THE SKEPTICS' GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE Paperback – 10 October 2019

A fantastic book on scientific Scepticism and how it helps us find the facts and throw out the fake news.I’ve been listening to the skeptics guide to the universe podcast for many years now and it has been such an amazing journey. It has transformed how I see the world and my place in it. The book is a distilled version of that experience.If you are curious about what’s true and what isn’t, and how to figure it out so you don’t get conned or scammed, you have to read this!

As a professional It’ll help you make much better decisions. Wonderful weapon against pseudoscience. Healthy dose of scientific scepticism is the need of the hour.

I have been listening to The Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast for many years now. This book condenses the immense knowledge of the team into a comprehensive guide that will give you the tools required to probe the veracity of the information you come across every day.

This book covers scientific skepticism as a way of approaching life. The most important section is the tools being laid out for the reader in order to evaluate things skeptically. These are neuropsychological humility, metacognition, promotion of science/reason/critical thinking, detecting pseudo science, free enquiry and consumer protection. These chapters provide scientific basis for why skeptical thought is necessary both as a means of self reflection as well as observing reality. I found them interestingly compiled although today many books like Thinking Fast and Think Slow or Predictably Irrational can cover say the aspect of meta-cognition. The discussion on logical fallacies is quite deep and guides us against various tall reaching claims made by overly confident scientific studies (p-hacking) or scientific denialism (like global warming denial) and builds a toolkit to assess such claims. It is followed by some tales from past history which can help sharpen the person skeptical toolkit although I should say I was familiar with examples like Clever Hans, Vitalism or Ponzi Schemes.The next section is a bit of a tacking of current issues like GMO, Ghosts, 9/11 which I felt was not that useful as it did not tie to the previous sections but seemed more like story telling. Hence I reduced 1 star.The next section tackled skepticism in the media which is a hot button topic in this age of fake news and I guess being news-literate is important to us in which atleast many major Indian TV channels and some publications resort to putting ideological political spin on every story. The next section shows how not being skeptical leads to death and gives a few examples which was passable but again it was too much story telling.The last section on practical advice on skepticism is good and gives tips on cultivating a skeptical habit not just to question others and their beliefs but also to evaluate biases and belief structures in ones own self. Continuous learning and a curious and open mind seems to be the authors recommendations. The advice on parenting was useful although my daughter naturally is inclined to think scientifically (she wants to be an astrophysicist).As an Indian, I see pseudoscience everywhere not only in my close friends and family (Homeopathy, Organic Food, GMO hatred or Yoga curing cancer) but also in the media. This will be a definite vaccination for any Indian whose constitution states it is the fundamental duty of a citizen to cultivate a scientific temper.I check out the facebook group of the SGU and it seems very active so I enrolled and plan to be a part of the continuing conversation.

I’m a long time podcast follower and I love the team. Thanks for sending the message re the release on Patreon. I bought this book immediately. Thanks to the team for their amazing work.

Wow. What a read

The book itself is good ofcourse, but the paper quality of cover and print is not good. We have no choice as there are no other publisher or distributer in India for the same book.

Haven't read the book yet so no review about that but on the outside shoddy print quality and shabby physical condition, the pages are too dull and thin, even my gel highlighter is leaking through the pages.