Skepticism School I: Intro and Amtal

[swinewarrior]

whats a katana

[anglicantian]

I could summarize the virtues of a skeptic: Ask for evidence of (insert claim).

Kidding! Looking forward to an über-awesome tour de force on skepticism.

Even if I'm skeptical of your teaching-skills.

[xerc1]

Nice! Looking forward to it!

[TIPinkUnicorn]

Great start. I'm looking forward to more in this series.

[FractalHelix777]

i live in the bible belch, too...on the Rappahanock River in the Blue Ridge Mountains of northern virginia...the land is beautiful but i wish i could replace all the rednecks with people with brains.

[Keippernicus]

Oh man can I relate to that. Perhaps in time my friend, perhaps in good time.

[PoppaBahr]

Kei knows Herbert & Heinlein.

Kei's stock continues its meteoric rise.

Bravo, my redneck brudda, Bravo.

[Keippernicus]

I live and breathe sci-fi my good man. That's pretty much why who I am today!

[naughtypagan72]

@Keippernicus Please tell me you like MST3K :) Nothing better then sci-fi then BAD sci-fi mocked :p

[Keippernicus]

Naturally!

[tattooskin72]

I look forward to anything you do. Definitely sounds interesting :) I may not be from the South, but the city I am from would fit right in ;)

[Keippernicus]

Oh you can relate man, after you read those articles from your local paper I knew I had a kindred spirit. Or at least a dude who can relate to swimming in a sea of dumb.

[AtheistBaby]

I am sceptical of the existence of the scepticism school and require more evidence before I accept it exists. Thanks.

[GoblinXXX]

This video has worm-sign the like of which I have never seen!

[MrEnlightenedJourney]

I am in fact also a resident of NC :) raleigh-ish area :D >:o and i to survived these 18 long winters

[Keippernicus]

Awesome dude I lived in Raleigh for 6 years (technically morrisville for 1.5) and I love the area. There's actually a higher class of redneck compared to the dregs of humanity surrounding the current neighborhood.

[Rhysz1]

I like the idea, looking forward to it.....

Regards,

Rhysz

[geolab101]

I'm also eagerly anticipating the rest of this series. You make a good move by not going directly after religion. That would seem unfair when considering how many other common beliefs don't stand up to scrutiny.

[MoreSciFiThanScience]

look forward to it!!

[anubis2814]

Freedom is not given but fought for. -Buddha (paraphrase as I'm too lazy to go look it up)

He was not just discussing war fighting, but mental freedom. I think you are right, people who have never really had to fight for their disbelief are not forced to exercise their scepticism to its fullest extent.

[erik33045]

excellent video, looking forward to this series. ps, i too live in the bible belt. And i agree, living here and coming out as a skeptic in a scientifically starved environment gives you very very sharp teeth. keep up the good work.

[Keippernicus]

A fellow survivor, good good. Some people from California and NYC have expressed doubt when I tell them "It's not enough to be smart, sometimes you just have be mean as well"

[SonistheFatherofMan]

If you have to be mean its because you're not smart.

[TheKingOfFresno]

Nonsense, every tool has a use.

[DyfnalltDH]

oh really? personality is indicative of intelligence? hey, at least neitzsche was a nice guy, otherwise he couldn't possibly be smart

[Keippernicus]

Prove it.

[SonistheFatherofMan]

I guess I can't prove it in any meaningful way. I suppose my statement was more opinion than fact. You do know the difference, right? You must have a good reason to think that and since I don't walk in your shoes, I wouldn't know that reason. I do think that someone of your intelligence needn't resort to meanness though.

[h8uall66]

Not necessarily, he/she might just be intolerant of people that refuse to learn. The willfully ignorant. I have no respect at all for those that argue dishonestly. Why should I? Because they're such staunch liars? No, liars deserve my contempt, not my respect. After all, they have no respect for me. If they did, they wouldn't lie to me.

[erik33045]

In certain cases, sometimes a gentle nudge works better than a punch in the fucking teeth. But I like the scathing ownage much more, keeps things interesting. Guess my point is, it depends on how stupid the person is, cause sometimes you have to kick their teeth in to make them realize how ignorant they can be. personal opinion, but i found its better to use all tools and keep them equally sharp, instead of having one giant katana to slice your enemies down. :)

[Keippernicus]

Yes its good to have a giant katana, a ball peen for delicate kneecaps, a scalpel, a bulldozer, a 12 gauge and that occasional tactical nuke when orbital incineration is the only option.

[kalamain]

Yay....Edumakashun.....Learn me some books! B-D

I'll be looking forward to these. I'm not an idiot but its always good to find new ways to think. And I'm not to proud to be taught new things or shown the error of my ways.

Let the lessons begin!

[rediband]

How about using astrology as a test case then? I've had that pushed at me recently, it would have been good to have a good comeback.

[Keippernicus]

Well that's easy, the fucking planets/stars have all drifted in the past 2000 years or whenever the zodiac was cooked up. Also it completely ignores genetics/psychology/culture/va­riation of humans in general.

[SexyMelon]

Groovy.

Hm. Reminds me of one of those sites illustrating logical fallacies: graphs, explanations, logic chains, the whole deal. Probably about 800% more useful than anything I learned at school.

So... The name is quite fitting after all, I think.

[dominictemple]

Sounds interesting, looking forward to this.

[a2zdiy]

I have never had the urge to troll... until now!

All seriousness aside, sounds like these videos will be fun to watch, you erudite redneck, you!

[newexperiment]

I do expect you'll start with HOW we know, or WHY we needn't be skeptical of:

I exist,

I'm not in the matrix,

you exist,

we can trust our senses,

Australia really is where maps say it is,

E=mc^2 (even if we don't fully understand it),

etc... ,

before you move on to what we need be skeptical about and WHY. Why different things go into these two different categories is what, I beleive, non-skeptics fail to grasp and what we all ought to become 'amtal' about.

[Keippernicus]

Good thinking but I'm going to try and not do a linear extrapolation of reality, parts of it will deal with subjects to be skeptical about and things that we can rely on to build our arguments and observations upon because they've withstood constant scrutiny for a long time. Thanks for the input.

[newexperiment]

You're very welcome.

I'm anxious to hear what propositions have withstood constant scrutiny for a long time. Not really sure what you mean by that precisely but if I had to guess, I'd bet you'll get it to be invalid for Judaism and Hinduism even tho they have "withstood" scrutiny for several millennia.

All the more reason for anticipation! so.. first video before the day ends?

[Keippernicus]

Probably not, and I was thinking less along the lines of boring philosophical jive and more into practical nuts and bolts of the universe physics/chemistry/information theory type stuff.

Way to break out the religious card EARLY though.

[SexyMelon]

Answer being: it's not too practical?..

No, seriously, I remember one of my philosophy professors trying to start the lesson off with some of this stuff. What a cunt.

[no1saphead]

Don't forget us hearing impaired folks..

[Signofthedollar]

Good ideas would be facts or knowledge.

[Keippernicus]

Don't worry, this is just a primer, the next in the series will be much more dense/useful.

[Firithfenion]

That sounds interesting. I hope many viewers will grok the concept.

[Keippernicus]

Stranger in a strange land, i used to use grok all the time in conversation but no one else ever got it because only half the kids in HS could read.

[PoppaBahr]

Hells yes! All that Groks is God!

[nelliediddle]

Sounds fascinating :D

[Keippernicus]

Well at least 2 trekkies (you and BTL) are onboard so I must be doing something right.

[freethinker3161]

look forward to it.

[itsmaxinthebox]

Good idea. I'm interested to see how this pans out.

[PT109Boat]

For the first time in my life, I would be looking forward to homework.

[lc237]

Looking forward.

[Rithrandil]

Yay for Dune reference!

I like the start.

P.S. So I have to read Chapters 3-5 for homework this week?

[Keippernicus]

You read all the canonical dune books, none of his son's crappy stuff.

[Lpoolboy]

This is exciting. Can't wait for the rest!