Skeptics and True Believers :: Free Essay Writer

Skeptics and True worshipersIn the first chapter, Raymo, opens with talk of his childhood. He brings to thesurface the fact that children will believe just about anything they ar told. In this chapter Raymo explains how people grow frm children into grown sdluts, peolpe somehow retain some of a childs ability to believe in the unbelievable. It is the True Believer that retains an absolute in some forms of empirically unverifiable make-belive... (13), wheras the Skeptic always keeps a wary eye even on firmly established facts.(14) For an example, Raymo uses the extend of Turin, which simplly a linen cloth that has the likeness of a man on it ( some belive this man to be Christ). He tells of a time when the Roman Catholic authorities allowed scientists to radiocarbon date the spread over. Small samples of the Shroud where sent with three samples controls of known age, to three independant labs. All three properly dated the controls and dated the Shroud to medieval time. Raymo conc lueded that a Skeptic would have taken the evidence and belived it, while the True Beliver would find no truth in what was found. In fact, he verbalize that the True Beliver would come up with explainations as to why the Shroud seems younger than it really is. In the next chapter, Raymo explains the main difference between Skeptics andTrue Believers is the polar of what most people would think. He explains howscientific concepts can be extraordinarily bizarre... (27), wheras the True Believerbelieve what may seem much more levelheaded and somewhat down to earth. The exampleRaymo uses for this is DNA and its ability to reproduce itself. This tiny double-helixsomehow manages to spilt and make a copy of its self from chemical components fromwhatever is meet it. It may seem easier for one to believe in a Shroud with a mans face in it, or the picture of deity in the Sistine Chapel, but it is the Skeptics who believe in the hard to concieve DNA. It is this DNA that contains the bluep rints of what we are to look, talk, and act like.In chapter four, Raymo again brings up his childhood. He tells how he was forcedinto religion. The perform would not allow doubts to be spoken. For if it where to bequestioned the whole religious system may fall apart. The only sources of informationwere the nuns, priest, and all other authorities that were elect by God.