Category: Video Files

Michael Shermer takes us through the strange claims we humans put forth as truth - from alien encounters to Virgin Mary sightings on pizza pies, to hidden messages revealed while playing “Stairway to Heaven” backwards - and explains the evolutionary and cognitive basis for these lapses in reason. Shermer is the founder/publisher of Skeptic Magazine, and author of several books, including Why People Believe Weird Things. Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA at the TED Conference.

Notice how when you listen to Stairway to Heaven backwards first you catch only one word or so. Then when Michael Shermer tells you what to listen for, you hear a lot more. Compare this same concept to how “feeling the spirit” is used as a confirmatory experience. You are told what to look for and what it means and miraculously people feel something.

2006 Beyond Belief Conference at the Salk Institute
Will faith and dogma trump rational inquiry, or will it be possible to reconcile religious and scientific worldviews? Can evolutionary biology, anthropology and neuroscience help us to better understand how we construct beliefs, and experience empathy, fear and awe? Can science help us create a new rational narrative as poetic and powerful as those that have traditionally sustained societies? Can we treat religion as a natural phenomenon? Can we be good without God? And if not God, then what?

This is a critical moment in the human situation, and The Science Network in association with the Crick-Jacobs Center brought together an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers to explore answers to these questions. The conversation took place at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA from November 5-7, 2006.

Video 1. Bill Maher on Mormonism and Religion in Politics

Video 3. Bill Maher on Scarborough Country—Religion Debate

Video 3. Bill Maher & Guests Discuss Religious Fanaticism

From his Austrailian TV series “John Safran vs. God”, John Safran flies to Salt Lake City to see how atheist missionaries will fare in the headquarters of Mormonism.

ABC Correspondent John Stossel looks at how the silliest of superstitions and strongest of faiths can have a big impact on our minds, bodies and even our wallets.

Legions Put Their Faith in Superstition and Pseudo-Science
Why do so many people put their faith in pseudo-scientific pursuits such as astrology, alternative medicine and psychics? ABCNEWS' John Stossel seeks to find out in his special report, "The Power of Belief". Stossel walks on hot coals, visits New Age emporia, checks the accuracy of his horoscope, and invites a voodoo priest to place a curse on him.

He discovers people are attracted to belief - often in defiance of evidence. It begins at a young age, with our capacity for imaginative play. Stossel talks to a group of children as they create - and come to believe in - an imaginary fox. "There is a fox, there is a fox, I know it. We saw one, I know it!," says a child.