Further, if even brains in vats can correctly believe " I am not a brain in a vat ," then the skeptic can still press us on how we know we are not in that situation ( though the externalist will point out that it may be difficult for the skeptic to describe that situation ).

For instance, Bob Lutz, a long-time skeptic of hybrids, indicated he expects hybrids " will never comprise more than 10 % of the U. S. auto market.

Thus, the skeptic will, for example, believe the proposition that " Dion is in the room " if sense-data and ordinary reasoning led to the emergence of such a belief.

Space journalist and skeptic James Oberg collected claims that have appeared concerning Dogon mythology in his 1982 book and concedes that such assumptions of recent acquisition is " entirely circumstantial " and has no foundation in documented evidence and concludes that it seems likely that the Sirius mystery will remain exactly what its title implies ; a mystery.

A Doubting Thomas is someone who will refuse to believe something without direct, physical, personal evidence ; in other words, a skeptic.

His pastor called him: " so complete a skeptic that he will believe nothing he has not seen or touched.

Price's ideas were borrowed again in the early 1960s by Henry M. Morris and John Whitcomb in their book The Genesis Flood, a work that skeptic Martin Gardner calls " the most significant attack on evolution ... since the Scopes trial ".

According to skeptic Robert T. Carroll, " Reports of the Mokèlé-mbèmbé have been circulating for the past two hundred years, yet no one has photographed the creature or produced any physical evidence of its existence.

A scientific ( or empirical ) skeptic is one who questions beliefs on the basis of scientific understanding.

Importantly, Maimonides, while enumerating the above, added the following caveat " There is no difference between Biblical statement ' his wife was Mehithabel ' 10, 6 on the one hand an " unimportant " verse, and ' Hear, O Israel ' on the other an " important " verse ... anyone who denies even such verses thereby denies God and shows contempt for his teachings more than any other skeptic, because he holds that the Torah can be divided into essential and non-essential parts ..." The uniqueness of the 13 fundamental beliefs was that even a rejection out of ignorance placed one outside Judaism, whereas the rejection of the rest of Torah must be a conscious act to stamp one as an unbeliever.

It differed also from the principles of the pure skeptic in the practical tendency of its doctrines: while the object of the one was the attainment of perfect equanimity, the other seems rather to have retired from the barren field of speculation to practical life, and to have acknowledged some vestiges of a moral law within, at best but a probable guide, the possession of which, however, formed the real distinction between the sage and the fool.

In a 2009 interview, skeptic James Randi discussed his experience with Senator Pell who had asked him to try and duplicate one of Geller's remote viewing feats.

Some have claimed him to be an early skeptic of the case for global warming on the basis of a lead editorial in the magazine dated March 31, 1990 in which he wrote, " f the global warming situation is analyzed applying the customary standards of scientific inquiry one must conclude that there has been more hype than solid fact.

* Arabic literature depicted Muhammad as a skilled wrestler, defeating a skeptic in a match at one point.

Magician and skeptic James Randi has offered a prize of one million dollars to academic-backed media figures who are able to demonstrate paranormal abilities such as spoon bending.

Though a longtime skeptic of Bigfoot ( the giant, bipedal ape-like creature said to live in North America's Pacific Coast ), Swindler was one of the few experts willing to examine evidence cited in support of the creature's existence.

But follow-up studies have ( depending on who was summarizing the results ) failed to replicate the phenomenon or produced mixed results ( Bem & others, 2001 ; Milton & Wiseman, 2002 ; Storm, 2000, 2003 ). One skeptic, magician James Randi, has a longstanding offer — now U. S. $ 1 million —“ to anyone who proves a genuine psychic power under proper observing conditions ” ( Randi, 1999 ).

In 2011 the IIG announced an affiliate program, allowing other skeptic groups to form across the world which would have access to the $ 50, 000 and the ability to test claimants.

Various skeptic organizations have conducted experiments for remote viewing and other alleged paranormal abilities, with no positive results under properly controlled conditions.

One skeptic, Christer Akerman, the chief geologist of the Geological Survey of Sweden, remarked, " here is every reason to stay calm and await the analysis of what they have found.

On the other hand, Inhofe's view on climate change have been praised by Australian geophysicist and climate change skeptic Bob Carter, who says that Inhofe " has been instrumental in making sure that some of the other side of the story on climate change remains in the public domain.

The skeptic believes that we have no knowledge.

After all, the skeptic reasons, by hypothesis you have never added numbers greater than 50 before.

According to skeptic Brian Dunning who writes that whatever is sailing through the air has mass, and " must have been physically propelled ".

Günther himself would hardly have approved, ardent anti-Nazist, religious skeptic, and, according to his wife Ingrid, a cautious supporter of the Social Democrats as he was.

But, as complete inactivity would have been synonymous with death, the skeptic, while retaining his consciousness of the complete uncertainty enveloping every step, might follow custom ( or nature ) in the ordinary affairs of life.

Sadler may have met the magician Harry Houdini ( who was also a skeptic ) around this time.

Over the years some clever skeptic of this story referred to Coghlan ’ s casket as the “ homing coffin ” The genesis of the Canadian fishermen tale appears to have come from a 1929 Ripley's Believe It Or Not!

The skeptic argues that there is no fact about you that determines that you ought to answer ' 125 ' rather than ' 5 '.

* Pyrrho, Greek philosopher from Elis, credited as being the first skeptic philosopher and inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism ( b. c. 360 BC )

Solipsism is first recorded with the Greek presocratic sophist, Gorgias ( c. 483 – 375 BC ) who is quoted by the Roman skeptic Sextus Empiricus as having stated:

Pyrrhonian skeptic Sextus Empiricus first questioned the validity of inductive reasoning, positing that a universal rule could not be established from an incomplete set of particular instances.

In contrast to Mulder's credulous " believer " character, Scully is the skeptic for the first seven seasons, choosing to base her beliefs on what science can prove.

Interviewed by Jacob Fortin on guilt about being a skeptic on a show that Richard Dawkins campaigned against, Davis replied that at first he had some trepidation until realizing that Dawkins " had no evidence whatsoever and presented none " that the show encouraged people to think uncritically.

McDonald engaged in an often adversarial relationship with aviation journalist and skeptic Philip J. Klass, who argued in his first book that nearly all UFOs can be explained by ball lightning.

Her credits include Entertainment Tonight, co-host of " Knights and Warriors ", the first season of Dancing with the Stars, Beyond With James Van Praagh ( as the backstage interviewer / skeptic ) and the Pax show Destination Stardom.

After the article was published, a follow-up investigation was set up by a team including physicist and Nature editor John Maddox, illusionist and well-known skeptic James Randi, as well as fraud expert Walter Stewart who had recently raised suspicion on the work of Nobel Laureate David Baltimore.

Some of the topics that scientifically skeptical literature questions include health claims surrounding certain foods, procedures, and alternative medicines ; the plausibility and existence of supernatural abilities ( e. g. tarot reading ) or entities ( e. g. poltergeists, angels, gods-including Zeus ); the monsters of cryptozoology ( e. g. the Loch Ness monster ); as well as creationism / intelligent design, dowsing, conspiracy theories, and other claims the skeptic sees as unlikely to be true on scientific grounds.

In the section pertaining to " Lisa the Skeptic ," a skeptic is defined as: " a person who doubts, questions, or suspends judgment on ideas generally accepted by others.

She is the second skeptic besides Peggy, with a somber and introvert personality, sometimes with moments of joking banter or sarcastic comments.

Considering misunderstandings about Khayyám in the West and elsewhere, Hossein Nasr concludes by saying that if a correct study of the authentic rubaiyat is done, but along with the philosophical works, or even the spiritual biography entitled Sayr wa sulak ( Spiritual Wayfaring ), we can no longer view the man as a simple hedonistic wine-lover, or even an early skeptic, but a profound mystical thinker and scientist whose works are more important than some verses.