Scepticism leads to healthy discourse

There have been lots of post here recently about some pretty touchy subjects on Active Rain including global warning, the stimulus package, President Obama, and even are we one nation under a Christian God? It's okay if we don't always blog for business. Bloggers have strong opinions, and it can be heady to think that we can reach a large audience even if we are not Nobel winning scientist, economist, or novelist. I must be a frustrated novelist because my post seem to be so long. There have been also angry replies that have gone over the edge. Some folks have been so extreme that i have ceased to read their post because they have been so personal in their attacks, but keep on blogging on what you want, it is the freedom we have as Americans.

I am reminded of something called healthy skepticism. I have linked the Wikipedia definition of of the word. Suffice it to say it means to constantly test to obtain knowledge through systematic doubt. You can use the Socratic method or reductio ad absurdum, or just do some research on Google. With that in mind let me revisit my youth and what we were told was true.

First, was duck and cover. If you put a newspaper over your face, you could not be blinded by the nuclear blast. Correct, however you were incinerated first.

Second, if you smoked marijuana you would hack up your family to death. Usuallyyou went to sleep after you consumed four Pepperoni pizzas. I liked cinnamon rolls too. Monolithic communism, I did not sleep with that women, Irag was nuclear weapons, and it can go on forever. Scepticism would be a healthy response and it is not a negative way to think.

Whether we post or comment let us keep this in mind. Our truth is exactly that, our truth. Others have truth too. I may be wrong about that truth, or you may be, but rather than acting like politicians in Washington, I think we can act bigger than that. if we disagree, we can do so without maybe matching the extremism that we think we detect. When we disagree we can hyperlink references from hopefully reputable sources and present a different way to look at it. We can respect the power of paradox in seeing new truths. Mostly we need to be open, and when we see something that makes our blood boil because it presumes that the poster is the only holder of that sacred flame of what is right, we count to ten, and just don't comment.

So excuse me, I need to go eat a Cinnamon roll, I hear it makes your hair grow. Sceptical?