Bertrand Russell once said: I think, therefore I aman atheist. I agree with him. Before I can believe in something I need
to lookat all the available information first before making up my mind whether tobelieve or to be skeptical. I will try to keep an open mind but with the caveatthat I won’t take things on faith. I think logical thinking is so much betterthan wishful thinking and there is no doubt in my mind that
scientific data isdefinitely more reliable than personal testimonies. Shakespeare once said: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,than are dreamt of in your philosophy." But I don’t think he is trying to tellpeople to become believers in all kinds of weird things. Having gone through a lot of learning curves in life, I have come to theconclusion that a lot of things which many people believe in are more likely tobe myths and fantasy, rather like science fiction. Call me a skeptic if youlike but I just can’t swallow thinks like reincarnation, astrology, horoscopes,ESP, ghosts, evil spirits, demonic possession, the astral world, UFO sightings,faith-healing, religious miracles, fortune-telling, feng shui and New Agecults. When it comes to finding out whether something is real or fantasy, there isreally no substitute for using logic, common sense and the scientific method toexamine the facts and evidence. It’s better to trust the scientific data ratherthan the incredible stories that one gets from the usual sources, such as fromthe tv, newspapers and the best-selling books. Like the skeptics say,extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The different disciplines in Science, eg. biology, physics, chemistry,archaeology and cosmology have certainly come a long way to give us a goodunderstanding of nature and the universe. As one scientist puts it, science islike a candle in the dark. It shines a light on the world around us and allowsus to see beyond our superstitions and fears, beyond our ignorance anddelusions. The best thing about scientific knowledge is this - they don’t remain foreverunchanged. The history of science is not the history of one absolute truthbeing built upon other absolute truths. For instance, if scientific anomaliesare
discovered later on, i.e. new facts being discovered which do not fit withestablished theories, then eventually the new theories will replace the oldones. So there is this self-correcting mechanism in science but for religionand other paranormal beliefs, the contradictions and discrepancies are justbrushed aside.