I think we had a discussion of "skeptic" about six months ago, but I couldn't find it
when I searched for it.
But perhaps it would interest enough newcomers to justify repetition.
I just got around to reading Scientific American for April, which has an article
entitled:Skepticism as a Virtue, by Michael Shermer, who has a website named
www.skeptic.com He first quotes Pope's Essay on Man:


Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest,
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast,
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reasoning but to err.

Then he quotes Stephen J. Gould:

To my considerable chagrin, it was five years into the editing and publishing of Skeptic
magazine before I realized I had never bothered to define the word or even examined
how others had used it. Then Stephen Jay Gould, in the foreword to my book
Why People Believe Weird Things, mentioned that it comes from the Greek skeptikos,
for "thoughtful." Etymologically, in fact, its Latin derivative is scepticus, for "inquiring"
or "reflective." Further variations in the ancient Greek include "watchman" or "mark
to aim at." Hence,skepticism is thoughtful and reflective inquiry. To be skeptical
is to aim toward a goal of critical thinking.
Skeptics are the watchmen of reasoning errors, the Ralph Naders of bad ideas.

Here is URL to Scientific American article: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z12E51F41