Is skepticism a religion?

Question

With guys like this Randi as Messias?

Answer 1

Kind of...they only believe EVERYTHING that SCIENCE tells them...and nothing else. They might be a little "brain washed".

Edit..I'm expecting a lot of thumbs down...go ahead..Make my night!!

T.R....I don't believe "about" spirits based on faith. ..but on experiences that lasted 10 years. I was a skeptic too..thinking those things only happened to saints.."I'm cured of all my doubts!

  Edit..Skeptics practice their "skepticism" religiously...so ..isn't that being "religious".?

Edit..Example..The UFO sighting in Texas: A "believer" might say, "That's a curious & interesting object in the sky. Could it be from another planet?" Whereas a skeptic might say:" It's nothing!"

Answer 2

A favorite Carl Sagan quote.

"It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas.... If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you.... On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful ideas from the worthless ones" - Carl Sagan, 1987.

Answer 3

No.  

Skeptics don't believe everything they hear.  They generally require proof.

Religions are complexes of ritual and belief systems that explain how human beings should relate to the physical world and each other, and generally have a metaphysical component that explains the origin of the universe.

Answer 4

Why is it that true believers in things that require faith (i.e. things you accept on belief or dogma rather than evidence--the very definition of religion) are so quick to accuse their critics of being dogmatic?

Lacking evidence, the theists, the paranormalists, the creationists, the spiritualists, the magical thinkers and any other group contending that intangibles are real are the ones who are adhering to a religion.  Those who rely on rationality, reason and evidence-based thinking are by definition *not* religious.

Answer 5

Nope, it's more of a philosopy, I would think.

Answer 6

Yes. For instance when you continue to believe on faith that ESP (or at least something unexplained that manifest as ESP) does not exist when there is evidence from scientific experiments that meet and exceed all requirements in other areas of science this can only be described as belief (and thus faith). Of course one could argue that skepticism is a philosophy (and it is) because it doesn't have established rituals (although one could say only evidence from controlled trials) or dogma (although one could say only knowledge from those experiments is acceptable).

However, skeptics would even question the methods of science as whole not reject certain experiments that go against their understanding on faith alone.

I have wondered with Remote Viewing and Ganzfeld (both of which establish supporting evidence for psychic functioning) if there is something wrong with our basic understanding and application of statistics (that is a skeptic). Randi, who has no education or training in science is a psuedoskeptic at best.

"Rosenthal, after considering the possible influence of various flaws upon study outcome, concluded that the overall hit rate of the studies could be estimated to be 33 percent, whereas chance expectancy was 25 percent."

(link below)

"Using the standards applied to any other area of science, it is concluded that psychic functioning has been well established. The statistical results of the studies examined are far beyond what is expected by chance. Arguments that these results could be due to methodological flaws in the experiments are soundly refuted. Effects of similar magnitude to those found in government-sponsored research at SRI and SAIC have been replicated at a number of laboratories across the world. Such consistency cannot be readily explained by claims of flaws or fraud."

(link below)

By contrast parapsychology (link below) is a science.

Psi

Answer 7

Like evolution is a religion.  That's what the creationists say.  You guys just have a hard time dealing with being on the wrong side of an argument.  Psi's rant about Randi shows really how little he knows about the man.  And the advertised successes of parapsychology are a crock.  There are physical laws.  People can't violate them with their minds, no matter how much one wants to believe in extraordinary things.  The real pseudoscience is parapsychology, not skepticism.  In fact, the word pseudoscience was invented specifically FOR things like parapsychology.

Oh, I almost forgot.  Fundies consider atheism a religion, too.

Answer 8

No, it's not a religion. It's a mindset, if you like.

Answer 9

No, it's not

Answer 10

If you're asking about skepticism of the paranormal.I don't think so, Religion being supernatural in nature.That would make the Skeptic, skeptical of their own skepticism.

Answer 11

Same as Atheism, umm... I think it its not really a religion.

Answer 12

No, that's just a silly strategy woo-woos use to try to discredit the other side, much like how creationists like to say that evolution is a religion. That's pretty much all they've got for ammo.

No, skepticism doesn't meet any of the definitions for a religion. Skepticism, at its most basic level, is simply the withholding of belief pending the availability of credible evidence. Skepticism is a rational way of thinking that is at the heart of the scientific method itself. In other words, skepticism is just a way for someone to say "you want me to believe, give me a reason". It's how science filters out the pseudoscience (such as parapsychology and other paranormal claims that can only cite sparse, poor quality, irreproducible evidence) so that real knowledge can be accumulated which can be confirmed, tested and understood through theory. Without skepticism, science would utterly fail. In fact, without skepticism, I'm pretty sure we'd still be living in huts with walls made of tree branches and a mix of cow dung and straw (actually not bad for the time, but hey, we need to progress).

For that matter, paranormal belief is not necessarily a religion though, although it certainly can be. After all, a deity or a demon is a supernatural/paranormal concept. Where the paranormal belief (or any belief) is based on faith, it's religious in nature. Where it's based solely on evidence, it's not. And where that same evidence can be obtained by reproducible experiments, then it falls into the realm of science. Unfortunately, that's extremely rare in the paranormal.

I like what Randi does, but as far as I know, that's not a qualification for Messiahhood.

EDIT: Hi Deenie -- to say we believe what science tells us and nothing else is a mischaracterization. Science itself doesn't actually "tell" anything, it's just a rational systematic process for discovering the world, and we tell ourselves. Skepticism, or science, is really the antithesis of "brainwashing". I accept scientific theories but I recognize scientific hypotheses may not be correct. And I believe in other things besides science, like the pleasure of drinking a good beer :)

Answer 13

Skepticism is not a religion but rather a state of mind, of nonbelief.

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Answer 14

No.  Skepticism is not a replacement for religion either.

Saying Skepticism is a religion is like saying bold is a hair colour.

Answer 15

more of a good habit than a religion

Answer 16

Nope.  Skepticism is a state of mind, not a series of beliefs.  It's a way of looking at things, and includes no deities, no dogma, no set of beliefs.  Basically, it has nothing in common with religion.

Answer 17

I think of "The Amazing Randi" as more of a showman than a skeptic. A true skeptic is concerned with scientific facts and has a somewhat open mind. Skepticism is a good policy, but it wouldn't make for much of a religion. If I hadn't experienced a psychic phenomenon myself, I would be a skeptic about the subject. I still feel it is misunderstood and often misrepresented (beware of con-artists), but I have to concede psychic phenomena do occur.