Editing Michael Shermer (section)

==Early life and education==
Michael Brant Shermer was born on September 8, 1954, in Los Angeles, California.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shermer|first=Michael|date=September 2004|url=http://www.michaelshermer.com/2004/09/mustangs-monists-and-meaning|title= Mustangs, Monists & Meaning|journal=Scientific American|volume=291|issue=3|pages=38|publisher=The Work of Michael Shermer|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0904-38|pmid=15376748|bibcode=2004SciAm.291c..38S|access-date=2016-12-19|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Meyer|first=Ronald Bruce|url=http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=7176|title=September 8: Michael Shermer (1954)|publisher=Freethought Almanac|date=2013-09-08|access-date=2015-05-02}}</ref> He is partly of Greek and German ancestry.<ref>Shermer, Michael (April 2, 2019). [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vgx7E16_qk&feature=em-uploademail "Nicholas A. Christakis – Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society (Science Salon # 60)"]. ''Skeptic''/[[YouTube]]. 10:40 mark. Retrieved April 2, 2019.</ref> Shermer was raised in [[Southern California]], primarily in the [[La Cañada Flintridge, California|La Cañada Flintridge]] area.<ref name=BestSchools>{{cite web |title=Michael Shermer Interview |url=https://thebestschools.org/features/michael-shermer-interview/ |website=thebestschools.org |date=April 27, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425044451/https://thebestschools.org/features/michael-shermer-interview/ |archive-date=April 25, 2017}}</ref><ref name="BelievingBrainCh4">Shermer, Michael. ''The Believing Brain''. 2011. Times Books. Chapter 4</ref><ref name="2002page127">Shermer, 2002, p. 127</ref> His parents divorced when he was four and later remarried.<ref name="BelievingBrainCh4" /> He has a step-sister, two step-brothers, and two half-sisters.<ref name="BestSchools" /><ref name="BBrainChap6">Shermer, ''The Believing Brain'', Chapter 6</ref>

Shermer attended Sunday school but said he was otherwise raised in a non religious household. He began his senior year of high school in 1971, when the evangelical movement in the United States was growing in popularity. At the behest of a friend, Shermer embraced [[Christianity]]. He attended the [[Presbyterian]] Church in [[Glendale, California]] and observed a sermon delivered by a "dynamic and histrionic preacher" who encouraged him to come forward to be saved. For seven years, Shermer evangelized door-to-door.<ref name=BestSchools/><ref name=BBrainChap6/> He also attended an informal Christian fellowship at "The Barn" in [[La Crescenta, California]], where he described enjoying the social aspects of religion, especially the theological debates.<ref name="BestSchools" />

In 1972, he graduated from [[Crescenta Valley High School]]<ref name="2002page127" /> and enrolled at [[Pepperdine University]], intending to pursue Christian theology.<ref name="BestSchools" /> Shermer changed majors to psychology once he learned that a doctorate in theology required proficiency in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Aramaic.<ref name="BestSchools" /><ref name="2002page127" /><ref name="meettheskeptics">{{cite web|url=http://meettheskeptics.libsyn.com/mts-meet-michael-shermer|title=Michael Shermer|publisher=Meet The Skeptics|date=November 2011|access-date=February 7, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222100517/http://meettheskeptics.libsyn.com/mts-meet-michael-shermer|archive-date=February 22, 2014}}</ref> He completed his [[bachelor's degree|BA]] in psychology at Pepperdine in 1976.<ref name="ShermerAbout">{{cite news | url=https://www.skeptic.com/about_us/meet_michael_shermer.html | title=Skeptic Magazine: Meet Michael Shermer |publisher=[[The Skeptics Society]]|year=2006|access-date = 2007-01-04}}</ref>

Shermer went on to study [[experimental psychology]] at [[California State University, Fullerton]]. Discussions with his professors,<ref name="WhyPeoplePg128">Shermer, ''Why People Believe Weird Things'', 2002, p. 128</ref> along with studies in the [[natural science|natural]] and [[social science]]s, led him to question his religious beliefs.<ref name="BBrainChap6"/><ref name="WhyPeoplePg128"/> Fueled by what he perceived to be the intolerance generated by the absolute morality taught in his religious studies; the hypocrisy in what many believers preached and what they practiced; and a growing awareness of other religious beliefs that were determined by the temporal, geographic, and cultural circumstances in which their adherents were born, he abandoned his religious views halfway through graduate school.<ref name="BBrainChap6"/><ref name="WhyPeoplePg128"/>

Shermer attributed the paralysis of his college girlfriend as a key point when he lost faith. After she was in an automobile accident that broke her back and rendered her paralyzed from the waist down, Shermer relayed, "If anyone deserved to be healed it was her, and nothing happened, so I just thought there was probably no God at all."<ref name=WallStreetJournal>{{Cite news|last=Wolfe|first=Alexandra|date=2017-09-01|title=Michael Shermer's Skeptical Eye|language=en-US|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-shermers-skeptical-eye-1504279779|access-date=2021-11-06|issn=0099-9660}}</ref>

He earned an MA degree in psychology from [[California State University]], Fullerton in 1978.<ref name="ShermerAbout"/>