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Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer Quotes

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Michael Shermer is an American writer, historian, and science writer. Born on September 8, 1954, he is known for his research on science, pseudoscience, and rational behavior. Shermer is a contributing writer for 'Scientific American' magazine and the founder and publisher of 'Skeptic' magazine. His writings cover a wide range of topics from history to scientific philosophy.

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Famous Michael Shermer Quotes

“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.”

Thinking Justice Liberty Rights Generations Enlightenment Concepts Method Philosopher Abstract Scholar Abstraction Adopted Schooled Liberty And Justice Rotation

Author:Michael Shermer

“...there ... remains a huge following [of Ayn Rand's philosophy] of those who ignore the indiscretions, infidelities, and moral inconsistencies of the founder and focus instead on the positive aspects of her philosophy. There is much in it to admire, if you do not have to accept the whole package... Criticism of the founder or followers of a philosophy does not, by itself, constitute a negation of any part of the philosophy... Criticism of part of a philosophy does not gainsay the whole.”

Ifs Thinking Doe Philosophy Whole Accepting Moral Focus Huge Aspect Criticism Remains Following Admire Followers Founders Infidelity Packages Inconsistency Negation

Author:Michael Shermer

“The first-cause and prime-mover argument, brilliantly proffered by St. Thomas Aquinas in the fourteenth century (and brilliantly refuted by David Hume in the eighteenth century), is easily turned aside with just one more question: Who or what caused and moved God?”

Thinking Firsts Causes Century Argument Moved Just One Prime Hume St Thomas

Book:Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

Source: Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

“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.”

Thinking Should Writing America Form Next Proud Boxes Checks African American Greek Grandmother Heritage Grandfather Next Time Cultural Heritage Hominids

Book:Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

Source: Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

“The question itself [of UFOs] I think is legitimate. It's interesting, it's fascinating. It's mythic in scale and one of the grand questions. It's like the God question or, you know, the meaning-of-life question. It's one of those, on that scale. So you'd have to be made of wood not to be interested and, you know, have they come here? Are they up there?”

Thinking Knows Made Interesting Woods Scales Meaning Of Life Fascinating Ufo

Author:Michael Shermer

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

Thinking Eye Games Brain Cameras Filled Video Tape Blank Input Sensory Video Cameras

Author:Michael Shermer

“Anecdotal thinking comes naturally; science requires training.”

Thinking Science Training

Book:The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths

Source: The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths

“Being a skeptic just means being rational and empirical: thinking and seeing before believing.”

Thinking Believe Mean Seeing Rational Skeptic

Author:Michael Shermer

“Science is not a thing. It's a verb. It's a way of thinking about things. It's a way of looking for natural explanations for all phenomena.”

Thinking Way Natural Explanation Way Of Thinking Verbs

Author:Michael Shermer

“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)”

Thinking World Way May Doe Spiritual Spirituality Source Oneself Explanation Awe Cosmos Diminish Worldview Spades Complementary Additives Spiritual Beauty

Author:Michael Shermer

“The recent medical controversy over whether vaccinations cause autism reveals a habit of human cognition — thinking anecdotally comes naturally, whereas thinking scientifically does not.”

Thinking Humans Doe Causes Habit Medical Autism Controversy Cognition Vaccinations

Author:Michael Shermer

“Science is not the affirmation of a set of beliefs but a process of inquiry aimed at building a testable body of knowledge constantly open to rejection or confirmation. In science, knowledge is fluid and certainty fleeting. That is at the heart of its limitations. It is also its greatest strength.”

Thinking Heart Body Science Belief Process Building Certainty Limitation Rejection Affirmation Inquiry Fleeting Fluid Confirmation

Book:Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

Source: Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

“It is sad that while science moves ahead in exciting new areas of research, fine-tuning our knowledge of how life originated and evolved, creationists remain mired in medieval debates about angels on the head of a pin and animals in the belly of an Ark.”

Thinking Moving Animal Fine Research Angel Areas Exciting Debate Belly Pins Medieval Tuning Ark Moving Ahead Fine Tuning

Book:Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

Source: Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

“... In a free society, skeptics are the watchdogs against irrationalism - the consumer advocates of ideas. Debunking is not simply the divestment of bunk; its utility is in offering a better alternative, along with a lesson on how thinking goes wrong.”

Thinking Ideas Lessons Libertarian Alternatives Consumers Offering Utility Skeptic Free Society Bunk

Author:Michael Shermer