Overview

This title offers a witty look inside the world of ridiculous and sometimes downright dangerous belief systems, and how they suck us in. Wacky belief systems abound. Members of the Heaven's Gate suicide cult believed they were taking a ride to heaven on board a UFO. Muslim suicide bombers expect to be greeted after death by 72 virgins. And many fundamentalist Christians insist the entire universe is just 6,000 years old. Of course it's not only cults and religions that promote bizarre beliefs - significant numbers of people believe that aliens built the pyramids. How do such preposterous views succeed in entrenching themselves in the minds of sane, intelligent, educated people and turn them into the willing slaves of claptrap? ""Believing Bullshit"" is a witty and insightful critique that will help immunize readers against the wiles of cultists, religious and political zealots, conspiracy theorists, and various other nutcases by clearly setting out the tricks of the trade by which such insidious belief systems are created and sustained.

Full Product Details

9781616144111

Table of Contents

Reviews

""""Offers flashes of wit and insight.” —Times Higher Education “I would like to see this book read by college freshmen, and certainly anybody running for public office. The witty, insightful, and often amusing arguments might help to immunize readers against religious and political zealots, conspiracy theorists, and new agers by understanding their stocks in trade….” —San Francisco Book Review “

Offers flashes of wit and insight. --Times Higher Education I would like to see this book read by college freshmen, and certainly anybody running for public office. The witty, insightful, and often amusing arguments might help to immunize readers against religious and political zealots, conspiracy theorists, and new agers by understanding their stocks in trade.... --San Francisco Book Review

Author Information

Stephen Law is a senior lecturer in philosophy at Heythrop College, University of London; provost for the Centre for Inquiry UK; and the editor of Think: Philosophy for Everyone, a journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy.

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