Why people believe weird things | Michael Shermer
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http://www.ted.com 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."
Comments
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Scientists can't explain the Big Bang, just like a miracle.
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now that Snopes is proven to be a sham...we should trust this guy?
Some folks believe their views are truth and opposing views are fake.
The danger is that they shut down the discussion and refuse to answer legit questions that challenge conventional theory.
Electric universe comes to mind. Lots of data that challenges standard model...always goes unanswered if it seriously raises issues. -
if a dog barks in a forest and nobody is around to hear it dose it happen at all? well according to taking scientific thinking to the extremes then no because there is no evidence for the dog barking and it only happened once so is invalidated as can't be tested or repeated. scientists the only people who are so sure of the scientific method until you put a cat in a box
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this is why I love science and want to be a scientist
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If I hadn't believed it I wouldn't have seen it
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Reminds me of rhe global warming debate
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He would have more credibility if his agenda wasn't about mocking people.
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6:38
And might mention that the whole face flap about Cydonia was based on two grainy images, but both from nearly the same angle, and the Sun was also from very nearly the same angle. Still too poor to make it out.
We all should have been noisy about NASA needing to get lots of budget to send lots of really good probes and landers and rovers and sample returners. -
I can't believe I found the real life Dr. Richard Strand
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"Why people believe weird things?"
Yes, why do we for example buy extremely expensive cars with features we'll never ever need? Why do we believe we need them? Incredibly irrational and what is worse - not only we are paying, but our planet pays a lot for these irrational beliefs. -
Understanding > Believing.
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Aliens, God, Understanding Love and Death. Living by Theories and Dogma.....are all Human constructs, Concidered to shape our civilization...
But still,, pretty weird from a different point of View. -
Super cool, that´s how could that was! Great ending
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I did not expect that ending. Kudos!
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Actually, since the universe has been expanding, the radius of the observable universe turns out to be 46.5 billion light years.
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Ok. I think someone should provide an explanation!!!!
I have no idea who this guy is. He approaches the StairWay to Heaven in reverse w/ a joking tone. He is mocking it. Ok bla bla bla. BUT he refuses to EXPLAIN how the message came to be! A message does not form entirely by chance!!! I am not trying to pick up a fight with people who like the band or the song. I want someone to go for the explanatiion. Saying simply ´ok it´s a coincidence´ does not sit well w/ me. -
when your looking for it you can find it
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I think I fell in love with Katie Melua at that very moment :D
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He should have made clear bulletin-points. Like some here said, the delivery was more like a stand-up comedy stunt. Even if you could make a bulletin-list out of what he wanted to say, most of the supporting evidence he showed for his arguments were pure straw-man arguments. I.e. just because one silly case is fake doesn't mean the rest are.
For the ones of you who weren't convinced by Michaels expose, here is a compiled list of why people believe in "strange things" from the other perspective:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/113376390727081548178 -
nice humour guy =))
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