Yea, Joe sums it up for me.

A saying I know is -- "God is lessened by religion to the point of disbelieve..."

"A skeptic would examine, measure and classify the bite mark."

A better skeptic would ask someone else, preferably a cynic, to do it.

In my understanding, cynicism is the tendency to ascribe to people the worst possible motives for their words or actions, whereas skepticism is simply the refusal to accept statements without some level of evidence.

Thus, a skeptic might also be a cynic, and vice versa, but they are not directly related.

Non-skeptical cynics, for example, might buy readily into conspiracy theories, or argue that the reason that doctors do not accept homeopathy as a legitimate therapeutic modality is that it would cut into their profits.

Non-cynical skeptics would not insist that practitioners of various spiritual healing modalities are scheming charlatans out to bilk unfortunate patients of their cash by preying upon their gullibility. These practitioners might genuinely believe that they are doing people some good, even if they are totally wrong.