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Remember always that we are pattern-seeking primates who are especially adept at finding patterns with emotional meaning.

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
Meaning
Primates
Especially
Adept
Emotional
Pattern
Religion
Patterns
Remember
Findings
Always
Finding
Seeking
Atheism

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For solving a surprisingly large and varied number of problems, crowds are smarter than individuals.
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People who espouse Intelligent Design believe nature is so complex as to require an intelligent designer-God. Similarly, liberals believe the economy is so complex as to require an intelligent designer-government.
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In the long run, it is better to understand the way the world really is rather than how we would like it to be.
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Intelligent Design is a remarkably uncreative theory that abandons the search for understanding at the very point where it is most needed. If Intelligent Design is really a science, then the burden is on its scientists to discover the mechanisms used by the Intelligent Designer. (80)
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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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Accepting evolution does not force us to jettison our morals and ethics, and rejecting evolution does not ensure their constancy.
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Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.
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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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I’m a skeptic not because I do not want to believe, but because I want to know. How can we tell the difference between what we would like to be true and what is actually true? The answer is science.
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Science is the best tool ever devised for understanding how the world works.
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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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We're all talking about the same thing, whether it's religious people or New Age spiritual people or Buddhists or scientists. We're all talking about having a sense of awe and wonder at something grander than ourselves.
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Rationality tied to moral decency is the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known.
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Skepticism is not a position that you stake out ahead of time and stick to no matter what.
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Since humans are by nature tribal, the overall goal is to expand the concept of the tribe to include ALL members of the species, in a global free society.
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Mammals are sentient beings that want to live and are afraid to die. Evolution vouchsafed us all with an instinct to survive, reproduce and flourish.
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No such individual would find the Golden Rule surprising in any way because at its base lies the foundation of most human interactions and exchanges and it can be found in countless texts throughout recorded history and from around the world - a testimony to its universality.
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Are science and religion compatible? It's like, are science and plumbing compatible? They're just two different things.
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But there is only one surefire method of proper pattern recognition, and that is science.
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