The Great Dilema of the Modern Skeptic.

A lack of accurate information was understandable in ages past. The majority of people throughout history couldn't even read. Once literacy became common it was still a challenge to stay well informed. Until the turn of the 21st century, properly researching a subject usually meant spending hours upon hours in a library thumbing through the endless pages of endless tomes. Notes were taken by hand, and the copy machine cost 10 cents a pop for the really important pages.

It was tedious to say the least, so it's no wonder most people couldn't be bothered to do it. In those simpler times we had no choice but to trust our reporters, teachers, parents, pastors and whomever else we interacted with.

Seriously, how many of us would be willing to spend our weekends camped out at a library to fact check everything we had heard during the week? So it was in days gone by until the greatest invention since the wheel became widely available to anyone with a phone line. I am speaking of none other than the internet.

The internet succeeded in allowing us to discover the answer to virtually every question imaginable without ever leaving home. If you have a question, just google it! It's as simple as that. Better living through technology, right? Well, yes and no. You see, the great dilemma of the modern skeptic is not scarcity of information. It is the abundance of it.

We exist in a time where more knowledge than has ever been available to all previous generations combined resides in that thing buzzing in our pockets. So why do the skeptics I regularly encounter seem to be among the most uniformed people to have ever formed an opinion? A skeptic by nature does not simply accept philosophies or ideals without question no matter how popular or well presented. The skeptic sets herself apart while acting as the voice of reason whenever the next big craze washes over the masses.

Deceit is the mother of skepticism, so a skeptical person accepts nothing she is told at face value. No appeals to emotion no matter how sincere will convince the skeptic to draw a conclusion before all things are considered. In the end, the true skeptic's greatest attribute is her willingness to utter the three magic words when faced with a strong argument; I Don't Know. How has it come to pass that the modern day skeptic has regressed to model the very same it once opposed?

The roles have been shuffled right under our noses! Scientists are now clergy. Protestants, the fools. Catholics are the skeptics now, wary of new rules. Modern skeptics shill uninformed dogmatic chants. Atheists are now religious proclaiming to be advanced. All the while the cynics' voice is easiest to prove. To declare oneself the motive of the man, is not completely true; yet something you can plan.