Word: skepticism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Creator," "Providence" -- calculated not to offend the doubters and deists (who believed that God had designed the universe, then left it to nature to run). Jefferson was a renowned doubter, urging his nephew to "question with boldness even the existence of a God." John Adams was at least a skeptic, as were of course the revolutionary firebrands Tom Paine and Ethan Allen. Naturally, they designed a republic in which they themselves would have a place...
...every true believer in the power of vitamins -- and the U.S. has more devotees than any other country -- there is an agnostic, a skeptic who insists that vitamins are the opiate of the people. Among the doubters are many doctors. They have been persuaded by decades of public-health pronouncements, endorsed by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the National Institutes of Health, that claim people can get every nutrient they need from the food they eat. Popping vitamins "doesn't do you any good," sniffs Dr. Victor Herbert, a professor of medicine at New York City's Mount...
...with character and morose, raucous appetite, so much as the late brothel pictures, which fluctuate with such marvelous ambiguity between desire and repulsion, between the sentimental and the caricatural, while preserving (for the most part) a strict and innately aristocratic ( distance. One side of Lautrec was a goatish, little skeptic who regarded sex as a semiexcretory function -- "To make love," he once said, "it doesn't matter what you're with -- anything will do." The other side was extremely tender, and it comes out most clearly in the paintings of lesbians (a favorite literary topic in Paris...
Despite her altruism, though, the Countess must still defend herself against unbelievers. "Skeptic in Kansas City," instead of seeking help, charges that "if you were such a great psychic you wouldn't be writing for a weekly newspaper." If, "Skeptic" says, the Countess had any brains she would predict winning lottery numbers. But Sabak retorts, "I stopped playing lotteries after I became a multimillionaire early in my career. I now devote my time to helping other people free of charge. Writing a column for The Weekly World News--with my six-figure salary donated to charity--is just...
...skeptic accustomed to conventional medicine quickly misplaces all familiar landmarks when trying to assess the possible medical value of such treatments. Surely the notion that your entire body can be treated via the feet stretches credence to the breaking point -- especially when you consider that chiropractors say the same thing about the spine, while iridologists (yes, another specialty) say the eyes are the windows to your inner health. Why, there are even acupuncturists who claim you can treat virtually any spot in the body by poking needles at various points around...