Ape, not monkey » Michael Shermer

Skeptic Sense

Jeffrey Weston — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

We are natural-born supernaturalists

Jeffrey Weston — Thu, 28 May 2009 08:00:55 +0000

So says skeptic Michael Shermer.

He’s coined a new term called “Agenticity”: The idea that humans assign abilities to inanimate objects and concepts.

It’s basically the belief that an intelligent designer pulls the strings that affect our lives everyday.

There is now substantial evidence from cognitive neuroscience that humans readily find patterns and impart agency to them… Examples: children believe that the sun can think and follows them around; because of such beliefs, they often add smiley faces on sketched suns. Adults typically refuse to wear a mass murderer’s sweater, believing that “evil” is a supernatural force that imparts its negative agency to the wearer…

Thanks to RichardDawkins.net for the link.

I didn’t get evolution until I saw this!

Jeffrey Weston — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 08:00:34 +0000

OK, I have a confession. I’ve been a skeptic for many years, but understanding evolution and natural selection was not an easy thing for me to learn.

When I thought I had understood it, through more reading I found out that I didn’t understand it.

As Michael Shermer says evolution is hard to understand because it’s counterintutivive. Our minds think top down but evolution works bottom up.

A great YouTube video that helped me really understand the power of natural selection and evolution is this one. It’s a computer model of simplied ‘species’ evolution over time. Check it out:

God is rich, give me some

Jeffrey Weston — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 07:01:30 +0000

There’s a good quotation from Woody Allen in response to a question about evidence for God’s existence.

“If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank.”

Michael Shermer references this quote when asked what could change his mind about God’s existence. I’d have to agree.

God, I’m waiting.

Great skeptic debates

Jeffrey Weston — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 07:01:38 +0000

One really great way to learn about the arguments for Atheism and skepticism is to watch the many debates that are out there on the internets.

Two of my favorite skeptic/atheist debaters are Michael Shermer (of the Skeptics society) and Christopher Hitchens (of course).

Shermer excels at the scientific approach and Hitchens excels at the philosophical.

You can see this played out in their separate debates against Dinesh D’Souza a conservative Roman Catholic and political commentator.

D’Souza’s main point is that without Christianity you couldn’t have morality. A topic in which Shermer has done much scientific research and playfully rebutts D’Souza in the opening of the second video clip, with reference to the large amount of primate research going on.

Hitchens argument to that claim is more philosophical, in that we couldn’t have progressed this far without already having some innate sense of morality. In either case, the point is the same. Morality is innate in us, evolved as a way to facilitate cooperation among groups.

Religion is, once again, a superfluous afterthought.

Shermer vs. D’Souza		Hitchens vs. D’Souza