The Nature of Scepticism

How about the illusion that the sun goes around the earth? Or the illusion that there are solid things?

Well no not exactly kofh2u. The 'In the beginning' part is ok. It is the 'God created...' part that is unsupported. If the first verse of Genesis said something more like what Steven Weinberg said,

quote:

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At about one-hundredth of a second, the earliest time about
which we can speak with any confidence, the temperature of
the universe was about a hundred thousand million (10^11)
degrees Centigrade.

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then I think that even the most sceptical would have to take notice. Weinberg said what he said at the end of half a life times worth of accumulating bits of verifying information and not at the end of a vision quest in the desert. Furthermore, the information that he was accumulating had been verified by thousands before him.Being sceptical is about accumulating points of verification. Imagine 'true' and 'false' as opposite ends of the same scale. Info that verifies an idea moves it toward the truth. Info that conflicts with an idea moves it toward false. Info from two eyes is better than info from one eye.The fact that you successfully employ scepticism in most other areas of your life is the best evidence that being sceptical is the right way to approach the world.

There is no conspiracy. Scientists just want to see what is there.The topic is about how we make sure that what we think we see is actually what is there.The universe can only be examined through the use of your 5 senses. Each one of them measuring the frequency and amplitude of energy. Our brain processes the inputs and then makes predictions. We then verify those predictions with more sensory input.The problem for the brain is that sensory input is both incomplete and sometimes contradictory. That is to say that things are not always as they appear to be. The cool thing is that our brains have evolved to deal with this by constantly updating the sensory input and revising or confirming the predictions. In other words, your brain is sceptical by nature.The problem comes when the brain forms a prediction that can not be verified by the senses and yet that prediction takes a position equal to things that can be verified by the senses. This is known as taking leave of one's senses.