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10-23-2011, 08:07 PM
|  | Friends, Romans, Bass Players... | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Spencer, MA, USA | | | Skepticism and aging
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The thread on extraterrestrials, as well as other threads, has got me to thinking about how skeptical I've become the older I get. Compounded with my natural cynicism and ADD means I'm having a hard time believing in anything unless I have solid proof of one kind or another. Subjects like religion and politics really make me skeptical! I find myself agreeing more and more with the old maxim that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. For example, a couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to an event called the Natural Living Expo, which was an exposition devoted to New Age stuff. My wife, who's into New Age, enjoyed it, walking around and checking out the various exhibitors. Myself, as I walked around with her all I could think of was "Snake oil! Snake oil! Snake oil!". I don't think I've seen this much malarkey under one roof outside of a political convention or your average church!
Maybe it's an age thing, where I've been exposed to so much BS over the years that I've "inoculated" myself from all the BS we're constantly bombarded with. The one thing I'm afraid of is that I won't see the beauty in the world anymore, sapping all the joy in my life and in time becoming just another old crank!
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10-23-2011, 08:10 PM
|  | The Lowdown Diggler | | Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Huntington Beach, CA | | | tldr; |
10-23-2011, 08:24 PM
|  | Total Hyper-Elite Member | | Join Date: May 2000 Location: Groom Lake, NV | | Quote:
Originally Posted by stratovani  The thread on extraterrestrials, as well as other threads, has got me to thinking about how skeptical I've become the older I get. Compounded with my natural cynicism and ADD means I'm having a hard time believing in anything unless I have solid proof of one kind or another. Subjects like religion and politics really make me skeptical! I find myself agreeing more and more with the old maxim that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. For example, a couple of weeks ago my wife and I went to an event called the Natural Living Expo, which was an exposition devoted to New Age stuff. My wife, who's into New Age, enjoyed it, walking around and checking out the various exhibitors. Myself, as I walked around with her all I could think of was "Snake oil! Snake oil! Snake oil!". I don't think I've seen this much malarkey under one roof outside of a political convention or your average church!
Maybe it's an age thing, where I've been exposed to so much BS over the years that I've "inoculated" myself from all the BS we're constantly bombarded with. The one thing I'm afraid of is that I won't see the beauty in the world anymore, sapping all the joy in my life and in time becoming just another old crank! | It's wisdom creeping in on you. There's plenty of beauty in the world, and you don't need magic to see it. Here's Feynman on beauty.
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What is this thing called butthurt?
Last edited by Munjibunga : 10-24-2011 at 12:09 AM.
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10-23-2011, 08:27 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Edgewater fl. | | | I don't believe something until it lands on on my dinner plate. Then I eat it..
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10-23-2011, 08:35 PM
|  | Online | | Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Sunapee, New Hampshire | | | That's too bad. Hopefully you can find a way to lighten up, overly skeptical people can be difficult to get along with.
-Mike |
10-23-2011, 08:37 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: California | | Quote:
Originally Posted by stratovani The thread on extraterrestrials, as well as other threads, has got me to thinking about how skeptical I've become the older I get.
[...]
Maybe it's an age thing, where I've been exposed to so much BS over the years that I've "inoculated" myself from all the BS we're constantly bombarded with. The one thing I'm afraid of is that I won't see the beauty in the world anymore, sapping all the joy in my life and in time becoming just another old crank! | Skepticism is wisdom.
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"There's no helping nor educating a fool." -- My percipient grandfather
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10-23-2011, 08:44 PM
| | Friends, Romans, Bass Players... | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Spencer, MA, USA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by MJ5150 That's too bad. Hopefully you can find a way to lighten up, overly skeptical people can be difficult to get along with.
-Mike | Funny thing is, as a rule I'm generally a happy person, with a good sense of humor. Must be a left brain/right brain thing!
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10-23-2011, 08:48 PM
| | Online | | Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Sunapee, New Hampshire | | | How do you find a balance of being more and more skeptical yet still a happy person? I don't normally link those two together.
-Mike |
10-23-2011, 08:49 PM
|  | That's the way uh huh uh huh I like it.. | | Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Robbinsville, NJ | | | meh..I think I'd rather be dead than to be so skeptical that I cannot think beyond what I can see, smell, taste, etc. There's more to life than that. Without it, life gets boring.
Just call me errr..uh...superstitious.
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10-23-2011, 08:55 PM
|  | Registered User | | Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Fort Collins, Colorado | | | If I had been walking through the display that the OP mentioned, I would have been thinking the same thing.
Age just gives you more experience, and some of us learn from it. In the process, we learn to be skeptical, and usually our skepticism is well founded.
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10-23-2011, 09:06 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Saskatoon, Canada | | | Skepticism is the natural product of a rational thought process. It is also healthy from an epistemic perspective.
And there's no reason why being careful about what you believe has to limit your imagination. Imagining multiple universes full of legions of space dragons and hot pink fairies is fine (if not an entertaining way to pass the time). Just keep a clear distinction between reality and fantasy....
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It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. - Carl Sagan
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10-23-2011, 09:17 PM
| | Friends, Romans, Bass Players... | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Spencer, MA, USA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by MJ5150 How do you find a balance of being more and more skeptical yet still a happy person? I don't normally link those two together.
-Mike | Good question. I don't really know. I guess I just run hot and cold sometimes! A good comedian will make me laugh like crazy, and a good song can bring a tear to my eyes.
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10-23-2011, 09:39 PM
|  | THIS HAND OF MINE GLOWS WITH AN AWESOME POWER! | | Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: USA; Mitchellville, Maryland | | Quote:
Originally Posted by MJ5150 How do you find a balance of being more and more skeptical yet still a happy person? I don't normally link those two together.
-Mike | Can one not be happy with the things that they can see, smell, touch, taste, and hear? There's plenty of happiness to be found in the world around us that is truly absolute. You don't NEED to have any sort of non-concrete belief to be happy or content but since those beliefs are so common I can see why some would wonder how one could be happy without them. I, personally, do have my own beliefs and such but I don't depend to them to maintain my generally optimistic outlook. All around me, I have things and people that make me happy and are perfectly tangible. Call me lucky  .
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Originally Posted by geeza I thought your name was one of those "it's spelled 'Kwesi', but it's pronounced 'Craig'." kind of names. | Me: Youtube, Flickr
Last edited by Kwesi : 10-24-2011 at 12:17 AM.
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10-23-2011, 09:46 PM
|  | KEED SPILLS..no, wait..PILL SKEEDS..SKILL PEEDS? | | Join Date: May 2011 Location: Nashville, Cats | | skepticism is healthy!
would you rather be one of the sheeple who believes everything they are told, just because the teller does so with enthusiasm.
i daresay you would have been less skeptical if you had been walking around at a physics fair put on by professors... and for good reason- these guys are full of BS-- rainbows and unicorns- whereas the physics professors would be dealing in hard facts (as much as they know them to be)
i think it goes back to the scott adams (of dilbert fame) test... what is more likely.... is it more likely that these hippies have discovered the secret of happiness and immortality and that for some reason the media isn't screaming it to high heaven... or is it more likely that they are full of BS, and just trying to separate the gullible from some $ in order to make a living without working too hard?.... 
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Last edited by Lonesomedave : 10-23-2011 at 10:05 PM.
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10-23-2011, 10:06 PM
| | Friends, Romans, Bass Players... | | Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Spencer, MA, USA | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Lonesomedave skepticism is healthy!
would you rather be one of the sheeple who believes everything they are told, just because the teller does so with enthusiasm.
i daresay you would have been less skeptical if you had been walking around at a physics fair put on by professors... and for good reason- these guys are not full of BS-- rainbows and unicorns- whereas the physics professors would be dealing in hard facts (as much as they know them to be)
i think it goes back to the scott adams (of dilbert fame) test... what is more likely.... is it more likely that these hippies have discovered the secret of happiness and immortality and that for some reason the media isn't screaming it to high heaven... or is it more likely that they are full of BS, and just trying to separate the gullible from some $ in order to make a living without working too hard?.... | I have to admit that I agree with you on all these points.
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10-23-2011, 10:40 PM
|  | I hate. | | Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: The state of denial. | | | "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
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10-23-2011, 10:47 PM
| | THIS HAND OF MINE GLOWS WITH AN AWESOME POWER! | | Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: USA; Mitchellville, Maryland | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Smurf-o-Deth "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" | Shazam, my good man, shazam .
__________________ Source Audio Sourcerer #22 Club Clement #73 Markbass Club #231 Quote:
Originally Posted by geeza I thought your name was one of those "it's spelled 'Kwesi', but it's pronounced 'Craig'." kind of names. | Me: Youtube, Flickr |
10-23-2011, 11:07 PM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: London, UK | | | I'm not sure that scepticism comes with age.
I was on holiday in Rhodes a few years ago and my wife and I met up with a couple from Essex. This Essex woman told us that she'd sufffered from a few mosquito bites on the beach and that her "legs have gone all sceptical", so maybe it creeps up on you from the ground up?
I'm not sure that her legs had gone sceptical though, I think she might have meant septic, but that might just be the cynic in me.
True story.
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10-24-2011, 12:09 AM
| | Registered User | | Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: California | | Quote:
Originally Posted by MJ5150 How do you find a balance of being more and more skeptical yet still a happy person? I don't normally link those two together. | The more skeptical you are, the more useless crap you can ignore.
The more you ignore, the less you have to worry about.
Most people live in a state of almost pristine error. They believe enough sheer bunk to float a battleship, and they drive themselves and everyone else around them crazy with it.
It doesn't matter. You are essentially powerless to affect anything much outside your own life anyway, so blowing off nearly everything as specious and irrelevant is an incredibly liberating and righteous thing to do. It's really like stepping out of the grave.
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10-24-2011, 12:11 AM
| | Total Hyper-Elite Member | | Join Date: May 2000 Location: Groom Lake, NV | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Kwesi Can one not be happy with the things that they can see, smell, touch, taste, and hear? There's plenty of happiness to be found in the world around us that is truly absolute. You don't NEED to have any sort of non-concrete belief to be happy or content but since those beliefs are so common I can see why some would wonder how one could be happy without them. I, personally, do have my own beliefs and such but I'm don't depend to them to maintain my generally optimistic outlook. All around me I have things and people that make me happy and are perfectly tangible. Call me lucky . | You can be happy if you just have enough of the right gear.
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