The Essentials: What Is Essential?

After finishing a great Star Talk podcast on The Big Bang Theory (the TV show not the theory for how the universe as we know it got its start) the next episode in the queue was about ghosts.  I wasn’t too excited about the topic but Joe Nickell, the main guest who was billed as a paranormal investigator, was surprisingly good. The investigator took a different approach to ghost busting, practicing his craft in the form of neutral skepticism.  In other words he took a scientific approach.   

By this point in the blog the faithful readers and those others who know me well might be saying, “Oh you know Ben, he loves science so of course he’d agree with someone who took a scientific approach to ghost busting.”  Of course you would be dead right but I content that, even more so, Nickell’s approach appealed more to my heightened affinity for common sense.

The important point from this paranormal investigator was that when we approach a particular effect we must be neutral to the possible causes that can explain it.  In other words if a door swings open and the cause is unknown, neither the natural or supernatural hypotheses should be immediately rejected. This isn’t to say we can claim either hypothesis to be correct. It is only to say that by not preconditioning our investigations with limits on the possibilities we open ourselves up to seeing the actual causes.

For this to happen, Joe Nickell adopts a suspension of disbelief when faced with a case.  Surely this isn’t easy but it is essential.  This neutral posture is important because just as a strong belief can sway thinking so can a strong disbelief, just in a different direction.  Beliefs can easily lead to being misled and being misled is often a result of dulled skepticism.

Skepticism often gets a bad rap but it is important to be skeptical.  Skepticism is one of the cardinal traits we parents hope to instill in our children.  We might not say it this way but it is true. We say “Don’t talk to strangers.” Because we think, “Be skeptical that their interest in you is malicious.” We say, “Look both ways before crossing the street.” Because we think, “Be skeptical of every driver’s level of attention and care for pedestrians.”

We train our kids to be skeptical so they can be safe and grow into maturity but how does this relate to what we teach them about belief. In a way we teach our kids to have faith in our own skepticism, we ask them to believe but how do we teach them to not be misled?