To Be or Not To Be… Skeptical
February 4th, 2010 | 
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This is taken from James Mcgrath’s Blog and I thought it was interesting:
If we adopt a skeptical approach, we are less likely to believe things that are false, but will also probably not believe many things that are true but for which evidence is lacking. If we take a credulous approach, by believing everything, we may be certain that we have believed everything that is true, but we will inevitably believe many things that are false as well.
Which approach do you consider preferable? Is there any real way to find a middle ground between them? And for those whose religious standpoint leads them to believe that God prefers one or the other of these approaches (or looks favorably on humans who adopt one or the other), why do you think that might be the case?
So, is it better to be reserved and skeptical and miss some true and real things that there is not good evidence for, or is it better to just believe everything and end up believing things that are not true? The consequences could be dire either way to be sure…
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I too seem to break it down to absolute truths. That is where the trouble lies. Some people call it faith. I think that FAITH is just a word, it holds no absolute truth. Or does it? Back in our earlier math classes we learned that anything divided by zero is undefined. Later I learned that as the divisor approaches zero, ex: 1/0.000000000001 becomes infinitely large as we let the divisor become infinitely small (zero). So does 1/0 = infinity absolutely? The simplest question I can break it down to is:
Do you believe human kind is basically just an animal? Next is that “animal” basically good or bad? Does an animal believe in good and evil?
Tom,
In answer to your questions:
- Yes it seems that Human kind is basically an animal given the mountains of evidence available.
- are we “basically good”? I think we, and animals, are “basically” ignorant and we become good as we learn about the world and the consequences of our actions. When we have properly functioning mental faculties we understand what “the good” is can discern between it and “the bad”.
- Since we see clear signs of morality in animals then yes, I think that they see a what good and evil is. The more developed the animal brain, the more they seem to know good from bad and the more they act accordingly. Primates for instance have social structures and are altruistic based on similar codes of good and evil that we have.