THE SKEPTICAL MOVEMENT

 I ran across this term in a newsletter from Cincinnati for and by skeptics. In one section was a very strange comment:

"Friday Night Talks and Magic / Opening by Randi – Randi opened the meeting mostly with recognizing people in the audience who had helped set up the meeting or were speaking. He mentioned The Pale Blue Dot of Carl Sagan and mourned the loss of many of the leading lights of the skeptical movement, Stephen Jay Gould, Isaac Asimov, and Carl Sagan " (Wayback Machine (archive.org))

A "skeptical movement"? That seems to imply a continuing state of skepticism. It seems to imply a nearly religious adherence to the concept of skepticism regardless of facts to the contrary or evidence pointing a different way. It seems tinged with a similar fideism as religious or political fervor unswayed by anything but one narrow and focused worldview.

Wikipedia provided this definition: " A philosophical movement refers to the phenomenon defined by a group of philosophers who share an origin or style of thought. Their ideas may develop substantially from a process of learning and communication within the group, rather than from outside influences. Major philosophical movements are often characterized with reference to the nation, language, or historical era in which they arose."

This is a fascinating definition. Such movements are defined by the group and its thinking rather than - outside influences - one has to wonder, if contradictory evidence is one of the outside influences ignored in favor of the views held dear by the "movement?'

How does that differ from religious fervor that holds tenets sacred and ignores outside influences with which it does not agree?  

Such slavish devotion to skepticism as a belief system - a movement is just as bad as a religious adherence to belief in aliens, flying saucers, and the like. 

I am reminded of the words of Dr. J. Allan Hynek who emphasized that what was important was following the evidence to whatever place it lead one. Science does not seek belief but evidence. Evidence does not demand faith or a belief system and it does not operate in a closed movement system where it only interacts with the parroting heads of others in the "movement."