Hermes, I share your disappointment with the scientific skepticism movement, but I still think it’s a worthwhile endeavor. I’d be curious to read your articles in Skeptic, if you’d like to share links.

I also do not particularly care for Shermer, though not because of the animal rights issue, with which I am sympathetic (very few of those people actually attack scientists physically).

As for scientific progress, skeptics like Cicero woukd argue that there are degrees of belief, which should take care of your main worry. And let’s not forget what in philosophy of science is called the pessimistic meta induction against scientific realism: every past scientific theory has eventually proven wrong. So all current scientific theories are likely to be wrong.

And who cares what new agers and religious fundamentalists say. They’ll use perfectly good ideas and twist them for their purposes.