skepticism/ignorance are you one

by skyman 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  skyman

  The thread about the Matorian Fragment has reminded me that I need to study with an open mind and not post on a thread with a concussion already established I got lucky today because I almost did just that on the thread Matorian Fragment.

  We need to be opened minded, remember skepticism is a mask for the ignorant, we need to be skeptical which means to know topic we are skeptical about, we need to study with an open mind always and be willing to be wrong.

  I see so many here on this board that hide behind skepticism without knowledge and that is true ignorance. I am talking about many topics. Like for example the illuminate I don't know what they are doing so I cannot put down on a thread the world is about to end, nor can I say anyone that thinks this is crazy. If someone puts up a thread about UFO's the ignorant skeptics come out of the wood work and speak out against those that think they are real. I don’t know so I am opened minded but I have looked at the evidence with an open mind. We have the right to be critical and be a skeptic but only when we have truly looked at both sides of an issue, then and only then can we be a real skeptic. But sadly most people are ignorant skeptics and fall into the category of skepticism the realm of the ignorant.
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  skyman

  While I am venting I also want to say this about the hardcore bible thumps out there among us. Before you slam someone with your skepticism showing true ignorance look at the facts first and base your comments on the true facts because people that have truly look at the evidence are the only ones that have a right to be skeptics. I laugh when people say that is what the bible says "that all I need". I can just see in my minds eye a two year old with his fingers in his ears rocking back and forth saying out loud LA, LA, LA, so he can't hear anything but his own voice. Remember GOD is true and if science proves the bible wrong about something then it has to be wrong because GOD is truth, but the alternate is to great for many people. That is all right for them I guess but it is truly sad. I wonder if the rioters that are burning buildings and murdering people all because of some cartoon really know how stupid they are, many people here in the West are just as stupid. Lets not be one of the stupid followers just because we refuse to look at the evidence.
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  FairMind

  Well Skyman, whatever it is you said, was certainly said with conviction.
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  jgnat

  I'VE ALWAYS been skeptical that eggs and bacon cause Cancer. My skepticism wasn't born out of ignorance, but the stubborn aged's insistence not to take every claim at first blush. I've been taken in before.
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  AK - Jeff

  When we were witnesses, most of us were skeptical of anything not witness-originated, and ignorant of everything else.

  Some have carried that trait into apostaland. They develop [or retain] a pet position, close the mind, and begin inserting ignorant foot at first opportunity. I think we need to learn from our mistakes in that regard.

  On the other hand, all have opinions, and just like the proverbial saying goes, they usually stink.

  Jeff
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  TD

  To doubt is to question and to question is to think. ---Inquiry must be a process of doubting in order to acquire approximate or relative certainty.

  In that sense I think (hope) we're all skeptics.
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  sweet tee

  I agree with your definition of ignorant skepticism and it does pain me to hear people holding onto positions out of fear and ignorance, absolutely refusing to budge or even investigate their 'beliefs'. But hey, it's thier choice. I've given up on it myself. The more I see and hear fundamentalist, the happier I am to have left those ways behind me and added a healthy dose of informed skeptisism on the Bible and religious beliefs. I could never embrace blind faith again as I had in the past.

  sweet tee
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  james_woods

  I agree with TD...the healthy kind of skeptism is how we discovered that the Earth moves around the sun, that the universe is expanding, and that DNA is a double helix.

  The lack of such skeptism is what makes people soak in Radium Water to cure their joints, invest in pyramid schemes long past the critical loss point, and join religions like the WTB&TS.

  We had a little UFO scare years ago (while I was a witless) around Mustang, Oklahoma. Finally, the report comes out on the local TV station: A lady has called the news department. She says "I am not going to tell you who I am. However, I just caught my 12 year old son tonight in his football pads all wrapped in aluminum foil and he had a red light on one side of his helmet and a green light on the other. So I guess you can quit looking for the alien."

  James
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  skyman

  merrymagdalene has a thread running right now that deals with skepticism and I liked what she had to say. It never hurts to try to understand something as long as you have a open mind but an open mind does not mean to be gullible, so many people in religions think their minds is open and it is not. In her thread it talks about a defense in the brain that triggers a life and death trauma, your brain reacts when it feels a genuine threat so many of us give into our primal instinct and over react with harsh unwarented actions.