Skeptical Arguments & why we are afraid of them?

I don’t profess to know anything about anything, so let’s make that pretty clear from the outstart. I am not a scientist nor a mathematician nor a physicist or anything rather educationally magnificent.

What I do know however is how we think as humans. Of course this again is merely my own point of view based on my own observations of not only myself making decisions but of those around me as well. And for the part of observing my own actions, this isn’t an easy task at all. In fact it’s hard for anyone to really observe what they are doing from a third person perspective when they are in the act of doing something. But on many occasions I have managed to stop myself mid stride so to speak and ask myself some questions. Why are you doing this? Do you really need to do this? Should you say that? What are the consequences of your actions?

These and many more varying questions which help me to better understand how I work as well as how others work. The major candidate of course to all these questions is “habit”. We are as they say, creatures of habit. Of course we are also creatures of duplication and mimicking. We are by our own nature always looking and searching for answers as to why we are here, what is our purpose, what is my purpose? And along the way we try to decipher these questions by trying different things out. New clothes, new car, new job, new partners, new house etc etc. Trying to find that which suits us best as individuals and sets us apart from the rest and at the same times says to others “I belong in your group, please accept me”.

This brings me to skepticism. And the question, why are we afraid of being skeptics? Firstly why would I ask such a question, and secondly, what makes me think that we are afraid of it?

Well for starters, one thing that jumps out at me, and perhaps some of you, is that our own egos stop us from asking questions. And a sense of self preservation in the eyes of others stops us as well. It seems to take a lot of courage and commitment for us as creatures of habit to change our ways, to accept that we might be wrong and to think outside out own little worlds.

Take for example homeopathy.  Now to all the skeptics and scientists and well people in the know, this is a ridiculous notion if ever there was one. Along the same lines as star signs and acupuncture. Unfortunately thousands upon thousands of people are still pulled into its unproven, evidently baseless claims and are still happy to fork out stupid amounts of cash to what can only be assumed is a placebo affect. One that screams, power of the mind rather than power of the remedy at hand.

So why do people fall for these claims, and why do they throw their money at them in a way that they seem blind to it all. Well my opinion is that the very first time they do it, they are sucked in to the idea by very smart charlatans who you could say, ironically, have the powers of persuasion on their side. They even go about telling friends of the wonderful benefits of such claims, and in an almost carefree manner throw their hard earned cash away as if it wasn’t really theirs in the first place.

Later on though down the track, they come to realise that they had been duped, conned and that they have completely made a big mistake. One which all too often they are too proud and stubborn to admit. So what do they do? They go on as if nothing really happened. They pretend as if they were never scammed out of their money. And should they ever be asked by friends, whom they would prefer to have the status quo left alone? They say it just wasn’t working for them. Or that it was good for a while but it ended up losing its effect in the end.

This goes for most situations where a person is more than likely to be left looking like a fool in front of someone else. Admitting the mistake is far harder to do than to actually cover it up with another lie and go on as if nothing ever happens. So in the end it all boils down to fear.

Luckily for some of us, there are people who ask questions, who want proof, and who will not just take anecdotal and factless based evidence as proof that something works. Like me? And also like those guys and gals at the Skeptic Zone and The Young Ausltralian Skeptics. Both of which can be found via the following links.

The Skeptic Zone
&
Young Australian Skeptics

So if you want an unbiased opinion, with science at its backing and common sense and even some humour thrown in for good measure, please check out these two sites. There are plenty more out there to choose from however, these for me at least, are two Aussie based sites to visit.

I could go on about other reasons as to why we do the things we do, but I merely wanted to make a segway so to speak, to the two links I have provided above. They have podcast that go up on their site bi-weekly I believe, however I am being too lazy to check, but they are well worth listening to. Especially if you want to try living outside your comfort zone, where everything is just a credit card swipe away and your mornings are nothing without your skinny, low fat, soy, low GI, low carb, filtered espresso decaffeinated hot water!!

Ollie – Remember, there’s no life quite like your life!