Reasonable doubt | Michael Shermer | TEDxGhentSalon
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- Опубліковано 24 чер 2015
- Michael Shermer explains how a scientific way of thinking manages to improve the world in various kinds of ways. He describes how science and reason lead humanity toward truth, justice and freedom.
“As democracy increases, violence decreases” is the theme of his talk.
He discusses the death penalty, women and gay rights and so much more. He states that within these delicate issues, rationality and abstract thinking are the keys to increased awareness and democracy.
Michael Shermer is founder of the Skeptics Society and the editor-in-chief of Skeptic Magazine.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
There is no doubt that Superstition only hurts our society and furthers hatred.
Science and rational thinking are the way to Peaceful Solutions.
Good luck with the rational thinking!
god bad, science good. yay
..not religion/blind beliefs
Loved the talk. Amazing to think that being hopeful is reasonable.
Shermer’s optimism is delightful and reaffirming.
Fast forward 3 years, and things have taken a step back. Shermer did not anticipate a populist shift to the far right in America, as well as several other nations.
I am still hopeful for the future of humanity. It will just take longer than Shermer anticipates. I’m frustrated at the delay.
P. B Amygdala I don’t think America went far right. America just went right a little more, but in reality it is pretty moderate right now. If this country went far right, you would see a Rick Santorum or Ted Cruz presidency right now.
Michael Shermer is awesome. Reading “The Believing Brian” right now for the first time. Highly recommend it!!!
Well...if you listen to Shermer he'd probably tell you that no The capital Riot wasn't a conspiracy. Those don't happen in American Politics do they? No it was a 1000 Lone Nuts acting independently of each other.
@@vernpascal1531 conspiracies need to be secret, a protest or a riot or whatever isn't a 'conspiracy' if people just openly decide to do something together on social media
He always has something interesting to show and tell that improves my view of life and living. Thank you.
today is 2020, and I first watched this video in 2015. I wonder what he would have to say now.
Shermer makes a strong case for moral progress and optimism. Steven Pinker's "Better Angels of Our Nature" and Sam Harris' "The Moral Landscape" are also masterful works that drive home this point.
Chris Schneider yes, but peaceful living is always at risk from nationalism and right wing authoritarians.
@@denisdaly1708
You are obviously a liberal. The libs are imploding and the reality that nationalism is the way to a better future.
I actually feel sorry for the left. They can't accept the truth and that the USA is the best country on Earth.
@@tomthumb9839 let me guess, you are from USA
@@denisdaly1708...... and from left wing extremism....
How quaint this sounds after more than a year of regression.
6:11
"Moral Arc of Women's Right To Vote"
Vatican City - Never
Laughed while drinking coffe, now I have to change.
Thanks Michael!
The idea that the enlightenment is still improving the lot for people and animals on the planet is a positive perspective that we can only support and promote for the future of our children and the other peoples and animals on the planet. Great talk.
In 2021 25 states still have the death penalty, not three. And he says California last execution was 1992 when in fact it was 2006. Makes me wonder about the rest of what he says…
this got me so inspired...the moral arc is going to be a mantra now...and the we are stardust really made me feel nice
A person can reject abstract thought because they really don't want to think about the abstraction. You wouldn't just assume they can't think that way.
Richard Gates I like how some people who think like Shermer say they value reasoning and thinking abstractly using factual information. But when some people use the same facts and reasoning to reach a different conclusion or belief , people like Shermer (progressives) seem to want to limit those facts and information. Wanting to use approved facts and information that guides everyone to reach conclusions that agree with progressives. And if it’s ok with Shermer I will decide for myself what makes my society better and what moral progress is positive. I don’t believe all social progress is positive by definition. I guess when someone can marry their Shetland pony we will be a completely evolved and moral country. Keep leading the way Europe...
18:37 is where we are now politically here in the US.
I look forward to a decrease in Tribalism so that we can get back to the business of being a great country, despite being falsely promised just that 4 years ago.
We slipped a bit, but are in the process of righting ourselves.
The "Moral Arc" is bending towards goodness once again.
Can't wait until January. 👍
Nnnn
such intelligence and empathy--for all the comments trying to 'sound' more intelligent go do some deep-research; both sides. Anyway, love his talks. Always stays on topic and upsets those white privileged people who know all the answers. ;)
One of my (currently living) intellectual heroes, here. Michael Shermer says all of this better than anyone!
+KylePerkino
I could have written your very same words.
It's always all about intention
wonder what his predictions are now? are they still as optimistic after the last 7 years?
I like the way Shermer always laughs at his own jokes.
Well, someone has to.
I don't. It drives me nuts.
johneamer ☆ I lmmfao at Shermer's jokes. 😂
If your joke isn't funny enough to make yourself laugh, it isn't worth telling.
Maybe they're not his own jokes and he laughs at them because he thinks they're funny(?)
I’m reading “why people believe weird things “ . He’s a good writer and makes sense
Nice talk
7 years later and we have moved backwards as a country instead of forwards... :(
3:55 “Death is the ultimate form of suffering”?!! Uh what?!!
Yeah I can think of worse things than death.
I wonder if he would make the same talk today, only 3 years later.
kim lewis I wonder.
He would probably tell you the same thing he mentioned in his talk: Follow trend-lines not headlines
Watched some of it
Most American prisons can still be considered a form of torture.
Nobody said it's not but did you even listen? He said IN COMPARISON to history.
There is a big absent in Shermer's case: economics.
South Korea is not better off than North Korea just because it is a democracy, but because it's way richer. And that didn't happen because of democracy. South Korea was an US-backed authocracy for many decades. In fact, the US backed dictatorships againts democracy for geopolitical reasons. Take Chile, 1973.
I find many US intellectuals have problems with basic 20th century history. They make up a story about the US being a force for liberty and democracy and progress in the world... Did you know Afghanistan was a secular country in the 1970s? That was before the US started to back islamic fundamentalists (like the Talibans) against the pan-arabic nationalism.
What Noam Chomsky says about the US foreign policy is a shock for propaganda-ridden "Americans", but it's pretty much common knowledge in Latin America and the Arab world.
If you want moral progress then empires have to go too, Shermer. Starting with (what is left of) the US Empire.
Human natue does not really change does it?
Jeez if your invited to go hunting and when you show up there are 11 people. That can't be good.
I kinda like superstition. Because I'm not superstitious myself I can listen for hours to people claiming to see and experience things. It's ridiculous but fun. But I don't say anything to them
Michael Shermer is an intelligent person - very interesting data.
He needs to give the audience a minute to digest what he's saying.
WAY too many Power Point slides, extremely overloaded with info.
Yep. When I see a page of statistics or a graph or a series of illustrations I want to shout "STOP! Let me see what's there! Don't start talking again until I've analysed the data!"
Watching on UA-cam it's not a problem, because I can pause the video and read every darned word, examine every image, and really absorb what a graph is displaying. It can take 30 or 40 seconds until I've seen enough, following the lines, dates, countries, times, and so forth. And then thinking about and digesting what I've just seen.
A 'blitz' presentation is slick and impressive, but unhelpful. It's how politicians are trained to operate: "Engage people and make them think, but keep moving and don't give them time to question what you're feeding them."
I suspect that Shermer has paced his delivery this way because he's promoting his latest book - "If ya wanna see more, you can buy it and take as long as you like over it..."
Ah, well. At least he's talking sense and not just grubbing for votes. 🙂
Speak for yourself. Also Mr. Intelligent, you have a pause button.
@@gene5237 Aww... thank you, cupcake :)
@@theReverend14 You’re welcome Honeybun
fundementalists aren't much fun but they are indeed mental.
Fundamentalists are "mental midgets". They are cognitively limited.
Along came TRUMP
And he gave us a real democracy and so we crucified him!
🕊
...anyone here from the JRE Danny Ackroyd vid?
About this study about democracies, autocracies and peace: I found it on the Internet. It uses data from 1885 to 1992, but it was released in 2003. So why didn't they use data up to 2002 and 2003? Maybe because of the many conflicts in which the US where involved between 1992 and 2003?
Which democracies weren't counted?
@@reinforcedpenisstem there where a few deocracies that where established between 1992 and 2002 but the main point is that they didn't use current data fpr their statistics, so they left out a decade of development.
മലയാളികൾ ഉണ്ടോ...💝
10:10 If by "not that long ago", you mean *900 years*.
10:48 "All the time". *No.* It happened in certain places and during specific "witch panics".
19:23 That's why China props up the DPRK: a *flood* of refugees would pour over the border.
certain place and specific times: All or Europe and the Americas, for hundreds of years.
Reasonable doubt of what? This was more of a lecture of statements intended to "teach", rather than to persuade, or question. What questions arose, to produce your doubt? What do you think is an alternative to your doubt? You could just be regurgitating something that is irrelevant to anything. What is this relevant to? No debates/problems were even brought up here. Is this just an "answer" without a question?
Easy knowing this talk preceded the Trump era.
how arrogant does one have to believe to think they have all the moral answers and ALL of the people for the preceding five thousand years had it all wrong?
Because for the last 5000 years their "Morals" have led them to witch burnings. Theists are still going back and forth on who we should be burning at the stake this week.
Because their "morals" stink and are frequently and frighteningly flexible. Our post-enlightenment secular ethics are far superior.
@@JFrazer4303 theists aren't some monolithic block all marching in lockstep any more than atheists are.
@@JFrazer4303 Dude, theists comprise what, 90% of ajj humans? of course they are going to committ that majority of atrocities, but noted atheists like Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot call into question whether correlation in these cases is causation. To me, you're simply making too broad of a claim to be credible and it just makes you look like you have an axe to grind.
Planet n creature going in disorderly state.let ARISE N AWAKE.
I'll be back to watch after China takes over.
Good talk, but dont jump around when talking.
“Those who fail to learn the lessons of history … and blablabla …
Lollipop History and Bubblegum Physics & whoopy its’a police state! how cool dude!!!
Always wanted to live in the Twilight Zone!!
“Let’s go!” ~Yuri Gagarin
\\][//
Haha pre Trump speech
whats up Reid!? lol
@@ryrez4478 hey lol
Sadly this has not aged very well.
Hey Michael, it’s 2022! How is that “abolishing the death penalty” movement coming along? We have much larger issues to contend with, than worrying about how to coddle murderers and rapists.
regarding the spread of democracy everywhere, there are places, mostly the middle east, where democracy would be a really bad idea and would never work. for example, a sunni populace would never accept a shia government and visa versa. in fact in some places democracy would be a horrible idea. consider saudi arabia, which isnt even really a country, its more like a mass of private land owned by the house of saud distributing oil revenue down the massive family tree. there are polls that showed if saudi arabia was a democracy and osama bin laden ran for president he'd win the popular vote. personally i wouldn't want al qaeda in control of a country that has been purchasing American made weapons for much of the last century and controls 25% of the world's proven oil reserves...
+Gentle Breadcat, Esquire One goal of Democracies is to be able to negotiate between different populations. If you look into Switzerland or austria you see working examples.
You use the word "never" really loosely. There is no way to know that those Cultures would never be able to accept each other. No one says it could be done today or it would be easy.
Also, are your examples really bad. In case of a sunni-shia country, no government would solve this problem except you suppress one culture. I hope you don't advocate for this. Only a division would solve this problem.
In case of Saudi Arabia, are you saying it would be bad for us or the saudi leadership? In this case you might be right but that is not the purpose of a democracy. Or do you mean it's dangerous because the leadership is rich? Sure, but that's a totally different question. It still would be better if it was a democracy
It was 560 years from the Magna Carta to the Declaration of Independence, 80 more years until the abolition of slavery, 60 more years until the women's vote and 40 more years until the death of Jim Crow.
Why should we expect peoples one step away from being herdsmen to have the same social conscious?
Get rid of the religion. Problem solved.
Many of those countries in the Middle East were created by Sykes-Picot post WW1 and shouldn't even be countries. Having Sunni and Shia populations ruled by one state such as in Iraq for example is a recipe for conflict, and they would be better off splitting and forming separate homogenous democracies.
didn't he really just make a joke about torture?
A bit of torture never hurt anyone
Forced liberal democracy.
something wroung with you
the death penalty is a bad thing? i guess using taxpayers money to keep murderers alive and well is a good thing.
It's 10 times more expensive to kill them than to keep them alive.
given the number of people killing in places with the death penalty it clearly isn't a deterrent, also, if you kill the wrong person you can't release them from their death back to their families. torture and the death penalty are infantile responses to things.
Keeping murders alive is good. If only the person/people they murdered had the option of life in prison or death, I'm sure they would have chosen life in prison since it includes life. Unfortunately, they're murderer didn't afford them that option.
The argument against the death penalty is that sometimes you execute the innocents.
True but one shuld have good reason to belive the verdict. Like atuall wtnesses.
Joker thinks that buildings fall down symmetrically at free fall acceleration because of fires.....I guess THAT theory needs a little attention now that Grenfell Towers DIDN'T fall down, eh Michael?
are you an idiot or a troll?
It's ok if you're just an idiot...(wouldn't be your fault)
He always finds a way to mock Christianity. He should take his own advice. Christians believe something you don't wanna hear - "who cares?"
So dull. As Aristotelian metaphysics showed the existence of a transcendent being with the properties of monotheism is almost unavoidable. This guys really dull.