The symbol of sceptics?

Posted on 2 March 2015 by Scottish-Sceptic

If we go onto any sceptic blog from WattsUpWithThat to JoNova, we will find pretty much the same type of people with a superb understanding of science and engineering and very good grasp of how science should be done. That is based on the scientific method. Largely to define ourselves as “sceptical” of the alarmist doomsday warming, we call ourselves “sceptics”. Because it would be just as wrong to say we know they are wrong as it is for the alarmists to assert they are right.
So, a sceptic is someone who draws their conclusion conservatively from the data. It is the basis of proper science (although the word “science” now seems to be meaningless as “science” has come to mean almost any group of academics even if all they do is dress up their political views with long words).
Scepticism is at the heart of good engineering. It’s the rule of thumb that says “the theory says the bridge should hold with only so much steel – but let’s just be safe and add a bit more”. It’s the knowledge that theory does not always work in practice and that only experience or “testing” really determines the validity of ideas.
Is there any symbol that represents that view? Justice has the scales.  I’ve used the butterfly to symbolise the butterfly effect in climate whereby just because we cannot measure something directly it does not mean it will not affect the climate.
 

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8 Responses to The symbol of sceptics?

  1. TinyCO2 says:
    2 March 2015 at 12:31

    Off the top of my head-
    A man with a sandwich board saying ‘The end of the World is nigh… again’.
    A brain – right side Climate Change, left side Common sense.
    A rainbow with bands – Observation, Experience/History, Statistics, Caution (Whatever the six or seven top words describe climate sceptic reasoning. You could even mention that there’s a myth that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but like the fabled oil money, nobody has ever seen it.
    A yin yang symbol in green and blue with Progress in one and Caution in the other.
    A lightning strike hitting a temple wih motto ‘where common sense meets climate faith.’
    A Spiral of words applicable to sceptics.

  2. anng says:
    2 March 2015 at 15:17

    Try the Engineering Council
    http://www.engc.org.uk/
    I find Climatology to have thrown out all proper caveats when applying maths and statistics. Engineering also skips some of the more stringent requirements, but without ignoring that they’ve done this. Experience has told them to do more testing than if they’d followed all rules.
    Unfortunately Climatology can’t test- so their’s is more of a fairy-world than this one we live in.

  3. anng says:
    2 March 2015 at 15:20

    Skeptics society uses Occam’s razor
    http://www.skeptic.org.uk/

  4. Scottish Sceptic says:
    2 March 2015 at 17:00

    How about a man with wings flying across the sun. As in “in theory Icarus could fly – but in practice the theory had some big problems.

  5. TinyCO2 says:
    2 March 2015 at 17:12

    A question mark with the Earth as the dot.
    A messy knot with more than two ends to symbolise how complicated the issue is.
    The letters CO2 with a magnifying glass – looking closer at climate science

  6. Scottish Sceptic says:
    2 March 2015 at 17:17

    How about a backwards ?
    (I can only find one upside down) but something like this:-
    ¿O2

  7. Damian Scott says:
    2 March 2015 at 18:11

    Freeman Dyson could be the sceptic patron saint?

  8. George says:
    9 March 2015 at 20:01

    I suggest a big No symbol (circle-slash) over an image of a thumb on a scale.

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