Unreasonable monkey

The ability to think critically, not to panic, to separate fact from fiction, and scientific data from the fantasies of charlatans—all of this can literally save your life. Or, at the very least, help ensure that you live your life not as an irrational ape, but as a thinking human being, Homo sapiens. Throughout history, as well as in the modern world, we encounter countless examples of how the most absurd, primitive, and ignorant theories are disguised as serious scientific research and accepted as absolute truth. One of the main goals of this book is to combat pseudoscience in all its forms. Examining the most striking examples of pseudoscientific myths and pseudoscientific hypotheses, Grimes explains in detail how they are created, why they have such an influence on people, what to do to avoid falling under their spell, and how to defeat them.This book not only clearly demonstrates why the ability to think critically is essential for modern people, but also successfully teaches how to develop this skill.Never before has the fight against pseudoscientific myths been so exciting and informative.What is the "undifferentiated middle fallacy," and how did this misconception cause a wave of panic based on an allegedly proven link between mobile phone radiation and the development of cancerous tumors? Why, despite the incredible amount of verified scientific data, can a few erroneous claims and unsubstantiated articles in newspapers lead to real tragedies, as happened in the early 2000s in the United Kingdom, when an "anti-vaccination wave" led to outbreaks of virulent disease and actual human casualties? Why is the "appeal to nature" tactic, so popular in alternative medicine, flawed? Why are more and more people convinced that vaccines cause autism and that the government is hiding everything from a cure for cancer to contacts with extraterrestrials? In his book, David Robert Grimes not only explains how the most egregious pseudoscientific theories emerge, but also provides practical ways to separate science from wild and ignorant fiction that sometimes seems so logical and plausible.