Top Michael Shermer Quotes - Quotesmemo.com

Michael Shermer Biography

Michael Shermer

Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and editor-in-chief of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members. Shermer engages in debates on topics pertaining to pseudoscience and religion in which he emphasizes scientific skepticism.

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Michael Shermer Quotes

It is sad that while science moves ahead in exciting new areas of research, fine-tuning our knowledge of how life originated and evolved, creationists remain mired in medieval debates about angels on the head of a pin and animals in the belly of an Ark.

Angel, Animal, Belly, Life, Moving, Science

Either the soul survives death or it does not, and there is no scientific evidence that it does.

Death, Doe, Evidence, Scientific, Soul, Survives

Science is the best tool ever devised for understanding how the world works.

Science, Tools, Understanding, World

The actual atoms and molecules that make up my brain and body today are not the same ones that I was born with on September 8, 1954, a half-century ago this month.

1954, Atoms, Brain, Molecules, Ones

We want to be open-minded enough to accept radial new ideas when they occasionally come along, but we don't want to be so open-minded that our brains fall out.

Brain, Brains, Come, Fall, Ideas

I just witnessed an event so mysterious that it shook my skepticism.

Event, Events, Mysterious, Skepticism, Witnessed

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.

Answers, Believe, Difference, Differences, Science, True

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

Celestial, Labs, Prayer, Religion, Science

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.

Buddhist, Religious, Scientists, Sense, Spiritual, Talking

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

Long, Run, Running, World

But because we live in an age of science, we have a preoccupation with corroborating our myths.

Age, Corroborating, Preoccupation, Science

Absolute morality leads logically to absolute intolerance.

Absolutes, Intolerance, Leads, Logically, Morality

For solving a surprisingly large and varied number of problems, crowds are smarter than individuals.

Crowds, Numbers, Problem, Problems, Smarter, Solving

Science is a set of methods designed to describe and interpret observed or inferred phenomenon, past or present, and aimed at building a testable body of knowledge open to rejection or confirmation.

Body, Inferred, Past, Phenomenon, Rejection, Religion

Myths are about the human struggle to deal with the great passages of time and life--birth, death, marriage, the transitions from childhood to adulthood to old age. They meet a need in the psychological or spiritual nature of humans that has absolutely nothing to do with science. To try to turn a myth into a science, or a science into a myth, is an insult to myths, an insult to religion, and an insult to science. In attempting to do this, creationists have missed the significance, meaning, and sublime nature of myths. They took a beautiful story of creation and re-creation and ruined it.

Beautiful, Psychological, Science, Spiritual, Story, Struggle

I’m a skeptic not because I do not want to believe, but because I want to know.

Believe, Know, Skeptic, Want

Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.

Beliefs, Believe, Defending, People, Smart

The concept of God is generated by a brain designed by evolution to find design in nature (a very recursive idea).

Brain, Concept, Design, Generated, Ideas, Nature

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

Bits, Data, Evolution, Fields, Portrait, Portraits

But the power of science lies in open publication, which, with the rise of the Internet, is no longer constrained by the price of paper.

Internet, Lying, Paper, Price, Science

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