Michael Shermer...anyone read his books?/

[Heddi]

I picked up "Why People Believe Weird Things" this weekend at a book store for $5. They also had "Why People Believe In God" and another book whose name I can't quite recall.

I know he's the editor of Skeptic magazine and I've seen him on shows before debunking psychics and other nonsense.

I started reading "Weird Things" last night and while I'm just past the introduction, prologue, and Ch 1 (maybe into Ch2) I get a kind of libertarian leaning to him. He gave me the impression he was a follower of Ayn Rand even though he considers her adherents to be cultish.

I'm in the middle of writing a 15+ page paper on the efficacy of Three Strikes Laws for an English Class, and am just taking a DU break. I suppose I could wikipedia him, but I was wondering what my fellow Athei-Agno-Skeptics think of him, if anything

[frogmarch]

1. I found this.

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Michael_Shermer

snip:

Shermer leans heavily libertarian and is known to be less than introspective where economic issues are concerned; occasional hilarity results with the rest of the skeptical community (one incident featured a thoroughly inept attempt to map economic freedom onto the Kardashev scale).

While Shermer's other work has been well received, his book Mind of the Market has been widely criticized in skeptical circles for being mostly full of bullshit pop evolutionary psychology used in order to rationalize his libertarianism.[4] This has led some to say there are "two Michael Shermers," "skeptical Shermer" and "libertarian Shermer." Others contend he never really stopped drinking the Randroid Kool-Aid. Of course, he has denied these charges.[5]

Initially an "environmental skeptic," Shermer returned to the warm embrace of reality, saying that "data trumps politics."

[Heddi]

2. :-/

Well, I guess I'll just have to read the book and see how I feel about it. I mean, I know that Penn Jillette is very libertarian, but I (generally) enjoyed Bullshit! when I had HBO, and I guess I don't need to agree with someone 100% of the time, right? I was about to pick up Penn's book at the library the other day but had too much schoolwork to do.

speaking of schoolwork...

[trotsky]

4. That's a well written snippet.

Two Shermers, yup. Just goes to show we always have to be on guard against irrationalism when it comes to things we want to believe.

[cleanhippie]

3. I think he does consider himself a libertarian, but not a Rand or Paul type.

And his understanding of the neurochemistry of the brain is superb.

I suggest one of his latest, The Believing Brain. A must-read!

[onager]

5. "Weird Things" is really good!

In that book, he talks about "weird things" he has believed himself in the past - like Fundamentalist Xianity, IIRC.

But you're right, as others have pointed out, Shermer does lean libertarian.

Your key phrase - "I guess I don't need to agree with someone 100% of the time, right?"

Right! And I wish more people had that attitude. Agreeing with Shermer about some things doesn't make me a Libertarian, any more than disagreeing with him about economics makes me a Communist.

I'm REALLY leery of bundling up atheism with a load of other ideological baggage. Partly because of That Other DU Group, where believers are always trying to tie atheism to Stalin & Co. And partly because I personally know all kinds of atheists. Some do believe in weird, wooish things, some are left-wing, some don't have the faintest interest in politics, and some are even Republicans. All we have in common is a lack of belief in Sky-Daddies, which is how I think it should be.

/gratuitous rant

I've seen a lot of harsh comments about Shermer on the web, describing him as "arrogant" and "dictatorial," among other things.

Using the weakest argument - personal experience - I can say I've met Shermer in person quite a few times, heard him publicly speak etc., and didn't notice that at all.

Heck, back when the Skeptics Society was starting up, Shermer and his wife stood behind the little card table themselves and collected entrance fees for the lectures. He was always a most approachable and down-to-earth fellow, IMO. (The lectures are at CalTech in Pasadena, not far from where I live.)

Which reminds me, I need to re-up with the SS. (the Skeptics Society, not that other one - the Secret Service).