Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, And Other Confusions Of Our Time [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

The "why" part of people believing weirds things is not adequately addressed. Another annoyance, where I became skeptical of Shermer himself as an unbiased skeptic, is the chapter about the Ayn Rand cult. Now, I've never read any of Rand's books, and am only slightly familiar with her Objectivist philosphy, but he devotes maybe a few sentences to why the philosophy is weird in the first place. Hey maybe it is weird, but I'm not going to take his word for it without a better explanation. Shermer himself used to be an Objectivist and an "enthusiastic follower of Ayn Rand", but now that he's seen the light all of a sudden it's weird.

The chapter that made me close the book in frustration was "Pigeonholes and Continuums", which is an attempt to debunk the sensitive subject of differences in race and I.Q., and if there are indeed "races" at all. He touches on the Bell Curve, and mentions Phillipe J. Rushton as well, who has written very controversial things about Race and I.Q., and Shermer promptly dismisses him with a wave of the hand because some of Rushton's research is backed by a group called the "Pioneer fund", who supposedly has connections to Holocaust denial among other shady business. That's all nice, but what about Rushton's arguments, and why is Rushton weird? He mentions a controversial article by Rushton published in the "prestiguous" (his words) science journal 'Intelligence', which we know anything published is peer-reviewed, but then does very little to refute anything specific in this article. He handpicks a select few scholars on race who enforce the "safe" and acceptable view of genetic racial differences; that their really are none. They could be right and this has nothing to do with what I believe, but the chapter is presented in a way that strongly contradicts what Shermer preaches about and I could no longer take the book too seriously.

3 stars however because there are otherwise redeeming sections in this book.

When you are a youth that cant stand religion, homeopathy or Deepak Chopra, a book like this is great. Through personal tales, Shermer explains not why people belive wierd things, but why he believed wierd things and how he overcame it. His past was full of new-age curealls, Objectivism and other silly cultish stuff and Shermer is quick, not only to point out why we get trapped into fuzzy thinking, but express sympathy with those who currently do.

If this makes the book sound condescending, that's because it is. This is why I changed my opinion about the book. What I originally read as a calm, objective book now seems a bit polemic and, honestly, that's the way most people will read it. Of course, there are other books along the lines of this one but they all seem to miss one crucial thing. Instead of explaining that new-age, Deepak and homeopathy are pseudosciences, the books never explain what is flawed about them (besides the fact that they're so silly!) and how we, the readers, can spot the flawed arguments for ourselves. This book, to conclude, is chock-full of anecdotes and jabs but, getting caught up in the fun of it, never answers the title question.