Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Ask me about skepticism and being a skeptic.

MSD · 09-08-2009, 08:16 AM

HIV does not cause AIDS, vaccines cause autism, humans did not evolve from less complex life forms, and man did not land on the moon. I have been presented each of these arguments as fact, I have heard arguments in their favor, I have researched each of them, and I have been called an idiot and a sheep when my consideration of the evidence has led me to conclude that they are all empirically and verifiably false. I am a skeptic.

I've been meaning to start a discussion on skepticism on TFP for a while, and the trend of "ask me" thread seems like as good a time as any.

For the record, I am not here to discuss philosophical skepticism, which I consider a bunch of nonsense, I'm here for scientific skepticism. There are two terms that I'm going to define my use of up front to avoid confusion: belief, which I use to mean something an individual feels is true and can be verified or falsified, and faith, which covers stuff like belief in God and cannot be tested scientifically.

Skepticism is simply the application of the scientific method to belief. Evidence precedes belief in the skeptic's mind and the skeptic's mind is always open to new evidence. A skeptic should never be afraid to have his beliefs challenged, he realizes that the outcome will be one of two things -- either he will find the evidence insufficient to trump what he knows, or the person challenging his belief will do him the service of showing him that he was wrong. One of the core values of skepticism is the willingness to accept that you may be wrong, and to appreciate being proven wrong for the sake of learning.

I often hear people claim that people of a skeptical mindset are "closed minded." Frequently, the accuser is much less open minded than the accused in these cases. Skeptics are willing to change their beliefs if more convincing evidence is produced to support an alternative, which can be provided in a number of ways such as more accurate methods of producing evidence, a stronger correlation, a larger volume of evidence, or simply irrefutable evidence that is mutually exclusive to what supported the old belief. Evidence should be verifiable and experiments repeatable.

Skeptical activism is the promotion of critical and scientific thinking. It's as simple as just speaking up and politely disagreeing when someone says something that you know to be untrue, or doing more if you want to. I have plenty of ideas if anyone wants them.

So go ahead and ask me about skepticism, or what I think about something, or whatever you think fits the subject.

09-08-2009, 08:16 AM	#1 (permalink)
MSD The sky calls to us ... Super Moderator Location: CT	Ask me about skepticism and being a skeptic. HIV does not cause AIDS, vaccines cause autism, humans did not evolve from less complex life forms, and man did not land on the moon. I have been presented each of these arguments as fact, I have heard arguments in their favor, I have researched each of them, and I have been called an idiot and a sheep when my consideration of the evidence has led me to conclude that they are all empirically and verifiably false. I am a skeptic. I've been meaning to start a discussion on skepticism on TFP for a while, and the trend of "ask me" thread seems like as good a time as any. For the record, I am not here to discuss philosophical skepticism, which I consider a bunch of nonsense, I'm here for scientific skepticism. There are two terms that I'm going to define my use of up front to avoid confusion: belief, which I use to mean something an individual feels is true and can be verified or falsified, and faith, which covers stuff like belief in God and cannot be tested scientifically. Skepticism is simply the application of the scientific method to belief. Evidence precedes belief in the skeptic's mind and the skeptic's mind is always open to new evidence. A skeptic should never be afraid to have his beliefs challenged, he realizes that the outcome will be one of two things -- either he will find the evidence insufficient to trump what he knows, or the person challenging his belief will do him the service of showing him that he was wrong. One of the core values of skepticism is the willingness to accept that you may be wrong, and to appreciate being proven wrong for the sake of learning. I often hear people claim that people of a skeptical mindset are "closed minded." Frequently, the accuser is much less open minded than the accused in these cases. Skeptics are willing to change their beliefs if more convincing evidence is produced to support an alternative, which can be provided in a number of ways such as more accurate methods of producing evidence, a stronger correlation, a larger volume of evidence, or simply irrefutable evidence that is mutually exclusive to what supported the old belief. Evidence should be verifiable and experiments repeatable. Skeptical activism is the promotion of critical and scientific thinking. It's as simple as just speaking up and politely disagreeing when someone says something that you know to be untrue, or doing more if you want to. I have plenty of ideas if anyone wants them. So go ahead and ask me about skepticism, or what I think about something, or whatever you think fits the subject.