Books by Michael Shermer (Study Guide) - Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time (Paperback)

This is nonfiction commentary. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, the Science of Good and Evil, Denying History, Why Darwin Matters, Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time is a book by Michael Shermer. The foreword was written by Stephen Jay Gould. In the first section, Shermer discusses the ideas that he has towards skepticism. He also explains his conversion to Deism from New Age mysticism (from which he had converted from being a Fundamentalist Christian Baptist). In part two Shermer explains paranormal thinking and how one comes to believe in things without evidence. He uses Edgar Cayce as an example, and while he agrees with parts of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, he criticizes its moral absolutism and argues that many follow her philosophy unquestioningly, which he believes contradicts free thinking. Part three begins with Shermer describing several debates he had with Duane Gish. He lays out some creationist arguments in 25 separate claims, and attempts to debunk each one with his own evidence. He closes retelling how a constitutional ban on teaching creationism in public schools was narrowly upheld at the Supreme Court in 1989. Shermer shows that the Holocaust deniers reject proven facts for, as he states, ideological reasons. Like the creationists, he asserted, many Holocaust denialists believe that the evidence sides with them. He describes meeting and arguing with the deniers and lays out their arguments then shows evidence to support his own statements. In part 5 Shermer relates Frank J. Tipler to Voltaire's character Pangloss to show how sma...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=862600