Topic: Do you consider yourself a skeptic?
no photo
Mon 10/12/09 11:07 AM
Well? Do you?

I do.

(...consider myself one, I mean. I'm not sure about you, yet.)

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Mon 10/12/09 04:21 PM

Well? Do you?


Very much so.


wux's photo
Mon 10/12/09 05:17 PM


Well? Do you?


More of a septic, if you ask me.

Especially when I get tanked.

jrbogie's photo
Tue 10/13/09 05:15 AM
as an agnostic i'm the poster child of skeptic. since i can never know anything other than what i experience i constantly question everything. even some experiences i question.

Renissence's photo
Tue 10/13/09 11:01 AM
Absolutely! Some consider it a flaw, I think to accept things on faith rather than evidence is a flaw.

wux's photo
Tue 10/13/09 07:44 PM

Absolutely! Some consider it a flaw, I think to accept things on faith rather than evidence is a flaw.


Faith is evidence. Ergo, evidence is a flaw.

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Thu 10/15/09 05:35 PM
I consider skepticism a value.

For most of my life, I considered it only 'an approach to truth'. I felt that people who made a big deal out of their beliefs or their position or how they arrived at it were not paying attention to what really matters in life.

To me, values were things like kindness towards others, honesty, serving others. I think these things are far more important that what one believes, or how one came to their belief...

But eventually I realized that a lot of harm is done by a lack of skepticism. For example, in the alternative health industry there are people making poor decisions regarding their health - often under the advice of others. If you are going to advocate a worldview which can influence other people's health, I think skepticism is necessary.

We find 'skepticism' as a 'value' (lack thereof) when people allow themselves to be tools for others - by being indoctrinated into a belief system (ie Islamic extremists) and then being sent out to kill people. If they all practiced skepticism, they may not have made decisions which lead to killing others.

The everyday citizen who practices skepticism is preventing harm from manipulators - whether you are advising your cousin not to get involved in a pyramid marketing scheme, choosing not to buy that product with the deceptively worded BS claims on the label, or questioning the real motives behind a politician's posturing.

Skepticism is good.

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Sun 10/18/09 10:53 AM
I don't believe in anything, absolutely. So, I am a skeptic about everything.
For all I know, I could be a computer program in a big mainframe, a la The Thirteenth Floor.