Greater Manchester Skeptics: Skeptics with a K

Showing posts with label Skeptics with a K. Show all posts

Thursday, December 03, 2009

'Open Letter to Alliance Boots' by the Merseyside Skeptics

The Merseyside Skeptics Society have a fantastically well thought-out letter to Boots regarding their sales of homoeopathic remedies. I'll reproduce the text below, but I strongly recommend that you visit their website, attend their events and listen to their podcast.

If you happen to have a Digg account, make sure to Digg this for them, as many people as possible should read it.

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What is Skepticism?

Skepticism is a method of discerning truth from fiction. Doubt is preferred to belief - when presented with an unusual claim, a skeptic will doubt that claim unless there is a decent amount of evidence to back it up.

Many people confuse Skepticism with Cynicism. This is not the case - cynicism is the tendency to ascribe the worst possible motives for the actions of other people, while skepticism is simply the refusal to accept claims without good evidence to back it up.

While a skeptic will try to remain rational, skeptics are of course fallible. A skeptic might also be cynical, close-minded or just plain wrong, but a good skeptic should always try to change their beliefs when shown how and why these beliefs are wrong.