Shermer, Michael

Michael Shermer (1954- ) is the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and Skeptic.com. For eighteen years he wrote the ‘skeptic’ column for Scientific American^(h).

Suffering as he does from terminal scepticism, Shermer could not resist offering his views on Atlantis^(a), which basically assume that Plato created the myth of Atlantis to support his political philosophy. This idea has been put forward by many sceptics. However, nobody seems to have suggested that while Plato may have been promoting his political philosophy with the Atlantis story, there is absolutely no reason why he could not have been using real historical events to achieve the same result. This explains how the late Professor Antonis  Kontaratos was able to point out at the 2005 Atlantis Conference that Plato states directly and indirectly, twenty-two times, in both Timaeus & Critias, that the story of Atlantis is true ^[629.79].

I should note here the comment of Martin Ebon that “the narrative, unlike the Republic, espouses no particular theory and reads more like historical fact, however confusing, than a myth.”^[286.16]

Shermer does accept that Plato mixed history with myth but does not suggest how we might separate the two, instead, he is content to dispose of both baby and bath-water. I consider fatuous, his comment that “Plato’s Atlantean dialogues are essentially an ancient Greek version of Star Wars.” This silly comparison was recently (2018) echoed on an Australian website^(d).

Georgeos Diaz-Montexano responded to Shermer’s views with a 2005 article, contentiously entitled Errors, Fallacies and Lies.

Shermer wrote an article^(b) for Scientific American (Jan.1.2016) on the subject of ‘Homo Naledi, which generated a highly critical response, noting that “Shermer preferred to speculate without evidence and publish an essay without fact-checking.” Even Shermer nods!

>Some years ago Rod Martin wrote a short but interesting paper grading the arguments of some of the better-known Atlantis sceptics, such as Shermer and Kevin Christopher⁽ⁱ⁾

In a 2017 article in Scientific American, Shermer offered a highly critical review^(f)  of Graham Hancock’s Magicians of the Gods.<

However, to give credit where credit is due I must acknowledge that recently (2020)  Shermer, among others, has back-pedalled on their previous sustained opposition to the idea of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis^(e). The impetus for this volte-face seems to have been provided by James Lawrence Powell, also a former sceptic, and his book, Deadly Voyager ^[1911].

In June 2023, Shermer published an article in Skeptic magazine attacking Graham Hancock‘s theories in general and the Netflix 2022 eight-part series Ancient Apocalypse^(g) in particular.

^(a) https://michaelshermer.com/sciam-columns/myth-is-the-message/#more-52 

^(b) https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-this-extinct-human-species-commit-homicide1/

^(c) Michael Shermer: Murdering the facts about Homo naledi? – john hawks weblog (archive.org) 

^(d) https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/exposing-the-star-wars-code-the-atlantis-connection/news-story/1aae97d63ce040a076f09ca1c37819ad

^(e) In praise of intellectual honesty – The Cosmic Tusk 

^(f) No, There Wasn’t an Advanced Civilization 12,000 Years Ago – Scientific American 

^(g) Skeptic » Reading Room » Alternative Civilization and Its Discontents: An Analysis of the Alternative Archaeologist Graham Hancock’s Claim That an Ancient Apocalypse Erased the Lost Civilization of Atlantis 

^(h) https://michaelshermer.com/sciam-columns/ 

⁽ⁱ⁾ Mission: Atlantis, by Rod Martin, Jr. — Grading the Skeptics (archive.org) *