Take Responsibility for Your Own Brain
Young people must take personal responsibility for learning skeptical thinking because parents and teachers often fail to teach it, and it is essential for distinguishing reality from illusion and avoiding pseudoscience and lies.
THE IDEA
Take Responsibility for Your Own Brain
Good parents, teachers, and role models are quick to lecture young people about the importance of hard work, education, good manners, not breaking laws, avoiding drug and alcohol abuse, safe driving, being honest, and so on. But how many take the time to explain the importance of skepticism? How many fathers sit with their daughters and teach them how to intellectually burn down the hollow claims of mediums, medical quacks, and astrologers? How many mothers make time to explain to their sons that the normal, everyday workings of the human brain can lead us astray when we try to separate reality from illusion and delusion? Unfortunately, most children grow up and enter adulthood unprepared for what they will face in the form of pseudoscience (false science), unproven claims that aren’t worthy of acceptance, and just plain lies. I’m not bashing parents or teachers. Those are difficult and important jobs. I know because I have been a teacher and I am a parent. Besides, in most cases, it’s not entirely the parents’ fault because they probably never had anyone explain any of this to them when they were growing up, so they don’t recognize the need or even know how to teach good thinking skills. Teachers may be hindered from encouraging skeptical thinking because they are often not allowed to deviate from some master plan that demands memorization and regurgitation exclusively from students.
If you are a young person, the bottom line is that thinking like a scientist every day is so important to your chances of having a safe, productive, and fun-filled life that you can’t afford to sit back and rely on a parent, a teacher or some other adult to fill you in on skepticism at some point. That lesson may never be delivered. Encouragement may never come your way. So take care of your own business. It’s your life; live it wisely. Commit to skeptical thinking and try your best not to waste a single precious moment on lies and irrational dead-ends. Sure, you will make mistakes. You will believe a few stupid things along the way—it’s inevitable, and even the best skeptics have. But try your best to keep those missteps to a minimum.
When to use it
When encountering health advice from non-experts, use skeptical thinking to verify with scientific sources.
Before purchasing a product based on impressive claims, research reviews and look for evidence.
When evaluating news stories, consider the source and look for corroboration.
In academic work, critically assess sources and arguments rather than accepting them at face value.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Questioning a Psychic
A young person encounters a psychic's advertisement claiming to contact the deceased. Instead of accepting it, they apply skeptical thinking by examining the evidence, learning about cold reading techniques, and concluding it's pseudoscience.
Evaluating Health Claims
A student sees a social media post promoting a herbal cure for a serious disease. They remember to take responsibility for their own brain, so they check for peer-reviewed studies, consult medical experts, and find the claim is unsupported.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
In what areas of your life have you been passively accepting claims without verifying them? How can you start applying skepticism more actively?
Think of a recent belief you had that turned out to be false. What could you have done differently to avoid that mistake?
How can you teach yourself to be more skeptical, even if those around you are not?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Think (Guy P. Harrison)