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No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural QUOTES

No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural QUOTES

1 " Here’s an easy way to figure out if you’re in a cult: If you’re wondering whether you’re in a cult, the answer is yes.” —Stephen Colbert "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural

2 " You have two lives. The second one begins when you realize you only have one.” —Unknown "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural

3 " Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural

4 " If you’re asked whether you could possibly be mistaken about something and you say “No,” you might be affected by perception biases. If it is impossible, in your mind, for you to be wrong, then you have an inherently unscientific mindset and you likely won’t be able to uncover (or accept) the truth if it contradicts your opinion. "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural

5 " Question everything, and worship nothing. "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural

6 " The ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about yet refuse to investigate. "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural

7 " The bottom line: friends don’t let friends rely on any form of placebo-based faith healing when they require real medical treatment. If you keep someone from seeing a medical professional in favor of prayer or homeopathy or any other so-called alternative medicine, you aren’t “doing it the natural way” or “leaving it in God’s hands.” You’re causing real harm and putting lives at risk. "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural

8 " We live in a world where unfortunately the distinction between true and false appears to become increasingly blurred by manipulation of facts, by exploitation of uncritical minds, and by the pollution of the language.” —Arne Tiselius "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural

9 " George Bernard Shaw wrote in the 1912 play Androcles and the Lion, “The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life. "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural

10 " The real easy fix to gullibility is to realize and tell yourself every day that there is so much in this life to be happy for. Just being alive and experiencing the things we do is amazing. We don’t need magic to find the real magic in the world. We don’t need an easy fix to get ahead. Stop and look closer at things around you and you will find amazement everywhere. Once we do this, we are less gullible. We live in the moment. Once we realize we do not need that easy fix we are less likely to be taken advantage of or even care enough for someone to take advantage of you. A saying I abide to is, “Nothing worth any good comes easy, yet we can enjoy the journey and the fruits of our labor. "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural

11 " Sometimes chance is on the believer’s side and he or she does resolve the problems after praying or otherwise petitioning the supernatural, and that’s actually when the false connection between faith and good fortune (by definition a superstition) is fortified. The believer thanks their god or spiritual force of choice and thinks it can be counted on in the future. Furthermore, when someone credits their accomplishments to a god or other mystical force—whether it’s for helping them overcome an addiction or achieve something great—it pushes them further from reality. It not only takes away from the individual’s hard work that is likely responsible, but it also implies that person was somehow more important than anybody else who may have failed to accomplish the same feat. If you are considering expressing gratitude to an unseen and unproven force for positive developments in your life, remember that it can be equally (if not more so) rewarding to thank those who truly helped you accomplish whatever the positive action is. If it was your own hard work, acknowledge that. If it was someone else’s, let them know they are appreciated. If it was dumb luck, don’t count on it in the future but take advantage of it while it’s there. This is the beauty of reality. "

― David G. McAfee , No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural