Raising Infinite Dollars

Do you want to be One in a Million? Better yet, do you want to be one in 94,000? That's about how many people have joined Stephen's Colbert SuperPAC already. Have you? If not, hurry up and do it. Stephen promises lots of spam emails and also hopes to go from the slightly more than $100 that he has raised so far to Infinity dollars. He even has a graph, so you know it's worth it.

At this point in the show, I got a phone call and wasn't paying close attention, but I think Stephen talked about John Lennon eating Grape Nuts which turned him into a Conservative at which point he became the Ambassador to the U.N. for Germany. But, I might have that part of the show wrong so don't quote me.

Tonight's guest, Dr. Michael Shermer, supposedly is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, but I don't believe it. Dr. Michael Shermer talked with Stephen about his latest book, "The Believing Brain, From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies, How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths."

It was a great conversation that Stephen and Dr. Shermer had about the book and beliefs in general. The two of them did disagree on some points. Dr. Shermer wants to debunk beliefs that aren't backed up by science while Stephen wonders what's wrong with bunking. Apparently there is a lot of bunk out there, and nonsense and bad science and voodoo science and pathological science and non-science. Basically, we choose our beliefs and then look for facts that fits what we believe. Just think about it. If nothing else, think about someone who disagrees with you and you would probably admit that they fit their facts to support their beliefs. Am I right or am I right?

Stephen did comment on the lengthy title of the book and not in a good way. However, I would have loved a book like this in junior high, especially when my English teacher said we had to have at least 200 words in our book report. Groan. How could anybody possibly come up with 200 words about a book they read? With this book, it would be easy. Here's how I would have started my junior high school book report:

~~~I really enjoyed reading the book, "The Believing Brain, From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies, How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths." It made me think a lot. There were many controversial things that the author, Dr. Michael Shermer, wrote about in his book, "The Believing Brain, From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies, How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths." ~~~

Wow, the book report is almost up to 100 words already. Of course, I don't think I would have read something as intellectual as that in junior high, but what a gift it would have been to have such a long title. It would not be necessary to do the usual, "I really, really, really enjoyed this very, very, very interesting book."

So, read the book, "The Believing Brain, From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies, How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths." Then, see if you can change your beliefs, at least to the extent that you examine them based on science and actual facts. Now there's a homework assignment for you to bite into.