Humans are, by nature, pattern-seeking, storytelling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns whether they exist or not. Michael Shermer More Quotes by Michael Shermer More Quotes From Michael Shermer Science is not a thing. It's a verb. It's a way of thinking about things. It's a way of looking for natural explanations for all phenomena. Michael Shermer verbs way thinking Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons. Michael Shermer smart believe people In the past 10,000 years, humans have devised roughly 100,000 religions based on roughly 2,500 gods. So the only difference between myself and the believers is that I am skeptical of 2,500 gods whereas they are skeptical of 2,499 gods. We're only one God away from total agreement. Michael Shermer atheist god funny 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. Michael Shermer differences want believe Religious faith depends on a host of social, psychological and emotional factors that have little or nothing to do with probabilities, evidence and logic. Michael Shermer emotional religious faith Humans evolved brains that are pattern-recognition machines, adept at detecting signals that enhance or threaten survival amid a very noisy world. ... But there is only one surefire method of proper pattern recognition, and that is science. Michael Shermer machines survival brain I’m a skeptic not because I do not want to believe, but because I want to know. Michael Shermer skeptic want believe There is a significant difference between having no belief in a God and believing there is no God. Michael Shermer differences belief believe What can be more soul shaking than peering through a 100-inch telescope at a distant galaxy, holding a 100-million-year-old fossil or a 500,000-year-old stone tool in one's hand, standing before the immense chasm of space and time that is the Grand Canyon, or listening to a scientist who gazed upon the face of the universe's creation and did not blink? Michael Shermer space spring hands Either the soul survives death or it does not, and there is no scientific evidence that it does. Michael Shermer evidence soul doe 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. Michael Shermer epic age stories People have a hard time accepting free-market economics for the same reason they have a hard time accepting evolution: it is counterintuitive. Life looks intelligently designed, so our natural inclination is to infer that there must be an intelligent designer--a God. Similarly, the economy looks designed, so our natural inclination is to infer that we need a designer--a government. In fact, emergence and complexity theory explains how the principles of self-organization and emergence cause complex systems to arise from simple systems without a top-down designer. Michael Shermer hard-times intelligent simple 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 live-life atheist meaningful In the long run, it is better to understand the way the world really is rather than how we would like it to be. Michael Shermer running long world 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. Michael Shermer motivation inspiration believe Being a skeptic just means being rational and empirical: thinking and seeing before believing. Michael Shermer mean believe thinking Skepticism is not a position; it's a process. Michael Shermer skepticism position process Absolute morality leads logically to absolute intolerance. Michael Shermer absolutes intolerance morality To be a fully functioning moral agent, one cannot passively accept moral principles handed down by fiat. Moral principles require moral reasoning. Michael Shermer agents moral principles Science is the best tool ever devised for understanding how the world works. Michael Shermer understanding tools world
