I huff and puff a lot about the necessity of critical thinking, but it’s not because I have mastered the art of skepticism and am offering my pearls of wisdom from on high. Far from it. Unlike Jenny McCarthy, I have not yet earned my degree from Google University. I’m more like a second-grader who’s just gaining enough confidence to raise her hand in class sometimes. I’m learning every day, which is a great process but as someone once said, the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know.
I was raised by wolves two skeptics, so the irrational beliefs and behaviors I’ve acquired over the years have not, on the whole, been too difficult to discard. With one exception: I never really absorbed the religious aspect of Judaism, but some of the cultural superstitions did take hold. I was like a kid who resents having to go to temple, because I realized even then that I was going to grow up believing in something I didn’t want to. And that’s exactly what happened. Now, I figure if I’m going to give people grief for irrational behavior, it’s only fair that I examine my own.
(Also as a kid, I thought that Stevie Wonder was singing “fairly” instead of “very superstitious,” which made the song a little confusing.)
I’m going to talk about this for a little bit on Skeptically Speaking tonight, to which you can listen live here at 5pm Pacific time, or get from the website usually by Sunday or Monday. The main part of the episode will be about the Independent Investigations Group here in Los Angeles, which is a great group that I am just starting to get involved with. In their words:
The Independent Investigations Group investigates fringe science, paranormal and extraordinary claims from a rational, scientific viewpoint, and disseminates factual information about such inquiries to the public.
How fun is that!
And on that note, I send you off with a mystical cat who is never going to win a $50,000 prize, or any other. Cute though. Sorry I can’t remember where I saw it first, but due credit to whomever.
