American Michael Shermer is the founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic. He is also an author of many scientific related works. He begs us to ask the question to ourselves how do we convince ourselves to believe the things we do? Why do humans want to overlook the facts and convince ourselves to believe in all manner of 'miracles'. When science's data had reduced accuracy and quality it ends up altering modern perceptions of what we believe. Shermer mentions Weekly World News, the face on Mars, religious figures appearing in biscuits, cheese sandwiches and window panes, voices in white noise, and demonic voices played backward on records. As much as the audience is laughing at the ridiculousness of these miracles Shermer mentions how a magnitude of people still flock to these ideas and holy sights.
I find Shermer's concept that evolution imprints faces to be important to us so we tend to see them everywhere very interesting. I know it's true for me. He also mentions that as a species we tend to be naturally pattern seeking visually.
Michael Shermer's website
Skeptic Magazine
A very interesting debate between Shermer and Deepak Chopra(ayurvedic healer) about the Afterlife
No comments:
Post a Comment