Why People Believe Weird Things
Available in paperback
In this age of supposed scientific enlightenment, many people still believe in mind reading, past-life regression theory, and alien abduction. With a no-holds-barred assault on popular superstitions and prejudices, Michael Shermer debunks these nonsensical claims and explores the very human reasons people find otherworldly phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing. He describes his own confrontations with those who take advantage of people’s gullibility to advance their own, often self-serving agendas. As a champion of science and history, Shermer brilliantly exposes the all-too-human figures hiding behind the imposing curtains of myth and superstition.
How We Believe
Available in paperback
In this illuminating study of God, faith, and religion, Michael Shermer offers fresh and often startling insights into age-old questions, including how and why humans put their faith in a higher power, even in the face of scientific skepticism. Shermer explores the latest research and theories of psychiatrists, neuroscientists, epidemiologists, and philosophers, as well as the role of faith in our increasingly diverse modern world. Whether believers or nonbelievers, we are all driven by the need to understand the universe and our place in it. How We Believe is a brilliant scientific tour of this ancient and mysterious desire.
The Science of Good and Evil
Available in paperback
A century and a half after Darwin first proposed a theory of “evolutionary ethics,” science has begun to tackle the roots of morality. Just as evolutionary biologists study why we are hungry (to motive us to eat) or why sex is enjoyable (to motive us to procreate), they are now searching for the very nature of humanity. In The Science of Good and Evil, Michael Shermer explores how humans evolved from social primates to moral primates; how and why morality motivates the human animal; and how the foundation of moral principles can be built upon empirical evidence. Along the way he explains the implications of scientific findings for fate and free will, the existence of pure good and pure evil, and the development of early moral sentiments among the first humans.
