Michael Shermer's Blog, page 27

Does Belief Help Us to Survive?

I don't think religious beliefs are different from any other kind of beliefs: political attitudes, commitments to political parties, or economic ideologies, for example. These are all forms of belief. I think at the base of it is this whole idea that we're pattern-seeking primates. We connect the dots — A connects to B connects to C — and often, they really are connected, and that's called associative learning. All animals do it. It's a biological imperative; we grow new synaptic connections whe

Skeptical of Francis Collins

There is no question that Francis Collins is qualified scientifically to direct the National Institutes of Health, but I have two reasons for believing that there is a nontrivial chance that his religious convictions will influence his decisions as a policy maker for science.

One, the very nature of being an evangelical Christian — which Dr. Collins self-identifies as — means that you should evangelize for the Lord. Serious evangelicals evangelize not just on Sundays, but everyday, in every way,

Shakespeare, Interrupted

The anti-Stratfordian skeptics are back, and this time they have a Supreme Court justice on their side

For centuries, Shakespeare skeptics have doubted the authorship of the Stratfordian Bard's literary corpus, proffering no fewer than 50 alternative candidates, including Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth I, Christopher Marlowe and the leading contender amon

Mixing Science and Politics (and Economics)

So many of you have taken the time to respond to my blogs thoughtfully that I feel I should comment in kind. In looking through the many comments, however, I see that most of what I would say has already been said by people who responded to my critics. Nevertheless…

First of all, why is it okay to mix science and religion (with atheists eagerly do in debunking religious claims) but not okay to mix science and politics/economics? Why is it okay for liberal atheists to stick it to religious believe

Debating "Miracles" on Premier Christian Radio

You don't have to look far for claims of the miraculous. But what constitutes a "miracle" and do Christian beliefs in this area make sense?

Michael Shermer, a well-known atheist, says miraculous claims always have a natural explanation. Adrian Holloway is a London Pastor and apologist. He claims to have witnessed the miraculous and says that Michael's skepticism is unjustified.

LISTEN to the debate

Toward a Type I Civilization

To solve our energy problems we need more than new technologies,
we need a new type of civilization

Last week I reviewed the first half of my lecture at TAM 7 (The Amazing Meeting 7) on rising above traditional left-right politics. The second half of my lecture was based on my belief that in order for our species to survive we need to make the transition to a Type I civilization. This visage of our future is based on some work I did last year, that resulted in an opinion editorial in the Los An

Shermer on White Noise Paranormal Radio

Michael Shermer goes into the lion's den to find out what they're eating there in the paranormal world. Listen and find out what he discovered there.

LISTEN to the show

Fear & Loathing (and Freedom & Skepticism) in Las Vegas

TAM7 boasted over 1000 attendees.

The Amazing Meeting 7 and Freedom Fest were both held over the same weekend in Las Vegas, the former at the new and beautiful South Point Hotel and the latter at the classic old Bally's hotel and casino. I spoke at both and attended as many talks as I could fit in while shuttling back and forth between events. Some impressions:

Business is definitely down in Vegas. Every taxi driver I asked put the downturn at about 35% lower than normal, and between the two cas

Left, Right & Center

Liberals, Conservatives & Libertarians

In last week's post I mentioned my trip to Santiago, Chile, for a conference on evolutionary economics hosted by Alvaro Fischer, in conjunction with the year-long series of celebrations of Darwin's 200th birthday.

The three main speakers at the conference were Ullrich Witt, a liberal economist from the Max Planck Institute in Jena, Germany (part of the old Iron Curtain East Germany), Kevin McCabe, a conservative economist from George Mason University, known f

I Want to Believe

Opus 100: what skepticism reveals about science

In a 1997 episode of The Simpsons entitled "The Springfield Files" — a parody of X-Files in which Homer has an alien encounter in the woods (after imbibing 10 bottles of Red Tick Beer) — Leonard Nimoy voices the intro as he once did for his post-Spock run on the television mystery series In Search of…: "The