Even More Skeptical

Recently, I talked about being skeptical. I wanted to show the importance of thinking for yourself, and not taking everything at face value. It's an easy concept to understand, but it can also be easy to slip into gullibility or false reasoning.

In my article yesterday, I made some assumptions and didn't clarify my reasoning, as well as only did some surface work on the research. A perfect example of falling into the exact trap that needs to be avoided when trying to break free of false belief systems!

Lesson learned, and thank you for the excellent comments.

First, how about we define skepticism. I have found that Dictionary.com is a great place for this sort of thing. They reference several dictionaries for each entry.

So, from the American Heritage Dictionary through Dictionary.com, skepticism is defined as:

n.

1. A doubting or questioning attitude or state of mind; dubiety. See Synonyms at uncertainty.


2. Philosophy
   
   
   
   1. The ancient school of Pyrrho of Elis that stressed the uncertainty of our beliefs in order to oppose dogmatism.
   
   
   2. The doctrine that absolute knowledge is impossible, either in a particular domain or in general.
   
   
   3. A methodology based on an assumption of doubt with the aim of acquiring approximate or relative certainty.
   
   
   
   


3. Doubt or disbelief of religious tenets.

I've been mulling this issue over for a couple of days, and I feel that getting sidetracked with minute details would be pedantic and mind numbingly boring. This site is about breaking free of the shackles of organized religion, not about caffeine content in sodas, or if the Mayo Clinic is a good source of information on medical questions.

Let's get to the meat of the issue. I made some leaps in my argument on being skeptical. Exactly what you don't want to do. But I made those leaps based on my 39 years of experience and all the information I've gathered for myself in that time. I made good decisions for myself. My mistake was in not explaining them fully to you (I did that to avoid being pedantic and boring) and therefore assuming that MY logic was right for YOU. It’s an easy mistake to make.

Belief in a god is a personal issue. Only you can decide for yourself if gods exist.

See, most of us are taught at an early age, from the time we're born, to believe in a particular god or gods. It's hardwired into us. It become part of our foundation of belief. It takes a lot to untangle and dismantle that foundation of lies and myths. But inevitably we each walk that path alone. My information may prove useful to you, but you have to think for yourself if my logic or the information I give you works for you.

I’m just a simple person who shed religion years ago. I don’t have any fancy college degrees. I dish the information out plain and simple, with a dollop of humor. It might not be right for you, or it may just be perfect and logical.

So, I’ll just simply say, I hope this site gives you good information and can be a repository of facts that you can turn to again and again. But never get all your answers from one place. Think for yourself. Use your reason and logic. Does it ring true based on everything else you’ve learned? Perhaps you want to look for a second opinion somewhere else. Or a third, or more. Maybe part of it works for you, but some of it doesn’t. That’s fine. You’re unique, just like everyone else. :D