26 Mar 2014, 20:33
Hi everyone,
I joined this forum because I am fed up with ad hominem, self-proclaimed 'expertise', and a vicious clique mentality posing as 'Skepticism'. Some of the forums that SHOULD be attracting people to rationality and reason are actually driving them away, myself included.
Don't get me wrong, I'm no pushover or hardened 'believer'. I doubt many things that people claim. But I am not going to call anyone an idiot, or sneer, or simply type posts with nothing more than 'rubbish'...as one sees on certain alleged sites for rational enquiry. That said, if you have a claim of some phenomenon, you ARE going to have to provide some sort of basis for my accepting it beyond just your own personal claim that it is so. If you've been abducted by aliens and taken to Beta Reticuli, I may find it all very intriguing and I certainly am not going to sneer, but I'm going to have grave reservations about your story until you can provide some sort of evidence that it is at least plausible, and some that it is true.
That is what I regard as genuine scepticism. Don't accept every tall story on the net. Question things. But do so in a polite, well reasoned, and constructive manner.
26 Mar 2014, 21:15
Welcome! Feel free to dive right into any topic that interests you.