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    More Thoughts on Skepticism


    Created on Tuesday, September 30, 2008        Bookmark and Share

    Home -> Disbelief


    As you may know I tend to be a skeptic at heart. I think that the word skeptic is often greatly misunderstood. It isn't that I go out looking to prove something to be false, it is that I need evidence to believe something to be true. Anecdotal evidence, hearsay and superstition are not nearly enough to convince me of something. The key point there is that a skeptic does not set out to disprove a theory. Rather, the skeptic will point out the flaws that try to support the theory.

    When discussing topics such as the paranormal and religion, I've almost been pitied because I did not subscribe to the same beliefs as others in the conversation. Many times I have been advised that "I should keep an open mind" or "consider alternate possibilities".

    These statements imply that I do not have an open mind and I am not willing to consider an alternate belief. Actually, the opposite could not be more true. To believe something that can not be proven, one must put aside logic and reason to arrive at a conclusion. This is actually being close-minded as you are favoring one totally unproven outcome and not considering other possibilities that are often just as likely to be true. An open-minded person will not subscribe to something that can not be reasonably proven. In short, if you need to suspend disbelief or critical thinking to believe in something then your arguement is flawed.

    A perfect example of this is the analysis of the supernatural. Many people believe that the unexplained is actually proof of the supernatural because something is unexplained. But it isn't supernatural, it is merely unexplained. The presumption that a house is haunted is actually an example of close-mindedness because it is arriving at a concusion that is not sustained by facts, not to mention that it is neglecting other explanations.

    Open-mindedness is NOT about believing things. Conversely, asking for evidence does not make someone close-minded. A skeptic is concerned with what has been proven and not trying to disprove beliefs (unless the facts show that something definitely is not true). If you start with an assumption and then try to prove it true will not fairly consider evidence that contradicts your belief. Worse, you are much more likely to accept other false premises.

    This video does a MUCH better at describing all of this. It is less than 10 minutes and is actually very interesting as it shows us how we can have biases without realizing that we do.


    Atheism   More in    Debunking the Ghost Hunters

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