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142+ Works 8,620 Members 172 Reviews 26 Favorited

About the Author

Michael Shermer is the director of the Skeptics Society and the host of the Skeptics Lecture Series at the California Institute of Technology. He teaches science, technology, and evolutionary thought in the Cultural Studies Program at Occidental College.
Image credit: Michael Shermer, photo credit to Wikipedia user Loxton

Series

Works by Michael Shermer

The Secrets of Mental Math (2006) 942 copies
Why Darwin Matters (2006) 611 copies
Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? (2002) — Author; Narrator, some editions — 259 copies
The Soul of Science (1997) 13 copies
Race Across America (1993) 4 copies
Skeptic Religion Vol. 12 No. 3 2006 — Editor — 3 copies
Skeptic - Vol. 16, No. 3, 2011: Islam — Editor — 3 copies
Skeptic - Vol. 17, No. 1, 2011: Scientology (2011) — Editor — 3 copies
Skeptic - Vol. 12, No. 1, 2005: Mythbusters (2005) — Editor — 3 copies
Endzeittaumel (1998) 2 copies
Skeptic v.2 No. 4 (1994) 2 copies
Skeptic Magazine: Volume 3, Number 3 — Editor — 2 copies
Skeptic Magazine 2020 (2020) 1 copy
Skeptic Vol 5 No 1 1997 — Editor — 1 copy
Skeptic Magazine Volume 16 # 4 (2011) — Editor — 1 copy

Associated Works

Darwin (Norton Critical Edition) (1970) — Contributor, some editions — 652 copies
A Manual for Creating Atheists (2013) — Foreword — 240 copies
New Scientist, 15 May 2010 (2010) — Contributor — 4 copies
The Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy (2018) — Contributor — 4 copies

Tagged

atheism (162) belief (59) biography (40) biology (113) creationism (69) critical thinking (78) Darwin (57) ebook (54) economics (66) essays (67) ethics (69) evolution (277) history (120) history of science (57) Holocaust (58) intelligent design (37) magazines (45) math (159) morality (34) non-fiction (670) own (48) parenting (62) Periodicals (46) philosophy (239) philosophy of science (33) politics (41) popular science (44) pseudoscience (193) psychology (360) read (74) religion (370) science (1,106) Skeptic magazine (45) skepticism (536) sociology (77) superstition (81) tidsskrifter (45) to-read (660) unread (78) wishlist (36)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Shermer, Michael
Legal name
Shermer, Michael Brant
Birthdate
1954-09-08
Gender
male
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Los Angeles, California, USA
Places of residence
Altadena, California, USA
Education
Claremont Graduate University (PhD|History of Science|1991)
California State University, Fullerton (MA|Psychology|1978)
Pepperdine University (BA|1976)
Occupations
science writer (Scientific American)
editor (Skeptic)
historian of science
television producer
television presenter
bicycle racer (show all 7)
university professor
Relationships
Graf, Jennifer (wife)
Organizations
Skeptics Society
Scientific American
Skeptic Magazine
Occidental College
Awards and honors
Fellow, Linnean Society of London (2001)
Philip J. Klass Award (2006)
Agent
Katinka Matson
John Brockman
Max Brockman
Scott Wolfman (Wolfman Productions)
Short biography
Michael Shermer is an enthusiastic cyclist as well as a leading skeptic.
Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, the host of the The Skeptics Society’s Distinguished Science Lecture Series, and Adjunct Professor at Claremont Graduate University and Chapman University.

Dr. Shermer’s latest book is The Believing Brain. His other books include: The Mind of the Market (on evolutionary economics), Why Darwin Matters: Evolution and the Case Against Intelligent Design (about evolution, how we know it happened, and how to test it), Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown (about how the mind works and how thinking goes wrong), and The Science of Good and Evil: Why People Cheat, Gossip, Share Care, and Follow the Golden Rule (on the evolutionary origins of morality and how to be good without God). He wrote a biography, In Darwin’s Shadow (about the life and science of the co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace). He also wrote The Borderlands of Science (about the fuzzy land between science and pseudoscience), and Denying History (on Holocaust denial and other forms of pseudo history). His book How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God, presents his theory on the origins of religion and why people believe in God. He is also the author of Why People Believe Weird Things (on pseudoscience, superstitions, and other confusions of our time). He also wrote The Soul of Science (a brief statement of belief on science, the soul, and the afterlife, from a scientist’s perspective) and co-edited (with Pat Linse, the co-founder of Skeptic magazine) The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience (an analysis of the most prominent controversies made in the name of science).

Dr. Shermer received his B.A. in psychology from Pepperdine University, M.A. in experimental psychology from California State University, Fullerton, and his Ph.D. in the history of science from Claremont Graduate University (1991). He was a college professor for 20 years (1979–1998), teaching psychology, evolution, and the history of science at Occidental College (1989–1998), California State University Los Angeles, and Glendale College. Since his creation of the Skeptics Society, Skeptic magazine, and The Skeptics Society’s Distinguished Science Lecture Series, he has appeared on such shows as The Colbert Report, 20/20, Dateline, Charlie Rose, Larry King Live, Tom Snyder, Donahue, Oprah, Leeza, Unsolved Mysteries (but, proudly, never Jerry Springer!), and other shows as a skeptic of weird and extraordinary claims, as well as interviews in countless documentaries aired on PBS, A&E, Discovery, The History Channel, The Science Channel, and The Learning Channel. Shermer was the co-host and co-producer of the 13-hour Family Channel television series, Exploring the Unknown.

http://www.michaelshermer.com/about-m...

Members

Reviews

To be honest, I don't think this book lived up to its title. "Vague writings on weird things people believe", or "Why these people are wrong" was the more common theme. Some interesting content, but very little of what I expected - ie social theory re: how 'weird things' catch on. There are three chapters entirely devoted to debunking weird things, which, again, is interesting, but not what I was expecting. Some fascinating footnotes, though.
 
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unsurefooted | 39 other reviews | Feb 25, 2024 |
Shermer helps me understand why so many people believe so many weird things.
 
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mykl-s | 39 other reviews | Aug 11, 2023 |
Brings up important ideas about epistemology, does a good job of describing methodologies that can tackle pseudoscience in a persuasive fashion. It does not give me a lot of optimism about the ordinary person's ability to follow such a program. We rely on other experts to evaluate pseudoscience. When our experts and leaders are motivate to reason to support pseudoscience, we are stuck again with lots of people being willing to believe weird things.

Technically, the book shows its history of being a bunch of long magazine articles, it has below average cohesion, some chapters were much stronger than others, some had odd overlap.

One flaw I found in this book and the entire genre is that they tackle ideas that are way out there- like a cat pushing small objects off the edge of a table. It is very satisfying, but what is amazing is that people believe bunk, not that it can be debunked to a more objective observer, sometimes easily. So people at the end of the book can feel good about themselves because they don't believe in aliens or fictional alternative histories, yet have unexamined beliefs about more mundane things like their seeming centrist political opinions and we cling to these ideas with the ferocity of a ufologists belief in UFOs.
… (more)
 
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matthwdeanmartin | 39 other reviews | Jul 9, 2023 |
Started to reread this. But the author asserts rather than proves, especially annoying in a book that purports to teach that one needs reliable proof to believe something. On page 27 one finds the following sentence. "Shouldn't we know by now that the laws of science prove that ghosts cannot exist?" I followed up by reading every other reference to ghosts in the index. On 28-29 the author compares ghosts to mental abstractions such as the law of gravity. I didn't find this especially convincing since it only addressed the false proposition that the law of gravity didn't exist before Newton named it. Page 33 continues this false dichotomy with an assertion that ghosts have never been confirmed to any extent. But to make this statement one should explain what would constitute confirmation. For example, if I am trying to prove that Vitamin D is essential to mammalian life, I need to assert something like "the rate of illness in the experimental group will be significantly higher than that in the control group." Or, if I am trying to establish that an endangered species has made a comeback, I could specify what evidence: den sites, evidence of feeding, excrement, actual sightings or photographs from trail cameras, dead specimens in the excrement or stomach contents of prey animals, I would expect to find. On page 55 the author notes that mundane explanations for odd noises should be ruled out before concluding that the noises are evidence of ghosts. Well, I don't know of any reputable paranormal investigator who doesn't do just that. Is there a highway or train track nearby that would explain noises or lights? is there an ill-fitting window to explain cold spots? is there a likelihood of a person faking evidence? But what, pray tell, is the scientific law that rules out the existence of unknown types of energy or substances? If we grant that radio waves existed before we developed radios what makes it _impossible_ for ghosts to exist in the absence of an ectoplasmeter? I suppose there may be such a law, but the author expects us to take it on faith. Ironic.… (more)
 
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ritaer | 39 other reviews | Mar 3, 2023 |

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Statistics

Works
142
Also by
6
Members
8,620
Popularity
#2,790
Rating
3.9
Reviews
172
ISBNs
120
Languages
12
Favorited
26

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