I learned a valuable lesson about skepticism a couple years ago.
My wife and I had just bought our first home (yay!) and decided it would be a great investment idea and a lot of fun to replace all of the carpet with laminate wood flooring. Six months later, we were approximately 10% of the way done, and learned that we didn't find it to be much fun (and, it turned out, we were also eight months away from moving again).
But I learned the value of asking good skeptical questions:
- "Is this really a right angle?"
- "Was that cut supposed to be measured from the tongue end or from the groove end?"
- "These measurements can't possibly be accurate!"
(Okay, that last one isn't a question, but you get the idea.)
I learned that carpenters have to be very good skeptics: They have to know how to ask constructive questions that challenge the status quo to help develop a correct understanding of reality. We have to do the same thing in physics problems (hence my use of a Pascalian group problem-solving strategy), and in studying theology.
It's also important to remember that Jesus was a carpenter, who had to ask such skeptical questions about every cut He made. In many ways, He also applied that same clear-cut understanding to the spiritual world, calling into question those who sat on their spirituality a little too comfortably.
Here's to good skepticism!
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