Guy P. Harrison - Think: Why You Should Question Everything

Published 2013 by Prometheus Books

Think: Why You Should Question Everything. Copyright 2013 by Guy P. Harrison. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or conveyed via the Internet or a website without prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Prometheus Books recognizes the following registered trademarks, trademarks, and service marks mentioned within the text: Epcot SM , Google, Scotch, Wikipedia, and YouTube.

Cover image 2013 Media Bakery
Cover design by Nicole Sommer-Lecht
Illustrations by Kevin Hand, Guy P. Harrison

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Harrison, Guy P., author.

Think : why you should question everything / Guy P. Harrison.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61614-807-2 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-61614-808-9 (ebook)

1. ReasoningMiscellanea. 2. Critical thinkingMiscellanea. 3. SkepticismMiscellanea. 4. ScienceMethodology. I. Title.

BC177.H378 2013

153.4dc23

2013024867

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to my mother, Coni Harrison.
Thanks for all those trips to the public library, Mom. They mattered.

50 POPULAR BELIEFS THAT PEOPLE THINK ARE TRUE

What would it take to create a world in which fantasy is not confused for fact and public policy is based on objective reality? I dont know for sure. But a good place to start would be for everyone on Earth to read this book.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History

Harrison has added to the growing body of skeptical literature a contribution that will continue to move our culture toward one that openly embraces reason, science, and logic.

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic, columnist for Scientific American, and author of The Believing Brain

Being a skeptic can be hard work, but Harrison makes it a lot easier.... This is the book I wish I had written.

Phil Plait, author of The Bad Astronomer

Deserves to be shelved alongside the works of such giants of the field as Randi, Shermer, Kurtz, and Nickell.... A valuable, not to mention very entertainingly written, addition to the literature of skepticism.

Booklist

50 REASONS PEOPLE GIVE FOR BELIEVING IN A GOD

Deep wisdom and patient explanations fill this excellent book.

James A. Haught, editor of the Charleston Gazette

Engaging and enlightening.... Read this book to explore the many and diverse reasons for belief.

Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic, columnist for Scientific American, and author of The Believing Brain

Doesnt bully or condescend. Reading Harrisons book is like having an amiable chat with a wise old friend.

Cameron M. Smith and Charles Sullivan, authors of The Top 10 Myths about Evolution

50 SIMPLE QUESTIONS FOR EVERY CHRISTIAN

Guy P. Harrisons new book is a sober, thoughtful, and engaging series of inquiries for us Christians. Answering them or at least responding to whether they are simple or the correct questions is the kind of challenge we should embrace wholeheartedly.

Rev. Barry Lynn, author of Piety & Politics and The Right to Religious Liberty

A thoughtful, conversational, and eminently engaging book. Harrison offers a respectful and yet frank and undauntedly critical approach to Christianity. Believers and nonbelievers alike will find this a worthy, provocative read.

Phil Zuckerman, PhD, professor of sociology and secular studies, Pitzer College, author of Faith No More

Carl Sagan taught us that we make life significant by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers. Guy P. Harrison offers fifty such questions for Christians to better know their own religion.

Cameron M. Smith, PhD, Portland State University anthropologist, author of The Fact of Evolution, and coauthor of The Top 10 Myths about Evolution

Award-winning writer Guy P. Harrison is an indispensable voice for science and reason. I sincerely hope every Christian reads this remarkable and important book so that they will better understand the real reasons why so many people are skeptical of Christianity. As Harrison skillfully shows, it is not about anger, arrogance, or rebellion, its about looking for answers to simple questions.

Peter Boghossian, instructor of philosophy, Portland State University

Harrison has posed serious challenges for Christians who explain their religious practice as a simple matter of faith. With persistent, but gentle, words, Harrison injects logic, science, and rational thinking into the discussion of Christian religions, asking only for consideration of facts without the emotional reaction of considering all questions as attacks. This book is another well-written and well-thought-out work by Guy P. Harrison, and it deserves serious consideration by believers and nonbelievers alike.

Nick Wynne, author of Florida in the Great Depression: Desperation and Defiance

Guy P. Harrison has done the impossible, he has critically analyzed myth, dogma, and belief in the most respectful and accessible way. Many have tried, Guy has succeeded.

Jake Farr-Wharton, author of Letters to Christian Leaders

RACE AND REALITY: WHAT EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT OUR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

This is a very important, profound, enjoyable, and enlightening book. It should go a long way in helping disprove mans most dangerous myth.

Robert W. Sussman, professor of anthropology, Washington University; editor of Yearbook of Physical Anthropology; and editor emeritus of American Anthropologist

A tour de force that conveys the current science on racial classification in a rigorous yet readable way. A book so clearly written, so elegantly crafted, so packed with nuggets that even those who think they know it all about race and racial classification will come away changed.

David B. Grusky, professor of sociology, Stanford University

Guy P. Harrisons well-written and passionate plea for eliminating the idea and ideology of race should be widely read. He has shown that the idea of race not only is contradicted by science but is a social anachronism that should not be tolerated by society in the twenty-first century.

Audrey Smedley, professor emerita, anthropology and African American studies, Virginia Commonwealth University

Harrison shows we have a lot to learn and he is a great teacher. Drawing on a wide variety of evidencethe hard data from fossils and DNA, interviews with the victims of racism, and personal experiencesHarrison dismantles the race concept, bolt by bolt. Exposing race as a social illusion and political toolrather than a biological realityHarrison forces the reader to consider how they think about other folk. Anthropologists have no use for the race concept, and neither should educated citizens.

Cameron M. Smith, PhD, Department of Anthropology, Portland State University