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Title edit
bc skeptics
Description edit
If you have ever been annoyed at a party when someone has asked you for your sunsign, or asked for evidence when someone has made a wild claim, then you are probably a skeptic. The English word 'skeptic' comes from the Greek, skepticos, meaning 'inquirer'. A skeptic is someone who takes inquiry seriously, and this means applying standards of evidence when deciding whether or not to accept a claim.
The best standards we know of to assess the validity of a claim come to us from the scientific method. "But I'm not a scientist!", you might protest. That doesn't matter. T. H. Huxley described science as "organised common sense". One does not need to fool with expensive scientific equipment in order to have a scientific frame of mind. The first step is simply to be willing to forego belief in something just because it would be really nice if it were so, and wait until you have examined it objectively. The next step is to not be embarrassed to say "I don't know". The final step is not to be satisfied with your ignorance, but to determine to find out the answer, if this is possible, and if it is not, to admit that you don't know, but resolve to keep searching for evidence. The person with a scientific temperament is not content to remain ignorant; but will not simply grasp at any straw in order to get out of this state. There are some things worse than ignorance: one is to have a false belief that you are not prepared to give up.
We are always encouraged to "find out for ourselves" what is going on. But it is not always easy to find out about paranormal and fringe scientific claims. Sometimes they involve evidence that is beyond our expertise; we are not in a position to assess them until we find out from an expert where to gather the information we need. Sometimes the claims are about calendar that took place hundreds of thousands of miles away, and we are not in a position to investigate first-hand. Sometimes, even though we are capable of investigating for ourselves, our busy schedules do not permit us to do so. We would rather rely upon others who have done the work, and who are trustworthy.
Languages edit
English
