Skepticism and Critical Thinking

I want to encourage people to ask questions and to not just take someone's word for it.  So, why would people want to question everything?  

As information becomes more precise, it reduces the graininess of the picture, and then the unexplainable becomes mundane.  i.e. the Face on Mars, any Bigfoot photo or video, UFO pictures, ghost pictures.  New-Age baloney phenomena are helped by their vague or even non-existent explanations.  There’s nothing specific to the claim, so you are free to fill in the blanks with whatever allows it to make sense to you.  Only upon closer examination do you find that the phenomenon has no kind of evidence or logic to support it.

So, what’s a good way to discern whether or not someone has a legitimate claim?  The first thing you can do is ask them how they know their claim is true.  If they refuse to even answer that question, then the claim should be treated with suspicion.   If they give an answer, they’ve given you a place to start digging.  Question everything.  Oftentimes, people who are trying to convince you of something that is not true will blend their falsehoods with truths or things that sound like the truth.  They will even take the findings of cutting edge science out of context and try to fit it with their pet ideas.

Skepticism doesn’t mean to believe nothing.  Instead, it means to question anything that lacks sufficient evidence.  It’s a way of thinking that will protect you from being bamboozled by slick speeches or fancy advertising.  The truth is not afraid to be found.  Those hiding the truth will try to block your way or misdirect your attention.  They will do anything to not be found out.  And frequently, they will ignore any contrary evidence as if you never brought it up.  It pains them to be confronted with evidence that what they believe is wrong.  They would rather cover their eyes and put their fingers in their ears than admit a mistake.  

A skeptic is not afraid to admit mistakes.  A skeptic delights in being proven wrong, because they just learned something new and amazing.  Every day is a day to learn; a day to remove the blinders; a day to pull aside the veil and see reality as it truly presents itself.

Close Encounter

An asteroid will pass by the Earth today, and will briefly be closer to us than The Moon.  Flybys of this nature happen frequently, but with newer technology, it gives more opportunity to talk about and study our tiny neighbors.

What could they do to us?  Must they hit the Earth to have some kind of impact?  Or do they have some other, more subtle ways of affecting our planet?  No, not really.  Not unless they are very, very big.  Everything with mass has gravity, but this is a piece of rock only about 400 meters in diameter, and will be about 200,000 miles away at the closest.  A normal sized mountain is much bigger and closer than that, and its gravity is barely felt.  It's unlikely that this will amount to anything at all.

Still, it's an excuse to go outside and stargaze, if you're lucky enough to have a strong enough telescope.

The cost of the end of the world

2012 is by no means the most ridiculous end of the world prediction, though it's unique in that it has its own exotic appeal.  This one is not based on Abrahamic religions, which have built into them the basis for Apocalyptic fan-fic.  It's from deep in the jungle, where astronomers battled with the forest canopy to gaze at the night sky, and mathematicians created knot-based counting systems complex calendars.

It's the ending of their calendar that has caused all of this end of the world speculation.  And baseless speculation is what can hurt people.

This article touches on the continuing saga of people predicting the coming of Christ over the years, and how those predictions affected the decisions of many people, many to their ruin.  Harold Camping ruined the lives of many of his followers after his failed prediction of the Rapture and the Apocalypse.  It wasn't even his first failed prediction!

Other doom and gloom predictions have caused people to do horrible things to themselves, like suicide from the misguided belief the the Large Hadron Collider would end the world.  That was in no small part due to the irresponsibility of the non-skeptical news media hyping the event and inflaming the irrational fears of a non-skeptical audience.

So, are end of the world predictions something that should be ignored?  Absolutely not.  They should be questioned, investigated, and when necessary, mocked.  Mockery, I believe, is the best antidote to silly ideas.  Silly ideas are only dangerous if taken seriously, and it's hard to take something seriously when it's being mocked and satirized.

Time Travel

The 2012 Doomsayers can come up with some pretty crazy ideas, most of which have no basis in reality. But us normal everyday folk travel through time twice a year.  Today is one of those days where the government (the US government, in most states) mandates that we travel backwards in time one hour.

Yes, I know that we're not traveling backwards in time.  We're merely taking one hour from March and shoving it into November.  The purpose of such a thing was to give farmers more hours of daylight to work in the fields in the summertime.  I figure it would be easier if they just did everything an hour later.  We're not "saving" any daylight.  We're just fiddling with the clocks; creating chances for people to show up for work at the wrong time twice a year.

I don't find it annoying, but I do find it useless.  I read a quote, and I can't remember who it was by, nor can I remember the exact quote, so I'll do my best (and if anyone knows who said this, let me know): "How strange that the government thinks they can cut off the top of the blanket, and sew it to the bottom of the blanket, and think that they have a longer blanket."

Introduction to the Doom

I can't say how this blog will end up, and I can't say what the end result will be, except that I intend to make fun of 2012 Doomsday prophets along the way.  In the interest of full disclosure, I don't believe a word of it.  December 21, 2012 will be another ordinary deep winter day.  Still, it's fun to pretend, right?


There are a pile of kooky 2012 books lying on my desk right now.  I've skimmed and read some of them, but I may need your recommendations for others that I may miss in the course of this blog.  For example, I have:

• The Mystery of 2012 - Predictions, Prophecies & Possibilities by Gregg Braden, et al.
• How to Survive 2012 - Tactics and Survival Places for the Coming Pole Shift by Patrick Geryl
• The Great Shift - Co-creating a New World for 2012 and Beyond by Lee Carroll, et al.

There are a wide variety of ideas out there, all devoid of any research, citations, or evidence whatsoever (except for citations to their own previous work).  All of these ideas revolve around one thing:  In 2012, something is going to happen that will change everything.  That is what all of them can agree on.  How it changes, on the other hand, nobody can seem to agree on.


That's why I'm leaving it up to you.  You get to decide your doom.  They are all equally plausible.  They are all equally backed by evidence.  And as a bonus, I will fictionalize each of the 2012 scenarios as if they were completely true!


I will attempt to update this blog with a largish post about once a week, with smaller, off-the-cuff posts whenever I think about them.


I look forward to the next year of blogging.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!