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We think of our eyes as video cameras and our brains as blank tapes to be filled with sensory inputs.

Michael Shermer

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Michael Shermer
Age: 70
Born: 1954
Born: September 8
Historian Of Science
Journalist
Philosopher
Psychologist
Sport Cyclist
Writer
Glendale
California
USA
Michael Brant Shermer
Games
Brains
Eye
Blank
Think
Tape
Thinking
Video
Inputs
Cameras
Filled
Tapes
Brain
Sensory
Eyes
Input

More quotes by Michael Shermer

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Machine intelligence of a human nature could be a century away, and immortality is at least a millennium away, if not unattainable altogether.
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We know evolution happened not because of transitional fossils such as A. natans but because of the convergence of evidence from such diverse fields as geology, paleontology, biogeography, comparative anatomy and physiology, molecular biology, genetics, and many more.
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Believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is only the wind does not cost much, but believing that a dangerous predator is the wind may cost an animal its life.
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Religious faith depends on a host of social, psychological and emotional factors that have little or nothing to do with probabilities, evidence and logic.
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Skepticism is not a position skepticism is an approach to claims, in the same way that science is not a subject but a method.
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Darwin matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age, an epic saga about who we are, where we came from and where we are going.
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Being a skeptic just means being rational and empirical: thinking and seeing before believing.
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Either the soul survives death or it does not, and there is no scientific evidence that it does.
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We are a fluke of nature, a quirk of evolution, a glorious contingency.
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Accepting evolution does not force us to jettison our morals and ethics, and rejecting evolution does not ensure their constancy.
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There is a significant difference between having no belief in a God and believing there is no God.
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But because we live in an age of science, we have a preoccupation with corroborating our myths.
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Belief is the natural state of things. It is the default option. We just believe. We believe all sorts of things. Belief is natural disbelief, skepticism, science, is not natural.
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If spirituality is the sense of awe and humility in the face of the creation, what could be more awesome and humbling than the deep space discovered by Hubble and the cosmologists, and the deep time discovered by Darwin and the evolutionists.
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We do not just blindly concede control to authorities instead we follow the cues provided by our moral communities on how best to behave.
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Skepticism is not a position that you stake out ahead of time and stick to no matter what.
Michael Shermer
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Anecdotal thinking comes naturally science requires training.
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Plato wove historical fact into literary myth.
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Play hard, work hard, love hard. . . .The bottom line for me is to live life to the fullest in the here-and-now instead of a hoped-for hereafter, and make every day count in some meaningful way and do something-no matter how small it is-to make the world a better place.
Michael Shermer
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Are science and religion compatible? It's like, are science and plumbing compatible? They're just two different things.
Michael Shermer