Skeptics,how much of your day is spent pondering the paranormal?

Question

Is being skeptical useful in other areas?How so?

Thanks Dave between the links and the critical thinking I see in your Q&A's.I should move up in no time.

http://www.csicop.org/si/9012/critical-thinking.html

Denie,you're welcome I'm glad you read it.

Answer 1

I make my living as a scientist, and skepticism is inherent in the scientific method. The very underpinning of scientific investigation is that a hypothesis should not be accepted unless there is evidence to support it. That's basically skepticism defined, right there.

About pondering the paranormal, almost none at all, except when answering questions on Yahoo Answers. I'd ponder it more if paranormal things happened to me, but they don't seem to happen much at all.

Answer 2

Just want to thank Dave S. I think I might be a critical thinker. I was worried I had a little skeptic in me sometimes.Most of my critical thinking comes from Hindsight. (hope none of you ever have to face this guy). I do try to advise people to stay away from paranormal things, but to be informed. If a spirit etc. comes to you...that's different from seeking them out. And if that has happened, people do need help in dealing with it.So, they need to know all the other possible reasons for these things happening to them. ..before they go to spiritual
resources for help.But, if no other answers fit...hopefully people on here with experience will try to advise them as well as they can.
EDIT..zac....Thanks for the "critical thinking" link.

Answer 3

Not a lot. Being naturally skeptical is what keeps you from giving away all your money to buy a bridge or dying when you buy a fake cancer cure. Everyone is skeptical to some extent or you'd probably be dead by now.

Every scientist uses skepticism every day. When ever someone comes up with a new idea in science, everyone else tries to shoot them down. If their idea survives the criticism process, maybe it's worth something.

Answer 4

Being skeptical has both helped and hindered me. When young, being skeptical meant slamming a door on anything I didn’t agree with so it did limit my world in some degree but kept me away from bad people, bad situations or choices.
Now that I have moved from skeptic to critical thinker, it helps in everything I do in every waking moment. Being a skeptic opens the left brain to critical thinking, but you still have to learn critical thinking. It is a discipline with techniques. Below are a few links that will help you step up from skeptic to critical thinker.

Critical thinking is the skillful application of a repertoire of validated general techniques for deciding the level of confidence you should have in a proposition in the light of the available evidence.


Argument mapping techniques:
http://www.austhink.com/reason/tutorials/

Fallacy file study
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/

A quick read on detecting B.S.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000D743A-CC5C-1C6E-84A9809EC588EF21&pageNumber=1&catID=2

Changing others minds: Reading this will alert you when you are up against someone using any of these techniques on you.
http://changingminds.org/

Answer 5

I spend about 6 hours a day denying the existance of ghosts and aliens. The rest of my day I work as a grocery store bag boy. I will point out that I am head bag boy, and therefore in a position of power. With that power comes great knowledge of the universe.
All day customers think they are being persued by demons, ghosts, leprechauns, and one woman swears the elves are chasing her.
As head bag boy, its my duty to serve and protect these peoples groceries. You wouldnt want stuff falling on the ground while running from a poltergeist, now would you?

Skepticism has served me well in every aspect of my life.

Answer 6

Skepticism is a process that is useful in all aspects of life. My skepticism has saved me countless hours, many dollars and prevented a life of magical thinking.

Thank you Skepticism!