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TED talk: Why People Believe Strange Thi...

Why do people see the Virgin Mary on cheese sandwiches or hear demonic lyrics in "Stairway to Heaven"? Using video, images and music, professional skeptic Michael Shermer explores these and other phenomena, including UFOs and alien sightings. He offers cognitive context: In the absence of sound science, incomplete information can combine with the power of suggestion (helping us hear those Satanic lyrics in Led Zeppelin). In fact, he says, humans tend to convince ourselves to believe: We overvalue the "hits" that support our beliefs, and discount the more numerous "misses."

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15 Comments

Current View: 15 / Show all Comments

3zer0 : LVL 8: VP 1.7: said:

3zer0

18 votes NegativePositive

73 days 10 hours ago...

Michael Shermer is the man. Great post. TED rules.

ItsTheCrab : LVL 23: VP 3.2: said:

ItsTheCrab

6 votes NegativePositive

73 days 6 hours ago...

:: Going to www.skeptic.com right now ::

sato : LVL 21: VP 3: said:

sato

2 votes NegativePositive

73 days 2 hours ago...

fantastic :)

fattirefury : LVL 37: VP 4.5: said:

fattirefury

9 votes NegativePositive

72 days 23 hours ago...

if i didnt have this and spikes weekly gallery i would have nothing to look forward to every week

rybear4513 : LVL 26: VP 3.5: said:

rybear4513

Hidden (Show Comment) -16 votes

72 days 17 hours ago...

i pray for all you sinners

KrogotH : LVL 41: VP 4.9: said:

KrogotH

3 votes NegativePositive

72 days 16 hours ago...

make sure u watch the end =]

Dallaman : LVL 39: VP 4.7: said:

Dallaman

Hidden (Show Comment) -9 votes

71 days 13 hours ago...

yawn

vee445 : LVL 33: VP 4.2: said:

vee445

5 votes NegativePositive

71 days 8 hours ago...

That ending was hilarious. I am a huge nerd though.

venom2 : LVL 3: VP 1.2: said:

venom2

-6 votes NegativePositive

71 days 5 hours ago...

Cameraman should be fired. He didn`t zoom in on the screen with the songs revised lyrics.

idiot

venom2 : LVL 3: VP 1.2: said:

venom2

4 votes NegativePositive

71 days 5 hours ago...

PS - I rather be a sinner than believe in religion any day of the week.

Poitington : LVL 25: VP 3.4: said:

Poitington

2 votes NegativePositive

70 days 13 hours ago...

I`m all for debunking bunk. To use a religious phrase to `seperate the chaff from the wheat` is always a good thing.
I`m not sure that using the phrase `what is more likely` is very scientific though, or at least i`m sure that it`s quite simplistic. Much of confirmed science tells us that the universe is full of mind bogglingly extremly unlikly things.
There are many factors that render something bunk but the mere fact that it is less likely than something elswe is not enough to do so.

D! : LVL 43: VP 5: said:

D!

0 votes NegativePositive

70 days 12 hours ago...

he explains very little as to why people believe these things- only touches on cognitive biases, which are essential to the understanding of the process. entertaining though.

HeyDanno : LVL 2: VP 1.1: said:

HeyDanno

Hidden (Show Comment) -8 votes

70 days 10 hours ago...

The guy openly mocks people who believe in intelligent design. Mocking someone is never a smart thing to do. If he cannot comprehend that basic principle it throws into doubt everything else he has to say.

We do not live very long. We are all going to find out very soon if there is a supreme being behind all of this. If you don`t believe there is that is your free will. But if by chance you are wrong... then you probably don`t want it on your record that you ridiculed the idea of Him.

vee445 : LVL 33: VP 4.2: said:

vee445

5 votes NegativePositive

70 days 10 hours ago...

"The guy openly mocks people who believe in intelligent design."

Good. More people need to do it. It`s a load of shit, and there`s no chance that`s it`s even remotely possible. You can`t fully disprove religion, but you certainly can disprove that bogus story that the Earth is 6000 years old. There`s plenty of things older than that and we have plenty of proof of it.

HeyDanno : LVL 2: VP 1.1: said:

HeyDanno

1 votes NegativePositive

70 days 8 hours ago...

"you certainly can disprove that bogus story that the Earth is 6000 years old."

Please understand that not all Christians believe in a 6,000 or 10,000 year old earth. There are MANY Christians who believe in an ancient earth. You don`t hear that on the news though. They love to bash Christians. They act like the `right wing` is made up of Christians. It is NOT. True followers of Jesus are anti-war. The `right wing` is not controlled by real Christians. We have the ability to develop technology that could neutralize practically any threat, melt weapons and totally disarm people who hate us. There is no need to kill anyone. Instead, those in power waste our vast resources of manpower and money by producing brain washed foot soldiers and murderous weapons. These are not Christ-like activities.

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