Fascinated by the plethora of supernatural and fringe science beliefs around him, and concerned about the rise of Islamist politics back in Turkey, Edis first got involved with skeptical inquiry into religious and paranormal claims during his graduate studies. "Science is difficult," states Edis to Point of Inquiry interviewer D.J. Grothe in answer to a question about why science has not replaced religion. Edis explains to his students that they will have difficulty understanding this "because the human brain is not wired to understand something like quantum mechanics correctly, it's a struggle." In an interview with Susan Gerbic at CSICon, Edis characterized his more recent writings on the subjects of science and skepticism by saying that "it might be rational to believe in certain falsehoods. The argument turns on the costs of acquiring and possessing beliefs; sometimes truth is just too costly." Edis has given several lectures about Islamic creationism. One of his premises is that creationism in the United States is quite moderate compared to Islamic countries. Turkey for example, despite being known as a secular state, has high levels of belief in a young Earth. This is because the textbooks and curriculum in the schools do not offer both evolution and creationism, but only creationism. Teaching evolution is not part of the syllabus at all. Grothe asked Taner in 2007 if he thought that Islam could be compatible with western science. His answer was that it just depends on the type of Islamism. As in Christianity there are both liberal and conservative Muslims The more liberal their views the more compatible they are with science. Concerning crop circles Edis wrote that we know how these are created, we know the techniques. "So we do not need to find the perpetrator of every crop circle to figure out that probably they all are human made. Many true believers remain who continue to think there is something paranormal — perhaps alien — about crop circles. But the circles we know all fall within the range of the sort of thing done in hoaxes. Nothing stands out as extraordinary."
Reception
Edis was an editor of the book Why Intelligent Design Fails, which has received positive reviews. His book The Ghost in the Universe received the Morris D. Forkosch Book Award for "Best Humanist Book of 2002"
Publications
Personal life
According to his university website, Edis states he "regularly wander off into strange territories where science and weirdness intersect, and, along with my wife, serve as a slave to three cats."
