A Few Things I'm Skeptical Of

1. Gods, immortal souls or spirits, angels, demons, devils, jinns, genies, and other invisible or supernatural beings or essences.

2. The War on Drugs.

I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist, but it seems clear the "war on drugs" in the United States has become a conspiracy to steal personal property from its rightful owners.

Have you heard of "forfeiture?" It's a system that actually encourages crooked law enforcement agencies to steal your house, your car, the money in your bank account, and everything else you own! And keep it! And the individuals involved get rewarded for their crime. All they have to do is claim your property was involved in some way with a drug crime.

Notice I said claim; not prove. They can seize it, and usually keep it, even if they never charge you with a crime! You don't believe me? You better! It is happening all around us. Right here in the USA! You could be next. I could be next. And it's scary!

3. Creatures on earth from other places in the universe.

Could be, I suppose, but not likely. Other stars are just too far away. At the speed of light, it would take four and a half years to get here from the nearest one. Then it seems likely they would eventually want to go back home. That's nine years minimum round trip, plus however long they might stay here.

OK, maybe they figured out how to break the speed-of-light limit. But, at present, that doesn't appear to be possible. Or maybe they live so long that nine years away from home doesn't seem like so much to them. Well, maybe. As long as we're just "maybe-ing," maybe just about anything is possible. I just said I'm skeptical. I didn't say I'm sure.

4. I'm equally skeptical of the idea that there are NO intelligent beings in any other part of the universe.

There probably are many different species of intelligent beings scattered around the universe. How many? I have no idea. It's become almost certain, of course, that earth is the only home of intelligent life in this solar system; but it seems incredibly unlikely that it would be the only one in the universe.

The universe is HUGE, and contains a tremendous number of stars. In the past decade, we have learned that a high percentage of the stars in our "galactic neighborhood" have planets orbiting them, although we cannot yet tell how many of those planets are likely to support life. Our instruments are simply not good enough yet.

Because of our equipment limitations, we have only been able to detect huge planets many times larger than earth in orbits that would not likely support life as we know it. However, there is no reason to think earth-like planets don't exist in orbit around other stars; and we'll probably be finding them within another decade. Maybe several years sooner. In all this incredibly large and magnificent universe, it seems almost unthinkable that only one planet might produce life and evolve intelligent beings of some kind.

Of course, I guess we could debate whether or not even earth has indigenous intelligent life.

5. Subliminal influences in advertising.

Tests indicate it doesn't work very well, if at all.

6. "Ghosts, Goblins, Virgins, and Other Supernatural Creatures."

This was allegedly the title of a report written by a student at Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, a few years ago. Actually, I just threw it in here because I like the sound of it. Virgins clearly do exist, but I doubt there are any supernatural ones.

7. Creationism.

If God created us, He did a pretty bad job of design. And it doesn't explain who created Him.

8. That sex without marriage is necessarily bad.

In my admittedly limited experience, it's usually pretty good, as a matter of fact.

9. That humans are inherently either bad or good.

Only Santa Claus knows for sure.

10. That human minds are qualitatively different from those of other mammals.

Yeah, I know, if I say my dog is smart, I am anthropomorphizing because I like him. Well, let's get this straight to begin with. I didn't like my dog. At least, I didn't JUST like him. I LOVED HIM!

If Taka had fallen into Daniel's den of lions, I have no doubt that I would have jumped in after him. And I don't know any friendly angels to save me. If I had fallen in instead, I have no doubt that Taka would have jumped in to save me. That's the nature of love and loyalty.

I would have given my life for my dog, and I feel sure my dog would have given his life for me. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he would lay down his life for a friend." My dog was my friend.

Taka's mind was not equal to mine in many ways. I know that. I am pretty sure he was never capable of learning to read or write, for example. But he understood some English, and he often did simple math. (He clearly knew the difference between one and several.) So it's not that he had no intelligence. He just didn't have as much (or at least not the same) intelligence that I have.

But  I don't have the intelligence of an Albert Einstein, either. We just happen to lie at three different points on a continuum of intelligence. And I am afraid I may be closer to Taka than to Einstein.

I've heard the claim that no non-human animal has any imagination. None at all. It's supposed to be a qualitative difference -- not just quantitative -- between humans and all non-human animals.

Others say an animal has no past or future. That is, an animal cannot imagine a future, or remember a past. I say, that's pure bull!

Frequently, Taka would get a toy, place it on the floor in front of me, and then sit and watch me closely. Tensely. If I moved, he would grab the toy and run, only to stop somewhere else, put it down, and tease me with it all over again. That dog clearly imagined that I would chase him and play keep-away for the toy. You know what else? Most of the time he was right.

My dog had a genuine mind that imagined and planned for what he wanted in the near future. He remembered the past and learned from it. That's where he got the game in the first place. I started it and he remembered. I never said he was as smart as a human; only that the difference is quantitative; not qualitative. Taka was unusual, but not unique. Other "higher animals" have minds, too.

Tragically, Taka suffered a serious injury, and we had to euthanize him. We cried deliriously, because we loved our Taka. We had raised him from the time he was six weeks old. We spoke to him as we would speak to a human infant, and it amazed us how much of it he learned to understand.

Yes, we anthropomorphized our dog sometimes. We knew we were doing that. But it is nonetheless true that our Taka had a mind of his own. He thought; he communicated with us; he imagined and planned for his future. Not long in the future; he didn't need to. But long enough into the future to get what he wanted, which was usually a meal, a treat, or somebody to play with him. Sometimes that's all I want; but he got it a lot more easily than I do.

(This is longer than I intended. Maybe I'll remove it from here and use it as the basis for a separate article when I have time.)

11. That we are as smart as we like to give ourselves credit for.

Look around. Sure, you and I are geniuses. But how many others do you know?

12. Recovered memories.

A young woman with emotional problems goes to see her counselor. After several sessions, she finally "remembers" that her father raped her repeatedly from the time she was twelve years old until she left home at the age of twenty-two.

There is no doubt abuse like this happens, but she ought to have remembered it all along. Could you forget a thing like that?

13. Heaven or hell as places of eternal life or punishment.

There's no evidence. Furthermore, a kind and loving god could never have created such a place as the hell the Bible describes. There's nothing  kind or loving about it. And nobody has ever described a convincing visit to heaven.

14. An infallible Bible, or Qur'an, or any other infallible book.

It's ridiculously easy to show many errors and contradictions in the Bible. (See Contradictions in the Bible .) The Qur'an probably has fewer, but the infallible "word of God" would have none.

15. Fate, destiny, or predestination.

"Your future has not been written yet. Write it well." (from Back to the Future)

16. Immortality.

Although technology may sometime make our descendants virtually immortal. Maybe soon.

17. Virgin births, resurrections, ascensions to heaven.

18. Walking on water (without technological help), turning water to wine (without technological or biological help), burning water (as Elijah is supposed to have done), producing striped livestock by putting the parents where they will see a striped environment (as Jacob is supposed to have done).

19. A 6000-year-old universe, or earth, or human race, as many Christians and Jews believe.

There's evidence that modern humans have been here for at least 195,000 years, that earth has existed for about 4.55 billion years, and the universe is an awful lot older still. (The current estimate is about 13.7 billion years).

20. A 42,000-year-old universe, or earth, or human race, as some believe. (See 19)

21. Anti-assisted-suicide laws.

Why should any government have a right to prevent a suffering patient from having the means to die quietly and painlessly, if the patient asks for such help? A brave man like Dr. Kevorkian should be treated as a hero; not prosecuted and persecuted as a criminal madman.

22. That an embryo a few days old is a "person" in any significant sense.

23. When somebody says any of the following:

• "It's not the money. It's the principle."
  It's nearly always the money.

• "Trust me."
  People who say this usually know they are not worthy of trust, and so they have to ask us to trust them anyway. There probably are exceptions, but be careful!

• "It's easy."
  It may be easy for somebody, but probably not you or me.

• "I mailed it yesterday."
  This one needs no explanation. Just be cautious. Maybe he'll mail it today or tomorrow, if you're lucky.

• "The Lord did it."
  I listened one Sunday afternoon as our hostess told us how hard she had worked to make a certain airplane trip come to pass. I don't remember all the details, but there were plenty of them.
  
  There were problems with the weather, the taxi to the airport, the passports, and everything else one could think of. The flight was delayed; then cancelled; then rescheduled; and she kept up with it! Her baggage was lost; but she found it.
  
  She did this and that, and finally completed her trip in spite of unbelievable hardships. Finally, she ended her monolog by saying "And God made it all happen."
  
  I wanted to say, "That's pure bull! Don't tell me God made it happen. YOU made it happen!" I don't know to this day whether I was too polite or too chicken, but God didn't do it. She did.

• "The devil did it."
  The speaker did it.

• "The devil made me do it."
  Again, the speaker did it. Then he or she wasn't smart or quick enough to think of a believable excuse.

• "It's the Lord's will."
  Pure bull again! If there is a "Lord," I know of no evidence that he/she/it cares about us or anything we do.

This page was last updated 08/21/09 04:43 PM.

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