492: Michael Shermer | Why We Believe Weird Things
The Jordan Harbinger Show
Jordan Harbinger
4.8 • 12.3K Ratings
🗓️ 7 April 2021
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) is the founder of Skeptic magazine and several books on the nature of belief. He’s the Director of The Skeptics Society, a non-profit dedicated to the promotion of science, reason, and critical thinking. He joins us to discuss why people believe weird things. [This is a rebroadcast that originally aired in 2016.]
What We Discuss with Michael Shermer:- How do beliefs form and persist even when we know they’re wrong?
- Why do skeptics (and restaurant owners) scowl at the mention of Uri Geller?
- Why are smart people even more susceptible to faulty beliefs?
- How do our genes influence our political and religious beliefs?
- What’s the difference between a skeptic and a cynic?
- And much more...
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/492
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | coming up on the jordan harbanger show |
| 0:02.6 | you know we know about the research from the paper that it's that people are |
| 0:05.6 | about |
| 0:06.1 | are highly |
| 0:07.2 | genetically |
| 0:08.2 | inclined to be either conservative or liberal |
| 0:11.4 | or religious or not very religious well there can't be a gene for being a |
| 0:14.7 | Catholic or a democrat no |
| 0:16.7 | what it is is |
| 0:17.6 | genes code for |
| 0:19.1 | personality temperament like |
| 0:21.1 | i'd like |
| 0:22.1 | this kind of world view because it makes me feel good |
| 0:25.9 | and all these other people that are in this group is tried |
| 0:29.7 | they're like me and i like being around people that are like me it feels good |
| 0:33.5 | and that's where the genes and the emotions kind of |
| 0:36.4 | meld there |
| 0:37.8 | and it ends up being that well |
| 0:40.1 | we call our moral drive democrats are republicans are for catholic so |
| 0:43.8 | proud of things are bonus |
| 0:45.4 | you know and the culture ends up sorting it out in the details |
| 0:48.9 | but the deeper part is how we feel about being a part of that group and we |
... |
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