Here’s one you really should add to your periodical list:  Skeptic magazine. You can also catch some of the articles and events online at Skeptic.com.

What is Skeptic?. Well the subtitle of the magazine is “Extraordinary Claims, Revolutionary Ideas & the Promotion of Science.” The current issue is Vol. 17, No. 1 and you can pick it up at your favorite newsstand (although in some areas you might have to subscribe and have it delivered by the Federal government in a plain brown wrapper). The cover story for this month’s magazine is “Scientology:  New Revelations on the History, Future, and Reformation of Scientology.” Here is a partial listing of the articles in Skeptic this month:

• Is Scientology a Cult? by Michael Shermer
• The Decline and (Probable) Fall of the Scientology Empire! by Jim Lippard
• Do J. K. Rowling’s Novels Promote Religion or Undermine It? by Ari Armstrong
• Can Hallucination Account for the Post-Crucifixion Appearances of Jesus? by Gary J. Whittenberger
• Can Science Deliver What Religion Has Long Promised for Eternal Life?  by Collin Braun
• Educational Reform Should Come from Within the Classroom and Science Can Inform Our Reforms by Chris Edward
• Is There Any Scientific Validity to the Claims of 9/11 Controlled Demolition Conspiracists About the Collapse of the World Trade Center Buildings? by Chris Mohr
• A Biologist Contemplates the Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything by David Zeigler
• Is Psychology a Science? by Robert E. Silverman.

One excellent feature of Skeptic is that it includes a Junior Skeptic section that discusses challenging concepts at a juvenile level with lots of pictures and charts. This month it’s the second part of an article on Fossil Fakes.

So if you wonder if Harry Potter advocates or undermines organized religion, or if you ever saw a fossil you didn’t trust, or even if you think fossils were God’s nicknacks to make dirt interesting, try a copy of Skeptic magazine and sharpen you ability to think for yourself.