Because, if I’m going to write this blog honestly, make it a true exploration, well, I have to be honest. Up front. It’s not a major bit of honesty, since it basically amounts to saying, “yo, I’m human,” but in many ways it’s one of the hardest kinds of honesty.

See, thing is, I’ve often been an idiot.

I say that in some amount of jest, but seriously, too. I am a human being, and thus prone to all the usual human failings of mind. I am curious, and always, as I noted last time, have that “No, but really?” question on my lips. When it comes to the actual answering of that question, though, well…

Checkered history, that.

Many of us, after all, call bullshit at various times in our lives. Many of us, in fact, often find ourselves wondering, asking questions, not taking things at face value. But that’s never enough. Without the proper tools to evaluate truth claims, you’re pretty much a ship at the mercy of the currents you find yourself in.

That’s me. Intellectually, emotionally, you name it. I could question, but lacked the kind of rigor needed to have the best chance at finding true answers (or the best stab at true, given the data).  Intellectually, I have at various times dabbled with religion, goofy new age ideas. I was vegan for a while, and in that time drank more than a little Koolaid, if you know what I mean. All of that could be summed up with one simple idea: I was quick to question an idea, and just as quick to embrace the cool sounding alternative. And then do so again and again, ad nauseum. Seldom embracing the simple stance of “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure.”

Ideas as mood or fashion, I guess you could call it, born more of desire for certainty than for truth. As a result, a lot of flailing around, never getting closer to some kind of truth, simply because there was no method or discipline to the search.

That’s what science is, after all. It’s imperfect because we are imperfect, but it works because it provides a method to separate the wheat from the chaff. It’s slow, and the steps always incomplete. We never have the Truth, but only the best approximation of the moment. A look at the advance of science, though, shows that those approximations have indeed been getting better.

There’s a deeply personal level to this, too, because as I’ve discussed on the old blog, I have a life long history with depression and anxiety. My mental health issues cloud a lot of my thinking, and my dealing with them has been prone to the same kind of scattershot, thoughtless searching for answers.

So there’s the other intention for this blog (and, perhaps, a bit of the humor behind its sort of ironic title). If this is a skeptic’s blog, it’s the blog of a deeply, deeply imperfect skeptic. A blog of someone who loves skepticism, embraces it, and sucks at it.

Or, you know, the blog of a human being. I want to chronicle that a bit, the personal journey, the imperfect attempts. The partial victories. So the sacred cows will often be my own. The assumptions I don’t question enough. And if I do this right — and I hope anyone reading will hold me to the fire on this — phrases like “I don’t know” will come up a lot.

Because I don’t, really. Know, that is. I am an ignorant man about so many things, including many basic life skills (thanks to the aforementioned mental health issues). There’s no shame in that. It’s just another part of the adventure, if I face the fact honestly.

So that’s what we’re going to be up to, these parts. Trying to question everything, but also trying to learn to question productively. The going will be slow, because part of my journey is my return to school, and this semester Physics and Calculus will be riding my ass. But I hope it will be a fun and useful journey.

Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) by alexanderdrachmann

There really isn’t a polite way to question the world.

By world, here, I mean the world of humanity: Society, the Zeitgeist, and the Received Wisdom. Take religion. A lot of people are okay with the idea that other people don’t share their beliefs so long as no one is so gauche as to actually mention it. Polite society tells us that we should “respect” religious beliefs, but that seems wrong. The respect accorded an idea should be based on its merits, not on the fact that feelings might be hurt if you point out, say, that the whole basis for “Mankind’s Salvation” in Christianity is so much balderdash.

There’s a lot more to question, of course. People can be just as touchy about their social mores and politics. Nowhere is that more true when we have something to lose: i.e. when we have privilege. Here in America you can sit back and watch as men, whites, Christians, heterosexuals and the cisgendered react, shall we say, badly when their positions of privilege are attacked.

We believe many things without questioning them too deeply, and when someone else does the questioning for us, we often fail to be grateful. I know whereof I speak: I have been the poor, offended clown more times than I care to admit, and I’ve been the clueless white, heterosexual, cisgendered guy even more times.

Questioning hurts. It means leaving certainty behind forever. It means having to be okay with not knowing, with not being sure. That does not come easily to most of us. Certainly not to me! I often find myself just wanting to belong, go along with the crowd, accept the Received Wisdom and not rock the boat. And yes, I often crave certainty.

But I try to resist. Part of it is another inbuilt tendency, the one that makes the question “Really?” hover near my lips at all times. There was a time that I saw that as a weakness. It’s not. It’s Humanity’s strength. We’re just ornery enough that we can never, quite, leave well enough alone. Marvelous things result.

That’s what this blog is about. The marvelous things that happen, the people who make them happen. Call it a celebration of the square pegs, the impudent ones, and the impertinent questioners. The Jackanapes and Rabble-rousers. I want to do that, and do a lot of hardcore questioning of my own. Some of that will be about society and science and religion. Some of that will be personal as I deal with my personal demons of anxiety and depression. All of it will be in part a personal reminder to myself to stay awake and embrace the impudent fellow within who is always asking, “Really?”

There’s a “But,” of course. There always is. But that’ll be Part 2. In the meantime, why don’t you take a gander at the About page?

– (Terry Pratchett, Small Gods)