num_pages: 195
description: Extraordinary claims and extraordinary evidence. The mainstream and social media feed our minds a diet of fringe science and outright pseudoscience. They relentlessly stream paranormal supernatural and otherwise extraordinary claims. Where do all these come from? Theyre spread by shysters and charlatans by corporate propagandists with cynical eyes on the bottom line by priests and preachers of all kinds by axe-grinding cranks and ideologues and frequently by well-meaning dupes. This may be a scientific age but all too often science well-grounded scholarship evidence and logic are ignoredor even denied. Scientific skepticism offers a corrective: skeptics defend science and reason while demanding the evidence for extraordinary claims. In this volume we offer you thirteen ways to scientific skepticism: thirteen reasons to doubt extraordinary claims. The authors discuss groupthink and cognitive biases science denialism weird archeology claims about religion and free will and many other topics. Within these pages there is something for anyone who wants to avoid biases and fallacies cut through the masses of misinformation and push back against fakers and propagandists. The chapters are as follows: INTRODUCTION A BRIEF HISTORY OF DOUBT: GREAT SKEPTICS FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE RENAISSANCE PETER FERGUSON SKEPTICISM IN AN AGE OF IDEOLOGY RUSSELL BLACKFORD ARE YOU A SKEPTIC? MARIA MALTSEVA WHY YOU CANT TRUST YOUR BRAIN CALEB W. LACK BEING SUSPICIOUS OF OURSELVES: GROUPTHINKS THREAT TO SKEPTICISM JACQUES ROUSSEAU SCIENCE: A MECHANISM FOR DOUBTING; A SOURCE OF RELIABILITY KEVIN MCCARTHY SCIENCE IS PREDICATED ON THE NON-MAGICAL NATURAL WORLD ORDER JOHN W. LOFTUS THE POWER OF HUMES ON MIRACLES ZACHARY SLOSS ON DOUBTING THE EXISTENCE OF FREE WILL AND HOW IT CAN MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE JONATHAN M.S. PEARCE PSEUDOARCHAEOLOGY: SEVEN TIPS REBECCA BRADLEY THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS COMING FOR YOU! STAKS ROSCH WHY BELIEFS MATTER DAVID OSORIO SCIENCE DENIALISM AT A SKEPTIC CONFERENCE: A CAUTIONARY TALE EDWARD K CLINT APPENDIX: SCIENCE DENIALISM AT A SKEPTIC CONFERENCE AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
language: English
title: 13 Reasons To Doubt: Essays from the writers of Skeptic Ink
publisher: Onus Books