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" Scientists are skeptics. It's unfortunate that the word 'skeptic' has taken on other connotations in the culture involving nihilism and cynicism. Really, in its pure and original meaning, it's just thoughtful inquiry. "

Michael Shermer

Meaning

Just

Culture

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" Being deeply knowledgeable on one subject narrows one's focus and increases confidence, but it also blurs dissenting views until they are no longer visible, thereby transforming data collection into bias confirmation and morphing self-deception into self-assurance. "

" One, I am skeptical of the effectiveness of nutritional supplements. "

Michael Shermer

Effectiveness

I Am

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

" But there is only one surefire method of proper pattern recognition, and that is science. "

" When alien abductees recount to me their stories, I do not deny that they had a real experience. "

" No single discovery from any of these fields denotes proof of evolution, but together they reveal that life evolved in a certain sequence by a particular process. "

" I say you don't need religion, or political ideology, to understand human nature. Science reveals that human nature is greedy and selfish, altruistic and helpful. "

" Mysteries once thought to be supernatural or paranormal happenings - such as astronomical or meteorological events - are incorporated into science once their causes are understood. "

" There are checks and balances in science. There's somebody checking the people doing the science, and then there's somebody who checks the checkers and somebody who checks the checker's checkers. "

" Conspiracies are a perennial favorite for television producers because there is always a receptive audience. "

" Ever since college, I have been a libertarian - socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I believe in individual liberty and personal responsibility. "

" Human history is highly nonlinear and unpredictable. "

" You have to know evolution to understand the natural world. And that cannot be a threat to people of faith. There's a serious problem if you are forced by your faith to reject the most well-supported theory in all of science. "

" The reason is that in a group, individual errors on either side of the true figure cancel each other out. "

" Anecdotal thinking comes naturally; science requires training. "

" Myths are stories that express meaning, morality or motivation. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant. "

" In principle, skeptics are neither closed-minded nor cynical. We are curious but cautious. "

" We know evolution happened because innumerable bits of data from myriad fields of science conjoin to paint a rich portrait of life's pilgrimage. "

" As a social primate species, we modulate our morals with signals from family, friends and social groups with whom we identify because in our evolutionary past, those attributes helped individuals to survive and reproduce. "

" Scientific prayer makes God a celestial lab rat, leading to bad science and worse religion. "

" Tenure in any department is serious business, because it means, essentially, employment for life. "

" We should be exploring consciousness at the neural level and higher, where the arrow of causal analysis points up toward such principles as emergence and self-organization. "

" In the long run, it is better to understand the way the world really is rather than how we would like it to be. "