Who's a skeptic?
Apr/18/09 18:42 Filed in: Pseudoscience
I don’t know what happened, but several people I know have accused me of being a skeptic. What is a skeptic? Is that like a psychic? Maybe I got the label because I would roll my eyes and laugh when someone would say, “take these zinc/vitamin C/echinacea tablets to cure your cold.” That statement is usually followed up by, “my mother’s friend’s sister-in-law’s cousin never gets colds after taking these pills.”
It might be mildly humorous to a wide range of “skeptics” whose blogs I read, but I just don’t like the term. I’m actually not skeptical of homeopathic ultra-diluted solutions, I just accept that there is absolutely no science that supports the idea that 0 molecules of a substance (yes, homeopathic potions are nothing but water) has any effect on anything. It’s the pseudoscience types that are skeptical of science, but somewhere the term has morphed into a pejorative term that almost says, “you science types are skeptical because you aren’t open-minded.”
Actually, almost every scientist I know is quite open-minded, because it’s impossible to be a scientist without being able to explore the natural world by seeing infinite possibilities.
I guess all I can be is a lonely voice that thinks being labeled a skeptic smacks of a pejorative eptithet. I’m going to stay out here on the edge claiming it’s not I who is a skeptic, but the pseudoscience crowd. This is probably a lost cause.
By Michael W Simpson
It might be mildly humorous to a wide range of “skeptics” whose blogs I read, but I just don’t like the term. I’m actually not skeptical of homeopathic ultra-diluted solutions, I just accept that there is absolutely no science that supports the idea that 0 molecules of a substance (yes, homeopathic potions are nothing but water) has any effect on anything. It’s the pseudoscience types that are skeptical of science, but somewhere the term has morphed into a pejorative term that almost says, “you science types are skeptical because you aren’t open-minded.”
Actually, almost every scientist I know is quite open-minded, because it’s impossible to be a scientist without being able to explore the natural world by seeing infinite possibilities.
I guess all I can be is a lonely voice that thinks being labeled a skeptic smacks of a pejorative eptithet. I’m going to stay out here on the edge claiming it’s not I who is a skeptic, but the pseudoscience crowd. This is probably a lost cause.
By Michael W Simpson