Skeptic Magazine: A Review

With magazines along with books and just about everything else in this world continuously increasing in price you have to become more and more picky about how you are willing to spend your hard earned dollars, especially when it comes to such superfluous items as magazines. Skeptic Magazine, however, has proven time and time again to be one of the most interesting and intriguing magazines on the market.

The price tag reads $5.95, like many magazines these days, but Skeptic Magazine actually earns the cover price. Each issue is filled with a high number of articles, all of them in-depth and high quality. And while advertising is certainly a part of the magazine (even Mad Magazine publishes ads these days), it is for the most part non-intrusive.

Skeptic's real value is in the content, something that can't be said of many magazines. It provides a unique insight that you just don't often find these days. While their bias is very obvious and in your face (the name of the magazine is Skeptic, after all), for the most part the magazine simply tries to interject a little bit of common sense and reason into the public discourse, whatever the topic may be.

Range of topics is also another fascinating part of the magazine. From UFOs to Intelligent Design to Artificial Intelligence to Pyramid Power, Skeptic Magazine takes all of it on in a reasoned, no-nonsense approach. With Skeptic you are not only being entertained but often you are learning something, or at least reading a well-reasoned viewpoint you will be hard-pressed to find in the more mainstream media.

Being true to the nature of skepticism, Skeptic Magazine also welcomes feedback from its readers. The Forum printed in each issue is often one of the more interesting parts of the magazine, where readers are given the opportunity to share their own input on the issues raised in previous editions of the magazine.

Besides going into some of the delicate issues of the day (such as the ongoing battle over Creation or Intelligent Design versus Evolution), the magazine also goes into other, sometimes lesser known subjects. For example in their spring 2006 issue they cover Ed Leeskalnin's Coral Castle in Florida as well as Ted Serios who claims to be able to photograph his thoughts.

Unfortunately Skeptic is a quarterly, so you can only enjoy their insights once every three months. It is well worth the wait, however. Many of the articles often warrant re-reading. Besides the main content there is also a special feature in each issue known as Jr. Skeptic, intended for younger readers but enjoyable and interesting enough to read for people of all ages.