Skepticism is a critical skill and its importance will never be any less than it is right now which on a day to day basis means that being skeptical is really important. Skepticism is probably essential in an age where any literate person can go online at virtually any time and look up all sorts of questions to see what people worldwide think, with the bar for responding to just about any topic imaginable being at an all time low and the answers being effectively immortalized thanks to the inability of the internet to forget things. Anyone with WiFi and the ability to read (or connections to someone who can read) can read the works of Ray Comfort (Way Of The Master) or Neil Carter (Godless In Dixie). Anyone with access to the internet can learn what Gwyneth Paltrow thinks of cleanses, or that some people think they can lie on the internet and sadly that some people believe these lies. When people fall for wild claims without evidence or claims that would fall apart under scrutiny the consequences can be beyond humiliating, they can be fatal. That’s why I think its time for a more aggressive brand of skepticism that focuses on the genuine importance of skepticism beyond just religion and religious claims to assert itself.

The Benefits Of Skepticism:

Skepticism can save lives. Being skeptical of wild claims can keep people from becoming parts of extremist and fringe groups and from engaging in potentially harmful practices with some extreme examples being breatharianism and exorcisms, and other less extreme examples including falling for phishing emails that could result in people having their identities stolen or in their computers being infecting with malware.

Holistic skepticism isn’t limited to religion and religious claims. For people who truly value skepticism it can almost feel like a part of their identity, a minor one but still one that is a part of them and an important part that pushes them to be the reverse of dogmatic and to constantly seek out and adapt to new information. I value my skepticism, particularly as a historian and as someone whose views have evolved over the course of my life. I do honestly consider it an aspect of my personality and even a part of the persona I aim to convey to readers of my work. But why does skepticism need to be compassionate?

Skepticism Needs To Be Compassionate Because When It Matters It’s About More Than Being Right Or Wrong:

Not all claims that warrant skepticism are the same. Some wrong claims are more or less harmless aside from being wrong. In those cases its still good to be skeptical and to focus on addressing and correcting someone who was wrong. But many claims are actively dangerous and from time to time are genuine lies being marketed as truths (as opposed to things that are not true but are not known to the people peddling them as true) even if the consequences of falling for such lies (and falsehoods) could be fatal. Why does this involve making skepticism compassionate? Because in some cases being right isn’t enough to stop someone else from getting hurt.

Conducting research and coming to the correct conclusion about the danger or falseness a claim is awesome but that doesn’t mean others will come to that same conclusion especially if you aren’t compassionate in how you aim to showcase that something is not true. Making your skepticism compassionate and making it people-centered matters a lot more than the merely having done research and having arrived at the correct conclusion yourself. By making your brand of skepticism compassionate you are doing others a favor and potentially helping people learn enough about various claims that they’ll eventually learn to replicate your pattern of research and eventually want to engage in daily research themselves. Many claims end up deserving compassionate skeptics determined to take them down and they aren’t all as well-known as breatharianism and other claims like it.

Compassionate skepticism is far more intense than just researching a claim and coming to the conclusion that its unfounded. Compassionate skepticism means interacting with people who believe these claims and asking them tough questions and working to explain why some claims continue to be believed despite a lack of evidence for them as well as challenging people who perpetuate these claims and the often well-meaning people who support them. Compassionate skepticism is not for the lazy and its not for those who shy away from confrontation but its worth doing and its worth the time it requires.

What I Want As A Compassionate Skeptic:

As a compassionate skeptic I want my skepticism to lead me to write and talk about trending and evidence-less topics out of a desire for more people to realize the dangers of these sorts of claims and to know that they are baseless and that even flirting with them might well be hazardous for someones reputation and possibly their health. I want my skepticism to be tied to my love of humanity and my desire to help humanity achieve its best possible future. I want my skepticism to drive me to be actively engaged on social media whenever dangerous but appealing claims rear their ugly-heads.

I want my skepticism to drive me to educate people. I want it to drive me to be a voice determined to protect people through education and through activism. And it does. Are you a compassionate skeptic? If so how does your compassionate skepticism affect your life and your responses to claims that go viral that are baseless and possibly even dangerous? I’d love to know!