Bruce M. Hood - Why We Believe in the Unbelievable | For Good Reason

Bruce M. Hood discusses why so many people believe in the supernatural despite the lack of evidence, explaining that it may have something to do with how our brains are wired. He draws a distinction between religious supernatural beliefs, which are culturally determined, and more universal secular supernatural beliefs such as mind-body dualism and causality. He explains how such magical thinking may be socially advantageous and how even skeptics engage in supersense thinking. He also warns against the unscrupulous individuals who take advantage of what is a natural disposition in the majority of people.

In this week's Honest Liar segment, Jamy Ian Swiss explains what he learned at the 1964 World's Fair.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• James Randi
• Skepticism
• Skeptic
• DJ Grothe
• JREF
• paranormal
• supernatural
• psychic
• Lionel Tiger

[iRouRoui]

40:24 He didn't really answer this question.. But it's a good question. I live in Morocco, it's an islamic country, and believe me, people here are very very superstitious. I find my self in this situation very often, and don't know what to do or what to say.

[bonnie43uk]

@poiislifelifeispoi Just type in Peter Popoff, and you will see all about his scam, selling people tiny vials of water claiming that it contains miraculous properties.

[poiislifelifeispoi]

@bonnie43uk MMS= Miracle mineral substance

[poiislifelifeispoi]

@bonnie43uk i dont know who your talking about,but the guy that originally created "Miracle water" his name is Jim Hubble...he is an aerospace enginner with mutilple degrees varying in many diff subjects....he is a smart well educated an respected scientist...look it up he went to south africa an his substance cured multiple parasites an bacterias an disease on 80000+ people, he also claims it can cure aids an Hivs an upon returing to the state goverment steped in an tried to stop it

[luccaskunk]

I'm listening to the video. When the guy starts talking about essentialism, he's full of shit. That's not what essentialism is about. Essentialism is about properties that are universal to a group of entities or objects. To put it in a possibly oversimplified way, "all granite rocks are hard; hardness is essential to, it is the essence of granite".

[bonnie43uk]

Efforts have been made to stop Peter Popoff from scamming his gullible public, so far, no luck, he's still out there selling his miracle water.

[superdau]

@DeoMachina

I guess it's 28.3.2009. In one of the previous videos they talked to "81 year old Randi" on 21.3. Randi is 83 now.

They should definitely add the recording date somewhere in the description or title.

[kurtilein3]

... second comment

Money is a prime example, in the past it was gold-backed. People believed the paper and cheap metal coins are worth something, because someone promised to give them gold for it.

But we knocked out that promise, now the promise is: you will get something for it, and in the future it wont be less than what you got for it today. And it still works! It engraves itself into culture so deeply that no skeptic would throw away a 500 euro banknote as worthless paper for recycling.

[kurtilein3]

Some beliefs manifest themselves in culture. !st edition comic books can be really valuable, in reality, in terms of dollars, the same goes for signed / rare books.

And that is based on another belief, that these pieces of paper in our pockets called paper money are worth something, and that the binary code in our bank accounts are basically the same.

Once beliefs turn collective, they somehow materialize into reality. Facts do the same, but beliefs also do it.

[ytmoog]

@DeoMachina

More likely from the past :)

But I believe it...