Are We Simply Waiting For Something To Believe In?

Believing is as easy as not believing. There is nothing easy about what lies between both states.

Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado

We are used to finding stuff hard to believe. In fact, following some basic evolution theory logic, today’s fittest are probably those who are more sceptical. That said, a certain degree of belief is still required to function: belief in our friends, belief that the sun will rise again tomorrow, belief that this curator is honest and that we don’t need to do our own academic research for everything we are curious about.

In this sense, I consider belief in a similar fashion as I do ego. Belief is necessary to function just like having an ego is needed to have a personality. A little too much of it — it doesn’t take that much — and we’re done for.

I claim that sceptics are the naturally selected survivors of this day and age, but we don’t understand what it means to be sceptical. Let’s look at what it doesn’t mean first: it doesn’t mean being a cynic or a nihilist, and it certainly doesn’t need to imply being hopeless. A sceptic doubts new information by default. This doesn’t mean they will always doubt the information received. It means the information will be reviewed and then believed or not.