COLUMN: Skepticism keeps you guessing
Have you ever given birth to an alien’s baby? If so, this may interest you. This Tuesday Michael Shermer will be lecturing on “Why People Believe Weird Things,” a topic of much interest to me and to many of you as well. A distinguished author, lecturer and skeptic, Shermer is a passionate advocate of science; he will be taking a skeptical look at alien abduction accounts, psychic phenomenon, holocaust denial, “scientific” creationism, and many other ideas considered pseudoscientific.
Many people have a very negative perception of skepticism and skeptics, but what does skepticism actually mean? The word skeptic comes from the Greek word skeptikos, meaning thoughtful or thinking. Skepticism, far from being a negative view of life, is a virtue and absolutely critical to the scientific process.
Why people believe weird things is the most important and interesting part of this presentation. What makes a person believe in aliens or that the Holocaust never happened? Why do they believe these ideas?
In life we encounter a barrage of ideas and concepts, but not everything can be true. How do we know? Skepticism is the key. In the philosopher David Hume’s famous essay “A Critique of Miracles,” he proposes the idea that “belief is better when proportioned to the evidence available.” This is the act of empiricism or rationality, which is fundamental to skepticism and science.
Shermer effectively presents a case that it is this lack of skepticism that leads to false beliefs. Being skeptical does not mean rejecting every new idea that comes along. If this were the case, there would be no new discoveries or paradigm shifts. However, accepting false beliefs is also dangerous. I would propose a marriage between the two seemingly contrary concepts, skepticism and wonder: the ability to accept or reject new ideas based on the evidence available.
Wonder is a necessary and beautiful part of human nature and to deny it would not only be wrong, but dangerous. There is a fine line between imagination and delusion. Hume claims that it is humanity’s need for excitement and wonder, pride and belonging that is the major influence in believing miraculous claims and not their validity.
This comes into play in regards to “Scientific Creationism,” which would be better labeled as an attempt to prove biblical literalism, mainly the book of Genesis. By trying to prove Genesis, Creationists contradict data from many fields of science: biology, geology, paleontology and physics.
This is not an attempt to criticize religious beliefs or to change them. An understanding must be reached between separate ideologies because animosity benefits no one. It is my hope that those who attend this lecture will begin to understand why skepticism is a necessary virtue.
Steve Skinner is the ASUSU science senator. Comments can be sent to stevedennis@cc.usu.edu.