ABSTRACT
If something seems too good to be true, goes the old saying, it probably is. This applies to strangers who send you email offering you a percentage if you will help get hidden millions out of their country, it applies to get-rich-quick schemes, it applies to perpetual motion machines, and it applies in spades to miracles. The Indian skeptic Basava Premanand came up with the most cogent explanations of why debunking miracles matters: miracles, he said, are how religions and holy men sell themselves. The same is true of lesser folks like faith healers, self-styled psychics, and, dare we say it, business gurus.
