There was a time when superstition, ignorance, and blind faith were part-and-parcel of life. People lived in constant fear of upsetting whatever mystical scales they felt held the balance of their lives. This time was called The Dark Ages. However, over a thousand years later, despite incredible advances in science, education, and society, there are a number of people out there that still believe some pretty weird things: ghosts, divine miracles, witchcraft, séances and creationism. However, people today have added their own modern weirdness as well; alien abductions, ESP, cryptozoology and holocaust denials. Why do people believe in this stuff? That is exactly the question that Michael Shermer answers in his book, Why People Believe Weird Things.

            Michael Shermer is a science historian whose area of expertise is in pseudo-scientific, superstitious, or folklore beliefs that pervade in the modern age. He is the chief editor of Skeptic magazine, and the director of the Skeptics Society. However, and Shermer articulates this idea in his first chapter, “I Am Therefore I Think”, skepticism has a negative connotation today. Often if someone is skeptical, or a skeptic, they are considered negative, cynical, or even oppositional and defiant. However, Shermer uses the Greek origin of the word “skeptic”, which means “thoughtful”. In this first chapter he essentially presents the philosophical underpinnings of science and credulity, or openness to new ideas and skepticism (or thoughtful questioning) of new ideas’ credibility.

            In his book Michael Shermer tackles an incredibly wide range of differentiated thinking. He points to the ambiguity, lack of evidence, and suspect following of various New Age health remedies. He confronts self-described psychics, clairvoyants, and crypto-zoologists. However, Shermer also takes more serious examples, like holocaust deniers. He points to the political and socio-cultural roots of individuals that insist one believing the Holocaust was a conspiracy by Zionist Jews or the West. He debases Creationists and so-called Christian Scientists that insist their subjects are just as viable as evolution in schools. He even addresses racism and sexism.

            One of the best and most useful parts of Shermer’s book, however, are his 25 thinking errors, broken into four categories: Scientific, Pseudo-scientific, Logical, and Psychological. Many of you may have come across these before, either as a victim or a perpetrator of one thinking error or another. In fact, I used a number of these in a post about politically conservative extremists called, appropriately enough, Thinking Errors. Some of my favorites among the conservative pundit-ologists are “Emotive Words and False Analogies” such as our “War on Terror”, “Cancer of Society”, and “Moral Majority”. Another great one is Ad Hominem, which is the practice of redirecting the focus of a statement to the person stating it, attempting to debase what was said by attacking the person saying it.

            Michael Shermer approaches each of his subjects with these fundamental thinking errors, showing us logically and factually where something is a little off, suspect, or dead wrong. His explanations use a scientific approach are sprinkled with theories and laws, but he is able to make each discussion accessible and entertaining with analogies and anecdotes to assist his illustrations. A must-have book for anyone skeptic (or even midly cynical) of our ever-increasingly impressionable world.

Photo from skeptic.com