Michael Shermer Quotes about Science

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Anecdotal thinking comes naturally; science requires training.

Anecdotal thinking comes naturally; science requires training.

Michael Shermer

Science, Thinking, Training

Michael Shermer (2011). “The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths”, p.63, Macmillan

Science is not the affirmation of a set of beliefs but a process of inquiry aimed at building a testable body of knowledge constantly open to rejection or confirmation. In science, knowledge is fluid and certainty fleeting. That is at the heart of its limitations. It is also its greatest strength.

Michael Shermer

Heart, Science, Thinking

Michael Shermer (2002). “Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time”, p.124, Macmillan

As Karl Marx once noted: 'Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.' William Jennings Bryan and the Scopes trial was a tragedy. The creationists and intelligent design theorists are a farce.

Michael Shermer

Science, Intelligent, History

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.

Michael Shermer

Lying, Science, Paper

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

Michael Shermer

Science, Patterns, Recognition

Michael Shermer (2016). “Skeptic: Viewing the World with a Rational Eye”, p.115, Henry Holt and Company

Creationists have also changed their name ... to intelligent design theorists who study 'irreducible complexity' and the 'abrupt appearance' of life-yet more jargon for 'God did it.' ... Notice that they have no interest in replacing evolution with native American creation myths or including the Code of Hammarabi alongside the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.

Michael Shermer

Native American, School, Science