The reason is that in a group, individual errors on either side of the true figure cancel each other out.

I just witnessed an event so mysterious that it shook my skepticism.

But there is only one surefire method of proper pattern recognition, and that is science.

Scientists like Bjorn Lomborg in The Skeptical Environmentalist have, in my opinion, properly nailed environmental extremists for these exaggerated scenarios.

We want to be special. We want our place in the cosmos to be central. We want evolution-even godless evolution-to have been directed toward us so that we stand at the pinnacle of nature's ladder of progress. Rewind the tape of life and we want to believe that we (Homo Sapiens) would appear again and again. Would we? Probably not.

Remember always that we are pattern-seeking primates who are especially adept at finding patterns with emotional meaning.

Skepticism is not a position that you stake out ahead of time and stick to no matter what.