Has anyone read Why People Believe Weird Things?
- Thread starter Ellimist
- Start date
I haven't read "The Borderlands of Science" but I have read "Why People Believe Weird Things". I agree, great book. 
"What separates science from all other human activities (and morality has never been successfully placed on a scientific basis) it is commitment to the tenative nature of all its conclusions. 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."
-Why People Believe Weird Things
"What separates science from all other human activities (and morality has never been successfully placed on a scientific basis) it is commitment to the tenative nature of all its conclusions. 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."
-Why People Believe Weird Things
tetriswhiz
Registered Member
I've read "Why People Believe Weird Things" and would recommend it to others who are interested about New Age frenzy.
A more comprehensive book dealing with the same topic would be "Science: Good, Bad and Bogus" by Martin Gardner.
A more comprehensive book dealing with the same topic would be "Science: Good, Bad and Bogus" by Martin Gardner.
ripleofdeath
Registered Senior Member
heyya all
EvilPoet
Ellimist
just to take a point of scientific revlavance for you to ponder.
it is a consistant theme through the ages that people have used
deadly force to take control of things they wish to have that others currently have!
scientific fact!
soo!
why would either of you complain about fleeting concepts if i were to do the same to your neighbourhood and communities whilst chanting some concept labeled as "New Age frenzy"?
it would then become a scientific fact through the system you suggest is a concept of relavant comparison for mesure.
what are your thoughts?
this is a seriouse question so please try and be scientific in your answer.
groove on
EvilPoet
Ellimist
just to take a point of scientific revlavance for you to ponder.
it is a consistant theme through the ages that people have used
deadly force to take control of things they wish to have that others currently have!
scientific fact!
soo!
why would either of you complain about fleeting concepts if i were to do the same to your neighbourhood and communities whilst chanting some concept labeled as "New Age frenzy"?
it would then become a scientific fact through the system you suggest is a concept of relavant comparison for mesure.
what are your thoughts?
this is a seriouse question so please try and be scientific in your answer.
groove on
"what are your thoughts?"
ripleofdeath,
My thoughts? Well, my first thought was I never mentioned anything about "New Age frenzy" in my post so I am not sure where you got that I did. The second thing that came to mind was, I have no clue what you are getting at with all of this:
"it is a consistant theme through the ages that people have
used deadly force to take control of things they wish to have
that others currently have! scientific fact! soo! why would either
of you complain about fleeting concepts if i were to do the same
to your neighbourhood and communities whilst chanting some
concept labeled as "New Age frenzy"? it would then become a
scientific fact through the system you suggest is a concept of
relavant comparison for mesure."
Can you please clarify what you mean?
ripleofdeath,
My thoughts? Well, my first thought was I never mentioned anything about "New Age frenzy" in my post so I am not sure where you got that I did. The second thing that came to mind was, I have no clue what you are getting at with all of this:
"it is a consistant theme through the ages that people have
used deadly force to take control of things they wish to have
that others currently have! scientific fact! soo! why would either
of you complain about fleeting concepts if i were to do the same
to your neighbourhood and communities whilst chanting some
concept labeled as "New Age frenzy"? it would then become a
scientific fact through the system you suggest is a concept of
relavant comparison for mesure."
Can you please clarify what you mean?
thanks ellimist
Great book... I think the Science and Pseudohistory chapter was my favorite. For those that haven't read the book, Shermer dispells much of the Holocaust deniers' nonsense and he recounts his appearance on the Donahue show with a couple of H. deniers.
I have The Borderlands of Science, of which one of my favourite parts is the very start when just trying to explain what these borderlands are, he describes how he effectively destroyed Remote Viewing. He had an RV target in an envelope and two remote viewers wrote and drew stuff down for an hour or two, getting gradually more anxious and repeatedly asking what it was, and Shermer just saying "The onus is on you to tell me what it is." Finally he broke the suspense.
[I said] "Before I open the envelope let me tell you what you are going to do when I reveal the contents. You are going to look through all those dozens of drawings, select the one that comes closest to what is in this photograph, and announce that you got it." To my utter amazement Carr explained that, indeed, this is how remote viewing experiments work! I explained to him that in science it has to work the other way around. This is a fourth problem in remote-viewing research - the confirmation bias and the hindsight bias. [...] With this brief lesson in the philosophy of science over, I opened the envelope and reveal the target [it was a picture of a distant galaxy] Without missing a beat Carr immediately riffled through the sheets of paper strewn about the table, pulled out a sketch that was described as a "ferris wheel" and announced that this was, in fact, a galaxy! It was at this point that I knew that remote viewing is not normal science or even borderlands science. It is pseudoscience, which I defined in my book Why People Believe Weird Things as "claims presented so that they appear scientific even though they lack supporting evidence and plausibility."