Skeptics in the minority?

These statements are not limited to just a discussion of urban legends. They are quite applicable to any critical, intelligent examination of the supporting thesis of a worldview.

Excepted from
Word Myths
Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends
David Wilton, 2004 ISBN 0-7394-5593-1

<<...people repeat these legends to bolster their beliefs about society or how they would like society to be.....We should treat them skeptically. Skepticism does not mean that we automatically dismiss such stories when we hear them, but rather we should examine the evidence objectively. We should not accept such stories at face value. the key is examining the evidence and not simply believing something because someone claims it is true.
...The results may be disappointing to some. They may lose an argument that supports their worldview......but the truth does not have to be boring. Skeptics do not have to be spoilsports. There are plenty of good linguistic tales that are not bunk.
...There are many ...gems to be found, all the more lustrous because they are true. Those of us who stand up and call for skepticism and reason know that there is little chance that we can stop the spread of these legends....
....In the end, whether these stories are true or whether they are false is not really the point. What is important is the process we use to evaluate them, that we engage the brains nature gave us and examine the evidence and arguments critically.>>
I contend that it does matter whether of not the stories are true or false. Consider how stories, myths, legends and propaganda have supported and justified actions by individuals and masses. A sampling of what I am refering to is:
Manifest Destiny and World Democratization
Aryan Superiority
History as Science through dialectical materialism
A Chosen People of God
Noble Savage concepts as ascribed to Native Americans
The Rapture Index and Millenial Movements
Mormonism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism... ad nauseum
Most of us continue to tenatiously cling to a worldview for which the supporting timbers are rotted through.

still crazy after

Faith spawns heinous crimes that in the light of reason are incomprehsible. My friend Philip once told me you can't understand the reasons of the irrational because you are rational. That was nearly 40 years ago and I still find myself trying to identify the motives and dynamics underlying belief systems that are so demonstrably wrong and yet continue to shape and animate human behaviour.

The End of Faith

Have you read any good books lately?
The End of Faith Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason
Sam Harris, 2004 ISBN 0-7394-5379-3

final paragraph from the Epilogue
"Man is manifestly not the measure of all things. The universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name. The consciousness that animates us is itself central to this mystery and the ground for any experience we might wish to call "spiritual". No myths need be embraced for us to commune with the profundity of our circumstance. No personal God need be worshiped for us to live in awe at the beauty and immensity of creation. No tribal fictions need be rehearsed for us to realize, one fine day, that we do, in fact, love our neighbors, that our happiness is inextricable from their own, and that our interdependence demands that people everywhere be given the opportunity to flourish. The days of our religious identities are clearly numbered. Whether the days of civilization itself are numbered would seem to depend, rather too much, on how soon we realize this.

beginning of Otalk

This will be a verbal site perhaps integrating graphic images to illustrate points. The site for my purely graphics presentations is
My Images

I welcome participation in discussing the topics presented

Question(s)

Can one be intelligent and claim faith in a supernatural being?