Personally, I think believing is the natural state of the human animal. We didn’t evolve this far by questioning things. It is no great mystery that people believe things. What’s strange is that once in a while people question their beliefs.
So, I no longer look down on people for believing the far-out stuff they do. I realize that I am a pervert for not believing.
But it’s a damn good thing there are skeptics around. If it hadn’t been for skeptics, the Egyptian economy would have collapsed in antiquity, because the believers kept burying the gold and the skeptics kept digging it back up.
Beeruser is right; you are all wrong. The three-part proof is as follows:
Feelings (Argumentum in flagrante)
It simply feels better to be credulous. Try it some time. It’s so much easier to assume people are telling the truth, and that they know what they are talking about. Takes a lot of the work out of life, and if you run with a crowd of right-thinking people, you must be right too. It’s also friendlier. Where do you all get off telling people they are wrong, anyway? So by the simple standard of civil interaction, skeptics suck. As for Beeruser and his interactions with you all - well, you’re probably just a bunch of poopyheads anyway. (And thus add evidence to his naked assertion.)
Desires (Q. What do you call 10,000 skeptics chained to the bottom of the ocean? A. Where did you find 10,000 skeptics?)
There is a way that the world should be. All good people know what it is. Skeptics keep screwing it up; ergo, they suck. Plus, since it is given that we cannot know reality, why do you bother making assertions about what it isn’t, or waste time trying to determine what it is? Timewasting troublemakers = suck, no?
Beer (Argumentum in fermentum)
'Fess up: how many (true) skeptics don’t drink beer? And if you drink beer, HOW do you drink beer? EXACTLY! The carbonation hurts like hell taken intravenously. Ergo, you suck.
Hellfire and damnation. I don’t just drink beer, I brew my own. I’m skeptical about anyone who says they enjoy typical commercial American beers. Like making love in a canoe…
Possibly we have a pattern here. The credulous masses have a great will to believe whatever an authority figure tells them, therefore they are more likely to beleive thay enjoy commercial beers. The skeptics, on the other hand, are more likely to say “This is the best you can offer? I’m sure that through a little hands-on experimentation I can do better.” We are less likely to accept something just because we are told that manny other people accept it…
GLWasteful: Oh, I have nothing against it, but it’s not for me. I look at home brewing like giving yourself a trim - If it is fucked up, there’s nobody to blame but yourself!
To add to the conspiracy: I brew my own beer and I am also a skeptic. And I believe you come to a much greater appreciation for beer if you make it yourself. And no matter how bad you are at it, it can’t be worse than mass-produced American swill.
OK Potential friends in new time & space… my 1st post anywhere ever…
I’ve always wanted to put this out into the general mind… how bout instead of "balls’ all we intelligent folks adopt the term “huevos”??? In the blessed encroachment of Espanol, it means “balls” in the macho sense, but I think can also be expanded (in the of course most generous sense) to its more inclusive meaning of “eggs” to encompass those of us ladies who just might be able to hold the little bit of our own left to us in the latter 20th century. What say y’all??
OK Potential friends in new time & space… my 1st post anywhere ever…
I’ve always wanted to put this out into the general mind… how bout instead of "balls’ all we intelligent folks adopt the term “huevos”??? In the blessed encroachment of Espanol, it means “balls” in the macho sense, but I think can also be expanded (in the of course most generous sense) to its more inclusive meaning of “eggs” to encompass those of us ladies who just might be able to hold the little bit of our own left to us in the latter 20th century. What say y’all??
I do suck sometimes. On special occasions. Sometimes I even swallow. This doesn’t have anything to do with my status as a skeptic, though.
I have no balls. This lack is not due to personal deficiency. Perhaps Mr. User is not aware that roughly half of the population of the world lack balls. Maybe Mr. User should put the beer down and do an impromptu ‘ball check’ among his family and friends. I think he’ll find the ball/no ball split to be around fifty-fifty.
But there’s always the possibility that your product may explode – so not only does it taste good but the added elements of risk and terror make it exceptionally tasty.
your humble TubaDiva
“better drink that one before it goes off, doncha think?”
43rd Law of Computing:Anything that can go wr {segmentation fault}
, and I am a skeptic!