Anti-sceptics dance on reason’s grave

A defining attitude of the sceptic is the suspension of judgment and in religion, this has acquired the meaning usually associated with heresy. Questioning perceived wisdom has a long history. The 15th century witch-hunters' manual Malleus Maleficarum claimed that those who denied the existence of witches were no less guilty of heresy than the practitioners of witchcraft.

The paradox of demonising scepticism in an age where science enjoys significant cultural status has not escaped some of the advocates of the UN Panel on Climate Change. Most of its supporters use the word scepticism in a way that exposes a tension between the aspiration of demonising the sceptic while appearing to uphold the convention of openness that is usually associated with scientific enquiry.

Sceptics are characterised as dishonest, malevolent and corrupt. Scepticism today, as in the past, has a bad name because for the dogmatic believer, any sign of doubt, hesitation, uncertainty, and questioning or even indifference is interpreted as disbelief.

These dominant ideas are all rooted in ideologies: environmentalism, anti-racism, anti-Americanism and anti-imperialism. As a person who has worked broadly on the left of politics, I have some sympathy for elements of these positions and most especially for what I have seen in the Middle East.

Yet unfortunately rather than going where the evidence leads, ideology wrenches the evidence to fit a prior idea. Not only is ideology inimical to reason, it sacrifices truth to power as it attacks those who try to uphold reality in the face of dogma.

This is because the progressive mindset believes it is synonymous with virtue itself. All opposition is therefore not just wrong but evil. Progressives also believe anyone who opposes them is a right-winger and a neo-conservative. In other words, these are not propositions to be debated in a rational way but are seen as self-evident truths with the infallibility of religious dogma.

This kind of thinking displays the religious motifs of sin, guilt and salvation. It also exhibits features of millenarianism: the religious belief in the perfectibility of life through the collective redemption of sin.

The greens believe they will save the planet. The left believe they will create a brotherhood of man. The atheists believe they will create the Garden of Reason.

There can be no freedom of thought without the right to be sceptical. Which is why the demonisation of the sceptic does not simply reflect a tendency towards polemical excess but an attack on human inquiry.