Sound skepticism has its place in the research/ testing phase, simply to find out what works or not. In the idea phase you apply imaginations as freely as you can (think outside the box). Your “religion” seems to be opposite, out of fear, and every time I meet these atheists, and they come across just a religious as Hindus.

Yes, people believe a lot of things, so what? They might be “victims” of religious – and other con artists, they might learn to look out for themselves that way. The so called “educated classes” believe a lot of things too, which cause more problems for society, then folklore, for they are often in power.

Still the worst con artists do operate within so called “scientific establishments,” simply to rip off tax payers, on scale other con artists could only dream about. Here you have job to do, but you go after those, who do not get such funding, they spend their own money, as Einstein did early on, the ultimate outsider. Could that be your motive to protect the cash flow for the establishment of which you are part of?

I personally got very sick, but refused to take so-called modern medicine, simply because it is a scientific fact, that at best it suppresses symptoms, just create others. Even medical doctors acknowledge placebo, and it’s not that difficult, the body has its own health care system. Through meditation, and changing of mental and emotional habits, I regained my health and strength at 60 +, and I did not feel as well in my 20ties. Some might call this energy medicine, of which you are skeptical about. I don’t know, I just read a pamphlet, and then experimented. The effect was almost instant, first I got better, then much worse, and obviously I got rid of a lot of toxins. Then I just got better and better, stress and tensions dissipated.

So did I fool myself? Who cares if you are skeptical? I am engineer by profession, thus I have a scientific education, but in our profession we are used to test, and see what works. Should we start out as skeptics, we would not solve a single problems.

All he’s trying to point out is why people believe things at all. Unless we develop a reasonable BS filter then we end up subscribing to all sorts of nonsense (and in some cases downright weird) that in no way benefit humans, whether those beliefs are Bigfoot, WTC conspiracy or God.

Scott M Tomasello

I think more meaningful to you, is that I respect who you are what what you are doing. However, I do not see where you really addressed the question here. Can you show me my point of error?

If you can for a moment, fall back on your psychology and explain what you would suggest or recommend to a person who presents with a lack of self-concept and no guidance for life’s big decisions.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
CDC

I feel myself fortunate having just stumbled upon your website and read this astute article.

Have you ever extended your analysis into the investigation of human comfort or the cognitive underpinnings of why people “buy into” various causes or beliefs?

Being skeptical of “Mr. Skeptic” I wonder what would happen if we all jettisoned our beliefs and then worked to reconstitute them based upon scientific trial and making of provisional statements.

Being a bit of a skeptic myself, I find myself questioning whether it is better to be the quality control who picks apart the half-truths of convention (to support a more objective reality) OR the minister promulgating the half-truths with the goal of helping others (a more comforting reality).

I can tell you’re very good with the “how” we do our thinking, but if you can’t recommend a (factually based) emotionally supportive substitute system of beliefs I doubt you’ll ever achieve mass adoption.

Personally I know that I operate in a two brained manner (or at least that’s how it feels to me), part of me operates scientifically and part of me doesn’t. When I am working I function in a very logical and methodical way: my writing is technical, my thought process is organized and I want the facts. However, when I wish to create something new I have to enter another psychological state in order to do that. I need to repress my organized, rational, and structured thought process, so I can create…so I can tap into that flow. I do this by meditating, reading philosophy and religious/spiritual material, etc in order to get there; to turn that other part of my brain on. Both types of thinking are necessary for me and I want them both.

I don’t believe that any of us have the ability to realize the ultimate nature of reality, in a way we are very fragmented beings. It is no more valid to me to make the statement that God does not exist than it is to stand in a classroom and teach creationism, thereby completely denying the scientific facts regarding the nature of evolution and the development of species. Where is the ‘truth’ in either of those stances?

The pursuit of knowledge allows us, as a species, to make rational decisions and to solve problems related to our survival as humans and to improve our life experience. We all know this. These are facts based on historical precedence. The more factual knowledge we have about the nature of life in all of its infinite complexity, the better decisions we make. The problem with us is not that we believe irrational stuff (irrational thinking is creative)…our problem is in thinking that what we believe is the ultimate truth, and to make any decisions based on those beliefs (whether they be scientific or mythological).

Our real difficulty as a species is our egocentric view of ourselves in the world and our need to ‘be right’. We are all running around waving our flag and yelling our truth, trying to drown out everyone else so we can win. It is amazing that we have survived this long with such a terrible flaw.

What would be a nice development is that we humans come to accept that we can’t know truth and that we just need to come to the table together, bring as many facts as we can to the decision making process, accept that we won’t be able to see the whole picture from where we sit, but to try to sift through everything and make the best decisions for all of us based on the information at hand.