An Ill Wind in Tortuca

Below is the full text of Secular Global Institute Communicator Jim Downard's's 2009 Kennewick Freethought Society lecture on how people come to believe things that aren't true.

Downard summarizes: "The take home point on the lecture is that people who believe things that aren't true all share a deep common trait, the ability to not think of things they don't think about. I dub these people Tortucans, a quality independent of their intelligence or religion or politics. This aspect is of considerable importance, because people can believe things that aren't true while being otherwise very smart. Along the way I allude to the non-overlapping magisteria issue, which was just coalescing in my argument at the time."

Read the complete lecture