Gods Are Children's Blankets That Get Carried

To Recognize That Nature Has Neither A Preference For Our Species Nor A Bias Against It Takes Only A Little Courage.

Escapology Has One Thing Going For It That Probably Made Harry Houdini Such A Superstar In His Day And A Legend In The Present. Everyone Wants To Escape From Something. Taxes, Contracts, Illness, Work, The Multitude Of Burdens That We Chafe Under Are Shadows From Which We Want To Escape.

There Was A Small Boy On Crutches. I Do Not Know His Name, And I Suspect I Never Will. But I Will Never Forget His Face, His Smile, His Sorrow. He Is One Of The Millions Robbed Of Hope And Dignity By Charlatans Discussed In This Book. Wherever And Whoever He Is, I Apologize To Him For Not Having Been Able To Protect Him From Such An Experience. I Humbly Dedicate This Book To Him And To The Many Others Who Have Suffered Because The Rest Of Us Began Caring Too Late.

We Have Fought Long And Hard To Escape From Medieval Superstition. I, For One, Do Not Wish To Go Back.

A Lot Of People Hate My Skepticism, And I Think I Understand Why. The Psychics Offer Wonders And Endless Possibilities In A World That Often Seems Difficult And Mundane. They Promise Health, Wealth, Wisdom, Eternal Life. But If You Examine The Record, It's Not The Psychics But The Hard-nosed Scientists Who Have Actually Delivered The Things That Improve Human Life. And, To Me, Science Describes A World Far More Interesting Than Any Psychic Fantasy. It's A Good World -- Not Perfect -- But It's Ours. So We'd Better Learn To Live With It, The Way It Is.