Revised and Expanded Edition. In this age of supposed scientific enlightenment, many people still believe in mind reading, past-life regression theory, New Age hokum, and alien abduction. A no-holds-barred assault on popular superstitions and prejudices, with more than 80,000 copies in print, "Why People Believe Weird Things" debunks these nonsensical claims and explores the v...
Revised and Expanded Edition. In this age of supposed scientific enlightenment, many people still believe in mind reading, past-life regression theory, New Age hokum, and alien abduction. A no-holds-barred assault on popular superstitions and prejudices, with more than 80,000 copies in print, "Why People Believe Weird Things" debunks these nonsensical claims and explores the very human reasons people find otherworldly phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing. In an entirely new chapter, "Why "Smart" People Believe in Weird Things," Michael Shermer takes on science luminaries like physicist Frank Tippler and others, who hide their spiritual beliefs behind the trappings of science. Shermer, science historian and true crusader, also reveals the more dangerous side of such illogical thinking, including Holocaust denial, the recovered-memory movement, the satanic ritual abuse scare, and other modern crazes. "Why People Believe Strange Things" is an eye-opening resource for the most gullible among us and those who want to protect them.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home,
Rest and expatiates in a life to come. (查看原文)
This hope is what drives all of us -skeptics and believers alike- to be compelled by unsolved mysteries, to seek spiritual meaning in a physical universe, desire immortality, and wish that our hopes for eternity may be fulfilled. (查看原文)
笔记。 A sizable literature exists on the scientific method, but there is little consensus among authors. This does not mean that scientists do not know what they are doing. Doing and explaining may be two different things. However, scientists agree that t...
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"One of the characteristics that sets man apart from all the other animals (and animal he indubitably is) is a need for knowledge for its own sake." (Vincent Dethier, 1962, pp. 118-119) On the most basic level ,we must think to remain alive. To think is the most essential human characteristic. Over three centuries ago, the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, after one of the m...
2012-06-20 16:33
"One of the characteristics that sets man apart from all the other animals (and animal he indubitably is) is a need for knowledge for its own sake."引自 Chapter 1: I Am Therefore I Think
(Vincent Dethier, 1962, pp. 118-119)
On the most basic level ,we must think to remain alive. To think is the most essential human characteristic. Over three centuries ago, the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, after one of the most thorough and skeptical purges in intellectual history, concluded that he knew one thing for certain:"Cogito ergo sum—I think therefore I am." But to be human is to think. Toreverse Descartes,"Sum ergo cogito—I am therefore I think" 引自 Chapter 1: I Am Therefore I Think
Balance can be found by answering a few basic questions: What is the quality of the evidence for the claim? What are the background and credentials of the person making the claim? Does the thing work as claimed?
2012-06-20 16:21
Balance can be found by answering a few basic questions: What is the quality of the evidence for the claim? What are the background and credentials of the person making the claim? Does the thing work as claimed?引自 Chapter 1: I Am Therefore I Think: A Skeptic's Manifesto
Humans evolved the ability to seek and find connections between things and events in the environment (snakes with rattles should be avoided), and those who made the best connections left behind the most offspring. We are their descendants. The problem is that causal thinking is not infallible. We make connections whether they are there or not. These misidentifications come in two varieties: fal...
2012-06-20 15:19
Humans evolved the ability to seek and find connections between things and events in the environment (snakes with rattles should be avoided), and those who made the best connections left behind the most offspring. We are their descendants. The problem is that causal thinking is not infallible. We make connections whether they are there or not. These misidentifications come in two varieties: false negatives get you killed (snakes with rattles are okay); false positives merely waste time and energy (a rain dance will end a drought). We are left with a legacy of false positives — hypnopompic hallucinations become ghosts or aliens; knocking noises in an empty house indicate spirits and poltergeists; shadows and lights in a tree become Virgin Mary; random mountain shadows on Mars are seen as a face constructed by aliens.The belief influences the perception.
…
Vague feelings and memories evoked through hypnosis and guided-imagery in therapy evolve into crystal-clear memories of childhood sexual abuse, even when no corroborating evidence exists.引自 Prologue: Next on Oprah
three tiers why people believe weird things:(1) because hope springs eternal;(2) because thinking can go wrong in general ways;(3) because thinking can go wrong in particular ways.
2012-06-20 15:13
three tiers why people believe weird things:(1) because hope springs eternal;(2) because thinking can go wrong in general ways;(3) because thinking can go wrong in particular ways.引自 Prologue: Next on Oprah
Life is contingent and filled with uncertainties, the most frightening of which is the manner, time, and place of our own demise. Under the pressure of reality, we become credulous. We seek reassuring certainties from fortune-tellers and palm-readers, astrologers and psychics. Our critical faculties break down under the onslaught of promises and hopes offered to assuage life's great anxieties.
2012-06-20 15:08
Life is contingent and filled with uncertainties, the most frightening of which is the manner, time, and place of our own demise.
Under the pressure of reality, we become credulous. We seek reassuring certainties from fortune-tellers and palm-readers, astrologers and psychics. Our critical faculties break down under the onslaught of promises and hopes offered to assuage life's great anxieties.引自 Next on Oprah
Hope springs eternal in the human breast; Man never Is, but always To be blest. The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home, Rest and expatiates in a life to come. (Alexander Pope, 1733 Essay on Man, Epistle i, 1.95, ) This hope is what drives all of us -skeptics and believers alike- to be compelled by unsolved mysteries, to seek spiritual meaning in a physical universe, desire immortality, and w...
2012-06-20 15:01
Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest.
The soul, uneasy, and confin'd from home,
Rest and expatiates in a life to come.引自 Next on Oprah
(Alexander Pope, 1733 Essay on Man, Epistle i, 1.95, )
This hope is what drives all of us -skeptics and believers alike- to be compelled by unsolved mysteries, to seek spiritual meaning in a physical universe, desire immortality, and wish that our hopes for eternity may be fulfilled.引自 Next on Oprah
Humans evolved the ability to seek and find connections between things and events in the environment (snakes with rattles should be avoided), and those who made the best connections left behind the most offspring. We are their descendants. The problem is that causal thinking is not infallible. We make connections whether they are there or not. These misidentifications come in two varieties: fal...
2012-06-20 15:19
Humans evolved the ability to seek and find connections between things and events in the environment (snakes with rattles should be avoided), and those who made the best connections left behind the most offspring. We are their descendants. The problem is that causal thinking is not infallible. We make connections whether they are there or not. These misidentifications come in two varieties: false negatives get you killed (snakes with rattles are okay); false positives merely waste time and energy (a rain dance will end a drought). We are left with a legacy of false positives — hypnopompic hallucinations become ghosts or aliens; knocking noises in an empty house indicate spirits and poltergeists; shadows and lights in a tree become Virgin Mary; random mountain shadows on Mars are seen as a face constructed by aliens.The belief influences the perception.
…
Vague feelings and memories evoked through hypnosis and guided-imagery in therapy evolve into crystal-clear memories of childhood sexual abuse, even when no corroborating evidence exists.引自 Prologue: Next on Oprah
three tiers why people believe weird things:(1) because hope springs eternal;(2) because thinking can go wrong in general ways;(3) because thinking can go wrong in particular ways.
2012-06-20 15:13
three tiers why people believe weird things:(1) because hope springs eternal;(2) because thinking can go wrong in general ways;(3) because thinking can go wrong in particular ways.引自 Prologue: Next on Oprah
"One of the characteristics that sets man apart from all the other animals (and animal he indubitably is) is a need for knowledge for its own sake." (Vincent Dethier, 1962, pp. 118-119) On the most basic level ,we must think to remain alive. To think is the most essential human characteristic. Over three centuries ago, the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, after one of the m...
2012-06-20 16:33
"One of the characteristics that sets man apart from all the other animals (and animal he indubitably is) is a need for knowledge for its own sake."引自 Chapter 1: I Am Therefore I Think
(Vincent Dethier, 1962, pp. 118-119)
On the most basic level ,we must think to remain alive. To think is the most essential human characteristic. Over three centuries ago, the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes, after one of the most thorough and skeptical purges in intellectual history, concluded that he knew one thing for certain:"Cogito ergo sum—I think therefore I am." But to be human is to think. Toreverse Descartes,"Sum ergo cogito—I am therefore I think" 引自 Chapter 1: I Am Therefore I Think
Balance can be found by answering a few basic questions: What is the quality of the evidence for the claim? What are the background and credentials of the person making the claim? Does the thing work as claimed?
2012-06-20 16:21
Balance can be found by answering a few basic questions: What is the quality of the evidence for the claim? What are the background and credentials of the person making the claim? Does the thing work as claimed?引自 Chapter 1: I Am Therefore I Think: A Skeptic's Manifesto
Humans evolved the ability to seek and find connections between things and events in the environment (snakes with rattles should be avoided), and those who made the best connections left behind the most offspring. We are their descendants. The problem is that causal thinking is not infallible. We make connections whether they are there or not. These misidentifications come in two varieties: fal...
2012-06-20 15:19
Humans evolved the ability to seek and find connections between things and events in the environment (snakes with rattles should be avoided), and those who made the best connections left behind the most offspring. We are their descendants. The problem is that causal thinking is not infallible. We make connections whether they are there or not. These misidentifications come in two varieties: false negatives get you killed (snakes with rattles are okay); false positives merely waste time and energy (a rain dance will end a drought). We are left with a legacy of false positives — hypnopompic hallucinations become ghosts or aliens; knocking noises in an empty house indicate spirits and poltergeists; shadows and lights in a tree become Virgin Mary; random mountain shadows on Mars are seen as a face constructed by aliens.The belief influences the perception.
…
Vague feelings and memories evoked through hypnosis and guided-imagery in therapy evolve into crystal-clear memories of childhood sexual abuse, even when no corroborating evidence exists.引自 Prologue: Next on Oprah
three tiers why people believe weird things:(1) because hope springs eternal;(2) because thinking can go wrong in general ways;(3) because thinking can go wrong in particular ways.
2012-06-20 15:13
three tiers why people believe weird things:(1) because hope springs eternal;(2) because thinking can go wrong in general ways;(3) because thinking can go wrong in particular ways.引自 Prologue: Next on Oprah
Bob
湖南教育出版社2002版
清流～Nocturn
JT
湖南教育出版社2002版
0 有用 某水 2012-05-29
I Am therefore I THINK
0 有用 蝉 2013-12-25
:无
0 有用 gavagai 2014-04-23
成也栗子，败也栗子。其中有很多调查报告和数据，但是有的栗子太冗长和琐碎了些。
0 有用 [已注销] 2011-12-02
哲学家都是有趣的人。
0 有用 江清月近人 2012-11-07
前几章是五星水平
0 有用 youbo 2016-01-03
Mostly the book is interesting to read. But some materials used are not familiar to my background, so it's difficult to get the points sometimes.
0 有用 gavagai 2014-04-23
成也栗子，败也栗子。其中有很多调查报告和数据，但是有的栗子太冗长和琐碎了些。
0 有用 蝉 2013-12-25
:无
0 有用 江清月近人 2012-11-07
前几章是五星水平
0 有用 某水 2012-05-29
I Am therefore I THINK