There are many subjects for which the gullible are especially susceptible and many for which the skeptics are also fond of pounding. I have been both gullible and skeptical about many things, and sometimes of the same thing. When I was a child, when my father went into a building "to see a man about a horse", I believed him. It was not until much later that I realized that he was really just using the bathroom.
Although I've never seen anything odd in the skies, it did not seem completely impossible that so-called UFOs were from other planets, and not only hallucinations. If we can travel through space in clunky space craft, what's to stop some highly advanced life forms from traveling here for a visit?
I've never seen a ghost, and it is difficult for me to believe in an after-life, yet there is really no proof either way on spiritual matters. I cannot prove there is no God, or that there are no ghosts. I'm fairly certain there are no fairies, only dragonflies, yet some people might still argue with my certainty.
The main thing that leans me toward skepticism is the immense success of the scientific method in determining the truth or falsehood of things in a completely empirical manner. Science cannot, however, prove that something like a God does not exist. Unless you look under ever rock, on every planet, around every star, and then look even deeper than that, one could always claim that you didn't look hard enough or long enough. Or worse, they could claim that you are simply biased and don't want to find such things.
I'm not so skeptical that I disbelieve everything, nor do I only believe in hard, material things. I've experienced many things I could not explain using physics or chemistry. When I was a child, and shortly after my 5 year old cousin died from cancer, I thought I saw her face, gray as a picture on a 1950s TV, floating in the room. I don't remember whether I was asleep at the time or not. It could have been a dream for all I know.
Now, whether or not there is a God, and whether or not their are ghosts or spirits floating about in the ether, one thing I am certain about is Logic. If there was only a single true religion, I might be able to be convinced of its veracity. However, given that thousands of religions and cults exist, each proclaiming to be the only true religion, I can never be certain which one is the true true religion amongst the pretenders.
Logic means that if a coin is flipped, either the head or the tail (or at worst -- the edge) will result when the coin stops moving. When it stops there will never be both head and tail (and the edge) showing all at once. And especially when you play a football game, the winner who calls the first play must have chosen either heads or tails before the coin falls (and the edge doesn't count.)
The same person who understands that simple fact of reality when playing football and flipping coins can somehow believe in a completely different set of facts when a group of true believers states something contrary to logic. Somehow, the same brain that can catch a ball falling out of the sky in a parabolic curve predicted by science can conceive that it was God that helped them catch it, not science.
This is because the brain is not logical. It has areas which process logic, and those functions truly are logical -- completely and consistently functional using the laws of physics. Yet, from the receiving end -- how I experience my own self -- it is completely mystical and fraught with inconsistencies.
The very fact that someone can "choose" to believe one thing one day and then to believe something completely opposite of that the next day, is proof that the mind does not work like a adding machine. It works more like a building full of barking dogs, some barking louder than others, and all of which bark differently at different times. If a piece of meat is thrown in one of the windows, sudden barking from dogs (who know what just happened but didn't get the meat) will cascade through the building until dogs in other rooms begin to bark in response, but not knowing what the original barking is about.
Each dog is an individual, and is somewhat predictable. It can be trained to do predictable tricks for bits of food or affection. But the larger the pack of dogs, the less trainable the pack becomes. The instinctual reactions of animals, us included, is given more to "herd mentality" than to reflective reasoning (which some humans can sometimes achieve.)
Religion is "herd mentality", and not given to reason. There used to be many expensive luxury cars piled to the sides of intersections in Arabia. Why? Because there was less credence to individual actions of drivers and more credence to the will of Allah. Unfortunately, the will of Allah included a great number of collisions. I am not certain by direct observation that this condition still exists today, but I'll bet that it still does to one extent or another.
So, I am skeptical of religion because I am skeptical of the infallibility of human reasoning. We are not capable of truly absolute machine-like reasoning. Our emotions -- the lizard brain and herd mentality -- are still in control of most of our lives.
Another area of belief is the reaction to propaganda. Propaganda is not always bad, but it almost always is not true. For instance, we tell our children that they should be good so on Christmas morning that Santa Claus will give them toys instead lumps of coal. I was highly disappointed when I realized that that was just propaganda. All that being good -- wasted. It has been very hard for me to believe in anything spiritual ever since.
Although I've never seen anything odd in the skies, it did not seem completely impossible that so-called UFOs were from other planets, and not only hallucinations. If we can travel through space in clunky space craft, what's to stop some highly advanced life forms from traveling here for a visit?
I've never seen a ghost, and it is difficult for me to believe in an after-life, yet there is really no proof either way on spiritual matters. I cannot prove there is no God, or that there are no ghosts. I'm fairly certain there are no fairies, only dragonflies, yet some people might still argue with my certainty.
The main thing that leans me toward skepticism is the immense success of the scientific method in determining the truth or falsehood of things in a completely empirical manner. Science cannot, however, prove that something like a God does not exist. Unless you look under ever rock, on every planet, around every star, and then look even deeper than that, one could always claim that you didn't look hard enough or long enough. Or worse, they could claim that you are simply biased and don't want to find such things.
I'm not so skeptical that I disbelieve everything, nor do I only believe in hard, material things. I've experienced many things I could not explain using physics or chemistry. When I was a child, and shortly after my 5 year old cousin died from cancer, I thought I saw her face, gray as a picture on a 1950s TV, floating in the room. I don't remember whether I was asleep at the time or not. It could have been a dream for all I know.
Now, whether or not there is a God, and whether or not their are ghosts or spirits floating about in the ether, one thing I am certain about is Logic. If there was only a single true religion, I might be able to be convinced of its veracity. However, given that thousands of religions and cults exist, each proclaiming to be the only true religion, I can never be certain which one is the true true religion amongst the pretenders.
Logic means that if a coin is flipped, either the head or the tail (or at worst -- the edge) will result when the coin stops moving. When it stops there will never be both head and tail (and the edge) showing all at once. And especially when you play a football game, the winner who calls the first play must have chosen either heads or tails before the coin falls (and the edge doesn't count.)
The same person who understands that simple fact of reality when playing football and flipping coins can somehow believe in a completely different set of facts when a group of true believers states something contrary to logic. Somehow, the same brain that can catch a ball falling out of the sky in a parabolic curve predicted by science can conceive that it was God that helped them catch it, not science.
This is because the brain is not logical. It has areas which process logic, and those functions truly are logical -- completely and consistently functional using the laws of physics. Yet, from the receiving end -- how I experience my own self -- it is completely mystical and fraught with inconsistencies.
The very fact that someone can "choose" to believe one thing one day and then to believe something completely opposite of that the next day, is proof that the mind does not work like a adding machine. It works more like a building full of barking dogs, some barking louder than others, and all of which bark differently at different times. If a piece of meat is thrown in one of the windows, sudden barking from dogs (who know what just happened but didn't get the meat) will cascade through the building until dogs in other rooms begin to bark in response, but not knowing what the original barking is about.
Each dog is an individual, and is somewhat predictable. It can be trained to do predictable tricks for bits of food or affection. But the larger the pack of dogs, the less trainable the pack becomes. The instinctual reactions of animals, us included, is given more to "herd mentality" than to reflective reasoning (which some humans can sometimes achieve.)
Religion is "herd mentality", and not given to reason. There used to be many expensive luxury cars piled to the sides of intersections in Arabia. Why? Because there was less credence to individual actions of drivers and more credence to the will of Allah. Unfortunately, the will of Allah included a great number of collisions. I am not certain by direct observation that this condition still exists today, but I'll bet that it still does to one extent or another.
So, I am skeptical of religion because I am skeptical of the infallibility of human reasoning. We are not capable of truly absolute machine-like reasoning. Our emotions -- the lizard brain and herd mentality -- are still in control of most of our lives.
Another area of belief is the reaction to propaganda. Propaganda is not always bad, but it almost always is not true. For instance, we tell our children that they should be good so on Christmas morning that Santa Claus will give them toys instead lumps of coal. I was highly disappointed when I realized that that was just propaganda. All that being good -- wasted. It has been very hard for me to believe in anything spiritual ever since.
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