Giving the Devil his Due
Reflections of a Scientific Humanist

Explores how free speech and open inquiry are integral to science, politics, and society for the survival and progress of our species.

Michael Shermer (Author)

9781108747585, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 August 2021

366 pages, 22 b/w illus.
22.7 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.55 kg

'Each essay is well crafted to provoke thoughtful reflection and amply referenced for those who wish to dig deeper into each topic … However, for any reader new to scepticism, Giving the Devil his Due would be an auspicious place to start.' Don Carpenetti, Chemistry World

Who is the 'Devil'? And what is he due? The Devil is anyone who disagrees with you. And what he is due is the right to speak his mind. He must have this for your own safety's sake because his freedom is inextricably tied to your own. If he can be censored, why shouldn't you be censored? If we put barriers up to silence 'unpleasant' ideas, what's to stop the silencing of any discussion? This book is a full-throated defense of free speech and open inquiry in politics, science, and culture by the New York Times bestselling author and skeptic Michael Shermer. The new collection of essays and articles takes the Devil by the horns by tackling five key themes: free thought and free speech, politics and society, scientific humanism, religion, and the ideas of controversial intellectuals. For our own sake, we must give the Devil his due.

Introduction. Who is the Devil and what is he due?
Part I. The Advocatus Diaboli: Reflections on Free Thought and Free Speech: 1. Giving the Devil his due: why freedom of inquiry and speech in science and politics is inviolable
2. Banning evil: in the shadow of the Christchurch massacre, myths about evil and hate speech are misleading
3. Free speech even if it hurts: defending Holocaust denier David Irving
4. Free to inquire: the evolution-creationism controversy as a test case in equal time and free speech
5. Ben Stein's blunder: why intelligent design advocates are not free speech martyrs
6. What went wrong? Campus unrest, viewpoint diversity, and freedom of speech
Part II. Homo Religiosus: Reflections on God and Religion: 7. E pluribus unum for all faiths and for none
8. Atheism and liberty: raising consciousness for religious skepticism through political freedom
9. The curious case of Scientology: is it a religion or a cult?
10. Does the Universe have a purpose?
11. Why is there something rather than nothing?
Part III. Deferred Dreams: Reflections on Politics and Society: 12. Another dream deferred: how identity politics, intersectionality theory, and tribal divisiveness are inverting Martin Luther King, Jr's dream
13. Healing the bonds of affection: the case for classical liberalism
14. Governing mars: lessons for the red planet from experiments in governing the blue planet
15. The Sandy Hook effect: what we can and cannot do about gun violence
16. On guns and tyranny
17. Debating guns: what conservatives and liberals really differ on about guns (and everything else)
18. Another fatal conceit: the lesson from evolutionary economics is bottom-up self-organization, not top-down government design
Part IV. Scientia Humanitatis: Reflections on Scientific Humanism: 19. Scientific naturalism: a manifesto for Enlightenment humanism
20. Mr Hume: tear. Down. This. Wall.
21. Kardashev's types and Sparks' law: how to build civilization 1.0
22. How lives turn out: genes, environment, and luck – what we can and cannot control
Part V. Transcendent Thinkers: Reflections on Controversial Intellectuals: 23. Transcendent man: an elegaic essay to Paul Kurtz – a skeptic's skeptic
24. The real hitch: did Christopher Hitchens really keep two sets of books about his beliefs?
25. The skeptic's chaplain: Richard Dawkins as a fountainhead of skepticism
26. Have archetype – will travel: the Jordan Peterson phenomenon
27. Romancing the past: Graham Hancock and the quest for a lost civilization.

Subject Areas: Popular science [PDZ], Philosophy of science [PDA], Freedom of information & freedom of speech [JPVH2], Intelligence & reasoning [JMRN], Social, group or collective psychology [JMH], Humanistic psychology [JMAN]