Rec Room: Meakin Armstrong:The Skeptic’s Dictionary

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. Along with its companion Web site at www.skepdic.com, this book is invaluable against ignorance.

Order this book now, just in time for the holidays, because if you’re like me, you’ll have many battles this season when it comes to defending yourself from teabagger idiocy. The Skeptic’s Dictionary argues against the Shroud of Turin, UFOs, New Age, and the other ill-informed beliefs in modern life. But The Skeptic’s Dictionary goes deeper. It explains the tenets of logic. Go to its list of contents, 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.

Designed to point out the many logic flaws in American daily life, this book is a weapon. It will teach you how to think.

Bio: Meakin Armstrong is Guernica’s fiction editor. Read his last recommendation here.