Popular science writer Harrison (
50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True; 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God; 50 Simple Questions for Every Christian) provides a lively discussion of ways to improve critical thinking, analyze situations like a scientist, learn to question everything, and understand how the brain works. His approach to becoming a skeptic is solid and always positive, maintaining a clear distinction between an irrational belief and the person who holds the belief. Harrison's upbeat style nicely conveys some of the latest scientific research on how the mind functions. The author unravels unusual claims and weird beliefs, explains how to replace emotionally supportive unsound thinking with rational skepticism, and describes how to continue cultivating a healthy brain-body system. Harrison's inviting style serves the interests of skeptics and scientists who face the onslaught of nonsense, delusion, ignorance, stupidity, and bias that dominates today's muddled culture. This latest work will appeal to fans of
Skeptic magazine and Charles MacKay's
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Michael Shermer's
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, and Lynne Kelly's
The Skeptic's Guide to the Paranormal.
VERDICT Highly recommended for all libraries.
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