The Michael Shermer Show Shermer Says 7: Responding to Fan Mail … "Who Was Jesus?"
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Mar 8, 2026 A response to an inquisitive letter from Texas eighth graders prompts a wide-ranging chat about Christianity, the Bible, and who Jesus might have been. Topics include religious background and why beliefs change, fallibilism and Bayesian certainty, parallels between Jesus stories and ancient myths, and whether resurrection narratives work as metaphorical, moral tales rather than literal history.
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Engage In Open Dialogue And Read Widely
- Shermer invites the eighth grade class to continue dialogue and offers to send copies of his book Truth and participate in a Zoom discussion.
- He encourages open exchange, asking them to show their arguments and be willing to read different scholarly interpretations.
Shermer's Personal Journey From Born Again To Agnostic
- Michael Shermer recounts his own religious background from being born-again in 1971 to later dropping religiosity after about seven years.
- He describes attending Pepperdine, evangelical activities like door-to-door evangelism, and how that shaped his early faith and later departure.
Treat Religious Claims With Bayesian Fallibilism
- Shermer frames belief certainty in Bayesian terms, arguing nobody has 0% or 100% certainty about major metaphysical claims.
- He labels this epistemic stance fallibilism and urges keeping an open mind because any claim's truth value lies between extremes.
