All Michael Shermer Quotes
- Conspiracies are a perennial favorite for television producers because there is always a receptive audience. Audience
- Dualists hold that body and soul are separate entities and that the soul will continue beyond the existence of the physical body. Beyond
- Either the soul survives death or it does not, and there is no scientific evidence that it does. Death
- Flawed as they may be, science and the secular Enlightenment values expressed in Western democracies are our best hope for survival. Best
- Human history is highly nonlinear and unpredictable. Highly
- In principle, skeptics are neither closed-minded nor cynical. We are curious but cautious. Cautious
- In the long run, it is better to understand the way the world really is rather than how we would like it to be. Better
- Mammals are sentient beings that want to live and are afraid to die. Evolution vouchsafed us all with an instinct to survive, reproduce and flourish. Afraid
- One, I am skeptical of the effectiveness of nutritional supplements. Effectiveness
- Plato wove historical fact into literary myth. Fact
- Providentially, learned habits can be unlearned, especially in the context of moral groups. Context
- Science is not a thing. It's a verb. It's a way of thinking about things. It's a way of looking for natural explanations for all… All
- Skepticism is not a position that you stake out ahead of time and stick to no matter what. Ahead
- We do not just blindly concede control to authorities; instead we follow the cues provided by our moral communities on how best to behave. Authorities
- When alien abductees recount to me their stories, I do not deny that they had a real experience. Abductees
- In comparison, Google is brilliant because it uses an algorithm that ranks Web pages by the number of links to them, with those links themselves… Algorithm
- Humans are pattern-seeking story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns, whether they exist or not. Adept
- There are many sources of spirituality; religion may be the most common, but it is by no means the only. Anything that generates a sense… Awe
- Accepting evolution does not force us to jettison our morals and ethics, and rejecting evolution does not ensure their constancy. Accepting
- Myths, whether in written or visual form, serve a vital role of asking unanswerable questions and providing unquestionable answers. Most of us, most of the… Age
- People have a hard time accepting free-market economics for the same reason they have a hard time accepting evolution: it is counterintuitive. Life looks intelligently… Accepting
- ...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… Allegiance
- Perceiving the world as well designed and thus the product of a designer, and even seeing divine providence in the daily affairs of life, may… Adapted
- How can we find spiritual meaning in a scientific worldview? Spirituality is a way of being in the world, a sense of one’s place in… Additive
- 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… Accept