Abuses of skepticism

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Abuses of skepticism is a term describing when skepticism either has ulterior motives or is taken to a counterproductive extreme. It has differences from pseudoskepticism in motivation and intent. Also the term is more criticism of an individual's thinking rather than their psychology. Also the term is sometimes used by skeptics themselves, whereas pseudoskepticism usually is not.

Contents 1 Financially motivated skepticism 2 Religiously motivated skepticism 3 Politically motivated skepticism 4 See also 5 External links

[edit] Financially motivated skepticism

A common example is the tobacco industry, which at times in history promoted skepticism in smokers regarding the addictiveness or harmfulness of its product. Tobacco companies managed through various efforts to throw doubts on criticism of tobacco.

The oil industry has been accused^{[Please name specific person or group]} of doing the same, and for supporting criticism of the theory of anthropogenic global warming. Many environmental activists claim that virtually all critics of global warming are in the pay of oil, gas, or related industries. Others say these are unfair allegations of an "abuse of skepticism."

[edit] Religiously motivated skepticism

Religions have at times been accused of promoting skepticism of things that go against their faith. The Catholic Church has been accused of encouraging skepticism regarding the effectiveness of condoms for religious reasons. Scientology has been fairly open in encouraging skepticism of the idea ADHD even exists or that Prozac is ever necessary. In the past members of the Christian Scientists encouraged even non-members to doubt the necessity of vaccinations, but this seems to have ebbed somewhat.

[edit] Politically motivated skepticism

It could be said to be normal for one political party to encourage skepticism of the others' claims, even when they know those claims to be accurate. There are cases that go beyond that to encouraging skepticism of ideas generally accepted.

There are forms of negationism that involve skepticism. They may feel that their political ideology would not have committed great crimes so need extraordinary proof to believe otherwise. The proof could at times never be extraordinary enough so they never believe it.

For some AIDS reappraisal could be a skepticism based on or used for political motivations. When Thabo Mbeki supported the idea some deemed it to have a political motivation. If this were so it did not work as it cost him more support than it gained for him.

[edit] See also

• Kary Mullis-Skeptic of HIV causing AIDS, global warming, and CFC causing ozone depletion
• Michael Shermer was once criticized in an article by the CSICOP for being too harshly critical of speculative ideas.(Specifically life extension, but also SETI by some skeptics)
• The Skeptical Environmentalist is a controversial book by political scientist Bjørn Lomborg, arguing claims over various environmental issues are exaggerations and unsupported by a proper analysis of the relevant data.
• Global warming skepticism is a decades-old dispute about the effects of humans on the global climate.
• Group for the Scientific Reappraisal of the HIV-AIDS Hypothesis
• Pseudoskepticism

[edit] External links

• Truzzi, Marcello, "On Pseudo-Skepticism". Anomalist. (Commentary)
• Mooney, Chris, "Abuses of Skepticism : Doubting is a powerful tool, but it can definitely be taken too far". CSICOP, December, 2003.