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

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

, and activist for

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

and

religious skepticism Religious skepticism is a type of skepticism relating to religion. Religious skeptics question religious authority and are not necessarily antireligious/clerical but rather are skeptical of either specific or all religious beliefs and/or practi ...

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. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

and

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

, a doctorate in

physiology Physiology (; ) is the science, scientific study of function (biology), functions and mechanism (biology), mechanisms in a life, living system. As a branches of science, subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ syst ...

from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

and master's degrees in Management and

Library Science Library and information science (LIS)Library and Information Sciences is the name used in the Dewey Decimal Classification for class 20 from the 18th edition (1971) to the 22nd edition (2003). are two interconnected disciplines that deal with info ...

from

University of Rochester The University of Rochester is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. It was founded in 1850 and moved into its current campus, next to the Genesee River in 1930. With approximately 30,000 full ...

, Adelphi College, and the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Ca ...

. He was an author of books for

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

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. Not ...

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 A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Ch ...

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 U.S. nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal and to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 1991 by ...

, which houses both the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) and the Council for Secular Humanism (CSH). Stein died of lung cancer in Buffalo General Hospital.

Paranormal

He published articles critical of the paranormal in the '' Skeptical Inquirer''. 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 or ...

of Daniel Douglas Home and the spiritualist claims of

William Crookes Sir William Crookes (; 17 June 1832 – 4 April 1919) was an English 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 ...

. 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 ...

. 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 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 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.

Debate

In 1985, Gordon Stein debated Dr. Greg Bahnsen at the University of California (Irvine), on the topic, "The Great Debate: Does God Exist?" The Bahnsen Institute maintains the audio files of the debate in mp3 format, and several video versions are available on YouTube.

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 Jewish American atheism activists American bibliographers American encyclopedists American humanists American librarians American male essayists American male non-fiction writers American physiologists 20th-century American psychologists American religious skeptics American critics of religions American skeptics American writers on paranormal topics 20th-century American zoologists Anomalistic psychology American anthologists Critics of parapsychology Deaths from lung cancer in New York (state) Freethought writers Jewish American academics Jewish American essayists Jewish American historians Jewish encyclopedists Jewish skeptics Literacy and society theorists Ohio State University alumni Paranormal investigators Secular humanists 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)