Why People Believe Weird Things

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time (1997) is a book of skepticism written by American science writer Michael Shermer. Divided into five segments and fifteen chapters, Shermer offers a no-holds-barred debunking of popular superstitions and prejudices, conspiracy theories, and beliefs in paranormal phenomena that have proliferated from the fringes of society to the mainstream in recent decades. Using his scientific background to provide empirical evidence, Shermer refutes everything from UFO sightings and alien abduction to Holocaust denial, from creationism and intelligent design to ritualized cults. The publisher and editor-in-chief of Skeptic magazine, Shermer is the founder of The Skeptics Society. Why People Believe Weird Things has been called “splendid” by Vanity Fair, “brilliant, informed and incisive” by The New Yorker, and “the perfect handbook to thrust on anyone you know who has been lured into conforming paranoias that circulate amid the premillenial jitters” by The Los Angeles Times. The forward to the book was written by American scientist Stephen Jay Gould.

In the first segment of the book, Shermer delineates the meaning and importance of skepticism. He piggybacks off the following quote written by Jay Gould in the forward, which says “skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism—and is, therefore, one of the keys to human and social decency.” Shermer goes on to detail the scientific method as the basis for understanding empirical facts in nature, and how this process encourages a healthy dose of skepticism every step of the way. Scientists rely on self-correction and reproducible proof in order to make factual claims, and this rigorous process helps foster a mindset of questioning everything from the onset, in every aspect of life.

In the second part of the book, Shermer presents “Twenty-five Fallacies that Lead Us to Believe Weird Things.” This segment focuses mostly on paranormal phenomena, about which Shermer declares, “In my opinion, most believers in miracles, monsters, and mysteries are not hoaxers, flimflam artists, or lunatics. Most are normal people whose normal thinking has gone wrong in some way." Shermer explains how people come to believe in things they cannot prove with scientific evidence, citing UFO sightings, alien abductions, ESP, witch-hunts, near-death experiences, and repressed memory-recovery as examples of how skeptical thinking can differentiate between scientific fact and unfounded belief. Shermer links these fantasies to cultural influences, noting, "Humans are experiencing fantasies and interpreting them in the social context of their age and culture.”



Another example Shermer points to is American clairvoyant Edgar Cayce and his contributions to the New Age movement. Shermer also rejects the theory of moral absolutism, claiming it to be antithetical to free thought, and, therefore, an impediment to skepticism. He also discusses the cult of Ayn Rand and her theory of Objectivism (of which Shermer once considered himself a believer), but disproves it by claiming, unlike the scientific method, the process is not self-correcting. About Rand’s philosophy, Shermer declares the “great flaw in her philosophy is that morals can be held to some absolute standard or criteria.”

In the third part of the book, Shermer attacks religious creationism. Despite the legal separation of church and state in the United States, for decades there has been a movement to counter Darwinian evolution in school textbooks with creationism (aka intelligent design). Shermer chronicles this movement, explaining that, despite the Supreme Court declaring the teaching of creationism in public schools unconstitutional in 1987, the inclination to teach creationism in schools persists. Shermer contextualizes his argument by summarizing several debates he had with a high-ranking creationist member, Duane Gish, who also served as vice-president of the Institute of Creation Research (ICR) at one time. Shermer lays out twenty-five different creationist claims, and one by one attempts to debunk each with his own scientific findings. Shermer chronicles the history of the debate, from the Scopes “Monkey” trial of 1925 to the present, underscoring the real-life consequences such beliefs can lead to.

In the fourth segment of the book, Shermer goes after Holocaust deniers at great length (some seventy pages). He profiles the main Holocaust deniers and presents the ways in which they ignore scientific fact to stubbornly support their claims of precognitive bias. Shermer cites ideological reasons for the deniers’ refusal to accept scientific evidence, using his own set of facts to counter their arguments. Shermer gets into personal debates with numerous Holocaust deniers, shooting down their theories and making impassioned pleas for rational logic. He feels strongly about the subject, as evidenced in his 2000 book, Denying History, which addresses the topic of Holocaust denial.



In the fifth and final portion of the book, Shermer sets out to demonstrate how smart people can also deceive themselves. He links American physicist and cosmologist Frank J. Tipler to Voltaire’s Pangloss character as examples of highly intelligent thinkers who publicly deceived themselves in their work. Shermer examines the psychological states of various businessmen and career professionals who give up their lucrative lifestyles in order to publicly foist their paranormal beliefs on others. In the final chapter of the book, which was added in a revised version, Shermer goes after prominent scientists “who hide their spiritual beliefs behind the trappings of science.” In the end, Shermer surmises that most people believe in weird things because of instant gratification, gullibility, and morality, while smart people believe in weird things due to their ability to rationalize without sufficient evidence.

In addition to Why People Believe Weird Things, Shermer has written several novels. They include The Soul of Science, The Skeptic, Denying History, In Darwin’s Shadow, The Borderlands of Science, Science Friction, How We Believe, The Science of Good and Evil, Why Darwin Matters, The Mind of the Market, The Believing Brain, The Moral Arc, Skeptic, Heavens on Earth, and many more.