302 THE PRESENT IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE 



fortably into the same intellectual routine, all go the way 

 of the closing mind which is so easy and so natural for man- 

 kind. When a man's opinions on complex problems do 

 not change for a term of years, it is well for him to beware, 

 if he has any ambition to be more than he has been. And the 

 same might be said of nations. 



How this intellectual slothfulness, which is the mark of 

 the closed mind, affects society through the Church and 

 through Government could be easily illustrated from the 

 history of any modern country did space permit. The 

 point of this discussion is, however, that science counts on 

 the side of the open mind, and that the new ideas, by means 

 of which advancement is effected, will fall on fertile ground 

 only to the extent that open-mindedness prevails. 



THE VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC SKEPTICISM 



Usage has given the word skeptic a reproachful meaning. 

 A term, which originally signified thoughtful or inquiring, has 

 been so long used as a controversial epithet that it expresses 

 an odious distinction. Frequently, the skeptic is mentioned 

 as though he were an undesirable citizen. Now skepticism 

 and its correlated attitudes of agnosticism and open-minded- 

 ness are intrinsic features of the scientific frame of mind. 

 Skepticism, concerning that which cannot be accepted, 

 without disregarding the facts of the case, is a commendable 

 position. It is an attitude of mind which is unusual in a 

 world where decisions must be made and action taken, and 

 where lack of conviction exercises a paralyzing influence upon 

 the conduct of an enterprise. We can be sure that the world 

 will be full of the credulous rather than the skeptical, that 

 those who doubt will continue to be a minority. But as we 

 have seen, human progress has not been the product of 

 credulity and the ignorant acceptance of unwarranted con- 

 clusions. 



The popular usage of the term skepticism assigns it to the 

 vocabulary of theology. We shall here use the term, in its 



