Why Science Is Wrongabout Almost Everything

Alex Tsakiris has interviewed many bestselling authors and dozens of world-class academics on his popular science podcast Skeptiko.com. In this book he shares with us what he's learned through his 200 plus interviews with some of the world s leading consciousness researchers and thinkers. In doing so, he reveals what the best research is saying about big picture science questions and the limits of science in general. What's he's learned, in short, is that science-as-we-know-it is an emperor-with-no-clothes-on proposition. It mesmerizes us with flashy trinkets, while failing at its core mission of leading us toward self-discovery. Science is wrong about almost everything because science depends on our consciousness being an illusion and it's not! Are materialists right? Not if you follow the data. Tsakiris brings some giants to their knees, here, simply by asking smart, tough questions that no one has thought to ask.

A Rollicking Assault on Science's Inability to Answer Life's Most Important Questions Alex Tsakiris has interviewed many bestselling authors and dozens of world-class academics on his popular science podcastSkeptiko.com. In this book he shares with us what he's learned through his 200-plus interviews with some of the world's leading consciousness researchers and thinkers. In doing so, he reveals what the best research is saying about 'big picture' science questions and the limits of science in general. What's he's learned, in short, is that science-as-we-know-it is an emperor-with-no-clothes-on proposition. It mesmerizes us with flashy trinkets, while failing at its core mission of leading us toward self-discovery. Science is wrong about almost everything because science depends on our consciousness being an illusion-and it's not! ALEX TSAKIRIS is a successful entrepreneur turned science podcaster. In 2007 he founded Skeptiko.com, which has become the #1 podcast covering the science of human consciousness. Alex has appeared on syndicated radio talk shows both in the US and the UK. He lives in Del Mar, California."

"Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.

“The Knowledge Machine is the most stunningly illuminating book of the last several decades regarding the all-important scientific enterprise.” —Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex A paradigm-shifting work, The Knowledge Machine revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science. • Why is science so powerful? • Why did it take so long—two thousand years after the invention of philosophy and mathematics—for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of the universe? In a groundbreaking work that blends science, philosophy, and history, leading philosopher of science Michael Strevens answers these challenging questions, showing how science came about only once thinkers stumbled upon the astonishing idea that scientific breakthroughs could be accomplished by breaking the rules of logical argument. Like such classic works as Karl Popper’s The Logic of Scientific Discovery and Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The Knowledge Machine grapples with the meaning and origins of science, using a plethora of vivid historical examples to demonstrate that scientists willfully ignore religion, theoretical beauty, and even philosophy to embrace a constricted code of argument whose very narrowness channels unprecedented energy into empirical observation and experimentation. Strevens calls this scientific code the iron rule of explanation, and reveals the way in which the rule, precisely because it is unreasonably close-minded, overcomes individual prejudices to lead humanity inexorably toward the secrets of nature. “With a mixture of philosophical and historical argument, and written in an engrossing style” (Alan Ryan), The Knowledge Machine provides captivating portraits of some of the greatest luminaries in science’s history, including Isaac Newton, the chief architect of modern science and its foundational theories of motion and gravitation; William Whewell, perhaps the greatest philosopher-scientist of the early nineteenth century; and Murray Gell-Mann, discoverer of the quark. Today, Strevens argues, in the face of threats from a changing climate and global pandemics, the idiosyncratic but highly effective scientific knowledge machine must be protected from politicians, commercial interests, and even scientists themselves who seek to open it up, to make it less narrow and more rational—and thus to undermine its devotedly empirical search for truth. Rich with illuminating and often delightfully quirky illustrations, The Knowledge Machine, written in a winningly accessible style that belies the import of its revisionist and groundbreaking concepts, radically reframes much of what we thought we knew about the origins of the modern world.

In Why Evil Matters, Alex Tsakiris unravels our misunderstanding about evil and how it robs us of the chance to explore the depths of our spirituality. In a down to earth and sometimes brutally honest way, Why Evil Matters examines how evil is brushed aside by our science-centric culture and how new developments in consciousness research might point to a more meaningful understanding of who we are. Filled with interviews and analysis with some of the world's most respected thinkers: "Maybe we've jumped the gun... consciousness looks like it might be much more meaningful."" Dr. Dean Radin "Yes, hell exists... it's created by mental constructs of various kinds." David Sunfellow "if you keep them distracted, addicted, and superficial, they'll buy, and that's all we really give a damn about." Dr. Richard Grego "In our culture we ask, how did evil come into the world? In Gnosticism you start with, how did good come into the world? Miguel Conner

A leading social researcher explains why humans so consistently misunderstand the outside world How often are women harassed? What percentage of the population are immigrants? How bad is unemployment? These questions are important, but most of us get the answers wrong. Research shows that people often wildly misunderstand the state of the world, regardless of age, sex, or education. And though the internet brings us unprecedented access to information, there's little evidence we're any better informed because of it. We may blame cognitive bias or fake news, but neither tells the complete story. In Why We're Wrong About Nearly Everything, Bobby Duffy draws on his research into public perception across more than forty countries, offering a sweeping account of the stubborn problem of human delusion: how society breeds it, why it will never go away, and what our misperceptions say about what we really believe. We won't always know the facts, but they still matter. Why We're Wrong About Nearly Everything is mandatory reading for anyone interested making humankind a little bit smarter.

Nowadays, our scientific establishment makes out that they've definitely worked out all the important bits about reality, life, death, ourselves, the universe and well, everything. In fact, that's hokum because many brilliant physicists in the last century pointed out that a fundamentally different view of the universe had to be correct in order to solve major scientific paradoxes such as Schrodinger's Cat. This book describes what those Nobel-Prize winning scientists discovered and more, thereby explaining the true nature of reality, life, death, God, ghosts, the brain, the Big Bang, evolution, aliens, pyramids, particles, Atlantis and, most especially, corn-on-the-cob. It also has lots of appealing illustrations and the odd joke, so you won't get bored half-way through."

A highly entertaining, myth-busting read for anyone with even a passing interest in science. Hot on the heels of the fascinating compendium Everything You Know About London Is Wrong, this next book in the series, written by author Matt Brown in his trademark humourous style, debunks the scientific myths we all take for granted. Does nothing travel faster than the speed of light? Well, in certain circumstances, a winded tortoise can go faster. Are there actually seven colours in a rainbow? Think again. And our author merrily explains why our hair and nails don't keep growing after we die and why chemicals in our diet might not be the toxic threats we are led to believe. Covering everything from pseudoscience to phenomena of physics, scandals of space and scientific misquotes, Everything You Know About Science is Wrong shatters a range of illusions we have accepted unquestioningly since childhood and demystifies this most puzzling of subjects.

While evangelicals make up a significant portion of American society, they still constitute a mystery for many. They exert considerable influence on virtually every aspect of American life and culture, yet by those who don't appreciate them they're seen as rednecks, crypto-fundamentalists, and people without education. Wilkens and Thorsen contend that evangelicals are tired of being caricatured and provide an insider's look at myths and realities surrounding the movement. They winsomely and sometimes humorously assess the breadth and depth of evangelical beliefs, values, and practices, arguing that evangelicalism is identifiable by a family resemblance, vitality, and relevance that transcends particular theological and political stereotypes that arise inside as well as outside of it. The book provides a synthetic presentation of contemporary evangelical Christianity as well as critiques of it.