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.--Judith A. Matthews, Michigan State Univ.
Lib., East Lansing Copyright 2012 Reed Business Information. (
Check Catalog)
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