History is written by the winners; including the histories of science and scholarship. Unorthodoxies that flourish at the grassroots are often beneath the contempt of historians. Zetetic astronomy (flat-Earth science) was a household term in Victorian England, but not a single reference to it is found in conventional histories. We ignore such histories at our peril; the modern “intelligent design” movement is almost a carbon copy of the 19th century flat-Earth movement in its argumentative techniques.
When orthodox science finds itself stumped, or a certain segment finds it unpalatable, the unorthodox may rush in to fill the void. The past two decades have brought a surge of interest in the history and philosophy of science. But how do we discern between pseudo and actual science? To fully understand what science is, we must understand what science is not. Written with penetrating insight into the minds of alternative thinkers, this book throws light on the differences between pseudo and actual science. The droll humor that permeates Worlds of Their Own makes it as enjoyable a read as it is enlightening.
Despite its focus on unorthodox ideas, Worlds of Their Own is about human nature. Whether they drew their ideas from the Bible or nature, all the pseudoscientists discussed in this book were driven to communicate their “truth” to the misinformed world. None was afflicted with self-doubt. All defended their “truth” with similar standards of evidence, modes of reasoning, and methods of scholarship. Their counterparts are legion — the blue-collar philosopher who refutes Einstein from his barstool, the preacher who refutes (but cannot define) evolution from his pulpit, the narcissist who promotes quackery courtesy of modern talk shows and infomercials. Each topic discussed in Worlds of Their Own covers a once-popular concept that persists to this day.
Numerous works examine or debunk pseudoscientific ideas. Worlds of Their Own is unique in letting unorthodox thinkers speak for themselves. Readers will want to buy the book to learn how such people argued their cases against conventional views.
Worlds of Their Own is a timeless book offering humor, substance, and analysis for a mainstream audience. Moreover, it is a unique source book on unorthodox ideas that nearly everyone has heard about but few fully understand. And the source material is rare. For example, the National Union Catalog lists only four U.S. libraries — the Library of Congress, New York Public, Yale, and Duke — that hold Carpenter´s One Hundred Proofs That the Earth Is Not a Globe (1885). Bob’s own extensive collection of flat-Earth literature as well as his collection of literature advocating various other unorthodoxies was donated to the University of Wisconsin after his death. It is housed there as the Robert Schadewald Collection on Pseudo-Science. This collection consists of 885 books and pamphlets (many from the 19th century) as well as 70 boxes of personal files and collected news clippings.
Praise for Bob Schadewald:
“Perhaps the most important thing that Bob taught me has to do with the striking insights one can gain by first studying the history of one particular kind of crackpot science — for example, the flat-Earth movement in past centuries — and then realizing how reliable that knowledge can be for gaining insight into a seemingly unrelated pseudoscience of more contemporary times — for example, the creation science movement that flourished in Iowa and across the country in recent decades, and is now returning as intelligent design today.
Nobody, but nobody could make the case for this more convincingly than Bob Schadewald, and Lois has included some of Bob’s best material — doing so between the covers of Worlds of Their Own.”
John W. Patterson.emeritus
Materials Science & Engineering,
Iowa State University
“Bob Schadewald was an insightful thinker who looked clear-eyed at the foolishness of perpetual motion machines, flat-Earthism, creationism, and many other pseudosciences. But, though he cuts right to the core of why these ideas are pseudoscience, he recognizes the holders of these kooky ideas as very human beings seeking answers to bigger questions — even if they are looking in the wrong places. This humanistic perspective on the holders of these views help us understand why these views persist, despite all the scientific evidence against them. We are indebted to his sister, Lois Schadewald, for collecting them all in one place.”
— Eugenie C. Scott, PhD,
Author, Evolution vs Creationism: An Introduction,
and Executive Director, National Center for Science Education
“Bob Schadewald was a good man with a good mind. Worlds of Their Own reflects both aspects of this man whom his fellow anti-creationists respected and loved, and whom even the creationists whose deceptions he exposed viewed with affection and respect. Bob´s essays reveal his keen understanding of both science and pseudoscience; the criticisms he lodged against ‘creation science’ are equally applicable to today´s creationism, ‘intelligent design.’ Lois Schadewald´s posthumous publication of this book is a testimony to her esteem for her brother. But more than that, it is one more gift from Bob to the world of science and literature.”
— Barbara Forrest
co-author with Paul R. Gross of
Creationism´s Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design
“No one explored the fringes of science more enthusiastically and insightfully than the late Bob Schadewald. This welcome anthology of his essays will keep his spirit alive for years to come.”
— Ronald L. Numbers
Hilldale Professor of the History of Science and Medicine
Department of Medical History and Bioethics
University of Wisconsin
“Bob Schadewald understood that one of the best ways of understanding true science is to understand pseudoscience, how it ‘works’ and what motivates its propagandists. That is a lesson many need to learn in this time of ‘Intelligent Design’ swindles. Once you realize that ‘Scientific Creationism’ works exactly like Velikovskyism and Flat Earth ‘Science,’ the jig is up. Schadewald’s good-natured but unsparing scrutiny of all these silly trends is both hilarious and infuriating. As mind-games they incite laughter. As strategies for keeping the human race in dogma-inspired darkness they deserve our scorn — and our active opposition. And this book deserves a wide readership.”
— Dr. Robert M. Price
Editor, Journal of Higher Criticism
“No science writer wrote about pseudoscience with greater accuracy and humor than Bob Schadewald. His slashing attacks on the know-nothing young-earth creationists, and on Velikovsky´s crazy cosmology were devastating. It is high time that his great contributions to the growing literature of respect for genuine science over bogus science were finally recognized. His sister Lois has done a wonderful job of pulling it all together. The illustrations alone are worth the book´s price.”
— Martin Gardner,
Scientific American’s “Mathematical Games” columnist (for over twenty-five years),
author, Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?, The Annotated Alice,
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, and around 70 others.
*****
Worlds of Their Own was compiled by Lois Schadewald, Bob’s sister, an Iowa State University alum and science educator, who teaches chemistry at Normandale Community College in Minnesota. She spent her 2003-4 sabbatical preparing Worlds of Their Own as a fitting tribute to her late brother. Ms. Schadewald’s main purpose is to showcase at least a small sampling of Bob’s thoughts and ideas as reflected in his writings, but she also includes a few brief personal commentaries. Her commentaries reveal what it was like to grow up as the youngest of Bob’s four sisters; others come from those who knew Bob mainly through correspondence or his published writings. The book’s main focus, however, is on the material that Bob had prepared. In addition to her sampling from Bob’s published articles, Lois has also tapped into other valuable, but never-before-published, material that Bob was working on until just before his death including copy-ready chapters and excerpts from book-length manuscripts, all of which are worthwhile not only for the factual accuracy of Bob’s accounts, but also for the entertaining histories he presents, and the penetrating analysis that he brought to everything he did.
John W. Patterson. emeritus
Materials Science & Engineering,
Iowa State University
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Book Display
A Brief History of Misguided Ideas: Creationism, Flat-Earthism, Energy Scams, and the Velikovsky Affair