Michael Shermer

“Ever since college, I have been a libertarian - socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I believe in individual liberty and personal responsibility.”

“Plato wove historical fact into literary myth.”

“Mammals are sentient beings that want to live and are afraid to die. Evolution vouchsafed us all with an instinct to survive, reproduce and flourish.”

“Through no divine design or cosmic plan, we have inherited the mantle of life's caretaker on the earth, the only home we have ever known.”

“The natural inclination in all humans is to posit a force, a spirit, outside of us. That tendency toward superstitious magical thinking is just built into our nature.”

“Human history is highly nonlinear and unpredictable.”

“Science operates in the natural, not the supernatural. In fact, I go so far as to state that there is no such thing as the supernatural or the paranormal.”

“Dualists hold that body and soul are separate entities and that the soul will continue beyond the existence of the physical body.”

“We know evolution happened because innumerable bits of data from myriad fields of science conjoin to paint a rich portrait of life's pilgrimage.”

“One of the features of a democracy is the disentanglement of the sacred from the secular because in religiously pluralistic countries, no one can legitimately claim special status by faith m...”

“I say you don't need religion, or political ideology, to understand human nature. Science reveals that human nature is greedy and selfish, altruistic and helpful.”

“Religious faith depends on a host of social, psychological and emotional factors that have little or nothing to do with probabilities, evidence and logic.”

“When alien abductees recount to me their stories, I do not deny that they had a real experience.”

“Either the soul survives death or it does not, and there is no scientific evidence that it does.”

“Being deeply knowledgeable on one subject narrows one's focus and increases confidence, but it also blurs dissenting views until they are no longer visible, thereby transforming data collect...”

“Being a skeptic just means being rational and empirical: thinking and seeing before believing.”

“A Hubble Space Telescope photograph of the universe evokes far more awe for creation than light streaming through a stained glass window in a cathedral.”