Michael Shermer
Belief – be it in the supernatural or in
the merely mundane – is often an individual and deeply personal endeavour. In
other words, our beliefs matter greatly to us. Unfortunately, not all of those
beliefs are as logically sound as others. In fact, some of them are just plain
weird.
In Why
People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions
of our Time, American science writer and long-time skeptic Michael Shermer
delves into the world of ESP, Alien Abductions, Holocaust Denial, and much
more. He pits reason and science against our most bizarre popular beliefs, and
offers a frequently meticulous breakdown and analysis of those beliefs and
their respective movements.
Some readers may be surprised by the
similarities that Shermer draws. After all, it’s not every day that someone
compares creationists to Holocaust deniers. Still, Shermer’s arguments are
always respectful and well-conceived, and never vindictive or petty.
If Why
People Believe Weird Things has any drawback, it’s that its writing is
sometimes dense, making it occasionally slow going for readers new to the
science and philosophy genres. Make no mistake, this is no light bathroom reading
material – thinking caps are required. But maybe that’s the point: weird beliefs
come easily; sound judgement and critical thinking, on the other hand, take
work. And in the case of Why People
Believe Weird Things, that work is equally compelling and thought
provoking.
While a glass cutter by day, by night Z.S. Roe spends his time writing fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. His writings have appeared in various publications, including the Cambridge Times, The Silhouette, and The Toronto Sun, among others. Most recently, his short story “Peeping Tara” appeared in issue 13 of Dark Moon Digest. You can visit his blog at www.zsroe.com
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