Skeptical (and even not-so-skeptical) folks:

The British-based journal NEW SCIENTIST reported in their August 2 issue that
WHY PEOPLE BELIEVE WEIRD THINGS is the #9 best selling science book in the
U.K. Also on the list, in order from top to bottom:

1. Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh
2. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
3. Feynman's Lost Lecture by David and Judith Goodstein
4. The Origins of Virtue by Matt Ridley
5. Orbit by Jay Apt et al (National Geo.)
6. Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan
7. The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch
8. Reality Check by Brad Wieners (Ed.)
9. Why People Believe Weird Things
10. The March of the Machines by Kevin Warwick

This morning I did a radio interview (by phone) with a station in Toronto. A
woman named Ruth called in to inform me that Comet Hale-Bopp has two tales,
one natural and the other made by aliens, and that when it comes God is going
to deliver an important message to us. When I pointed out that Hale-Bopp had
already come and gone it didn't deflect her enthusiasm in the least. She said
God was coming anyway in 1997. I then asked her what she will say if 1997
ends with no message from God. She said that would not happen. I told her I'd
give her a lifetime subscription to Skeptic if she were to call me in January
and say she was wrong and that she was revising her belief. My subscription
has never been safer I'm sure. She then made a sharp segue to drop in my lap
the fact that only 200,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and that they
were killed by a group of Rabbis as part of a conspiracy to extort money out
of Germany and world sympathy for the Jews. The more she talked the crazier
it got. Why people believe weird things indeed!

Michael Shermer

P.S. Charlie Rose got delayed until September, along with the Leeza show.