Skepticism has never built anything?
On the contrary, it has helped build just about every aspect involved in your daily life. It has helped make available the foods that sustain you. It makes it possible for you to travel across the continent and from continent to continent at great speeds. It has helped make it so that a cold will not kill you or a minor infection does not become a major health risk.
This is because the scientific method is based on skepticism and not belief. If a hypothesis can be proved or disproved based on measurable evidence, and it has survived rigorous testing, then it can become a theory.
Reality is what persists despite your beliefs, fears, hopes, and desires.
Being critical and skeptical is not being negative. It is not dismissing things out of hand. It is, rather, being open to doubt, being open to inquiry, and being willing to test your hypotheses rather than simply believing in them.
Believing in something has its merits, because there are advantages to belief. Beliefs open up channels to us and can limit self-conflict and self-doubt. But those same "enabling" beliefs can also hinder and constrain us.
Skepticism and criticism are important. Glibly throwing them to the side is a big mistake.
[This message has been edited by babayada (edited March 04, 2006).]
