Michael Shermer quotes - page 3

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. (Michael Shermer)
Science operates in the natural, not the supernatural. In fact, I go so far as to state that there is no such thing as the supernatural or the paranormal. View quote
Michael Shermer
We do not just blindly concede control to authorities; instead we follow the cues provided by our moral communities on how best to behave. View quote
Michael Shermer
Providentially, learned habits can be unlearned, especially in the context of moral groups. View quote
Michael Shermer
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. View quote
Michael Shermer
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. View quote
Michael Shermer
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. View quote
Michael Shermer
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. View quote
Michael Shermer
There is a significant difference between having no belief in a God and believing there is no God. View quote
Michael Shermer
In science, all conclusions are provisional, subject to new evidence and better arguments, the very antithesis of religious faith. View quote
Michael Shermer
Absolute morality leads logically to absolute intolerance. (Michael Shermer)
The whole point of faith, in fact, is to believe regardless of the evidence, which is the very antithesis of science. View quote
Michael Shermer
We are a fluke of nature, a quirk of evolution, a glorious contingency. View quote
Michael Shermer
Skepticism is not a position; skepticism is an approach to claims, in the same way that science is not a subject but a method. View quote
Michael Shermer
...evolution is not a religious tenet, to which one swears allegiance or belief as a matter of faith.. It is a factual reality of the empirical world. Just as one would not say 'I believe in gravity," one should not proclaim 'I believe in evolution. View quote
Michael Shermer
The human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering. View quote
Michael Shermer
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. View quote
Michael Shermer
Science is the best tool ever devised for understanding how the world works. View quote
Michael Shermer
Skepticism is not a position; it's a process. View quote
Michael Shermer
The price of liberty is, in addition to eternal vigilance, eternal patience with the vacuous blather occasionally expressed from behind the shield of free speech. View quote
Michael Shermer
I care what is actually true, even more than what I hope is true. (Michael Shermer)
Remember always that we are pattern-seeking primates who are especially adept at finding patterns with emotional meaning. View quote
Michael Shermer
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. View quote
Michael Shermer
Machine intelligence of a human nature could be a century away, and immortality is at least a millennium away, if not unattainable altogether. View quote
Michael Shermer
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. View quote
Michael Shermer