In the book, Why People
Believe Weird Things, written by Michael Shermer, nonsensical claims are
debunked and the exploration of why people believe in conspiracies and phenomenons
are explained. Shermer begins by discussing his ideas about skepticism from how
he became a skeptic, when skepticism began, to comparing science and
skepticism. Within this he gives examples of skepticism, such as the “Hundredth
Monkey phenomenon”. He then talks about the difference between science and
pseudoscience, explaining paranormal thinking and how people begin to believe
ideas without any evidence. Shermer explains 25 fallacies that lead people to
believe weird things in the third part of his book. From how theory influences
observations, to the ‘Planck Problem’, this is a very in depth section of where
believing in weird things arise.
Skipping
to a further section in his book, Shermer begins to talk about encounters with
aliens, including his own abduction. Shermer then goes into witch crazes,
cults, and 25 creationist arguments with 25 evolutionist answers. Further into
the book, Shermer debunks the deniers of the Holocaust, explaining how we know
it happened. In part five of his book, Shermer discusses how smart people are
actually deceiving themselves, and why these people believe weird things.
My
favorite part of this book was actually the last chapter. This chapter was
about why smart people believe in
weird things, and Shermer explains reasons the completely make sense. Shermer
states, “smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at
defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons” (Shermer, 282). I
thought this was very interesting, because what Shermer is basically saying, is
that smart people can better explain why they believe this weird thing is true.
This really makes sense to me in two ways. First, that obviously better
educated people can defend something they believe in than less educated people;
secondly, because it shows that even though they are defending these weird
things with good reasons, doesn’t mean that they are true. The way that this
relates to our book is, in chapter 8 about past-life hypnotic regression.
People create these past life fantasies that they begin to leave, and lead the
‘smart’ people to create studies about these beliefs. With elaborate and
detailed reports, these researchers are the ones who are skilled at defending
their beliefs.
I
think that this book is actually important to the real world without people
even realizing it. With Shermer debunking multiple theories that many people
truly believe in, it shows us the reality of the world. It shows me personally,
that even when studies are conducted, they could be completely wrong and filled
with evidence that really doesn’t make a theory true. I enjoyed reading this
book, as I do believe in some weird things, where sometimes I even question
myself. Therefore, I do not believe that this book could solve a real world
problem, but I do believe that it could definitely address current issues, such
as the ‘zombie apocalypse’ that so many people believe in.
This is a picture that I took of a real UFO!
(Just kidding, I recreated the picture that Shermer discussed in his TED Talk!)
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