Skeptic considerations

Most of us want certainty, we need to control our environment, and would like simple explanations. The pressures of reality lead us to be fascinated by mysteries and to seek spiritual meaning in our lives. These desires can interfere with critical thinking and problem solving. As a result, we may be seduced by the promises and claims of astrologers, psychics, and other pseudoscientists.

In science the value of failures cannot be overemphasized. Usually they are not wanted and often they are not published. But most of the time, failures are how we get closer to the truth and how we learn. Pseudoscientists ignores failures.

There is a tendency that when you discredit one possibility, the observer is forced to accept the other. This is the tactic used by the creationists. They use most of their time trying to discredit the theory Of evolution, concluding that since evolution is wrong, creationism, must be right. They argue if you cannot disprove a claim, it must be true. Or if you cannot prove there is not psychic power, then there must be. But it is not enough to point out weaknesses in a theory, it needs evidence both in favor of it and not only against the opposition.