10 Tenets of Skepticism

by TurpisHaereticum http://www.youtube.com/user/TurpisHaereticum Mad respect for this brilliant man. 1) I do not need the opiate they call religion, for I shall hold nothing on faith alone. I will require evidence, reason and critical thought to arrive at conclusions. 2) Because I may know your holy book better than you does not mean I am repressing a hidden inner 'true' belief in your deity, it means that I care if what I believe is true. I will spend time and energy looking into claims to verify there is substantial reason to believe and when there is not I will abandon those beliefs. 3) I will not only research and investigate one side of an issue, I will try to inform myself of many facets of a topic. 4) I shall hold arguments from popularity as irrelevant. How many people believe a 'thing' does not necessitate 'truth'. 5) I shall dismiss arguments from ignorance. Because we do not know the true cause does not infer that a supernatural or pseudo-scientific explanation is the correct one. 6) I believe extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. 7) My systematic doubt is not a negative, it is an asset, along with continuous inquiry, for I value the truth. 8) 'We don't know' is a perfectly acceptable answer instead of a made-up one. I accept that there are limits to our knowledge at this time. 9) I shall exhibit a joy and wonder in learning about the world while trying to keep at bay emotion driven thinking. 10) I will question, question, question, question, question, question, question...