

Bio: Meakin Armstrong is Guernica’s fiction editor. You can follow him on Twitter at @meakinarmstrong.

Meakin Armstrong
Meakin Armstrong is Senior Fiction Editor at Guernica. He is a ghostwriter, essayist, fiction writer, and journalist — and has been published in a wide variety of journals. You can follow him on Twitter at @meakinarmstrong.

At Guernica, we’ve spent the last 20 years producing uncompromising journalism.

More than 80% of our finances come from readers like you. And we’re constantly working to produce a magazine that deserves you—a magazine that is a platform for ideas fostering justice, equality, and civic action.

If you value Guernica’s role in this era of obfuscation, please donate.

Help us stay in the fight by giving here.