KCR: Why People Believe Weird Things (non-fiction)

Image via Wikipedia

Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer is the head of the Skeptic Society and he's out there to debunk bad thinking and bad science, and thus, is the enemy of many 'religious' movements. In this book, Shermer goes into the factors that went into why people need to believe things, even if it makes no sense, and once they got hold of a bad idea, they can't let go even if they got a good idea.

The problem with this book is it got a little long-winded, as if Shermer needs to go into every last bit that's related to the topic. This book went into a history of creationism (now called intelligent design, , and history of holocaust denial (i.e. pseudo-history, attempt to perpetuate fake history), though knowing the history doesn't really help us understand WHY they would continue to hold those ideas.

On the other hand, the analysis into the tactics used by pseudo-science and pseudo-history is interesting.

Worth a look, just to see how those scammers work.

Related articles

• Michael Shermer: Baloney Detection Kit (thegreatone22.wordpress.com)