Pseudoscience (combating and debunking)

Michael had a long interest in exposing and dubunking pseudoscience in multiple forms in which it occurred.

For example, in November 1974, Michael participated in a "Velikovsky and the Politics of Science" debate at the University of Notre Dame (in South Bend, Indiana), a meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association, in which he challenged the highly popular (and unconventional)views of Immanuel Velikovsky and his Worlds in Collision book about the early solar system.

Michael's remarks, worked into a paper format, were published in 1974 in the proceedings of the Philosophy of Science Association.

The defenders of Velikovsky have very long memories, including that about 40+ years later (2016) they created a stub Wikipedia biography page of Michael which Wikipedia itself considered a "sock puppet" page (incomplete and slanted). The page was originally created by one user named HealthyGirl who was permanently banned soon after s/he created the page in 2016.

It is worth noting that Michael's Wikipedia page has improved considerably since 2019, and especially after 2021. (I (David) am not allowed to contribute to it, as a relative, but I would have never linked to it heretofore, since the page was so awful!)

The Skeptical Inquirer is a magazine published by the Center for the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP). In 2006, Michael published an article there about Intelligent Design. Interestingly, the same issue discusses a meeting of the AAAS(American Association for the Advancement of Science) which took place in St. Louis that year and included discussion of evolution and a recent federal court ruling throwing out intelligent design from the classroom (see the first few pages of the PDF below).