Overcoming skepticism is not easy
Belief divides those who see universal truth from those who just see superstitious mumbo-jumbo. Lin Pen-hsuan, who counts himself among the doubters, has been researching religion for more than ten years and has all the while maintained his skepticism. He is highly suspicious of the anecdotal accounts that believers offer as evidence to support believer their faith.
"The events they describe only support their faith because they want to interpret them that way." Lin recently went to a ceremony held at Taipei's Great Emperor Bao An Temple. At the temple gate, he saw his beloved old car-which he parted with only very reluctantly-pass by. Lin notes that if he were a believer, he would have described this as a glimpse of the universe's beauty, ironclad evidence in the ubiquity of Bao An's spiritual power. "Yet as far as I am concerned, it was just a coincidence!"