Harrison’s new book challenges popular beliefs
Posted on Wed, 02/22/2012 - 12:24 in Local News
(CNS): Author Guy P. Harrison, a former Grand Cayman resident now living in southern California, has written a new book that is attracting high praise. 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think are True is a skeptical grand tour of extraordinary claims and unusual beliefs, including UFOs, psychics, near-death-experiences, ghosts, intelligent design, alternative medicine, alien abductions, conspiracy theories, faith healing, astrology, doomsday predictions, Atlantis and more. “Rather than just explain away beliefs that are unlikely to be true and leave it at that, this book also attempts to enlighten people about how our brains work and how they set us up to fall for false claims and irrational beliefs,” explained Harrison.
“I’m very sympathetic to people who believe weird things because it can and does happen to all of us. One does not have to be dumb or crazy to believe dumb and crazy things. It’s part of the human condition. For this reason, no one should doubt the importance of skepticism. It can save you time, energy, money, your good health and maybe even your life.”
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson of the American Museum of Natural History described Harrison’s book as a must-read for all: “What would it take to create a world in which fantasy is not confused for fact and public policy is based on objective reality? I don't know for sure. But a good place to start would be for everyone on Earth to read this book.”
“Harrison has added to the growing body of skeptical literature a contribution that will continue to move our culture toward one that openly embraces reason, science, and logic," wrote Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and Scientific American columnist.
A glowing review in Library Journal states that Harrison’s book “will blow readers' minds by making them realize how easy it is to hold a strong belief without applying either critical thinking or skepticism. Harrison guides us gently but firmly along an explorative path of our collective illogic, strong tendencies toward easy answers and magical thinking, and susceptibility to confirmation bias. He doesn't judge readers for buying into beliefs that have no real basis in fact and science, but instead asks them to second-guess the tendency to readily accept the unproven and the illogical as true. Verdict: An outstanding book that is required reading no matter what you believe.”
50 Popular Beliefs That People Think are True is Harrison’s third published book, all of which carry a pro-science/critical thinking theme. His other books are: 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God and Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know About Our Biological Diversity. Harrison said people often ask why he dedicates himself to writing about science and skepticism.
“Truth is, I really couldn’t care less about what someone believes,” he explained. “But when I see a lack of skepticism and sound thinking diminish someone’s life or cause serious harm to others I feel obligated to speak up and offer a helping hand. If irrational beliefs weren’t so often dangerous and such a drag on human progress, you would never hear a peep from me about anyone’s beliefs. The way I see it, promoting science, reason and skepticism is a moral issue. It’s about caring for your fellow humans and trying to make the world better.”
Harrison recently spoke about his new book for two hours on Chicago’s WGN Radio and is scheduled to be interviewed on other nation-wide US radio shows, including “Coast to Coast AM” and Michio Kaku’s “Science Fantastic”.
50 Popular Beliefs That People Think are True is published by Prometheus Books and available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and bookstores worldwide.
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Have you ever watched
Have you ever watched peasants killing grass snakes simply because they were taught that snakes were the enemy of the human race for tricking Eve into eating an apple (OK, xxxxing Adam's brains out actually)? Seriously, they kill the poor little snakes that they run into, simply based on that fable. You don't need to go to an Afgani madrasa to see religion twisting the brains of our less-educated fellow humans.
well, Mr. Harrison, you
well, Mr. Harrison, you definitely got them thinking.
Athiest!
Athiest!
Believer!
Believer!
Many of these evangelicals
Many of these evangelicals are poorly educated third world hicks brainwashed from birth by the well funded MidWest fundamentalist machine, or at least had parents who fell into that category You canot reason with them and there is little point is debating with them since their viewpoint is fixed in a cruel manner.
Speaking from experience, you
Speaking from experience, you are spot-on.
What ignorance. There are
What ignorance. There are highly intelligent, educated individuals on both sides of this issue.
But there are lot more stupid
But there are lot more stupid people on the intelligent design side.
Not true. Intelligent
Not true. Intelligent design (as opposed to literal 7 day creationism) tends to be held by educated people of faith because they wish to reconcile the two. There are plenty of stupid people who grab a hold of the atheist position because they think it makes them look intelligent. Some of them are clearly on here.
(Un)intelligent design is
(Un)intelligent design is simply what little was left over after science disproved the whole of your mythology, and your kind grasped desperately at any straw to stay relevent. A claim that "This is so complicated that I can't understand it, so a god must have made it" (i.e. it's irreducibly complex), does not prove the existence of a god. It proves you have a small brain (the structure being common to the species, so that's not meant as an insult). Further, that line of pseudo-reasoning has been conclusively show to be... well, the technical term is "bullxxxt".
Good luck staying relevent.
No one with intelligence
No one with intelligence would ever try to reconcile "intelligent design" with anything because it is clearly nonsense. "Intelligent design" was just an attempt by evangelicals to come up with an opposition to evolution when creationism was rightly rejected from schools so there was a need to have some pseudo-science introduced.
Many intelligent design
Many intelligent design supporters are not evangelicals at all. Some are not even religious but, like Einstein, they feel compelled to come to that conclusion by the evidence.
I was with you until the
I was with you until the gratuitous insult at the end.
This is very true.
This is very true.
What about Tupac!! Conspiracy
What about Tupac!! Conspiracy to kill all the prominent black leaders.
So you are trying to debunk
So you are trying to debunk Christianity with science. Fine.
I personally did not realize that he was qualified to clear up such matters. This is not a science book with proven facts or are you suggesting that we start to use it as a textbook at UCCI?.
In the end their are extremely intelligent people on both sides. There are even scientist on both sides.
This arguement will not end so simply.
There are real scientist,
There are real scientist, performing real work on one side, and then there are psuedo-scientist on the other side who are basically goons who make their mama and papa proud for the religious establishment.
I love that story about David
I love that story about David and Goliath. What happened to all those Giants anyway?
My son, David, killed them
My son, David, killed them with a sling shot.
They died and their bones are
They died and their bones are to be found right next to the bones of the missing links of evolution.
I think they must have
I think they must have r-evolved. Or maybe they dissolved.
If you are a true christion
If you are a true christion do not try to fight these type of battle, god can take care of himself,
those persons who is saying these things about god only want to do things that is an abomonation to god and our human race, they love greed and immoralty this is there way of doing what there agenda takes them please ignore them.
gods time will come, where is there closets, oh what fools are they, it hurts dont it?.
Step right up folks, see
Step right up folks, see before your very eyes the horrors of a failed education system and an indoctrination into a cult of fable-believers. Oh, the horror!!! Don't look in it's eyes!
Its more painful to watch
Its more painful to watch "christians" constantly try to redefine themselves in modern terms with archaic stories. Walking contradictions. More disgusting is that you are teaching your kids to reason the same in the face of volumes of mounting evidence.
A perfect analogy would be somebody caught in a lie about a murder scene, and they constantly change their story to match new evidence(and scientific facts) found at a crime scene.
Do you want to teach the next generations how to lie or convolute new facts to match a previous belief , or to teach them how to change their world view when new facts are presented.
The oddest thing about many
The oddest thing about many of these intelligent design comments is that it assumes that humans are intelligently designed. We are not. It is clear that with a blank slate and an intelligent designer we would be designed very differently. Our bodies have significant design issues which arise because we have evovled from previous designs and the incremental effect of evolution does not permit wholesale redesign.
Our spines are not well designed for upright living, they are designed to work best horizontally, like our evolutionary predecessors. We still have tailbones. Why? And why does our laryngeal nerve loop the way it does? Evolution explains that perfectly. There are many many other examples.
If there was a conscious designer, it was not a very lazy and not very good designer. But there simply is only one credible explanation for how we are designed, evolution.
It is interesting how the
It is interesting how the foaming religious posters have chosen to ignore responding this post.
I believe the human body was
I believe the human body was designed by an architect. Who but an architect would run a toxic waste line through a recreational area?
As we have so many religious
As we have so many religious expert following this thread.
Can someone explain why we are a God fearing rather than a God loving country?
And what is the difference?
Irrational belief in anything
Irrational belief in anything should be feared. Love your fellow terrestrial life forms instead.
One thing I have learned on
One thing I have learned on CNS is that it is impossible to engage in reasoned argument with dogmatic Christians. But it can be tempting to try when some churn out the typical mid-West US inspired drivel to try to support arguments against sound science. Of course to a rational reader the arguments are one-sided and the fanatics response hilarious but these people are not rational.
It seems there is way too
It seems there is way too much noise about religion being made in these comments about a book that addresses so much more than that. Below are the contents of the book for those interested. To be clear, I offer skeptical analysis for all of these entries.
It's also important to know that I do not present myself as some towering voice of authority. I simply point out problems with popular beliefs, ask key questions, and encourge people to think for themselves.
--Peace
50 Popular Beliefs That People Think are True
Contents
FOREWORD Dr. Phil Plait....................13
INTRODUCTION....................17
1. "I Believe in the Paranormal and the Supernatural."....................23
2. "I Know There Is an Afterlife Because of All the Near-Death Experiences."....................36
3. "A Psychic Read My Mind."....................42
4. "You're Either Born Smart or You're Not."....................51
5. "The Bible Code Reveals the Future."....................58
6. "Stories of Past Lives Prove Reincarnation Is Real."....................62
7. "ESP Is the Real Deal."....................68
8. "Nostradamus Saw It All Coming."....................74
9. "I Believe in Miracles."....................81
10. "NASA Faked the Moon Landings."....................89
11. "Ancient Astronauts Were Here."....................100
12. "UFOs Are Visitors from Other Worlds."....................108
13. "A Flying Saucer Crashed Near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 and the Government Knows All about It."....................121
14. "Aliens Have Visited Earth and Abducted Many People."....................132
15. "Astrology Is Scientific."....................139
16. "All Scientists Are Geniuses and Science Is Always Right."....................147
17. "The Holocaust Never Happened."....................154
18. "Global Warming Is a Political Issue and Nothing More."....................161
19. "Television News Gives Me an Accurate View of the World."....................167
20. "Biological Races Are Real."....................180
21. "Biological Race Determines Success in Sports."....................186
22. "Most Conspiracy Theories Are True."....................192
23. "Alternative Medicine Is Better."....................201
24. "Homeopathy Really Works, and No Side Effects!"....................210
25. "Faith Healing Cures the Sick and Saves Lives."....................218
26. "Race-Based Medicine Is a Great Idea."....................226
27. "No Vaccines for My Baby!"....................233
28. "My God Is the Real One."....................245
29. "My Religion Is the One That's True."....................250
30. "Creationism Is True and Evolution Is Not."....................259
31. "Intelligent Design Is Real Science."....................273
32. "The Universe and Earth Are Fine-Tuned for Life."....................279
33. "Many Prophecies Have Come to Pass."....................283
34. "Prayer Works!"....................290
35. "Religions Are Sensible and Safe. Cults Are Silly and Dangerous."....................296
36. "They Found Noah's Ark!"....................300
37. "Archaeology Proved My Religion Is True."....................305
38. "Holy Relics Possess Supernatural Powers."....................310
39. "A TV Preacher Needs My Money."....................315
40. "Ghosts Are Real and They Live in Haunted Houses."....................323
41. "Bigfoot Lives and Cryptozoology Is Real Science!"....................333
42. "Angels Watch Over Me."....................350
43. "Magic Is Real and Witches Are Dangerous."....................354
44. "Atlantis Is down There Somewhere."....................363
45. "I'm Going to Heaven When I Die."....................368
46. "Something Very Strange Is Going on in the Bermuda Triangle."....................372
47. "Area 51 Is Where They Keep the Aliens."....................382
48. "The Mayans Warned Us: It's All over on December 21, 2012."....................391
49. "The End Is Near!"....................397
50. "We're All Gonna Die!"....................407
FAREWELL AND GOOD LUCK....................417
NOTES....................421
BIBLIOGRAPHY....................443
INDEX....................451
Point taken. Let's talk
Point taken. Let's talk about "Atlantis Is down There Somewhere" instead. My sky fairy told me it's down there (in a dream, speaking in tongues, i.e. it was babbling but I knew what it was saying) , and since my sky fairy can never be wrong it must be down there. I know my sky fairy can never be wrong because my sky fairy told me it can never be wrong. Well, not directly. I read it in a book that said my sky fairy can never be wrong. And since the book also said that my sky fairy helped write the book, it can never be wrong either, so I can trust the book to be true when it says that my sky fairy can never be wrong. So my sky fairy can never be wrong. And so Atlantis is down there somewhere. Good idea this not talking about religion. Besides, it pisses off my sky fairy when we do, and you know what the book says about pissing off the sky fairy... pillars of salt, hellfire and damnation and so on. Look what happened to Atlantis... I mean I bet they pissed off the sky fairy and see what happended to them!
True is not all about
True is not all about debunking religion but 80% is about debunking the supernatural including religion.
Add to this list of fantasies
Add to this list of fantasies - Voting in a U.S. Presidential Election. Let's see your choices are Barack Obama who has not fulfilled one single promise including the closure of Guantanamo, has not reigned in Wall Street nor incresed regulation of the financial industry and just announced reducing corporate taxes. Or maybe you'd prefer to vote for Mitt Romney a multimillionaire predatory investor or Newt Gingrich the red neck . But we can't accept that it is a joke because then we'd have to accept 9/11, Bush, Iraq, Cheney, Halliburton, weapons of mass destruction, and the list goes on all the way back to Reagan. That is one of the true fantasies that must be dealt with because I would rather believe in UFO's than democracy in America. There is more evidence.
Gee thanks for the insight on
Gee thanks for the insight on America. You're a real pundit.
Not just critical of America,
Not just critical of America, but the process in general so if you are American don't take it personally. Just pointing out that following Guy's theories missing is our sometimes fantastical belief (almost religious belief) in what is presented to us as a democratic process because it does seem to be based on similar criteria as the other choices included in his book. The U.S. politcal system as an example is just one. Going back let's examine recent U.S. Presidents then decide for yourself if politics should have been included. Lyndon Johnson and the Gulf of Tonkin lie. Used to escalate the war in Vietnam. Then into Cambodia and Laos. Why not? We were there already. Richard Nixon. almost impeached and many would agree a pathological liar bordering on psychotic. Granted a full pardon by the next president. Gerald Ford. Who really wasn't very smart. But that was on purpose. Ronald Reagan even less so. Including his Vice President Bush Sr. Very smart. Under whose tenure financial markets were de-regulated. Bush Sr. a member of the Carlyle Group then became the next president who made the first move to capture Middle East oilfields in Desert Storm. Sold as a rescue mission to Kuwait. And financed the Taliban in Afghanistan. Soon to be mortal enemies. Bill Clinton who really unleashed Wall Street. And diddled his office help. But now he's presented as a "statesman". And we believe that too. And George Jr. Who stole an election and invaded Iraq under false pretense, brought the U.S. the Patriot Act, Homeland Security and plundered the U.S. Treasury. Barack Obama. Time to switch up to a black president. Just to confuse anyone who might see an agenda. Now are we to believe that all of these people with the resources and vast array of intelligent and moral people available within the U.S. were duly elected? Or... are the choices handpicked? Filtered? And purposely limited? Not just by some unseen hand or hands at work but by our unquestioning beliefs? I see no difference between believing this is an open and honest system than people who have believed in Astrology as a science.
I'm not a pundit but if we are going to talk about irrational beliefs it would be a mistake to leave out politics.
I gues you are an exception
I gues you are an exception to Guy Harrison's skepticism about Conspiracy Theorists?!?
many of us would be
many of us would be millionaires if in 1981 we or our Parents invested $1000 in Cisco or microsoft @ $2.50 per share and let them compound until now .Is this science or economics?
It is hindsight.
It is hindsight.
science doesn't need a god.
science doesn't need a god.
True because God is outside
True because God is outside the remit of science which deals only what can be measured and observed.
I find it interesting that
I find it interesting that while you people debate God.
Our Premier is making deals with the godless Chinese and many of you are saying nothing about that.
'Godless Chinese' seems a bit
'Godless Chinese' seems a bit derogatory and dismissive of the beliefs of over a billion people.
Duppies DO EXIST!
Duppies DO EXIST!
Guy Harrison practices
Guy Harrison practices critical thinking, something few people are capable of. Already the blogs have focused on his supposed atheism, which seems to be quite irrelevant to the discussion. I have always enjoyed his newspaper articles, as he usually brings a harvest of facts and clear thinking to his writing. I, for one, will be buying his book. I know I will learn something unexpected.
His atheism is obviously
His atheism is obviously the motivation for a book which seeks to debunk the supernatural. It is very relevant.
I would like to know the
I would like to know the answer to this one:
Why did the chicken cross the road?
God created the chicken on
God created the chicken on this side of the road. There is no evidence that it was ever on the other side.
Why can we not live in a
Why can we not live in a world in which chickens are free to cross the road without having their motives questioned?
Because he could before it
Because he could before it was sold to Dart?