There are few basic questions that probably stop many people just short of transforming themselves into good skeptics with a passion for learning and thinking: What will I lose? Is it worth it? Will I be okay if I give up some of my beliefs? These are understandable concerns. I don’t dismiss them or take them lightly. Many people are just not sure about shining the hot light of science and reason on their beliefs because they worry that doing so might result in them having to make sacrifices that they just don’t want to make.
Many people love their beliefs and claim to need them for the comfort they provide. Others view their beliefs as an invaluable and irreplaceable source of thrills that brighten and energize what would otherwise be a boring and dim existence. And some say it is beliefs that give meaning to their lives. Often it is the same person who says all of these things. They cling to one or more dubious beliefs because they rely on them for comfort, excitement, and meaning—the whole shebang. People who feel this way don’t just want beliefs. By their own admission, they need beliefs. But is this true? Do they really depend on them to the degree that they think?
I could be wrong, but I don’t think that most people need to accept claims that probably are not true in order to have at least a fair chance of finding or achieving acceptable levels of comfort, excitement, and meaning in their lives. Maybe the typical believer in psychic readings or astrology really would be reduced to the psychological equivalent of a warm blob of twitching jelly if she or he realized one day that her or his beliefs were unlikely to be true. But I doubt it. I know too many people who let go of their beliefs and have been fine ever since. In my opinion, virtually all people—whether or not they know it—are smart enough and strong enough to cope with the difficulties and uncertainties of life without needing to wrap themselves in fantastic claims. I only have to look at the example of my own life. I’m not so lucky that I escape facing many of the same challenges and disappointments other people do, yet I have managed to persevere so far without leaning on irrational beliefs. In fact, I suspect that I’ve coped with the stresses of life better than I might have otherwise because my head is less cluttered with bad ideas and distracting delusions. This allows me to focus on the problem at hand and, if necessary, rely on real people who can help or comfort me. But that’s just me. Far more significant is the example set by the many millions of people around the world who don’t believe in most or any of the usual unlikely-to-be-true claims.
So how do they do it? How are they making it, all alone so to speak? By living in the real world and dealing with life the best they can, that’s how. These nonbelievers aren’t invulnerable superheroes. They aren’t emotionless Vulcans. They suffer. They fail. They endure losses. They cry. But somehow they live and succeed without pretending to know things they don’t and without constantly explaining things that currently have no explanation. In short, they act like mature and brave human beings. The existence of good skeptics who thrive despite having no belief in ghosts, magic, miracles, and so on may not disprove the notion that people need to believe, but they certainly cast doubt upon it.
Yes, it is disturbing that about a quarter of the American adult population believes in astrology and 37 percent believes in haunted houses.1 But let’s not overlook the reverse side of such statistics. Somehow, 75 percent of adults manage to get up in the morning, dress themselves, and face the day even though they don’t believe in astrology; and 63 percent of adults seem to find life interesting enough without believing in haunted houses. Overall, about three out of four Americans believe in at least one paranormal claim—but that leaves a quarter of all Americans who do not.2
If belief is critical to the good life, then what are we to make of people who don’t believe? Are they all miserable misfits and dysfunctional dolts? That’s obviously not true. So are they a superior race of people with advanced brains who have evolved beyond irrational belief? Nope, not true either. It’s safe to assume that most people who are living a relatively belief-free life are a mix of regular people much like everyone else. They may have made the decision to think critically and do their best to live in the real world, but apart from that, they are more alike than different compared to the rest of the population. Even religion, so often hailed as the prerequisite to a good and meaningful life, somehow isn’t necessary for the more than one billion people on Earth right now who describe themselves as nonreligious or unaffiliated with any religion.3 Between 500 million and 700 million of these people go one step further and describe themselves as atheist or agnostic.4 I don’t doubt that unproven beliefs can provide comfort, excitement, inspiration, and meaning for people. I just think that these things can be found in known reality as well, as a large portion of the world’s population proves every day.
A key challenge for the good skeptic is the common mind-set that says some beliefs are too special to question. To me it’s obvious that nothing should be off-limits to sincere and sensible inquiry. If we can’t honestly analyze and reconsider certain “important” beliefs, then how can anyone ever really know if those beliefs are valid? It makes no sense to say that something is too serious to treat seriously. Scrutiny should rise with importance, not go down. But many disagree. They feel that some beliefs are simply too big to fail and can’t be challenged because if they collapse, too many people will go down with them. I don’t buy this, of course, so I don’t refrain from encouraging skeptical thinking when it comes to any particular extraordinary or important claims.
My motivations are all good here. I want only to be constructive and help others. I look around and see a world that is deeply wounded and severely burdened by irrational beliefs. This drives me to act. I’m no saint or superhero, but I’m willing to at least try to improve the world. It seems obvious to me that we can do much better than this. Every day, I read news reports of horrors and heartbreak tied to one irrational belief or another. Skepticism is the prevention and the cure. One incessantly hears about money troubles these days and somehow the world just can’t scrape up enough cash to feed and vaccinate every child. Yet humankind currently spends hundreds of billions of dollars per year on fortunetellers, medical quackery, and other nonsense. We also seem to be constantly short of time and always tired, but somehow we are able to find countless hours and come up with enough energy to worry about things that probably aren’t real. Why are we crippling ourselves in this way? It’s the twenty-first century. Skeptical thinking should be more popular by now. After all, it’s not a state secret that science works. The fact that the scientific process does an excellent job of separating truth from fiction is not forbidden or inaccessible knowledge. Virtually everybody today relies on science to some degree—even the Amish. So why not rely more on scientific thinking?
One doesn’t have to make very much effort to find good reasons to be a critical thinker these days. Thanks to the current state of television news, it’s easy to come by examples of how failing to think before believing can lead to problems. The human misfortune and misery that results from weak skepticism is an endless source of fodder for TV news. Just turn the television on and marvel at the madness: On advice from his spiritual guide, man in Fresno eats four pounds of carpet lint and then drinks seven pints of Komodo dragon saliva! Full report from the intensive care ward at 11:00 tonight, plus NFL scores and weather! Our modern world is a nonstop parade of people being punished for their failure to think. Why don’t more people recognize this and react sensibly by deciding to think for themselves and question everything? Are they afraid of something? Are they waiting for something?
Being a good skeptic is not scary. What’s scary is letting other people think for you and then hoping that it all works out well. It’s not difficult to be a good skeptic and accept reality. What’s difficult is figuring out how to pay the rent after giving half your paycheck to a faith healer. Difficult is hearing your doctor tell you that it’s too late. She could have saved your life with medical science, but now you are going to die because you spent the last year harmonizing your spirit energy with the universe and consuming fungus-infused shark pills sold to you by some crook with a smile who promised they would cure you.
Things have changed since we first began this routine of making up answers to mysteries and accepting claims without evidence. We invented the microscope and telescope more than four centuries ago and have seen many things since. We now know how to discover the real and expose the fake using science. History is clear: bad thinking often leads to very bad outcomes. Yet today many smart and good people remain enslaved to irrational beliefs. Some hate and kill in the name of gods. Many expect magic to heal them when ill. Others see aliens, ghosts, and conspiracies lurking in every shadow. We rode on the back of science all the way to the Moon, yet millions of people today reject science and insist that stars and planets hold magical, predictive powers over our lives. What is going on? Who are we? What’s wrong with us? One scientist summarizes humankind as having “paleolithic emotions; medieval institutions; and god-like technology.”5 That is more than a description; it’s a warning, too. Clearly this is not a stable mixture for us as we barrel ahead into an increasingly high-tech and complex future. By 2050, there likely will be more than nine billion people sharing this same planet. It is difficult to imagine how we will avoid a pathetic series of self-inflicted catastrophes of increasing magnitude if we do not recognize the need and find the will to finally become less a believing species and more a thinking species.
My reaction to this critical challenge is to encourage people to become good skeptics. More thinking by more people ought to lead to better results for us. Maybe it won’t, but it seems to me like it is well worth trying. More skepticism means less irrational belief, which probably means a better and safer world. Skepticism can’t solve every problem, of course. But it certainly will help a lot. I hope people don’t view this as a fight between skeptics and believers. I prefer to think that we are all in this together. Living on a fantasy-prone planet ought to be a common concern because we all pay a price for it, regardless of who we are or where we are. Most believers probably would agree that there are far too many irrational beliefs out there today. They may not recognize a problem with their own belief, but they certainly recognize the drag or danger in others’. It’s a start. There is common ground here. For example, I am sure that a significant number of people, believers and skeptics alike, agree that Christians torturing and killing “child witches” in Africa and Hindus abusing and killing “sorcerers” in India is not only criminal and immoral but also profoundly senseless. If so, then promoting science and reason is something we can support together. Similarly, millions of women today are openly treated as the property of men. They are oppressed, beaten, and sometimes killed by men who believe their actions are sanctioned, if not required, by belief systems that any good skeptic can challenge easily. These acts of violence constitute yet more common ground, one more reason for both believers and skeptics to promote rational thinking.
Most good skeptics are not at war with typical well-meaning believers. I’m certainly not. I view my fight as being against bad beliefs and for the good people who believe them. In a similar vein, I think malaria is bad, but I certainly don’t have any animosity for its victims. What sense would that make? The kind of skepticism I’m promoting is constructive and optimistic. In my own small way, I’m trying to be constructive by helping to improve the world for all of us. Because I’m optimistic, I think our species has the potential to become more rational. So when people indicate that they are not comfortable asking questions and demanding evidence because it might cost them a few of their cherished beliefs, I appreciate their concern but don’t hesitate to explain what unproven beliefs have done and continue to do our world. I also mention what the skeptical lifestyle offers. It’s the greatest weight-reduction plan of all time, one that actually works. It trims away the mental fat and turns people into lean thinking machines capable of running strong and long rather than stumbling passively through a possibly diminished life. I don’t disregard believers’ fear of loss because I know it is probably sincere. Giving up beliefs that probably aren’t true may not be that big of a deal in my view, but the perception some have that it is a big deal makes the concern important enough. Yes, something will be lost when skeptical thinking is allowed to run its course. The loss is not so great relatively, however, because of what one stands to gain: everything.
Why are many people reluctant or uninterested in becoming good skeptics? Is it because they haven’t heard enough about the wisdom of skepticism? That’s one problem, of course, but there is an even bigger one. Many people are afraid that they will lose social footing if they embrace skepticism. If their new way of thinking corrodes or dissolves the warm blanket of superstition they have wrapped around themselves, not only could they end up out in the cold but also they might find themselves suddenly alone, without friends, family, and community support. So on top of a conviction that says their unproven and unlikely-to-be-true beliefs give them comfort, strength, and meaning is the fear that abandoning those beliefs could leave them socially isolated. This is not a trivial or unreasonable concern. Beliefs do serve as a social glue or platform for building and maintaining relationships of all kinds. The best response to this, however, is to point out the obvious: There are many ways in which people come together and enjoy meaningful connections that have nothing to do with unproven beliefs. Again, remember to consider the example of the many people who make their way in life without silencing their skeptical minds. They’re not all hopeless hermits doomed to dwell on the cold, dark fringes of society. They have families. They have friends. However, no one should deny that it can sometimes be very difficult to fit in and be accepted when you don’t believe as others do. Good skeptics have to realize that every moment doesn’t need to be a clash of philosophies and a debate over evidence for this or that. The “live and let live” attitude works well at the party, on the street, and in the office most of the time. Included among my friends, for example, are people who seem to believe every kooky and bizarre claim ever to be inflicted on an innocent brain. Although I may worry about them at times, I still think of them as valid human beings in every way, of course. Their friendships add value to my life. I may raise questions about their beliefs from time to time, but I don’t feel the need to vigorously challenge them on a daily basis. I can offer ideas and encourage them to think, but ultimately it’s up to them.
It also has been one of the joys of my life to discover that so many believers can and do accept me for who I am. This is not to say that I have not been rejected, had my feelings hurt, and been mistreated by some because of my skeptical ways. It’s never going to be a consistently smooth ride for the good skeptic, not on this fantasy-prone planet. But does anyone anywhere enjoy a smooth ride all the time? Don’t we all hit the occasional bump in the road? The trick is to just keep going. Skeptics aren’t alone in this. Even believers deal with acceptance and rejection issues. Does the New Age connoisseur of magic crystals find herself welcome among Pentecostals? Probably not. Does the Christian feel safe at a Taliban prayer gathering? Definitely not. We all have moments in life that bring tension and the possibility of conflict or rejection.
Fear of losing friends or complicating family relationships is not a sufficient reason to stop from becoming a good skeptic. No doubt other people matter. We are social creatures in the extreme. But surrendering or sacrificing one’s mind out of fear and insecurity is not the best way to maintain membership in the human club. Your brain is the one thing that makes being human special. Use it, become a good skeptic, and figure out the social stuff as you go along. If you happen to be in extremely complicated circumstances, say you are stuck on an island with people who think dragons are coming to save the world and these people might kill you if you question their claims, then use common sense and keep quiet. If you are at a place in life where you depend on believers for food, shelter, or security, then don’t bother mentioning that you have analyzed their ideas and found them to be ridiculous. Just keep quiet and smile whenever they talk about dragons. Meanwhile, take pride in your independent thought, be happy you aren’t deluded like them, and work on finding a new place to live.
When many people tell me about one of their beliefs, I see excitement in their eyes and hear enthusiasm in their voices. While I do understand the buzz behind belief in guardian angels, the Roswell UFO story, or a precise and imminent doomsday date, I do not see any kind of irreplaceable value in these kinds of claims specifically. We can find plenty of thrills in other places, too. Furthermore, isn’t a joy or thrill that comes from a mistake, delusion, or lie a kind of counterfeit high anyway? Sure, it might feel good—but for how long and at what cost? If some practical joker gave me a fake lottery ticket with a winning number on it, I might feel really, really good—right up to the moment when I tried to cash it in. My previous joy wouldn’t be enough to make the disappointment and anger worth it. Likewise, getting drunk or high might feel good in the moment, but spending every day of one’s life that way might result in self-destruction and a wasted life.
I’m not denying that some beliefs can add spice to a life. What I don’t accept is that these beliefs are the only way or the best way to elude boredom. Yes, believing in amazing and weird things can be fun and exciting. However, embracing beliefs that fall short on evidence and logical arguments because one gets a kick out of them seems like cheating to me. It’s turning off your brain in order to grab a cheap high. It’s like closing your eyes and spinning around in circles on your front lawn while imagining that you are on the roller coaster. Why the charade? Why not just open your eyes and go find a real roller coaster?
I often wonder how much thought believers give to what reality offers them. Why worry about invisible mystical forces that science can’t detect, measure, or confirm when there are real things like nebulae and black holes out there? Why chase mythical monsters when all around us there are more bizarre creatures that exist than we can ever know in a lifetime? The real universe is not a bitter pill to be choked down. It’s the ultimate theme park and your human brain is the golden ticket. This is a place of infinite excitement and mystery. Depending on where you are and where you look, it offers many comforts and many dangers.
When I was a young boy in Florida, I remember finding a Portuguese man o’ war that had washed up on a lonely strip of coastline I was exploring. I was blown away by the bizarre creature. It was so alien in appearance, so unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was at once monstrous and beautiful. The longer I looked at it, the less it seemed to belong on this planet. Its purple-tinted, gas-filled, transparent bubble enabled it to float at sea. It was shaped in a way that made it an effective sail for traveling many miles in the ocean. I was amazed by the creepy and dangerous purple tentacles. I tried to imagine how much it would hurt if I touched one briefly. I chose not to find out. I already loved science fiction in those days, so extraterrestrial life was one of my many interests, and this thing pushed my buttons, to say the least. I knew it was an Earth life-form, of course, but its freaky structure led me to think more deeply about what life might be like on other worlds and how there is so much variety right here. I disagree with those who suggest that extraterrestrial life, if it exists and if we discover it, would be so exotic and unexpected in form that it would shock everyone. I doubt this because our own planet has such extreme diversity that if we ever did find anything, chances are a zoologist, microbiologist, or marine biologist somewhere would immediately say, “Hey that looks just like . . . ” The alien physiology, how it functions, likely would be differently from anything we know, of course, but chances are its appearance would be similar to something here on Earth. That’s just how wonderfully weird and varied Earth life is. It’s almost like we have an entire universe of life right here with us. All we need to do is notice it.
Fast-forward to adulthood, and I’m giving a science lecture to a class of very bright students in the Caribbean. We’re talking about ocean life and I’m showing beautiful color photographs of amazing animals only recently discovered in extremely deep waters. I mention to the kids that many of the creatures seem like aliens, as if they don’t belong on Earth. But then I wonder aloud if life on a faraway planet would look like anything on Earth. Maybe they are so different that we don’t have anything of a similar shape and structure on our world. Maybe they are intelligent clouds of organic fog. Maybe they are liquid and flow together to create one big conscious ocean. Maybe their “bodies” are a network of atoms spread apart over vast distances in space. Or maybe they don’t exist at all. Maybe we are alone in the universe. Maybe we are the first life ever. Or maybe we are the last. I have no idea, but I love asking the questions and imagining possible answers. That was an exciting class for me and for the students that day—even though we never once relied on irrational beliefs or felt the need to accept any unsupported claims.
Back on that Florida coastline so many years ago, I probably stared at the Portuguese man o’ war for at least an hour. In kid time, that’s like ten hours. I resisted my little-boy urge to pop the bubble with a stick and instead pushed it back out to sea. I couldn’t tell if it was alive or dead, but if it was, I was determined to save it. Anything that strange and that cool deserves to live, I figured. From that day on, the man o’ war would always be one of my favorite marine animals and easily my number-one jellyfish—only it’s no jellyfish.
I later learned that the creature I had encountered was even stranger than I thought. It turns out that the Portuguese man o’ war is not a jellyfish at all. It’s not even one animal. Each man o’ war is a colony of many individual creatures. They team up to create a floating, carnivorous fortress that sails the seas in search of fish to paralyze and eat. I also learned along the way that these amazing animals can release the gas from their bubble to submerge like a submarine when attacked and that sometimes their tentacles grow to more than one hundred feet in length. There is a lesson in this story somewhere: Thinking like a scientist is the gift that keeps on giving. It’s a never-ending process of discovery. New information is always coming in, or will if your brain is open to it. I am no less curious today than I was as a child. I don’t cringe when I find out I was wrong about something; I celebrate the upgrade to my brain.
This willingness to adapt and change for the better is important to being a good skeptic. As a lifelong fan of science, I have no choice but to be humble. I can’t imagine being any other way. I try to explore and learn new things every day. And the more I learn, the more I sense how deep and wide my ignorance runs. This is not a bad thing. My awareness of it makes life more exciting. I love knowing that I’ll never run out of things to learn and experience. This is one of the reasons I find it nearly impossible to get excited about extraordinary claims about events, abilities, or monsters that don’t seem reasonable and lack good evidence. I know about too many wonders that actually do exist or are more likely to exist than to get all worked up over things that almost certainly do not.
Our planet’s microbes (microscopic life-forms) remain mostly unknown to us. This is a strange state of affairs given their abundance and importance. It’s like there is an entire parallel universe of life right here with us and yet we understand relatively little about it. Despite our limited knowledge, however, we have managed to figure out that they pretty much run the planet. Without microbes, civilization would collapse in a month. Our own bodies can’t even function without them. Not only are they around us, on us, and in us, but also microbes live in the muck at the bottom of the deepest ocean, miles below the surface of land in near-solid rock, and even up in the clouds above us. If you are attracted to mystery and monsters, then give microbes a chance because they’ve got it all. I can hardly look down at a patch of common dirt without hearing the voice of Edward O. Wilson, a scientist who specializes in ants but has a fondness for life even smaller. He admits that if he could take another lap in life, he would make a career in microbes:
Ten billion bacteria live in a gram of ordinary soil, a mere pinch between the thumb and forefinger. They represent thousands of species, almost none of them known to science. Into that world I would go with the aid of modern microscopy and molecular analysis. I would cut my way through clonal forests sprawled across grains of sand, travel in an imagined submarine through drops of water proportionately the size of lakes, and track predators and prey in order to discover new life ways and alien food webs. All this, I need venture no farther than ten paces outside my laboratory.6
Those who choose paranormal promises over scientific realities have no idea what they are missing. For example, I recently learned that Desulforudis audaxviator, a microscopic bacterium, has been found living more than half a mile down in the ground near Death Valley, California. This is believed to be the same species that was found a few years earlier living more than two miles below the Earth’s surface in South Africa. For hundreds of millions of years, these tough guys have lived in a very hot (temperatures up to 140°F/60°C), totally sunless environment, with no oxygen and no life or organic material to keep them company. Don’t miss that last part. It lives alone. This is the only known life on Earth to date that lives in complete isolation. So how does it survive? What does it eat? It relies on the by-products of radioactive decay in the rocks around it. But the coolest thing of all about Desulforudis audaxviator is this: Scientists think some members of this species take wild rides up to the surface via natural water springs where wind blows some of them thousands of feet up in the air. After traveling halfway around the world, they ride raindrops back to Earth and then work their way back down to where they like it best, dark and deep.7 I don’t know how you feel about it, but I love sharing a planet with freaks like Desulforudis audaxviator. By the way, lonely as it may be for them miles down in rock, they certainly are not alone during their journeys up in the sky. It turns out that the air above us may be yet another huge and important ecosystem, one totally overlooked until very recently. For example, scientists have taken air samples twelve miles up and recovered more than 2,100 different species of microbes. These particular bugs they found were traveling from Asia to North America in the upper troposphere. It’s like they have their own highways up there. Some researchers think that these microbes are not just dormant hitchhikers but are active while in flight, possibly mating, for example. (Twelve-mile-high club?) It’s even possible that this microbial high-altitude highway has significant influence on the world’s weather.8
In addition to land and sky, the microbes seem to rule the oceans as well. The next time you are walking the sands of your favorite beach, glance out to sea and think about what is out there. But forget fish, plankton, and dolphins, and the usual cast of characters. Those are mere bit players in this world. Even plankton, for all their importance, have been upstaged. It’s the viruses that run things. They infect everything in the ocean, from the smallest bacterium to the largest whale.
It is now clear that the ocean is pretty much one big viral infection. Marine viruses are the most abundant form of “life” on all the Earth. (Viruses are so weird that technically they don’t qualify as life. But they’re close enough.) A typical liter (0.26 gallons) of ocean water contains more than one hundred billion viruses! That’s about the same number of all people who have ever lived throughout the entire existence of humans. A kilogram of mud or sediment from the seafloor can easily contain a million or more different species of viruses. Most viruses are much smaller than even bacteria, so they weigh very little, of course. But they are so prolific that their collective weight adds up quickly. For example, all the viruses in the ocean together would weigh as much as the combined weight of 75 million blue whales. Even more mind-boggling, if all marine viruses were placed end to end, they would stretch out into space farther than the next sixty galaxies!9
Okay, gaudy numbers and dramatic analogies aside, what’s the big deal about a bunch of creepy little parasites that float around, infecting fish, plankton, and everything else in the ocean? They matter because they seem to be nothing less than the framework of the entire ocean. And as the ocean goes, so goes life on land. Viruses may be invisible to our naked eyes, but they shape and effectively control the living ocean that we can see, as well as the rest of the Earth’s biosphere. It’s a common human fault to imagine that we are somehow above or disconnected from the rest of nature. The reality, however, is that we are far more dependent upon worms, bacteria, and viruses than we are on cars, computers, and credit cards. Given the importance of viruses to the way the world is, shouldn’t people devote some time to understanding a bit about them? But no, for millions of people, ghost hunting, astrological research, and other such pursuits beckon, and there is only so much time in a day.
Most viruses pose no direct threat to us, by the way. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t ruining somebody’s day. They have their chosen targets, and that’s just what viruses do. They can’t reproduce without hijacking a cell and turning it into their own personal virus factory, so their mission always is to invade and conquer. Marine viruses kill about half of all marine bacteria every day. Overall, they kill about 20 percent of all ocean life every day. This is amazing, especially when you consider what would happen if all those trillions and trillions of bacteria and other creatures were not being snuffed out by viruses on a daily basis. The food chain we rely on would be very different without viral population control—possibly not so well suited to our needs. For example, scientists have known for many years that the microbial ocean plays a major role in the Earth’s atmospheric makeup—and marine viruses have perhaps the biggest say in all of that. So, if you appreciate having food to eat and air to breathe, be sure to thank a virus.
If the virosphere still feels distant and disconnected, consider this: You are a virus, at least that’s what your genetic code says. Like it or not, viral footprints are all over humanity. This might not go over well with people who still can’t bring themselves to invite bright bonobos to the family picnic, but viruses deserve a place at the table too. They have been around for billions of years, and that means they have coexisted closely with plants and animals, including us, so close that we are now part them. Our long and intimate evolutionary dance with viruses can’t be denied. It happened. It’s happening. But don’t worry; this is nothing to be ashamed of. We can take pride in having such prominent and influential kin.
As is probably clear by now, I’m so fascinated and excited by this branch of science that it’s difficult for me to shut up about it. As a result of living in the same house with me, for example, my otherwise-normal twelve-year-old daughter knows far more about viruses, bacteria, and mites than most college students. What I don’t understand is why everyone isn’t excited about this stuff. Science continues to pull back the curtain on a breathtaking and important show that’s underway. The more we learn, the more it becomes apparent that this is the microbes’ world and we’re just living in it. For example, “you” are made up of 10 trillion or so human cells but this is nowhere near the complete picture. There are about 100 trillion other living cells and various microscopic critters living on you and inside of you right now as well. Some one billion bacteria live on every square centimeter of your skin’s surface. It’s true; it doesn’t matter how many times per day you shower or use hand sanitizer. You are less “you” than you are “other” life. You are outnumbered in your own skin.
Right now, there may be herds of tiny Demodex mites grazing on your face like buffalo on the plains of nineteenth-century North America. Closely related to spiders, these microscopic beasts look like a medieval mace, the stick weapon with spikes on one end. Regardless of how clean you are or what you may be up to at the moment, these creepy critters are busy taking care of their own business. They mate, right there on your face, for example, and guess where they go with the fertilized eggs for safekeeping? Down into your pores—where else? They prefer your eyebrow regions, and it’s believed that these mites feast on the oily secretions of your skin. Eating leads to pooing, of course, so how does that work? I have good news and bad news. The good news is that they never poo on you during their entire lifetime because the Demodex has no anus. The bad news, however, is that when they die, their bodies break apart to release a lifetime of poo on your face.10 See? Reality is never boring.
Here’s a trick question you can irritate your friends with: How many visitors from Earth have been to the Moon? The likely answers you will get are: (1) Thirty or so because the astronauts took some frogs, worms, and bugs for experiments in space [Wrong, Apollo astronauts conducted no animal experiments on the Moon.]; (2) None, because the Moon landings were a hoax [Maybe you should find some new friends.]; (3) Twelve, the number of Apollo astronauts who landed on the Moon [Respectable answer, but also very wrong.]. The right answer, of course, is many, many trillions. Only twelve astronauts may have walked on the Moon, but every one of them was host to a staggering assortment of microbes at the time, so each landing was really more like a mass invasion.
Yes, you are a bipedal ecosystem, a kind of rainforest or coral reef with legs. Wherever you go, remember that you carry with you a vast and diverse collection of wildlife. You are a wilderness of known and unknown bacteria, viruses, and arthropods. And I won’t even bother going into detail about the fungal forests that cover large tracts of your body’s surface. Cleary you needn’t ever feel alone—because you’re not. I encourage you to think about these things when someone suggests to you that all the exciting and cool action is happening over on the supernatural/paranormal side of the tracks. No, reality holds its own just fine.
Moving on from the small stuff, you might also consider yourself fortunate to have been born into a universe that is absurdly large and home to so many very large objects. Our universe is so big that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to grasp it. For example, even if you had a spaceship capable of traveling at the speed of light, it still would take you more than 150 billion years to make it from one side of the known universe to the other. Better pack a lunch for that trip.
The Sun is gigantic, right? After all, our Earth shrinks to a tiny spec in comparison. But astronomers know of stars that are much larger than ours. One of them, NML Cygni, is about 1,650 times larger than the Sun! Our planet may feel big to us, but it seems microscopic in comparison to that.
We are all fortunate to live in a time when science has advanced far enough to have built a magnificent portal from which to watch the show. A life without magic certainly need not be dull in this neighborhood. It’s not like we don’t have anything to occupy us. There is always something to marvel at, something to learn about, and more to discover. There is so much, in fact, that it’s absolutely impossible to keep up. Just in the time you spend reading this page, for example, a few hundred thousand new stars will be born. By the way, if your life ever seems too slow, just remember that the Earth is spinning at the equator at a rate of about a thousand miles per hour. We are also flying through space around the Sun at speeds of more than 65,000 miles per hour. Pause and think about this. Right now, you are flying through space faster than a bullet, at speeds the fastest jets do not remotely approach. But we’re still slowpokes in a sense because if we rounded up volunteers and put them in the fastest spaceship our current technology could produce, it would take them many thousands of years just to reach the nearest star in our own galaxy.
Although the open space between celestial bodies is mind-numbingly vast, the universe definitely is not empty. Our galaxy alone contains from 200 to 400 billion stars. And the Milky Way is just one system of stars among maybe 200 hundred billion or more others in the universe. Some of these galaxies may have as many as a trillion stars in them. To save you the trouble, I did the math: 300 billion stars × 200 billion galaxies = More stars, planets, and moons than you or I could ever comprehend.
Time can be exciting to think about, too. Thanks to the scientific process, we know that the universe is about 13.7 billion years old and the Earth is around 4.5 billion years old. Life here is more than three billion years old at least. We modern humans joined the party only a tiny fraction of a second ago, relatively speaking. Sometimes we may feel like a year is forever, and yet a single year is virtually nonexistent, lost within billions. On my bedside table, I keep a beautiful trilobite fossil, and not a day goes by that I don’t glance at it. I sometimes think about what a privilege it is just to be able to know of something that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. Our lives may be only tiny flashes of existence in the universe, but thanks to our brainpower, we at least have the opportunity to contemplate our place, to appreciate the time we do have, and to find some joy in it.
I can understand why some people might think about the span of life on Earth or reflect on the size of the universe and feel uncomfortably small or insignificant—but they shouldn’t. A human life might not seem like much in the shadow of so much space and time, but that is only one way of looking at it. Another way would be to get excited and feel fortunate to belong to a species that is not only intelligent enough to partially figure this stuff out but to also appreciate the fact that we are a part of it all. For example, the scientific process has revealed the age and origin of the atoms that we are made of. All the hydrogen atoms in you at this moment are almost as old as the universe itself. They were created shortly after the Big Bang, some13.7 billion years ago.11 Your other atoms were forged in stars and are younger but are still billions of years old. You are ancient. You are part of something larger than yourself. No one should think about the universe and shrink. When I look up at night, I feel a thousand feet tall. After all, we are literally a part of this magnificent and mysterious spectacle. The universe is us, and we are the universe, right down to every single atom in our bodies. I first heard or read about this link to the stars long ago as a child, but it took some years for it to sink in. As it did, however, my perspective changed. It was one more reason to feel free of the borders and walls that others had constructed around me. I became a citizen not just of the Earth but of the entire universe. Today I feel that any other outlook would dull and diminish my life.
These are exciting times of discovery and change. And here you are, lucky enough to have a front-row seat to it. Right now you are—or should be—witnessing the continual unveiling of a profoundly important and fascinating reality of outer and inner space that was mostly invisible and unknown to 99.999 percent of our ancestors. I recommend you go all in and dedicate yourself to learning as much as you can about the real universe, the real Earth, and the real you. If others insist, let them continue to spend their time listening to psychics who charm them and tell them mundane things about themselves that they already knew. Let them buy and wear “ion-infused” sports bracelets to enhance their balance as they walk off mental cliffs. Do the decent thing and help them if you can, of course, but don’t let them hold you back. You have important things to do with your time. You have universes to explore, both near and far.
Science is exciting because it leads us to real wonders. So much is happening right now and so much more is coming. Twenty or thirty years ago, it seemed reasonable to assume there were planets beyond our own solar system, but no one could say for sure that there were. Now, however, thanks to improved search abilities, scientists are finding new ones almost every day. Now we can say with unprecedented confidence that our galaxy likely contains hundreds of billions of planets and moons. As ignorant as we still may be, what we do know via science is enough to excite and interest me for a thousand lifetimes and more. How about you?
Don’t neglect human history and prehistory by focusing too much on all the exciting action beyond humanity. Like science, there is just too much history to know everything, but no thinkers should be walking around with massive gaps in their knowledge of our past. Make sure you aren’t one those people who never heard of the Australopithecines or Louis Leakey. Find out the basics, at least, about what archaeology has revealed regarding the rise of civilizations. I also advise not getting too caught up in your people’s history or your country’s history as many do. Learn that, of course, but do make sure to take in the big picture. The truth is that we are a young and closely related species, so all history is your history. None of it should be dismissed as irrelevant or unimportant. Regardless of who you are and whatever labels you had pasted on you at birth, you ought to feel sadness for the bad parts of world history and take pride in the good parts because all of it is about your family.
Even if you made As in middle- and high-school social studies classes, you still might have some work to do. Knowing which countries won the big wars, who sat on the thrones, and who won the elections is not enough. It’s important, and fun, to learn about what the regular people were up to, too. Their lives were not recorded as often or in as much detail as the lives of the rich and powerful. This is why archaeology is so important. By finding the art, tools, toys, and garbage of everyday people long ago, archaeologists can construct very good snapshots of how they lived and what they did with their time. Too many people still think that history is a stale compilation of cold facts and dates. It definitely is not. History is the greatest story of all. History and prehistory are about a scruffy yet clever bunch of primates who were unafraid to think and as a result rode their brains all the way to spectacular highs and shocking lows. Please, know your story.
I’m reluctant to tackle the topic of life’s meaning because it is so difficult to address in a sensible manner that is of use to anyone. So many words and hours already have been sacrificed in vain on this one. It’s so personal and subjective that what people say about it usually ends up having about as much weight and substance as the gas inside a Portuguese man o’ war’s flotation bladder. However, I think that good skeptics who wish to engage believers in productive conversation can’t duck this issue because so many beliefs have been tied to the endless quest for purpose and meaning. There is just no way around it.
I suppose I could prattle on about what I think other people should strive for in their lives. But I’m pretty sure I’m not qualified because my own life is still a work in progress. Perhaps when I achieve personal perfection and figure out all the secrets of the universe I’ll feel confident enough to write a script for someone else’s life. At the present time, however, I don’t see a guy in the mirror who has the meaning of life all sorted out. What I do see is someone who found a way that is working pretty well for him so far. So I’m only comfortable saying that this may be what everyone needs to do. Find what works best for you and ride off into the sunset. That’s the best cliché I can offer. Wherever your search leads, however, I am certain of one thing: Make sure to bring your brain along with you.
Please don’t think that you are too weak to stand on your own without a bunch of unproven claims and beliefs propping you up and showing you the way. If that is the state you are in currently, then please rethink your course in life. Chances are you arrived at this conclusion only because of exposure to someone else’s ideas about human strength and weakness. From birth, the not-so-subtle influences of your culture probably blasted you relentlessly with messages that numerous irrational beliefs were perfectly rational. Be careful about trusting the direction of your life on the words of fallible human beings. They may mean well when they invent and promote all these claims and beliefs, but don’t forget that every one of them is playing the game with an imperfect and deceptive human brain. For this reason alone, they can’t be trusted to be right about everything. Look at our history, the herd has been wrong many, many times before. The herd is wrong about many things right now, no doubt. Look around. Are you surrounded by infallible geniuses? Didn’t think so. Honestly, what do you think the chances are that you just happened to have been born into the first family, first society, and first time period in all of history that got it right on everything important?
It’s your life, and you have to decide how to live it at as you see fit, of course, but I hope you will at least take into consideration the abilities and potential of that magnificent thinking machine of yours. It can achieve wonders and protect and guide you well. But only if you decide to help it help you. With a well-cared-for brain that is set free, you can investigate, explore, imagine, and create your way through life without ever having to be a weak skeptic who passively embraces unproven beliefs. Good skeptics can still live on the edge if they so choose. Good skeptics can hope for the unlikely and reach for the impossible. Only they do it without pretending to know things they do not know. Their ignorance is a motivation to learn rather than a reason to lie.
Why would you want or need a belief to give your life meaning when it was likely only made up by someone anyway? Why not make your own meaning with your own brain? Why not choose your own path toward what you define as a meaningful life? Why not find confidence and comfort by looking within yourself and by reaching outside yourself to other human beings who know and share similar hopes and fears?
I will close this uncomfortable but necessary brief excursion into the meaning of life by encouraging you to take responsibility for yourself. The meaning of life, for you, is whatever you say it is. Don’t trade years of your life for delusions or lies manufactured by other people who failed to think well or just want your money. Trust me, your brain will fool you more than enough all by itself. You don’t need anyone else helping you to make mistakes.
I hope that everyone, younger people especially, recognize the exciting times we live in. The rate of scientific progress is accelerating. Although the last century was one of unprecedented discovery and change, this current century seems certain to top it. Today the horizon feels closer, and it’s more difficult than ever to glimpse what is coming. What we can be sure about is that the potential and the likelihood for profound change has never been more obvious. As a species, we have always improved, always been good at learning more and doing better. But now it’s as if we have hit a higher gear and can’t slow down. In recent decades, both the universe and our biology have come into sharp focus like never before. But so much more is sure to come. Computing power and related technology now seem close to breakthroughs that could cause profound changes to human culture overnight. I don’t know if all this will fuel a spectacular voyage into a wonderful new future or burn down civilization forever. Either way, however, it’s going to be interesting. From sending robots to distant worlds to mapping our own brain, we are doing more amazing things and doing them more frequently. Unfortunately, we also have to consider that increasingly dangerous and powerful weapons are likely to become available to more nations and more people in the coming decades. How will it turn out for us? This could be the early stages of a glorious golden age of discovery, a leap forward never to be matched again. This may be the very century that our descendants look back on thousands of years from now and identify as the moment when humankind finally woke up got busy. I understand that this might not feel like such a special time because of the wars, greed, poverty, violence, corruption, political nonsense, and other self-inflicted wounds that dominate headlines. But that stuff is not the whole story. We really are within sight of becoming an enlightened and positive species that we finally can be unreservedly proud of. You know, one that doesn’t let nine million of its babies die in poverty each year while simultaneously spending trillions of dollars on weapons to destroy ourselves. We really can do better. We really can elevate humankind to a higher plane. It’s reasonable to hope for. It’s possible. But that doesn’t mean it will happen tomorrow, or ever, of course.
Things could also go very badly for us. Given our deep loyalties to nations over humanity and belief over reason, we could just as easily tumble backward into a repeat of the Dark Ages. Sadly, some people are pushing hard in that direction right now. But there is no denying that there really is this possibility of an amazing and positive future for humankind. Given all the advancements seen in recent years—and the reasonable promise of computer power, robotics, genetics, and nanotechnology—we do seem close to a game-changing moment. But what will it mean if our brains can’t keep up with our toys? It will do us little good to build the modern world of our dreams if it is not inhabited by modern people. What achievement would it really be if we were to colonize the Moon and Mars, only to have half the people who live there spend their days hunting for Martian ghosts and worrying about how being on a different world might affect their horoscopes? What is the point of mapping the human genome and brain if the masses still prefer medical quackery? Progress must mean more than improved tools. It has to mean improved thinking, too.
Fortunately, the sweep of human history as a whole indicates that we just might be getting somewhere. Maybe. Science is now taught to and appreciated by more people than ever before, both in raw numbers and as a ratio to global population. The World Wide Web may be a significant problem in the way it facilitates the spread of irrational beliefs, but let’s not forget that it has made science and reason more accessible to a greater number of people than ever before. Even in most societies with high rates of supernatural/paranormal belief today, skeptics and doubters are widely tolerated. There was a time not too long ago in our past when a person like me who speaks and writes about the need to question everything and challenge extraordinary claims would have been in great physical danger, not from random extremists, but from legitimate authority figures, backed up by the laws of the land and the majority of the public. Merely communicating some of the ideas in this book likely would have earned me a death sentence everywhere on Earth just a short time ago. Today, however, a copy of this book can be purchased and read by any citizen in most countries. We are moving in the right direction. We are becoming better thinkers and more appreciative of skepticism. Unfortunately, the pace is too slow. What may well happen is that tomorrow’s global culture will be a muddled mess similar to what we have now, only more extreme. If we all don’t start to become more skeptical and scientific in our thinking, we may end up with a world deeply spilt with science-minded visionaries on one side and stagnant magic-seekers on the other. It may be the doers versus the deniers, the scientific versus the superstitious. Don’t wait too long to choose a side.
If we hope to ever become a true thinking species, sometime before the Sun flames out, then we must solve the crisis of weak skepticism. Collectively we have to think more and believe less. The amount of irrational thinking that passes for business as usual these days leaves humankind to face each new day blindfolded, with one arm tied behind its back, and one foot stuck in a bucket. This is no way to run a species. The world needs more good skeptics. Those who already are good skeptics have the ability—and, I suggest, a moral obligation—to spread the word and encourage more people to think well.
For readers who may be closet skeptics or new to the critical-thinking lifestyle, please don’t ever allow yourself to become intimidated or discouraged by the swirling sea of madness around you. I know it can feel lonely, like those inevitable times when you are the only person in the room who doesn’t think JFK was shot by aliens as predicted by a horoscope written by Nostradamus. We’ve all been there. I understand that it can feel overwhelming when it seems every thread of society is hopelessly soaked through with superstition. It’s not strange for you to feel outnumbered, because you are. But maybe the numbers are changing in the favor of skeptics. We will have to wait and see. Regardless, you can make it as a good skeptic. You can succeed in society, have friends, raise a family, and do whatever you want to do with your life that makes the journey worthwhile. You never have to sacrifice your intellectual dignity. You can keep both feet planted firmly in reality. You have the tools. You have the power. Your human brain—properly maintained and applied—will keep you free and clear of most lies and most delusions most of the time.
It seems to me that a book has done well if it leaves readers with a few thoughts that remain potent and useful long after the book is closed and put away. At its best, a book should not only inform but motivate, inspire, and haunt as well. If any small cluster of words were to be fortunate enough to survive among your memories long after this book is closed, I hope it might be these:
Appreciate the magnificent brain you possess. Protect and nurture it. Strive to be a good skeptic so that few hours of your precious life will be squandered on dead-end beliefs. Always try to think like a scientist so that you might better know truth from fiction. When unusual claims and extraordinary beliefs come your way, challenge them. Question everything. Never flinch, never cave when faced with true mysteries. No matter how tempting, don’t pretend to know things you do not know. Always, the right reaction is to think. Think before you leap. Think before you believe. Just keep thinking.
Many people claim that various beliefs are necessary to find excitement, joy, and meaning in life. But the full and rewarding lives of many skeptics around the world prove that this is not necessarily true.
Science is a never-ending process of exploration, discovery, and imagination. New information and ideas are always coming. New questions are always generated. Make sure your brain is ready to welcome it all.
Learn and appreciate as much of the human story as possible. Accept it all—the good and the bad—as personal to you. We are a young and closely related species. Therefore all history is your history.
An amazing universe of microbial mysteries and gigantic galaxies offers more than enough to excite and inspire us. There simply is no reason to rely upon unproven claims and dubious beliefs to make our lives interesting.
