Ben Witherington III is an American evangelical Biblical scholar, and professor of New Testament Studies. Witherington is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky.

Education

Witherington attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and graduated in 1974 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English, along with minors in Philosophy and Religious Studies. He holds an M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is an elected member of Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, a society dedicated to New Testament studies.

Witherington is an author and speaker. He has written over thirty books, and has made many appearances on radio interviews, and on television programs featured on the History Channel, Discovery Channel, and other major networks.

Selected books

What Have They Done with Jesus? Harper Collins, 2007 Making a Meal of It - Rethinking the Theology of the Lord's Supper, Baylor University Press, 2007

Troubled Waters - Rethinking the Theology of Baptism, Baylor University Press, 2007

The Problem with Evangelical Theology: Testing the Exegetical Foundations of Calvinism, Dispensationalism, and Wesleyanism, Baylor University, 2007, reviewed at Christianity Today

The Jesus Quest : The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth. 2nd ed. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997.

The Paul Quest : The Renewed Search for the Jew of Tarsus. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998.

New Testament History : A Narrative Account. Grand Rapids, Mich. Carlisle, Cumbria, U.K. Paternoster Press,: Baker Academic ;, 2001.

Women and the Genesis of Christianity, with Ann Witherington, Cambridge [England] ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

The Gospel Code : Novel Claims About Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Da Vinci. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2004.

Women in the Earliest Churches, Monograph Series / Society for New Testament Studies. Cambridge ; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

Complete Bibliography

References

External links

Ben Witherington III Department of Theology page

Ben Witherington on Beliefnet

Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Living people Category:American religion academics Category:Biblical scholars Category:Alumni of Durham University Category:Christian writers Category:United Methodist clergy

Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
Name	Samuel
Venerated in	Judaism Christianity Islam
Imagesize	220px
Caption	Infant Samuel by Joshua Reynolds 1723
Titles	Prophet, Seer
Major shrine	Tomb of Samuel, Jerusalem

Samuel (; Samouēl; ; Arabic: صموئيل Ṣamuʼeel; Strong's: Shemuwel) is a leader of ancient Israel in the Books of Samuel in the Hebrew Bible. He is also known as an Islamic prophet.

His status, as viewed by rabbinical literature, is that he was the last of the Hebrew Judges and the first of the major prophets who began to prophesy inside the Land of Israel. He was thus at the cusp between two eras.

According to the text of the Books of Samuel, he also anointed the first two kings of the Kingdom of Israel: Saul and David.

Biblical account

- Hannah presenting her son Samuel to the priest Eli ca.1665]]

The main account of Samuel's life comes from the book bearing his name in the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament.

Family

Samuel's mother was Hannah and his father was Elkanah. Hannah, at the beginning of the narrative, is barren and childless, like Abraham's wife Sarah. Hannah prays to God for a child. Eli who is sitting at the foot of the doorpost in the sanctuary at Shiloh, sees her apparently mumbling and thinks Hannah is drunk, but is soon assured of her motivation and sobriety. Eli was, according to the Books of Samuel, the name of a priest of Shiloh, and one of the last Israelite Judges before the rule of kings in ancient Israel. He blesses her after she promises the child to God. Subsequently Hannah becomes pregnant; her child is Samuel. After he is weaned, she leaves him in Eli's care.

Elkanah is Samuel's father and lives at Ramah (1 Sam. 1:19; 2:11; comp. 28:3), in the district of Zuph. His genealogy is also found in a pedigree of the Kohathites (1 Chron. 6:3-15) and in that of Heman, his great-grandson (ib. vi. 18-22). According to the genealogical tables, Elkanah was, a Levite, a fact otherwise not mentioned in the books of Samuel. The fact that Elkanah, a Levite, was denominated an Ephraimite is analogous to the designation of a Levite belonging to Judah (Judges 17:7, for example).

Name

According to , Hannah named Samuel in memory of her requesting a child from God and God listening. Samuel is translated as Heard of God or possibly as a sentence "God has heard" (from 'Shama', heard and 'El', God — with "Shama" as the verb and "El" as the subject). Samuel in the Hebrew root word is "sha’al" which is mentioned seven times in 1 Samuel 1 and once as "sha’ul" (1:28), which is Saul’s name in Hebrew. Coogan suggests that Saul’s birth narrative was transferred to Samuel by the Deuteronomistic Historians.

Calling

One night, around the age of 13 (maturity), Samuel heard a voice calling his name. He initially assumed it was coming from Eli and went to Eli to ask what he wished to say. Eli, however, sent Samuel back to sleep. After a few times Eli told Samuel that the voice was God's, and instructed Samuel on how to respond. Once Samuel responded God told him that the wickedness of the sons of Eli had resulted in their dynasty being condemned to destruction. Eli asked Samuel to honestly recount to him what he had been told, and upon receiving the communication merely said that God should do what seems right to Himself.

Leader

During Samuel's youth at Shiloh the Philistines inflicted a decisive defeat against the Israelites at Eben-Ezer (), placed the land under Philistine oppression, and took the sanctuary's Ark for themselves. (Some modern textual scholars consider that the Song of Moses, believed to be originally distinct from the surrounding text of Deuteronomy and not written by Moses, may in reality have been written in response to the theological implications of this disastrous defeat, possibly by Samuel himself.)

This was decades before the Israelites began to be ruled by a king. After 20 years of such oppression, Samuel, who had gained national prominence as a prophet, summoned the people to Mizpah (one of the highest hills in the land), where he organized them into an army, and led them against the Philistines. The Philistines, having marched to Mizpah to attack the newly amassed Israelite army, were soundly defeated and fled in terror. The retreating Philistines were slaughtered by the Israelites, which the Bible portrays positively. The text then states that Samuel erected a large stone at the battle site as a memorial, and there ensued a long period of peace thereafter.

Samuel in Islam

Samuel is also a revered prophet and seer in the Islamic faith. Although he is mentioned in the Qur'an, his name is not given but he is instead referred to as "a Prophet". According to Islamic history, the Israelites, after the time of the prophet Moses, wanted a king to rule over their country. Thus, God sent the prophet Samuel to anoint Saul as the first king for the Israelites. The Qur'an states: }} The Qur'an goes onto state that a king was anointed by the prophet, whose name was Talut (Saul in the Hebrew Bible). However, it states that the Israelites mocked and reviled the newly appointed king, as he was not wealthy from birth. But, in sharp contrast to the Hebrew Bible, the Qur'an praises Saul greatly, and mentions that he was gifted with great spiritual and physical strength. In the Qur'anic account, Samuel prophesies to the children of Israel, telling them that the sign of Saul's kingship will be that the Ark of the Covenant will come back to the Israelites: }}

His burial place is near Jerusalem visited by Islam and Fatimid / Dawoodi Bohra are amongst them (the tomb photo at right).

Textual criticism

National prophet, local seer

Some authors see the biblical Samuel as combining descriptions of two distinct roles:

A , based at Ramah, and seemingly known scarcely beyond the immediate neighbourhood of Ramah (Saul, for example, not having heard of him, with his servant informing him of his existence instead). In this role, Samuel is associated with the bands of musical ecstatic roaming prophets (shouters - neb'im) at Gibeah, Bethel, and Gilgal, and some traditional scholars have argued that Samuel was the founder of these groups. At Ramah, Samuel secretly anoints Saul, after having met him for the first time, while Saul was looking for his father's lost donkeys, and treated him to a meal.

A prophet, based at Shiloh, who went throughout the land, from place to place, with unwearied zeal, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting the people to repentance. In this role, Samuel acted as a (biblical) judge, publicly advising the nation, and also giving private advice to individuals. Eventually Samuel delegates this role to his sons, based at Beersheba, but they behave corruptly and so the people, facing invasion from the Ammonites, persuade Samuel to appoint a king. Samuel reluctantly does so, and anoints Saul in front of the entire nation, who had gathered to see him.

Textual scholars suggest that these two roles come from different sources, which later were spliced together to form the Book(s) of Samuel. The oldest is considered to be that which marks Samuel as the local seer of Ramah, who willingly anoints Saul as King in secret, while the latter is that which presents Samuel as a national figure, who begrudgingly anoints Saul as King in front of a national assembly. This later source is generally known as the republican source, since here, and elsewhere, it denigrates the actions and role of the monarchy (particularly those of Saul) and favours religious figures, in contrast to the other main source – the monarchial source – which treats the monarchy favourably. Theoretically if we had the monarchial source we would see Saul appointed king by public acclamation, due to his military victories, and not by cleromancy involving Samuel. Another difference between the sources is that the republican source treats the shouters as somewhat independent from Samuel () rather than having been led by him (). The passage () in which Samuel is described as having exercised the functions of a (biblical) judge, during an annual circuit from Ramah to Bethel to Gilgal (the Gilgal between Ebal and Gerizim) to Mizpah and back to Ramah, is thought by textual scholars to be a redaction aimed at harmonizing the two portrayals of Samuel.

The Book(s) of Samuel variously describe Samuel as having carried out sacrifices at sanctuaries, and having constructed and sanctified altars. According to the Mitzvot only Aaronic priests and/or Levites (depending on the Mitzvah) were permitted to perform these actions, and simply being a nazarite or prophet was insufficient. The books of Samuel and Kings offer numerous examples where this rule is not followed by kings and prophets, but some textual scholars look elsewhere seeking a harmonization of the issues. In the Book of Chronicles, Samuel is described as a Levite, rectifying this situation; however textual scholars widely see the Book of Chronicles as an attempt to redact the Book(s) of Samuel and of Kings to conform to later religious sensibilities. Since many of the Mitzvot themselves are thought to postdate the Book(s) of Samuel (according to the documentary hypothesis), Chronicles is probably making its claim based on religious bias. The Levitical genealogy of is not historical, according to modern scholarship. In 1 Samuel 9:6-20, Samuel is seen as a local “seer.” The Deuteronomistic Historians preserved this view of Samuel while contributing him as “the first of prophets to articulate the failure of Israel to live up to its covenant with God.” , by Salvator Rosa, 1668.]] Samuel then went into retirement, though he reappears briefly in the two accounts of why Saul's dynasty lost divine favour (parts of and ), essentially acting, according to scholars, as the narrator's mouthpiece. Apart from being the individual who anoints David as king, a role Samuel is abruptly summoned to take, he does not appear any further in the text until his own death at his hometown Ramah (, ), where he is buried (cf. , , and ). According to classical rabbinical sources, this was at the age of fifty-two.

Samuel's death, however, is not completely the end of his appearance in the narrative. In the passage concerning Saul's visit to the Witch of Endor, ascribed by textual scholars to the republican source, Samuel is temporarily raised from the dead so that he can tell Saul his future. Many Christian interpretations of this event portray Samuel's appearance as being a deception from Satan, or even a demon in disguise. There are other interpretations which say that Saul and the witch having been frightened by his appearance, and Samuel as having been composed, classical rabbinical sources argue that Samuel was terrified by the ordeal, having expected to be appearing to face God's judgement, and had therefore brought Moses with him (to the land of the living) as a witness to his adherence to the mitzvot. Samuel is also described by the Rabbis as having been extremely intelligent; he argued that it was legitimate for laymen to slaughter sacrifices, since the Halakha only insisted that the priests bring the blood (cf , Zebediah 32a). Eli, who was viewed negatively by many Classical Rabbis, is said to have reacted to this logic of Samuel by arguing that it was technically true, but Samuel should be put to death for making legal statements while Eli (his mentor) was present.

Christianity

For Evangelical Christians Samuel is considered to be a Prophet, Judge, and wise Leader of Israel, and treated as an example of fulfilled commitments to God. On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, his feast day is August 20. He is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church on July 30. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, the commemoration of the departure of Samuel the Prophet is celebrated on 9 Paoni.

See also

Books of Samuel

Book of Samuel the Seer

List of names referring to El

Biblical judges

Midrash Samuel

References

Category:Prophets of Islam Category:Judges of ancient Israel Category:Hebrew Bible people Category:Old Testament saints Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar Category:11th-century BC Biblical rulers Category:Books of Samuel

Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
Name	Michael Shermer
Caption	Shermer on the Skeptics Society Geology Tour on June 8, 2007.
Birth name	Michael Brant Shermer
Birth date	September 08, 1954
Birth place	Glendale, California, USA
Occupation	Academic Historian of science and editor
Title	Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic and
Website	MichaelShermer.com

Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954, in Glendale, California) is an American science writer, historian of science, founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine Skeptic, which is largely devoted to investigating pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. The Skeptics Society currently has over 55,000 members.

Shermer is also the producer and co-host of the 13-hour Fox Family television (now ABC Family) series Exploring the Unknown. Since April 2004, he has been a monthly columnist for Scientific American magazine with his Skeptic column. Shermer states he was once a fundamentalist Christian, but converted from a belief in God during his graduate studies, and has described himself as an agnostic, nontheist, atheist and advocate for humanist philosophy. He has expressed reservations about such labels, however, as he sees them being used in the service of 'pigeonholing,' and prefers to simply be called a skeptic. He completed his Bachelor's degree in Psychology/Biology at Pepperdine in 1976.

Shermer's 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." Shermer completed his master's degree from California State University in Experimental Psychology in 1978.

During the decade in which he raced long distances, he helped to found the 3,000-mile nonstop transcontinental bicycle Race Across America (along with Lon Haldeman and John Marino), in which he competed five times (1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989), was Assistant Race Director six years, and Executive Race Director seven years. Shermer's embrace of scientific skepticism crystallized during his time as a cyclist, explaining, "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, 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 would later produce several documentaries on cycling.

Before starting the Skeptics Society, Shermer was a Professor of the History of Science at Occidental College, California. Since 2007, Shermer has been an adjunct professor at Claremont Graduate University.

Skeptics Society and Caltech Lecture Series

In 1992 Shermer started the Skeptics Society, which produces Skeptic magazine and currently has over 55,000 members. In addition, the group organizes the Caltech Lecture Series which offers speakers on a wide range of topics relating to science, psychology, social issues, religion/atheism, skepticism, etc. Past speakers include Stephen Jay Gould, Jared Diamond, Donald Johanson, Julia Sweeney, Richard Dawkins, Philip Zimbardo, Steven Pinker, Carol Tavris, David Baltimore, Lisa Randall, Daniel Dennett, Tim Flannery, Lawrence Krauss, Michio Kaku, Susan Blackmore, Christof Koch, Alison Gopnik, Ursula Goodenough, Edward Tufte, Bjorn Lomborg, Sam Harris, Jeff Schweitzer and many others. The lectures occur on Sunday afternoons, and are open to the public for a nominal fee.

Published works

Shermer is the author of several books that attempt to explain the ubiquity of irrational or poorly substantiated beliefs, including UFOs, Bigfoot, and paranormal claims. 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:

In How We Believe: The Search for God in an Age of Science, Shermer explored the psychology behind the belief in God. In its 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 their book Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? which examined and refuted the Holocaust denial movement. This book recounts meeting various denialists and concludes that free speech is the best way to deal with pseudohistory.

was released in 2005 . Then his 2006 book , marshals point-by-point arguments supporting evolution, sharply criticizing Intelligent Design. This 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, the position of denying global warming is no longer tenable.

Shermer's most recent book The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics was released in 2007. In it Shermer reports on the findings of multiple behavioral and biochemical studies that address evolutionary explanations for modern behavior.

In February 2009, Shermer published The History of Science: A Sweeping Visage of Science and its History, a 25-hour audio lecture.

Media appearances and lectures

Shermer has appeared on several television shows and documentaries. In addition, he appears regularly at conferences and other speaking engagements.

Shermer appeared as a guest on Donahue in 1994 to respond to Bradley Smith's and David Cole's Holocaust denial claims, and in 1995 on The Oprah Winfrey Show to challenge Rosemary Altea's psychic claims. Shermer made a guest appearance in a 2004 episode of Penn & Teller's Bullshit!, in which he argued that events in the Bible constitute "mythic storytelling," rather than events described literally. His stance was supported by the show's hosts, who have expressed their own atheism. 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 Paul Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University.

Shermer made several appearances on NBC's daytime paranormal-themed show The Other Side in 1994 and 1995. After getting to know that show's producers, he made a formal pitch to their production company for his own skepticism-oriented reality show whose aim would be to present points of view of both believers and skeptics. His proposals were not fruitful, but several years later, one of the executives of that company went to work for the then-newly formed Fox Family Channel, and impressed with Shermer's show treatment, requested he pitch it to the network. The network picked up the series, Exploring the Unknown, of which Shermer became a producer and cohost. The series, which was budgeted at approximately $200,000USD per episode, was viewed by Shermer as a direct extension of the work done at the Skeptics Society and Skeptic magazine, and would enable Shermer to reach more people. The equivocal title was chosen so as to not tip off guests or viewers as to the skeptical nature of the show. Various segments from Exploring the Unknown can be found on Shermer's YouTube channel.

Shermer has been a speaker at all three Beyond Belief events from 2006 to 2008. He also spoke at the 2006 TED Conference on "Why people believe strange things."

Shermer is a frequent guest on Skepticality, the official podcast of Skeptic.

On August 21, 2010, Dr. Shermer was honored with an award recognizing his contributions in the skeptical field, from The IIG during its 10th Anniversary Gala.

He has appeared on the following programs:

The Phil Donahue Show (1994)

The Power of Belief (ABC News) (1998)

Exploring the Unknown Fox Family TV Series (1999)

Politically Incorrect (December 22, 2000) with Bill Maher

20/20 (ABC News) (with John Edward) (December 5, 2003)

Dennis Miller (May 19 & May 20, 2004)

Penn & Teller's Bullshit! on "The Bible: Fact or Fiction?" (2004) He and his wife, Kim Ziel Shermer, have a daughter named Devin.

Politically, Shermer has described himself as a libertarian.

List of books by Shermer

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

. (1997, 2nd Revision edition 2002) ISBN 0-8050-7089-3

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

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

2004 ISBN 0-8050-7520-8

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

2006 ISBN 978-0-8050-8121-3

The Mind of The Market: Compassionate Apes, Competitive Humans, and Other Tales from Evolutionary Economics 2007 ISBN 978-0805078329

The History of Science: A Sweeping Visage of Science and its History 2009 audio lecture

The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies---How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths (To be released May 2011) ISBN 978-0805091250

List of Skeptic columns published in Scientific American

{|width=100% |-valign=top |width=50%|

2001-04 Colorful Pebbles and Darwin's Dictum

2001-05 The Erotic-Fierce People

2001-06 Fox's Flapdoodle

2001-07 Starbucks in the Forbidden City

2001-08 Deconstructing the Dead

2001-09 Nano Nonsense and Cryonics

2001-10 I Was Wrong

2001-11 Baloney Detection

2001-12 More Baloney Detection

2002-01 Shermer’s Last Law

2002-02 The Gradual Illumination of the Mind

2002-03 Hermits and Cranks

2002-04 Skepticism as a Virtue

2002-05 The Exquisite Balance

2002-06 The Shamans of Scientism

2002-07 Vox Populi

2002-08 Why ET Hasn’t Called

2002-09 Smart People Believe Weird Things

2002-10 The Physicist and the Abalone Diver

2002-11 Mesmerized by Magnetism

2002-12 The Captain Kirk Principle

2003-01 Digits and Fidgets

2003-02 Psychic Drift

2003-03 Demon-Haunted Brain

2003-04 I, Clone

2003-05 Show Me the Body

2003-06 Codified Claptrap

2003-07 Bottled Twaddle

2003-08 The Ignoble Savage

2003-09 The Domesticated Savage

2003-10 Remember the Six Billion

2003-11 Candle in the Dark

2003-12 What’s the Harm

2004-01 Bunkum!

2004-02 A Bounty of Science

2004-03 None So Blind

2004-04 Magic Water and Mencken’s Maxim

2004-05 The Enchanted Glass

2004-06 Death by Theory

2004-07 God’s Number Is Up

2004-08 Miracle on Probability Street

2004-09 Mustangs, Monists and Meaning

2004-10 The Myth Is the Message

2004-11 Flying Carpets and Scientifi c Prayers

2004-12 Common Sense

2005-01 Quantum Quackery

2005-02 Abducted!

2005-03 The Fossil Fallacy

2005-04 The Feynman-Tufte Principle

2005-05 Turn Me On, Dead Man

2005-06 Fahrenheit 2777

2005-07 Hope Springs Eternal

2005-08 Full of Holes

2005-09 Rumsfeld’s Wisdom

2005-10 Unweaving the Heart

2005-11 Rupert’s Resonance

2005-12 Mr. Skeptic Goes to Esalen

|width=50%|

2006-01 Murdercide

2006-02 It’s Dogged as Does It

2006-03 Cures and Cons

2006-04 As Luck Would Have It

2006-05 SHAM Scam

2006-06 The Flipping Point

2006-07 The Political Brain

2006-08 Folk Science

2006-09 Fake, Mistake, Replicate

2006-10 Darwin on the Right

2006-11 Wronger Than Wrong

2006-12 Bowling for God

2007-01 Airborne Baloney

2007-02 Eat, Drink and Be Merry

2007-03 (Can't Get No) Satisfaction

2007-04 Free to Choose

2007-05 Bush's Mistake and Kennedy's Error

2007-06 The (Other) Secret

2007-07 The Prospects for Homo economicus

2007-08 Bad Apples and Bad Barrels

2007-09 Rational Atheism

2007-10 The Really Hard Science

2007-11 Weirdonomics and Quirkology

2007-12 An Unauthorized Autobiography of Science

2008-01 Evonomics

2008-02 The Mind of the Market

2008-03 Adam's Maxim and Spinoza's Conjecture

2008-04 Wag the Dog

2008-05 A New Phrenology?

2008-06 Expelled Exposed

2008-07 Sacred Science

2008-08 Wheat Grass Juice and Folk Medicine

2008-09 Folk Numeracy and Middle Land

2008-10 A Random Walk Through Middle Land

2008-11 Stage Fright

2008-12 Patternicity

2009-01 Telephone to the Dead

2009-02 Darwin Misunderstood

2009-07 I Want to Believe

2009-08 Shakespeare, Interrupted

2009-09 Skeptic - Paranoia Strikes Deep

2009-10 Captain Hook Meets Adam Smith

2009-11 Will E.T. Look Like Us?

2009-12 Political Science: The Psychological Differences in the U.S.'s Red-Blue Divide

2010-01 Kool-Aid Psychology: Realism versus Optimism

2010-02 Cultivate Your Garden

2010-03 Surviving Death on Larry King Live

2010-04 The Sensed-Presence Effect

2010-05 Doing Science in the Past

2010-06 When Ideas Have Sex

2010-07 When Scientists Sin

2010-08 Our Neanderthal Brethren

2010-09 Democracy’s Laboratory

2010-10 Can You Hear Me Now

2010-11 The Skeptic’s Skeptic

2010-12 The Conspiracy Theory Detector

2011-01 The Science of Right and Wrong

|}

See also

James Randi

References

Bibliography

Shermer, Michael. Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time. 2002, ISBN 0-8050-7089-3 page 127.

External links

MichaelShermer.com – Official website of Dr. Michael Shermer

Skeptic.com – Official website of The Skeptics Society

Skepticality – Official podcast of The Skeptics Society

Media

Multimedia files featuring Michael Shermer

Ted Talks

*On strange beliefs - filmed February 2006.

*The pattern behind self-deception - filmed February 2010.

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

Michael Shermer interviewed about "The Mind of the Market" on The Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour

Video of an hour long interview/discussion with Shermer by John Horgan on Bloggingheads.tv

Democracy's Laboratory: Are Science and Politics Interrelated? Mixing science and politics is tricky but necessary for a functioning polity from the September 2010 Scientific American Magazine.

Michael Shermer at the Internet Movie Database

An Interview with Michael Shermer. Free Market Mojo

Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:American skeptics Category:American humanists Category:American agnostics Category:American libertarians Category:American scientists Category:California State University, Fullerton alumni Category:People from Glendale, California Category:Pepperdine University alumni

Coordinates	37°46′45.48″N122°25′9.12″N
Imagesize	150px |
Name	Lee Strobel
Birthdate	January 25, 1952
Birthplace	Arlington Heights, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	United States
Period	Current
Genre	Religion
Subject	Christian apologetics
Spouse	Leslie
Children	Kyle, Alison
Influences	Frank Morison (English journalist)
Website	http://www.leestrobel.com/

Lee Patrick Strobel (b. January 25, 1952 in Arlington Heights, Illinois) is a writer, creationist, former journalist and former megachurch pastor. He is the author of several books, including four which received ECPA Christian Book Awards (1994, 1999, 2001, 2005) and a series which addresses challenges to a Biblically inerrant view of Christianity. Strobel also hosted a television program called Faith Under Fire on PAX TV, and runs a video apologetics web site.

Biography

Strobel received a journalism degree from University of Missouri and a Master of Studies in Law degree from Yale Law School, becoming a journalist for The Chicago Tribune and other newspapers for fourteen years. Strobel says he was an atheist before he converted to Christianity. Strobel was a teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Illinois, from 1987 to 2000, and of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California from 2000 to 2002, before shifting his focus to his writing and producing his TV show.

His daughter, Alison, is a novelist.

Books

The Case for a Creator

The Case for a Creator consists of interviews with intelligent design advocates and Christian apologists who argue for the existence of a creator. The advocates interviewed in the chapters and their topic(s) of discussion are as follows:

Intelligent design advocate, Discovery Institute Center for Science and Culture (CSC) fellow and Unification Church theologian Jonathan Wells presents a case against evolution;

Intelligent design advocate, CSC fellow and philosopherti of science Stephen C. Meyer discusses the relationship between science and religion, as well as the origin of life, arguing against the likelihood of abiogenesis without the assistance of a creator;

CSC fellow and philosopher of religion William Lane Craig discusses the Big Bang and argues for a creator as first cause, invoking the Kalam cosmological argument;

International Society for Complexity, Information and Design fellow and philosopher Robin Collins discusses the anthropic principle and argues that the universe must be designed by a creator;

Intelligent design advocates and CSC fellows Guillermo Gonzalez (an astronomer) and Jay Richards (a theologian) present a case that the Rare Earth hypothesis supports intelligent design;

Intelligent design advocate, CSC fellow and biochemist Michael Behe discusses irreducible complexity in biology as an argument for a creator; and,

CSC fellow, philosopher and theologian J.P. Moreland examines the supposed existence of consciousness separate from the brain, including near-death experiences, as an argument for a creator.

Other books

Strobel says that he wrote Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary to help advance lay people's understanding and to increase the effectiveness of evangelistic efforts, and says insights drawn from his own experiences as a former atheist on why people avoid Christianity.

Strobel describes The Case for Christ as a retracing and expansion of his becoming Christian. It summarizes Strobel's interviews with 13 evangelical Christian scholars — Craig Blomberg, Bruce Metzger, Edwin Yamauchi, John McRay, Gregory Boyd, Ben Witherington III, Gary Collins, D.A. Carson, Louis Lapides, Alexander Metherell, William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and J. P. Moreland — defending their view of the historical reliability of the New Testament.

The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity offers replies to doubts of Christianity, including the problem of evil, the contradiction between miracles and science, whether God is worthy of worship if he kills innocent children, whether Jesus is the only way to God, and the church's history of oppression and violence.

The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ presents a number of counter-arguments to challenges to the evangelical Christian view. Strobel addresses differences between the portrayal of Jesus in the non-canonical gospels versus the four canonical gospels, whether the church has changed this depiction over time, new explanations that refute Jesus's supposed resurrection, the possible origins of the Jesus story in pagan religions, whether Jesus fulfils messianic prophecies, and whether contemporary people should have freedom of belief.

Experiencing the Passion of Jesus was co-written with Garry Poole as a discussion guide for Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ.

Bibliography

Reckless Homicide? Ford's Pinto Trial (1980) ISBN 0-89708-022-X

Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary (1993) ISBN 0310375614

What Jesus Would Say (1994) ISBN 0310485118

God's Outrageous Claims (1998) ISBN 0310266122

The Case for Christ, September 1, 1998, Zondervan, ISBN 0310226058

The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity, October 1, 2000, Zondervan, ISBN 0310220157

Surviving a Spiritual Mismatch in Marriage (2002) ISBN 0310220149

The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God (2004), Zondervan, ISBN 0310263867

The Case for Easter: Journalist Investigates the Evidence for the Resurrection (2004), Zondervan, ISBN 0310254752

Experiencing the Passion of Jesus (2004), with Garry Poole, Zondervan, ISBN 0310263751

The Case for Christmas: A Journalist Investigates the Identity of the Child in the Manger (2005), Zondervan, ISBN 0310254760

Discussing the Da Vinci Code : Exploring the Issues Raised by the Book and Movie (2006) ISBN 0310272637

The Case for the Real Jesus: A Journalist Investigates Current Attacks on the Identity of Christ September 10, 2007, Zondervan, ISBN 031024210X

Children's apologetics series

The Case for Faith for Kids (2006), Zonderkidz, ISBN 978-0310711469

The Case for Christ for Kids (2006), Zonderkidz, ISBN 978-0310711476

A Case for a Creator for Kids (2006), Zonderkidz, ISBN 978-0310711483

Off My Case for Kids: 12 Stories to Help You Defend Your Faith (2006), Zonderkidz, ISBN 978-0310711995

References

External links

Official website

Category:Christian ministers Category:Christian apologists Category:Intelligent design advocates Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Yale University alumni Category:People from Arlington Heights, Illinois Category:University of Missouri alumni Category:Converts to Christianity from atheism or agnosticism Category:American Christian clergy