The first was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know to be such that is to say, carefully to avoid precipitancy and prejudice, and to comprise nothing more in my judgment than what was presented to my mind so clearly and distinctly as to exclude all ground of doubt.

Whispers of the Dead, Anthony Hulse, 2014 (ref)ĭescartes is the modern philosopher who is most associated with doubt, quoting him:

Predict the bus crash? Come on Septic Sceptic. Only one who cast doubt into your suspicious mind. The psychics you investigated over the years, Oliver Sangster is the A septic sceptic.'īlue Voyage: A Novel, Conrad Aiken, 1927 (ref)Īnd here is another more recent example:. 'Aunt Maud's perceptions were somehow septic. I couldn't find a defintion of the term in any dictionaries but I have found some examples of the term being used:. The connotations being a person that so doubts everything they make their life a misery of indecision and unbelief, and possibally also infect those around them with this contaminated view point.ġ: of, relating to, or causing putrefaction

only to find it has actually been used elsewhere. I couldn't find anything from researching it (well not anything colourful). ***To preserve the validity of answers that suggested coining new expressions, note that several users have asserted the lack of an expression that meets the criteria I've laid out. I'd like to identify the most common, secular expression that closely matches 'doubting Thomas' in meaning and usage. *By 'colorful,' I mean a bit more inventive/expressive than simply 'skeptic,' 'doubter,' etc.Įdit to address smci's comment: I prefer an existing and reasonably common expression however, I will accept an uncommon or newly created expression that would be widely understood if there seems to be a consensus that a common one does not exist.Įdit to address MετάEd's comment: To further clarify and keep the question within the appropriate scope, I am not looking to compile a list of similar expressions. That guy never believes anything without proof he's a(n) _. That in turn led me to question the origin of the phrase, which I discovered comes from the Apostle Thomas being skeptical of Christ's resurrection.Īfter learning that the phrase 'doubting Thomas' has a religious origin, I'm curious.Does a 'colorful*' expression that is secular in nature exist to describe a skeptical person, and if so, what is it? When looking at this question, the phrase 'doubting Thomas' popped into my head as a potential answer.

Whispers of the Dead by Anthony Hulse