Good Friday’s big question: Is doubt good?

[Speck Tater]

73. OK. Here's the straight poop.

You and I and several other of the usual suspects have argued this subject for a couple years now here at DU.

It's pretty clear that I think I know what I'm talking about, and it's pretty clear that you think you know what you're talking about. We're both intelligent people, of that there can be no doubt. (I'm basing my appraisal on your responses which are educated and intelligent. And I know my own IQ and what degrees I have, so I know I'm not stupid either.)

I'm only frustrated because you seem to be missing the point I'm trying to make, and clearly I'm missing the point you are trying to make. I always regret, in retrospect, when things get snarky (and I'm confessing my own snarkiness as well). The problem seems to be a meta-problem, in that we see the world in vastly different ways. (Yes, I know, your way of seeing the world is reality based. But I make the same claim, just based on a broader reality. (or so I would like to think))

One thing is clear, however, and that is that neither of us will ever convince the other that our respective points of view have any validity.

And yet the irony is that I'm sure we agree on most substantive issues. I am an atheist. I doubt there is a god, but I"m not positive of it. There may be something that could be broadly defined as "god", but I'm virtually certain it has nothing to do with the Judeo/Islamic/Christian version of deity. (I feel I can safely leaf Zeus and Apollo out of the mix as well.) I don't believe in magic or astrology or unicorns, or other fairy tales.

Where we probably part company is here: I have had numerous experiences I can only refer to as "psychic" so I tend to be sympathetic to parapsychology, and because of my own personal experiences, I get somewhat annoyed with those who are perfunctorily dismissive of the field. (Especially when their only justification seems to be their certainty that such things are not possible.) I have, among others, a degree in math, and I know a lot about probability theory, so I'm not easily fooled by coincidences that the less mathematically literate might take as "proof" of ESP. So I am no naive believer in that respect. I lived for two years in a house I can only describe as "haunted". It was that experience that broadened my horizons from the arch-skeptic that I was trained to be. I tried very hard to dismiss and discount what experienced in that house. Finally I realized that the evidence was going to continue to resist my every effort to ignore it, ("Reality" is what continues to exist even if you don't want to believe it.) and I had to be honest with myself and admit that there is more to reality than physical reality. This, of course, left me impatient with those who claimed that physical reality was the only reality. But try to explain that to somebody who doesn't want to hear it.

Seeing where I'm coming from perhaps you'll agree with me that there is really no point in either of us trying to convince the other of anything. We will both simply have to come to whatever conclusions our life experience leads us to, and be tolerant of each other's point of view, and respectful toward each other as genuine and sincere people who are both interested in getting to the truth.

So instead of trying to convince you of my perspective I will simply let it go. Maybe some day you will have the kind of experiences that will make it possible for you to see from my perspective. Or maybe you won't. And probably, it doesn't even matter. And no, I'm not saying my perspective is better; just different. And I remember what it was like seeing the world from your perspective because I spent many decades in that place. If, someday, something happens and you experience the world from my perspective, you'll get it, and you'll probably get why it's so darn frustrating trying to explain to people who don't get it. But either way, nobody can possibly prove anything to anybody about that perspective. And most definitely not by typing words in a forum post.

So what say we both stop wasting our time on this and find something more productive to do?