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| A Skeptical Approach |
A Skeptical Approach
It is often useful to retain a skeptical approach to information. Any new information may in fact be correct, it may be close to correct, or it may be totally incorrect.
How can you distinguish between a new concept that has great potential, and a fraudulent or foolish concept? A skeptical evaluation is based on examining the authority of the source, the quantity, quality, accuracy, and consistency of the information; and whether the proposed interpretation falls within the bounds of accepted theories. When new information is controversial then higher standards of skepticism should be met before it is accepted.
It is not always an easy task to separate unbelievable claims from bizarre, but possibly correct assertions. The Skeptics Society (www.skeptic.com) has taken that task as its primary function and provides a valuable resource for anyone wondering about a scheme or theory that sounds too amazing to be true.
Most novel theories are ultimately proven to be unfounded. However, every now and then a new theory is initially rejected for lack of convincing evidence, but is ultimately proved correct. For example, in 1915 Alfred Wegener, a Swedish geologist, published The Origin of Continents and Oceans in which he proposed the theory of continental drift. Wegener had collected evidence showing that about 300 million years ago the continents of Earth had all once been part of a super-continent that he called Pangaea. His evidence included the shapes of today’s continents that fit together like a giant jig-saw puzzle, and matching rock formations, fossils and plants at corresponding points on the boundaries of the present continents. Wegener’s evidence was interesting but it was not convincing. His contemporaries ridiculed his theory because he was unable to explain how the continents could move over the surface of the Earth. Then in the 1950’s, explorations in the deep Atlantic Ocean provided evidence that the ocean floor was spreading outwards from a mid-Atlantic ridge – causing North and South America to separate from Europe and Africa. By the 1960’s this new evidence led to the general acceptance of Wegener’s theory of continental drift.
It is often useful to retain a skeptical approach to information. Any new information may in fact be correct, it may be close to correct, or it may be totally incorrect.
How can you distinguish between a new concept that has great potential, and a fraudulent or foolish concept? A skeptical evaluation is based on examining the authority of the source, the quantity, quality, accuracy, and consistency of the information; and whether the proposed interpretation falls within the bounds of accepted theories. When new information is controversial then higher standards of skepticism should be met before it is accepted.
It is not always an easy task to separate unbelievable claims from bizarre, but possibly correct assertions. The Skeptics Society (www.skeptic.com) has taken that task as its primary function and provides a valuable resource for anyone wondering about a scheme or theory that sounds too amazing to be true.
Most novel theories are ultimately proven to be unfounded. However, every now and then a new theory is initially rejected for lack of convincing evidence, but is ultimately proved correct. For example, in 1915 Alfred Wegener, a Swedish geologist, published The Origin of Continents and Oceans in which he proposed the theory of continental drift. Wegener had collected evidence showing that about 300 million years ago the continents of Earth had all once been part of a super-continent that he called Pangaea. His evidence included the shapes of today’s continents that fit together like a giant jig-saw puzzle, and matching rock formations, fossils and plants at corresponding points on the boundaries of the present continents. Wegener’s evidence was interesting but it was not convincing. His contemporaries ridiculed his theory because he was unable to explain how the continents could move over the surface of the Earth. Then in the 1950’s, explorations in the deep Atlantic Ocean provided evidence that the ocean floor was spreading outwards from a mid-Atlantic ridge – causing North and South America to separate from Europe and Africa. By the 1960’s this new evidence led to the general acceptance of Wegener’s theory of continental drift.
