""Scientifically Thinking couldn't have come at a better time. This book goes beyond works that highlight the tricks our minds play on our perception of reality—it offers a tried and true solution for our propensity to believe what we want to believe—and all in a well-written, painstakingly fair, and entertaining read. If everyone read this book, the world would be a far better place.”—Elicka Peterson Sparks, PhD, author of The Devil You Know: The Surprising Link between Conservative Christianity and Crime and Intimate Partner Violence: Effective Procedure, Response and Policy “Stanley A. Rice is a biologist who is a wonderful teacher. When he thinks about the nature and methodology of science, he is interesting, funny, serious, profound, irreverent—in short, everything to make the learning experience worthwhile and lasting. If you cannot take one of his classes, then do please read his Scientifically Thinking, the subtitle of which tells all.”—Michael Ruse, author of The Problem of War: Darwinism, Christianity, and Their Battle to Understand Human Conflict“Our minds have evolved to take shortcuts. In order for our ancestors to survive in the wild, their brains were pre-wired to rapidly respond to natural threats like snakes. We have retained that ability and have a neural shortcut that warns us of dangers before the brain fills in and sharpens the peripheral areas of our vision. Our brains simplify big data, look for linear trends, and make up things to fill gaps in that information. In Scientifically Thinking, Rice argues that these mental shortcuts lead to bias and misconceptions. Errors like these are increasingly important in today's politically divided world. According to Rice the best way to overcome this bias is to think scientifically. What we need most is not the knowledge that has come from science but the scientific way of thinking itself. In a breezy and sometimes lighthearted manner, Rice tells us how to think scientifically. Along the way we are introduced to his research (botany), to thigmotropism, to ants walking on stilts and stumps, and to spontaneously generated maggots.” —Prof. Marc Zimmer, author of Illuminating Disease“