Being Sceptical.

From The Burden of Scepticism by Carl Sagan.

The French scientist Henri Poincar remarked on why credulity is rampant: "We also know how cruel the truth often is, and we wonder whether delusion is not more consoling." But I don't think that's the only reason credulity is rampant. Scepticism challenges established institutions. If we teach everybody, let's say high school students, the habit of being sceptical, perhaps they will not restrict their scepticism to aspirin commercials.

Scepticism is dangerous. That's exactly its function, in my view. It is the business of scepticism to be dangerous. And that's why there is a great reluctance to teach it in the schools. That's why you don't find a general fluency in scepticism in the media. On the other hand, how will we negotiate a very perilous future if we don't have the elementary intellectual tools to ask searching questions of those nominally in charge, especially in a democracy?

[But] you can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don't see things as dearly as you do. This is a potential danger which we have to guard carefully against it. It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most sceptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes, whichever one it is, you're in deep trouble.

If you are only sceptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You never learn anything new. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now and then, maybe once in a hundred cases, a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being sceptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress.

On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of sceptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful as from the worthless ones. If all ideas have equal validity then you are lost, because then, it seems to me, no ideas have any validity at all. Some ideas are better than others. The machinery for distinguishing them is an essential tool in dealing with the world and especially in dealing with the future. And it is precisely the mix of these two modes of thought that is central to the success of science.

So the ‘trick’ seems to be sceptical but not too sceptical whilst being open-minded but not gullible. But most importantly of all is the necessity to ask questions. LOTS of questions.