An Introduction to Modern
Skepticism
By Eric McMillan
VI: "What's the harm?"
Skeptics are often asked the question above. So what if some people believe aliens are visiting earth? So what if some folks think there's a monster in some lake in Scotland or if they pay a few bucks to a huckster to take away imaginary pains? What harm is done by paranormal and pseudoscientific beliefs and practices?
In some cases, very little. At least not directly. But at least eight kinds of harm can be identified, including both direct and indirect consequences.
|
Medical |
As we've seen with faith healing and alternative medicine, phony health cures can detract people from getting effective treatments that could genuinely help them. They can also keep individuals from getting proper diagnoses in the first place. And, sometimes the alternative treatments are themselves been harmful, even deadly. | 1 |
Many sick people have suffered greatly or died due to putting their trust in faith healing, psychic surgery, homeopathy, herbal remedies, Christian Science and the like. Some of the most heart-rending cases have been those involving children who have suffered due to the mystical beliefs of their parents.
Behind most such treatments are people or companies who make money from providing the services or selling the products involved. The faith-healers. The homeopaths. The psychic surgeons. Herb bottlers. Not that there is anything wrong with making money from providing a beneficial service or product. But in these cases consumers are paying money for services and products that at best are ineffective and at worst are dangerous.
This also applies to the wider area of the paranormal and pseudoscientific phenomena.
| Financial harm |
Behind the cults, the psychic hotlines, the UFOs, the monsters and so on are people who are taking donations, consulting fees, book sales and admission prices, not to mention the outright scam artists. Psychic surgeons and laetrile clinics have been known to charge tens of thousands of dollars for their worthless treatments. Hundreds of millions are paid every year for megavitamins and herbs that at best do nothing. Hundreds of millions are spent by people every year on paranormal books, psychic advice and fictional messages from dead friends and relatives. Think of the wasted financial resources! | 2 |
Sometimes the harm done is not medical or financial. Rather it has to do with the effect on relationships in families, communities and society at large. We all know the story of Salem's witch hunt. Well, similar disasters are still occurring today, though not necessarily concerning witchcraft.
| Social and familial damage |
Families and friendships are torn apart by false charges of sexual and Satanic abuse arising out of "recovered memories". So-called therapists lead their patients to cut lifelong ties with parents and other relatives, based on unsupported fantasies. Psychics, without any real knowledge, advise clients to drop mates they say are cheating. Graphologists eliminate job candidates on scientifically unsupported evidence. Cults and fanatical religious movements break up families and turn communities into warring camps. | 3 |
"All right, those things are harmful," you might say. "But what about astrology, Big Foot, crop circles, clairvoyance, prayer, alien abductions? No one ever lost a job or family because they thought a light in the sky was a UFO. Why get exercised about that?"
Much of the harm is not immediately evident. It is the longer term harm to our civilization that is of concern. These may be the most serious concerns of all.
| Acceptance of magical thinking |
Many of these phenomena can be believed only if one accepts that magical forces are at work in the world — forces that behave irrationally and can never be understood. And once one accepts magical thinking, anything goes. No need to discover the real causes of events. Spirits or psi or synchronicity or karma or chi can be invoked to explain anything. | 4 |
| Inability to understand reality |
If you are led to believe that a small planet travelling through space millions of miles away at the instant you were taken from the womb determines who you will meet thirty-seven years later in Cleveland, how can you be expected to properly weigh the real influences in your life? If someone accepts that thinking about something makes it appear, can she understand how the real world works? If someone thinks that waving a crystal will make a disease disappear, will he be able to rationally evaluate genuine health issues? | 5 |
| Uncritical
acceptance of what we're told |
Cult leaders, religious fundamentalists and other gurus create auras of authority around themselves or around their gods and texts. But even belief in more innocent-seeming phenomena involves unquestioning adherence. Psychic performers often demand that their audience withhold skepticism as the psychic energies are supposedly shy in the presence of negative thoughts. Investigation of claims as diverse as UFO sightings, ESP demonstrations and faith healing are denounced as being negative and destructive. In other words, don't question. Don't analyze. Don't criticize. Don't use your reason. Don't be a doubting Thomas. Accept. Accept. Accept. | 6 |
| Loss of evaluating powers |
Not only is this insistence on acceptance counter-productive in those particular fields but applied to wider issues in life it could be downright disastrous. We need a populace willing to question whatever is presented, to consider evidence for and against extraordinary claims — in short, to be able to use their critical faculties. | 7 |
| Slow down, stop or reverse progress |
Tremendous advances have been made in recent centuries to eradicate disease, improve living standards, and increase our knowledge of the world. Most of this progress is due to the successful use of the scientific method which involves asking questions, testing theories, evaluating evidence and employing rational thought. This progress is threatened by the widespread adoption of modes of thinking and behaviours that harken back to the dark ages — dependent on spirits, psychic powers, superstition, magical thinking, miracles and the like. | 8 |
You see, skepticism is not so much about the content of beliefs as about the method by which beliefs are formed or confirmed.
There is nothing inherently bad with the idea of extraterrestrials visiting Earth. Many skeptics, including me, would be thrilled at this happening. We would also be very happy if it were possible to remove cancers through the power of thought. Or to see the future. Or to pick the perfect mate by reading the stars.
But when supposed alien abductions are investigated, either no supporting evidence is found or evidence of hoaxes and/or delusion are found. Similar results come when claims of psychic surgery, clairvoyance, astrology and so on are critically evaluated.
The dangers that skeptics warn about come from uncritical acceptance of claims. An eagerness to believe certain things regardless of evidence to the contrary may be very human, but it is also dangerous and harmful to humanity. It must be overcome by something else that is part of our nature: our in-born capacities to judge, to evaluate, to reason.
Nor are we asking that only certain "fringe" ideas, like those of the paranormal or pseudoscience, be submitted to critical inquiry. We demand the same consideration of all significant claims — including the claims of science, conventional medicine, mainstream religion and other aspects of life from the mundane to the profound.
Coming soon: Can you always tell the rational from the paranormal, the scientific from the pseudoscientific?
© Copyright 2002, 2003 Eric McMillan. All rights reserved.