In today’s world, skepticism is often considered an intellectual virtue; skeptical people proudly say, “I’m not gullible. I don’t believe the religious mumbo-jumbo that so many naive people believe so easily.” 

Yes, skepticism helps us critically evaluate and eliminate cranky or crazy ideas. And such ideas can be found in political ideologies, medical quackery and religious chicanery. To the extent skepticism protects us from such deception, it is healthy.

Still, excess of a good thing can become bad. And similarly, excessive skepticism can lead to denying the reality of not just questionable ideas, but even the reality of reality itself. If we become unskeptical devotees of skepticism, we can start questioning whether the world is real, whether the people around us are real, whether our sense of selfhood is real. Nonetheless, the first reality of our experience is that we have a unified center of awareness, which is the basis of our sense of selfhood. 

When our skepticism becomes self-denying, it becomes self-defeating. The word ‘self-denying’ usually refers to the act of denying oneself some pleasure or privilege; here, ‘self-denying’ refers to denying the very existence of the self. And self-defeating can refer to some action by which we harm or even sabotage ourselves. Here, self-denying skepticism becomes self-defeating; if there is no self,  there will be no one to deny the existence of the self. Indeed, the very rejection of the self is an assertion of the self. 

Pertinently, the Bhagavad-gita (16.09) cautions that excessive materialism can end up becoming self-destructive and world-destructive. Rather than making a God out of skepticism, we can use our intelligence which includes a skeptical faculty to study the Gita and thereby understand the self rationally and realize it practically.

One-sentence summary:

Skepticism that is reality-seeking is healthy, skepticism that is self-denying and self-defeating is unhealthy. 

Think it over: 

  • When is skepticism healthy?
  • When does skepticism become so unhealthy as to be self-defeating?
  • How can the Gita help us channel our constructively?

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16.09: Following such conclusions, the demoniac, who are lost to themselves and who have no intelligence, engage in unbeneficial, horrible works meant to destroy the world.

 

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