Michael Shermer - Why People Believe Weird Things - Part 4/11

Ever wonder why people believe in UFO abductions, mind-reading, reincarnation, urban legends, not to mention "scientific creationism" and the pernicious myth that the Holocaust never happened? Dr. Michael Shermer, the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, is a genuine ghost-buster, a relentless crusader against superstition and pseudoscience. Based on his bestselling book, Why People Believe Weird Things, Dr Shermers lecture will debunk junk science, bad science, voodoo science, pathological science, pseudoscience, and plain old nonsense. The event will be filled with humour,insight, and personal anecdotes - a highly entertaining wake-up call that has proved a hit on college campuses.

Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, the host of the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, and Adjunct Professor of Economics at Claremont Graduate University.

Dr. Shermers latest book is The Mind of the Market, on evolutionary economics. His last book was Why Darwin Matters: Evolution and the Case Against Intelligent Design, and he is the author of Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown, about how the mind works and how thinking goes wrong. His book The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Share Care, and Follow the Golden Rule, is on the evolutionary origins of morality and how to be good without God. He wrote a biography, In Darwins Shadow, about the life and science of the co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace. He also wrote The Borderlands of Science, about the fuzzy land between science and pseudoscience, and Denying History, on Holocaust denial and other forms of pseudohistory. His book How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God, presents his theory on the origins of religion and why people believe in God. He is also the author of Why People Believe Weird Things on pseudoscience, superstitions, and other confusions of our time.

Dr. Shermer received his B.A. in psychology from Pepperdine University, M.A. in experimental psychology from California State University, Fullerton, and his Ph.D. in the history of science from Claremont Graduate University (1991). He was a college professor for 20 years (19791998), teaching psychology, evolution, and the history of science at Occidental College (19891998), California State University Los Angeles, and Glendale College. Since his creation of the Skeptics Society, Skeptic magazine, and the Skeptics Distinguished Science Lecture Series at Caltech, he has appeared on such shows as The Colbert Report, 20/20, Dateline, Charlie Rose, Larry King Live, Tom Snyder, Donahue, Oprah, Lezza, Unsolved Mysteries (but, proudly, never Jerry Springer!), and other shows as a skeptic of weird and extraordinary claims, as well as interviews in countless documentaries aired on PBS, A&E, Discovery, The History Channel, The Science Channel, and The Learning Channel. Shermer was the co-host and co-producer of the 13-hour Family Channel television series, Exploring the Unknown.

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[jjobie]

"DUMBFUCKISTAN!!!" LOL...

[I1KonArtis1I]

conspiracy theories are for the uneducated.

[watercup123456]

@pillsareyummy I probably shouldn't say that world.. I guess that, despite how it can be wrong, insight is one of those things that in it being wrong, yet still can be correct, it has this paradoxical nature. I feel like, I guess with me, given the knowledge base (I/we) have today, that intuition is better able to make those inferences (perhaps than it was able to in the past). I just know how today I, given my knowledge, can use that with intuition to come to logical outcomes that pan out...

[pillsareyummy]

@watercup123456 "To me, our brains seem specifically wired to intuitively have a sense of that world," Yes, however most of our intuitions are wrong. As a matter of fact, it was that very reason for why science was born out of the 'Enlightenment'. Most of what we now understand, whether it be Cosmology, Physics, Biology, Neurology, ect, was very counter intuitive. It was only through using the scientific method that we began to really understand nature (with much still to learn).

[watercup123456]

@pillsareyummy QM is strange and counter intuitive because our brains are not wired to make intuitive sense (of certain things).

In the industry, we call that a "cop out".

To me, our brains seem specifically wired to intuitively have a sense of that world, as we've been able to posit its existence and having concluded it does exist, figure it out in some ways.

Also, the problem to me doesn't seem to lie with our brains; it lies in the spooky observations made while gathering data.

[pillsareyummy]

"...be bothered by the fact that particles seem to know where to go..." Shermer has stated (as well as others in psychology),and I agree with him/them,that the reason why QM 'may' be so strange and counter intuitive, is simply due to the fact that our brains aren't wired to make intuitive sense of certain realms (like QM). As far as the God debate is concerned, well, in an age of Islamic fundamentalism, Intelligent design, etc,we need all the 'Shermers' we can get.

[pillsareyummy]

@watercup123456 I'll agree that he uses cases that 'may' not be representative of a given phenomenon (UFOs for example). However, with that being said, you have to remember that most of the public isn't educated in rational/skeptical thinking.Thus, it's better to talk about known frauds, since it allows people to understand 'why' we need to be skeptical in the first place. However, he has stated, that although some cases have no known answers, one must address the prosaic explanations first...

[watercup123456]

@pillsareyummy He isn't bothered by the fact that particles seem to know where to go and what to do at quantum levels despite our attempts to "trip them up", even though it freaks the fuck out of quantum physicists. He may not be hip to "spooky actions at a distance" but I have done enough research to know we're either missing something really small or something really fucked up in reality is going on and BOTH philosophies of "gods" and "not gods" has failed us.

[watercup123456]

@pillsareyummy You used words that nailed it exactly "there is no good evidence for any of the phenomena he discusses."

For any of the phenomena HE DISCUSSES. It is easy and convenient to discuss the cases of known fraud, etc., etc, but it is not so easy to discuss incidents and issues not so clear cut.

The kind of debunks the guy gives are so childish and non-scientific, its amazing he gets any time at all. Rebuttals amount to simple tired dismissals. Does the guy actually WORK?

[pillsareyummy]

@watercup123456 He doesn't ignore good evidence. If the evidence was good there would be no need to be skeptical. Although, I feel that he uses too many of the same tired examples concerning UFOs or other phenomena, in the end, there is no good evidence for any of the phenomena he discusses.