Wednesday, June 13, 2012

What is Skepticism?

Skepticism means doubt, and it is one of the most important parts of the scientific method. However, most people are confused about what a skeptic really is, so I will now explain it in further detail.

A skeptic is somebody who examines something by asking questions and being curious. In other words, a skeptic is pretty much the same thing as a scientist.

I consider myself an open-minded skeptic, and so do many other cryptozoologists. However, what many people may be surprised to learn is that being a skeptic does not mean that you just automatically reject every claim that you hear. Indeed, doing so is the very opposite of skepticism! For example, if I tell somebody that I have just had a Bigfoot sighting, and they tell me that I couldn't possibly have seen one, because there is no such thing as Bigfoot, then they are not being skeptical at all. Instead, they are just denying that my sighting ever happened, before even bothering to take a look at my description first!
Indeed, it is my opinion that those people are not really skeptics at all, but are instead true believers, just like those who assert that every black dot on the water is Nessie, or every large furry creature is Bigfoot. They are not true skeptics. Not at all.

On this blog, I will examine any evidence or sightings that I might encounter from a skeptical, but open-minded, point-of-view.

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