Vortex
Member
The post from Jim Torson via Psiclops contains a couple of quotes which can apply not just on this issue, but on almost everything which is discussed on this Skeptiko site:
If we take out the issues discussed in this thread and replace them with other topics such as near-death experiences or psi, it is pretty much a perfect fit. We see the sceptics on this forum eagerly creating doubt at every opportunity, but they never offer any explanation of their motives. If we consider "in order to delay action to address the problem", that could be a very plausible motive for the sceptics activities.
The comment about the "handful of scientists" sounds an awful lot like the "guerilla sceptics" frequently highlighted by Craig Weiler, where a relatively small number of people are attempting to disrupt the way in which certain topics are viewed.
This is a quite invalid and irrevelant comparison.
Psi "skeptics" are not merchants of doubt; they are merchants of dogma. They start with an unquestionable assumption that psi is totally impossible, and use rhetorical tricks to explain away any evidence of psi functioning. No one of them ever tried to doubt anything regarding psi - they are totally certain that they are right, and everyone who disagree is wrong. But things get worse. The evidence of psi continues to mount, and psi "skeptics" start feeling themselves anxious - they must be right, yet actual reality somehow dares not to submit to their Holy Truth. The way to solve the problem is simple - to transform the anxiety into agression! If evidence contradicts the dogma, it means that the ones who provided such evidence are either deluded fools or vicious liars. So, they should be denounced and denigrated in public: from merchants of dogma, psi "skeptics" transform themselves into merchants of intolerance. However, many heretics are still not afraid and stick to their unholy habit of presenting new evidence. Such sacrilege is not to be forgiven, so psi "skeptics" employ all means of social and institutuional repression available to them to shut up their opponents: after being merchants of intolerance, they become merchants of opression.
So, no debates anymore - the opponents is marginalized and silenced. And without debate, the way to expose stupidity and advance intelligence is lost. So, the more the Reign of Silence lasts, the less active human intelligence becomes, and the more powerful stupidity grows. In the end, merchants of dogma, intolerance and opression unevitably become the merchants of stupidity - and merchants of degradation, because stupid people are unable to meet the new demands of the ever-changing reality, and, therefore, cannot develop. Of course, it does not bother devout dogmaticists, beause they "know for sure" that all signs of their degradation are lies and delusions which are spread by Evil Forces.
As for merchants of doubt, they are much more sympathetic people. They are also usually work as merchants of tolerance and freedom; many of them are also perform a hard but necessary job of being merchants of intelligence and, subsequently, of evolution. People here on the forum probably heard about some of them; for example, one can mention such merchants of doubt as Dean Radin, Charles Tart, Rupert Sheldrake, Ralph Abraham, Terrence McKenna, Timothy Leary, John Lilly, Robert Anton Wilson, Sam Parnia, Raymond Moody, Stanely Krippner, Marcello Truzzi, William Bengston, Henry Bauer...
Merchants of doubt do not bother me; to the contrary, I'm happy that these people exist. It is the merchants of dogma who frightens me.