What’s the Harm?
by Don Lacey on Aug. 14, 2012, under Armageddon, Critical Thinking, Education, Environment, Ethics, Evolution, Freethought, Freethought Events, Logic, Materialism, Reason, Science, Skepticism, That's Life!Here at FreeThought, we’ve been hitting the religious issues pretty heavily. A very big part of FreeThought Arizona’s mission concerns religion but we can’t forget about Skepticism and Humanism. Last night the Skeptics of Tucson met to discuss “What’s the Harm?” This is a question that often comes up when a Skeptic expresses an opinion on something like Astrology. Sometimes people say, “Ya, I know it is BS but what’s the harm?” In many cases, there may be no harm. To me and other Skeptics, however, truth matters. Some go as far as not being able to enjoy shows on TV or movies because of implausible science or supernatural content. That may be taking it a bit far. I enjoyed watching Medium when it was on TV and saw no problem with suspending my Skepticism of the paranormal to enjoy a story now and then. I think everyone has to suspend their scientific knowledge and Skepticism from time to time. We all know that there is no noise in space, right? It’s still fun to count the stars on the flags carried by the cavalry in old western movies, however.
So “What’s the Harm?” There are a couple of web pages dedicated to the harm caused by unscientific thinking and belief in the paranormal. One of the pages goes as far as pointing out how over dependence on technology can be harmful to your health and wellbeing. Check out http://whatstheharm.net/ and the Jenny McCarthy Body Count Page. For a light hearted but very well performed song on Skepticism tune into this song by Eddie Scott. We finished up as a sort of a summary with this clip from Dara O’Briain.
In summary:
- Being a Skeptic is hard work.
- Sometimes we have to remind ourselves why Skepticism is so important to us.
- Sites like “What’s the Harm?” remind us that we’re not alone…and we’re needed in society.
