This is a useful set of questions to ask when confronted with a new idea. The most important ideas we critique, however, are our own. To think like scientists, we must be willing to be guided by evidence and reason, to admit when we’re wrong and rectify it. This means accepting that all conclusions and positions are provisional, and subject to change in the light of new information. This isn’t easy for us – as we’ve seen, we are deeply attached to our beliefs, to the point where we often interpret a challenge to them as an attack on ourselves. But this is a flaw we must strive to confront.
