Skeptic Michael Shermer on Atheism, Happiness, and the Free Market

Whether they're intelligent design advocates, psychics, or 9/11 truthers, Skeptic Magazine's Founding Publisher Michael Shermer says the world is full of people who believe weird things.

Shermer sat down with Reason.tv's Tim Cavanaugh at Libertopia 2010 in Hollywood to discuss why self-help gurus aren't the key to happiness, what the New Atheist movement hopes to accomplish, why liberals accept evolution but not free markets, and why he switched from global warming skepticism to acceptance.

Approximately 9 minutes. Camera by Adam Hawk Jensen and Zach Weissmueller. Edited by Weissmueller. Music by Bjorn Fogelberg (Magnatune Records).

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• Category

  News & Politics

[KbcBerlin]

I leave sweeping claims to the religious. I could understand people taking such an ignorant book as the Bible as an account of he worlds history in the past. Now it is just plain stubborn wilful ignorance That is criminal. An abomination to the human spirit. The evidence that the Bible account is herds mens dreams while stoned looking up at the stars.That is what the Bible was, and is, Get used to it. The Korans only difference is they were probably even more stoned. There is plenty of evidence.

[Tom Forge]

I like what he said about skeptic liberals assuming that liberal economic policy is correct because they are so smart on other issues. I'm a skeptic myself who believes in the power of free markets, but I find myself at odds with many atheists on YouTube who seem to have blind faith in the power of the state.

[Brian Rodriguez]

One thing that is crucial to understand is that nothing is actually empirical. We have estimations for things, and the ones the scientific community puts faith in is simply so because of how factual it appears to them today. When you have the sort of topics Shermer discusses that are flourishing problems in the world of today, it is obvious that it's the one to question.

My advice is that you begin your own journey into science, and find out for yourself just how true these things seem.

[Tom Forge]

Most libertarians believe in a small government that establishes the "rule of law." In a libertarian system, companies that pollute the environment could be sued in the courts for damages. Furthermore, the individuals running these companies would not have limited liability (something granted by government and not part of the free market)

[Tom Forge]

Actually the libertarian approach is akin to natural selection. Things in demand will be created and things not in demand will not be created. Your "Democratic" approach is really the method that takes on faith in the divine. You believe that free people are not able to make good choices, but yet you also tell me that a government (composed of people) will make good choices. Don't you see the inconsistent nature or your proposition?

[Giuliano Taverna]

I like that Shermer more or less embraces the solutions proposed by liberals to reduce the impact of climate change, (alternative fuels) if not the proposed method of implementing said solutions, (government programs.)

Though I would very much like to hear what data leads him to conclude that the market is in any sense self regulating. If that were the case, I would expect it to somehow correct for the damage it does to the environment, which we know it does not.

[Giuliano Taverna]

blind faith in the power of the state? I could turn that around and accuse you of blind faith in "the market" at least with the state... a democratic state, what we are actually talking about is the nation as a whole deciding on a policy and actively working toward it.

The libertarian approach of "letting the market work" is analogous to letting god sort it out. I have no faith that things will magically work themselves out, we humans have to do that.

[Sockpuppet2012]

Bingo! ;-)

[timecrashzero]

I don't feel superior at all, I'm pointing out the hypocritical nature.

[Jango Madango]

Well, the important thing is that you figured out a way to feel superior to both.

[Shawn Winters]

Atheists don't get to vote? I didn't know that...

[timecrashzero]

It feels like I'm watching a fundamentalist religion program. The delusion people, on all sides, feed themselves is amusing.