Thursday 29 January 2015

Scepticism: A Personal Relationship with Reality



I recently discovered a word that well describes my world view and that is scepticism. Someone said that a sceptic is someone who is passionately unsure. It’s funny but there is so much truth in that definition, especially with the word “passionately”.  Some people are passively unsure and just happy to leave it there. Sceptics, however, are so excited and triggered by uncertainty that they want to find out. It is the belief that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. It is the search for evidence that makes one a sceptic. Evidence is not always about feeling, seeing or touching; it is rather about creating the environment for logic and reason to be traded freely without the fear of consequences. It is the bravery to ask the big questions of life and not accepting unfounded myths for answers. It is about not allowing yourself not to know or be exposed to any source of information whatsoever. It is indeed a personal relationship with reality.
  

Looking back, I think I have been a sceptic since time immemorial. I suppose the difference is that as a “self-certified” sceptic, I have the boldness to ask questions, and refuse to take illogical and meaningless “placeholder answers” as satisfactory. It is about accepting that there is nothing wrong with not knowing as long as you are in the process of finding out. The process of elimination is a very important aspect of scepticism. It is something I probably picked up from school days passion for maths and solving equations. In the absence of a formula, you try a few variables and conclude that some of them do not offer solutions to the problem being posed and then narrowing your options.  A very important step in my scepticism is about accepting that certain proposed answers are just not true even in the absence of any answers.  
It's OK to ask questions

Outside the realm of maths and science, it is baffling that the same reasoning and logic that have provided us with so many answers and have changed our lives so much are not being applied. And this precisely explains the difference between what I was before and what I am now. There are a few explanations of why the process of elimination and unbiased reasoning that has worked so well in science and maths classes has not been used elsewhere. The first explanation is probably that science and maths are still being viewed as subjects to be studied at school for the purpose of passing exams instead of a way of developing critical thinking. The critical thinking stops there and children are rarely encouraged to question or argue with parents about the rationality of held beliefs and proposed actions. This is quite sad because the founding fathers of science were seeking answers to the big questions such as whether the earth was flat, whether it was the centre of the universe, and what was inside the human body. They challenged the commonly and forcefully held beliefs of their time and that is why we know much better now. 

The second explanation is the existence of so many no-go areas when it comes to logic and reasoning. It is perplexing that it is mostly adults that get caught up in this. We are made to understand that certain questions should never been asked or that certain answers must be accepted without questioning. We are made to believe that doubting is evil and carry eternal gruesome punishment. On the less threatening side, we are made to believe that just by passionately not doubting, you can achieve extraordinary feats. It is obvious that this is a mere glorification of complacency. This is not to say that there is anything good about doubting just for the sake of it. My scepticism is about not limiting my options in the search for knowledge and enlightenment. It is about exposing myself to opposing views without the fears of being proven wrong. Where good evidence exist, it is stupid not to accept it. 

Another interesting aspect of my scepticism is refusing to accept that certain privileged people have somehow magically obtained answers to some life’s pressing questions. Some of them present to us as evidence what they have seen in their dreams, the voices they heard in their head, their gut feelings, and documents they mysteriously dug out of their gardens or fell from the sky and conveniently disappeared. The biggest problem with this form of evidence is that sooner or later, people start believing them as the source of major scientific discoveries. I remember childhood stories that suggested that all the major scientists got their revelations during encounters with extra-terrestrial beings. This is sheer laziness that refuses to recognise the thorough thought processes and experimentations that have enabled the great scientists to arrive at where we are today.  Believing that things happen by magic is a dangerous short cut that truncates the need to exercise one’s brain. I was once very angry when, a few years ago, a grown-up educated man seriously suggested with a straight face that the mobile phone and other electronic devices were the outcome of the White Man’s witchcraft. So angry I had to run out of the house temporary hugging my head with both hands. It is understandable that we are all excited by wonder. However, as Jules Verne put it: “reality has provided us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them”. 

I have never encountered anything as addictive as scepticism. The world is full of knowledge and concepts waiting to be explored. The internet makes it possible to continue searching and getting connected with people as sceptical as I am as well as people putting so much effort into providing answers. Seeking knowledge give so much meaning to life. It makes life so much worth living. It eliminates boredom. There is also something quite scary about scepticism.  It is the discovery that there are so many things that you do not know but wish to know. This is where the addiction and desperation comes in. Knowledge, however, is a good thing to be addicted to. To rephrase Bob Marley: “one good thing about knowledge is that when it hits you, you feel no pain. So hit me with knowledge”. 

Scepticism can be so self-absorbing though.  It is about loving yourself so much that you are just fine having a conversation with yourself. You so much look forward to that that moment when you can be finally on your own to reflect, analyse, ask questions and formulate answers. It is about giving yourself the permission to agree, disagree, think or accept. It is about a personal relationship with myself and it seems to be working well. 

It is shocking that many people see scepticism as being negative. They ask: “why are you so negative?” I suppose the fact is that many people are just happy to hold on to ideas that work for them. Those ideas make them happy and give them hope. They despise anyone that brings in any doubt. The second aspect is many people struggle with gaps and uncertainty. I say this as a risk analyst. They would rather replace these with “placeholder truths”. It works for them and that is fine by me. However, I am happy to have overcome these. So I remain:

Yours Faithfully,

Passionately Unsure

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