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| *'']'' (ABC News) (with ]) (], ]) | *'']'' (ABC News) (with ]) (], ]) | ||
| *'']'' (1999) TV Series | *'']'' (1999) TV Series | ||
| *'']'' (ABC News) (1998)<ref> ] | *'']'' (ABC News) (1998)<ref> ]</ref> | ||
| *'']'' (unknown date) |
*'']'' (unknown date){{fact|date=November 2007}} | ||
| ==Personal life== | ==Personal life== | ||
| Shermer lives in ], on the edge of a cliff in the foothills of the ] atop which ] rests.<ref>Shermer, Michael; "The Skeptic's Chaplain: Richard Dawkins as a Fountainhead of Skepticism"; ''Skeptic'' magazine; Vol. 13, 2007; Page 47.</ref> He lives with his wife, Kim Shermer, and his daughter, Devin Shermer. | Shermer lives in ], on the edge of a cliff in the foothills of the ] atop which ] rests.<ref>Shermer, Michael; "The Skeptic's Chaplain: Richard Dawkins as a Fountainhead of Skepticism"; ''Skeptic'' magazine; Vol. 13, 2007; Page 47.</ref> He lives with his wife, Kim Shermer, and his daughter, Devin Shermer.{{fact|date=November 2007}} | ||
| Shermer is a ] enthusiast and was once a marathon bicycle racer; he helped found the ] and competed several times. He has produced several documentaries on cycling. | Shermer is a ] enthusiast and was once a marathon bicycle racer; he helped found the ] and competed several times.{{fact|date=November 2007}} | ||
| He has produced several documentaries on cycling.){{fact|date=November 2007}} | |||
| ==List of published works== | ==List of published works== | ||
Revision as of 00:14, 7 November 2007
Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954 in Glendale, California) is a science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and editor of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating and debunking pseudoscientific and supernatural claims.
Shermer is also the producer and co-host of the 13-hour Fox Family television series Exploring the Unknown and since April 2004 has been a monthly columnist for Scientific American magazine with his Skeptic column. Shermer was once a fundamentalist Christian. Shermer is now a professed atheist, but prefers to use nontheist, and an advocate for humanist philosophy.
Early life and education
Michael Shermer received his Bachelor's degree from Pepperdine University in 1976 in Psychology/Biology, his master's degree from California State University, Fullerton in Experimental Psychology two years later, and his Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University in History of Science in 1991 (with a dissertation entitled "Heretic-Scientist: Alfred Russel Wallace and the Evolution of Man: A Study on the Nature of Historical Change").
Shermer wrote, "I became a skeptic on Saturday, August 6, 1983, on the long climbing road to Loveland Pass, Colorado after months of training under the guidance of a 'nutritionist' with an unaccredited Ph.D." After years of practicing acupuncture, chiropractic and massage therapy, negative ions, rolfing, pyramid power, fundamentalist Christianity, and "a host of weird things" (with the exception of drugs) to improve his life and training, Shermer stopped rationalizing the failure of these practices.
Shermer began his undergraduate studies at Pepperdine University, initially majoring in Christian theology, later switching to psychology. However, his graduate studies in experimental psychology at California State University, Fullerton led to many after class discussions with professors Bayard Brattstrom and Meg White, which is when his "Christian ichthys got away, and with it my religion."
Published works and ideas
Shermer is the author of several books that attempt to explain the ubiquity of irrational or poorly substantiated beliefs. In 1997 he wrote Why People Believe Weird Things, which explores a variety of "weird" ideas and groups (including cults), in the tradition of the skeptical writings of Martin Gardner. A revised and expanded edition was published in 2002. From the Introduction:
So we are left with the legacy of two types of thinking errors: Type 1 Error: believing a falsehood and Type 2 Error: rejecting a truth. ... Believers in UFOs, alien abductions, ESP, and psychic phenomena have committed a Type 1 Error in thinking: they are believing a falsehood. ... It's not that these folks are ignorant or uninformed; they are intelligent but misinformed. Their thinking has gone wrong.
— Michael Shermer, Why People Believe Weird Things, 1997, 2002, Introduction
In How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science, Shermer explored the psychology behind the belief in God. In the introduction Shermer wrote "Never in history have so many, and such a high percentage of the population, believed in God. Not only is God not dead as Nietzsche proclaimed, but he has never been more alive."
In early 2002, Shermer's Scientific American column introduced Shermer's Last Law, the notion that "any sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial intelligence is indistinguishable from God." Shermer's Last Law is a spin on Clarke's Third Law.
In 2002 Shermer and Alex Grobman wrote Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? which examined and refuted the Holocaust denial movement. The book recounts meeting various denialists and concludes that free speech is the best way to deal with pseudohistory.
In May 2004 Shermer debated young Earth creationist Kent Hovind at UC Irvine, and spoke to defend evolution before a predominantly creationist audience.
In his 2006 book Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design, Shermer marshals point-by-point arguments supporting evolution, sharply criticizing Intelligent Design. The book also argues that science cannot invalidate religion, and that Christians and conservatives can and should accept evolution.
In June 2006, Shermer, who formerly expressed skepticism regarding the mainstream scientific view on global warming, wrote that, in view of the accumulation of evidence, this position is no longer tenable.
He attended and was a speaker at the Beyond Belief symposium on November 2006.
Media appearances
Shermer made a guest appearance in a 2004 episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit!, in which he argued that the Bible was "mythic storytelling" and that literal interpretation of events described therein would "miss the point of the Bible." His stance was supported by the show's hosts, whose atheist position is well known. The episode in question, The Bible: Fact or Fiction?, sought to debunk the notion that the Bible is an empirically reliable historical record. Opposing Shermer was Dr. Paul Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University.
In 1995 Shermer appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show to challenge Rosemary Altea's psychic claims, and appeared on Donahue in 1994 to respond to David Cole's Holocaust denial claims.
Shermer is a popular guest on the skeptical podcast Skepticality.
- The Colbert Report (August 21, 2007)
- Larry King Live (2007)
- Skepticality (May 15, 2007)
- The Eyes of Nye on "Pseudoscience" (2005)
- Penn & Teller's Bullshit! on "The Bible: Fact or Fiction?" (2004)
- Dennis Miller (May 19 & May 20, 2004)
- The Question of God: Sigmund Freud & C.S. Lewis (2004)
- 20/20 (ABC News) (with John Edward) (December 5, 2003)
- Exploring the Unknown (1999) TV Series
- The Power of Belief (ABC News) (1998)
- Politically Incorrect (unknown date)
Personal life
Shermer lives in Altadena, California, on the edge of a cliff in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains atop which Mount Wilson rests. He lives with his wife, Kim Shermer, and his daughter, Devin Shermer.
Shermer is a cycling enthusiast and was once a marathon bicycle racer; he helped found the Race Across America and competed several times.
He has produced several documentaries on cycling.)
List of published works
- Sport Cycling: A Guide to Training, Racing, and Endurance 1985 ISBN 0-8092-5244-9
- Cycling: Endurance and Speed (Sportsperformance) 1987 ISBN 0-8092-4775-5
- Teach Your Child Science 1989 ISBN 0-929923-08-1
- Teach Your Child Math and Mathemagics 1999 ISBN 0-7373-0134-1
- The Borderlands of Science: Where Sense Meets Nonsense 2001 ISBN 0-19-514326-4
- How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science 2001 ISBN 0-613-35413-3
- The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience (ed.) 2002 ISBN 1-576-07653-9
- Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? 2002 ISBN 0-520-23469-3
- In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace: A Biographical Study on the Psychology of History 2002 ISBN 0-19-514830-4
- Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. (2nd Revision edition) 2002 ISBN 0-8050-7089-3
- The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Care, Share, and Follow the Golden Rule 2004 ISBN 0-8050-7520-8
- Science Friction : Where the Known Meets the Unknown 2005 ISBN 0-8050-7708-1
- Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks 2006 ISBN 978-0307338402
- Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design 2006 ISBN 978-0-8050-8121-3
- The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics (to be released December 26, 2007) ISBN 978-0805078329
List of Skeptic columns published in Scientific American
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References
- http://www.positiveatheism.org/mail/eml9818.htm "Nontheist is a much better word because it is neutral, so I use that when I have to, but mostly I avoid labels altogether. It is best to just say "I do not believe in God.")"
- http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/07-07-25.html "Today, however, although I remain fiscally conservative, I am a nontheist, a social liberal, and a public intellectual critical of religious extremism and excessive intrusion of religion in American public life (see Shermer 1999; 2004; 2006; as well as Skeptic magazine, of which I am the founding editor)".
- "About Us: Michael Shermer". The Skeptics Society. 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-04.
- Michael Shermer. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. 2002, ISBN 0-8050-7089-3 page 15.
- Michael Shermer. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. 2002, ISBN 0-8050-7089-3 page 13-15.
- Michael Shermer. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. 2002, ISBN 0-8050-7089-3 page 127.
- Michael Shermer. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. 2002, ISBN 0-8050-7089-3 page 128.
- Shermer, Michael (June 2006). "The Flipping Point". Scientific American. Retrieved 2006-12-11.
- Skepticality Podcast
- Michael Shermer at the Internet Movie Database
- Shermer, Michael; "The Skeptic's Chaplain: Richard Dawkins as a Fountainhead of Skepticism"; Skeptic magazine; Vol. 13, 2007; Page 47.
External links
- Skeptic.com – Official website of The Skeptics Society and Skeptic Magazine
- Skepticality – Official podcast of The Skeptics Society and Skeptic Magazine
- "Nano Nonsense and Cryonics: True believers seek redemption from the sin of death", Scientific American, September 2001
- Multimedia files featuring Michael Shermer
- Video of Michael Shermer at the 2006 TED Conference, February 23, 2006
- Real Detroit Weekly Interview, February 7, 2007
- Skeptiko Audio Interview: Darwin, Evolution and Creativity, February 14, 2007
- Is Christianity Good for the World? – Debate with Dinesh D'Souza at the Oregon State University Socratic Club on October 15, 2007, part 1
- Is Christianity Good for the World? – Debate with Dinesh D'Souza at the Oregon State University Socratic Club on October 15, 2007, part 2