Truth is the latest book by Skeptic publisher Michael Shermer. I am a subscriber to Skeptic (the actual print version) and a regular listener to Dr. Shermer’s self-titled podcast. I think the only bad aspect of this is that I’ve heard mention previously of many of the points Michael puts forth in the book. But that isn’t a criticism of the book. After all, it’s not like there’s a surprise ending to spoil!
I think the idea of writing a book on truth is a very good idea. There’s so much misinformation, myths, and just outright lies perpetuated by the speed of our current social media friendly society. So…does this book meet expectations? Let’s take a look.
The first part of the book discusses how we know something is true and how we know something isn’t. The second part has less definite things such as myths, history and morality. The final section covers concepts such as consciousness and gods, which are hard to evaluate for truth.
I’m trying to keep this brief, so I’ll just say the earlier sections were my favorite, as there’s a real way to figure out the truth of something like evolution or global warming, than the subjects of the later chapters such as whether or not there are scientific arguments for god. ButI also think it’s important to distinguish between the things we can prove and the things that really do come down to belief.
I’ll just give one example: alien life and UFOs. I believe there is probably life out there in the cosmos somewhere, because we know there are billions of planets in the universe. It makes sense that we are not living on the only inhabited planet. However, belief in this does not mean we are being visited by little green men and the government is keeping it from us for some nefarious reason. I can’t prove either, but there’s evidence in the first situation, and just “belief” in the second. I think there’s a big difference there.
Finally, I’ll mention something I learned from this book: Japanese deniers of the cruel tactics perpetuated by their own soldiers during WWII. With so much mention of Holocaust deniers, or deniers of the true cause of the US Civil War (i.e. slavery) I’ve never thought about deniers from other countries. But of course, there must be. How sad and infuriating. I hope the truth prevails in the minds of future generations.
