If there is something that we should remember to always ask when faced with far fetched theories it that’s simple “what does it mean?”.
First let me explain the context by introducing a man who asked that question a lot:
Richard Feynman earned a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965, he worked on the Manhattan Project to build the first nuclear bomb and was one of the most accessible, intelligent and incisive scientists ever to have existed.
His passion for knowledge knew no bounds and his ability to teach and get people excited about science was unparalleled.
Feynman had a knack for finding meaningful comparisons to make otherwise complex subjects accessible to anyone.
If you watch videos of Feynman you will notice that the simple question “what does it mean?” is asked fairly often.
Knowledge without meaning is useless: the question is not a philosophical one, it’s a practical, down-to-earth tell-me-how-this-is-supposed-to-work one.
It’s a simple call for a connection with reality and what we know of it.
When people posit unrealistic views and make unreasonable assumptions, asking that question helps bring back the subject into relevance.
If you can’t answer the question, then either your belief or your understanding of it is incomplete and should be revised.
Being able to answer “What does it mean?” implies that you can see what your beliefs apply to, what are their ramifications, how they are supposed to work and what they are supposed to do, in concrete terms.
We all tend to accept things at face value, not really questioning what we’re being told or accepting too easily the explanations we are given without probing further.
Most pseudosciences are popular because of that very lack of questioning. They are made-up to look a bit like science but they are just unsubstantiated beliefs made without structure.
Demanding explanations about their meaning is not a doubter’s game, it is the duty of every reasonable man.
