Believe it, or not

Some terms and issues of concern to skeptics:

■ “Rational critical, and scientific thinking.”

— “Skepticism,” as defined by Cape Ann Skeptics.

■ “Kittle pitchering”

— Highly encouraged at skeptic meetings, and defined by 18th-century literature as a “jocular method of hobbling or bothering a troublesome teller of long stories” by peppering them with questions or objections to minor details, so as to distract the speaker from settling into a “storytelling groove.”

■ Vampires, voodoo, various aspects of medicine, Coca-Cola, Santa Claus, simulated reality

— A sampling of the topics discussed and debated by Cape Ann Skeptics.

■ “By all means let’s be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.”

— Quote on Cape Ann Skeptics’ home page from Richard Dawkins, a British scientist who is a critic of pseudoscience and alternative medicine.

SOURCE: Cape Ann Skeptics