The Irrational Ape: Why Flawed Logic Puts us all at Risk and How Critical Thinking Can Save the World

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Uses the trappings and terminology of scientific publication to push unscientific conclusions, to market useless or harmful products and conspiracy theories. Witness marijuana as panacea, or creationism. Formosus’s mutilated corpse was flung into the raging Tiber, retrieved by monks and briefly worshipped as miraculous by Roman citizens. The macabre spectacle became known as the Cadaver Synod or the Synodus Horrenda, turning public opinion against Stephen. ¹ Of course, Stephen wasn’t a complete idiot – the true motivation of the trial had been nakedly political. Skewed logic was merely used to justify the whole sordid affair, giving the appearance of reason to an episode devoid of any justice. Not that it helped Stephen in the long run; before summer 897 was over, he himself was imprisoned and strangled to death in his cell. The church later quietly disregarded the damnatio memoriae against Formosus as based more on politics than piety, wisely letting the whole ugly incident fade quietly with the fullness of time. But there is a fascinating lesson underpinning it all – how we can be misled by the illusion of reason.

Thinking is a form of emasculation. Therefore culture is suspect insofar as it is identified with critical attitudes. Distrust of the intellectual world has always been a symptom of Ur-Fascism, from Goering's alleged statement ('When I hear talk of culture I reach for my gun') to the frequent use of such expressions as 'degenerate intellectuals', 'eggheads', 'effete snobs', 'universities are a nest of reds'." Strange as it sounds, the medieval papacy was a hive of political intrigue worthy of George R. R. Martin. But even by the bizarre standards of early Vatican intrigue, few episodes in the history of the Catholic Church are quite as strange as the dramatic events of January 897. The setting was the courtroom in the magnificent Archbasilica of St John Lateran, where the newly anointed Pope Stephen VI thundered accusations of perjury, corruption and sin at his predecessor, Pope Formosus. Yet, despite the animated tirade, Formosus reacted with stony silence to the litany of abuses levelled against him. This silence was perhaps unsurprising; Formosus had in fact been dead a full eight months before the trial even began.

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With a cast of murderous popes,snake-oil salesmen and superstitious pigeons, find out why flawed logic puts us all at risk, and how critical thinking can save the world.

This is not solely a logical fault. Research has consistently shown that conspiracy theories are a staple of both left and right fringe groups, deeply connected to the ideology of the believers – psychological aspects of which we’ll explore in subsequent chapters. 2 STRIPPED TO THE ABSURD The book points out that while conspiracies undoubtedly occur, keeping large ones secret for long is nigh on impossible. In our interconnected world, it’s even harder to keep things under wraps. The fact that many faux sceptics are otherwise intelligent can mislead. “One might assume that rationality is a byproduct of intelligence, but there is little correlation between intelligence and rationality,” Grimes notes. Systematic inquiryWe may not have to save the planet from nuclear annihilation, of course, but our ability to think critically has never been more important. In a world where fake news, mistrust of experts, prejudice and ignorance all too often hold sway, we can all too easily be misled over issues such as vaccinations, climate change or conspiracy theories. We live in an era where access to all the knowledge in the world is at our fingertips, yet that also means misinformation and falsehoods can spread further and faster than ever before. However, this is a very valuable book and the timing could not be better. Social media and the internet are awash with information and claims about the dangers of vaccination, fluoridation, nuclear power, GM foods, 5G and a host of other things. Essential reading about our irrational minds for post-truth society. This book covers conspiracy, disinformation and propaganda using various real-life stories from 9/11 truth seekers to climate change denialists and various methods of information filtering from unbalanced newspaper coverage to polarised social networks. It turns out that insects, rather than grain, were the sparrows’ staple diet. Within a year, grain harvests were devastated by exploding swarms of locusts. Over the next three years, between 15 and 45 million Chinese people had starved to death as a result of the ensuing famine.