Michael Shermer - Why People Believe Weird Things - Part 8/11

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]

@redlac22 The fact that there are people in this world who think like you is frightening.

[jjobie]

@redlac22 Still waiting...looks like you Fail :)

[SippinonMickeys]

Funny how the obvious kid asks a loaded question based solely on his limited view & experience of the world. That being that younger educated people aren't saddled with God & superstition. Of course overall education does indeed help in that aspect, but it has nothing to do with age & as Shermer points out though education does help it isn't the sole reason people do or don't believe. Look @ the amount of college grads that still believe in God, and yes very many intelligent people do.

[SippinonMickeys]

@redlac22 Oddly 2 years later and you still lose. LOL

[muchohumptyhump]

shermer knows not to believe in th ufo hype.

1 bad pilot says he saw flyi ng saucers skipping caused more lunatics to make bogus claims

[redlac22]

Only a moron would believe Michael Shermer. He's paid to be a skeptic and you are obviously a fool.

[ogrish84]

WTF drugs are you on jackass?!

[redlac22]

When you make a living being a skeptic, you have a lot of incentive to stay a skeptic if you like to eat. When disclosure occurs he'll have nothing left to eat but his words.. the clock is ticking... 12 minutes left in your 15 minutes of skeptic fame..

Complete Jackass