Ebook: 50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True

Maybe you know someone who swears by the reliability of psychics or who is in regular contact with angels. Or perhaps you're trying to find a nice way of dissuading someone from wasting money on a homeopathy cure. Or you met someone at a party who insisted the Holocaust never happened or that no one ever walked on the moon.

How do you find a gently persuasive way of steering people away from unfounded beliefs, bogus cures, conspiracy theories, and the like? Longtime skeptic Guy P. Harrison shows you how in this down-to-earth, entertaining exploration of commonly held extraordinary claims.

A veteran journalist, Harrison has not only surveyed a vast body of literature, but has also interviewed leading scientists, explored "the most haunted house in America," frolicked in the inviting waters of the Bermuda Triangle, and even talked to a "contrite Roswell alien."

Harrison is not out simply to debunk unfounded beliefs. Wherever possible, he presents alternative scientific explanations, which in most cases are even more fascinating than the wildest speculation. For example, stories about UFOs and alien abductions lack good evidence, but science gives us plenty of reasons to keep exploring outer space for evidence that life exists elsewhere in the vast universe. The proof for Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster may be nonexistent, but scientists are regularly discovering new species, some of which are truly stranger than fiction.

Stressing the excitement of scientific discovery and the legitimate mysteries and wonder inherent in reality, Harrison invites readers to share the joys of rational thinking and the skeptical approach to evaluating our extraordinary world.

Review

"What would it take to create a world in which fantasy is not confused for fact and public policy is based on objective reality? I don't know for sure. But a good place to start would be for everyone on Earth to read this book." --Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History

"...the perfect book for skeptics to carry with them whenever they venture into the dark and mysterious realms where myths, monsters, and magic lurk as pretenders to truth, and where pseudoscience and superstition rule the day. I haven't had this much fun flipping around an encyclopedic collection of weird things A to Z since indexing Skeptic magazine. Harrison has added to the growing body of skeptical literature a contribution that will continue to move our culture toward one that openly embraces reason, science, and logic." --Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine; columnist for Scientific American; author of The Believing Brain and Why People Believe Weird Things

"This book exactly nails the points science communicators have been trying to make for years." --Brian Dunning, author and host of the award-winning Skeptoid podcast

"Extremely well written, with a generous helping of good-natured humor, Harrison's book is the perfect antidote to magical thinking. Not just a debunking of fifty modern myths, Harrison explains exactly why these fifty popular beliefs have not passed scientific muster, always holding open the possibility, however remote, that one day they might. It's a fun read and should be on the bookshelves, not just of every skeptic, but of every believer in things that go bump in the night." --Dr. Kenneth Feder, professor of anthropology at Central Connecticut State University and the author of Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology

"A much needed tour through common delusions about reality. Harrison writes clearly and succinctly about beliefs that are not supported by science or logic. However, he does so with sympathy and understanding for the reasons so many people find comfort in the irrational." --Victor J. Stenger, author of the New York Times bestseller God: The Failed Hypothesis and The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning

"This book will blow readers' minds (and it should) by making them realize how easy it is to hold a strong belief without applying either critical thinking or skepticism. Harrison (Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know About Our Biological Diversity) pokes gaping holes into common beliefs in the supernatural (e.g., ghosts, horoscopes, angels, and miracles) and the tendency to believe that only personal religious tenets are correct despite total ignorance about other religious doctrine. Along those lines, for example, he debunks reincarnation by pointing out that over 100 billion people have lived on Earth but only 7 billion live today—and therefore, because of the shortage, people must be sharing bodies. Harrison guides us gently but firmly along an explorative path of our collective illogic, strong tendencies toward easy answers and magical thinking, and susceptibility to confirmation bias. He doesn't judge readers for buying into beliefs that have no real basis in fact and science, but instead asks them to second-guess the tendency to readily accept the unproven and the illogical as true. VERDICT An outstanding book that is required reading no matter what you believe." --Library Journal, Judith A. Matthews, Michigan State Univ. Lib., East Lansing

About the Author

Guy P. Harrison (San Diego, CA) is an award-winning writer, business owner, and the author of 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God and Race and Reality: What Everyone Should Know about Our Biological Diversity. He is also a newspaper columnist and has published articles in Free Inquiry magazine and other publications.