Reply #51: Scientific Skepticism

[indigobusiness]

There is no more honourable word in the scientific lexicon that that of 'skeptic' -- one who sincerely seeks after truth and who has the courage to rebut scientific myths and false beliefs with empirical data and sound logic.

'Skeptic' is a word that can be found in frequent use on the Internet, especially by individuals who think of themselves as scientific rationalists and by organisations such as CSICOP and COPUS whose stated mission is to spread real scientific knowledge and to defeat superstition and ignorance.

But in recent decades, 'skeptic' has come to mean something else. It has come to mean the adoption of an attitude of scorn and derision towards any kind of anomalous data that contradicts current scientific beliefs, and the adoption of an air of condescension and superiority towards those who venture to investigate or write about anomalous phenomena.

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Many professional scientists will read the examples given on this site and respond by saying that in every generation it is up to the discoverer of the new and the unexpected to make his or her case by experiment and argument. No-one has an automatic right to be accepted, or even listened to and anyone who enters the demanding profession of science must be willing to submit to the most rigorous -- even harsh -- scrutiny.

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In these circumstances, and in many others described on this site, it is not the Principle of Tenacity that is being invoked, it is blind, unreasoning prejudice masquerading as scientific rationalism.

And the 'skeptics' who censor and ridicule in the name of science, whether they know it or not, are the agents not of knowledge but of pseudoscience.

Science does not need vigilantes to guard its gates. Science has been successful because good science drives out bad and because an ounce of experiment is worth any amount of scientific authority.


http://www.alternativescience.com/skepticism.htm