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Believing Bullshit

How Not to Get Sucked Into An Intellectual Black Hole
roaddogg09
Nov 02, 2011roaddogg09 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Law details the way of not being sucked into intellectual black holes. As he describes, he isn't attacking the beliefs themselves, but the methods people use to defend the beliefs against criticism. These defenses, as he shows, do not hold up to scrutiny and are not intellectually honest. Many of the examples he uses are from a religious context, but not exclusively. My favorite chapters had to be "I Just Know!" and "Piling Up the Anecdotes". In "I Just Know," Law describes how people justify belief by saying that they just know it is true. Law will have nothing of this, and shows how saying "I just know" does not hold up against the eye of reason. "Piling Up the Anecdotes" shows how personal experiences are not good evidence for a claim. There were a few things Law talked about that I didn't totally agree with, but that doesn't mean I didn't learn a thing or two. I also would've liked a little more depth to some of the discussions. The things he should of elaborated on would've been beyond the scope of the overall book, but should've been included for completeness. Other than those two criticisms, Law's book was fun to read and shed light on how not to be sucked into an intellectual black hole. I plan on handing this out to a few friends who buy into the nonsense spread by works like, "The Secret"