{"id":29252,"date":"2015-04-15T11:03:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-15T15:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=29252"},"modified":"2015-04-15T11:03:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-15T15:03:00","slug":"make-the-most-of-your-skepticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/04\/make-the-most-of-your-skepticism.html","title":{"rendered":"Make the Most of Your Skepticism"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-29253\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/files\/2015\/03\/2015-03-24-07.53.47.jpg\" alt=\"skepticism\" width=\"393\" height=\"393\"><\/p>\n<p>See also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.the-american-interest.com\/2015\/04\/09\/culpability-and-fallibility-in-journalism-and-law\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Nicholas Clairmont\u2019s recent article on \u201cThe Skeptic\u2019s Credo.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0It wrestles with the challenge of being appropriately and fairly skeptical in practice. And while sometimes doubting the reports of those in authority can\u00a0be an example of misguided conspiracy theory thinking, when <a href=\"http:\/\/www.3quarksdaily.com\/3quarksdaily\/2015\/04\/heres-a-news-report-wed-be-reading-if-walter-scotts-killing-wasnt-on-video.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">footage is captured that provides evidence<\/a>, we may have good reason to withhold our trust. But even then, people can resist evidence and think they are being appropriately skeptical.<\/p>\n<p>Being skeptical of our own motives, of claims that fit our worldview and what we believe and hope to be true, is extremely difficult. But the effort is worthwhile. Don\u2019t take my word for it. Try it and find out for yourself.<\/p>\n<p>See also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/godlessindixie\/2015\/04\/13\/big-fish-and-the-resurrection-of-jesus\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">Neil Carter\u2019s reflection on the movie\u00a0<em>Big Fish<\/em> and the Bible<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>See also Nicholas Clairmont\u2019s recent article on \u201cThe Skeptic\u2019s Credo.\u201d\u00a0It wrestles with the challenge of being appropriately and fairly skeptical in practice. And while sometimes doubting the reports of those in authority can\u00a0be an example of misguided conspiracy theory thinking, when footage is captured that provides evidence, we may have good reason to withhold our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":29253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[1625,11036,11376,11379,11381],"class_list":["post-29252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-information-literacy","tag-cartoon","tag-selective","tag-skeptic","tag-skepticism","tag-skeptics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Make the Most of Your Skepticism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"See also Nicholas Clairmont&#039;s recent article on &quot;The Skeptic&#039;s Credo.&quot;\u00a0It wrestles with the challenge of being appropriately and fairly skeptical in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/04\/make-the-most-of-your-skepticism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Make the Most of Your Skepticism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"See also Nicholas Clairmont&#039;s recent article on &quot;The Skeptic&#039;s Credo.&quot;\u00a0It wrestles with the challenge of being appropriately and fairly skeptical in\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/04\/make-the-most-of-your-skepticism.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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