No. 38 in America · Week of November 9, 2026
Founder, Skeptic magazine
Michael Shermer is a science writer and the founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, known for debating pseudoscience and religion.
Photo: David Patton, CC BY 3.0
Score breakdown
Nine parts, measured fresh each week. This is where Michael Shermer's points came from, and the evidence behind each one.
Debate record
Has spent decades debating religion and the paranormal on stage and on television, from Dinesh D'Souza at Caltech to Deepak Chopra on Nightline.
Shermer is executive director of The Skeptics Society and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine. He wrote a monthly column for Scientific American from 2001 to 2019.
He is the author of more than a dozen books on science, belief and skepticism.
On the record
2010
March 23, 2010
Broadcast debate
Against Deepak Chopra and Jean Houston · ABC Nightline Face-Off
Shermer and Sam Harris opposed the motion on national television against Chopra and Houston.
2007
December 9, 2007
Formal debate
Against Dinesh D'Souza · Caltech, Beckman Auditorium
The Skeptics Society's Great Debate, also asking whether you can be good without God. The society called it one of the liveliest it has hosted.
The people on this list argue in public for a living. At SuperDebate you get the same stage: one question, a clear structure, and a room that votes. It is how you learn to win an argument without making enemies.
