Michael Shermer QUOTES

161 " A poignant example of what it often takes to bring about an end to a superstitious barbaric act may be seen in the Indian practice of suttee, or the burning of widows. The British government abolished suttee by outlawing it, and followed up by severely punishing transgressors. As the nineteenth-century British commander in chief in India, General Charles Napier, told his charges who complained that suttee was their cultural custom that the British should respect: “Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs. "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

162 " At the height of the witch craze the Duke of Brunswick invited two learned and famous Jesuits—both of whom believed in witchcraft and in torture as a means of eliciting a confession—to join him in the Brunswick dungeon to witness the torture of a woman accused of witchcraft. Suspecting that people will say anything to stop the pain, the duke told the woman on the rack that he had reasons to believe that the two men accompanying him were warlocks and that he wanted to know what she thought, instructing her torturers to jack up the pain a little more. The woman promptly “confessed” that she had seen both men turn themselves into goats, wolves, and other animals, that they had sexual relations with other witches, and that they had fathered many children with heads like toads and legs like spiders. “The Duke of Brunswick led his astounded friends away,” MacKay narrates. “This was convincing proof to both of them that thousands of persons had suffered unjustly; they knew their own innocence, and shuddered to think what their fate might have been if an enemy instead of a friend had put such a confession into the mouth of a criminal. "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

163 " When people feel that their voices are heard—and can see real change made—they are less likely to exit. Conversely, when voices are not heard—as when nations silence political dissenters by locking them up or executing them—exit becomes the only viable strategy for change, and that can lead to violence. In "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

164 " Evolution does not just produce new species; it produces an increasing number of new species. "

― Michael Shermer , Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design

165 " Natural rights theory arose during the Enlightenment to counter the belief in the divine right of kings, and became the basis of the social contract that gave rise to democracy, a superior system for the protection of human rights. This is what the English philosopher John Locke had in mind in his 1690 Second Treatise of Government (written to rebut Sir Robert Filmer’s 1680 Patriarcha, which defended the divine right of kings8 "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

166 " Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A being darkly wise and rudely great … He hangs between; in doubt to act or rest; In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; In doubt his mind or body to prefer; Born but to die, and reasoning but to err. "

― Michael Shermer , Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

167 " As Adam Smith noted in The Wealth of Nations , “Society cannot subsist among those who are at all times ready to hurt and injure one another.… If there is any society among robbers and murderers, they must at least … abstain from robbing and murdering one another. "

― Michael Shermer

168 " 1. The clear and quantitative physical differences among people in size,
strength, speed, agility, coordination, and other physical attributes that
translates into some being more successful than others, and that at least
half of these differences are inherited.
2. The clear and quantitative intellectual differences among people in
memory, problem solving ability, cognitive speed, mathematical talent,
spatial reasoning, verbal skills, emotional intelligence, and other mental
attributes that translates into some being more successful than others,
and that at least half of these differences are inherited. "

― Michael Shermer , Brain, Belief, and Politics (Cato Unbound Book 92011)

169 " Morality involves how we think and act toward other sentient beings and whether our thoughts and actions are right (good) or wrong (bad) with regard to their survival and flourishing. "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

170 " Morality involves how we think and act toward other moral agents in terms of whether our thoughts and actions are right or wrong with regard to their survival and flourishing. "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

171 " As noted previously, a principle of moral good is this: if other persons are involved in an action, then always act with their good in mind, and never act in a way that it leads to their loss or suffering (through force or fraud). "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

172 " 7. The principle of reciprocal altruism—I’ll scratch your back if you’ll
scratch mine”—is universal; people do not by nature give generously
unless they receive something in return, even if what they receive is
social status.
8. The principle of moralistic punishment—I’ll punish you if you do not
scratch my back after I have scratched yours—is universal; people do
not long tolerate free riders who continually take but almost never give. "

― Michael Shermer , Brain, Belief, and Politics (Cato Unbound Book 92011)

173 " The almost universal nature of within-group amity and between-group
enmity, wherein the rule-of-thumb heuristic is to trust in-group
members until they prove otherwise to be distrustful, and to distrust
out-group members until they prove otherwise to be trustful. "

― Michael Shermer , Brain, Belief, and Politics (Cato Unbound Book 92011)

174 " The almost universal desire of people to trade with one another, not for
the selfless benefit of others or the society, but for the selfish benefit of
one’s own kin and kind; it is an unintended consequence that trade
establishes trust between strangers and lowers between-group enmity,
as well as produces greater wealth for both trading partners and groups. "

― Michael Shermer , Brain, Belief, and Politics (Cato Unbound Book 92011)

175 " It’s an uphill battle, especially because many religious people still believe that being gay is a sin and a crime and, therefore, by their logic, “if homosexuals are allowed their civil rights, then so would prostitutes, thieves, and anyone else.” These words were spoken by Anita Bryant—former entertainer and orange juice representative—who now has the honor of an award in her name, to be given to lucky winners for “unbridled and unparalleled bigotry. "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

176 " Consideration of the method used in diverse orders of knowledge allows for the concordance of two points of view which seem irreconcilable. The sciences of observation describe and measure with ever greater precision the multiple manifestations of life … while theology extracts … the final meaning according to the Creator’s designs. "

― Michael Shermer , Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

177 " Switzerland has changed the status of animals to “beings” instead of “things,” and Germany was the first nation to grant animals a constitutional right when they added the words “and animal” to a provision obliging the state to respect and protect human dignity. "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

178 " Creating a new theory is not like destroying an old barn and erecting a skyscraper in its place. It is rather like climbing a mountain, gaining new and wider views, discovering unexpected connections between our starting point and its rich environment. But the point from which we started out still exists and can be seen, although it appears smaller and forms a tiny part of our broad view gained by the mastery of the obstacles on our adventurous way up "

― Michael Shermer , Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

179 " Many Christians actually believe they are being charitable by proclaiming that they “hate the sin, not the sinner,” which is not dissimilar to what Christians declared just before torching women as witches to save their souls, or when Christians called for pogroms against Jews for being Christ killers. "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

180 " By contrast, in a reason-based worldview like that of Enlightenment humanism in which the principle of interchangeable perspectives means that no one can reasonably argue for special privilege over others, morality shifts from the vantage point of the group to that of the individual, and instead of working toward some unfounded and unattainable utopian ideology in the distant future, the political system is designed to solve specific problems that are obtainable in the here and now. "

― Michael Shermer , The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom

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