Michael Shermer |
Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism - and is therefore one of the keys to human social and civic decency.
In science, knowledge is fluid and certainty fleeting. That is at the heart of its limitations. It is also its greatest strength.
Humans are pattern-seeking story-telling animals, and we are quite adept at telling stories about patterns, whether they exist or not.
Skepticism is not a position; skepticism is an approach to claims, in the same way that science is not a subject but a method.
Data without generalizations are useless; facts without explanatory principles are meaningless. A "theory" is not just someone's opinion or a wild guess made by some scientist. A theory is a well-supported and well-tested generalization that explains a set of observations. Science without theory is useless.
People believe in God because we are pattern-seeking, storytelling, mythmaking, religious, moral animals.
The whole point of faith, in fact, is to believe regardless of the evidence, which is the very antithesis of science.
Proof is derived not through a single piece of evidence, but through that convergence of evidence from numerous lines of inquiry, all of which point to an unmistakable conclusion.
There is no such thing as the supernatural or the paranormal. There is only the natural, the normal, and mysteries we have yet to explain.
Science helps us avoid dogmatism: basing conclusions on authority rather than logic and evidence.
Myths, whether in written or visual form, serve a vital role of asking unanswerable questions and providing unquestionable answers. Most of us, most of the time, have a low tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. We want to reduce the cognitive dissonance of not knowing by filling the gaps with answers. Traditionally, religious myths have served that role, but today - the age of science - science fiction is our mythology.
There are many sources of spirituality; religion may be the most common, but it is by no means the only. Anything that generates a sense of awe may be a source of spirituality. Science does this in spades.
Smart people believe weird things because they are better at rationalizing their beliefs that they hold for non-smart reasons.