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Why You Became a Skeptic


Rock-Star

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Very good point, when it comes to aliens I classify myself as a skeptical believer, while on ancient history threads I'm definitely a full on skeptic.

I usually just make it easy an classify myself as a skeptic, though, as when it comes to aliens I think most of us fall under the heading of skeptical believer.

Good point also.....

On the Alien thing , there are so many different topics , and theories , beliefs , opinon's on that subject alone , it is impossible to say " I am a skeptic " if asked about Aliens in general.....That is one General topic , each incident / theory / claim need to be looked at one at a time.

Not like we would be talking about Vampires or Werewolves , it would be pretty hard even for a skeptic to be able to say we are the only intelligent thing in the Universe...( but that is for sure debatable , and not accurate on my part , just opinion )

I hope I did not just open a can of worms.....

My point being , being a skeptic does not mean " I do not believe in anything " , it means we look at evidence , facts , Science , and logic to come to conclusions for any said topic.....Hope that makes sense , I have the BCS Title game on my mind , can't think straight....

Edited by Sakari
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but I would not go into a discussion of " why you became a believer "

Neither do I. As I said earlier I dont like generalism of any kind. But If I must choose then Im just what you describe.

I was cynical and skeptical. Then I changed my point of view. I still love my skeptic part because it gives me comfort and safety to think how everything is logical and that we can proove all things scientifically. But there are some unexplained, unsolved, unlogic things.

So I believe in shared dreaming and I think that would probably come under paranormal. And I probably wouldnt believe in shared dreaming as much as I do unless I had experienced it as distinctly as I did. So I guess I am naturally skeptical but am a believer considering.

When is something rare it is not paranormal. But shared dream is on the edge.

Edited by the L
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Neither do I. As I said earlier I dont like generalism of any kind. But If I must choose then Im just what you describe.

I was cynical and skeptical. Then I changed my point of view. I still love my skeptic part because it gives me comfort and safety to think how everything is logical and that we can proove all things scientifically. But there are some unexplained, unsolved, unlogic things.

When is something rare it is not paranormal. But shared dream is on the edge.

That is very true no matter what label someone has on them. :tu:

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A believer in reality, not maybe.

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Funny on how so many are skeptical of what they believe yet believe in what they are skeptical about. Guess this is what happens when you see the things which should not be.

Not the question .. "if they are there" .. yet the question is "what is it that is there".

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Hey Rock-Star I'm glad I read your post.

I have always been a skeptic but like you I would love for something 'out-of-this-world' to be proven.

Can I ask if you feel a sense of liberation now that you have changed your way of thinking? (That could sound a bit rude but I mean no offense)

Thanks for the post ;)

No offense taken at all...I would have to say it is kind of liberating, even if things are a bit more boring :)

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No offense taken at all...I would have to say it is kind of liberating, even if things are a bit more boring :)

Not to cut in... but when I learned more of the world's history and of the achievements we've made...

I have to say, it made me feel a little pride to be human. If you ignore the self imposed classifications of race and countries, all of this is our history, we are a living legacy of those who came before.

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Thank you all for your replies! I really appreciate the thoughtful response in general to this post. I regret that I don't have more time right now to respond to everyone individually.

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I guess I'm a skeptical believer... There is for sure all sorts of spooky stuff out there- so I'm a believer.. But sheesh, there is so much normal stuff that gets mistaken for spooky stuff that I'm usually pretty skeptical that what is presented is actually spooky.

Like I believe in ghosts.. but I'm pretty skeptical that ghosts are always dead people

I believe in the occult.. but I'm pretty skeptical that people can ever shoot fireballs or crazy stuff like that.

I believe in some cryptids.. but I'm pretty skeptical that every odd critter in the brush is a cryptid.

Aliens I flat out believe in. The universe is huge, and I find it impossible that Earth is the only place with life on it. But I'm skeptical as to if we have been visited or not.

And I believe that ancient constructs and relics really are man made- very skeptical that aliens had squat to do with any of it.

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Funny on how so many are skeptical of what they believe yet believe in what they are skeptical about. Guess this is what happens when you see the things which should not be.

Not the question .. "if they are there" .. yet the question is "what is it that is there".

Well said.

I also would consider my self a skeptic.... Maby overly so. So much so I'm a skeptic of skeptics...:) I seem to only trust what I see myself. But I also am skeptical about the whole false memory thing. If you can't trust yourself who can you trust.

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Well said.

I also would consider my self a skeptic.... Maby overly so. So much so I'm a skeptic of skeptics...:) I seem to only trust what I see myself. But I also am skeptical about the whole false memory thing. If you can't trust yourself who can you trust.

"If you can't trust yourself who can you trust"??? Easy answer ... others who had the same fifteen minute experience with you and proved at least to me that I was not nuts. After this I have had individual experiences ... yet many experiences as far as accoustic bangs with other individuals, including my sister.

For myself I have seen so many people jump at even the presense of a spider that I am very skeptical of anything anyone says. Does not mean they are wrong ... just that fear does some strange things to the mind.

Two or three second experiences are many times misinterpreted. Fifteen minutes of :unsure2: ... just not for sure that they are ghosts. Yet they sure the hell are something we do not understand .. yet!!!

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Thanks for an insightful post and sharing your own personal views for the benefit of others - that is always great when someone helps others understand how to see things from another perspective.

I also dislike the binary idea of skeptic/believer but if you had to "round up", I suppose you'd have to pick one or the other - but people DON'T have to pick one or the other, really - but you can have a developed and well-applied sense of skepticism and pragmatism that is your primary approach to situations that don't make immediate mundane sense.

Much like others here, I believed various things that I either no longer believe at all, or believe or even just HOPE may exist, but have not seen what I feel is any significant proof, or am more circumspect as to what the possible explanations for these things ARE - I should note however I never had a super strong SPECIFIC belief in anything except maybe psychic abilities like ESP; I always believed in ghosts but never had a gut conviction of exactly what they were - I STILL believe in "ghost phenomena" but I haven't seen anything that "proves" they're spirits of the dead.

In a way it is disappointing and disheartening to not be able to get all excited and amazed at things, but instead go into analytical mode when you read or hear something unusual, but on the other hand, it is a privilege to be able to make use of reason and critical thinking which is underdeveloped in some people.

Thank you! I'm glad that you and so many others have appreciated this post. The idea to put this all into words just seemed like a good thing to do, and I hoped it would give some perspective to others. You do make a good point about direct labels...perhaps it would be better to say that one looks at things skeptically as opposed to just the term "skeptic".

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It means using logic, not emotion or wishful thinking, to look at things. Its a great way to be. :yes:

FYI. I am a skeptic that believes in a supreme being/god. I wasn't two years ago, so people can change either way thru out life.

:tu: Nice points!

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I tip my hat to your Rock-Star. Excellent post! :tu:

I suspect that a great number of skeptics here originally arrived as believers. I know that I did. The collective wisdom of this fantastic community has a way of cutting through the darkness and shining the light of rationality on a great many things. ;)

This is so true...I came to this site expecting a bunch of people who believed in the same things I did. The skepticism I encountered both surprised and annoyed me at first, yet I slowly began to see how much sense it made. Funny how now I am probably one of those members that gets under believer's skins when I respond to their fantastical stories. It is my hope that this post as a whole will help others to see why skeptics think the way they do, and that we are not just out to "bash" the believers!

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No matter how skeptic you are. I believe "God" is an unstoppable and unbeatable belief. People always want an answer. They want to know the answer of their existence and want to put their life into perspective. They don't accept the answer provided by science ("we don't know", "random"). The fear of the unknown, derived from the survival instinct, everyone have it, more or less. Another thing is hope, people want to call for help to cure a deadly cancer when the doctor told them that he can't cure it.

I also believe that everyone in this world is both believer and skeptical at the same time. By default, everyone is skeptical. We don't just always believe everything we heard.

Believer is because in your life, you used countless of the word "believe" to describe something you expect it to be or hope it to be even though you didn't have a rational logic to lead to that conclusion.

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I came to this site expecting a bunch of people who believed in the same things I did.

Can I ask, what things did you believe in which now you do not?

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Actually I think that being a skeptic is the natural state for humans... "Skeptic" in the sense that one is willing to neither believe nor disbelieve in anything until a proper amount of evidence is presented, as opposed to "Debunker" which will simply disbelieve anything even in the presence of evidence.

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*glances around and steps into post*

Can I be a skeptical believer?

I believe that there are things out there beyond what we can see and touch. Well, I'm a practicing psychic medium so that should give you a general idea without me going on and on about what I believe.

BUT BUT BUT.

I don't believe a spot of light in a photograph is an orb. I don't believe the creaky house or the unsettling feeling you get in the bedroom is a haunting. I don't believe there's a metaphysical explanation for everything. In fact, I'm a firm believer in active imaginations and projecting. (Funny noises in your house? Consider how old it is, and how the weather affects the materials it was made of. Orbs in your high school prom photos? I bet you forgot about all the shiny material every female was wearing, and how dusty it was because they only cleaned that place once a year.)

Because I WANT to believe, I examine all logical explanations first. Yes, there are things I've encountered that I can't explain, except for the believer's definition, but for every wonderful thing that can't be explained, there has been a hundred things that COULD rationally be explained. So I take everything with a grain of salt, because it makes the believable experiences that much better when you've eliminated every practical explanation.

GREAT topic, seriously. It's important to be skeptical and hopeful at the same time - I hope everyone gets to experience both ends of the spectrum. Life is too dull completely on one side, you know ;)

Edited by constantine319
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Well I started seriously investigating paranormal claims about 12 years ago, I was a true believer on a quest for truth. However I didn't find what I thought would be the truth, I found that every single experience could be explained by rational and critical thinking. I went from true believer to skeptic, though I am still interested in claims and "evidence" people think they have. I wasn't in this to validate my beliefs, I wanted truth, even if that meant finding out there is no such thing.

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Can I ask, what things did you believe in which now you do not?

I guess in general I would say ghost activity...I attributed all sorts of sight, sounds, and feelings to ghosts. Being on this site has shown me how simple most things are to debunk. Would I still like to see a "real" ghost, however? Of course! I just doubt I ever will...

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I wouldn't doubt it too hard, but I wouldn't expect it, either. Half the fun of being startled by a ghost is... well... the startlement. :lol:

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I was always a strong believer of the paranormal, especially ghosts.

When i was a teenager i had one particular close friend that shared the same interest, the paranormal.

Other friends used to make fun of us sometimes, but that was ok.

We both listened every Wednesday night at twelve o'clock to a paranormal show on the radio.

The following day me and my friend would talk about the show and sometimes we would try out or do some experiments of what we had learned about the previous topic that was on the radio show. We learned about EVP's, Out of Body Experience, Alternative healing, Ghost hunting etc. We both had a passion for ghosts and we tried all kinds of methods to get in contact with ghosts.

Unfortunately for us, without succes. But we never lost our strong believe in the existence of ghosts. One day, we told each other that if one of us would suddenly / accidentally die, we could prove the existence of ghosts to each other. The plan was that whoever died first, was to appear to the other after death. Well guess what. About one and a half year later my friend died. An unfortunate accident. Horrible time with much pain and grief. To end this story, up to today my friend has never appeared to me yet. I gave up on it to be honest. In the mean time i lost both my parents and some other dear friends. None of them ever appeared to me unfortunately.

There fore i became a skeptic :)

Edited by thedutchiedutch
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I don't believe a spot of light in a photograph is an orb.

Orbs are a funny thing. I have a couple of pics with orbs and I keep them around simply because I like the pic and think of them as art(made by dust or whatever). But I think if anyone was to steal my private pics.. I think they would most likely assume I keep them because its some sort of proof of spirits(going by my past experience with others). Which amuses me at how people/skeptics will still jump to conclusions.

I guess in general I would say ghost activity...I attributed all sorts of sight, sounds, and feelings to ghosts. Being on this site has shown me how simple most things are to debunk. Would I still like to see a "real" ghost, however? Of course! I just doubt I ever will...

Fair enough. But I guess if most things are simple to debunk then that leaves ones that are not so simple to debunk.

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Orbs are a funny thing. I have a couple of pics with orbs and I keep them around simply because I like the pic and think of them as art(made by dust or whatever). But I think if anyone was to steal my private pics.. I think they would most likely assume I keep them because its some sort of proof of spirits(going by my past experience with others). Which amuses me at how people/skeptics will still jump to conclusions.

Well if they are posted on a paranormal website what is a skeptic to assume?

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Well if they are posted on a paranormal website what is a skeptic to assume?

Well if they are posted it depends on what the thread was called and also what the poster typed. I think to simply post a picture of an orb, if the thread is called something like 'post your orb pics' does not have to mean they believe its anything more than an orb(of dust or whatever). But I think many people would love to assume that it does.

And I wasnt talking about posted ones. I was talking about my private pics(only on my home pc)which I dont share or give permission for others to view. And so I believe if people were to steal those images from my private photos.. they would most likely assume my beliefs incorrectly. Debunkers especially.

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