The Skeptics have also contributed a word to the English language. And the Skeptics were indeed a skeptical lot. They believed that you could not know anything about anything. The only thing you can know is what your perceptions tell you, and your perception is highly suspect and not to be trusted.

Think of it in terms of witnesses of a crime scene. One person may report having seen a culprit of medium height; another might say he was taller than average. One witness may tell the police that the suspect had brown hair; another may claim to have seen a blond-haired suspect. He fled the scene in a sky blue Audi, or was it a gray BMW? There are usually as many descriptions of such events as there are witnesses.

Consider the classic Japanese film Rashomon, where three different participants in a robbery and rape tell the story three different ways, each equally valid to the individual telling the story. For those of you unfamiliar with this film, you may recall the episode of The Odd Couple that has the same plot. This is the basic premise of Skepticism.

The founder of the Skeptic school was Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360–272 B.C.). He, like Epicurus, saw the road to happiness as doing as little as possible. Because we wander largely clueless through life, a world where black is white and day is night (or maybe not), one might as well not do much. Repose was the only recourse for the truly wise man. The only path to peace was to suspend judgment, because no worldview is any better than another. Do not believe anything you see or hear. Do not have any opinions. There is no such thing as good or evil. Rather than promote chaos and confusion, Pyrrho believed that to accept them is the only way to live. Nothing can be proved, so what is all the fuss about?