Perspectives from a “new” skeptic Part II: “Skeptic” is a four-letter word

Inspired by my readings of the likes of Sagan, Hawking and Dawkins, I wore my views of the world on my sleeve. This led to a lot of intellectual conversations with my friends and family, as well as a few heated discussions. On more than a couple of instances I was labeled, in a derogatory sense, as an “atheist” and a “skeptic.” Needless to say, during the rest of the time that I was living in my conservative little home town (which was not so coincidentally the day that I graduated from high school), I no longer self-identified myself as an atheist, but rather as a much less abrasive “agnostic.”

At that point in my life, the word “skeptic” to me was equivalent to “contrarian” or “non-believer.” Yes, I was critical of wild claims and required some level of evidence for such claims no matter how popular, but I certainly did not just go against the grain for the sake of going against the grain. There were many things that I did believe in, for instance chemistry, physics, astromomy, geology, love, nature, and the beauty of life. I did not know that many of my heroes were self-identified skeptics, or that there was an underground movement known as skepticism. I stayed up to date with scientific breakthroughs in science, particularly astronomy and quantum physics, yet still the skeptical movement eluded me.

DoR