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A professor of Philosophy at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Douglas Anele, has urged all human beings to imbibe the sceptical attitude.
Anele said this while delivering the first Sceptical Africa Lecture, ‘The Value of Scepticism’, organised by the Critical Thinking Social Empowerment Foundation and the Department of Philosophy, UNILAG.
According to him, to be a sceptic is to request the reason, justification or basis for accepting a particular assertion or belief as true.
“More often than not, such a request is motivated by the suspicion that the reason or justification might be unsatisfactory or inadequate,” said Anele.
He identified politics and religion as the domains in which the sceptical attitude is of utmost importance, saying that Nigerians need to adopt the sceptical attitude towards their leaders and be prepared to interrogate every aspect of the political process.
“In addition, they should not accept lock, stock and barrel the sugar-coated promises of politicians, especially during campaigns since experience has shown that once they get into office, their primary objective is to satisfy their bulimic quest for primitive accumulation,” the professor explained.
He regretted that in Nigeria and other African countries, religion has stifled the capacity for critical thinking and the questioning attitude in the general population, including the educated elite, leading to the mass production of gullible superstitious individuals in all strata of the society.
“As a corollary, religion is the only subject where doubt or challenging what is written in holy books is seen as a taboo or sacrilege that must be discouraged. A significant number of people have unwittingly destroyed, sometimes irreparably, their occupations, personal relationships, and health due to unquestioning adherence to religious dogma”, the don stated.
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