skeptic Dafremen Hear, hear! Let's not believe in things that we have been told are ridiculous. Let's not waste our time even investigating those things..they are ridiculous because we have been told they are and THAT, is enough. We are after all, the skeptics. Not the healthy skeptics though. No, we are the skeptics who cling to skepticism for skepticism's sake, and again...that is enough. Each and every one of us needs to read this: http://amasci.com/pathsk2.txt 030923 ... you are real Seeing, Smelling: Illusion Feeling, Doing: Delusion You are not real You are because I think you are Prove to me this stranger's life The external world is my dream Disbelief: Confused 030924 ... stork daddy rap it with your knuckles and it makes a sound. 050725 ... andru235 an awesome link, mr. dafreman. i quite agree. [usually a bad sign if i agree, ha ha!] 050725 ... z perpetual skepticism brings relative clarity 050725 ... dafremen Perpetual skepticism promotes reliance on outdated modes of thinking. 050725 ... z please elaborate. 050725 ... andru235 inevitably i am conflicted about skepticism. i am skeptical about skepticism. the religious skepticism of the past centuries has made it possible for me to openly profess my love for other men, and my non-monotheistic beliefs in the infinitudes. the scientific skepticism has brought the mattress on which i delight to sleep. so i cannot say i do not benefit from some skepticism. on the other hand, it was probably someone's skepticism that relentlessly questioned the need for homosexuals six thousand years back; if people had accepted it as no big deal and not questioned it, we might now be in the twenty-first century along with everyone else. as it is, we are not yet to the second [century]. on the other hand, regarding the nukes, the implementors were not skeptical enough...we should still be questioning whether or not to implement fission. a two-hundred year debate is nothing when contemplating a process that leaves toxic wastes with million-year half-lives. skepticism reminds me of a trireme, sailing the oceans...it explores the coastline well enough, but now and then must dock (conclude about something) if only to resupply with...WATER. that is, endless inquiry is based upon an assumption that inquiry is worth it. one must not be skeptical about skepticism to derive any value from it, no? ok, i suppose one could find value in being skeptical about skepticism, but as long as one is, one cannot make much use of skepticism in other things because one hasn't decided skepticism to be of merit... if there is one thing i am *not* skeptical about, it is the parades of paradox here in the even-dimensions 050728 ... z see: obfuscation and vagueness 050728 what's it to you? who go blather from