I was a bit disappointed in this book. I have heard Shermer many times before and liked him. This book was dull. It could perhaps be that I have come across this information before. The book did not answer the questions I had when I picked it up. I thought there would be more empirical evidence from a diverse range of sciences. He didn't seem to deliver the knock out blow in the end. ( )

Not so much about "Why people believe weird things", but rather using the tools of science and skepticism to debunk the weird things people believe.

The second chapter, which formalizes the differences between science and pseudoscience is particularly good. I also enjoyed the third which lists 25 fallacies that lead people to believe weird things.

I was hoping for more explanations of the neurobiological and evolutionary reasons for why people believe weird things, but there is only hints of such in the particular book.

It is more about a set of weird things people believe and how a skeptic can debunk these beliefs using the scientific method.

Some of the examples seem "dated" to me and thankfully so! It appears that some of the weird beliefs are either dying out or diminishing. (Perhaps, sadly, only to be replaced by new weird things.) That these weird beliefs seem dated does not diminish the enjoyment of the book.

Note also that Shermer does not necessarily PROVE that his alternate explanation for a certain belief is correct, but he shows enough support for the alternative explanation that he uses the principle behind Occam's Razor (that the simplest of two explanations is most likely) or Hume's reasoning "That no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavors to establish." (Shermer doesn't specifically mention Occam, but he does David Hume.)

Furthermore, he follows this up by indicating that unlike the organizations that believe in weird things and insist that their conclusions are correct and conclusive, science always subjects theories to further changes and corrections. All scientific conclusions are therefore forever "tentative", but the better supported are less so. ( )

Michael Shermer is probably best known as Scientific American's resident sceptic - a man who has what seems the wickedly enjoyable job of going around finding fault with other people's beliefs - a sort of modern day court jester without (presumably - I've never seen him) the funny costume and bells. In this classic, originally published in 1997 but reviewed in a new UK edition, he gives a powerful argument for taking the sceptical viewpoint.

Although along the same lines as Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World, this book works alongside Sagan's masterpiece, rather than competing with it. It focuses more on why we believe strange things, and also very usefully expands out from the paranormal and pseudoscience to include pseudohistory, a topic I hadn't even realized existed.

Shermer is something of a convert to scepticism, so has a convert's fervour, but none of the unpleasant aggressiveness of the likes of Randi and Dawkins. Instead he gently shows us how strange beliefs come into being, and why they have such a strong hold. Inevitably strong on the paranormal and UFOs, he is particularly good when looking at the likes of modern accusations of satanic rituals, and the remarkable cult of Ayn Rand. The section on creationism is a little weaker, partly because it isn't quite up-to-date enough, and also because there has been so much material going into this in more depth (see, for example, Scientists Confront...)

In some ways I was most impressed by the next section on pseudohistory, in part, I suspect, because of not having really thought about this as a concept before. The chapters on holocaust denial were fascinating, and perhaps even more surprising was the self-deception of the 'all ideas originated in Africa' movement (again new to me).

The only reason that this book doesn't get 5 stars is that I found the last section before getting to the summaries, on a scientific idea that its originator says gives a mechanism for a form of eternal life, irritating. It just isn't the same sort of problem as the other topics covered in the book. Here someone is speculating wildly based on extrapolating scientific theories to the extreme - but that's a very different game to having an unshakable belief in concepts with no support in evidence, and I think Shermer does himself and the reader a disservice by confusing the two. However, the book doesn't entirely end on this mistake, as there are a couple of short chapters pulling together the whys and wherefores of belief in weird things, so this small glitch doesn't destroy the flow, and certainly shouldn't detract from the fact that overall this is a book, alongside Sagan's, that ought to be on every thinking person's shelf. ( )

Michael Shermer debunks several weird beliefs such as alien abductions, creationism, Holocaust deniers and psychics to just name a few. I commend the author for not mocking, name-calling or ridiculing people who have these beliefs. He does an excellent job of presenting the facts and points out that you don’t have to be a cynic to be a skeptic. The author also points out that it is not just the un-education who have strange beliefs as many might assume but that many highly educated people hold weird beliefs. Cognite tute – think for yourself. ( )

I came across this book at Barnes and Noble many years ago. It was on a display stand, and caught my eye. I devoured it in a day.

It was not until I read this book that I realized there were other people who believed as I did, and we had a name - skeptic.

I won't say this book changed my life, but it lead me on a path that certainly did. ( )