Due to constant misunderstanding with my name I feel the need to change my intro. I am hateful, hateful of religion. I hate what religion does to people and that people use it as an excuse to not think. I have spent many years of my life as an Atheist and have learned to handle my emotions, but no other word quite describes how I feel towards religion short of hate. I am outspoken, open minded, and will share my opinion. If you're looking for someone who will always agree with you, that won't be me.
The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism
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22nd May 2012

Question with 6 notes

Anonymous asked: Would you consider it accurate to say that skepticism is a more assertive form of curiosity? I was trying to explain to a friend of mine that skepticism isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's good to wonder and be curious, and with skepticism, you're simply taking that curiosity and magnifying it. You're actively searching for the answers rather than just wondering what the answers could be. Thoughts?

I would certainly say that it is the safer and more honest approach to curiosity. Curiosity is really what drives so much of science. If we didn’t have curiosity we wouldn’t feel the need to explore and discover new ideas. When doing so it is important to approach these things with as much skepticism as possible if we are going to be scrupulous and honest. If we don’t we may end up rushing to judgement and create huge stirs of excitement for essentially no reasons like in the case of the neutrino going faster than the speed of light or arsenic based life.

Skepticism promotes intellectual integrity and honesty. Covering all the skeptical objections to a claim someone might make will make it much easier for an idea or concept to be accepted. Skepticism also promotes critical analysis, it prompts us to look for faults and weak points. It can encourage curiosity in many cases as long as it is not so strong as to reject ideas with merit outright based on skeptical doubts. Overall I think most people could stand to be far more skeptical than they are.

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  1. hatefulatheist posted this