Skepticism is the key to reality

Understanding Skepticism

A skeptic is someone who is inclined to question and doubt any idea until he or she gets the proper evidence to believe in it. Skepticism is sub-divided into two groups -Philosophical Skepticism and Scientific Skepticism. 

Philosophical Skepticism (PS) is an approach that requires all philosophical views to be well supported by logical arguments. Whereas, Scientific Skepticism (SS) is an approach that requires the idea to be well supported by scientific facts. Both PS and SS is very important to a skeptic. Philosophical views give rise to Hypothesis (Proposed theory based on limited evidence) eventually the hypothesis must be proven or disproven through scientific techniques. If an hypothesis is proven through scientific methods then it is considered to be a fact. No one can be 100% sure about anything, in fact science just provides the likelihood of something being true. Every Scientist should be a skeptic, they should put scientific theories to test and check whether the theory holds to be true or not. 

"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong." -Richard Feynman

Faith vs Science

I'm not going to explain the difference between faith and science. Let Tim Minchin's beautiful words speak for itself. 

"Science adjusts its views based on what's observed. Faith is the denial of observation so that belief can be preserved" -Tim Minchin

Faith is one's perspective of what they are willing to believe rather than what they should believe. Who do you think is more reasonable, a skeptic who is willing to change his beliefs based on evidence, even if its against what he used to believe or a person who is bounded by his faith and is not willing to change his beliefs even if evidence is provided?

"Water is two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. What if someone says, "Well, that's not how I choose to think about water."? All we can do is appeal to scientific values. And if he doesn't share those values, the conversation is over. If someone doesn't value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide that they should value it? If someone doesn't value logic, what logical argument could you provide to show the importance of logic?" -Sam Harris

Skepticism is extremely significant for humanity to advance. We are looking for the answers to both deep scientific and philosophical questions and it won't be possible to find them if ignorance still holds us back.