Skeptics' Circle

The newest edition of Skeptics’ Circle is up at Dr. Steven Novella’s Neurologica and it’s one you won’t want to miss. Join a class on a tour through the Museum of Skepticism.

“Follow me, kids,” said Mrs. Trueblood. “We’re about to enter the largest wing of the museum — the Hall of Complementary and Alternative Medicine.” There are multiple exhibits about kids, animals, nurses and doctors on display, featuring all of the superheros, with their secret identities, who’ve been fighting the evil pseudoscientists.

There’s also a Hall of Aliens and UFO's — always a crowd-pleaser, especially with kids — which walks them through alien abductions and sleep paralysis. And the most shining wing of the museum: the Hall of Skeptical Thinking. “If you really pay attention in this part of the tour then maybe one day you can learn to be a skeptic and you'll have your own display in the museum," she tells the class. An especially stellar exhibit by Robert Todd Carroll explains how science figures out the causes for things and how we can be led down the wrong path by trusting our own experiences.

As the kids filed through the exit door into the gift shop, the guide "thought he detected a bit more wonder in their eyes, perhaps a touch more skepticism in their beaming faces." Hopefully, they’ve learned a few skeptic secrets before they spend their allowances.