Glossary - Skepticism

Skepticism, which is somewhat commonly misunderstood as pessimism, plays an enormously important intellectual tool for atheists with interests in science, logic, etc., as the neutral process of differentiating between fact and fiction, verifiable proof and non-scientific theories, logic and fallacy, etc.

A skeptic is neither optimistic nor pessimistic.  Although a bias of optimism or pessimism is often difficult to completely eliminate, tools like the Scientific Method, when practiced with the utmost care to be objective, can assist in being impartial (e.g., due to a lack of influence stemming from any regard for egos and personal views).

Helpful practices

Some key practices (albeit this is not a comprehensive list) concerning the application of skepticism can be helpful for avoiding certain pitfalls:

• Ascertain whether skepticism is being applied objectively
• Attempt to identify as many biases as possible
  • Isolate, resolve, or eliminate all biases
• Consider the possible validity of anomalies with the same rigour as non-anomalous data

See also

• Apistevism
• Apistevist
• Atheism
• Atheist
• Fact
• Faith
• Falsifiable
• L.O.V.E.
• Optimism
• Pessimism
• Reality
• Theory