Michael Shermer
Michael Shermer
Michael Brant Shermeris an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members. Shermer also engages in debates on topics pertaining to pseudoscience and religion in which he emphasizes scientific skepticism...
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth8 September 1954
Michael Shermer quotes about
cynical principles curious
In principle, skeptics are neither closed-minded nor cynical. We are curious but cautious.
nonlinear unpredictable humans
Human history is highly nonlinear and unpredictable.
survival enlightenment democracy
Flawed as they may be, science and the secular Enlightenment values expressed in Western democracies are our best hope for survival.
television conspiracy producers
Conspiracies are a perennial favorite for television producers because there is always a receptive audience.
science patterns recognition
But there is only one surefire method of proper pattern recognition, and that is science.
science thinking training
Anecdotal thinking comes naturally; science requires training.
eye thinking games
We think of our eyes as video cameras and our brains as blank tapes to be filled with sensory inputs.
errors sides groups
The reason is that in a group, individual errors on either side of the true figure cancel each other out.
numbers crowds problem
For solving a surprisingly large and varied number of problems, crowds are smarter than individuals.
science age preoccupation
But because we live in an age of science, we have a preoccupation with corroborating our myths.
community moral authority
We do not just blindly concede control to authorities; instead we follow the cues provided by our moral communities on how best to behave.
numbers google algorithms
In comparison, Google is brilliant because it uses an algorithm that ranks Web pages by the number of links to them, with those links themselves valued by the number of links to their page of origin.
environmental flip global-warming
Because of the complexity of the problem, environmental skepticism was once tenable. No longer. It is time to flip from skepticism to activism.
emotional religion atheism
Remember always that we are pattern-seeking primates who are especially adept at finding patterns with emotional meaning.