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  by elwampa

• Current

Type: educational

Status: I recommend

Authors: Michael Shermer Steven Jay Gould

2006-11-27

  by younglove

• Current

Type: educational

Status: I recommend

Author: Michael Shermer

Tags: philosophy nonfiction

Description: I read this book at my college professors house while I was staying with her for ChristmasI read this book at my college professors house while I was staying with her for Christmas break in my third year of college. I wasn't aware at the time of the the Skeptics Society or Skeptic Magazine (of which Shermer is the president and editor respectively). The arguments in the book are carefully laid out although the subjects he is debunking (crystal power, the power to read minds) seemed silly enough to me that the book had a fairly light quality.

I recall that directly after reading this book I had an argument with my professor about Creationists. Having formerly been a Creationist I was offended when she noted that I was reading Shermer's book and said, "Isn't his argument against Creationism great? I think that Creationism is so ridiculous that people who believe it must secretly know in their hearts that they are wrong." Creationists, of course, make the exact same argument, almost word for word, about scientists who defend evolutionary theory.

Last year I saw Shermer on a panel speaking for a PBS special that followed the lives of the great believer C.S. Lewis and the great unbeliver Freud. If you are interested in Shermer or in scepticism and belief, this television special is even more interesting than Why People Believe Wierd Things. ...

2005-09-09