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Originally Posted by wolfgang  I think you are safe no matter what can be proved, because I don't think there is a way to prove questions like, is there a soul or deeper meaning to our lives. |
I haven't been around long enough to be clear on your own philosophy, so I apologize for being initially tempted to throw you in with the überskeptic crowd.
I confess it bothers me that there are those who are both completely convinced ours is a universe without inherent meaning and esteemed for holding that view. Their frequently-expressed smug condescension for those who believe otherwise only grates me further. I suppose some messed-up aspect of my psyche drives me to seek them out, a masochistic desire to prove my worst fears to be true.
When I was a child I had two really bad phobias, about my breath being stopped and swallowing my tongue. It took years of therapy and reassurance to convince me that neither would happen, but I still felt this weird impulse to "scare myself" by trying to do both. I have no idea where that impulse came from, but now it seems that I have transferred it to philosophical areas of thought.
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I do wonder what I am. I know Wax Frog, in his more personal thread, seemed to think I am a skeptic. I never thought I was. It sort of pushes a button to think I'm a skeptic. Maybe it's that I resist fixating a label, that, like you, it changes throughout life. I like wacky ideas. Then I wonder what wacky ideas do for me other than keep my mind entertained. I have started wanting practical results. Although I'm not trying to IM things.
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I think all these years of being exposed to the "fundies" has given me a thin skin, so I reflexively assume anyone countering statements made in support of a 'fringe' idea is a bomb-throwing adversary. Now that I'm at long last giving in to the impulse to vent, maybe I can get out of my conclusion-jumping habit...