Ideally, a skeptic should be a person who demands solid
proof before he will
believe something -- a person who sees the
scientific method as his own personal
holy creed. Of course, this is far from an
ideal world, and we are far from an ideal species, so a true skeptic is a very
rare (and often fairly
insane) creature.
So we have to make do with different levels of
skepticism. At the low end of the
spectrum are the
hard-core believers. If you say
UFOs
abducted you for
hair transplant experiments, if you say
Jesus appeared in your
pizza toppings, if you say a
crop circle has appeared in your field advertising
Hoover vacuum cleaners, if you say your
pool boy is
Elvis reincarnated, the hard-core believers will believe you, no matter what. In many cases, the hard-core believer will dislike and distrust anyone who is more
skeptical than they are and will consider those people to be sworn enemies and servants of
darkness; they are essentially
fundamentalists, whether they are
Christian fundamentalists, UFO
fanatics, crop circle fanatics, or
hollow earth nutcases.
At the far end of the spectrum are the hard-core
disbelievers. No matter how convincing evidence of the
paranormal may be, the disbelievers will insist that it cannot be
possible. Got
incontrovertible proof of
life on other planets?
Leprechauns?
Spontaneous Human Combustion? The existence of
God? The disbelievers will
insist that you made it all up. In many cases, they will dislike and distrust anyone who is less
skeptical than they are and will consider those people to be sworn enemies and servants of
darkness. Some of the more
rabid disbelievers have been known to
grumble about the
evils of
fantasy novels and "
The X-Files," since they clearly encourage belief in things that cannot possibly
exist! They are essentially
fundamentalists,
worshipping at the altar of
established and accepted science, and yes, they're actually very similar to the hard-core
believers. Read through some of
CSICOP's stuff sometime -- if ever an organization needed to adopt the "
See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil"
monkeys as mascots, it's them.
Most people fall into a middle ground. They believe in some things, and they don't believe in other things. They have
faith in some areas of their lives and demand
evidence in others. They probably believe in a
higher power, they probably don't believe that
Elvis and
Jim Morrison are still alive, and they probably don't know what to believe about
ghosts, UFOs, and who shot
JFK. Their lives are mostly
healthy blends of
faith and
skepticism, with little to no need for either
blind faith or
blind skepticism. On the whole, I'd consider this a
good thing.
A little bit either above or below that level are the
Forteans, who consider themselves
followers,
disciples, or simply
fans of
phenomenon researcher Charles Fort. On the one hand, they tend to be willing to consider the possibility of some of the more
outlandish things, but on the other, they expect to be shown
credible evidence before they'll go to the trouble of believing in something. If you bring them a story about how the
Reptoids are tampering with your
television, the Forteans will say, "Really? Tell me more!" If you can show some sort of
believable evidence, they may decide you're telling the
truth. However, if it turns out that you're
full of it, they'll
make fun of you.
Cuttingly. In
public. While
snickering and
pointing. The hard-core believers and the hard-core disbelievers both tend to
hate the hell out of the Forteans because they often refuse to take things as
seriously as the belief/nonbelief fundamentalists want them to.
Yeah, I've considered myself a Fortean for the last several years, so I'm way biased. So sue me.