Michael Shermer Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• Believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is only the wind does not cost much, but believing that a dangerous predator is the wind may cost an animal its life.

  Michael Shermer

  Believe, Animal, Wind

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• Mysteries once thought to be supernatural or paranormal happenings - such as astronomical or meteorological events - are incorporated into science once their causes are understood.

  Michael Shermer

  Events, Causes, Mystery

  Michael Shermer (2011). “The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths”, p.184, Macmillan

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• We think of our eyes as video cameras and our brains as blank tapes to be filled with sensory inputs.

  Michael Shermer

  Eye, Thinking, Games

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• Mammals are sentient beings that want to live and are afraid to die. Evolution vouchsafed us all with an instinct to survive, reproduce and flourish.

  Michael Shermer

  Mammals, Want, Evolution

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• The human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering.

  Michael Shermer

  Self, Belief, Capacity

  Michael Shermer (2016). “Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye”, p.136, Henry Holt and Company

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• How can we find spiritual meaning in a scientific worldview? Spirituality is a way of being in the world, a sense of one’s place in the cosmos, a relationship to that which extends beyond oneself. . . . Does scientific explanation of the world diminish its spiritual beauty? I think not. Science and spirituality are complementary, not conflicting; additive, not detractive. Anything that generates a sense of awe may be a source of spirituality. Science does this in spades. (158-159)

  Michael Shermer

  Spiritual, Thinking, Doe

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• Since humans are by nature tribal, the overall goal is to expand the concept of the tribe to include ALL members of the species, in a global free society.

  Michael Shermer

  Goal, Tribes, Members

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• Skepticism is not a position; it's a process.

  Michael Shermer

  Process, Skepticism, Position

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• People who espouse Intelligent Design believe nature is so complex as to require an intelligent designer-God. Similarly, liberals believe the economy is so complex as to require an intelligent designer-government.

  Michael Shermer

  Believe, Intelligent, Government

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• We know evolution happened because innumerable bits of data from myriad fields of science conjoin to paint a rich portrait of life's pilgrimage.

  Michael Shermer

  Data, Portraits, Fields

  Michael Shermer (2016). “Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye”, p.232, Henry Holt and Company

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• But the power of science lies in open publication, which, with the rise of the Internet, is no longer constrained by the price of paper.

  Michael Shermer

  Lying, Science, Paper

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• Ultimately all hominids came from Africa, and therefore everyone in America should simply check the box next to 'African-American.' My maternal grandmother was German and my maternal grandfather was Greek. The next time I fill out one of those forms I am going to check 'Other' and write in the truth about my racial and cultural heritage: 'African-Greek-German-American.' And proud of it.

  Michael Shermer

  Writing, Grandmother, Thinking

  Michael Shermer (2002). “Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time”, p.251, Holt Paperbacks

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• One, I am skeptical of the effectiveness of nutritional supplements.

  Michael Shermer

  Effectiveness, Skeptical, Supplements

  Michael Shermer (2016). “Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye”, p.154, Henry Holt and Company

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• We want to be open-minded enough to accept radial new ideas when they occasionally come along, but we don't want to be so open-minded that our brains fall out.

  Michael Shermer

  Fall, Ideas, Brain

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• But there is only one surefire method of proper pattern recognition, and that is science.

  Michael Shermer

  Science, Patterns, Recognition

  Michael Shermer (2016). “Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye”, p.115, Henry Holt and Company

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• As Enlightenment philosophers and scholars consciously adopted the methods of science to establish such abstract concepts as rights, liberty, and justice, successive generations have become schooled in thinking of these abstractions as applied to others in matrices-like mental rotations.

  Michael Shermer

  Thinking, Rights, Justice

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• No single discovery from any of these fields denotes proof of evolution, but together they reveal that life evolved in a certain sequence by a particular process.

  Michael Shermer

  Discovery, Single Life, Together

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• The price of liberty is, in addition to eternal vigilance, eternal patience with the vacuous blather occasionally expressed from behind the shield of free speech.

  Michael Shermer

  Liberty, Speech, Libertarian

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• If spirituality is the sense of awe and humility in the face of the creation, what could be more awesome and humbling than the deep space discovered by Hubble and the cosmologists, and the deep time discovered by Darwin and the evolutionists.

  Michael Shermer

  Humility, Space, Faces

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• I just witnessed an event so mysterious that it shook my skepticism.

  Michael Shermer

  Events, Mysterious, Skepticism

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• People believe in God because we are pattern-seeking, storytelling, mythmaking, religious, moral animals.

  Michael Shermer

  Religious, Atheist, Believe

  Michael Shermer (2005). “The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule”, p.116, Macmillan

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• Human history is highly nonlinear and unpredictable.

  Michael Shermer

  Nonlinear, Unpredictable, Humans

  Michael Shermer (2016). “Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye”, p.154, Henry Holt and Company

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• Through no divine design or cosmic plan, we have inherited the mantle of life's caretaker on the earth, the only home we have ever known.

  Michael Shermer

  Home, Design, Earth

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• Creationists have also changed their name ... to intelligent design theorists who study 'irreducible complexity' and the 'abrupt appearance' of life-yet more jargon for 'God did it.' ... Notice that they have no interest in replacing evolution with native American creation myths or including the Code of Hammarabi alongside the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.

  Michael Shermer

  Native American, School, Science

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• Rationality tied to moral decency is the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known.

  Michael Shermer

  Powerful, Joints, Moral

  Michael Shermer (2002). “Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time”, p.12, Macmillan

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