The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science by Will Storr

[mr blur]

Bertrand Russell's essay "On the Value of Scepticism" was published 85 years ago this year. Its opening lines are as relevant today as they were then: "I wish to propose a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true." His proposal was "wildly paradoxical" because Russell understood that most of us do not use reason to form our beliefs. Most of what we believe is formed instead by an eclectic brew of formative influences, emotional hunches and selective concentration on evidence that supports our own prejudices. We are all victims of this "confirmation bias", but most of us like to think we'd have the good grace to change our minds if faced with incontrovertible evidence.

Enter Will Storr, whose first book Will Storr vs the Supernatural (2006) was a journalistic investigation of "the truth about ghosts". With The Heretics he has returned to similar ground and, as if taking on Russell's mantle, sets out to question individuals who persist in beliefs about the world that are, in his view, demonstrably false.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/13/heretics-adventures-will-storr-review

One to look out for...