Months Later …
Wow, the initial impetus for my love / hate relationship with skepticism certainly put me onto a heck of a path.
I stopped blogging because I got so busy consuming skeptical material. (Not that I actually started blogging, really … three posts?! Ha!) I feel like I’ve come up for air and something I read today started to clarify what I mean about the ‘love / hate’ relationship I have with skepticism.
There is a particlar logical fallacy called the false dichotomy. Basically, one falls for an either-or proposition. Skepticism is rational, religion is not. Ethics requires religion. That guy that cut you off on the freeway is a jerk.
This excludes other possibilities. Religion can be rational. Ethics can exist outside of a diety’s decree. That guy probably didn’t even notice he cut you off … or maybe he did notice and feels like a jerk.
My point: Skeptics tend to think of two sides … the ‘skeptics’ and the ‘believers’ but leave out the possibility of middle ground.
Note to self: stop calling it a love / hate relationship … it sounds like there is some middle ground there as well!
3 years ago