Why People Believe Weird Things

Posted on 14 March 2018 by Michael Shermer

Revised and Expanded Edition.In this age of supposed scientific enlightenment, many people still believe in mind reading, past life regression theory, New Age hokum, and alien abduction A no holds barred assault on popular superstitions and prejudices, with than 80,000 copies in print, Why People Believe Weird Things debunks these nonsensical claims and explores the very human reasons people find otherworldly phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing In an entirely new chapter, Why Smart People Believe in Weird Things, Michael Shermer takes on science luminaries like physicist Frank Tippler and others, who hide their spiritual beliefs behind the trappings of science.Shermer, science historian and true crusader, also reveals the dangerous side of such illogical thinking, including Holocaust denial, the recovered memory movement, the satanic ritual abuse scare, and other modern crazes Why People Believe Strange Things is an eye opening resource for the most gullible among us and those who want to protect them. New Read [ Why People Believe Weird Things ] By [ Michael Shermer ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr I finished this book and came to the conclusion, the same as the Amish have, if you get someone young enough and you deny them a scientific education they will believe almost anything In other words, brainwash them young when they don t know the difference between reality and fantasy and the big frightening man that will come and get them if they bite their nails is as real in their heads as their mother or father.Not that you can t brainwash adults though Look at the 8 glasses of water a day I finished this book and came to the conclusion, the same as the Amish have, if you get someone young ...Like many people, I could hardly believe my eyes when Donald Trump, in the wake of the Orlando shooting, actually went as far as to insinuate that President Obama could in some way have been complicit in causing this appalling hate crime and act of terrorism The idea is so offensive and absurd that you hardly know where to start A common reaction has been to point out that, if Obama is on the side of the terrorists, you d have to explain why he d want to invest so much effort in killing Osama Like many people, I could hardly believe my eyes when Donald Trump, in the wak...Having spent a fair amount of time on my spiritual path believing things that at best had no evidence and at times were quite outrageous, I ve become very interested in the question that forms the title of this book A former born again Christian who is now head of the Skeptic society, Michael Shermer has written a very readable and compelling exploration of the cognitive thinking errors humans regularly make that support belief in ideas that can often be very detrimental to our overall well bei Having spent a fair amount of time on my spiritual path believing things that at best had no evidence and at times were quite outrageous, I ve become very interested in the question that forms the title of this book A former born again Christian who is now head of the Skeptic society, Michael Shermer has written a very readable and compelling exploration of the cognitive thinking errors humans regularly make that support belief in ideas that can often be very detrimental to our overall well being Shermer is a good storyteller and his discussions of subjects including the alien abduction phenomenon, the personality cult of Ayn Rand, and the tactics creation scientists use to try to discredit the theory of evolution make for compelling reading.Perhaps most importan...This is a joint review of this book and How We BelieveShermer postulates that humans have evolved a belief module that helps us find patterns in what appears otherwise to be a meaningless universe Why we feel compelled to find meaning in everything continues to puzzle me Until about four hundred years ago, when the process of science gave us a method to determine the difference between patterns that are real and those that are mere illusion, the tautologies myth and religion, a tautology e This is a joint review of this book and How We BelieveShermer postulates that humans have evolved a belief module that helps us find patterns in what appears otherwise to be a meaningless universe Why we feel compelled to find meaning in everything continues to puzzle me Until about four hundred years ago, when the process of science gave us a method to determine the difference between patterns that are real and those that are mere illusion, the tautologies myth and religion, a tautology explained the relationship of man to the universe Despite the rise of science, humans continue to hold all sorts of unsupportable beliefs 90% believe in heaven, 72% believe in angels, 67% believe they have had a psychic experience Wall Street Journal, January 30, 1996 Mostly we have adopted the fruits of science, i.e technology, wi...This guy is in Australia at the moment for Science Week and I was thinking of going to see him, but this is not really a week in which I can engage in such optional behaviours so, I thought I d get out one of his books instead.And look, it was very good and if it had been the first book I d ever read on scepticism which I think it was written to be than I really would have been impressed But it wasn t the first book I d read on this subject and so that in itself gave the book a bit of a str This guy is in Australia at the moment for Science Week and I was thinking of going to see him, but this is not really a week in which I can engage in such optional behaviours so, I thought I d get out one of his books instead.And look, it was very good and if it had been the first book I d ever read on scepticism which I think it was written to be than I really would have been impressed But it wasn t the first book I d read on this subject and so that in itself gave the book a bit of a struggle ahead of itself.Brookmyre s latest is also on pretty much the same subject, particularly at the start of this one, but the Brookmyre is a much better book but then, it is a Brookmyre, even if not a terribly funny Brookmyre Reading this book actually made me reconsider just how good Brookmyre s last book actually was.There was an odd bit towards the end of this one about the Holocaust and I really struggled with that being...Audiobook Abridged 3.5 hours Note this is not the Revised and Expanded edition if there even is one for audio I listened to the original audio from 98.Shermer is the founder of The Skeptics Society and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic He knows his stuff In this book, he explores alien abductions, Holocaust denial, the legal history of creationism in science classrooms, and some other things These are all interesting and covers Shermer s experiences with all of them My primar Audiobook Abridged 3.5 hours Note this is not the Revised and Expanded edition if there even is one for audio I listened to the original audio from 98.Shermer is the founder of The Skeptics Society and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic He knows his stuff In this book, he explores alien abductions, Holocaust denial, the legal history of creationism in science classrooms, and some other things These are all intere...I have read many of Shermer s articles for Skeptics Magazine but this was the first book by him that I ve read It was probably a good one to start out with He appears to be setting out his basic ideas on why people often lean to unscientific and illogical beliefs He goes through these reasons and also describes the basis of scientific inquiry well However he also gives specific examples of pseudo science and outright erroneous thinking including Holocaust denial, aliens abductions and Creati I have read many of Shermer s articles for Skeptics Magazine but this was the first book by him that I ve read It was probably a good one to start out with He appears to be setting out his basic ideas on why people often lean to unscientific and illogical beliefs He goes through these reas...This book seems to hold great promise from the outset It s a book as the author would confess that values reason, science, knowledge and the examination of beliefs Nothing wrong with that However, the book seems to ramble on a bit and takes on the feel of the author s personal musings instead of objective examination of the material A couple of the chapters could be condensed into one chapter that containsfocus and sticks to the topic...Why People Believe Weird Things is a meticulously researched and presented deep dive into the causes and explanations of human irrationality It probably deserves four stars but I m leaving it at three because it s easily the most depressing book I ve ever read and there s no way to really like that Shermer explains that our brains are hardwired to look for patterns as a way of making sense of our world Sometimes the patterns we detect are genuine which we either accept or reject as real Why People Believe Weird Things is a meticulously researched and presented deep dive into the causes and explanations of human irrationality It probably deserves four stars but I m leaving it at three because it s easily the most depressing book I ve ever read and there s no way to really like that Shermer explains that our brains are hardwired to look for patterns as a way of making sense of our world Sometimes the patterns we detect are genuine which we either accept or reject as real , and sometimes they are merely illusions which we can also either accept or reject as real.This means that every judgement...There have been enough positive reviews of this book that I m sure it won t hurt the author s self esteem if I say this This book is dumb It was on my to read list forever, so maybe my expectations were a little high But fair warning to anyone planning to read this, it s not what you think it is It doesn t even address the question in the title directly until a final chapter, which I gather was added after the first edition was published.If you want to read about the history of holocaust den There have been enough positive reviews of this book that I m sure it won t hurt the author s self esteem if I say this This book is dumb It was on my to read list ...

English
14 March 2018

Michael Shermer