Skepticism and Extraordinary Claims

IT’S ALWAYS A GOOD TIME FOR SKEPTICISM

If someone were to tell you that he has a time machine, an extraordinary claim if ever there was one, it would only make sense to ask him to prove it. No fancy talk, no hype, no interesting stories, and no intriguing promises, just a lot of good, solid evidence. But first, what is this thing called “evidence” that skeptics like me are always talking about? It’s simply stuff that helps make the case, things that support a claim. It can come in many forms, from photographs to a strand of hair to an eyewitness account. Not all evidence is equal, however. Some evidence is so weak, it may as well not be there; and some is so strong that it qualifies as proof. One thing is consistent, however: When it comes to extraordinary claims, the more evidence, the better.

For the particular claim about a time machine, you might ask your buddy to bring a live baby triceratops back from the past or go into the future a few centuries and fetch the cures for cancer and malaria. But even those efforts would not be perfect proof. Maybe he obtained a live triceratops from a successful cloning effort using DNA harvested out of fossilized bones. Maybe he already had the cures for cancer and malaria here in our time and lied about getting them from the future. But this sort of evidence would be so difficult to come by without a time machine that it would make the claim much more credible and well worth investigating further. However, what if the alleged time traveler brings back a message from the people of twenty-fourth century that warns us to protect the environment and learn to live in peace with one another? Yawn. Not good evidence. Even worse, he might argue that he shouldn’t have to prove something so special and wonderful. It’s rude to even ask for evidence, he might say. You should just believe what he says—and, by the way, he needs some money to maintain his time machine and fund more trips. This is the point at which good skeptics smile and walk away.