Quotes from Michael Shermer

I'm a skeptic not because I do not want to believe, but because I want to know.

My libertarian beliefs have not always served me well. Like most people who hold strong ideological convictions, I find that, too often, my beliefs trump the scientific facts.

The case for exploiting animals for food, clothing and entertainment often relies on our superior intelligence, language and self-awareness: the rights of the superior being trump those of the inferior.

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.

Ever since college, I have been a libertarian - socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I believe in individual liberty and personal responsibility.

There are checks and balances in science. There's somebody checking the people doing the science, and then there's somebody who checks the checkers and somebody who checks the checker's checkers.

The actual atoms and molecules that make up my brain and body today are not the same ones that I was born with on September 8, 1954, a half-century ago this month.

The recent medical controversy over whether vaccinations cause autism reveals a habit of human cognition — thinking anecdotally comes naturally, whereas thinking scientifically does not.

Plato wove historical fact into literary myth.

Mysteries once thought to be supernatural or paranormal happenings - such as astronomical or meteorological events - are incorporated into science once their causes are understood.

Scientists are skeptics. It's unfortunate that the word 'skeptic' has taken on other connotations in the culture involving nihilism and cynicism. Really, in its pure and original meaning, it's just thoughtful inquiry.

One of the features of a democracy is the disentanglement of the sacred from the secular because in religiously pluralistic countries, no one can legitimately claim special status by faith membership.

Human history is highly nonlinear and unpredictable.

When alien abductees recount to me their stories, I do not deny that they had a real experience.

Skeptics question the validity of a particular claim by calling for evidence to prove or disprove it.

In science , all conclusions are provisional, subject to new evidence and better arguments, the very antithesis of religious faith.

For solving a surprisingly large and varied number of problems, crowds are smarter than individuals.

We think of our eyes as video cameras and our brains as blank tapes to be filled with sensory inputs.

Either the soul survives death or it does not, and there is no scientific evidence that it does.

Being deeply knowledgeable on one subject narrows one's focus and increases confidence, but it also blurs dissenting views until they are no longer visible, thereby transforming data collection into bias confirmation and morphing self-deception into self-assurance.

In the long run, it is better to understand the way the world really is rather than how we would like it to be.

Remember always that we are pattern-seeking primates who are especially adept at finding patterns with emotional meaning.

Scientists like Bjorn Lomborg in The Skeptical Environmentalist have, in my opinion, properly nailed environmental extremists for these exaggerated scenarios.

Religious faith depends on a host of social, psychological and emotional factors that have little or nothing to do with probabilities, evidence and logic.