You could look it up in the Bible

Actually, no you can’t. Cecil delves into the Lost Books of the Bible and what happens if a cockroac [The Straight Dope] You could look it up in the Bible By [The Straight Dope]( • Issue #14 • [View online]( Actually, no you can’t. Cecil delves into the Lost Books of the Bible and what happens if a cockroach gets nuked. And SDStaff DavidB investigates ganzfeld experiments . (You already know the results.) Threadspotting The best of the Straight Dope Message Board  March 27, 2020: [Another hole in the membrane between worlds](. Straight Dope Classic: September 4, 1992 [Illustration by Slug Signorino] Illustration by Slug Signorino [What’s up with the “lost books of the Bible?”]( Dear Cecil: I am currently reading a book entitled [The Lost Books of the Bible](. Being interested in Bible history, I thought it might be an interesting diversion, but I was not prepared for what I found. It claims that when Jesus was young, he killed a couple of boys and a schoolmaster because they displeased him. Jesus comes off as an arrogant bad seed in these supposedly ancient texts. My question is: were these books truly a part of the original Bible, and if they were suppressed for obvious reasons, does the Catholic Church, or any church for that matter, acknowledge their existence? How do they explain Jesus’s bad temper? Is this why there is very little about Jesus’s youth in the current Bible? — Dan Olmos, West Hollywood, California Cecil replies: No question, the kid portrayed in the “lost books” isn’t exactly the Prince of Peace. After recounting three murders in two pages, one passage concludes, “Then said Joseph to St. Mary, henceforth we will not allow him to go out of the house; for everyone who displeases him is killed.” The “lost books” are part of the apocrypha, quasibiblical works not included in the official Bible. [Click here to keep reading](. Straight Dope Staff Report: December 12, 2000 [What’s the story on “ganzfeld” experiments?]( Dear Straight Dope:  What’s the scoop on “ganzfeld” experiments? I have recently seen some programs on the Discovery Channel claiming that university researchers have had some amazing results in ESP trials. I was able to find mention of the research on the CSICOP website, but I am not sure if I correctly understood the article. It seemed to say that research conducted at the University of Edinburgh had not been reproduced elsewhere and that the peer-reviewed paper was submitted with the name of an extremely prominent researcher at the top instead of anonymously so that the reviewers wouldn’t be biased by the reputation of the researcher. The person who wrote the article for CSICOP seemed to write with a biased tone, something that a skeptic shouldn’t do, but maybe that is just my perception. —  Rob SDStaff DavidB replies: The website for the [Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal]( (CSICOP) has several articles on the topic, so I’m not sure which one you’re talking about (though your description makes me think it’s the one written by Matt Nisbet — see below). But let’s take a look at the ganzfeld phenomenon from the top.  [Click here to keep reading](. Straight Dope Classic: September 24, 1982 [I nuked a roach! He didn’t die! Why?]( Dear Cecil: Once again I feel compelled to solicit your enlightenment. Your answer to my inquiry regarding my childhood slaughter of houseflies was most impressive. While it did not drive me to racquetball, neither did it repress what appears to be a deeply rooted psychotic desire to decimate the insect population. I have killed again. Last week I visited my cousin, who is at least as deviate as myself, and whose domicile is infested with cockroaches. We conceived the notion of putting one of the verminous creatures into the microwave oven. When one strolled conspicuously onto the counter top, we seized it, imprisoned it in a bottle, and inserted it into the death chamber. Two minutes passed without result. Four minutes. Five. Disgruntled, we persevered for ten more minutes before it became apparent that we had a corpse on our hands. Our question is this: if water boils in three minutes, what took so long for our odious deed to be accomplished? —  Two Malefactors in Suspense, Chicago Cecil replies: The study of the effects of microwave ovenry on bugs is still in its infancy, unfortunately, so we can’t provide a definitive answer to this inquiry. However, several possible explanations come to mind. (1) You did not have the microwave plugged in. In the end the cockroach may simply have died of boredom. Many worthwhile experiments have come to grief because of carelessness with the scientific apparatus. [ Click here to keep reading](. Did you enjoy this issue? [The Straight Dope]( By [The Straight Dope]( Fighting ignorance since 1973. (It's taking longer than we thought.) [Tweet](    [Share]( If you don't want these updates anymore, please unsubscribe [here](. If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe [here](. Powered by [Revue](