Defining Skepticism

Here is where I attempt to define skepticism for my audience. I'll be covering a tiny bit of history as well as common usages. 


What is a skeptic? Terms like skepticism, rationality, and critical thinking get dropped around all the time on the internet, often without prior explanation. Since I can see how one can become confused by the plethora of definitions abound, I've decided to make this post about what I mean when I use the term skeptic.


Skepticism's origins lie in ancient Greece. Originally, skepticism referred to a school of thought that believed that any truth claims were impossible to make. Socrates himself said "all I know is that I know nothing". Arguments can be made from this position to support odd (but often interesting) ideas such as solipsism (the idea that ones consciousness is the only one that exists) or the brain in a vat thought experiment. This skepticism, known as philosophical or academic skepticism, raises interesting questions concerning epistemology (the branch of philosophy concerned with how we know what we know) but it's not what I mean when I claim to be a skeptic.

Neuroscience Article (NA): Functional Neuroimaging of Belief, Disbelief, and Uncertainty.

I've decided to post about neuroscience articles (NA) that I read. I'll try and get up at least one a week.

An article that I've meant to get around to reading for awhile is an interesting study by the somewhat controversial author Sam Harris. Harris is considered controversial by some because he's one of the so-called "4 horsemen" of the new atheism movement. I'll get into the differences between the new and old atheists later but for now its enough to say the difference is primarily in tone and tactial approach. New atheists tend to be more confrontational while old atheists are more inclusive of certain religious perspectives. What makes Harris an interesting figure is that during his rise to fame in the public realm, he also continued his work towards a doctorate in neuroscience. This gives him a unique perspective on academia and the nature of science.

This brings me to the article of the week. After that background, you might rightfully guess that Harris is interested in topics such as religion and belief. In 2007, Harris et al conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study testing subjects physiological responses to statements of belief, disbelief, and uncertainty. fMRI is quickly becoming the go to brain scanning method for neuroscience research. In a nutshell, when your brain activates certain areas, neurons in those areas fire. This creates a deficiency of nutrients (i.e. glucose and oxygen) for those neurons. What fMRI measures is what's called a BOLD (Blood-oxygen-level-dependence) signal. The BOLD signal is a measure of the blood volume in the brain. An increase in BOLD indicates an active area. This allows fMRI to have great spatial resolution (knowing the exact locations that are active) but somewhat slow temporal resolution (time it takes to measure signal) due to having to wait for the blood to move to the area.

Neuroscience Article (NA): Neuroimaging and cognitive changes during déjà vu

I've decided to post about neuroscience articles (NA) that I read. I'll try and get up at least one a week.


Déjà vu (DV) is an interesting and relatable phenomenon since it occurs in around 60-80% of the population. There are multiple explanations for DV ranging from small seizures in the temporal lobes (an area involved in memory encoding) to what's know as the "tape recording theory".

I'm a Skeptic

I've decided to make this post about my journey to skepticism. For information on what it means to be a skeptic, see this post. 

One subculture I discovered a few years ago and now heavily identify with is the skeptical movement.

It all started when I watched Enemies of Reason, a documentary on the nature of science hosted by the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins. Before watching this movie, I tended to not really care too much about well, things.  Although I loved having long conversations with friends about intellectual topics, I tended to not really care too much for science. It was something that I heard about every once in awhile whenever a new breakthrough "cure" would pop up on my radar.

If you haven't seen EOR yet, check it out. Dawkins does a wonderful job of boiling down the importance of critical thinking to a lay audience while still making the film interesting. The first part of the documentary covers superstition and the importance of the scientific method. The second half shows how these concepts relate to a popular skeptical topic, alternative medicine.

First Post

Hi there! I've decided to follow the trend of millions of other Homo sapiens who are blogging these days.

I recently attended my 3rd Dragon*Con in Atlanta, GA. I'll be blogging more about this later but for now just know that Dragon*Con is essentially the Comic-Con of the east coast. It's a gigantic (approx. 60,000 people) nerd convention which features panels from topics from "What's your favorite Joss Whedon character" to "The interaction between Science and Philosophy". I've been motivated to at least put a little more time (anything is better than nothing right?) into this blog to keep a record of the things that interest me.

I plan on covering several topics in the future including but not limited to: the principle of charity, animal rights, skepticism, analytic philosophy, undergraduate research, and cute animals. I understand that to have a "successful" blog, you need to appeal to a certain audience but I don't think that's going to happen for awhile until I find that niche.

That said, I do have high expectations for this blog and I hope you enjoy reading it!

Here's a taste of what's to come:

-Bruce Smith