We are a country besieged by nonsense. It surrounds us in our media. We are bombarded by it in our workplaces and increasingly in our schools. Nonsense pervades the internet, it comes to us in mass mailings, and begs at every corner for our time, attention, and money. Increasingly, the purveyors of nonsense are trying to gain popular acceptance by pushing a mistaken doctrine of equality. They argue that, since everyone is entitled to their own opinion, it shouldn't matter if one person espouses a steadfast belief in aliens, psychic ability, iridology or other claims which consistently fail not only basic logic tests, but also fail any systematic, scientific attempt to verify these claims. What difference, they argue, does it matter what anyone believes as long as they are not hurting anyone?

Unfortunately, those arguments are flawed. First, it matters what people believe. It matters a great deal. Sure, on the microscopic level individual beliefs are meaningless, but beliefs spread and often take on a kind of life of their own. These credulous beliefs exist on a macroscopic level as well. That is to say that these beliefs are not confined only to one or two people, but they have followings, often vast followings, and where there are masses of like minded people, there are masses of people affecting public policy and creating vast economic pressure. Sure, it doesn't make a difference that your neighbor is a creationist, but it might make a difference if your neighbor decides to run for your local school board. It makes a big difference when that same neighbor goes to his or her church to campaign on a platform to endorse textbooks without reference to evolution. It makes a big difference what your neighbor thinks when he is able to rake in thousands of dollars from like minded individuals all basing the forthcoming education of your children on non-scientific, unverifiable claims.

It is common for people to say, often in a spirit of fairness, that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and this is true.. What is not stated as often is that many of the claims being made by the purveyor of nonsense are not a matter of opinion. Opinions are personal feelings, whereas many of the claims made in the pseudoscientific front are being stated as fact, and facts are not personal. Facts, by their very nature, are clearly defined and provable. Further, many of the claims being made are scientific in nature. That is to say that these claims deal with issues that are the purview of science. These are questions that deal with cosmology, physics, medicine, biology, etc. Claims of this nature are the purview of science because science is the only methodology that yields consistent, reliable results. Relying on any other type of evidence only ensures that progress will be slowed or stopped. When a person claims a belief in, say, junk medicine, this is not an opinion. This is a belief which rests on a claim of efficacy, and efficacy can be tested. If a certain treatment is testable and proven, it becomes legitimized and accepted into mainstream medicinal practice. If a treatment cannot be shown to be effective, it is rejected by the scientific community. It is not a matter of opinion whether or not this works, it is a matter of testable fact.

Further, pseudoscientific claims are often bolstered by shysters who make incredible sums of money, money that they have taken from the open wallets of those who do not know how to test claims for evidence and logic. The supplement industry is a terrific example of this. Even though many significant double blind studies have been done disproving the effectiveness of certain supplements, the market for these worthless supplements continues to grow. People are rushing to the local health food store and, increasingly, the drug store, to purchase supplements we know do not work. Multiple millions of dollars are spent each year to treat maladies based on spurious claims of medicinal benefit. This is not a victimless situation. This money is being spent by real people, and their money is not being spent on harmless diversions. The money of honest, hardworking people is pouring into the coffers of snake oil salesmen of many sorts while the customer literally gets nothing for their money other than bad information, outright lies, sugar pills, and false hope. The same is true of many claims made by the nonsensical. True believers of all sorts are being bilked out of their time, energy, and money by those claiming evidence of bigfoot, aliens, psychic experiences, and a host of other pseudoscientific claims. Imagine the great good that could be affected by that same infusion of capital into legitimate scientific research. Instead of millions of people spending billions of dollars on pyramids, talismans and other nonsense, that same money would do nearly immeasurable good spent in the methodologically sound pursuit of solving real world problems.

The skeptic is often accused of being someone who only removes things, but never gives anything back. While it is true that most often skepticism is mainly interested in debunking, it should be noted that he/she does so with the hope that by their debunking they are acting as a voice of reason. The goal of skepticism, as a movement and as a personal philosophical tenet, is to pursue, vigorously, and unapologetically, the goals of a world based on reason rather than superstition. The skeptic can be likened to someone who removes a splinter from another. Truthfully, the argument can be made that skeptic has not given anything back in the process of removal, but that would overlook the benefits of removing obstacles and barriers to enable the unimpeded movement of people, of science, and of humanity. The world's belief in nonsense matters. It affects public policy, it influences elected officials, dilutes our education, weakens medicine, wastes vast sums of resources, and is a tremendous waste of the time and efforts of focused, intelligent people. Scientific skepticism is an attempt to breathe a breath of reason into the broken and debilitated body of our national consciousness.