Status Updates From The Skeptics' Guide to the ...

This book has been fantastic so far on explaining and providing examples for the many ways humans can deceive itself with logical fallacies. Its the book i would recommend after Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World

Should be required reading for the next 4 years.

Amazing!! This book should be a mandatory read for everyone imo!!! Makes me feel like everyone is an idiot (myself included) for not realizing all of these things all of the time lol! It makes the world make so much more sense though and makes me feel a bit safer in knowing more about how to avoid super easy/common "traps" that can lead to misinformation, fraud, confusion, etc....

So far I’ve learned we really can’t trust our memory or perception

This book is right up my alley. It gives tools for how to think about the information in front of you and come to more reliable conclusions.

I’m loving the information in the chapter on memory, some of which I was already aware, and how the author relates it to the criminal justice system.

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Any business model that depends on an ever-expanding sales force is simply unsustainable.

omg it gets ever sciency-er

gila gue baca lama bener

My brain is melting—in a good way

I love thisss

great

I’m not saying that being a (reasonably) positive person is a bad thing. Nor am I advocating that one actively squelch a sunny disposition. But don’t expect to think good thoughts and be showered with some sort of cosmic blessing. Unfortunately, the universe doesn’t work that way.

Humans in general are great at coming up with reasons to maintain their desired beliefs in the face of contradictory data. More intelligent and educated people aren’t necessarily better at critical thinking, but they are likely to be more clever and creative in coming up with such excuses—and scientists are no exception.

It is quite possible that, because our brains evolved to give us the very useful illusion of a continuous stream of seamless consciousness, we evolved to not easily grasp our own consciousness. That would require piercing the illusion.

Intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and of living things were caused by an intelligent agent who, for reasons we do not care to get into, chose to make the world look exactly as if it were the product of random variation and natural selection.

Deepak Chopra is the mayor of quantum woo.

Now that you know how cold readings are done, however, you are less likely to be impressed by the random hits of clever guessing. Even you, Mark.

The lesson of Clever Hans is critical to keep in mind the next time a gushing reporter or enthusiastic researcher promotes the apparently impossible. Such stories often come with the challenge to “Explain that, skeptic!” Give it time.

Clearly, whether or not someone believes what they are reporting says nothing about the accuracy of the information—just that they’re not willfully lying.

Better kill them just to be sure.

All the public hears is, “Scientists report a significant result,” but most of what gets relayed as excited scientific breakthroughs is simply crap cluttering up the scientific journals.

If it does not agree with experiment, it is wrong!

The notion that science is socially constructed is a convenient way to dismiss the findings of science that you don’t like for ideological or any other reasons.

Always check facts. Think for yourself. He doesn't claim to know everything.
Question things;

He discusses topics such as Naturopathy and also exorcism.