Skepticism has three main types: philosophical, scientific, and religious. Scientific skeptics test claims through experiments and aim to debunk false claims. Philosophical skeptics refrain from making absolute truth claims, while religious skeptics doubt certain religious claims. Activist skeptics aim to debunk fraudulent claims.
Skepticism is a word used to refer to a variety of positions. There are three main types of skepticism: philosophical skepticism or Pyrrhonism, scientific skepticism, and religious skepticism. Sometimes these different varieties of skepticism can overlap. In common usage, the word “skepticism” most often refers to scientific skepticism.
Scientific skeptics question some claims by testing them through experiment. Common claims targeted by scientific skeptics include the efficacy of homeopathy and other New Age therapies, the existence of ESP/telekensis and telepathy, the plausibility of supernatural beings (ghosts, poltergeists, angels and gods), cryptozoology such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot, alien visitations and associated phenomena, creationism, conspiracy theories, pop psychology claims and more. The job of the scientific skeptic is to debunk “beloved nonsense” – claims that continue to be believed despite ample evidence to the contrary.
Philosophical skepticism has a more formal and abstract meaning than scientific skepticism. Philosophical skeptics refrain from making claims about the absolute truth of things, believing that anyone can be wrong. The originator of philosophical skepticism is the ancient Greek philosopher Pyrrhus of Elis (c. 360-275 BC), and it is sometimes called Pyrrhonism after him. Philosophical skepticism can also be self-directed, which means that philosophical skeptics can reserve judgment as to whether or not the whole platform of philosophical skepticism is valid.
A religious skeptic is a person who doubts certain religious claims, such as miracles, the appearance of angels, the omnipresence of God, etc. A religious skeptic need not be an atheist or agnostic; he or she may simply be a dubious believer in certain religious claims. For example, many Christians are skeptical that the Virgin Mary really reveals herself in a tortilla and blame such sightings on overactive pattern recognition.
Within scientific skepticism, there are activist skeptics who consider it their duty to debunk the fraudulent claims. Some of the more famous activist skeptics include comedians Penn and Teller, magician James Randi, and hosts of the TV series Mythbusters.
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