Martin Gardner was the most powerful individual antagonist of the paranormal during the second half of the twentieth century.  A 15-page section is devoted to his life and work.

Topics include:

• The paranormal
• Magic
• Religion

Paranormal

    Gardner is the godfather of the skeptical movement.  He came to public notice in 1952 with his In the Name of Science.  It was revised and re-released in 1957 under the title Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, and it remains in print.  Since that time, he has produced a steady output of books and articles denouncing psychic phenomena.  In 1976 he helped found CSICOP.
 

Magic

    Gardner began writing for magic magazines while still a teenager.  He went on to contribute a massive amount to that literature.  His best critiques of parapsychological research are from the standpoint of a magician, but few of his parapsychologist-targets realized his stature within conjuring.
 

Religion

    Most people seem to expect Gardner to be an atheist.  He’s not.  He believes in “a personal god, prayer, and life after death” (letter to author 16 Nov 96).  He considers himself to be a Platonic mystic.  He has explained his religious views at length and admitted that he is most pleased to have written The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener (1983) and The Flight of Peter Fromm (1973).  Both of these books deal with religion extensively.

    Gardner’s antagonism to psychic research is in part due to his religious beliefs.  His essay “Prayer: Why I Do Not Think It Foolish” is revealing; for in it he says: “It is possible that paranormal forces not yet established may allow prayers to influence the material world, and I certainly am not saying this possibility should be ruled out a priori . . . As for empirical tests of the power of God to answer prayer, I am among those theists who, in the spirit of Jesus’ remark that only the faithless look for signs, consider such tests both futile and blasphemous . . . Let us not tempt God” (Whys, p. 239).  Nor is the above quote an isolated example.  He also objects to interpreting miracles in terms of parapsychological concepts.  He goes on to say that “If I were an orthodox Jew or Christian, I would find such attempts to explain biblical miracles to be both preposterous and an insult to God” (Whys, p. 232).
 

The Trickster

    The trickster is a paradoxical and confusing character.  So is Martin Gardner.  Like a trickster, his essays mix diverse, seemingly unrelated topics (e.g., religion and mathematics).  Gardner, paradoxically, believes in God and the power of prayer, but he allies himself with atheists in his battle against the paranormal.

    The Trickster and the Paranormal discusses all this in conjunction with his critiques of parapsychology.