Friday, July 29, 2005

 

Skepticism Rocks

I'm late with my personal update, so here's a starter:

Ten of the many reasons I became a Skeptic:

1. In my experience, some folks aren’t meant to be skyclad.
2. Lack of cognitive dissonance
3. No, I don’t believe that sleeping with you will make me more magically powerful
4. You want me to pay what? For that?
5. No longer need to feel so incredibly foolish
5. I’m no longer forced to listen to Enya!
6. I no longer have to suppress giggles during ceremonies
7. I can admit to being the monist that I am and be done with it.
8. Can be amused by the TV show “Bullshit” by Penn and Teller
9. Can realize ironic biases in the TV show “Bullshit” by Penn and Teller

Comments:
You're also friends with both me and Pros, which balances out. He's the uber skeptic, while I tend to take things much more at face value with just a pinch of salt.

And if some folks WANT to be skyclad, can't they do it indoors?
 
Hey--I respect anyone's right to be unclothed--it's that chanting to some unknown force whilst refusing to think critically that bugs me:).

At this point of my life, I think I may actually be more skeptical than Pros is. The reason for this is that I let myself be exposed to a much higher percentage of bullshit in my life, thereby making my reaction stronger. Also, I doubt Pros has REPEATEDLY heard the line, "If you sleep with me it will make you magically powerful". (As if anybody ever has to use hokum to justify sex!)

Thanks for the comment!
 
I have to admit that I've never had anyone offer to make me more magically powerful by sleeping with me. Surprisingly, since it's not a very original schtick... there are a lot of tiresome Aleister Crowley wannabes in this world.

I understand your comment about the level of BS you've been exposed to making you more skeptical. I also think that one's intelligence and one's level of gullibility/naivete don't necessarily have any relationship to one another. (They could very well be indirectly related.) There are those folks who are seemingly very intelligent who are also seemingly willing to believe anything, and those who aren't really that smart who nevertheless are quite skeptical. (Obviously, Miss Lynx, you are smart and skeptical both. :^)) I do agree that once one's native intelligence and one's experience overtake one's native gullibility, the result is often skepticism.

Two major caveats: being gullible and actively choosing to have faith that something may or may not be true, even if all the facts you can gather don't bring you to a clear-cut conclusion, are not the same thing. Neither is being gullible and making an active choice to take things at face value, or just to say, "I don't have a dog in this fight," and leaving it at that. Just to continue the sex analogy, because sex analogies are fun: if I really want to sleep with someone because they rang my chimes, and they think they're making me more magically potent by shagging me, then I might find it in my best interest not to challenge them on this if it means I get in their pants. If I were willing to lie to get laid, maybe I could even claim to believe them, although I don't think that's a good way to live (for multiple reasons). I have to admit I can't think of a scenario where I would want to get with someone who thought that they could give me any sort of magical boost by sleeping with me, but you never know. Life can be strange.

And I've been skyclad in a Wiccan ritual before. It was fun, although something you really should only do with close friends (who don't have an interest in judging you based on how you look naked) in a warm climate (for obvious reasons). That could be my prudish and/or practical Midwestern self speaking, though.

Sorry for the long-windedness, it really wasn't my intent to hijack this entry. I'll post a real entry here soon... I have a couple things brewing.
 
You know, I didn't realize how mean my little "skyclad" comment came off--honest, I was only going for the funny! Actually, in my head I was thinking about certain skyclad ceremonies in which physical boundaries weren't well respected--hence, my nasty little comment. I really wasn't referring to physical appearance:)

Feel free to hijack any entry you like!

Julie
 
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