{"id":19,"date":"2015-12-21T15:13:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T14:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quantenquark.com\/holm-huemmler\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2019-06-14T17:07:36","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T15:07:36","slug":"skepticism","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/quantenquark.com\/holm-huemmler\/skepticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Skepticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

A skeptic is a person who doesn’t want to believe, but wants to know.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, our\u00a0mind and our senses do not always show us the cold hard facts of reality, but usually try to interpret things without even letting\u00a0us know, sometimes trying to make sense of things that really\u00a0don’t have any. Did you ever notice that the phone always rings when you’re in the shower? Did you ever take an\u00a0aspirine for your headache and feel better five minutes later?\u00a0Aspirin doesn’t\u00a0even get to your head\u00a0that fast.<\/p>\n

Therefore, if we really want to know, we always have to be aware that we may just be deceiving ourselves, have to question what we think we know and have to let others\u00a0question our results. Skepticism and critical thinking are the very essence of science.<\/p>\n

If somebody tells you he\u00a0can prove\u00a0that UFOs don’t exist, or that telepathic communication doesn’t work or that mobile telephones are not harmful, be very careful. (Even if something doesn’t\u00a0exist, proving<\/b> its nonexistence is generally impossible<\/b> – try to prove the nonexistence of\u00a0the invisible unicorn in my cellar…)\u00a0If somebody tells you he can prove that UFOs do exist, or that telepathic communication does work or that mobile telephones are harmful, be even more careful. (If these effects did exist, that\u00a0should be possible to prove<\/b>, but so far all the evidence presented has turned out to be more than questionable.)<\/p>\n

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My most recent skeptical activity is Quantenquark.com<\/a> – a simple blog (in German) where I collect esoterical or otherwise questionable claims that something is connected to quantum theories or the theory of relativity.<\/p>\n

There is a number of organizations and other sources that look into questionable, paranormal claims, try to test them and give information about what can confidently be considered nonsense:<\/p>\n

In Germany, the Gesellschaft zur Wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP)<\/a> , which is\u00a0the main skeptical organization in Germany and issues the Skeptiker<\/a> magazine, of which I was one of the editors for several years.<\/p>\n

Thanks to the tremendous work of Stefan Kirsch, the GWUP is now also running a very successful skeptical blog.<\/a>. Another blog on skepticism and physics I can highly recommend, although it is not directly involved with the GWUP, is Florian Freistetter’s Astrodicticum simplex<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In America, and basically active worldwide, there are CSI<\/a>, the Skeptics Society<\/a> and the James Randy educational foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A worldwide list of skeptical organizations<\/a> can\u00a0 be found online. For quick reference on individual issues (What is psychic surgery? How do I avoid the Texan sharpshooter fallacy? …) consult the Skepdic’s Dictionary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My fields of interest within the skeptics’ organization:<\/p>\n