Gordon Stein (April 30, 1941 – August 27, 1996) was an American author, physiologist, and activist for

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

and

religious skepticism Religious skepticism is a type of skepticism relating to religion. Religious skeptics question religious authority and are not necessarily anti-religious but skeptical of specific or all religious beliefs and/or practices. Socrates was one of t ...

Biography

Stein was born in New York to Jewish parents, and from an early age took an interest in science. He earned degrees in

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

and

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

, a doctorate in

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

and master's degrees in Management and Library Science from

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

Adelphi College Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

, and the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

. He was an author of books for

secular humanist Secular humanism is a philosophy, belief system or life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalism while specifically rejecting religious dogma, supernaturalism, and superstition as the basis of morality ...

and rationalist publications, he also was a critic of claims of

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

phenomena. Stein was an outspoken

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

and publicly debated

Christian apologists Christian apologetics ( grc, ἀπολογία, "verbal defense, speech in defense") is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity. Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in ...

such as Greg Bahnsen. He served as editor of the '' American Rationalist'' and was the librarian of the

Center for Inquiry The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...

, which houses both the

Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the US non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "pro ...

(CSICOP) and the

Council for Secular Humanism The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...

(CSH). Stein died of lung cancer in

Buffalo General Hospital John R. Oishei Children's Hospital (viewed from Ellicott Street in 2017) Kaleida Health, founded in 1998, is a not-for-profit healthcare network that manages five hospitals in the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area. Prior to the merger of ...

Paranormal

He published articles critical of the paranormal in the ''

Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''. Mission statement and goals Daniel Loxton, writing in ...

''. His book ''The Sorcerer of Kings: The Case of Daniel Dunglas Home and William Crookes'' (1993) is a debunking of the

mediumship Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or ghost, spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship o ...

Daniel Douglas Home Daniel Dunglas Home (pronounced ''Hume''; 20 March 183321 June 1886) was a Scottish physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will. His bi ...

and the

spiritualist Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century The ''long nineteenth century'' i ...

claims of

William Crookes Sir William Crookes (; 17 June 1832 – 4 April 1919) was a British chemist and physicist who attended the Royal College of Chemistry, now part of Imperial College London, and worked on spectroscopy. He was a pioneer of vacuum tubes, inventing t ...

. Stein suspected that Crookes was too ashamed to admit he had been duped by the medium Florence Cook, or that he had conspired with her for sexual favors. He also suggested that Crookes had conspired with

Anna Eva Fay Anna Eva Fay Pingree (March 31, 1851 – May 12, 1927) was a famous medium and stage mentalist of the twentieth century. Biography Fay was born Ann Eliza Heathman in Southington, Ohio. She married Henry Melville Cummings, a medium, who went by ...

. He noted that contrary to popular belief, Home had been exposed as a fraud on several occasions. Stein concluded that all the feats of Home were conjuring tricks. In a review, biographer

William Hodson Brock William Hodson Brock (born 1936) is a British chemist and science historian. Brock was born in Brighton. He studied chemistry at University College London and the history and philosophy of science at the University of Leicester to become a lectu ...

wrote that Stein made his "case against Crookes and Home clearly and logically." He also edited the ''Encyclopedia of the Paranormal'' (1996), which received positive reviews. Stein had documented the tricks of fraudulent mediums. He discovered that a levitation photograph of

Carmine Mirabelli Carmine Carlos Mirabelli (2 January 1889 – 30 April 1951) was a Brazilian physical medium and Spiritualist.Anderson, Rodger. (2006). ''Psychics, Sensitives and Somnambules: A Biographical Dictionary with Bibliographies''. McFarland & Company. ...

had been chemically retouched. Nickell, Joe. (2005). ''Camera Clues: A Handbook for Photographic Investigation''.

University Press of Kentucky The University Press of Kentucky (UPK) is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 194 ...

. p. 178.

Publications

*''Robert Ingersoll: A Checklist'' (1969) *''Free Thought in the United States: A Descriptive Bibliography'' (1978) *''Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism'' (Editor, with Marshall Brown, 1980) *''Freethought in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth: A Descriptive Bibliography'' (1981) *''Encyclopedia of Unbelief'' (Editor, 1985) *''A Second Anthology of Atheism and Rationalism'' (Editor, 1987) *''God Pro and Con: A Bibliography of Atheism'' (Editor, 1990) *''The Sorcerer of Kings: The Case of Daniel Dunglas Home and William Crookes'' (1993) *''Encyclopedia of Hoaxes'' (Editor, 1993) *''Hoaxes! Dupes, Dodges & Other Dastardly Deceptions (1995) *''Encyclopedia of the Paranormal'' (Editor, 1996)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stein, Gordon 1941 births 1996 deaths 20th-century American educators 20th-century American essayists 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male writers 20th-century atheists 20th-century American historians Adelphi University alumni American atheism activists American bibliographers American cultural critics American encyclopedists American humanists American librarians American male essayists American male non-fiction writers American physiologists 20th-century American psychologists American religious skeptics American secularists American skeptics American social commentators American writers on paranormal topics American zoologists Anomalistic psychology Anthologists Critics of parapsychology Critics of religions Deaths from lung cancer Freethought writers Jewish American academics Jewish American atheists Jewish encyclopedists Jewish historians Jewish skeptics Literacy and society theorists Ohio State University alumni Paranormal investigators Secular humanists Social critics University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Rochester alumni Writers about activism and social change Writers about religion and science Writers from New York (state)