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This article is from the Scientific Skepticism FAQ, by Paul Johnson Paul@treetop.demon.co.uk with numerous contributions by
others.
0.6: Aren't all skeptics just closed-minded bigots?
People who have failed to convince skeptics often say "Well all
skeptics are just closed-minded bigots who won't listen to me!". This
is not true. Skeptics pay close attention to the evidence. If you
have no evidence then you will get nowhere.
Unfortunately life is short. Most of us have better things to do than
investigate yet another bogus claim. Some paranormal topics,
especially psi research and UFOlogy, produce vast quantities of low
grade evidence. In the past people have investigated such evidence
carefully, but it always seems to evaporate when anyone looks at it
closely. Hence skeptics should be forgiven for not bothering to
investigate yet another piece of low grade evidence before rejecting
it.
Isaac Asimov has suggested a triage process which divides scientific
claims into three groups: mundane, unusual and bullshit [my terms].
As an example, a claim that "I have 10kg of salt in my lab" is pretty
mundane. No-one would disbelieve me, but they wouldn't be very
interested. A claim that "I have 10kg of gold in my lab" would
probably result in mild disbelief and requests to have a look.
Finally a claim that "I have 10kg of Einsteinium in my lab" would be
greeted with cries of "Bullshit!".
Of course there are some who substitute flaming and rhetoric for
logical argument. We all lose our temper sometimes.
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science, engineering, scientific skepticism, skeptics, Conspiracy Theory
