Rethinking Doubt: The Value and Achievements of Skepticism | George Hrab | TEDxLehighRiver

scepticism it's what I'm here to talk about today why why not in 2007 actress Jenny McCarthy announced to the world that her son after having received an MMR vaccine that same measles mumps and rubella vaccine had become autistic she told the world that she had based his judgment on her observation and she cited a study that was printed in The Lancet which is the English Journal of Medicine it was it was proposed by this gentleman Andrew Wakefield he did a study and he found a connection between vaccines and the incidence of autism and children this was published in 1998 so Jenny McCarthy told the world my son received the vaccine and he became autistic so here's the thing everything about the story was wrong everything about the story was wrong and this is the start of pretty much the modern anti-vaccination movement The Lancet subsequently retracted the story because it turns out that not only had some of the data been fudged but there was some ethical concerns about the gathering of the data and also the fact that the study was being paid for by a bunch of attorneys who were going to sue the manufacturers of the MMR vaccine so Andrew Wakefield was gonna make a significant amount of cash this is a big no-no when you're doing a scientific study so The Lancet retracted this study and said turns out it's not real Andrew Wakefield notice I'm not calling him dr. Wakefield because his doctor ship dr. hood doctor thing got pulled away by the British Medical Association they said you can't practice medicine anymore because of these ethical questions and concerns now probably the most interestingly however is the fact that Jenny McCarthy's son by all accounts turns out did not have autism he wasn't autistic he had something called Landau cleft nurse syndrome which in its early stages is very similar to autism in terms of how it how it appears her son now it's eight years later nine years later and he's doing fine he's doing fine like I said this is pretty much the start of the modern anti-vaccination movement and so you might again say so well parents in the United States and in England in Europe as well as Australia started getting worried because there was this connection that they thought existed between vaccinating their kids and incidences of autism so since that time there's been close to 150,000 cases of preventable illness there's been over 9,000 deaths death I can't even say the word it's so troubling deaths because of things like measles whooping cough varicella pertussis mumps and rubella things that we thought we were done with decades ago because these vaccines had existed subsequently they're been study after study after study done and there is no connection zero connection between vaccines and autism zero what could have prevented this what could have helped the situation maybe not fixed it totally but what could have ameliorated the situation somewhat so that all of these parents who quite rightly were concerned wouldn't have overreacted and stopped immunizing their children here's what could have helped skepticism and that's what I'm here to talk about today skepticism being a skeptic what does that mean it's very simple at its core skepticism is evidence based thinking waiting to see what the evidence says about any question anything that might be proposed to you taking a second and seeing what the evidence says not what you feel not what you hope to be true not what you've heard from a friend but what the evidence shows being a skeptic comes down to this you are presented with a piece of information and in essence you go what can we all try that together ready I want to present you with a piece of information and you're all gonna go what so here we go piece of information oh you're such good skeptics that's what it comes down to evidence-based thinking and embracing your doubt taking a second and saying wait explain wait what's the proof of this how does this work there's this great latin saying Oobi dubium eb libertas it's a great latin saying in essence it means with doubt there is freedom if you're ever gonna memorize one Latin phrase this is the Latin phrase to memorize so it's ubi dubium EB libertas now not only is it cool because it's a great thing because it's with your doubt you are allowed to experience the truth of how things actually are but it has this wonderful Frank Sinatra in symmetry to it Obie Dubya me believe it us baby it's just the best quote ever faith tends to get put up on a pedestal in our society understandably so but I'm here to say that doubt should maybe be as high if not even higher upon that pedestal because doubt is the thing that leads us to progress doubt allows you to go why aren't women allowed to vote you know real radical ideas like that that's doubt driven doubt drives the engine of science doubt drives the engine of critical thinking and wondering hey maybe there's something better than horse travel or maybe there's something better than then not having airplanes you know small ideas I love my doubt I embrace my doubt my doubt is what defines me and drives me and I can I can proudly say that I have no faith in anything really I have trust in things that's a big difference I trust that the Sun will come up tomorrow because it's come up every day of my life I trust that my friends would help me if I needed help because they'd help me before and I've helped them so I have trust in a lot of things but I have faith in very little because at its essence faith is belief in something without evidence I don't have anything like that in my life now remember that skepticism is not a belief system it's not a faith system it's a tool and in the same way that a carpenter isn't a hammer issed but one who uses a hammer that's what a skeptic is a skeptic is one who uses skepticism to approach problems and questions and concerns now what isn't skepticism a skeptic is not a cynic and this gets equated there's even definitions that equate - like it's like - out of out of seven definitions that I found had cynic being in the definition of skeptic and this made might might have been true at one point but but not anymore not not from today on skeptics cynics look for the negative cynics pre-game the situation and look for the negative there they're there they know that they're going to get screwed and they just they use whatever they can to confirm the fact that it's going to be bad news they're negative and the ultimately that they just don't care skeptics desperately care skeptics want to know what's going on skeptics might be prepared for the worst but they're not expecting the worst skeptics will gladly accept good news if the evidence points towards it that's the main difference between a skeptic and a cynic so please don't be cynical when you're questioning things skeptics are also not denialists now a denialist is someone who if with mountains of evidence will still hold on to their contrary idea because maybe it makes them feel good makes them feel special unique you can look at the mountains of evidence saying if there's climate change it's caused by man or is at least happening and if you don't believe in that if you say that there is no climate change you are a denialist you are not a skeptic of climate change you are a climate change denial issed if you look at all the evidence now you have to say this is crazy but there are Holocaust deniers those aren't skeptics they're not Holocaust sceptics they are Holocaust deniers looking at the information and saying nope I don't care I don't care I'm gonna keep denying that and I'm gonna claim that I'm a skeptic again it's that simple it's as simple as evidence-based thinking modern skepticism looks like this chart here where you've got the combination the commingling of science education and consumer protection because that's what it comes down to how does the world work how does the universe work and what should I spend my money on and right there in the middle this skepticism it felt good to be the fast reader right and it felt like no good hey here's my skeptical awakening how did I get into this whole thing when I was I think in second grade or first grade I was at school and someone told me that the Sun that big yellow ball in the sky is actually closer to the earth during the winter than it is during the summer I refuse to believe this this made no sense to me how could it be colder when the Sun is closer and I went home to my dad and I said I heard this at school this seems weird this seems weird to me there's no way that the Sun is closer during the winter and my dad said actually that's right let me explain why let me explain what's going on it's not much closer but it is closer he proceeded to grab a globe which you see there and he grabbed a flashlight and he turned the lights off now you have to remember in 1978 when your dad grabs a globe and a flashlight and turns the lights off this is our Internet he proceeded to tell me that it wasn't about the distance of the Sun it was about the angle of the Sun and that during the summer the angle is more direct so it's heating us because there's a tilt to the earth when it's on the equator it's more direct that's why the equator is always warm because it's getting more direct sunlight and the fact that there's a tilt means that there's seasons and that axial tilt is the reason for the season by the way and that in the southern hemisphere our seasons are reversed this was mind-blowing because this actually made sense there was an answer I had a sceptical question and there was an answer they have to remember that's a perfect example of showing how kids in their essence in many ways are skeptics if you've ever been to a magic show being done for children you will know that children are skeptics if you've ever performed a magic show for children there is a special throne reserved for you in the halls of Valhalla now kids question things all the time they're credulous in other ways but in a lot of ways they're very skeptical science has shown and any parents that are here will be able to back this up that when posed with some kind of a fact or some kind of a statement a child's brain pretty much works like this that's science people one of the best answers you can give to a child to ask you a question is I don't know let's figure it out and maybe thirty five years later they'll be on stage telling the story right dad my dad's over there right in the audience right okay so why is this important why is being skeptical important well here's the thing we're inundated with information we are inundated with information today the 24/7 news cycle blogs email the web it's crazy it's said that Americans hear a false fact every seven seconds now I just made that up but there you go you're inundated with information all the time you're inundated every time you go on the web every time you get a forwarded email every time you look at your Twitter stream every time you look at a celebrity talking about their latest book or how great their movie is you're inundated with information now here's the thing you already know how to deal with this information you already know how to be skeptical about it and here's an easy way to remember it for one for one what does that mean when the web first started getting real traction 10 12 15 years ago websites popular websites on April 1st would pose would put up fake stories they put up fake stories so you'd go to Hollywood insider.com and there would be a story saying the next diehard movie is gonna be in black and white and in French or you'd go to politico.com and there would be some ridiculous story saying Donald Trump wants to build a wall between Mexico and the u.s. you know something ridiculous you know and initially when this was first happening in the in the early days of the web people would grab these stories and they would forward them and they would share them and then slowly over time people started realizing oh wait a minute it's April Fool's Day and it became harder and harder for websites to fool people I had to get more and more elaborate and more and more interesting and a lot of websites stopped doing it because now it's so expected here's my advice to you every time you look on the web every time you receive a piece of email pretend it's April 1st take a second it can act as a wonderful buffer take a second and think what is it's very simple pretend is April 1st now here's the danger of my skepticism then the fact that I am I am so embraced in my doubt I was forwarded this story about hipsters getting beard transplants hipsters in Brooklyn were getting beard transplants to make their beards fuller I was I was sent this story and I said no this is not true it wasn't April 1st but it didn't matter I wasn't believing it no there's just no way this is too good of a story it makes you feel too superior to hipsters looking for beard transplants there's no way that this story could be could be real and I saw a second story of and a third story and a fourth story and I was in danger of becoming a hipster beard transplant denialist well it's totally true hipsters are getting beard transplants and I had to get to the point where I said okay the evidence pretty much says that hipsters are getting beard transform everyone is susceptible I was set in my thinking everyone is susceptible everyone is susceptible to not thinking critically the most famous example of someone who you would think would be a critical thinker and would not be susceptible to thinking poorly mr. Arthur Conan Doyle now Arthur Conan Doyle of course created the character of Sherlock Holmes the most critically minded evidence-based character in all of Western literature pretty much you could argue very easily well Arthur Conan Doyle believed in fairies and not sort of like storytelling kind of fairies he believed when these girls or their representatives brought him these photos of these fairies these are the Cottondale fairies ever won a googol an interesting story Google the Cottondale fairies these were a bunch of girls that made paper cutouts put them in their garden and took pictures and in and wardi in England this became a massive huge fad and people were convinced that these fairies were real that these girls had actually photographed fairies and amongst one of their most avid proponents was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle no one is not susceptible to not having your biases influence how you think when do you need to be skeptical do we need to be skeptical all the time well a lot of the time you need to be skeptical when someone's asking for your money you need to be skeptical when someone's asking for your vote you need to be skeptical when someone's asking for your trust you need to be skeptical when someone's asking for your money you need to be skeptical when someone's asking or giving you advice you need to be skeptical when someone's asking for your money you need to be skeptical when someone's ask or giving you their help and you need to be skeptical when someone's asking for your money but here's what it's most important to be skeptical and here's when it's the most difficult when you want something to be true it's the most difficult time that you need to step back and question it's the hardest thing to do it's the hardest thing to do when the Star Wars prequels came out I convinced myself that they were good movies they were not it's the hardest thing to do it's what Jenny McCarthy was doing or failing to do she's not stupid she's not evil she's not ignorant she's misinformed and she's a mother who wants the best thing for her son you have to remember that she's not trying to be dumb she's not trying to be evil she was drastically misinformed and she wanted there to be a reason why her son all of a sudden seemed to have autism because if maybe there was a reason maybe then there was a cure or some kind of answer or someone that could be blamed it's an understandable response but that's that's in each one of us that exists now here some of you might think okay well when you're being this hyper critical and this hyper skeptical how do you maintain and wonder how do you do what's what are the magical things in your life let me tell you the universe is interesting enough with the stuff that's real that it'll keep you fascinated and full of awe and Wonder forever the more you know about how something works the more interesting it gets if we're trying to sew a button onto a shirt it's like impossible if you've never sawed a button onto a shirt try to sell a button on a shirt and have it not look like like I've like a lion has done it I mean it's it's it's so difficult you try to do it and all of a sudden you realize wow people that can sew buttons on shirts are really talented and if someone were to show you how you sew a button onto a shirt you would go oh that's how you do it I love that that's fantastic you don't lose your aw and wonder of button sewing because you know how the process works or you question the process or think is there a better way to soul button on or sure believe me the universe is interesting enough as it is there's enough questions there's enough open-ended questions that we don't have to make up stuff to make it interesting you will always maintain your awe and Wonder and the more you know about something the more interesting it becomes well what about having open mind yes it is drastically important to have an open mind because sometimes there are paradigm shifts sometimes things come along that change the way everything was thought it doesn't happen that often but it does occur however if someone says to you hey I can cure cancer by administering dr. pepper enemas saying no you can't does not mean you don't have an open mind it just means you kind of understand how things work there's this great quote let's keep an open mind but not so open that our brains fall out now that's from judge Harry stone on the show on NBC show night Court and I remember the show Night Court right he said that on one of those episodes but it turns out he didn't actually say that first Carl Sagan said it first and the more I investigated this it actually turns out Carl Sagan didn't say at first but Walter Koch back in 1939 said this first I love the fact that while preparing this talk I had a little skeptical adventure in the middle of it I had never heard of Walter cautioning but he's the guy that said at first that's a great quote to remember as well it's important to have your mind open but not so open that your brain falls out so what's there to do what do we do how do we approach this how do we approach our lives here's the deal remember that skepticism is a tool remember to question things it's okay to question things remember that skepticism is not cynicism you don't want to become cynical you don't want to become cynical be prepared for the worst I have a pragmatic optimism that's why I approached my life I'm pretty optimistic but I understand sometimes things just don't work out don't become cynical treat every day when you're dealing with information as if it was April Fool's Day it's a very simple way to do it it'll give you one little second a little buffer to be able to question things everyone is susceptible remember that everyone is susceptible check before you forward an email check before you forward something before you retweet something before you blog about something take a second sometimes it's literally seconds of effort to check and see if some bit of information is true if a meme is true or correct I'll learn which resources you can trust I'm going to quickly I'll talk about this outside some more if you want to have a chat but the website snopes.com is a free website this answers almost every question you can have dealing with urban legends dealing with those emails that you get forwarded about you know the person if we can collect these bottle caps we'll get a heart-lung machine for them go to snopes.com it'll take seconds to realize that no that's an old piece of email which has been circling since 1999 and it's not true you can go to a science-based medicine dot o-r-g if you have questions about therapies and treatments which work which don't where should your money be spent where shouldn't your money be spent what is the evidence backing that up you can go to quack watch com same deal a huge huge website with just information on all kinds of medical medical and therapeutic questions there's a putt there's two podcasts there's a skeptics guide to the universe and there's skepticality these are two podcasts that have been casting pods since for ten years for ten years there's over a thousand hours of free 100% free content from these two shows alone that can answer almost every question you might have about whether or not something is real there's what's the harm net is another great one that shows people say yeah what's the harm in having those beliefs well what's the harm we'll show you what the harm might be and then there's Wikipedia something as simple as Wikipedia yes there is some information on Wikipedia which is not correct but the vast majority of information on Wikipedia is correct and this can literally be a 20 second search sometimes just to check and see what the deal is but here's the thing most important most important don't take my word for it thank you so so very much

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 42,214

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Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Life, Achievement, Communication, Curiosity, Decision making, Psychology, Research, Sociology, Truth

Id: orSjZaeyISI

Length: 23min 52sec (1432 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 12 2015