Skeptical Dial
Sep 13th, 2009 by Mark Lefers
Everyone has a skeptical dial. You ratchet it way up when it comes to arguments or conclusions that you don’t like, but then you dial it way down for your own personally held views. In researching the Christian faith I once had, I find myself ratcheting my skeptical dial up and down. I recently caught myself doing this when listening to a podcast on the cosmological argument. I quickly want proof for a designer God, but don’t demand proof for the opposing theory of a multiverse. Both sides of the argument cross over into metaphysics, but I find myself more skeptical of the arguments that have religious implications. I place the burden of proof on Christianity; however, at the end of the day belief in a multiverse may take as much faith to believe in.
Granted a skeptical dial is beneficial and I use mine every day. For instance, I am not skeptical of the traffic lights, or the evening news, or the love of my wife. However, I am skeptical of the Spaghetti Flying Monster, acupuncture, and astrology. Other things fall on a range of skepticism. For instance I believe the 1 day weather forecast over the 7 day forecast, and I believe the 7 day forecast over the Farmer’s Almanac.
But when seriously weighing two sides of an argument, it is unfair to put an unreasonable burned of proof on one side, because that biases the conclusion before research even starts. So while I keep searching, I need to remember to keep my hands off the dial, and require from both sides the same burden of proof.
It is very hard to do that, to maintain a neutral bias when evaluating claims. I become very frustrated reading Christian apologists’ claims that “everyone has their own presuppositions, you have yours skeptic, and we have ours.” Because I don’t think that is true, Christians using that phrase usually seem to be taking the position that they have a presupposition they will maintain no matter what evidence flies in the face of it.
So I wonder if I am, as they say, doing the same thing, having presuppositions. I see myself in what you describe about evaluating the cosmological argument. I think I am doing a reasonable job at looking at things from both sides, but I’m never certain. Maybe that’s a good thing though.
Yeah I have gotten in discussions like this too. They typically end with question on “How do you know something?” For instance I could always ask a Fundamentalist and a skeptic, “how do you know?” It’s like when my kids repeatedly ask “Why?” I either keep answering the “Why?” or just resort to saying “God made it that way”. As a scientist I prefer to keep searching for answers to the “Why?”, but I feel the cosmological argument goes to the limit of science (at least how we understand it). It is unlikely that science will be able to explain anything before the Big Bang. It’s the ultimate “God of the gaps”. However at the end of the day, both sides are left with lack of evidence.
Yes, exactly, I enjoy the cosmological argument for the same reason. Christians and skeptics are on common ground there, “God did it” explaining no more than science.
I’ve switched my primary response to my kids this year from “God made it that way” to “What do you think?” I guess at the end of the questions it replaces, “God made it that way” with “It just is that way.” Funny.
But why?