Below is the full text of┬áJim Downard’s’s┬á2009 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.┬á┬áI dub these people Tortucans, a quality independent of their intelligence or religion or politics.┬á This aspect is of considerable importance, because people can believe things that aren’t true while being otherwise very smart.┬áAlong the way I allude to the non-overlapping magisteria┬áissue, which was just coalescing in my argument at the time.”