Michael Shermer is an American science writer and executive director of ‘The Skeptics Society’.
Michael Shermer is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine.
Best Michael Shermer Quotes
Skepticism is not a position; it’s a process. ~ Michael Shermer.
Being a skeptic just means being rational and empirical: thinking and seeing before believing. ~ Michael Shermer.
The whole point of faith, in fact, is to believe regardless of the evidence, which is the very antithesis of science. ~ Michael Shermer.
Human history is highly nonlinear and unpredictable. ~ Michael Shermer.
Science is not a thing. It’s a verb. It’s a way of thinking about things. It’s a way of looking for natural explanations for all phenomena. ~ Michael Shermer.
In principle, skeptics are neither closed-minded nor cynical. We are curious but cautious. ~ Michael Shermer.
There are many sources of spirituality; religion may be the most common, but it is by no means the only. Anything that generates a sense of awe may be a source of spirituality. Science does this in spades. ~ Michael Shermer.
Humans are pattern-seeking story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns, whether they exist or not. ~ Michael Shermer.
In science, if an idea is not falsifiable, it is not that it is wrong, it is that we cannot determine if it is wrong, and thus it is not even wrong. ~ Michael Shermer.
To be a fully functioning moral agent, one cannot passively accept moral principles handed down by fiat. Moral principles require moral reasoning. ~ Michael Shermer.
The price of liberty is, in addition to eternal vigilance, eternal patience with the vacuous blather occasionally expressed from behind the shield of free speech. ~ Michael Shermer.
Famous Michael Shermer Quotes
Belief is the natural state of things. It is the default option. We just believe. We believe all sorts of things. Belief is natural; disbelief, skepticism, science, is not natural. ~ Michael Shermer.
Anecdotal thinking comes naturally; science requires training. ~ Michael Shermer.
We want to be open-minded enough to accept radical new ideas when they occasionally come along, but we don’t want to be so open-minded that our brains fall out. ~ Michael Shermer.
A Hubble Space Telescope photograph of the universe evokes far more awe for creation than light streaming through a stained glass window in a cathedral. ~ Michael Shermer.
Absolute morality leads logically to absolute intolerance. ~ Michael Shermer.
Thought-Provoking Michael Shermer Quotes
Science is a set of methods designed to describe and interpret observed or inferred phenomenon, past or present, and aimed at building a testable body of knowledge open to rejection or confirmation. ~ Michael Shermer.
Science is not the affirmation of a set of beliefs but a process of inquiry aimed at building a testable body of knowledge constantly open to rejection or confirmation. In science, knowledge is fluid and certainty fleeting. That is at the heart of its limitations. It is also its greatest strength. ~ Michael Shermer.
Myths are stories that express meaning, morality or motivation. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant. ~ Michael Shermer.
Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons. ~ Michael Shermer.
Through no divine design or cosmic plan, we have inherited the mantle of life’s caretaker on the earth, the only home we have ever known. ~ Michael Shermer.
Accepting evolution does not force us to jettison our morals and ethics, and rejecting evolution does not ensure their constancy. ~ Michael Shermer.
The human capacity for self-delusion is boundless, and the effects of belief are overpowering. ~ Michael Shermer.
In the long run, it is better to understand the way the world really is rather than how we would like it to be. ~ Michael Shermer.
Top Michael Shermer Quotes
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. ~ Michael Shermer.
Scientific prayer makes God a celestial lab rat, leading to bad science and worse religion. ~ Michael Shermer.
There is no such thing as the supernatural or the paranormal. There is only the natural, the normal, and mysteries we have yet to explain. ~ Michael Shermer.
Believing that the rustle in the grass is a dangerous predator when it is only the wind does not cost much, but believing that a dangerous predator is the wind may cost an animal its life. ~ Michael Shermer.
Rationality tied to moral decency is the most powerful joint instrument for good that our planet has ever known. ~ Michael Shermer.
Darwin matters because evolution matters. Evolution matters because science matters. Science matters because it is the preeminent story of our age, an epic saga about who we are, where we came from and where we are going. ~ Michael Shermer.
Mysteries once thought to be supernatural or paranormal happenings – such as astronomical or meteorological events – are incorporated into science once their causes are understood. ~ Michael Shermer.
The fate of the paranormal is to become the normal as our horizons of understanding expand. ~ Michael Shermer.
Popular Michael Shermer Quotes
In the past 10,000 years, humans have devised roughly 100,000 religions based on roughly 2,500 gods. So the only difference between myself and the believers is that I am skeptical of 2,500 gods whereas they are skeptical of 2,499 gods. We’re only one God away from total agreement. ~ Michael Shermer.
The “hypocrite” is the critic who disguises his own failings by focusing attention on the failings of others. ~ Michael Shermer.
We are a fluke of nature, a quirk of evolution, a glorious contingency. ~ Michael Shermer.
I’m a skeptic not because I do not want to believe, but because I want to know. How can we tell the difference between what we would like to be true and what is actually true? The answer is science. ~ Michael Shermer.
Dualists hold that body and soul are separate entities and that the soul will continue beyond the existence of the physical body. ~ Michael Shermer.
Religious faith depends on a host of social, psychological and emotional factors that have little or nothing to do with probabilities, evidence and logic. ~ Michael Shermer.
Either the soul survives death or it does not, and there is no scientific evidence that it does. ~ Michael Shermer.
Profound Michael Shermer Quotes
In science, all conclusions are provisional, subject to new evidence and better arguments, the very antithesis of religious faith. ~ Michael Shermer.
Skepticism is not a position; skepticism is an approach to claims, in the same way that science is not a subject but a method. ~ Michael Shermer.
What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. ~ Michael Shermer.
I’m a skeptic not because I do not want to believe, but because I want to know. ~ Michael Shermer.
An uncertain and doubting mind leads to fresh world visions and the possibility of new and ever-changing realities. ~ Michael Shermer.
Remember always that we are pattern-seeking primates who are especially adept at finding patterns with emotional meaning. ~ Michael Shermer.
So these were the 47 top quotes about Michael Shermer.
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