Skeptics And True Believers Essay, Research Paper
In the first chapter, Raymo, opens with talk of his childhood. He brings to the
surface the fact that children will believe just about anything they are told. In this chapter
Raymo explains how people grow frm children into grown sdluts, peolpe somehow retain
some of a child’s ability to believe in the unbelievable. It is the True Believer that retains “
an absolute in some forms of empirically unverifiable make-belive…” (13), wheras the
Skeptic always “keeps a wary eye even on firmly established facts.”(14) For an example,
Raymo uses the Shroud of Turin, which simplly a linen cloth that has the likeness of a man
on it ( some belive this man to be Christ). He tells of a time when the Roman Catholic
authorities allowed scientists to radiocarbon date the Shroud. Small samples of the Shroud
where sent with three samples controls of known age, to three independant labs. All three
properly dated the controls and dated the Shroud to medieval time. Raymo conclueded
that a Skeptic would have taken the evidence and belived it, while the True Beliver would
find no truth in what was found. In fact, he said that the True Beliver would come up with
explainations as to why the Shroud seems younger than it really is.
In the next chapter, Raymo explains the main difference between Skeptics and
True Believers is the opposite of what most people would think. He explains how
“scientific concepts can be extraordinarily bizarre…” (27), wheras the True Believer
believe what may seem much more sensible and somewhat down to earth. The example
Raymo uses for this is DNA and its ability to reproduce itself. This tiny double-helix
somehow manages to spilt and make a copy of its self from chemical components from
whatever is surrounding it. It may seem easier for one to believe in a Shroud with a man’s
face in it, or the picture of God in the Sistine C
the hard to concieve DNA. It is this DNA that contains the blueprints of what we are to
look, talk, and act like.
In chapter four, Raymo again brings up his childhood. He tells how he was forced
into religion. The Church would not allow doubts to be spoken. For if it where to be
questioned the whole religious system may fall apart. The only sources of information
were the nuns, priest, and all other authorities that were ‘chosen’ by God. From reading
the book, I believe that it was these authorities that caused Raymo to question religion,
and in the end become a Skeptic.
Next Raymo discusses the art of fire walking. He tells of the gurus that have a
group of 10-12 people pay about 50 dollars each to go to a seminar to learn how to
harness their energy and walk on fire. The guru tells the people that they are about to
break the laws of phyics. Now Raymo points out that it is only thanks to the phyiscs that
these people do not burn their feet off. He explains how wood ash does not conduct heat
very well at all. He explains how the gurus dismiss this explaination, saying that is was
typical of a Skeptic to not believe in human powers of mind over matter. Also to explain
the scientific skepticism he uses another principle called Ockham’s razor, saying that “if
the thermal properties of wood ash explain fire walking, then there’s no need to invoke
auras and spirits.”(74) Raymo tells of how this made him later wish to write about fire
walking, but in order to write about it, he felt it nessecary to walk on fire so that he could
write from experience. He did walk on fire, without the assitance of a guru (in fact he did
it in his back yard), and was left with no burns or blisters. But he did not use the mind
over matter theory that is used by the gurus; instead he used the mind over mind theory of
skeptics and scientists.