The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

In Science Salon # 108 Michael Shermer speaks with Brian Greene about his book Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe. PLUS, during the Coronavirus outbreak, while many schools are closed, Shermer shares one of his Chapman University lectures, taught remotely, free for everyone to view.

In Science Salon # 100 Michael Shermer presents a special Ask Me Almost Anything (AMA # 6) on: extraterrestrial intelligence, Generic Subjective Continuity, Trump propaganda, Eliminative Materialism, eyewitness testimony, and more.

In Science Salon # 100 Michael Shermer presents a special Ask Me Almost Anything (AMA # 6) on: extraterrestrial intelligence, Generic Subjective Continuity, Trump propaganda, Eliminative Materialism, eyewitness testimony, and more. PLUS, this weekend only, Skeptic magazine back issues (in print or digital formats) are on sale for only 99 cents each!

British philosopher Dr. Colin McGinn avers that it is wrong to say that God is by definition all powerful; he is only powerful within the limits of his nature.

In Science Salon # 66 Dr. Michael Shermer speaks with Dr. Christian List about his new book Why Free Will is Real which defies scientific orthodoxy and presents a bold new defense of free will in the same naturalistic terms that are usually deployed against it.

Dr. Raymond Barglow discusses three mistaken approaches to the opioid epidemic in this article that appeared in Skeptic magazine 24.1 (2019). Plus, Michael Shermer dialogues On Freedom with New York Times bestselling author Cass Sunstein.

Cass Sunstein asks us to rethink freedom. He shows that freedom of choice isn’t nearly enough. Drawing on perspectives from the humanities, religion, and the arts, as well as social science and the law, Sunstein explores a crucial dimension of the human condition that philosophers and economists have long missed — and shows what it would take to make freedom real.

What is it about the human mind that so effortlessly translates natural events into messages from another realm — even despite our best attempts to deny that there’s any message in them at all?

In Science Salon # 58, Michael Shermer and noted conservative political commentator and public intellectual Ben Shapiro discuss and debate “what made the West great” in this wide ranging conversation.

In Science Salon # 47, Dr. Michael Shermer speaks with Dr. Susan Blackmore about: how science can test subjective mystical experiences; memes and tremes; free will and determinism; the hard problem of consciousness, out of body experiences, near-death experiences, and God.

In Science Salon # 47, Dr. Michael Shermer speaks with Dr. Susan Blackmore about: how science can test subjective mystical experiences; memes and tremes; free will and determinism; the hard problem of consciousness, out of body experiences, near-death experiences, and God.

In their second Science Salon conversation Michael Shermer and Colin McGinn discuss paradoxes and puzzles of philosophy, pseudo-questions, realism v. antirealism, how to deal with unknown unknowns, immortality and the nature of the self and soul.

In their second Science Salon conversation Michael Shermer and Colin McGinn discuss paradoxes and puzzles of philosophy, pseudo-questions, realism v. antirealism, how to deal with unknown unknowns, immortality and the nature of the self and soul.

Can paradoxes that seem to undermine belief in the God of Christianity actually support a belief in Him? Skeptic magazine’s religion editor, Tim Callahan, reviews Paradoxology: Why Christianity Was Never Meant To Be Simple, by Krish Kandiah.

Can paradoxes that seem to undermine belief in the God of Christianity actually support a belief in Him? Skeptic magazine’s religion editor, Tim Callahan, reviews Paradoxology: Why Christianity Was Never Meant To Be Simple, by Krish Kandiah.

Stephen Beckner reviews season one of HBO’s most-watched TV series Westworld, and considers some of the concepts presented in the first ten episodes: creation, evolution, artificial intelligence, memory, consciousness, self-awareness, free will, and suffering. WARNING: This review contains spoiler alerts.

Stephen Beckner reviews season one of HBO’s most-watched TV series Westworld, and considers some of the concepts presented in the first ten episodes: creation, evolution, artificial intelligence, memory, consciousness, self-awareness, free will, and suffering. WARNING: This review contains spoilers from season one, and speculation about future events.

Sam Harris demonstrates — with great intellectual ferocity and panache — that free will is an inherently flawed and incoherent concept, even in subjective terms. If he is right, his book “Free Will” will radically change the way we view ourselves as human beings.

Do we have free will or are our lives simply determined by the same physical laws that control the world around us? For the most part, science has embraced the determinist point of view. But the U.C. Santa Barbara psychologist Michael S. Gazzaniga—the man Tom Wolfe has called “one of the most brilliant experimental neuroscientists in the world”—is not convinced…

In this rich article on an ancient problem, Skeptic contributor Phil Mole discusses the problem of free will. The problem is this: how can we hold people accountable for their actions if we live in a determined universe? A variety of solutions to the problems are reviewed from the ancient Greeks to modern scientists, philosophers, and even science fiction writers such as Philip K. Dick in his classic novel Minority Report. Mole finds compelling new arguments from complexity theory and…